Classics of Conservatism - part XI - Gary North - How You Can Profit from the Coming Price Controls

For previous editions of "Classics of Conservatism," click here.

With the steady rise in gasoline prices over the past year (or more), we are starting to hear more talk about prices controls from state and federal politicians. I wrote earlier about proposed measures that would limit the ability of gasoline prices to rise during an emergency. Even these measures create shortages, long lines and the potential for panic.

There is a phrase we must remember in the event that politicians are tempted to impose price controls in the future -

"Price controls cause shortages."

I dug out of my collection a copy of a book that was written in 1980 - near the height of the last government created gasoline "crisis".

1980


Gary North makes the case against price controls in a way that is understandable and entertaining for the average reader. North's predictions of new price controls have not come true on a grand scale, but it is only a matter of time - unless some of our politicians start standing up for principal. In fact, it was the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and his termination of the fuel price controls that eased that era's gasoline "crisis" and delayed the day when North's fears would come true:

The response of politicians to price inflation has been the same for 4500 years: impose price and wage controls. This will be the answer again.

(page 3)

North provides examples in which the government is determined to ignore the laws of economics in order to accomplish its goals. North quotes Senator Proxmire (D-Wi.)[from 1976 hearings on the future of Social Security]:

. . . [W]e have the power to provide that money [to Social Security beneficiaries]. And we are going to do it. It may not be worth anything when the recipient gets it, but he is going to get his benefits paid.

[emphasis added]

North's "Price Controls" book describes the consequences of the federal (and state and local) government's attempts to provide money that "may not be worth anything." [North goes on to expose the myth that government pension funds in general (and social security in particular) are somehow solvent.]

Remember that this country has endured runaway inflation during our lifetimes, most recently in the 1970's. The Nixon administration responded with wage and price controls in the early 1970's - before the gasoline "crisis" even started. Those controls violate the law of supply and demand and always result in inevitable shortages.

North's title is somewhat misleading. No one will "profit" from price controls. But the controls and the inevitable shortages can be endured. North provides various strategies for the average person to obtain the items he needs and maintain his standard of living despite government created shortages.

The real purpose of the book - and my purpose in bringing it to your attention now - is to prevent price controls from ever being imposed. Politicians believe that we have forgotten the 1970's. They believe they can repeat the mistakes of that decade without consequence. If we recall the lessons of that decade now, we might yet prevent the government from making the same mistakes.

Gary North's book serves as a reminder of how this country nearly came apart in the late 1970's. There was little reason for optimism in the early 1980, as we entered our second straight year of double digit inflation, seemingly endless energy problems, mounting foreign challenges in Iran, Afghanistan (and elsewhere) and a President (Carter) that could do little more than blame Americans for "malaise."

One can find numerous books from the late 70's and early 80's that addressed this doom and gloom environment, most of which made ominous predictions and recommended self-reliant actions on the part of individuals. These books were part of the backlash that swept Reagan into office. Only by rediscovering how badly the government can mess up the economy (and everything else) will we avoid the need to implement some of North's recomendations in our own lives.

Trouble for Harry Reid - good news for the Supreme Court

Harry Reid has a problem.

Many conservatives will see this problem only as an opportunity to level the playing field on the Tom Delay issue. In fact, Reid's problem presents one more reason to fight for a reliable Supreme Court nominee instead of a mere safe choice. With Reid weakened by scandal, he will have less opportunity to carry through on his threat to fight Bush' nominees.

Fight for Justice Janice Rogers Brown.

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

New Orleans is under water, the levees having broken, and the situation is so desperate that the mayor has urged everyone to pray, in defiant violation of the separation of church and state.

Joe Sobran - The Wanderer - September 8, 2005

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

The United States Supreme Court, however, began in the 1940s to incorporate the Bill of Rights into the 14th Amendment…The historical evidence supporting what the Supreme Court did here is pretty sketchy…The argument on the other side is pretty overwhelming that it’s probably not incorporated.

[“Beyond the Abyss: Restoring Religion on the Public Square,” Speech to Pepperdine Bible Lectureship in 1999]

Justice Janice Rogers Brown

A challenge from Harry Reid

Democratic Senators have warned President Bush that a nomination of Judge Janice Rogers Brown (or two others) to be the next Supreme Court Justice would represent an unnecessary provocation and would be met by substantial opposition in the Senate.

I think President Bush should accept this challenge and not shrink from this winnable fight. Nominate Judge Brown.

We can win a confirmation battle this time. The situation is not the same as it was in 1987 when the Democrats defeated Bork. We have a majority in the Senate. The full Senate voted overwhelmingly to confirm Brown to the appellate court only a few months ago. The kind of fight Reid promises would represent a betrayal of the "deal" that John McCain and the other moderates created at that time.

Let them explain why Judge Brown suddenly constitutes an "extraordinary circumstance."

Let them explain why they changed their vote this time after voting for Brown earlier this year.

A partisan fight (or a filibuster) over Judge Brown would also expose McCain for the useless jellyfish that he is.

As part of this campaign, we should publicly demand assurances from Chuck Schumer that his staff will not retrieve credit reports on Judge Brown illegally.

This time also we have the full resources of the blogosphere at our disposal. The mobilization of the blogosphere, talk radio and the new media for Justice Roberts was tremendous and should serve as a dry run for a real battle. We had none of those resources in 1987.

A retreat now would have the effect of allowing Harry Reid to run the country for the next 3 years.

--------------
update - Michelle Malkin and Powerline post updates on the Roberts vote and the implications for future nominees.

Quote of the day - Janice Rogers Brown

We no longer find slavery abhorrent. We embrace it. We demand more. Big government is not just the opiate of the masses. It is the opiate. The drug of choice for multinational corporations and single moms; for regulated industries and rugged Midwestern farmers and militant senior citizens.


- CA Justice Janice Rogers Brown

Lyndie England sentenced.

The Washington Post carries the story of the sentencing of Lyndie England for the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Ms. England received three years. The prosecution asked for a harsher sentence. The prosecutor also asked a pointed question:

The prosecution asked the jury for a sentence of four to six years. "I cannot think of another incident that has more tarnished the image of the U.S. Army," Capt. Chris Graveline said. "Who can think of a person who has disgraced the United States Army more?"

emphasis added

I can think of several candidates for that distinction:

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

The public school system is already so beleaguered by bureaucracy; so cowed by the demands of due process; so overwhelmed with faddish curricula that its educational purpose is almost an afterthought.

