The Tea Parties STILL don't get it

Update April 1: The rally was not heavily publicized in the media, and likely for good reason. The turnout, estimated at 200, was pathetic. The event was well organized, but very poorly publicized. (I did not know of the rally until the day it was being held, and then only through Facebook). Here is the UPI report, for what it's worth.

More than a year ago, I warned that if the Tea Parties started drinking the Washington Kool-Aid, they would fail. I warned last August that Glenn Beck's 8-28 rally would not accomplish anything politically (though, perhaps, it did morally). So what is Tea Party Nation planning? Yup. Yet another rally in the imperial capital, which they call "Continuing Revolution 3.31."

It will surely fail. Even Congressmen who were elected as Tea Party supporters have failed the movement. With extremely few exceptions (starting with Ron Paul), the Washington environment corrupts whomever it touches. For the rest of my reasoning, I yield my space to Mike Tuggle at Rebellion (emphasis added):

How, then, can concerned patriots hope to bring about real reform? Go where real battles are being fought for the reforms the people demand, and you'll find yourself at the local and State level. The reasons for this are simple. For one thing, DC is too divided politically, with conservative States grappling endlessly with liberal States for mythical "one-size-fits-all" legislation.

Worse, the DC bureaucracy actively opposes the reforms the people of the States so desperately need -- how else can you explain Obama siding with Mexico to oppose the people of Arizona to control the border? State initiatives not only work, they send shudders down the jellied spines of the ruling elite -- and if you don't think so, read the ruling elite's frantic denunciations of State efforts to solve the problems DC won't, and ask yourself why these efforts terrify our rulers.

Here's the entire text of a recent email from a [Rebellion] reader:

How can we get more involved in FREEDOM?
There's no mystery here. If you want to catch fish, you head toward water, not the desert.

Graphic by Mike Tuggle at Rebellion.

SB 5 passes House, awaits Gov. Kasich's signature

Here is the Associated Press's take, from the Washington Post website. The bill's passage was prominent in the national news last night.

The bill passed by a vote of 53-44. Two Republican State Senators who objected to the bill, Timothy Grendell (R-Chesterland) and Bill Seitz (R-Cincinnati) questioned its legality. I have extensively discussed the ramifications of the bill with a teacher in the Support SB5 Facebook page. News reports indicate that, for teachers, the bill will base merit heavily on test scores. This basically is forcing teachers to teach by rote, which only forces facts down children. It does not teach them to think or reason. I am not familiar enough with education to suggest a better way to reward merit in education; but I cannot believe that one does not exist. The teaching profession will be hard-hit by this bill; and I would urge the members of the House-Senate conference committee to weigh these concerns heavily when finalizing the bill for Gov. Kasich's signature.

I have supported SB5, and continue to do so; but I am not satisfied with the result. The purpose of the bill should be to help the State of Ohio contain payroll costs, not to punish certain groups of workers or impose burdens unevenly across state employees. With this in mind, I quote with approval a statement by State Rep. Matt Szollosi (D-Oregon, reported in the Columbus Dispatch): 

These are not numbers on a page or lines on a graph, they are people with families ... and they do not deserve to be slapped in the face and put further into harm's way because liberty groups or tea party groups or whoever is pulling the Republican strings right now have demonized public workers.

From being involved with the Support SB5 Facebook discussion, I can tell you that far too many supporters have demonized public workers. This is just as wrong as the selfishness shown by many of its opponents. Far too few of us (on either side) are even trying to look at this issue rationally.

The unions are expected to call for a referendum in November to repeal this bill. The campaign will be bitter and will divide the state politically in a way that we have not experienced since the Right to Work debate in 1958. Unions may be smaller and less powerful than they were 53 years ago, but they still command a great deal of support.

We can only hope that Gov. Kasich and the Republican leadership in the General Assembly have soberly weighed the advantages of SB5 against what could become a very long, hot summer.

The "kinetic humanitarian liberty action" isn't over, and Libya already has a new central bank

It seems that the Libyan rebels have already created a central bank, from The Economic Collapse blog. They have also started up a new oil company that has already made a deal with Qatar.

Anyone who thinks these two actions will work to benefit anyone other than Wall Street and European bankers needs to wake up and smell the espresso.

"We are so hosed"

That is what a commenter wrote in response to Lee DeCovnick's post in American Thinker. Mr. DeCovnick was musing on the Japanese official estimate of the cost of rebuilding following the recent earthquake and tsunami, which is in the range of $198-$309 billion. Mr. DeCovnick's reaction:

Uh... hold on a minute. Something seems wrong with these numbers.  Do I understand this correctly; all those coastal cities and towns that were leveled, the tens of thousands of cars and homes that were pulverized, all the stores, shops, factories, warehouses, schools, freeways, roads, ships, aircraft, trains, port facilities and infrastructure reduced to rubble and it will only cost as much as US Federal deficit for a couple of months?

Yup. Read the article, see the evidence, and then get angry. Very, very angry. 


Virtual buckeye to Charlie Earl.

Do you think gas prices are too high?

