Free Republic

Generally speaking, government always grows -- it never shrinks -- whether times are good or bad. In each area it purports to "assist", government attempts to replace individual decision-making with central planning. In order to implement its grand central plans and solidify its power, government must take from one citizen to give to another; this is, in effect, lawful theft. No matter how many times central planning fails, the self-appointed masterminds in government assert that "this time is different" and that with only a few tweaks and more money, their delusional plans will succeed. Because it uses funds confiscated...

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Former President Jimmy Carter said Monday that the income gap in the United States has increased to the point where members of the middle class resemble the Americans who lived in poverty when he occupied the White House. Carter offered his assessment of the nation's economic challenges Monday at a Habitat for Humanity construction site in Oakland - the first of five cities he and wife Rosalynn plan to visit this week to commemorate their three-decade alliance with the international nonprofit that promotes and builds affordable housing. The recent economic downturn revealed that families living in...

We are not a violent society. We are a society sheltered from violence. No one in Rwanda spends time wondering what kind of man would murder people. They probably live next door to him. If your neighborhood is diverse enough, you might be unfortunate enough to live next door to war criminals all the way from Eastern Europe to Africa. Guns are how we misspell evil. Guns are how we avoid talking about the ugly realities of human nature while building sandcastles on the shores of utopia. It's not about the fear of what one motivated maniac can do in...

Last weekend, Denver hosted a Comic Con convention – a gathering of fantasy enthusiasts and an excuse to wear Halloween costumes in the summer (also Captain Kirk was there). 48,000 people attended the convention, and 6,000 had to be turned away because the Colorado Convention Center could not hold them. The convention may have been the most successful two day event in CCC history. Still, the success has nothing to do with the CCC and is actually an indictment of Denver's culture of central planning. Built in 2005, the CCC promised to bring major league conventions to Denver. The old...

The presidential limo is a perfect metaphor for the economy. The people who claim authority have no idea what it runs on. President Obama was due in Israel. So the advance team wheels his non-sequestered limo out of the cargo plane and over to the gas pumps to make sure he has a full tank when he arrives. Apparently there is some concern he might have to make a hasty retreat and won’t have time to fill it up later. Whoever was filling it up didn’t know that it ran on diesel and filled it up with regular. Apparently, they...

Welcome to an America with liberalism in full ascendancy as golfer Phil Mickelson apologizes for doing nothing wrong while the Obama administration lambasts its opponents for justly demanding it apologize for doing plenty wrong on Benghazi. Welcome to a land where the gravest problem threatening the nation is spending, where the Democratic president refuses to cut, where the Democratic Senate lawlessly refuses to pass a budget and where Democrats thwart congressional GOP efforts to enact spending and entitlement reform, yet the public is conned into believing that Republicans are the problem. Welcome to a culture in which the political left...

One lone trustee objected to the institution’s betrayal of Andrew Carnegie. As Lagemann reports, a Cornell professor presented to the board a proposal that it focus, not on building libraries, but on spreading library science, which would lead to “advancing popular intellectual progress” (read: “smartening up the slack-jawed yokels”). The lonely dissenter, trustee James Bertram, argued that if the board consented to this recommendation, it "would contravene Carnegie’s clear and known wish 'to give libraries to communities and [to] leave the communities absolutely free to manage them any way they might see fit.'” Because Bertram spoke the truth, the trustees...

A TED talk by Ernesto Sirolli - 17 minute video. A practical talk on why central planning is always doomed to fail. http://www.wimp.com/helpsomeone/

A Chinese couple have found themselves living in the fast lane after refusing to move out for a new road. Construction workers in the country’s Zhejiang province surrounded their five-story building with asphalt, leaving motorists to navigate an unlikely obstacle. …

“New problems with European Union spending,” headlines Dutch daily, Trouw. A report on the implementation of the 2011 EU budget, published by the European Court of Auditors on November 6, notes spending “errors” of €5.2 billion ($6.6 billion) from a total €130 billion ($165.8 billion), and an increase in unjustified spending, up from 3.7% in the previous year to 3.9%. The unjustified spending was particularly prevalent in the administration of funds for rural development, the environment, fisheries and health. …

The European Commission has announced a new €365 million a year innovation partnership scheme aimed at boosting the development of ‘smart’ technologies in cities, EU officials told the press on Tuesday (10 July). For 2013, €365 million in EU funds have been earmarked for the development of urban technology. The European Innovation Partnership (EIP) will see private business and the EU executive pool research from energy, transport and ICT to develop a limited number of approved projects. Examples of mooted projects included silent electric city buses that use digital technology, satellite technology aimed at improving traffic flow, a smartphone application...

