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CAP-AND-TAX: Tell Your Senator to “Vote No!”

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You absolutely need to CONTACT YOUR SENATOR and tell them to “Vote ‘NO’ on the “America’s Clean Energy and Security Act,” (Waxman-Markey bill; H.R. 2454)! This is the largest tax increase in American history, and it will drive up the cost of every single product and service you buy!

Glenn Beck: Stimulating the Stimulus

Check this out: Beck Talks, Episode 16

You’ll want to, at least, watch “Episode 16: Stimulating the Stimulus,” wherein Glenn Beck discusses the dishonesty surrounding the Obama administration’s progressive power-grab using government “stimuli.”

I Miss Mr. Rogers

You know, I’m given to wonder why Michael Jackson and Fred Rogers never really became close friends. It seems that Mr. Rogers was saying the things – at least on his television program – that Michael Jackson most needed to hear.

In an age where cynicism and debauchery reign with unmitigated tyranny, a message of sincere acceptance, compassion, kindness and hope without ulterior commercial or political motives is rare and priceless… and that’s what Mr. Rogers brought to so many people through his television program.

Mr. Rogers, I miss you.

- Noel

Full D7 Demo Video: Plastic Logic | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD

PlasticLogic CEO Richard Archuleta and Product Manager Anusha Nirmalananthan demonstrate the form factor that enables the Plastic Logic eReader to do what it does better than any other eReader.

Full D7 Demo Video: Plastic Logic | Kara Swisher | BoomTown | AllThingsD.

Click the above link to check out the Plastic Logic eReader’s recent UI demonstration. It’s awesome!

Ireland More Free than the United States

According to the State of World Liberty Project, Ireland is more free, over-all, than the United States. Isn’t it ironic that so many of our ancestors came to the United States for a chance to obtain more freedom and opportunity for themselves and their families, and, now, generations later, Ireland has surpassed the United States in its ability to offer liberty and opportunities to its citizens?

For information on the methodology used to generate a global index combining economic freedom and personal freedom, please visit the State of World Liberty Project’s website.

Incidentally, the most free country in the world, according to the State of World Liberty Project is Estonia… a country formerly occupied by the Soviet Union.

Over the 30,000 Mark

By Noel Bagwell
July 6, 2009

I’m pleased to announce that, this past weekend – the weekend of July 4^th, 2009 – noelbagwell.com passed the 30,000 hits mark. Thank you to all our readers for making this blog such a success!

Federalism and Socialized Healthcare

By Noel Bagwell
July 6, 2009

So, there’s a huge push, by the federal government, to socialize healthcare in the U.S. No surprise, there. Prominent Democrats have been trying to increase the amount of socialized healthcare in the U.S. for ages (remember Hillary-care?). But there is one aspect of the “debate” (read: propaganda) that nobody is really thinking about – the impact it will have on States’ rights.

The question we don’t seem to be asking ourselves is: should people in Wyoming (or any other state) pay for, for example, Californians’ health care? Why should we be considering giving the federal government more power to control health care on a national level? If the people of a state want socialized medicine, that’s fine; they should get it – but, I would contend, they should not get it over the objections of the people of another state, if their taxes are underwriting the costs.

If, for example, people from Maryland think that socialized healthcare is a good thing, they should vote on it, and they should get it, if it passes in that state. If, however, people from, for example, Tennessee, vote against socializing healthcare in Tennessee, Tennesseans should, under no circumstances, be required to pay for the costs of socialized healthcare in Maryland.

By socializing health care on the state level, we guard the economic liberties and financial freedoms of those states who do not need or want socialized health care, while still providing health care for those who we, as a people, decide want and need it. There is no reason to shove socialized medicine down the throats of the American people on a national level.

Another interesting product of this would probably be the expansion of business and creation of new jobs in parts of the country that haven’t had much access to certain kinds of industry, before. As employers leave states with unreasonable healthcare policies, they will go to states with better healthcare policies, according to Coasian economic principles. If, for example, California completely socializes medicine, and it has a substantially negative effect on the Californian economy and Californian businesses, people (and businesses) will relocate to states without socialized medicine.

I believe we would, of course, need legislation that would prevent people from one state from being able to use their state health insurance coverage for non-emergency medical services or procedures in other states. If, for example, Maryland were to socialize healthcare in that state, citizens of the state of Maryland with the state healthcare plan should not be able to use their state healthcare plan to cover non-emergency medical services or procedures in other states. This would, essentially, “keep honest” those people who would try to get cheap coverage on a taxpayer-funded state plan in one state, and better healthcare in another state that does not have socialized healthcare.

This would allow people to witness up close and personal the effects that socializing healthcare would have in the United States. This arrogant notion that, because we are America, we can make socialized healthcare work in this country, when it has led to shortages, rationing and other symptoms of failure in other countries (like Canada and the U.K., just to name a couple), needs to be exposed for the foolishness it is. This “social experiment” is, therefore, required, in my humble opinion, to illustrate in stark detail the necessity of avoiding nationalized, socialized healthcare.

Fred Hiatt – Obama Needs Long-Term Plan for Deficit

Fred Hiatt – Obama Needs Long-Term Plan for Deficit – washingtonpost.com.

The bottom line is this: You cannot run a progressive government of the kind Obama favors by collecting only 18 percent of the gross domestic product in taxes, which has been the norm over the past 40 years. Nor can you increase the tax take to 24.5 percent of GDP — which is what Obama proposes to be spending in 2019 — simply by making the rich pay more.

But rather than level with the American people about this, or lay out a plan to raise the needed taxes, the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress are putting the spending pieces of progressive government in place and apparently counting on the tax piece to fall into place later.

- Fred Hiatt

LIBERALS ALREADY CALLING FOR AN END TO PRESIDENTIAL TERM LIMITS || BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT FOR LIFE?!

By Noel Bagwell
July 1, 2009

FROM No More Second-Term Blues – New York Times:

“Hasn’t the time come for Congress and the voters to revoke an authoritarian, barely considered amendment? Republicans, who revere “original intent” in interpreting the Constitution and who applaud the rise of the conservative movement, should welcome the possibility of a three- or four-term Republican president, thus avoiding ’second termitis.’”

This, my friends, is terrifying.

Malcolm Gladwell reviews Free by Chris Anderson: Books: The New Yorker

Malcolm Gladwell reviews Free by Chris Anderson: Books: The New Yorker.

This article is potent and insightful. I think a strong does of Coasian macroeconomic theory would do Mr. Gladwell good, but he’s a bestselling author, and I’m not, yet, so who am I to judge? At any rate, it’s worth a read.

Michael Jackson vs. Madonna