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This is about the best take on the Tea Party participants (as opposed to the “leaders”) that I have read so far. Beyond their fiscally conservative principles, the ideology of the people involved in the tea party movement tends to vary dramatically. So far, tea party activists “haven’t been interested in politics,” Fitton said. Which…

Camden, New Jersey has a problem. For nine months last year, Ron Mills was locked in the Camden County Jail. For nine months he held firm to his story that the drugs he was charged with possessing didn’t exist. Last month Mills’ story was validated when a former Camden police officer admitted in federal court…

As it’s Monday, and I got all politicked out over the weekend, I thought I would take a brief break from writing about politics. Perhaps I am being naughty, but earlier I received a very nice email from a reader who was actually inspired by a series of posts about my adventures in rice cooker…

I wouldn’t normally have written a blog post about something as mundane as going to the post office to mail an overnight letter (something that it turned out can no longer be done), but no sooner did I return from my mini-adventure than I saw that the GAO is warning that the Postal Service is…

Yesterday I drove to Lansing, Michigan for the Tea Party Express rally in front of the State Capitol building. While I’m no estimator, it was a good-sized crowd, and I read that there were thousands of people at the earlier rally in Grand Rapids. That may explain why the event started an hour or so…

I’ve been mulling over the rather bizarre (and amazingly tardy) claim by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka that he “witnessed” the N-word being shouted by Tea Partiers at black congressmen. I share Dan Riehl’s skepticism: It seems curious to me that he made no such claim in a released statement dated March 25th that specially cites…

I’ve been reading about a rash of fires started by arsonists in Flint, Michigan. There have been so so many fires in recent weeks that it’s hard to give an exact count. But what I find especially ominous are local news reports quoting Flint officials as saying the arson was committed for political purposes, apparently…

While I like to be thorough, today is a busy day for me, so I absolutely will not have time to deal with the issues raised here by one of Glenn Reynolds’ readers: Anyhow, was just wondering if you could please mention at some point in the next few months how very pleased you have…

First they said that cows caused global warming. I dutifully repeated their claim until I was blue in the face. But now they’re saying that cows don’t cause global warming after all! Livestock could actually be good for the environment according to a new study that found grazing cows or sheep can cut emissions of…

Remember when taking candy from a baby was a cruel thing to do? When I Googled that phrase from yesteryear, this was the first picture that came up: The photographer of the above aside, what sort of cruel person would take candy from a baby? I remember when that was a stereotype of the evil…

H/T Diogenes via e-mail and The Sniper who created them and has more. And who for the price of viewing this picture here insists that you give him a visit. It would be the honorable thing to do. Cross Posted at Power and Control

I had something to say about all this yesterday. F. A. Hayek had something to say about it in 1944: The Road to Serfdom H/T Diogenes via e-mail Cross Posted at Power and Control

The trap is simple: some really smart managers with really good tools can greatly reduce the “waste” of the system to the profit of all. That is the essence of communism, socialism, fascism and every kind of despotism known to man. And don’t forget envy. i.e. “Share the wealth” F. A. Hayek in his nobel…

More Rockford Tea Party pictures I don’t know who the above gentleman is (I think he is a candidate for office in Illinois – my mate took the picture) but he was speaking at the Rockford Tea Party yesterday and was warmly welcomed. Let me add that I was talking for a few minutes with…

Adding his own insights to yesterday’s post about authoritarianism, Sean Kinsell also defended me against a commenter who put words in my mouth. It is true that I did not say that social shunning was censorship, and sometimes I don’t see why I should feel obligated to say “I didn’t say that!” over and over.…

I have a bunch of pictures from today’s Rockford Tea Party at Power and Control. I may post some of them here later. But for now follow the link. And don’t forget: Click on the above image and learn how to spread it around.

Last night I took a closer look at the Ipad (the technology itself as well as the marketing phenomenon), and I concluded that there was no particular reason for me to shell out seven or eight hundred dollars to replace my existing laptop with what appears to be a lightweight and verticalized version of a…

A brilliant bit of analysis from Allahpundit: Taking a modest pro-legalization position (i.e. “I don’t use it myself and don’t want kids using it, but…”) would (a) electrify the debate over a hot-button issue, which she obviously relishes doing (see, e.g., “death panels”), (b) prove that she doesn’t mindlessly follow Republican orthodoxy, which would force…

Like most libertarians, I don’t like authoritarianism. But defining it is another matter. At the most basic level, I do not like people telling me what to do. Meddlesome, tyrannical, busybody control freaks — whether they’re working for the government or whether they’re private assholes, I just plain don’t like em. I would characterize all…

An economist I am not. But this piece by Glenn Reynolds had my head spinning over the vastness of attempting the impossible: In his “The Use of Knowledge In Society,” Hayek explained that information about supply and demand, scarcity and abundance, wants and needs exists in no single place in any economy. The economy is…