- CA Justice Janice Rogers Brown

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

We continue to chip away at the foundations of our success. We dismissed natural law and morality because its unverifiable judgments were deemed inferior to reason. But, then, we drove reason itself from the camp because the most significant of life’s questions defy empiricism. …Only natural law offers an alternative to might makes right and accounts for man’s “unrelenting quest to rise above the ‘letter of the law’ to the realm of the spirit.”

Justice Janice Rogers Brown

[IFJ speech at 15, 17]

One year blogiversary

I made it. I lasted a full year without getting tired of blogging.

One year ago today I tried to leave a comment at the Belmont Club. I had to register with Blogger to leave a comment. In the process of registering, I received a message that told me that I now have my own blog. I thought about it for about 5 seconds and figured I could find something to say once in a while that someone else might read.

As I wrote earlier, I had originally started reading blogs because of Rathergate:

Perhaps most importantly, the blogosphere grew by leaps and bounds as a result of that scandal. While I had begun to follow certain blogs as the election campaign wore on last summer, Rathergate was the hook that reeled me in. My own blog began at the end of September, 2004, as I joined in the wave that carries us to the new media future.

While I can take no credit for the blogburst that brought down Rather and CBS, I do claim to be a child of Rathergate. I suspect that all of those political blogs whose archives go back only to September and October, 2004 were similarly Rathergate generated.

A blog can serve as a summary of the history of any period that the blog covers. The past year has been quite "historical".

I immediately identified "Cassandra" and gave a hint as to topics I would like to cover in this blog.

I followed up with links to election fraud scandals in Wisconsin
- a recurring theme on this and other blogs over the following weeks. We all have written too little about this subject in the past 10 months.

On September 27th, I wrote of threats to the electoral college and what those threats meant to the integrity of U.S. elections.

On October 4th, I wrote of Saddam Hussein's WMD's and Al Qaeda connections.

On October 5th, I wrote of the Democrats' use of campaign violence as a tactic. Now would be a good time to deal with this issue instead of waiting until the next election. Updates were provide on October 6th and October 7th, with parallels to ancient Rome included.

On October 8th, I commented on the ABC internal memo that counseled employees not to hold both sides in the election equally accountable.

On October 9th, I linked to a story of Islamic attempts to get in on the voter fraud racket and Islamic terrorist blueprints for various schools in the U.S.

On October 11th, I noted election violence in Washington State and elsewhere.

On October 12th, I linked to a story describing the Islamic fetish for beheading videos and the meaning of Kerry's positions on the war in the face of such an enemy.

Also - more Democrat inspired campaign violence, from Alaska to Washington to California.

October 13 - 25 Chechen terrorists may have entered the U.S. through Mexico.

October 14 - "KERRY/EDWARDS ELECTION DIRECTIVE: CHARGE VOTER INTIMIDATION, EVEN IF NONE EXISTS!"


Also - Voter fraud in Colorado and Pennsylvania - and the failure of government's price control/flu vaccine program.

And - an Ohio judge allows voters to vote at the wrong polling place.

October 16 - more flu vaccine rationing consequences and violence.

October 17 - voter fraud in Florida - absentee ballot irregularities.

October 18 - Chinese troops in Haiti.

And - the Ohio crack for votes program.

And - Iraqi WMD's in Syria?

October 19, 2004 - more voters than people in Philadelphia.

October 20 - Ohio vote fraud here and nationwide vote fraud here.

October 23 - More election violence.

Plus - election officials register a Somali terrorist in Ohio.

A link to the Stolen Honor video.

October 25 - The Final Week - I discuss voter fraud, terrorist attacks and the Democrats' October Surprise.

October 25 and 26. The Al Qaqaa phase of the October Surprise.

On October 27, I noted the Pennsylvania Governor's suppression of the military vote.

And - ABC holds back a terror warning.

Election fraud regarding illegal aliens in Wisconsin and victimization of senior citizens in Pennsylvania.

The Iraq-Russia-Syria connection.

October 28 - a strategy for combating fraud.

October 29 - A call for election day volunteers.

October 30 - Osama and the second half of the October Surprise.

And - Terrorists Support Kerry.

October 30 - John Kerry's letters to Wallace Carter.

Also - the final 2 1/2 days - a simple strategy.

November 1 - election eve.

November 2 - voter fraud in Philadelphia on election day.

November 3 - dodging the bullet.

November 4 - Arlen Specter's backstabbing. More on Specter on November 7.

November 9 - the next terror attack - crop dusters and propane cylinders.

November 10 - scorecard on Specter.

Also - I commented on how to be prepared for last minute false exit polls.

On November 11 - I made it onto one of the Commissar's maps.

November 12 - Arafat post-mortem.

November 13 - prosecute the fraudulent voters.

On November 18, I commented on the Islamicization of Europe prosecuting fraudulent voters a North Korean leadership mystery, and the growing Iranian threat.

On November 20, I began the Book-of-the-month recommendation (later to be called "Classics of Conservatism."

On November 23, I noted Hillary's attempt to triangulate the immigration issue. I note now that Republicans have done nothing to improve their position on this issue since that time.

On November 24, I commented on increasing Islamic influence in public schools.

Also - I summarized the case against the U.N.

On November 25, I posted the first of many posts about the Washington State fraudulent elections. This topic would take up much space for many bloggers over the next few months.

Also, a Democrat congresswoman admits that "the media certainly is not in our hands any longer."

On November 28, I noted a comparison between carousel voting in the U.S. and the Ukraine.

On December 3, I noted growing opposition to the UN.

On December 5, I commented on the leftists attempts to rig the blogger awards.

On December 6, I quoted several sources on the Intel bill sham.

Also - union opposition to anti-terror measures for schools.

December 8 - WMD's in Iraq.

On December 11, I noted the Netherlands Exodus.

On December 14, I finished in 8th place in the Weblog awards.

On December 17, I noted a connection between the secularization of Christmas and Islamic terror.

On December 26, I summarized the top election outrages of 2004.

On January 1, 2005, I tried to note blogosphere trends for the coming year.

On January 2, I commented on Wizbang's reference to the "Chamberpot defense." Also - my first use of "MSM/DNC".

On January 7, I commented on some good Rathergate summaries.

On January 10, I commented on the CBS "independant" panel report on Rathergate.

On January 14, I commented on the election fraud crisis in this country.

Also - I began the list of MSM lies of 2005. Work continues on that list.

January 24 - another Washington State election fraud post.

January 30 - waiting for the MSM spin on the Iraqi elections.

January 31 - MSM/DNC - a singular noun. I am gratified to see this term in use somewhat around the blogosphere over the past 8 months.

