Category Archives: Commentary

Primarily links to other sites but with a bit of commentary on my part.

Minimum Wage: An Historical Viewpoint, Part 1

Adkins minimum wage decision

Metropolitan Hospital Infirmary Ward, 1900
Image located at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/capitalism/landmark_adkins.html

If you have spent much time reading my blog you will know that I have written quite a bit about the immorality of minimum wage laws. Such laws insert government force into what would otherwise be voluntary, mutually beneficial arrangements. Because such laws are immoral and violate the rights of both workers and employers, the results they produce are harmful to everyone, especially those they are intended to help, the young and unskilled. As I wrote in 2013:

A 2011 read more

[Video] The Jihadist Movement – Elan Journo

Elan Journo - The Jihadist MovementAt the 2015 Summer Objectivist Conference Elan Journo, author of Winning the Unwinnable War, presented a talk on the jihadist movement. While he touches on the material strength and successes they have had, e.g. attacks in Paris, Copenhagen and Garland as well as the spread of ISIS, the main emphasis was on what provides the moral strength of the movement. As he states early in the talk:

But more significant than all those material gains and measures of its strength is the moral strength. read more

Another Day, Another Smear

any rand on sexSalon.com is at it again. They recently posted an article by Amanda Marcotte, “Sad, Sexless, lonely: This is the real Paul Ryan/Ayn Rand vision for your life,” in which the author attempts to smear Ayn Rand by arbitrarily claiming, with just two mentions of her name, that Ayn Rand and Paul Ryan share the same world view and then proceeding to read more

House Votes to Lift Oil-Export Ban

House votes to lift oil export ban.The House voted to lift the 40-year-old ban on oil exports, giving the oil industry one of its top congressional priorities, but fueling a clash with the president.

Source: House Votes to Lift Oil-Export Ban

I was pleased to have the news that the House had voted 261-159 to lift the ban on oil exports pop up on my smart watch today. Even with the maritime provisions, this appears to be legislation that will increase free trade in oil. The ban was ill-advised when it was first passed in the read more

Another Reason Why I Don’t Always Sleep at Night

S.O.S Venezuela

Image from http://www.latintimes.com/nicolas-maduro-doesnt-know-what-sos-means-calls-cnn-fascist-new-viral-video-154108

All U.S. direct-hire personnel and their family members who are assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Caracas are required to take an armored vehicle when traveling to and from the Maiquetia Airport

I believe I have mentioned in the past that my wife currently still lives in Venezuela, though that will hopefully be changing next year. Given that, the situation in Venezuela is something I pay closer attention to than I might otherwise. From the time we first met, Venezuela has not been the safest place read more

Statists Make Life Less Worth Living

One way that statists make life less enjoyable.

Results from tests with proposed lower water use for

Economist Dan Mitchell has a great post over at his blog today titled “The Regulatory State’s War Against Modern Life.” In it he discusses a variety of ways in which the regulatory state negatively impacts the everyday life of ordinary people. He says:

Lots of ordinary citizens, for instance, are irked that they’re now forced to use inferior light bulbs, substandard toilets, and inadequate washing machines because of regulatory silliness from Washington.

The latest instance of read more

Pursuing Other Values For Awhile

As you may have noticed, my posting frequency has dropped quite a bit over the last month. My goal this year has been to get onto a schedule of posting something every other day or so, which is pretty challenging for me.

However, last month my wife arrived from Venezuela so time that I might have spent working on the blog has been spent with her. We haven’t completed our immigration paperwork yet, we hope next year, so she is only able to come for brief periods each year, and I have to take read more

FCC Attempting To Extort $100 Million From AT&T

Extort AT&TI had seen the reports on the FCC’s decision to levy a record $100 million fine against AT&T for allegedly slowing data speeds on their unlimited data plans, which no longer exist. I do not know whether AT&T is guilty of this claim, the company claims it is innocent, but I do know it is not the job of the government to fine them over a contract dispute.

The proper course of action would be for AT&T’s customers to file a class action lawsuit against the company. This read more

Environmentalists’ Anti-Human Bias

solar farm

image source vtdigger.org

As I wrote in my last post, on May 15, there were two stories on the WCAX news that jumped out at me. In that post, I wrote about the first, the story about the bottled water ban on the UVM campus. The second was a story about the debate over so-called green or renewable energy leading up to a vote on an energy bill in the Vermont Senate.

I have written a few times about Vermont’s crazy energy policy. read more

When Statist Goals Collide, the Individual Always Loses

statist goal: ban water bottlesWhile watching the WCAX news broadcast last night, May 15,  two stories leaped off the screen and grabbed my attention.  One dealt with an effort to “preserve the environment” by reducing the number of plastic bottles being thrown away and the other dealt with issues around so-called renewable or green energy. They both show the lunacy of environmentalists here in Vermont.

Environmentalism trumps both “Public Health” and Individual Choice

Just over 3 years ago the University of Vermont decided to ban the sale of bottled water on campus starting read more