Double Birds

Rick Perry thinks the Bible will fix our economy .  While I think inflation spurred mal-investment has something to do with it, I might agree with him.  If he weren't simply selling Jesus to buy the presidency. You see, Perry belongs to that camp of Christians that supports murdering innocent people in the Middle East.  Saying you want "a Christian nation" while you defend murder doesn't mean much to me.  Other than that you're a hypocrite. Prayers are more effective with a microphone.  And in front of a large audience . (edited by Double Birds) Selling Jesus has paid off for a long time.  In 1999,  W. Bush famously had a "Jesus moment."  When he was asked who his favorite philosopher was, and he said "Jesus."  Rather than losing points for not knowing any other philosophers, Bush gained huge points among evangelical voters. Bush won the presidency, and went on to murder and torture countless innocent people.  I'd say Jesus lost on that

Obama's re-election hopes aren't looking solid.  It's possible that the next president will be a Republican.  If so, Rupert Murdoch will personally select who he wants it to be. This Saturday Ron Paul came within 152 votes of winning the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa.  Michelle Bachmann officially won, and has her face plastered everywhere alongside Romney and Perry, who didn't even participate in the straw poll.  Ron Paul got shafted . There is no Ron Paul.  Repeat: There is no Ron Paul. To put this in perspective, at the '07 Ames , Romney had over 4,500 votes, and the next closest came Huckabee, at 2,500.  This year Paul got 4,600 votes, more than Romney, who won, got last time. Ron Paul nearly won, but if you watched the news reports, you wouldn't even know he was there. Sarah Palin said of the poll : "They’ll cast that vote and if you can bus in enough people and can get enough people enthused enough about your candidacy, they will be there to vote for y

Kyle Dewitt lost his job.  He's 19, engaged, has a baby boy.  He went fishing so his family could eat. Local law enforcement fined him $215 for illegal fishing. That's like 100 bucks per ounce! He couldn't afford to pay it, so they threw him in jail for three days. "Land of the freeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. . ." Reminds me of the medieval law against hunting the king's deer.

I voted for Obama in 2008.  I'll vote for Ron Paul in 2012. There was a time, in 2007, when I thought: Even if Obama doesn't win the election, I'd still be willing to give my time and money to whatever he decides to do next. I was convinced that he was our man.  I knew he was going to change the world.  I knew I wanted to change it with him. Then he became president.  The wars continued.  Guantanamo remained open.  The Patriot Act was renewed and not vetoed.  New wars started. I thought: Didn't we vote Bush out? Then I realized:  Even before Obama disillusioned me with his broken promises, his new wars, his abandonment of the Constitution, he had made me a Libertarian. You see, in 2007, when I decided that I would be willing to support him financially, and by volunteering my time—even if he didn't get elected—that's called freedom, or a free market. A year or two after I voted for him, I no longer wanted to support him.  I did not want to give him my money, or m

1st Amendment be damned .   Michael Moore wants Obama to imprison those pesky critics at S&P who dared suggest that the U.S. might not have the best credit score . "Kill the rich, and Utopia will follow!" —Michael Moore (edited by Double Birds) Truth be damned .  Politicians should be able to spend all they want, whether they have the means or not.  If they lack money, their buddies at the Federal Reserve can just print it.  How can they not pay their debts with that kind of power? Unfortunately, you can't give something you don't have.  Money is not wealth, nor is it magic unicorn piss that we can sprinkle on all our problems to make them go away.  Printing money and throwing it at our debts will merely make our creditors angrier, as the inflated money we give them becomes worthless in their hands. Moore seems to think the economy has a joystick that the rich can jerk around to make it do what they want.  Unfortunately, it's a bit more complicated than t

From the Mises Blog

Jack Balkin, A Yale law professor,  suggested that the Treasury mint two $1,000,000,000,000 coins , and toss those coins at the national debt to make it go away. Apparently you can believe  King Midas  exists and still teach at Yale. All of us want money, but most of us don't understand how it works. Money is basically an IOU.  It is evidence that you have done something for someone.  If you have it, it proves that you are a helpful member of society.  And you can pass it on to other people who do something for you. You can't give something you don't have. Most of us get money every two weeks in the form of a paycheck.  It is proof that we have worked forty hours a week for our employer.  It's a certificate of performance . How did your employer get that money?  The same way you did.  He traded goods or services with someone else, in exchange for these certificates of performance. If we keep tracing money to its source, we find an almost endless trail of people helpi

News Fail From Drudge Report (Edited by Double Birds) Several fails here. First: Geithner sucks at economics, which is bad since that's his job. Second: Most Americans aren't paying attention while Federal Reserve bankers screw us .  9 million are staring at tan boobs, while who knows how many are rolling on the floor and frothing at the mouth in anticipation of the rapture. Ron Paul correctly predicted  congress will create economic hard-times  back in 2008.  Win.

For all of you who have rolled your eyes when I've said that roads should be privatized, consider this: Have you ever been pulled over for speeding?  When the guy with a gun fined you a hundred bucks for going too fast, did it ever seem odd?  What if Costco started tazing , fining, and imprisoning people who drove their shopping carts too fast down the aisles?  Wouldn't you think it odd if a Costco teller pulled a gun on you, and told you to get your ni**er a**  down on the floor, if you, say, were  paralyzed , or black ? 72-year-old woman tased. Respect the elderly, or respect my authoritah ? Why don't we think it odd when it happens on our roads?  Americans are apt to forget that highways were built to prevent popular uprisings .  That speed limits were put in place to force gas rationing .  And public schools never teach that roads are monopolies. Recently, an  Eastern European mayor has used a tank to run over the vehicles of his own constituents , and people are ch

Reinvent the road. Win $75 of luxury artisan chocolate . People scoff at me when I say we should privatize roads.   Help me prove these road socialists wrong by inventing the best road this world has ever seen . Submit your road idea to: roadidea@doublebirds.net Deadline: October 1st, 2011.  Format: A picture with a description.  (Pictures can be made in any way, from crayon to photoshop.  Short, imaginative descriptions preferred). Selected ideas will be displayed at doublebirds.net for a public vote. The winner will get $75 worth of Amano chocolate .* I've already thought of the following ideas.  But you might win if you can do them better (not difficult): Bikes have own roads, cars have own roads, semis have own roads. Jet Packs Robot Horses (cars that poop) No Speed Limit.  Only dangerous driving is illegal and . . . Zip lines from hot air balloons and Water slides instead of roads * I reserve the right to extend contest deadline, and make alterations to the contes

Matt Damon thinks teachers should have tenure.  The same website ( boingboing ) that portrayed his statement as heroic , had another article on how public schools in Missouri were banning books  ( Slaugherhouse-Five ).  On the same page, posted on the same day! Just give them more effin money! (Edited by Double Birds) Boingboing has a whole list of school shenanigans , that make our education system look like a bad episode of the Twilight Zone. We all want to fix education.  But money is not the only problem. The root of the problem is politics.  If a politician thinks he can score re-election points by busing inner-city kids to the suburbs , and rural kids to the cities, he'll do it.  If he thinks he can score points by banning Kurt Vonnegut, or expunging Mark Twain , or dumbing down F. Scott Fitzgerald , he'll do it. Why is a politician getting involved in the first place?  Why is it his business how my kid is raised?  Isn't that something parents can work out with tea

Some small thoughts on Braveheart and The Smurfs . One wants freedom, the other wants his mom to do his laundry. (Edited by Double Birds) At FilmEcon .