Quick Hitts

Politicians, I know the only thing you like better than fat payouts from your corporate masters is using that money to buy votes. My vote isn’t for sale (although if you offer enough…) but there is an easy way to get my vote. You just have to do one thing.

I don’t care what party you belong to. There isn’t enough difference between the GOP and the Democrats to bother with and you’ve rigged the primaries to insure no other party gets a shot, it doesn’t matter. I’ll vote for anyone who does this one thing, even the Greens. (Although with their deep love of a huge socialist nanny state, I can’t imagine them doing this.)

So here it is: Give us a list of ten federal government agencies you are going to disband. Not reduce, not cut back, but completely get rid of. Revoke whatever laws authorized them, lay off all the “workers”, sell the buildings, auction off the office furniture, send their stationary and endless forms to the recycling center and set fire to everything else.

Remember how everything fell apart when Clinton disbanded the Interstate Commerce Commission? No? That’s because there were no ill effects. Hell, most people didn’t even notice it was dissolved. Unfortunately, that dissolution was an anomaly. What we need is a trend.

I don’t even care which agencies you get rid of. Sure, I have my favorites, but at this point killing any of them, even some of the little ones, would be a good start. Just be sure to kill them completely dead. Mostly dead isn’t good enough. There are too many Miracle Max’s on Uncle Sam’s payroll.

The list’s content is up to you. I’d suggest you put at least a few big agencies on it, like the Dept. of Education, the FCC and the BATF, but if you only go with the little ones to start, that’s fine too. Just present the list, any list, and devote at least half of your time in D.C. to killing them, and you’ve got my vote.

And a few tens of millions of others too.

And fuck you too, Bill Maher.

I have no patience for anti-vaxers. They are directly responsible for killing kids, period. And if you buy into the anit-vax and don’t protect your kids, you are an ignorant, rotten parent. Period.  Don’t waste your time trying to explain yourself – I’ve heard it all.  I’m sure you think you’re a fine caring parent.  You’re not. Your stupidity is putting your kids and countless other kids at risk.  Grow a brain and protect your kids.

Penn & Teller usually take a half hour to explain why something is bullshit, but in this video they cover it all in a minute and a half.

I just received this e-mail from Downsize DC, and thought you’d appreciate it.

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Quote of the Day: “All substances are poisons: there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy.” — Paracelsus (1493-1541)

The baseball pitcher, Roger Clemens, is in the news. He has been charged with the supposed crime of lying to the politicians in Congress about his use of steroids.

* How should we think about this?

* What are the Constitutional issues involved?

To answer these questions we offer you some imaginary testimony — things Roger Clemens could have said to Congress, instead of what he did say.

* You’ve heard of people “pleading the 5th” — invoking the 5th Amendment’s protection against self incrimination, but . . .

* James Wilson argues that Clemens should have “plead the 10th” — invoking the 10th Amendment’s limitation of federal power.

* You’ll see why when you read the imaginary testimony below.

An earlier version of this was published on Thursday, January 10, 2008, when Clemens was first called to testify before Congress. This slightly edited version makes points that are just as relevant now.
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Has anyone ever refused to answer a question from a federal inquisitor on Tenth Amendment grounds? I don’t know, but I’d love to hear it from Roger Clemens when he testifies at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee next month:

“Mr. Chairman, I have read the Constitution and it does not grant you authority to hold a hearing on steroid use. Therefore, I will exercise my rights as an American citizen under the Tenth Amendment, and my natural rights as a human being, by refusing to answer your questions.

“But let me clarify one thing: I do see under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution that Congress has the authority to regulate commerce among the states and with foreign nations. It’s possible that this includes anything that relates to the selling of goods across state lines. I will therefore affirm that . . .

“I do not know how or where steroids are produced or distributed, and even if I may have known someone who sold steroids, I never saw him or her transport them across state lines. Therefore . . .

“To the extent that a Congressional hearing on steroids might conceivably be Constitutionally legitimate, because the steroids may have been produced in one state and sold in another, I do not have any information to help you.

“And to the extent that this hearing is illegitimate because there is no federal power to regulate such substances, I refuse to help you, and instead suggest that you obey the Constitutional limits on your power.

