Taxes help growth?

Maybe I was asleep during this part in my economics classes but when did increasing taxes on our most successful people help out the entire nation? One of the biggest reasons people start their own business is to make money and have a better life for themselves. If the rich have to pay more for being more productive then they will be less productive in order to avoid paying the high taxes. When those who create the jobs choose to be less productive because of high taxes it usually leads to lay offs and passing those costs back onto the consumer. Not only does it put more people out of work but consumer goods become hard to buy when the prices are jacked up.

Why must Obama and his cohorts punish success? He current excuse is
that he has to help those who are feeling great pain by the current
economic climate. Some people think he is just stupid and doesn't know the basics about economics. Personally I don't, the main basis of liberal economic policies is that the private sector can't be trusted or at the very least the private sector can't help the public enough. Their polices seek to hinder the private sector so much that eventually people realize that it's more of a pain to run a business than it's worth. When jobs in the private sector dry up then the government steps in whether it be local, state or federal. When the government creates jobs it creates more of a burden for the tax payer. Since it is the tax payer that pays the wages of civil servants regardless of position. People tend to take civil service jobs when the economy is tight because it's guaranteed work. While I have no problem with civil service, hey it's a job my main problem is that people become entrenched with these jobs and won't find a job in the private sector. Civil service jobs were designed for those who can't find work (disabled, elderly, etc) in the private sector not for those who won't find work elsewhere. When you depend on the government for work your less likely to criticize it's policies and it's actions. Becoming dependent on the government in my opinion is a bigger threat to freedom in this country than anything Bin Laden can throw at us. I would like to be proven wrong that Obama doesn't seek to create a populace dependent on the government but I don't see that happening any time soon.

Dobson no longer leader of Focus on Family

It has been reported that Christian Theocrat James Dobson has resigned as chairman of Focus on the Family. Focus on the Family's modus operandi since its founding thirty years ago has been to support religious and socially conservative politicians who will legislate morality to the public. From the articles I have read this really doesn't signal much other one fundamentalist steps down and another one will take his place.

News from the Drug War Front

With the current state of the economy most other issues have taken a back seat in the minds of most Americans. One issue that does tie into the economy would be the drug war. In the past many have proved that the Drug War has been nothing but a toilette for tax payer funds to be flushed down. While it doesn't seem that the national policy will be changing anytime soon with the Obama Administration there can be work done on the local level. I was contacted earlier today by a man who was in a Ron Paul meet up group I joined up with during the election season. He was interested in building a joint Libertarian-Conservative coalition in order to get cannabis in all it's forms decriminalized in the state of New York. We in New York still have that draconian Rockefeller Drug laws which can be explained here in the wiki article. Governor Patterson has said publicly that the Rockefeller Drug laws have been nothing but a failure but has yet to make any statements or actions beyond that. It seems that the good Governor will need a push in order to take action on these laws. I intend to join this organization in order to give my Governor the push that he needs. Although this is a group intended to reform laws in New York state, outside help is always welcome.

Citizens Against Marijuana Prohibition

Small but important victory against censorship

While that clusterfuck the Fairness Doctrine is still being whispered about in Washington another medium had gained a decent victory yesterday. Yesterday the Ninth District appeals court had ruled the video games are also protected by the First Amendment. The Gaming industry has been attack by big government liberals, social and religious conservatives for years. Sadly like clockwork they attack them after some horrible school shooting. It's always the same strawman arguments too; 1. Makes children violent, 2. De-sensitizes them to violence and so on. For people that actually think these arguments don't work and studies have proved many of these arguments false. In reality in all the evils that video games supposedly cause (along with the rest of the entertainment industry for that matter) all boils down to parenting. Parents are responsible for what their kids are exposed to day in and day out. Last time I checked it wasn't my job to keep an eye on my neighbor's kid. Of course these days it's easier to go after those who have deep pockets and squeeze cold hard cash out of them because of the supposed psychological damage that their product cause their child. Just like guns don't kill people, people kill people video games don't make kids go insane, kids go insane.

Here is the PDF of the ruling

http://www.videogamevoters.org/resources/CA_9th_Ruling.pdf

Utah Governor Huntsman supporting Civil Unions

While it's always refreshing to see a Republican taking a stance against the religious/social conservative base this one is especially interesting. Governor Huntsman is a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints aka the modern day Mormon church. Those who remember the LDS church and it's members were overwhelmingly supporting Proposition 8 in California. Proposition 8 was designed to reinstate the ban on same sex marriages that the Californian Supreme Court overturned back in late summer time. As most people know Proposition 8 did pass in November although there are current challenges to it's legality of being on the ballot in the first place.

One can look at Huntsman change of heart in a few different ways. One can dismiss this as just hot air for the following reasons. In the very conservative state of Utah the chances of even a civil union bill being passed through the state legislator is very small. Rumors float the Huntsman might make a run for President in 2012 and is just pandering. The last reason would be that Huntsman can't legally run for a third term so taking a side on a issue that many religious and social conservatives oppose wouldn't matter to him politically. These are pretty good reasons to believe that Huntsman doesn't believe what he says. I don't blame them either, especially how this does smell of a Mit Romney redux move. Romney was Governor of Massachusetts when gay marriage became legal in that state. He took a lot of flak for it when he campaigned for President this past cycle. Low and behold as soon as he started to campaign for the Presidency his views on gay marriage changed in split seconds. If Romney didn't pull that flip flop along with a whole host of others I probably would've voted for him instead of Ron Paul but whatever. Personally I'm going to take a wait in see attitude to Huntsman. Huntsman does bring alot to the table economically wise and does have presidential material written on him but only time will tell.