The Exercise of Vital Powers

Two points:
1) The Fairtax Book is #1 on the New York Times bestseller list!

2) The Da Vinci Code is still number one? I read that book 2.5 years ago!

Growing up I always took great comfort in the fact we’ve progressed so far from the superstitions of the Middle Ages. Back during the Black Death, some government official decided that cats were the problem. Cats after all were associated with witches and Satan, so it must be the cats causing the plague. So they killed all the cats. And the plague got worse. They didn’t know that the plague was carried by fleas born by rats. When they killed off all the cats, the rat population - and by extention the flea population - boomed bringing a resurgence of the Plague.

Well we know better now right?

Unfortunately I don’t think thats the case. Take the issue of global climate change. Some government officials (and their associated lackeys in the lobbyist movement) decided the solution to global climate change is the Kyoto Accords. By limiting the amount of CO2 emitted by automobiles and industry we can reduce global warming.

This is the same as killing all the cats. It may even be worse because we now know one specific fact:

Once a nation reaches a certain economic success level they move beyond the interest of daily survival and try and make things better. They have more money to spend on research into cleaner technologies and the population is more willing to spend more on cleaner products.

However the Kyoto Accords will hurt our economy by as much as 4.2% of our GDP. That is over a million jobs in 15 years. One million people who instead of being in the work force producing will be on the dole sucking tax dollars from those who are working.

Our per-capita income will decrease, and with it our collective willingness to keep the environment clean.

So, perhaps we haven’t really progressed from the Middle Ages as much as I thought.

So I just finished reading Freakonomics. It was an entertaining and fast read - I bought it Monday night and finished it Tuesday night.

The authors Steven Levitt, an economist at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Dubner, New York Times Magazine, claim there is no unifying theme in the book. I have to disagree. The unifying theme is the the nature of causality and correlation and how we commonly confuse the two.

Each of the chapters asks a question, some more absurd than others:

• What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?
• How is the KKK like a group of Real-Estate agents?
• Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?
• Where have all the criminals gone?
• And what makes a perfect parent?

Besides poking holes in the conventional wisdom about certain topics, the book is an interesting journey into different subjects. They describe how one man helped destroy the KKK by publicizing all their silly little secrets and rituals on the Superman radio show. Once people realized how infantile the KKK was their membership started dropping like a rock. The point was to show the power information has. Once the KKK’s secrets became public, the group lost its mystery - and much of its ability to generate fear. It is also why Real-Estate Agents, along with lawyers, doctors and insurance salesmen, have an advantage over the rest of us in their areas of expertise.

In “Why Do Drug-Dealers Still Live With Their Moms?” they tell the story about another economist who went to live with drug dealers for a few years. Levitt describes in detail the organizational structure and business model of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation of Chicago. It operates as a franchise. There are the owners, called “the board of directors”, the local franchisee, his top two lieutenants, the foot soldiers (the ones who sell the crack), and the members (who pay dues and one day hope to be chosen as foot soldiers). While there is a lot of money to be made in illegal drugs, like a McDonalds franchise the low end foot soldier earns next to nothing ($3.30/hr) by the time everyone gets their various cuts. Poor inner-city kids don’t become drug dealers for the money - they become drug dealers in the hopes of getting promoted to boss. For every millionaire rock start there are hundreds of musicians that never make it.

One of Levitt’s most controversial claims is that the dramatic drop in crime from the 1980s to the 1990s had nothing to do with the conventional wisdom (he debunks all the usual suspects: strong economy, stricter gun-control laws, better and more police, larger prisons, etc). It had to do with a Supreme Court decision made 20 years earlier - and still evokes controversy today: Roe v Wade. The logic is that the mothers most likely to get an abortion were also the most likely to raise children that would become criminals. By legalizing abortion those children were never born and never became criminals. 16-18 years later, when those kids would be hitting their prime criminal years, the crime numbers started dropping. He uses various techniques to prove causality rather than correlation including watching how states that legalized abortion before Roe v Wade saw their crime drop begin before the other states. He finishes the chapter with an economic case that shows, via cost-benefit analysis, that abortion is not an effective crime fighting tool.

The last two chapters discuss parenting, and the various different things parents do to help their kids succeed. By looking at the data Levitt shows that while there is a correlation between reading to your child and their success in school, that the reading is not the cause. By comparing adopted children with natural born children, he shows that genetics is most often the cause of success, not parenting, and that when parenting does affect success it has more to do with what the parents have done prior to having children, rather than what they do as they are raising the child.

