Originalism and the Draft

I recently bought Ron Paul's "Revolution: A Manifesto" and he made an interesting originalist argument against the draft that I had never heard before.

Article I Section 8 Clause 12 states:
"To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;"

Ron Paul claims that the power to "raise" armies never meant the power to do so forcefully, but only meant the power to pay people to volunteer to be soldiers. I wish I had a 1780's dictionary I could consult, and none of the certified originalists on the Court have addressed this question.

Can anyone verify that raising armies meant only paying people, or that English practice has historically not had a draft?

Destroying the 1st to keep the 2nd down

Mike Bloomberg has an interesting approaching to stopping 2nd Amendment arguments: gag orders not allowing its use as a defense. The case involves a Georgia gun shop being sued by New York City for its gun violence. The owner says his store follows Georgia and federal regulations and takes steps to avoid selling firearms to gun traffickers, but the city has filed a motion disallowing any mention of the 2nd Amendment at all.

However, it looks like the lawyer, following an earlier case. No mention of the Bill of Rights in exchange for no mention of the National Rifle Association. So it looks like freedom of association is being banned as well.

Why you can't soak the rich

The WSJ has a editorial about an interesting calculation from San Francisco investment economist Kurt Hauser (which they suggest calling Hauser's law):

No matter what the tax rates have been, in postwar America tax revenues have remained at about 19.5% of GDP.

The point being that a tax rate hike reduces GDP (which is agreed up by everyone) but it will lower tax revenues. The Journal notes the similarity to the Laffer curve but this seems wholly independent.

Farm bill update

In a sign of how insanely complicated our bills are nowadays, Congress discovered it had forgotten about 34 pages of it when it sent it to the White House. I know it's too hard to expect our politicians to actually read the damn things they are passing but it's seriously pathetic.

Of course, the best line was:

"We will have to repass the whole thing, as will the Senate," said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y. "We can't let the farm bill just die."

Oh, how I disagree with that.

Politician forgets to make himself an out for his new law

It seems that when Richard Mell of Chicago pushed a bill through requiring annual re-registration of all guns, he forgot a little something. So he does the obvious politician thing and proposes a one-month amnesty to get himself compliant. Typical.

"They're not going to miss it"

To fund veterans' benefits, Democrats are proposing a 1/2% income tax increase for incomes above $1 million, but it's ok because "They are not going to miss it."

This reminds me of a poem, but I'll leave the comments for someone else to come up with the exact words if they can.

"For God's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"

There's an interesting interview in German magazine Spiegel with Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati who says to stop the aid. A couple of reasons:

1. Huge corrupt, complacent bureaucracies form around this aid. (both in Africa and among the organizations built to "help" but who ultimately would have to close down if their help were no longer needed).
   
2. Africans are taught to become beggars and not to be independent. African nations should be trading within themselves (which would also be a huge environmental gain as we reduce the impact of huge worldwide shipments).
   
3. Weakening of the local market and reduction in the incentives for entrepreneurship.

One of the biggest problem, as pointed out, is that the item most shipped over is the one thing all Western nations heavily subsidize (and what all Africa actually has a competitive advantage in): food. The other "problem" is AIDS, both the realistic problem and the perverse incentive for those countries to exaggerate the problem so as to keep their biggest "business" working.

Infringe, Infringe, Infringe

Paul Helmke, an anti-gun lobbyist, on the Colbert Report:
"[The 2nd Amendment] is the only amendment that's got the word 'regulate' in it, they must have meant some sort of regulation."

Just for reference, here's the text of the 2nd: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

He's right that the word "regulate" does appear in the amendment, but in context it refers to the people's regulation of a militia, not state regulation of guns. I find it very alarming that he interprets the Constitution one word at a time instead of one sentence at a time.

Some other statements I expect from Hemke in the future:

The 4th Amendment is the only amendment that's got the word "seizure" in it, so they must have supported some people having seizures.

The 1st Amendment is the only amendment that's got the word "grievances" in it, so they must have meant the government should cause grievances.

The 3rd Amendment is the only amendment that's got the word "quartered" in it, so they must have meant some people will be drawn and quartered.

Great Book Titles

I've been thinking that I should start judging books entirely on their covers and their titles. If I do, here are ones at the top of my list:

"Leave Us Alone" by Grover Norquist
"Why Government Doesn't Work" by Harry Browne

Straight to the point, that's how book titles should be.

Buy sugar at 23 cents a pound, Sell it at 2 cents a pound

Where else but the government waste known as the Farm Bill?

[Note: this cartoon is from 2002 when it was only $180 billion. This bill is about $300 billion]

Junk Mail

A recent flyer I got in my mailbox:
"Prop 98 is a landlord scheme to eliminate rent control and unfairly evict you"

They're trying to get rid of rent control? At long last, Milton Friedman lives on.
It gets better, because Prop 98 is also trying to eliminate the use of eminent domain to give land to private parties.

I can't wait to vote for this, it's attacking both rent control and Kelo v. New London.
A tip of the hat to the sponsors of this proposal: Doug Mosebar, Jon Coupal, and Jim Nielsen.

