Government is a meddling presumptuous pain in the neck.

John Stossel has such a way with words! HIS title is "Free Stuff From Sam." Mine is the next to last line from his column, and I like it MUCH better.

There are more column links at JewishWorldReview.com. Binyamin has very able assistants who have come forward to help him out, and I am grateful for them. He could really use a staff, however, so if you can spare a buck or two, please send it on to them. With MY thanks!

My Chief is home this morning, wants to talk...converse...what's up with THAT??? It's early - if I have to talk to the cats at this time of day, I do, but I'm not always very NICE! This new shift is gonna take some getting used to...I take Fosomax (generic) on Wednesdays, so haven't even had coffee yet...but it sure smells good!

Handsome Son-in-law has a nasty cold...mine isn't any better than it was yesterday. Got the Cousins today, first time this week. Ugh. Gonna be a long, long day. Y'all go have a terrific day, MAKE it a good day, and thanks for stopping by!

UPDATE: If the Cousins are coming today, they are much later than usual...
UPDATE2: Not that it matters to you, but the Cousins arrived just before noon and were gone again by 2:30...slow work day for their mama, hope tomorrow is better.

Hump Day is BUSY this week

My Pixie's cousins are spending the day here so their mama can work the lunch shift at Applebee's. The boys are 3 1/2 and 10 months and it is a LOT of work for me. Kind of embarrassing, really, that I wear out so easily, but there ya go. Coupled with the stupid time change, I'm just tired all week this week, I think! The WEATHER is GORGEOUS, thank heaven!

There have been some wonderful -dare I say hopeful? - things happen in the world of American politics this week, and even the 'unsuccessful' bids to take back the Nation are small successes, in my opinion. There are some terrific writers listed in my sidebar, plus some columns I'll list here. Have a GREAT day! Thanks for coming by!

A few to check into:

Stimulus Watch at Townhall.com (FIXED), Jonah Goldberg, John Stossel, Glenn Garvin, Liz Sidoti.

UPDATE: Almost forgot Michelle Malkin!

Nobel Prize for Economics goes to woman whose work proves GOVERNMENT is more often the problem than the solution!

John Stossel is a libertarian, and I guess I am one, too. Many times this suggests things that are too wacky for words, but hey...Dimmbocrats claim part of that title, and so do many Republicrats. I prefer things sensible, proven by unbiased methods, which treat grown-up citizens like grown-up citizens, and which are Constitutional. Makes me sorta unusual, I know, but I sleep ok at night, believe me.

Stossel's column today is required reading if you believe "Government-imposed regulation" is completely different than the rules of behavior needed for managing some resources (among other things) by those involved.

She writes in her 1990 book, "Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action," that there is no shortage of real-world examples of "a self-governed common-property arrangement in which the rules have been devised and modified by the participants themselves and also are monitored and enforced by them."

In other words, free people work things out on their own.

Not only is government help often not needed, Ostrom says it usually screws things up because bureaucrats operate in an ivory tower ignorant of the local customs and the specific resource.

Political theorists assume away the problems of political control, but the problems are real. There is no reason to believe that bureaucrats and politicians, no matter how well meaning, are better at solving problems than the people on the spot, who have the strongest incentive to get the solution right. Unlike bureaucrats, they bear the costs of their mistakes. Moreover, as the prize committee pointed out, "Rules that are imposed from the outside or unilaterally dictated by powerful insiders have less legitimacy and are more likely to be violated."

...

We libertarians aren't against rules — we are against top-down rules imposed by out-of-touch bureaucrats.

UPDATE: I have just one question. Is this the Nobel committee made up of the same bozos that chose BarryO for the Peace Prize? If so, does the rest of the country know they've got Multiple Personality Syndrome?

Mustn't muddy the water with those pesky little "Facts!"

I don't watch the news. I don't read a daily newspaper. Any news I DO hear is posted on someone's blog (and I generally read conservative and libertarian blogs), or comes from the news-on-the-half-hour on the sports-talk or talk radio stations I listen to. I also check my home-state online newspapers free content. And a couple of good friends or relatives email me with links to things they think I oughta read...and I don't mean chain mail. Military funerals, Weather or giant pythons appearing somewhere other than a zoo might get me a link to a story.

It's enough to get me by. Knowing how many thugs were shot by the police or each other, what stupid-ass thing my Representative said as she feathers her nest, and how "hard" the city council is "working" aren't priorities in my life.

As a matter of fact, I don't even need to know what the official unemployment numbers are. Numbers can lie when they're spun the right direction...and then can be spun right back the other way for a WHOLE new perspective.

I know some people out of work. I know a couple people who got work...but left the city of their choice to do so. When it's move or collect welfare, my generation tends to hit the road, I think. Then again, maybe it's not my generation. The ones I'm thinking of ARE my generation, but they're also not "city folk." They're the product of small town and rural upbringing. Are we more self-reliant at this age if we grew up without government intervention in every aspect of our lives? If so, what does that say about government intervention in every aspect of our lives?

John Stossel is one of my libertarian/ Constitutionalist heroes. From his column at JewishWorldReview.com:

OK, economic forecasters make mistakes. Fair enough. But neither the administration experts nor President Obama will acknowledge that their models and strategy are flawed. Instead, they spin the numbers and proclaim success, insisting that the plan is working even though unemployment is higher than they said it would be.

For example, Christina Romer, chief of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, preferred to emphasize that the 216,000 jobs lost in August were about half a million less than six months before. Never mind that the economic strategy hasn't restored any of those 700,000 jobs previously lost. They'd rather distract us by focusing on the slowing rate of loss rather than the losses themselves.

Lord knows these brilliant folks can't be WRONG in their predictions. Of course, I don't give them as much credit as Stossel does. I think they knew what would happen all along and lied. And since "journalism" no longer requires investigating and reporting FACTS, no one catches the lies.

UPDATE: Track-A-'Crat has written about the Road to Hell...of course, he doesn't call it that, and neither do our helpful socialist friends in government bureaurcacy, but it is what it is. Thanks, Track!