First Principles

Well, no big surprises.  He made the same promises that he made a year ago, and the only difference is that now we can be even more sure he won’t keep any of them.
The big takeaway from me on this was just how unserious this speech was. 

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I just got home from Reno’s Tea Party, and it was great fun.  What better way to spend America’s Birthday than to talk and think and debate and celebrate the founding ideas of the United States!
There was certainly anger in evidence, and rightfully so.  But that was a small undercurrent in what (to my great [...]

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What do you call it when a gift is forced on you, “for your own good” as well as the good of your family and neighbors? And then what happens when you try to give that gift back, and aren’t allowed to? What happens when the response to the attempt to give that [...]

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The debate over the economic stimulus package gets dumber and dumber.  No one knows how this package will actually “stimulate” the economy.  No one even really knows what that means.  At least, no one in Congress or in the White House.
And so in their ignorance, they seize on the only direct metric they can dimly [...]

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Who would have thought that a socialized medicine program would result in free riders, reduce the quality of care, and break the bank to boot?!?  Hawaii just got done learning the hard way:
Gov. Linda Lingle’s administration cited budget shortfalls and other available health care options for eliminating funding for the program. A state official said families [...]

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Our message to Wall Street is this: the party is over. The era of golden parachutes for high-flying Wall Street operators is over. No longer will the U.S. taxpayer bailout the recklessness of Wall Street.
Said Nancy Pelosi, right before she voted to force the U.S. taxpayer to bailout the recklessness of Wall Street.  Fortunately, she [...]

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Imagine if you inherited a business that couldn’t fail.
Not just that you had a solid business model, but that you were backed by an inexhaustible trust fund which guaranteed you would never to go out of business.  No matter what you did, no matter who you hired, no matter how poorly you managed your books, [...]

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Today I had to go get my car smog checked.  It’s an annual requirement here in Nevada before you can get your license plates renewed, and considering the temperature inversions that can keep a lot of choking pollution at ground level here in the Truckee Meadows, I think it’s not a bad one.  Your individual [...]

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