Krugman's Conundrum

Dr. Walter E. Williams

Muddying the waters in his November 3rd New York Times column Oligarchy, American Style, Paul Krugman lamented our state of affairs, worrying: "We have a society in which money is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people, and in which that concentration of income and wealth threatens to make us a democracy in name only."

To which Walter Williams answers:

Joanne Rowling was a welfare mother in Edinburgh, Scotland. All that has changed. As the writer of the "Harry Potter" novels, having a net worth of $1 billion, she is the world's wealthiest author. More importantly, she's one of those dastardly 1-percenters condemned by the Occupy Wall Streeters and other leftists.

How did Rowling become so wealthy and unequal to the rest of us? The entire blame for this social injustice lies at the feet of the world's children and their enabling parents. Rowling's wealth is a direct result of more than 500 million "Harry Potter" book sales and movie receipts grossing more than $5 billion.

In other words, the millions of "99-percenters" who individually plunk down $8 or $9 to attend a "Harry Potter" movie, $15 to buy a "Harry Potter" novel or $30 to buy a "Harry Potter" Blu-ray Disc are directly responsible for contributing to income inequality and wealth concentration that economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman says "is incompatible with real democracy." In other words, Rowling is not responsible for income inequality; it's the people who purchase her works.

Krugman's notion that "income inequality" is incompatible with Democracy begs the question "who shall enforce the 'equality'". The job must fall to the government. The resultant loss of freedom would of course ensure that individuals would lose their ability to freely make their neighbors wealthy, but who would the real losers be?

It is not freedom that is the problem, Mr. Krugman. It is your pinheaded ideas about a 'perfect world' that are incompatible with Democracy.

She's Too Funny!

Ever catch April Gavaza at inveterate scars?

A Warning

I feel bad for the husband. He patiently sits through every one of my first person POV rants, waiting until the end to politely nod in agreement as if I haven't given him the same speech at least once a week. The rambling diatribe is usually preceded by the unceremonious dumping of some unfortunate scifi tome into the trash bin and the statement, "It's harder than it looks, people!"

She's telling this to the collective authors of the various books she's reading!

Because not just anyone can craft a lush narrative out of what is actually a very myopic view of the tale. Not everyone can weave depth and clarity into one person's version of events. Very few writers remember that just because you are writing "I" does not mean that you are telling the story. The narrator is not necessarily the person with their name on the front cover. If you must write yourself into the story, give yourself a cameo.

Charlie Huston, Chuck Palahniuk, Tom Piccirilli and a few others are good at first person. Many others sound like bad detective noir, and not in the fun, campy way.

Don't make me throw your book in the trash, people. Think before you start down that road.

I love the way she orders these guys around. "Think! Think!!!" Geez!

And on the more personal side:

Tragic

My hair is tragic. Never go to SuperCuts on a whim, clutching a picture of Jean Seberg. As alluring as the $20 price tag may be, it is not worth it. Not. Worth. It. Needless to say, no new pictures until it grows out a bit. I try not to regret going short, but a bad haircut is a bad haircut.

I'm sorry, this stuff just cracks me up. It's pretty fun.

Obama Team Befuddled On Kagan Controversy

In a bid to become the most uncredible spokesman in White House history, Obama Administration Press Secretary Jay "Chili-con" Carney states he sees no reason for United States Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan to recuse herself in the upcoming Supreme Court challenge on the constitutionality of the Obamacare legislation.

“These issues were raised, just a year ago, in an expansive confirmation hearing. And those questions were questions were asked and answered both in the hearing itself and in written questions that were responded to in writing. It’s a mystery to me how this can suddenly be an issue a year later and they want to revisit what they just visited not that long ago.”

Kagan is known to have exchanged e-mails with Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe, including one that said:

“I hear they have the votes, Larry!! Simply amazing.”

Carney isn't arguing that Kagan has no opinion on the legislation. He is saying that the topic was thoroughly discussed at her confirmation hearings. Of course the truth lives far from Jay Carney, and all the e-mail exchanges between then Solicitor General Elena Kagan and Tribe, who is a well-known Supreme Court litigator and was then serving in the Justice Department, were blocked from view until a Freedom of Information Act filing pried them loose.

