Declining property rights

Property rights and property owners are under assault once again.  And the assault weapon is the law.  The Michigan House this week voted 73 – 31 to prohibit business owners (with some regulated exceptions) from allowing smokers in their establishments.  Restaurants and bars are not included in the exceptions.  Seventeen of the 73 were Republicans, the limited government [sic] party.  Included in the seventeen was my own representative, Marty Knollenberg, who on his website tells voters, “If you know of a regulation that interferes with your life or your business, my office will investigate it and look at logical ways to reform it.“

Maybe the first step to reform would be to refrain from adding more laws that restrict an owner’s right to make his own decisions about his property and business.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Economics, Leviathan, Politics

Big Brother is watching you

The BBC reports of the implementation of a national network of cameras and computers being used to log and track automobile license plate numbers. Authorities insist that “innocent people have nothing to fear from the way we use it.”

One innocent man disagrees however:

John Catt found himself on the wrong side of the ANPR system. He regularly attends anti-war demonstrations outside a factory in Brighton, his home town.

It was at one of these protests that Sussex police put a “marker” on his car. That meant he was added to a “hotlist”.

This is a system meant for criminals but John Catt has not been convicted of anything and on a trip to London, the pensioner found himself pulled over by an anti-terror unit.

“I was threatened under the Terrorist Act. I had to answer every question they put to me, and if there were any questions I would refuse to answer, I would be arrested. I thought to myself, what kind of world are we living in?”

Big Brother is active in the states too.  Recently the Chicago Tribune reported of a Wisconsin court ruling allowing Wisconsin police to attach GPS devices to anyone’s vehicle without a warrant.

And locally, Michigan is in the midst of its “Click it or Ticket” and “Buckle Up or Pay Up” campaign.  Extra patrols are out patrolling “enforcement zones” to ensure compliance with seat belt laws.  Make no mistake, they’ll be watching you.  “One officer will serve as a spotter who will radio unbelted motorist information to nearby marked patrol cars or motorcycles that will pull over offending motorists.”  The effort is financed by the federal government.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Leviathan, Police State, Politics

Christian libertarian blog carnival

The Holy Cause has recruited bloggers from around the globe to contribute to the first Christian libertarian blog carnival.  Perfect timing for the unofficial first weekend of summer (in the US).  Take some time this weekend to acquaint yourself with some bloggers who cherish both their faith and their freedom.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Economics, Faith, Liberty, Life

Leviathan knocking at your door?

From Wired we learn that you can’t say “no” to the FCC’s knock at your door.  Based on the Communications Act of 1934 the FCC claims the right to enter your home to inspect any devices that use RF (radio frequency) energy.  Got a wireless router or cordless phone in your house? Refusal “…can carry a harsh financial penalty.”  One expert notes such a scenario is a stretch, an FCC spokesman, however, confirms the claim.  See the FAQ in the FCC Inspection Fact Sheet for the details of your servitude.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Leviathan, Liberty, Police State

Evangelist for Freedom

Wilhelm Röpke was a man whose life and work we all should be familiar with during these days of economic turmoil. With the recent bank interventions and bailouts, government controlled bankruptcies of automotive companies and calls for energy independence, his voice needs to be heard again. Fifty years ago Röpke penned a short memoir, entitled “The Economic Necessity of Freedom”, which outlined the development of his thought over the years. Even fifty years removed, his observations still ring true and he provides wisdom for the challenges of the day.

Born in 1899 in Schwarmstedt, Germany, and a descendant of a long line of devout Lutherans, Röpke came into a world on the brink of disastrous global change. He once described his childhood as an idyllic existence of “confident ease…unimaginable freedom and almost cloudless optimism” and viewed himself as a “…true child of the 19th century, though with one foot in the 20th”. It would all come to an end though during his teens. Serving in the German army during World War I, Röpke received the Iron Cross for bravery. After the war he became an economist and spoke against the economic policies of postwar Germany. Similar to today, “[i]t was a struggle against economic nationalism, the groups that supported it, or the particular strategies it employed – a struggle against monopolies, heavy industry, and large-scale farming interests, against the inexcusable inflation, whose engineers obscured what they were doing with fantastic monetary theories, against the aberrations of the policy of protective tariffs, against the final madness of autarky.” In 1933, he characterized the Nazi rise to power as a “new form of barbarism” which resulted in a self-imposed exile to Turkey and eventually Switzerland. From Switzerland he helped provide the intellectual foundation and encouragement upon which Germany could be rebuilt after World War II.

