Power Tends To Corrupt

Well, Congress passed, and Our Beloved President is expected to sign into law, the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including the objectionable "indefinite detention" provisions.

Salon.com has a piece that dispels the three myths put forth by the bill's supporters. Link below (see Sources.)

It's getting harder not to scream: That's it man, game over man, game over!

Here's a great interview with Peter Schweizer, author of Throw Them All Out, talking about congressional insider trading, the hypocrisy of Warren Buffett, and the socialism enjoyed by the privileged classes.

Have a listen.

Today's word of the day: Banktatorship.

Banktatorship: n. Autocratic rule by bankers.

Stash this one for future reference. It's starting to look like it'll be useful.

Source: Picked up this gem in a thread over on market-ticker.org.

Politicians love to talk about creating jobs.

They love to tell you how they will create jobs. They love to tell you their opponents didn't do it. They love to make you think that job creation is their responsibility. They love to think that they are creating jobs by legislation or executive fiat.

You know what? They aren't really creating valuable jobs. The economic benefits are dubious at best. In fact, politicians most often destroy jobs and wealth. Which is kind of what you'd expect from a bunch of people who regularly threaten, cajole and browbeat businesspeople.

The best thing we can hope for is that politicians don't damage the economy. That they don't discourage job creation in the free market.

And politicians invite criticism by claiming to be able to create jobs: when jobs are lost, or the economy is slow, naturally blame falls on them, probably far more so than is reasonable. But remember: they asked for it.

You'd think they'd learn. You'd think they'd want to stop pushing that line of B.S.

So: Here's the best way for politicians to create jobs.

Are you ready? (Drum roll, please...)

Politicians: If you want to create jobs, here's how you do it. It's so simple, you won't even need a teleprompter. Just follow these easy-peasy steps:

1. Resign from public office.
2. Start a business.
3. Hire people and pay them fair market value for their work.
4. Turn a profit.
5. Avoid running afoul of tax, environmental, labor, and myriad other regulations.
6. Lather, rinse, repeat.

You think you're good at what you do? You think you have what it takes? You think you're a great leader? Let's see what happens when people can choose whether they follow you or not. Whether they will obey your command, or not.

Let's see what happens when people are free to choose whether to buy what you're selling, or not.

Go on, then, prove it. Get out of public life. Join the producers. Compete for customers.

Go out and try navigating the maze of licensing and regulation by which you and your cohorts have shackled free enterprise and productive people.

Just be careful you don't import the wrong kind of wood or sell too many rabbits. It might ruin your day. Or your life.

Go ahead and create some jobs. Some of us may even thank you for it, despite all that divisive anti-capitalistic rhetoric you or your colleagues may have used over the years.

You'll sleep better at night, too.

Go on. Please.

Stop talking about creating jobs, and just go do it.

Link Love-In

Linked at davidmcelroy.org - Thanks!
Linked at Doug Ross @ Journal - Muchas gracias!

Charles Ponzi couldn't hold a candle to the creators of the long con chain-letter pyramid scheme known as Social Security.

Look: If a program requires ever-expanding numbers of new contributors at the bottom to keep the payouts coming to those at the top, it's a pyramid scheme, a Ponzi scheme, a chain-letter, a generational transfer scheme, a welfare program, or any number of other things, but it's not insurance, it's not an investment, it's not a retirement plan, and it's not a bank account. And because 'contributions' (taxes) are mandatory for most people, it's financial rape under color of authority. Got it?

When Social Security collapses, will anyone end up behind bars? Can we exhume FDR and try him for fraud? How about all the other politicians since then who talk about the phantasmagorical Social Security 'trust fund' or 'lock box'? (The only thing there is a pile of IOUs -- more debt.)

Update1

Rick Santelli hands it to Tom Friedman:

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000044440

Via: market-ticker.org

Update2

Here's a great quote from a liberal, Nobel prize-winning economist, acknowledging the Ponzi-ness of Social Security quoted in a book titled Social security: false consciousness and crisis:

The beauty of social insurance is that it is actuarially unsound. Everyone who reaches retirement age is given benefit privileges that far exceed anything he has paid in... A growing nation is the greatest Ponzi scheme ever contrived. And that is a fact, not a paradox.

(Emphasis mine)

So: According to Paul Sameulson, defending Social Security... it is actuarially unsound and retirees receive benefit privileges far in excess of anything they have paid in.

Yup. It's a Ponzi scheme, a pyramid scheme, a generational transfer, it's welfare, or all of them. Get over it.