The book as some annoyances. Between each chapter they quote one of Dubner’s NYT Magazine articles about Levitt. These citations are incredibly self serving and really distract from the quality of the book.

All in all, I recommend it for two reasons - it helps people understand the differences between causality and correlation - and it is a fascinating insight into several diverse subjects.

Over at Tech Central Station Pejman Yousefzadeh eloquently puts forth what I’ve said the RLC needs to focus on:

The best solution to this dilemma [government spending and regulation] is for small-government activists to become more engaged in finding primary challengers for “Me Too” Republicans in their districts and in their senatorial races. Neither the White House nor the Republican National Committee should continue to hold to the default position of automatically endorsing incumbent candidates in their re-election races. If Republican incumbents are found to have abandoned small-government principles, they should be challenged by insurgents who will fight to end the ongoing policy betrayal that is happening in the battle to limit government.

Good read.

via Reason (link), it seems the City of New London is looking to charge the Kelo plaintiffs for back rent on their properties from 2000 to present. In some cases this adds up to over $300k for homeowners. Any person that believes in limited government or property rights already grieves over this decision. However I think their is a silver lining to this whole thing.

The actions of the New London Development Corporation are so egregious that this may actually help turn the tide in the favor of the limited govt/property right crowd. Already we see politicians stepping over themselves to try and pass eminent domain reform. If we publicize how these poor elderly homeowners are being even further screwed by self important bureaucrats high on their petty powers, we might be able to help turn the tide away from government and towards more freedom oriented candidates.

Having no elected officials to begin with, the LP would be prime candidates to take advantage of this issue. But their inability to raise money, mobilize their base, or accomplish much of anything, means they won’t.

I think this would be a great issue for the RLC to grab hold of, but unfortunately it too has very little infrastructure. So for now this needs to be spread over the blogosphere and via word of mouth. In the mean time I need to start building a database.

Funny, thats what caused me to burn out last time. :)

Tom Plamer of the Cato Institute dug up a quote by Sen. Santorum (R-PA):

“this idea that people should be left alone, be able to do whatever they want to do, government should keep our taxes down and keep our regulations low, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, we shouldn’t get involved in cultural issues. You know, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world and I think most conservatives understand that individuals can’t go it alone. That there is no such society that I am aware of, where we’ve had radical individualism and that it succeeds as a culture.”

I’m not sure what traditional conservatives Mr. Santorum is referring to. One of the fathers of modern conservatism, President Ronald Reagan believed that “the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism” and the very heart and soul of libertarianism is the individual. Reagan also said “The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom…”

But lets not take Reagan’s word for it, what do other prominent conservatives think about the individual and liberty?

“From the day of our Founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights, and dignity, and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of Heaven and earth. Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave.” - President George W. Bush

Of course we’ve heard similar comments against the individual from other Senators.
“We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society.” - Hillary Clinton, 1993

Santorum has done more damage to the image of the Republican Party than Michael Moore could ever hope to accomplish. I really do hope the people on Pennsylvania decide that he does not represent what America is about and find someone else to represent them in the Senate.

Is My Child Becoming a Furry?

Before puberty, children aren’t normally human or animal. They’re definitely species conscious. But young children are not human beings yet — unless something human in nature has interrupted their developmental phases.

Still, it’s not uncommon for children to experience species confusion during the elementary school years. Dr. Joseph Nicolosi reports, “In one study of 60 boys ages 4 to 11, 98 percent of them engaged in animal like behavior, and 83 percent said they wished they had been born an animal.”

Evidences of species confusion or doubt in boys and girls ages 2 to 7 may include:

1. A strong feeling that they are “different” from other people.
2. A tendency to make animal noises, not want to bathe, and dislike the polite company adults tend to enjoy.
3. A strong preference to spend time in the company of pets and participate in their games and other pastimes.
4. A tendency to walk, talk, dress and even “think” like an animal.
5. A repeatedly stated desire to be — or insistence that he is — an animal.

If your child is experiencing several signs of species confusion, professional help is available. It’s best to seek that help before your child reaches puberty.

“By the time the adolescent hormones kick in during early adolescence, a full-blown species identity crisis threatens to overwhelm the teenager,” warns psychologist Dr. James Dobson. To compound the problem, many of these teens experience “great waves of guilt accompanied by secret fears of divine retribution.”

If your child has already reached puberty, change is difficult, but it’s not too late.