As with many of his era, Röpke marked 1914 as a turning point globally and personally. Globally, the First World War was the “cataclysm” that shaped the first half of the 20th century. On a personal level, it was the horrors of the war which conceived his life’s mission and directed the studies and labors of his adult life.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Austrian Economics, Economics, Leviathan, Liberty, Röpke, War

“Arbitrary Government Power”

In “What is Seen and What is Not Seen”, Bastiat championed the need to look beyond the immediate effect in order to foresee long term effects of policy decisions.  Todd Zywicki this week lays out some of the foreseeable consequences of the Obama administration’s destruction of bankruptcy law.

By stepping over the bright line between the rule of law and the arbitrary behavior of men, President Obama may have created a thousand new failing businesses. That is, businesses that might have received financing before but that now will not, since lenders face the potential of future government confiscation. In other words, Mr. Obama may have helped save the jobs of thousands of union workers whose dues, in part, engineered his election. But what about the untold number of job losses in the future caused by trampling the sanctity of contracts today?

Filed under: Uncategorized , Bastiat, Economics, Leviathan, Liberty, Politics

Treading or No?

After eating my first helping of crow with the story on Ashton Lundeby last week I wasn’t in the mood for more.  So, as disurbed as I was over the report that a motorist was stopped for displaying a Gadsden flag bumper sticker I didn’t take the bait because I couldn’t confirm or corroborate the report.  Xavier at Nurse With a Gun is having misgivings too and promises to get more details.  Commenter Michael (a retired police officer) is suspicious too, chalking up the possibility to youth, “If it DID happen as written, it was no doubt some young pup who took the homeland security propaganda a little too seriously.”  And Kevin comments that Gadsden flags and more can be had at Gadsden and Culpepper.

Ya gotta love the way Xavier writes: “Do we have to load a dump truck with intelligence and dump it out in the city square to make these people morons?”

Filed under: Uncategorized , Leviathan, Liberty

Dis-honorary Degree

While not addressing the Notre Dame scandal directly, Richard Epstein in “The Deadly Sins of the Chrysler Bankruptcy“, adds to the list of reasons that should disqualify Obama from receiving an honoray law degree from ND. He notes the Chrysler bankruptcy proceedings that have been turned upside down, including “the nonstop political interference of the Obama administration” and the fact that he “twisted the arms of the banks that have received TARP money”,  giving precedence of the unsecured positions of the UAW and union health pension over the secured interest of the bond holders.  Unless Notre Dame’s honorary law degree is one of “might makes right”, then Obama is undeserving as he’s done nothing but thumb his nose at the bankruptcy law in order to salvage the special interests of his supporters.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Economics, Leviathan, Politics, Pro Life

The Holy Cause

The Holy Cause has seen fit to include yours truly in his RSS Reader.  Take some time to see who else is on his list and pay them a visit.  His list of other interesting blogs is, well, interesting too.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Faith, Liberty

Mea Culpa

I goofed.

Yesterday, based on a column by William Grigg and a report by WRAL TV, I said that Ashton Lundeby had been detained under the Patriot Act.  Well, according to the South Bend Tribune and the US Attrorney’s office in the area, that’s not the case.  Rather than rehash the latest, here are William Grigg’s most recent updates – Update 1 and Update 2.

Wired had this story yesterday and then this one today.

Bottom line:  I jumped the gun and jumped to conclusions.  I was wrong.  No excuses.

Filed under: Uncategorized , Leviathan, Liberty, Life