Also - concrete consequences from immigration.

February 2 - terrorists kidnap a G.I. Joe doll. G.I. Joe is rescued by the Ann Coulter doll.

Also - conservative talk radio has a deep bench.

February 3 - Social Security "privatization"?

February 12 - Easongate.

February 13 - the blogosphere needs to write more about economics.

February 14 - Watergate, Deep Throat and beating the dead horse.

February 15 - General Pershing's solution for terrorism.

February 16 - Ayn Rand, Garet Garrett and Absalom Weaver.

February 17 - my first of many posts on Terry Schiavo.

March 5 - The first of many quotes of the day. I have included a new quote every day since then.

March 6 - I quoted Nelson Ascher and the "Berlin Wall's Orphans".

On March 7, I noted AP's Sgrena lie.

On March 8, I noted the euphemism "failure to authenticate" as an MSM/DNC fig leaf for Rathergate.

March 9 - the first of many Axis Sally posts and comparisons to modern day leftists.

On March 10, I commented on Dan Rather's farewell appearance, and made the following comment:

LGF's post has encouraged me to create a more comprehensive post that categorizes the MSM/DNC tactics into several genres. I think this will help us understand what we face every day in the MSM/DNC and help further the new media revolution. If Rather's career is to serve any good purpose, it will be as fertilizer with which we can create a deeper understanding of the MSM/DNC machine that he so loyally served for almost five decades.

emphasis added

On March 17, I noted the push to adopt the Law of the Sea Treaty and its dangerous consequences.

On March 28, I noted Roger Ebert's efforts on behalf of a terrorist.

On April 1, we learned that Chris Matthews has no soul.

On April 2, 2005, I posted the categories of MSM/DNC bias. This post resulted in my first "Instalanche" a day later.

April 6 - I described some of the results of my "category" post.

April 8 - I noted a Peggy Noonan column summarizing John Paul II's greatest legacy.

April 10 - polls are meaningless.

April 18 - Time Magazine, Ann Coulter and Robert Ringer.

April 19 - I described the MSM/DNC attacks on Pope Benedict XVI.

On April 24, I exposed the historical fallacies about Joe McCarthy.

On May 2, I wrote one of my favorite posts on the leftist use of the "hagfish."

I also (sort of) defended the runaway bride.

And also don't forget the North Korean missiles and who was President when N. Korea acquired the technology.

On May 4, I mentioned the Dishonor Awards and MSM/DNC's home run strategy.

On May 7, I noted some movies related to Islam and history.

On May 12, I commented on the changing language, including use of the term "reinvent."

May 15 - the Newsweek - toiletgate story began.

May 20 - Encirclement from without - demoralization from within

On May 23, I commented on the filibuster cave-in. We don't yet know how much damage that deal will do.

On May 24, I noted John McCain's history of sellouts.

I also wrote about Patty Hearst and today's left.

On May 25th, I took note of a Debbie Schlussel column detailing Oprah's whitewashing of terrorists.

On May 27, I noted that Hillary got away with another campaign finance violation.

On May 28, I compared the Star Wars series with our own history of drifting toward empire.

On May 29, I celebrated France's vote against the EU constitution.

On May 30, I noted an ironic anniversary involving Joan of Arc.

On June 4, I noted the State Department's much ignored "Trafficing in Persons" report.

I also commented on a change in attitude since 9-11.

On June 9, I compared the blogosphere to a historical archeology mission.

On June 10, I wrote that we cannot survive another Clinton Presidency.

On June 11, I began the 90 day Rathergate anniversary countdown. Over the next three months, I would make the point, in various posts, as to why Rathergate was the defining moment for the modern mass media.

June 12 - Mark Steyn - the Chinese Century?

I also commented on Ed Klein's book, the Truth about Hillary.

One June 13, I posted the definitive article about the Clinton's China scandal.

June 14 - more thoughts on Ed Klein's book and why we don't need to defend the Clintons.

On June 15, I generated some heavy comments from the ESPN chat rooms as I repeated an e-mail from a WNBA ass't. coach to Debbie Schlussel.

On June 23, I tried to make sense out of the Supreme Court's Kelo decision.

I also praised Karl Rove for his comments on leftists and 9-11.

On June 26, I noted Peggy Noonan's reference to Hillary Clinton's Rosetta Stone.

On June 29, I commented on the Chinese military buildup.

On July 2, I presented a strategy for fighting the Supreme Court battle. That strategy applies even more today.

On July 4, I used Justice Janice Rogers Brown for the quote of the day for the first time.

On July 7th, I discussed the London attacks in terms of the immigration issue.

July 11 - the left's Supreme Court strategy.

On July 15, we saw a map of Islam in Africa.

July 18 - a sad anniversary.

Also - bomb the Kaaba stone?

On July 19, I speculated on the possibility of a Clement nomination here and here.

On July 20, I began to worry about Judge Roberts after previously expressing contentment.

On July 21, I wrote about moderate Muslims and Mecca.

On July 25, I noted Rick Santorum's new book.

On August 3, I noted an article that commented on the true meaning of Islam.

On August 6, I discussed the Hiroshima anniversary in a post that listed my other WWII anniversary posts also.

On August 7, I noted the anniversary of the 1998 embassy bombings.

On August 10, I took note of Democrat/election type math used to compute payments for hurricane victim funerals.

On August 13, I placed Jamie Gorelick's memo in the proper context.

On August 14, I wrote of my own roots with the blogosphere.

Also, I discussed the Gaza pullout in light of a 45 year old passage from the cold war.

I also commented on Able Danger.

August 16 - Open. War.

August 17 - The Chinese aircraft carrier Varyag

August 22 - USS Iowa shunned by San Francisco.

On August 30, I wrote of the freezing of Palestinian assets in the U.S.

- and looting.

September 1 - I wrote on looting and its significance in the context of the welfare state.

And I welcomed Sue Bob as my first ever guest blogger.

On September 3, Sue Bob wrote of Air America's encouragement to looters. [The New Orleans looters, not the thieves who robbed the orphans and diverted the funds to Air America.]

On September 6, Sue Bob commented on history and the need for context.

On September 8, I commented on Rathergate's anniversary.

I also linked to each of the Rathergate anniversary posts from the previous 90 days.

On September 11, I commented on the Islamist slanted memorial that was planned for the flight 93 heroes.

On September 18, I quoted from Thomas Sowell's thoughts on the Bork confirmation process in 1987.

I also recalled Bill Clinton's FEMA failure.

September 24 - Price controls cause shortages.

And - the future of New Orleans.