Well Jay, here is what Democrat Senator Arlen Specter had to say at the time of her confirmation hearing:

"It would be my hope that we could find some place between voting no and having some sort of substantive answers, but I don't know that it would be useful to pursue these questions any further."

It was so difficult for Senator Specter to get a straight answer from Ms. Kagan that he thought there would be no use in further questioning her. Nice.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Senate Republicans have said:

“Neil Katyal, Ms. Kagan's principal deputy, stated he would ‘speak with Elena’ about her office participating in a Department working group that would plan the Administration's litigation strategy, exclaiming that he wanted the Administration to ‘crush’ those challenging the [health care law].”

28 U.S. Code Section 455 stipulates that a justice must recuse from “any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The law also says a justice must recuse anytime he has “expressed an opinion concerning the merits of the particular case in controversy” while he “served in governmental employment.”

When pressed about the e-mails, Carney moved to a different topic.

Yeah, move along, Jay. It's no fun arguing when the facts indicate you're either an idiot or a liar, and as unbelievable as some of the things you have to go out and say for this White House are, you're no idiot.

'A Christmas Story' Open Thread

  What did you think?

What is this guy doing?

Again?!

I don't know. I have a hard time listening to President Obama talk about how hard he's working to create jobs, get the economy going, how really bad it was when he came in to office, the problems he inherited, how really tough it's been on him, and how we need to toughen up ourselves, learn to sacrifice, and take on our fair share of the burdens. Meanwhile once he gets off the golf course (and mind you he's had thirty trips to the links so far this year) he's out trying to inflict another economy crushing tax bill, or looking to pass another spendapalooza.

If the president wants to play golf, shoot some hoops, travel off to the islands or watch some basketball, whatever... that's fine with me. Just get your boot off the throat of America.

The rest of us need to work.

Tommy Takes a Look at Liberal Land

Discussions held with proponents of liberalism can leave one wondering 'what on earth are these people are thinking?' A simple, common sense statement like 'we cannot go on spending money we do not have' is utterly lost upon them. We have had a wealth of practical experience allowing liberal ideology to be implemented into public policy, with disastrous results. And yet, not in the least bit deterred, they cry out to us all:

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our English dead!"

That might be the perfect phrase if you are laying siege to a fortressed city, not so good if you are tossing limited resources into the bottomless money pit that is our Federal government.

Thomas Sowell is not pre-disposed to such tomfoolery. Growing up in Harlem, his optimistic notions of the benefits of government interventions were rudely shattered when he spent a year working as an economist with the Department of Labor. It is with this eye of experience that he views statements of our Treasury Secretary:

Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner says, "We're facing a very consequential debate about some fundamental choices as a country." People talk that way in Liberal Land. Moreover, such statements pass muster with those who simply take in the words, decide whether they sound nice to them, and then move on.

But, if you take words seriously, the more fundamental question is whether individuals are to remain free to make their own choices, as distinguished from having collectivized choices, "as a country" — which is to say, having choices made by government officials and imposed on the rest of us.

The history of the 20th century is a painful lesson on what happens when collective choices replace individual choices. Even leaving aside the chilling history of totalitarianism in the 20th century, the history of economic central planning shows it to have been such a widely recognized disaster that even communist and socialist governments were abandoning it as the century ended.

And still we hear our problems will all be solved if we just spend ... more. A trillion dollars were spent to 'stimulate' the economy, and the result is unemployment near 10%, 20% if you count all those who gave up looking. Despite this the solution tossed our way is to blow another 500 billion... 500 billion that we do not have.

The world of reality is not nearly as lovely as the world of Liberal Land. No wonder so many people want to go there.

Yes, but you and I get to live here, in reality.

No NBA, No Problem.

The big time ball players that make up the NBA have had a slow fall. Training camp, the pre-season and the fall schedule of games have all gone by the wayside, and with nary a notice. Now I love basketball as much as the next fellow, but with all the goings on in the fall, do we really miss the NBA? No, we did not get to ponder roster cuts, we did not read about the meaningless pre-season games as teams tried out twenty players in hopes of finding... one, maybe two. The first quarter of the season has disappeared, and... ? Tall men running around in pajamas, tossing around a big orange ball?

Who was the NBA champion two years ago?

Okay then.