Attendees

Todd Pull, Chair
Chris Farris, Vice Chair
Walter White, Treasurer
Tommy Sandoval

Old Business

Website
Chris Farris reports that a preliminary website is up and running and Brandon Doty is working on possible designs for the permanent website.
Statement of what we are about
Walter White has drafted a statement on the immigration problem after attending a town hall meeting on that subject. He has received comments from several members and will be incorporating them into his next draft.
Chris Farris has written an essay on why libertarians should support the FairTax which he will revise for the purposes of the RLC.
Other position papers will be done by the give-a-damn-committee (that is the person interested enough to write it).

New Business

Dues
The consensus was to establish dues at $10 per year.
Bylaws
Jennifer Doty, who is working on becoming a registered parliamentarian, has volunteered to put together bylaws for the group.
Permanent meeting time and date
It was agreed that the third Tuesday of the month at 7:30pm would be the time for the meeting. Jillians is not working out as it is a very loud venue at 8pm when they start trivia. Todd will find a new location.

Possible RLC-GA / RLC-Gwinnett Activities
Several possible activities were discussed for the RLC.

• Volunteer to staff Gwinnett Republican Party’s booth at the Gwinnett County Fair and other events
• March in the “Days” parades during the fall
• Distribute materials outside of sporting and other events
• County Commission Watch
  Send people to the county commission meetings to report on their activities. There is very little mainstream (or otherwise) coverage regarding what the Gwinnett County Commission is up to. Our on the ground reporter(s) can then report back to the membership with any activities the Commission is up to that we might want to support or stop. Obvious topics would be eminent domain, tax increases, spending boondoggles, etc.
• School Board Watch
  Similar to the County Commission Watch, it would be useful to have people attend county school board meetings to keep an eye on what they are up to. It would be smart to head off any silliness coming out of the school board like what we’ve seen in Cobb County recently with the laptops (and to some extent the text book stickers)
• Legislator ratings
  Citizens Against Government Waste annually publishes a list of the worst pork barrel legislators on the federal level. Other groups rank federal legislators, on privacy, civil liberties, family values, etc. We could provide a valuable service to the people of Gwinnett and Georgia by ranking our legislators by how much they have increased or decreased government intrusion in our lives. First step is to develop an objective criterion for what makes a pro and anti liberty legislator. It will probably be based on voting record, so the next thing we need to do is…..
• Legislation ratings
  Similar to the Legislator Ratings, the Legislation Ratings would track the best and worst bills to have come before the general assembly in the 2005 session. Voters can then see how their elected representatives voted on key issues.

Walter and Chris expressed interest in doing the Legislation and Legislator ratings. We all agreed to volunteer for county party events as time permits. We are still looking for volunteers to attend county commission and school board meetings.

So Neal Boortz and John Linder’s book will debut as the #1 non-fiction book on the New York Times best seller list. That’s pretty impressive and a testament to the hard work done by Linder, Boortz and others.

However, there is a danger from all this publicity. K-Street hates this bill because they would lose their ability manipulate the tax code for their clients. Democratic operatives don’t like the bill because they lose their ability to use “soak the rich” rhetoric.

But the tremendous outpouring of popular support for the FairTax means that Congress won’t be able to sweep this under the rug in committee. So they will have to defeat this bill via other means.

Expect to see Congress-Critters come out in support of the concept but not the bill. K-Street will develop their own FairTax, one that lobbyists and their Congressional lapdogs can tweak for the benefit of their clients. Class Warfare leftists will demand that “luxury items” get taxed at a higher rate than “necessities”. Expect to see corporate taxes added back into their bill. The prebate, which the Linder FairTax says every American gets, will become income based - only those who make below a certain amount will get the prebate.

The status-quo interests will soon realize they can’t stop the FairTax - so instead they will subvert it, and I think they will win.

I was one of the several hundred who attended Neal Boortz and John Linder’s book rally at the Cobb County Civic center Friday. I’ve got to admit that this book may be one of the best things to happen for the FairTax to date.

The book is #3 on amazon.com (#1 non-fiction), it hit #1 on Barnes and Noble awhile back and may debut on the New York Times best seller list.

It also sounds like there may be plans to organize a FairTax rally on The Mall in DC. If several hundred thousand people show up it would be a powerful sign to congress. One of the people I was eating with suggested renting a bus or motor home and having a FairTax screen put on it.

I got to meet several notable people including Royal, Herman Cain (who I met at a FairTax event in ‘02), and Casey Cagle. It gave me a chance to promote the Gwinnett RLC, and made me realize how few Republicans really know what the RLC is. Something to work on.