The past year has undoubtedly been good for the blogosphere. We should remember what we are capable of when we face the challenges of the future.

Debbie Schlussel gets results

Check out Debbie Schlussel's blog to see how two of her recent posts got results.

Also, check out the latest hate mail to Debbie from an Islamic writer at the "Cal State-Fullerton's Daily Titan." [I have cleaned up the language].

From: "Belal Simjee" BaseballFiend82@hotmail.com
> To: dschlussel@yahoo.com
> Subject: RE: Your misiterpretations of Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi
> Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 20:48:11 -0700
>
> You must be the most *******, stupidest, ignorant
> ***** around. Dr. Siddiqi teaches what Islam
> teaches, what is basically echoed in every faith,
> the globalization of each person's individual faith.
> Christianity rules America, Judaism rules Israel
> you ******* moron. And in each case, both faiths
> want to become global andf rule the world, just like
> Islam and every other religion around. And the fact
> that you claim Siddiqi preached Jihad...he was
> talking about anything...if it's standing up for
> justice, it's worth dying for. That was the
> principal behind the American revolution, so does
> that mean our country was founded on terrorism on
> England? Absolutely not! You are a ****** moron,
> and I will be damned to allow you to smear the name
> of a good man. I will bring this website and its
> content up to Siddiqi and ask him his views on how
> he protrays your skank ***. And who knows, with
> being a journalism major, I will see if I can't find
> anything libelous in what you've written.
>
> Hope you get some ***** sense in yer head some
> day...

Belal Simjee's editor's e-mail address is here.

Quote of the day - Will Durant

Nature has never read the Declaration of Independence. It continues to make us unequal.

Will Durant

New Orleans' broken levee

In New Orleans, one of the levees that holds back Lake Pontchartrain has broken again, allowing the Lake to flood parts of the city and resume its natural shape. See Michelle Malkin for details.

Will we ever learn?








This happened despite New Orleans getting less rain than expected from Hurricane Rita.

I am glad that the levee ruptured again at this time. The city was deserted. Everything in the path of the floodwaters was already ruined. We knew that the levee would break again sooner or later. Would it have been better had the levy broken again in 10 or 20 years [after we had forgotten about Katrina]? If we repopulate and rebuild New Orleans, we are asking for another disaster. Yesterday's levee break should serve as a reminder that New Orleans is a human tragedy waiting to happen. Let's abandon this fool's errand before it is too late. How many times must we tempt fate?

The city is gone. Many of the former residents don't want to come back. Anything we rebuild would be an entirely new city. Why would we [or any sane people] build a city below sea level?

- So that we can celebrate New Orleans' jazz history? It would be much easier to buy a Louis Armstrong CD than to rebuild a city.

- So that college girls can flash their breasts in exchange for beads at Mardi Gras? It is far less risky to surf the net for porn than to endanger hundreds of thousands of lives in an underwater city.

- So that the former residents can have a place to live? They are rebuilding their lives elsewhere.

I suggest that we save our money for the next terrorist attack. We will need those billions even more desperately when Al Qaida explodes a suitcase bomb in Manhattan.

If you think you are tired of hearing about New Orleans now, wait until this time next year, when we have heard the same arguments over and over again and seen the same faces on TV fighting over the aftermath and the rebuilding money and the blame and the next levee break.

Let's recognize reality and say goodbye to this albatross.


buh - bye


buh - bye


buh - bye


buh - bye

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

Senator Boozer complains that a proposed tax cut would chiefly benefit the rich. He is right. When you restore a measure of freedom, the main beneficiaries are those whose rights have been most grossly violated by demagogues like Senator Boozer.

Joe Sobran

Price controls cause shortages

Pennsylvania and other jurisdictions are considering "price controls" for gasoline in the wake of the Katrina created price fluctuations. The Pennsylvania Senate recently passed a bill that limits the amount by which prices can rise during a "disaster emergency."

If this bill passes the House of Representatives, the next emergency will involve more than mere high prices. We will be faced with shortages as a result of the government's ham-handed price control measure.

Prices rise for a reason. Just before labor day weekend, prices rose because retailers and wholesalers feared that replacement supplies would be hard to come by or unavailable. Katrina ruptured pipelines, knocked platforms offline and generally disrupted supplies.

It is a basic law of economics that prices rise when the supply is restricted. Rising prices act as a regulator on the economy and on consumption of goods. Prices convey information. When prices rise, it tells consumers that the supply of certain products is limited. The long term result of a price increase will be that consumer habits will change. The popularity of SUV's will be affected as a result of a gasoline price shock. Our driving habits will change also. Those adjustments don't work when the government interferes with the price. We can whine about the devastation of Katrina forever, but it does not really hit home until we see it on the gas pump as we fill up our car. Only if we are confronted by the actual market price will we know that we must change our habits.

If those prices are prevented from rising, shortages result. Lawmakers cannot change the weather. The lawmakers cannot affect the supply (unless they allow drilling in the ANWR and elsewhere). Forcing the price to remain low while the supply decreases is a recipe for shortages and long lines.

Repeat after me -

"Price controls cause shortages."

If you are still confused, refer to the 1970's.

Will history repeat itself?









We paid more at the pump at the beginning of this month. We will continue to pay more. But we have not yet had to spend our evening waiting in a long gas line or searching for an open station. Pennsylvania's bill (and others like it) bring us one step closer to the nightmare of the Carter years. Or the Nixon years.

Similar policies have wrought havoc in the California electric industry:

California's electricity crisis is treated in the media as if it were some sort of natural disaster, like a hurricane. But the only fact of nature operating here is the hard-and-fast rule that whenever you come across a screw-up this big, you know the government is behind it.

The California Legislature created this problem about five years ago when it deregulated the wholesale market for electricity but fixed prices at the retail level, a policy that has made Cuba the happy, prosperous country that it is today.

Even the New York Times seemed to understand this idea when it wrote, "U.S. Price Controls Are Said to Worsen Power Shortage." [You can bet that the Times won't repeat that statement anytime soon - as long as there is a chance of screwing up the economy during a Republican administration.]

The same logic applies to the New York housing industry.

Here is a more academic discussion - complete with graphs.

As usual, Thomas Sowell hits the nail on the head:

Shortages where the government sets prices have been common in countries around the world, for centuries on end, whether these shortages have taken the form of waiting lists, black markets, or other ways of coping with the fact that what people demand at an artificially low price exceeds what other people will supply at such prices.