Bloomberg is currently accepting proposals for the apartments, which will be located on E 27th Street and First Avenue in Kips Bay. The apartments would help young professionals find appropriate housing in the city while they start their careers. The craziest thing about these 300-square-foot apartments (which are about the size of half a subway car) is that they will cost around $2,000 a month to rent. Under current zoning laws, all apartments must be at least 400 square feet, but Bloomberg said he plans to change the zoning laws to make the new micro-units legal.

..[SNIP]...The plan is led by a consortium established jointly by the South Florida Regional Planning Council and the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council and is funded by a $4.25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Some 200 public agencies, advocates, business and academic groups are involved, including county and city planners, elected officials, major universities and chambers of commerce. ..[SNIP]..HUD has issued similar grants to 45 U.S. regions in an effort to get more bang for its economic development dollars as federal outlays shrink amid increasing demand. HUD wants to focus its funding on places...

As spring blooms, the president addresses the nation on energy. He tells us, “Without our planning for the future, it will get worse…The oil and natural gas that we rely on for 75 percent of our energy is simply running out.” Unless profound changes are made in the next decade, the president warns, the world will demand more oil than it can produce. He calls for “strict conservation” and switching to “permanent renewable energy sources like solar power.” Because they promise future energy independence, his administration is spending billions of taxpayer dollars on wind, solar and biodiesel, plus offering massive...

Several people have become interested in a quite controversial topic called "AGENDA 21." They have requested being on a ping list for this topic. While I do not have time to do a thorough treatment of this subject, nor am I in any way an expert, I am willing at least for a time,to ping people as I run across articles which might pertain to this concern. It might be good to start with an examination of just what it is or might be. To kick this discussion and exploration off,I did a Google search (just for fun) on "Agenda...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich‘s hobby, he says, is studying “dinosaurs and other fossils.” He openly mourned the death of Knut the polar bear.Gingrich believes it is a “false dichotomy” to group policies according to whether they deal with the country’s economic problems or protect the environment. Instead, he thinks government can incentivize the production of new energy technologies, which would consequently help the environment and the economy by making the country less dependent on foreign oil. And he is not short on ideas of how to do it. “One generation’s science fiction is the next generation’s practical reality,” wrote...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday indicated Congress needs to worry about government jobs more than private-sector jobs, and that this is why Senate Democrats are pushing a bill aimed at shoring up teachers and first-responders. "It's very clear that private-sector jobs have been doing just fine; it's the public-sector jobs where we've lost huge numbers, and that's what this legislation is all about," Reid said on the Senate floor. Reid was responding to recent comments from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who accused Democrats of purposefully pursuing higher taxes as part of the teacher/first-responder bill, S....

President Obama’s war on fossil fuels is adding to instability in a world already racked by international debt, demographic pressures and unpredictable, galloping technological advances. The domestic implications of his policies are increasingly apparent: The closing off of prospecting and drilling is costing tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of jobs. The attempt to choose winners and losers through “green energy” subsidies is producing market distortions, huge losses of taxpayers’ funds and corruption rarely seen since the Soviet Union’s Gosplan. Using executive fiat for arbitrary environmental rulings after Mr. Obama’s “cap and trade” climate plan quietly died in Congress is eroding...

Last week, the Obama administration’s Department of Energy announced it is extending an $852 million loan guarantee to something called the Genesis Solar Project in California. Genesis, according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, will be built on federal land and ultimately employ perhaps 800 people during its construction and 47 people once it is up and running. This would seem to be a lot of money to generate very few jobs at a time when the nation is on the verge of bankruptcy, but the project really isn’t about jobs. It’s the latest in the administration’s attempt to turn us...

Check out Labor Secretary Hilda Solis [she of the solicitude for the rights of illegal immigrants at the expense of American workers] on the CBS Early Show this morning. Solis ticks off a list of industries in which the government will make "investments" because "we know" they will be growing in future years. Kinda like the Obama admin "knew" solar energy was the wave of the future when it "invested" about a half-billion in taxpayer dollars in Solyndra, a company that backed by a major Obama fundraiser. Participating in pure partisan politics, Solis claimed the unemployment rate in Rick Perry's...