RedStateEclectic

An Economics Laugh Fest

Those are words you don't see together very much, that's for sure. 

Half of me is embarrassed to admit that I found the video below absolutely hysterical, but the other half of me feels lucky because thanks to the 2008 election cycle, I know I'm not the only one.

A little background:  the author he's poking fun at is the same guy who wrote an op-ed in the New York Times making a case for negative interest rates as a method of discouraging people from saving money.

Haggis

No further words, simply enjoy:

Running The Appalachian Trail

Ladies and Gentlemen - I sadly present our latest American euphemism.

But as we all know, we walk before we run and according to AP, Governor Sanford is no exception.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford says he "crossed lines" with a handful of women other than his mistress — but never had sex with them.

He says that during the other encounters he "let his guard down" with some physical contact but "didn't cross the sex line." He wouldn't go into detail.

Well, thank heavens for that.  But this next line is very telling:

During an emotional interview at his Statehouse office with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Sanford said Chapur is his soul mate but he's trying to fall back in love with his wife.

Somebody, please make him stop talking. 

Connecting the Dots

What a world.

Noncensus

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Noncensus
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Mark Sanford

The Duty of Congress

Glenn Greenwald has a short piece up today reflecting on the bullying that is apparently the style of the White House towards Democrats in Congress that would dare to oppose them.

This has become an emerging theme among both the White House and House leadership:  that progressive membe ers of Congress have an obligation to carry out "the wishes of the President" even when they disagree (now, apparently, it's "stunning" when they defy his dictates).  That was the same subservient mentality that led House Democrats who admitted they opposed the war supplemental spending and/or the foreign bank bailout to nonetheless vote for the bill:  because they President favored it.  The duty of Congress is not to obey the wishes of the President. 

We would be in far better shape today—and perhaps Republicans wouldn’t have lost so dramatically in 2006 and 2008—had Republicans who controlled Congress recognized that simple fact before they bowed to the wishes of the Bush Administration.

LLE

Question About Land Rights

Ben Cooper in FlickrCentral (a group I moderate) asks: "How do you feel about land rights? Here in Scotland, land is treated quite a bit like your views on intellectual property - there is a general right to roam over any open land, no matter who it belongs to, as long as you do no harm."

I subscribe to the homesteading theory of property (a nuanced and extremely libertarian-minded version of it). Merely claiming something is yours does not grant you ownership. It is through use of the land and actually producing value out of it is the true legitimate claim of ownership. Note that I never said anything about comparative value of the use, which is the argument a lot of corporations and governments use when invoking eminent domain land-grabs.

For example, a rich guy with undeveloped property who has done nothing to it and has effectively abandoned it versus the squatter who builds a house on it. I would say that the squatter, through the manipulation of the scarce resource (land), that is the true and ethical owner. Mere possession does grant ownership or else there will not be an ethical argument against the use of force to claim ownership if possession is the only requirement.

In Ben's example, the passerby would be temporary homesteaders. They are making use of the wasted space by traversing across it and are within their rights as they are effectively the owner of the path they are walking on.

What do you think?

Suggested reading:

1. Jeffrey Tucker and Manuel Lora "Homesteading for Fun and Survival" http://mises.org/story/2106

2. Stephan Kinsella (my favorite libertarian writer) "Thoughts on the Latecomer and Homesteading Ideas; or, why the very idea of "ownership" implies that only libertarian principles are justifiable" http://blog.mises.org/archives/006992.asp

Why Did We Leave Europe, Again?

Apparently we need to be more like them, according the Democrat's step-daughter, Meghan McCain.

France—home of my absolute favorite foreign first lady, Carla Bruni—perfected the laissez-faire attitude toward the sex lives of its public leaders.

Not here. We hold our politicians to impossible standards. We elect them, put our hopes and dreams for a brighter future on that one person, and then expect sainthood. Republicans—and Democrats—should forgive these private sins and move on. Life happens.

So being faithful to a spouse is simply an impossible standard in Meghan's world. Heh.

Every time she opens her mouth, she insists that the GOP needs to be more like the Democrats to win elections.  Here she's telling us just give up on morality, and elect politicians who give us good hopes and dreams.

She's her father's daughter, that's for sure. 

The Voice of Sanity and Consistency

Red Tide