Years ago, Gary North provided advice on how we can survive and deal with government price controls:



I endured the gas lines of the 1970's because I was only a kid. It was unpleasant, but nothing more. Today, I would have to be the one to juggle a busy work schedule with the gas lines. I could no longer simply count on getting gas on the way home. I would have to allocate sufficient time each week for buying gasoline. The gas line would become a regular part of my calendar, like any other appointment. Evening meetings, social events, lunch appointments, business travel and family outings would be disrupted.

Let's not wait until it is too late before we put a stop to this nonsense. We cannot endure another decade like the 1970's. The Republican revolution of 1980 took place because we were tired of the 1970's. Let's not give in to those who seek a return to that unpleasant, miserable decade.
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visit counter added on March 4, 2008

Simon Wiesenthal, Paul Murdoch and leftist imagery

I note the passing earlier this week of famed Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.

I wonder if Paul Murdoch will design his headstone.

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

In his famous, all too famous, dissent in Lochner [Lochner v. New York], Justice Holmes wrote that the “constitution is not intended to embody a particular economic theory, whether of paternalism and the organic relation of the citizen to the State or of laissez faire.” Yes, one of the greatest (certainly one of the most quotable) jurists this nation has ever produced; but in this case, he was simply wrong.

[Federalist speech at 8]

Justice Janice Rogers Brown

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

Curiously, in the current dialectic, the right to keep and bear arms – a right expressly guaranteed by the Bill of Rights – is deemed less fundamental than implicit protections the court purports to find in the penumbras of other express provisions. (citations omitted) But surely, the right to preserve one’s life is at least as fundamental as the right to preserve one’s privacy.

Justice Janice Rogers Brown

[Concurring opinion in Kasler, 2 P.3d at 602]

Quote of the day - Janice Rogers Brown

A democracy is inevitably transformed into a Kleptocracy.

Janice Rogers Brown

Quote of the day - Janice Rogers Brown

In truth, liberalism’s vaunted tolerance and openness is a lie. In America, at least, liberalism is tolerant only of those concerns to which it is indifferent. To those trivialized forms of religious observance which amount to no more than a consumer preference, the culture maintains a posture of tolerance.

Janice Rogers Brown

Speech to St. Thomas More Society (Oct. 15, 1998)

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

[Beginning in 1937, t]he court drew a line between personal rights and property rights or economic interests, and applied two different constitutional tests…[I]f the right was personal and “fundamental,” review was intolerably strict. [Federalist speech at 12]

Justice Janice Rogers Brown

Bill Clinton returns to form

I just read the AFP account of Bill Clinton's attack on George Bush. Clinton's criticism included a repeat of the allegation that FEMA was slow to react to Katrina.

If the "This Week" interviewer had been a real reporter instead of an MSM/DNC shill, he would have asked Bill Clinton about the Pennsylvania flood of January, 1996. In January, 1996 a flood [mild by Katrina standards] engulfed Harrisburg, knocked down a bridge, closed other bridges, chased countless people from their homes, destroyed businesses and isolated the capital of Pennsylvania.

Governor Tom Ridge took to the airwaves and condemned FEMA because FEMA would not even declare an official disaster [a disaster was later declared]. Soldiers would later patrol the streets to keep order.

Pennsylvania - January 1996 - How fast did Bill Clinton react?

By contrast, George Bush declared a disaster and approved funding before Katrina even hit the Gulf coast.

Clinton's statement today was only marginally different than one in which Clinton would accuse another President of perjury or selling arms to China in exchange for campaign contributions.

BTW, Clinton also criticized Bush for hastily invading Iraq. Only in an MSM/DNC world could Bill Clinton expect to get away with this kind of hypocrisy. I didn't see the program (and I am glad for that) but I doubt that the interviewer asked Clinton the obvious question - why were you bombing Iraq in 1998 if there was "no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction"??

--------------------
Update - Monday morning - Powerline and Michelle Malkin have more.

The confirmation process - Thomas Sowell - A Personal Odyssey

I have previously blogged about Thomas Sowell's book, "A Personal Odyssey".

Before the dust settles on Judge Roberts' testimony in the Judiciary Committee - and while we await another nominee to endure the same process in a matter of weeks - it is appropriate to place the Democrats' behavior on the committee in context.

Dr. Sowell provides an account of his own testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1987 on behalf of Judge Bork. The Committee was ruled by Democrats at that time and they were just as idiotic as they are now:

Before beginning, I asked Senator Kennedy [the acting Chairman] if I had ten minutes for an opening statement, and he said "yes." But, eight minutes into my statement, he asked impatiently:

[Kennedy] "Can you bring that to a close?"

[Sowell] "I thought I had ten minutes."

[Kennedy] "How much more time do you need?"

[Sowell] "Two more minutes."

Because I was not looking at Kennedy during my opening statement, it was not until I saw videotapes later that I saw him yawning and stretching ostentatiously while I was talking. He also coughed loudly though the microphones were so placed that this did not come through on the television broadcast as much as it did in the room at the time.

Although my opening statement challenged much of what had been said against Bork, both by outside organizations and by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senators sidestepped all that and began all sorts of other issues during the question period. The worst was Senator Arlen Specter, whose invincible ignorance was exceeded only by his pompous certainty. My choices were to get down to his level or simply to let my disgust show. I did not want to become the issue instead of Judge Bork, so after a brief exchange, I just sat there in disgust. Some viewers got that and others didn't, with the result that I later heard the most widely disparate assessments of my testimony and received both enthusiastic congratulations from some and dismayed condolences from others.

"A Personal Odyssey", pp. 295-296.

Previous - Dr. Sowell's research disproving the left's attacks on Bork.

Quote of the day - Ronald Reagan

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'

Ronald Reagan

Quote of the day - C.S. Lewis

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

C. S. Lewis

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

" . . . . as the New York Times put it: 'Death Toll In New Orleans May Be Lower Than First Feared'.

No truth in the rumour that early editions read 'Than First Hoped' ".

Mark Steyn

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

Meanwhile, rescuers in New Orleans have discovered a lower-than-expected 424 dead bodies or, as they're known to liberals, "registered Democratic voters."

Ann Coulter

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

[T]he courts overcame these alleged limitations on their powers with ridiculous ease. How? By constitutionalizing everything possible, finding constitutional rights which are nowhere mentioned in the Constitution. By taking a few words which are in the Constitution like “due process” and “equal protection” and imbuing them with elaborate and highly implausible etymologies; and by enunciating standards of constitutional review which are not standards at all but rather policy vetoes, i.e., strict scrutiny and the compelling state interest standard.

