A Refreshingly Real Politician

I don't agree with all of Gary Johnson's positions or attitudes, but he's a very refreshing candidate and the only one I can currently support. See this GQ article for some details.

Go Industrial - Not Green

Alex Epstein has a good two part post up at MasterResource.org. From part 1:

Consider the plight of the modern industrialist. Whether he wishes to construct a new apartment complex, open a coal mine, site a nuclear power plant, build a new factory, drill for oil, he cannot count on clear, objective laws to protect his right to develop. Instead, he must deal with open-ended environmental laws and near-omnipotent regulatory agencies that can forbid any project that is regarded as insufficiently “green.”

[...]

Industrial progress is not “green.” “Going industrial” requires a commitment to impacting nature as much as necessary to make it more hospitable to human life. And it is no accident that in generations past, Americans viewed industrial progress, not industrial abstention, as an ideal to strive for. Earlier generations took pride in transforming nature—in being a people that “tamed a continent,” that built new factories, that paved new roads, that drilled new wells, that mined the earth for resources. Whole towns would celebrate when a new bridge was built, when a factory was erected. They would proudly drive their automobiles, fly in planes, support new railroads, build new roads—without a shred of guilt over the fate of the two-toed sloth.

From Part 2:

The idea of “environmental impact” is what philosopher Ayn Rand called an “intellectual package-deal.” Such a concept dishonestly packages together two very different things—the impact of development on the human environment and the impact of development on the non-human environment. Industrial development will certainly often harm various non-human environments—but it is a godsend to the human environment. By lumping together concern with the non-human environment (e.g., displacing some caribou to get billions of barrels of the lifeblood of civilization) and the human environment (e.g., air quality), anti-industrialists are able to dupe Americans into thinking that sacrificing to caribou somehow benefits them.

Airline Subsidies

This article provides interesting information on subsidies to small market airports. I've always thought that many small cities wouldn't be as economically attractive absent these types of subsidies.

More importantly though, I think that these types of relatively minor issues offer activists a good opportunity to argue for the proper principles and illustrate them in a very concrete and therefore understandable way. (Not that I think the author of the piece does that.) They also have the distinct plus of affording activists an opportunity to "win", since in a limited issue like this one, one can make one's voice effectively heard and significantly influence the outcome.

Peter Schiff's Take on "Creating Jobs"

Forbes has published Peter Schiff's fantastic congressional testimony. It's a must read! (And let's hope it has some impact on our congressmen.)

Jobs Video

I thought that this video was well done:

Union Thugs Show True Colors

Check out this video to see the Left admit point blank that it has no intellectual arguments to offer, but will instead use any means, including force, to attain power.

Is Gold Gaining Traction as a World Currency?

An interesting development: Swiss first to use gold in securities payments.

Regulation Nation

A good article summarizing some of the regulatory costs on businesses.

Beth Haynes on Rationing

Beth Haynes has a good column out at townhall.com.  I particularly like this explanation, but read the whole thing:

The same people who say the ACA will not ration will also tell you that markets ration through prices. This is an erroneous portrayal of the role of prices in a free market. Free market prices are simply a signal. Prices do not ration any more than a bathroom scale makes you fat or thin. Free market prices reflect the relative scarcity of resources and then allow you to decide how to allocate your own private resources. Free market prices are what people voluntarily pay; government rationing is an act of force. It's a fundamentally different kind of interaction when the government forcibly determines how your resources must be allocated—either by expropriating them first, as in the case of Medicare, or by mandating how you must spend them, as in the case of the individual mandate to purchase health insurance.

9/11 A Decade Later

ARC is hosting a symposium tomorrow entitled: "9/11 A Decade Later - Lessons for the Future".  Here's the event info and livestream link.