Thursday, December 29, 2011
The Straits of Hormuz
Once again this narrow stretch is being used as a threat, so what should we do? I may sound like a broken record, but how about an emergency increase in the imported oil tariff of $50 a barrel? It's a message to oil market to drop its price which then reduces the Iranian threat as well as their treasury. It might even help our treasury and credit rating. I agree with Ron Paul in that going to war over Iran would be idiotic, costly and the end of of our empire. Curiously from the debates a moderate such as Romney appears to want to increase defense spending so that he can strut around like a bully in situation such as this.
The Road to Serfdom
Re-reading Hayek's book and I want to repeat a sentence and then comment.
"But while progress toward what is commonly called "positive" action was necessarily slow, and while for immediate improvement Liberalism had to rely on the gradual increase in wealth which freedom brought about it had to constantly fight proposals which threatened this progress."
1) Liberal in this book is used the way it was meant to be used about a hundred years ago, in other words one hundred and eighty degrees from what is generally understood to be liberal today. Unfortunately many freedom loving individuals may not understand that and misconstrue what a libertarian is just for that reason. In my mind the libertarian manifesto is a few words from Jefferson's hand on the Declaration of Independence declaring "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to be everyone's right.
2) Freedom and free markets create wealth slowly and steadily. You run into trouble when you try to short cut freedom to reach artificial goals. Needless to say our freedoms have been pretty badly cut up since FDR's administration made Washington D. C. a center of federal authority.
3) Ron Paul's life long focus on liberty has built a slow steady brick by brick fortress of a campaign much like the steady economic progress described by Hayek. It doesn't flip flop. It grows when others go out on a limb against liberty and then have to retrench and mend their ways. There is no desperate say anything necessary to get elected about the Paul campaign. The GOP has a revolution on their hands and it looks very much like Goldwater versus Rockefeller.
"But while progress toward what is commonly called "positive" action was necessarily slow, and while for immediate improvement Liberalism had to rely on the gradual increase in wealth which freedom brought about it had to constantly fight proposals which threatened this progress."
1) Liberal in this book is used the way it was meant to be used about a hundred years ago, in other words one hundred and eighty degrees from what is generally understood to be liberal today. Unfortunately many freedom loving individuals may not understand that and misconstrue what a libertarian is just for that reason. In my mind the libertarian manifesto is a few words from Jefferson's hand on the Declaration of Independence declaring "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to be everyone's right.
2) Freedom and free markets create wealth slowly and steadily. You run into trouble when you try to short cut freedom to reach artificial goals. Needless to say our freedoms have been pretty badly cut up since FDR's administration made Washington D. C. a center of federal authority.
3) Ron Paul's life long focus on liberty has built a slow steady brick by brick fortress of a campaign much like the steady economic progress described by Hayek. It doesn't flip flop. It grows when others go out on a limb against liberty and then have to retrench and mend their ways. There is no desperate say anything necessary to get elected about the Paul campaign. The GOP has a revolution on their hands and it looks very much like Goldwater versus Rockefeller.
Ranks of Ron Paul Volunteers
According to today's NYT front page article it appears that Ron Paul has the youth group, reminiscent of the Clean Gene supporters of Senator Gene McCarthy presidential bid in 1968. Another article in the same paper talk of how the Republican candidates are using the social media to promote their message. I don't think the regular members of the GOP understand social media. First its tough to get your message out to the old folks if they are not online and do not know what Face Book is. As I remarked earlier, Ron Paul looks old but has a message that appeals to the young, who happen to be tech and media savvy. Michele Bachman and Rick Santorum look young and attractive but they appeal to a constituency that have to pull out their ear horns and ask, "eh .. what did you say? "
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