Oh, and a wag of the finger to the following groups who sent that flyer to me:
The AARP, Natural Resources Defense Council, Consumer Federation of California, California Teachers Association, Housing California, and the California League of Conservation Voters.

Global warming is decimating the polar bear population.

Well, you might want to ask the bears about that one, because the bear population now numbers about 24,000 - up about 40 percent from 1974. Still the US Interior Department will decide on Friday whether to list polar bears as a threatened species. And if anyone has seen Penn and Teller's take on the Endangered Species Act, it'll make the list.

Update: made the list. But the Interior department added stipulations mainly so that environmentalist groups cannot use its placement as a way to all-out stop everything under global warming and its effects on the bears.

Also, props to Pacific Legal Foundation who are now suing this additional of a thriving species to the endangered species act.

This image gets funnier every time I see it

Ron Paul Town

A project to create gated communities made up entirely of Ron Paul supporters.
I'm still concerned that it allows for voting on community efforts. Then again, I suppose Ron Paul is a minimalist, not an anarcho-capitalist.
Thanks to volokh.com.

Further gas tax holiday fun

Along with all the economists saying that a decrease in the federal tax is just going to go into the oil companies' pockets, I see that states like Nevada have genius regulations that simply will raise their state gas taxes to offset any reduction in the federal tax. Either by the left hand or the right hand, the government's getting its money.

Knife control

Well, for Scotland, really it's sword control.

Best part is the line from Cathy Jamieson, Justice Minister:

Nobody living in a normal house or flat in an ordinary community needs a sword as part of day-to-day life.

Why does sound familiar?

Note: Coventry's knife possession law, while the Chinese are busy with their "controlled knives."

Hillary Clinton: I'm not listening to economists

A Democrat not listening to economists? What a shock. Of course, Hillary's plan (holiday for the gas tax over the summer) is the same as McCain's.

On the other hand, Obama's windfall profits tax is the same as well. Of course, when the price increase is passed down, the strategy is the same: rebates back. Whenever politicians suggest taxing one group and subsidizing another, we end up hoping to equalize the effect but they get the added votes and bribe money, er, campaign contributions from the other group.

Further note: I couldn't make this up if I tried but now we've got more than two-hundred and thirty economists all saying how stupid the gas tax holiday plan is. I swear, I couldn't get five economists in my class to agree on anything but knowing politics, we'll have a holiday for the summer.

Finals Grammar

I've been repeatedly told that I shouldn't worry about grammar and spelling while writing a final, but a sample answer from a previous year surprised me,

"First, we should still want to strike down stupid laws. The function of takings doctrine is to strike down stupid laws,"

While I fully agree with this statement, I didn't know I could resort to name calling in a final. Had I known this, I would have had a lot more fun in torts.

Why a command economy never works

And just because I love his cartoons, Michael Ramirez has his pulse on the situation:

Well, it seems like the craze over biofuels is finally ending. Hailed as a great idea and with tons of government pushing for more investment, we see insane worldwide inflation, especially for foodstuffs. President Bush asks for $770 million more in world food aid. The new United Nation top adviser on food, Olivier de Schutter, quite simply calls any further investment in biofuels "irresponsible." However, he's much more calmer that the prior guy, Jean Ziegler, who called biofuels "a crime against humanity." Of course, once they killed all investments, we're back to our next problem: there will be a glut in global food prices everywhere and we'll see farmers everywhere starving yet again.

How many times do we need to see that once the government decides that it is going to "help", there is a huge bubble and then a massive self-correcting shock before we stop playing this game? Now it is biofuels, it was housing a decade ago, telecommunications before that (AT&T as a monopoly), the airline industry (just let something die!) and going back in American history, the railroads (leading to the "robber barons" and the need for antitrust regulation).

[Note: to top it off, Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug (leader of the Green Revolution) has a Wall Street Journal OpEd telling the Bush Administration to use actual foreign aid, buying food in Africa for Africans, rather that this disguised domestic aid nonsense the US does]

Divided We Fail

This website has a bunch of ads that keep interrupting me when I'm watching the Colbert Report. For those who haven't seen it, their logo is half elephant and half donkey. I finally decided to visit it, expecting to see compromise solutions to government financing and health care. Instead I saw this. Some of the highlights:

We believe...

Our children and grandchildren should have an adequate quality of life when they retire. Social Security must be strengthened without burdening future generations.

We believe...

Wellness and prevention efforts, including changes in personal behavior such as diet and exercise, should be top national priorities.

So rather than offer some middle solution, such as privatizing parts of social security, or reducing government involvement in health care, their solution is to strengthen social security and then make people diet and exercise?

This probably wouldn't bother me, except that this is a prime example of why I don't like Obama's campaign. Lots of Obama maniac classmates keep telling me about the importance of unity and bipartisan solutions, then they explain proposals that have been around since the Johnson administration.

I don't mind if people come to me and argue for pro-government solutions, but it is annoying when they try to disguise it as a wonderful cooperative solution that both parties should endorse.
I think the same classmates would be equally annoyed if I advertised my plan for the elimination of the FDA as an attempt to "reach across the aisle."

But just in case, I think I'm going to try it. After all, shouldn't Democrats and Republicans believe in eliminating minimum wage? Divided we fail, but together we can do anything.