Waiter: What would like to drink?
Patron 1: I’ll have scotch on the rocks, and also please bring me some ice water.
Patron 2: Can I see the wine list?
Waiter: Sorry. We only serve Coke and Pepsi.
Welcome to American democracy.
Like most Presidential elections, this year we’re offered two candidates that are more the same than different. [...]

Continue reading " Coke, Pepsi and a Stiff Drink "

That’s what Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer says:

Continue reading " Ron Paul to Decide Montana? "

Oops. Turns out the GOP was right on the bailout before they flip-flopped:
Not that anyone pays attention to party platforms, least of all McCain, but a reader spots this rather unambiguous section of the platform just passed by the GOP:
We do not support government bailouts of private institutions. Government interference in the markets exacerbates problems in the [...]

Continue reading " GOP Bailout Hypocrisy "

Today’s Washington Post contains a must read from George Will. here’s the key passage:
The political left always aims to expand the permeation of economic life by politics. Today, the efficient means to that end is government control of capital. So, is not McCain’s party now conducting the most leftist administration in American history? The [...]

Continue reading " George Will: McCain is an Angry Old Man "

Not long ago I randomly met a Libertarian Party staffer in a local drinking establishment who told me that the Barr campaign has high hopes for landing the endorsement of the NRA.
While I think he probably should get it (Barr gets an A+ rating from the group and is an NRA board member, while McCain [...]

Continue reading " McCain, Barr and Guns "

Of course we already do that through inflation, however Gerald P. O’Discoll, former adviser to the Fed, writes in the Wall Street Journal that we’re at a tipping point:
As Milton Friedman long ago taught us, government spending is the ultimate tax on the economy: It extracts real resources from productive, private use and puts them [...]

Continue reading " Will the US Government Repudiate Its Debt? "

As evidenced by by this silly Washington Post commentary titled “McCain’s Problem isn’t his Tactics. It’s GOP Ideas,” the left (joined by their big government allies in the GOP) will do their best to portray Republican electoral failures as evidence of the failure of limited government conservatism.
As Matt Welch observes: “This critique requires a significant [...]

Continue reading " The Battle for the Future of the GOP "

Congress recently took another step towards total prohibition of tobacco by ordering FDA regulation of tobacco (against the wishes of the current FDA head).  Both McCain and Obama support the measure. In fact it has been one of McCain’s pet issues for over a decade.
Full details, along with my take on the effect on cigars [...]

Continue reading " Towards a Smoke Free America "