Justice Janice Rogers Brown

[Libertarian speech at 7-8]

Quote of the day - Janice Rogers Brown

The dichotomy between the United States Supreme Court’s laissez-faire treatment of social and economic rights and its hypervigilance with respect to an expanding array of judicially proclaimed fundamental rights is highly suspect, incoherent, and constitutionally invalid. [Concurring opinion in Kasler v. Lockyer, 2 P.3d 581, 601 (Cal. 2000), cert. denied, 69 U.S.L.W. 3549 (2001)]

Justice Janice Rogers Brown

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

Politicians in their eagerness to please and to provide something of value to their constituencies that does not have a price tag are handing out new rights like lollipops in the dentist’s office.

[Speech to Sacramento County bar Ass’n (May 1, 1996) at 6-7]

Justice Janice Rogers Brown

The Red Crescent and the 9/11 memorial

I think that we can no longer be satisfied merely to expose the idiocy of the left. We have to recognize that there is a sizable element in this country that simply hates America, Western values, Christianity, freedom and all that goes with those things (ie. indoor plumbing, medicine, the automobile, etc.). When the 9-11 attacks first happened, this element bided their time. They refrained from celebrating openly. They may even have given blood or donated money to the relief efforts.

But now they are crawling out of the [oops woodward] woodwork and out from under their rocks. They spare no effort to attack not only George Bush, but America itself. Any attack on the victims of 9-11 - especially one that amounts to pointless desecration - can be nothing more than an attack on the U.S. and an attempt to demoralize those of us who survive.

I am late to this story - others like Michelle Malkin have done a thorough job so far - because I wanted to react more to the forest instead of the trees. This atrocity is more than just another example of leftist lunacy. There is more at stake than a simple memorial or a fleeting argument. The morale of the American people hangs in the balance as we try to rally our strength for the remainder of the war. Those who would desecrate our victims would try to sap that strength. We need not understand their motives. We need only recognize their methods.

The barbarity of the latest memorial proposal can be understood only in the context of past atrocities and the hypothetical desecration of the victims of those atrocities. If you did not know which of the following memorials constituted an actual proposal, could you guess which one was real and which were invented only to prove a point?


9/11 memorial design















The newly renamed Dylan Klebold High School in Littleton Colorado










The Tim McVeigh Federal Building in Oklahoma City

Anne Frank's headstone design

New Symbol to be painted on the Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor






If the above examples are offensive to you, prepare to have your sensibilities offended many times over the next few years as the left's propaganda machine continues to find new ways to attack our morale and dishonor our dead.

Quote of the day - Ayn Rand

Government "help" to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.

Ayn Rand

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

-- Politicians never accuse you of "greed" for wanting other people's money -- only for wanting to keep your own.

Joe Sobran

Quote of the day - Justice Janice Rogers Brown

Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible.

- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

The Rathergate legacy

The celebration of the Rathergate anniversary has been building for weeks. Rathergate has affected many aspects of the media and how we gather and share information. I found it impossible to summarize the impact in one (or even many) posts. So I took three months:

On June 11, 2005 (89 days out), I described the 90 day Rathergate countdown and its significance:

I consider the anniversary to be such a momentous event that it merits a long runup - especially since it will be ignored by the MSM/DNC. Rathergate was the watershed event that brought not only the blogosphere, but the entire new media into the public spotlight. The new media had been growing since 1988, when Rush Limbaugh put conservative talk radio on the map. Matt Drudge's Lewinsky story made the internet an integral part of the new media revolution in 1998. But these events were only cracks in the dam. With Rathergate, the dam burst and a river of new information and opposing viewpoints poured forth. Ever since, we have been awash in information, the likes of which had previously been confined to the MSM/DNC's memory hole.

Rathergate (and the long term significance of Rathergate) deserve numerous posts. Over the next three months I hope to focus on Rathergate and the new media in an effort to foster greater appreciation of how far we have come and where we are going next. I hope also to generate sufficient buzz to insure that this event will not be ignored or lost in a sea of the MSM/DNC's usual white noise.

At 88 days, I predicted the downfall of weekly MSM/DNC periodicals.

At 87 days, we celebrated Michelle Malkin's one year blogiversary.

At 82 days, I included a quote from Joe Sobran from March 4, 1997, in which he predicted the general trend that we now celebrate:

We're now moving into an era of media fragmentation, for which we should be deeply grateful. It means the end of the liberal opinion cartel.

At 81 days, we celebrated Black Five's two year blogiversary.

At 79 days, we observed a new "fake, but accurate" story.

At 78 days, I observed (several days late) blogfather's day.

At 75 days, I observed that the MSM/DNC Gitmo spin was falling on deaf ears.

At 67 days, I observed that the MSM/DNC was fighting back against the blogosphere to greater extent and in different ways than it did during Rathergate.

At 66 days (July 4th), I celebrated Rush Limbaugh's broadcast anniversary.

At 61 days, I discussed the blogosphere's role in the coming Supreme Court battle.

At 60 days, I included a quote from a Hugh Hewitt reader:

Because of blogs I know that I am not the only person who has a problem with the bias in the MSM.

At 59 days, I observed milestones for Belmont Club and IMAO.

At 54 days, I observed Blonde Sagacity's one year blogiversary.

At 53 days, I included a quotation from Hugh Hewitt's book, "Blog":

"Newspapers and TV talking heads are falling behind their audiences because they refuse to read the map that is in front of their noses. They want to regain their monopoly on commentary, and seem to believe that by ignoring the repeated tidal waves that hit them, they can will themselves back to relevance."

At 52 days, I related Thomas Sowell's first hand experience with MSM/DNC lies during the pre-Rathergate era - when he had little choice but to live with the slander.

At 51 days, I included a May 11, 1998 quote from Thomas Sowell that showed that he "got it" at a time when few others did.

At 50 days, I observed the death of General Westmoreland and compared CBS' slander of Westmoreland with the ability of today's blogosphere to fight back. [I am glad that General Westmoreland lived long enough to see Rathergate.]

At 47 days, I observed one more indication of the blogosphere's growing power, as bloggers forced the termination of a terrorist sympather from the staff of the Guardian.

With 45 days to go, I noted a blogging scandal at the Miami New Times and noted that MSM/DNC ethics don't improve merely because the MSM/DNC is using the blogosphere.

With 42 days to go, I celebrated Newsweek's declining advertising numbers.

At T minus 39 days, I noted a New York Times article that chronicled the damage suffered by MSM/DNC, but still missed the point.

At 37 days, I noted David Sifry's "state of the blogosphere" post.

At 36 days, I noted Scrappleface's use of a Dan Rather joke as a launching point into an Air America parody.