“My non-cooperation does not mean that I endorse performance-enhancing drugs in baseball or anywhere else. Major League Baseball is a private organization, and has the right to ban steroid use, and suspend or fine those who disobey. I can see the merit in this. Young men shouldn’t have to choose between a huge paycheck today and poor health tomorrow. So . . .

“I agree with Major League Baseball’s decision to ban steroids, but your help isn’t needed. Tens of billions of dollars have been squandered on waste, fraud, and abuse in Iraq, yet you insist on holding a hearing on a problem that the private sector is taking care of by itself.

“The Constitution you have sworn to obey gives Congress few and specific powers. Prohibiting individual drug use is not among them. Such things are clearly left to the states and to “the people,” as the Tenth Amendment says.

“If steroid possession or use should be illegal, the states should have laws and enforce them. But better yet, if drugs are so bad, the private sector could provide drugs tests, and indeed much of the private sector, including baseball, already does this. We do not need federal police and federal prisons warehousing thousands of non-violent drug dealers and drug users. The whole War on Drugs, of which the War on Steroids is a part, is a Constitutional travesty.

“I will not defend steroid-dealers, or any other kind of drug-dealer, but if they are bad, you members of this Committee are much worse. At least steroid-dealers serve willing customers, whereas you use threats of violence against the unwilling, as you did when you forced me to appear before you today.

“The federal republic was formed to provide an internal free-trade zone and a common foreign policy for the states. The federal government has the power to arrest and try people in only a few narrow areas, such as treason and counterfeiting. Steroid use may be dangerous. Steroid use may possibly be immoral. But steroid use is none of your business.

“I do not recognize the legitimacy of this hearing. I will now leave.”
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This essay was provided as an educational service by the Downsize DC Foundation.

Here’s a little something to hold you over until the next article.

I came home from running a few errands and saw two police cars and several other vehicles parked in front of my house.  There were quite a few other people standing around, people I recognized, and four cops, two on the sidewalk and two on the stoop next door.  The people were relatives of my next door neighbors, so I knew this had nothing to do with me.  But I was scared, because my dog was outside, fenced in on the porch.

Cops routinely shoot dogs.  They shoot them when entering homes, they shoot them while cutting through yards, they shoot them from a distance, evidently for sport.  My dog Sammy is a Black Lab/Golden Retriever mix.  He’s 110 lbs. of wiggly friendliness.  Whenever he meets someone new he’s so overjoyed and happy he jumps on them so he can lick their face.  I knew if he did that to a cop we’d be burying him in the back yard.

I moved as quickly as I could without arousing suspicion and locked Sammy inside before going back to talk with my neighbors.  There was some strangeness going on next door that isn’t relevant to this article and I never did find out exactly what happened.

My reactions may sound paranoid, but every week I see stories of cops shooting family pets.  Here are just a few examples.

Frank Agazio accidently dialed 911.  A dispatcher called back and he assured them that there was no emergency.  A cop stopped by to verify it, and the family pet, a 35 lb. bulldog, approached him.  The cop immediately shot him.

Like most Siberian Huskies, Bear-Bear was playful and spunky.  His owner, Rachel Rettaliata, took him to a dog park, where dogs are allowed to run and play in a fenced in area.  A police officer, who is bravely hiding his identify in the wake of this story, took his German Sheppard to the same park.  When Bear-Bear started to play with his dog he pulled out his gun and shot Bear-Bear.  In a public park.  Full of dogs and people.

The police immediately declared it was a righteous shooting and closed the case, but have reopened it in the wake of public outcry.  But the cowardly cop has nothing to worry about.  I have never read of an officer being punished for shooting pets.  Never.  (Note: neither dog had any bite or scratch marks.)

Anna White used to be the owner of Tonka.  Tonka was minding her own business in her fenced in yard when a cop, preparing to execute a search warrant, evidently stood outside the fence and gunned her down.   The dog ran inside, jumped on Anna’s bed, and died.  The cops then dumped the body on the floor and ransacked the bedroom, dumping many of Anna’s belongings into the dog’s pooling blood.

Stacy Clark’s home alarm system went off, and cops responded by shooting his dog.  The cop said he didn’t have time to grab his pepper spray, only time to grab his gun.

