Liberty Often Works

View 696 Friday, October 14, 2011

It is that time of the year: KUSC is having its pledge drive. I time mine to coincide with theirs, so be prepared to be bombarded for a week with exhortations. I operate this place on the Public Radio Model – it is free, but if not enough donate, it will go away. So far it is healthy. It needs subscriptions and renewals to keep it that way. SUBSCRIBE NOW! RENEW NOW! Thanks!

Today as Roberta and I were about to take Sable for a walk, the phone rang. It was Niven proposing a hike. I agreed, took our mile before he got here, then Niven and Sable and I set out on our usual route, which is about 2 miles each way and 500 feet altitude rise from my house to the top of the ridge. I wasn’t sure I’d be up to that, but we made it to the top of the trail. Sable loved it of course. It was a very productive hike. I got several pages of notes and a couple of actual scenes in my head, and we created at least one new viewpoint character. Things have been going slow lately and this was great. Then we went to lunch. After which I took a nap, then wrote up my notes while I was still thinking about it, and it was dinner time.

Which is why I am a bit late getting to this. It has been a good day.

I note that the mainstream media is full of news about Romney, most of it good, which means that the establishment has chosen its candidate. Most of the ruling class understands that Obama isn’t likely to be elected again, so there’s a scramble to find someone else they can anoint. Today it was a lot of good stories about Romney and his wife, and a sniff telling us that Cain’s wife doesn’t campaign. We can expect more of that as time goes on.

In 1776 about 1/3 of the American people supported King George III and the government. According to polls, the number of people who support the present Congress is about 13%, so we’re down to about half the support for the government that King George had. Of course we don’t have committees of correspondence and a rival Continental Congress, but we have the Tea Party. Of course the Tea Party remains patriotic and supports the Constitution, so we’re not likely to have a Declaration of Independence and open rebellion. Not from them. The OWS group would love to have a rebellion, but given their attitude they expect the government to supply it for them, as the young man in New York blamed the City for not providing portapotties, thus forcing them to defecate in the flower pots. I am sure there are some intelligent young people in the OWS movement who are victims of the indoctrination they have been getting (and which we pay for in taxes) from the schools, but they seem less and less evident as time goes on. Today in New York they took a victory hike to celebrate not having the park they are occupying cleaned up by paid workers.

With approval of the government down to under 40% we’ll have more and more people looking for ways to make their unhappiness manifest. Some will be looking for a protest to join.

Let me remind them: Good Guys clean up after themselves. Good Guys act like adults. The Occupy Wall Street movement seems determined to act like petulant children.

And the mainstream media will continue to thrash about trying to save the establishment. It looks like fun times ahead.

Need a job?

The formula for economic growth is known. Cheap energy and freedom. It works every time. Federal Regulations cost about $1.5 Trillion a year, We pay that for the federal regulations. The question is whether it’s worth it. I understand that regulations protect us. The question is, do we want to pay the price for that protection? I suspect that if you gave notice that all the Federal Regulations – all of them – would be repealed in 180 days, and after that it was all up to the states, the results would be edifying. Of course that won’t happen.

But we have 7% exponential growth in government spending built into the system.

If something can’t go on forever it will stop – but it may do a lot of damage, some irreparable, until it does stop.

OK we can’t repeal all Federal Regulations. How about repealing all those adopted since, say, 1988?