At 35 days, I noted a 1754 Blog milestone.

With 33 days to go, I noted the end of Arthur Chrenkoff's blog.

At 32 days, I noted a seemingly pointless attack on blogs in the Des Moines Register.

At 28 days, I celebrated instant justice for an anti-Michelle Malkin spammer.

With 27 days to go, I learned of the "Stalin radio" and its similarity to the MSM/DNC.

At 26 days, I wrote of an example from Thomas Sowell's book demonstrating how the new media would have accelerated his research in the 1990's.

At 25 days, I noted the role of the Swift Boat Vets in forcing CBS into the Rathergate blunder.

At 24 days, I observed David Brancaccio's counterattack against the blogosphere.

At 23 days, I noted positive trends in new media/old media readership.

With 22 days to go, I announced a milestone on my own blog and discussed Rathergate's impact on the creation of The Cassandra Page.

At 21 days - more bad news for the MSM/DNC.

At 20 days, I found a video that described the roots of the internet revolution.

With 18 days left, I quoted Thomas Sowell and Robert Bork on the difference the new media makes in the Supreme Court battle.

At 12 days, I quoted Ann Coulter and Judge Posner on the issue of what effect the alternative media has had on the MSM/DNC.

At 10 days, I provided a chronology of the new media revolution.

At 9 days, I discussed the role of the 2004 GOP convention in the events that led to Rathergate.

At 5 days, I noted the anniversary of the final domino in the Rathergate countdown.

Yesterday, I noted the calm before the storm.

Today, I marked the anniversary by referencing Hugh Hewitt's analysis and the Buckhead post that was our generation's "shot heard 'round the world."

Most of the above referenced posts describe some event that reveals the power of the blogosphere and the new media. Most of those posts show how Rathergate impacts our lives and our ability to obtain information.

Rathergate was more than a 12 day scandal that forced Dan Rather off of the air.

Rathergate was about more than George Bush or John Kerry or media bias or MSM/DNC monopoly or one Presidential campaign. Rathergate was all of those things and much more.

Rathergate is about every milestone that every blogger celebrates, every story that the blogosphere breaks, every fact that the MSM/DNC can no longer surpress and every failure that afflicts the MSM/DNC until the end of its days. The legacy of Rathergate will survive long after Dan Rather is gone.

Rathergate - The revolution accelerates

One year ago this evening, CBS' 60 minutes aired the now infamous segment that relied on the forged Texas Air National Guard documents. The world hasn't been the same since.

One year ago tonight

I do not intend to rehash the story of the fake documents. Rathergate is now much larger than a story of fake documents. Rathergate was the storm that focused not only the blogosphere but the entire new media into a battle with the old media. The new media won.

Other such battles had been fought before. But in this episode, the old media was forced to recognize the blogosphere and its contribution. The old media (or MSM/DNC as I call it) has waged a continuous war over the past year to marginalize the blogosphere and regain its old monopoly. I cannot do a better job than Hugh Hewitt of summarizing Rathergate and its impact. Check out pages 37-42 of Hewitt's book "Blog."

For those who don't remember the sequence of events, the exposure of the CBS' perfidy began within hours after the broadcast. At 8:59:43 PM Pacific Time on September 8th, Buckhead posted the following at Free Republic (see post #47):

To: Howlin
Howlin, every single one of these memos to file is in a proportionally spaced font, probably Palatino or Times New Roman.

In 1972 people used typewriters for this sort of thing, and typewriters used monospaced fonts.

The use of proportionally spaced fonts did not come into common use for office memos until the introduction of laser printers, word processing software, and personal computers. They were not widespread until the mid to late 90's. Before then, you needed typesetting equipment, and that wasn't used for personal memos to file. Even the Wang systems that were dominant in the mid 80's used monospaced fonts.

I am saying these documents are forgeries, run through a copier for 15 generations to make them look old.

This should be pursued aggressively.

That post was the 21st century's "shot heard 'round the world." After 12 days of stonewalling CBS would grudgingly backtrack on the documents.

Within a few months, Rather would retire, the blogosphere would force out Eason Jordan from CNN, Newsweek would be exposed as having published lies about Korans in the toilet at Gitmo and the MSM/DNC would continue its long, slow tailspin. The final chapter on the whole MSM/DNC media monopoly has yet to be concluded. But the opening paragraph of that final chapter was written on September 8, 2004.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

I got an e-mail over the weekend from a US Army surgeon just back in Afghanistan after his wedding. Changing planes in Kuwait for the final leg to Bagram and confronted by yet another charity box for Katrina relief, he decided that this time he'd pass. "I'd had it up to here," he wrote, "with the passivity, the whining, and the when-are-they-going-to-do-something blame game."

Mark Steyn

Rathergate anniversary - 1 day and counting

Click here for previous Rathergate countdown editions.

One year ago today, MSM/DNC sat poised to attack George W. Bush. It had been trying to pin something on him for years. Despite its many attempts, Bush had survived. All MSM/DNC attempts to destroy and blame Bush had failed. The mood was much like that of today, as the MSM/DNC continually flails away at Bush over the hurricane.

We don't know where the Hurricane blame game will lead, but last year's MSM/DNC attacks, as of September 7, 2004, were heading to a premature climax. Presidential campaigns officially begin on labor day, but the 2004 campaign would kick into high gear one day later. The battle that would ensue over the events of September 8th would transcend the Presidential election. Reviewing the Rathergate sequence, one sees a certain similarity to World War I. What began as a simple war ended up launching the Soviet Union, ending the Ottoman empire and forever changing the face of the world.

In 2004, what began as another MSM/DNC attempt to install a leftist president ended up pushing the blogosphere to previously unseen heights and forever changing the role of the media. Information would never be gathered and exchanged the same way again.

Quotes of the day - Mark Steyn and Janice Rogers Brown

Congressman Billy Tauzin once said of his state: "One half of Louisiana is under water and the other half is under indictment." Last week, four fifths of New Orleans was under water and the other four fifths should be under indictment - which is the kind of arithmetic the state's deeply entrenched kleptocrat political culture will have no trouble making add up.

Mark Steyn

Government is the only enterprise in the world which expands in size when its failures increase.

- Justice Janice Rogers Brown

Thank you to Sue Bob

I wish to express my gratitude to Sue Bob (Jerri Lynn) for guest blogging for me over the past few days. She did a great job and kept the traffic flowing in.

I am now definitely going to see the Great Raid and I also have learned more about FEMA and how it is supposed to work. I also look forward to Sue Bob's legal analysis on the now-expanded Supreme Court battle.