So when the cops show up should you tell them about the dog, and lock it away for safety?  Marietta Robinson tried that.  When six cops showed up on her doorstep with a warrant for her grandson, she explained he he hadn’t lived there for years.  She agreed to let them in if she could put her 13 year old pug in the bathroom first.  The cops agreed, then opened the bathroom door and shot the dog to death.  They fired at least eight times.  Then they washed the blood off their hands in her water cooler.

These incidents happen often enough that a blog about them would have fresh material every few days.  (I’ll add a blogroll link to anyone who creates one.)  In every case the officer is exonerated.  Sometimes there’s an “investigation,” where the cops pretend to be concerned about it, but most times they don’t even bother with that.

It’s not surprising the cops routinely use the family pooch for target practice.  Hell, they routinely murder people and get away with it, so why should they take even the slightest chance of getting nipped?

This is yet one more reason The Cops Are Not Your Friends.  Not ever.  You should avoid them whenever possible.  If they come to your house and you have a dog, there is a very good chance they will kill it.

It’s disappointing that the ASPCA or the Humane Society hasn’t made this an issue.  (Occasionally PETA will show up, but no one pays attention to those asshats.)  This is such a common occurrence that it should be a national issue for them. This is a public plea to them to put it front and center, where it belongs.

I wish I lived in Tennessee so I could vote for this guy. Who wouldn’t want a guv’neer who wants to get back to the original, three striped ‘merician flag, who will put murdered people in jail and who believes “can’t find innocent car, ya can’t look.”

If we put this guy in office consequences will never be the same.

For those of you encumbered by an understanding of English, this is also available with subtitles.

And here’s his website.  Do not drink anything while you read it, or you will have to buy a new keyboard.

For decades business have been required to inform the IRS if they paid any non-employee more than $600 a year. That’s about to get much more complicated and difficult due to a new clause in the Obamacare bill. Now business will be required to send 1099s to every business they’ve paid more than $600. This is a desperate attempt to tap into the underground economy – the people who work for cash and don’t pay taxes on every cent they earn.

There are plenty of other blogs and articles about how much more this will cost businesses – especially small businesses – so I won’t harp on that. It’s more important to consider how much of the legitimate economy would be lost by shutting down the underground economy.

We can’t tell for sure how much buying and selling happens without Big Brother getting his cut, but around 10-15% would be a reasonable guess. Under-the-table money can’t be banked or invested, so it’s spent directly, and usually quickly, providing an immediate economic benefit. The fact that it’s tax free means there’s more to go back into the community. It creates a huge, positive ripple effect.

We tend to think of the underground economy as being drugs, prostitution and gambling but that’s only a part of it, and probably a minor part. The larger underground economy supports and grows the above ground economy. When a contractor, building your deck, gives you a 20% discount for cash, he’s still buying his supplies from a lumberyard and paying employees (in cash). This law is designed to make that more difficult. If you don’t have that deck built because it costs you 20% more to do it “legitimately,” the contractor loses, his employees lose, the lumberyard loses, and you don’t get to enjoy a deck.

But that’s a one-shot deal. Consider the lasting effects of another huge part of the underground economy – daycare.

Legal daycare costs about $150 a week, per kid. Parents with two kids are likely to figure that $1200 a month makes it unprofitable for both of them to work. That changes dramatically when a neighbor agrees to watch both kids for $100 a week, cash. Now both parents can work full time, paying taxes in the above ground economy. If the neighbor is watching the kids for two other families it results in three full time workers contributing to the economy.

I don’t know if my neighborhood is typical, but several years ago there were at least a half dozen women offering illegal daycare in my smallish village (and that was just the ones I knew about). Figure three additional working adults per babysitter, times six, times, say, $35k a year that the parents were earning, and were talking $630,000 extra in the local economy. These are ass numbers, so lower them if you like and you’re still looking at a significant positive effect. Going after these “criminal” daycare operators would hurt everyone, damage the economy, and help no one. Doing it on a nationwide scale will have devastating effects on the economy.

And that’s just one sector. It happens all over the country, with all kinds of businesses.

Unintended consequences always result in the government causing more damage than it intends to. We can only hope this bill fails its attempt to crush untaxed transactions. If it succeeds, we’re going to see even more economic devastation.