Coyote, on the limits of government and the Amendment process: While I am sympathetic to issues folks have with taxation, from a legal and Constitutional perspective the income tax actually comes from a better, almost more quaint time. Why? Because instead of dealing with the Constitutional problems with the income tax by having a series [...]

Seen over at Megan McArdle’s place today (original source unlinked): Dear Dr. Boli: How can I progress from ordinary sleep into slumbering dogmatically? –Sincerely, “cs.” Dear Sir or Madam: Dogmatic slumber, that easy and comfortable state of resting on one’s unexamined assump­tions, has been shown in multiple studies to be greatly desirable for promoting health [...]

As reported in Politico: “I can’t think of too many tribal countries with which we’ve been involved — Afghanistan is another one — where it’s easy to extricate yourself once you get involved,” Huntsman told reporters here after finishing a cruise with Republicans on northern New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee. “So it might sound like it’s [...]

Very, very important: When I hear communitarians like Etzioni describe the libertarian view of individualism, I wonder if they’ve ever read any libertarian writing other than a Classic Comics edition of Ayn Rand. … There’s no conflict between individualism and community. There’s a conflict between voluntary association and coerced association. And communitarians dance around that [...]

From a friend of Billy Beck, relayed on Facebook: “Oil hearings: Government taxes account for 15% of gas price, company profits only 5%. Follow the dots: The government has 3x the incentive to keep prices high and engage in gouging and restrict further supply as the companies do.” Wrong. Well, 90% wrong. The bulk of [...]

Don Boudreaux from Cafe Hayek: So it dawned on me. Infomercials are the closest phenomenon that the private-sector offers to politics. Fraudulent clowns, skilled at lying, promise gullible audiences something for nothing. The difference, of course – and it makes all the difference – is that no one is forced to buy (either figuratively or [...]

Why we should go after the online poker vendors: There are plenty of victims of (allegedly) illegal online poker, starting with the desperately-short-of-cash federal and state governments which are deprived of all the taxable revenue ($3 billion, say the feds) from the now-suspected operations. And just ask casino and horse racing executives what they think [...]

In my post on alternate voting systems, I called the Republicans and Democrats the “beast with two asses”, making an allusion to the old “making the beast with two backs” euphemism for sex. However, I think I’ve got an, ahem, more colorful example that works better: American democracy is a threesome where the Republicans and [...]

HuffPo is writing on a new Fed report that of 500 foreclosures they investigated, they couldn’t find a single one where the borrower was not significantly delinquent on payments. Thus, the Fed declared that no improper foreclosures occurred. This doesn’t matter to those who think bankers are raping angels in their spare time, and who [...]

Popehat writes: Here’s the thing: people with unscientific, irrational, and foolish ideas about evolution and global warming might still have something worthwhile to say about other topics. Take, as one example, Senator Tom Coburn. Coburn doesn’t believe in global warming. He also thinks that lesbian gangs were terrorizing Oklahoma’s school bathrooms. But he’s a been [...]

Barbara Boxer, on what apparently is the greatest outrage she’s ever seen in Congress. A lot of them are sleeping in their offices. You tell me one other person that you know Mr. President that is allowed to sleep in the office of their corporation that they may work for. As far as I know, [...]

From the hockey mom: Though Palin was critical of Aguilera’s performance, she claimed her attack on the songstress wasn’t personal. “I’m sure Ms. Aguilera is a very nice person, but I just think the American people deserve better than a demanding beauty queen who’s clearly in over her head.” LOL!

Via Jacob Sullum, here’s a truly bizarre comment from Hillary Clinton during an interview with Mexican media: Maerker: In Mexico, there are those who propose not keeping going with this battle and legalize drug trafficking and consumption. What is your opinion? Clinton: I don’t think that will work. I mean, I hear the same debate. [...]

In 2008, a U.S. senator made a very good point in arguing against government mandates for individuals to purchase health insurance: “[I]f a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house.” Who was the senator who said this? Answer below the fold.

Alex Pareene writing for Salon.com in an article entitled: Tea Partyers don’t actually care about “liberty” : [V]arious New Mexico Tea Partyers booed one of the movement’s superstars [Former New Mexico Governor and potential 2012 presidential candidate Gary Johnson] for daring to suggest that a wasteful and — let’s just say it –tyrannical government campaign [...]

The “Wild Bird” estate off Hwy 1 near Big Sur, CA. Owings built ”Wild Bird” as a permanent home at Big Sur in 1958. In the early 1960s, he and his wife joined neighbors in organizing to limit development along the scenic highway of California Route 1. This small step into the world of political [...]

Just remember folks: if you ever see police officers drowning, get thee to a store pronto and buy life jackets before you attempt a rescue. It’s the law. Context

From Bruce Schneier, who suggests that because the Washington Monument would be very difficult to secure against terrorist attack, it deserves a more fitting response from our Feckless Feds: I think we should close the monument entirely. Let it stand, empty and inaccessible, as a monument to our fears. An empty Washington Monument would serve [...]

“Nobody likes the 4th amendment being violated when going through the security line, but the truth of the matter is we are going to have to do it.”-Former. Asst. TSA administrator Mo McGowan So when the friendly TSA agents pull you out of the line for a groping or full body nudie scan as you [...]

The WSJ, on the *injustice* of paperwork snafus in the process of foreclosing on squatters: The New York Times appeared to have produced a front-page victim on Friday—a woman fighting eviction from her $75,000 home at the hands of lender GMAC. The woman has not paid her mortgage in two years while remaining in the [...]