If We Only Had Context

The other day, I wrote a little blurb linking to my blog's post about The Great Raid, which I saw on Sunday. I just had a commentor come to my blog and post something that everyone should read:

Sue Bob - - I lived near a "China Marine" from 1946 - 1949. One of the worst things FDR ever did was order them to surrender. The Regimental commander would not take MacA's order and talked directly to FDR before surrendering.
This survivor of "Death March" was a basket case. If you saw Ross Perot's running mate on the VP debate 13 years ago you have a weak idea of what a shell of a man he was. But he was part of the 9% that live to tell the tale. It would have been much better for the Marines to fight to the death as we are trained to do. At least that way they would have taken 10,000 - 20,000 Japs with them.
In three years the Japs killed over 90% of the men. women and children taken prisoner at the end of 1941.
Had this raid not taken place it would have been over 92%. Think about that the next time Larry King cals America a land of torturers!

It was this experience that convinced me when I was fighting the real JFK's war I would not be taken alive.
It is why I get so mad when Pelosi, Durbin and Reid compare Gitmo to the Japs or the Socialist Labor Party's death camps.

I think that everyone should consider what this man said. One of the biggest problems I see today is that we are not properly educated about history. It is history that gives us context. This commenter's post gives us invaluable context. With accurate and proper context, 99% of the country would horse-laugh Pelosi, Durbin and Reid into well-deserved political oblivion.

Quote of the Day

Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery's shadow or reflection: the fact that you don't merely suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact that you suffer. I not only live each endless day in grief, but live each day thinking about living each day in grief.

C. S. Lewis

You Need To Read This Comment..

Which was published on Friday at One Hand Clapping:

Disclosure: I’m a volunteer coordinator for MEMA (The Missouri Emergency Management Agency), I’ve been through three major floods and a few big storms that generated enough tornado damage to get the affected counties disaster relief – believe me when I tell you what we are seeing from FEMA now is lightyears ahead of what I’ve seen from them in the past. Typically it took two to three days just to get the disaster declaration, then another two to three to get FEMA deployed – of course by then the local guys had been on the ground working around the clock for five or six days and we were more than happy to dump everything in FEMA’s lap. That’s the way the system is designed. Bush saw that and tried to skip a few steps to speed things up, he pre-declared the areas disaster areas. So what we are seeing in NO is the result of a convergence of factors:....

Read the whole thing.

The Great Raid

I just got back from seeing it. I'm trying to be genteel over here on Salt's blog, so I'll just provide this link to my thoughts about the movie published on my own blog.

Rathergate anniversary - 5 days and counting - the double digit lead

Salt asked me to publish this today.

One year ago today, another domino fell that pushed CBS into using its "October surprise" early. After the RNC 2004 convention, Time Magazine released a poll showing that Bush had opened up a double digit lead. As I commented 4 days ago:

Bush would walk away from this convention holding (by some accounts) a double digit lead (BTW - I still hate polls). That lead prompted CBS to broadcast the phony ANG documents more than a month-and-a-half ahead of schedule. The Swift Boat Vets and the GOP convention forced the MSM/DNC to run its October surprise in September. As the blogosphere proved in 2004, an October surprise doesn't work unless it is used in October. CBS' premature surprise attack left plenty of time for Powerline and Little Green Footballs to nullify the attack.

While the Time poll lead proved to be temporary, the damage was done. CBS was forced into an early lie that could be disproved (and with plenty of time for the blogosphere to do the disproving).

I can remember cautiously celebrating the news of the Time poll at the time, but none of us knew that the real cause for celebration would soon follow.
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update. 9-07-05 - I have fixed the links for this post. The Blogger program sometimes severely limits what one can accomplish with a blog. In this case, Blogger would not allow me to transfer a post to a guest blogger for subsequent posting without destroying the links and screwing up the format of the blog. Please remember, the link garbling was Blogger's fault, not Sue Bob's. Sue Bob did an excellent job guest blogging for me over the past few days.

I Don't Know What Salt Thinks About Guns, but...

This will even make Yankees want to buy one.

Clueless On Air America

Hi everyone. Salt bestowed upon me the honor of guest blogger while he is away for the holiday weekend. I am very pleased that he asked me and I will do my best for him.

This morning I ran across an appalling story that Randi Rhodes, a talk show host on Air America, is encouraging the looters in New Orleans:

In a broadcast yesterday, Air America radio talk radio host Randi Rhodes repeatedly urged listeners in the hurricane-devastated Gulf Coast to go out and loot, insisting the poor should be allowed to steal goods at will.

The leftist host, who has sparked controversy in the past for advocating the assassination of President Bush, said hurricane victims should avoid discount centers such as Wal-Mart and focus their looting on higher-end stores in order to get good quality products, according to Ned Rice, a contributor to National Review Online's weblog "The Corner."

How appalling. It's obvious that she's playing up the racial component of all this. But who are the real victims of the lawlessness that has overwhelmed New Orleans?

Power Line directs us to this compelling article by Nicole Gelinas entitled A Perfect Storm of Lawlessness:

But while the looters have reportedly killed police offers and have shot at rescue workers, they’re mainly victimizing, as usual, other poor blacks. The vicious looters aren’t the face of New Orleans’ poor blacks. Their victims are: the thousands of New Orleanians who made their way to shelter before the storm, and who rescued others and brought them to shelter during and after the storm—but who now cannot get the help they desperately need.

And what is one of the reasons help was delayed?

In truth, the looters, rapists, and murderers who have terrorized New Orleans since Monday began their post-Katrina reign of terror a full day before the situation grew truly desperate—and it was their increasingly lawless behavior that kept willing but unarmed professional and volunteer rescue workers away from the city and from the poor people who needed saving.

Randi Rhodes may believe that she is being funny. If so, she is a truly sick and disturbed person. Somebody should stick a pie in her big fat pie hole.

Quotes of the day - Mark Steyn and Hugh Hewitt

MS: . . . [T]he more the people are self-reliant, and take control for themselves, the more they're likely to be able to withstand these things. If you entrust yourself to the government, then you will be vulnerable. . . . You've got to have a situation where people are encouraged to be self-reliant, and exercise responsible choices themselves.

HH: I'll tell you. It's the best commercial for owning a gun I've ever seen.

MS: Absolutely. And I would say that the last thing...anyone who wants to talk about gun control these days, I'll tell you something. If I had property in New Orleans, and I was there, the one thing I'd want to do, when some of these people come a-callin' is make sure I was armed.


H/T Radioblogger