Don't blame the Arabs. Blame the Federal Reserve Bank for inflating our currency over the years. I can prove to you that today's gasoline prices, in real terms, are lower than they were during the Great Depression! Let me walk you through the math:

1. Prior to 1965, the value of the United States dollar was set at 412½ grains (0.7736 troy ounces) of silver .900 fine.*
2. At yesterday's close (Monex), the price of a troy ounce of silver was $37.05.
3. Therefore, by multiplying $37.05 by 0.7736, we find that the silver value of the U.S. dollar is $28.66.
4. The average price for regular unleaded gasoline in Columbus this morning is $3.46 per gallon (calculated by averaging the highest and lowest prices at columbusgasprices.com).
5. By dividing $3.46 by $28.66, we find that the price of gasoline in the silver coin used prior to 1965 is 12.07¢ per gallon.
6. The lowest unadjusted ("nominal") price for regular gasoline (which was leaded in those days) was 17¢ per gallon in 1931 (Department of Energy analysis). 

This suggests two logical conclusions:

1. The wars in Iraq and Libya are simply excuses to waste American lives and materials to support the military-industrial complex at taxpayer expense, and
2. The perceived increase in gasoline prices reflects the inflation that the United States has endured since the Federal Reserve Bank was established in 1914.

This is why we need to "end the Fed," and end the wars. The American people are paying for wars in the Middle East, which when coupled with unreasonable restrictions on oil exploration by American companies, act against our own interest..

* Technically, today's silver bullion coins are at least .999 fine, which means that the old silver dollar of 0.7736 troy ounces should be adjusted for fineness to 0.6969; however this additional calculation is not necessary to establish the point I am making. Following through with this adjustment would yield a gasoline price of 13.4¢ per gallon.

The politics of freedom is like an unfair basketball game

... so says Charlie Earl in littlestuff-minoosha using an apt comparison with March Madness. While I agree that blunt talk is necessary, it need not be uncivil. For example, in my less than humble opinion, there is no excuse for namecalling or personal attacks -- ever. But stating the truth honestly and without regard for whether or not the truth is pleasant is absolutely necessary.

The liberty movement is in the unfortunate position of having to work twice as hard to accomplish half as much. We therefore must maintain a "laser-like" focus on our "goal of restoring our constitutional republic," and as Charlie writes, avoid rancor within the movement.

However, if we are to maintain that laser-like focus, we have to agree on our priorities. If you have not yet commented on my Wednesday post on setting priorities, please do so now.

Is this really the message America wants to send to the world?

If not, we need to tell Congress not to appropriate any money for the Libya operation, and let the Administration face the consequences.

SUPPORT THE TROOPS (and our real national interest) - END THE WARS.

Mood swings

The following appeared in my e-mailed Rotunda Report from Hannah News Service*:

The latest Quinnipiac University Poll shows voters preferring President Barack Obama and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown over unnamed Republican challengers in 2012, but split on whether they approve of the job performances of the president and Ohio's senior senator. 

Oh, wonderful. We just swing back and forth until the branch breaks, right?

When will we learn that both major parties are the cause of our problems, not their solution? Or will we learn at all?

* It is a newsletter with three brief articles about Statehouse issues. Available free from Hannah.

A poet's comment on today's foolishness

One of my favorite hymns, traditionally sung to the Old 124th in the Genevan Psalter. It is based on I Samuel 13:13.

Turn Back, O Man

Turn back, O man
Forswear thy foolish ways
Old now is earth
And none may count her days
Yet thou, her child
Whose head is crowned with flames
Still will not hear
Thine inner God proclaim,
"Turn back, O man
Forswear thy foolish ways."

Earth might be fair
And all men glad and wise
Age after age their tragic empires rise
Built while they dream
And in that dreaming weep
Would man but wake
From out his haunted sleep
Turn back, O man
Forswear thy foolish ways.


Earth shall be fair
And all her people one
Not till that hour
Shall God's whole will be done
Now, even now
Once more from earth to sky
Peels forth in joy
Man's old undaunted cry
Earth shall be fair
And all her people one.*

-- Clifford Bax (1916)

arr. Stephen Schwartz in the soundtrack to Godspell.

* I interpret this as being one in the Spirit, not one nation or of a single mind.

Indiana state senator and state Libertarian Party victimized by e-mail hoax

Update Mar. 24: The Indiana Libertarian Party learned late yesterday that the e-mail purportedly sent by a state senator demanding that the Libertarian Party to keep postings about gay marriage to a minimum was a hoax. The Indiana Libertarian and Republican Parties are co-operating in the investigation. I have removed the e-mail (there being no point to keeping it up), but am retaining my comments at the end.


***

Gay marriage is a political issue for two reasons: (1) because the state decided that it wants to regulate marriage through the issuance of a license, and (2) because our health care benefits are structured around marriage and families. If the government got out of the licensing business (or made it neutral, as in "whatever is is what it is") and we returned to a free market in health care, the issue would go away on its own.

I do not like the idea of gay marriage myself, but I would rather see religious organizations working to persuade people of its immorality, than to have its existence or non-existence dictated by the state.