The food police

Here is a news story that will cause you to drop your donut:

http://www.wbaltv.com/r/25508790/detail.html

Your government is here to save you from yourself. Some of the highlights from this article are below:

The Baltimore City Health Department issued its first environmental citation for repeat violations of the city's trans fat ban.

The Health Department issued Healthy Choice, a food facility in the 400 block of Lexington Street, a $100 fine on Thursday.

"It was the second time they were found with a high trans fat level in their ingredients," said Health Department agent Juan Gutierrez.

They originally had a margarine that was above 3 grams, actually, which is very high compared to the .5 that is allowed. Then when we came back and they had replaced it, they replaced it with one that was 2 grams, so it still was too high, Gutierrez said.


Healthy Choice owner Ki Jeong said he will abide by the decision but said the new margarine will cost him double what the original type costs.

When we talk to proponents of big government they always scoff at the warnings we give about government controlling all aspects of society. This is another example of government confiscation of individual freedom. This story also exposes the costs of government interfering in free markets; when individual choice is eliminated from economic decisions prices increase.


The moral of this story is that government is a threat to our individual freedoms at the federal, state and local level. The battle for freedom must be waged on all fronts. Vote to remove incumbent politicians and replace them with new representatives who will reduce the size of government at all levels.

Speaking Frankly

Our friends at Verum Serum http://www.verumserum.com/ (a political blog) have posted several videos concerning Congressmen Barney Frank.

In the most recent video Congressman Frank denounces the concept of pushing home ownership on those who cannot afford to pay the mortgage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFVd6CKcipI

In an earlier video Barney Frank extols the virtues of home ownership for all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW5qKYfqALE

In the above video Barney presents a profound economic theory on the nature of “asset bubbles” and his theory that housing prices will not collapse because housing is a real asset not a financial instrument.

These 2 videos expose Barney’s ability to distort the facts and to make completely false statements in order to promote his political career.

Also there is this compilation of videos about Barney’s opinions of Fannie May and Freddie Mac:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC88oox9TBo

Fight for freedom

As we approach the midterm elections please consider the following 3 quotes by Winston Churchill:

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

One ought never to turn ones back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

Churchill helped convince a nation threatened with annihilation that they could fight and win. Today those of us who cherish freedom must convince our fellow citizens to fight against the dark forces of totalitarianism and socialism. Rise up and vote!

The time is now

A friend of ours sent me the following short video (2 min 18 sec).  It is a compilation of current events interspersed with Ronald Reagan’s 1964 speech “A Time for Choosing”.

“A Time for Choosing” is more relevant today than it was when Reagan spoke those words 46 years ago.  A video of the entire speech is at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXBswFfh6AY

The text of the origional speech is available at the following link:

http://www.reaganfoundation.org/pdf/ATimeForChoosing.pdf

Government accounting 101

The following news article describes the mounting debt crisis at the local government level:

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/nyt/20101005_Options_dim_cities_in_debt_seek_havens.html

There are so many disturbing facts and quotations in this article that I do not know where to start commenting.  The primary focus of the article is on Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  The recent actions by Harrisburg are symptomatic of the financial mismanagement at the local government level worldwide.  Consider the following facts from the above article:

Harrisburg, the Pennsylvania capital, dodged financial disaster last month by getting money from the state to make a payment to its bondholders.

It did so even though the state warned that the money had to be used for city workers' pensions.

Now Harrisburg is calling on the state again. On Friday, the city said it could not meet its next payroll without money from the state's distressed cities program.

In the private sector borrowing money to pay bondholders and to make payroll is the path to liquidation. But in the government sector accounting has mysterious properties:

Using the pension money to pay bondholders last month has increased the city's total debt burden, by the state's calculation. The city's audited financial statements are a year late, and the most recent one gives four-year-old pension data, showing a surplus before the recession and the financial crisis took its toll.

Officials in Harrisburg said they saw no harm in using this year's state pension money to pay their bondholders because they thought the municipal pension funds had a surplus.

But they see a surplus only because they are looking at a five-year-old number, said Bernard S. Kozlowski, deputy director of the state Public Employee Retirement Commission, which administers the state pension law. He said the state would eventually come after Harrisburg, demanding the missing money with interest. But not for at least two more years, he added, because of the lags built into the state system.

If you are considering the purchase of municipal bonds, beware; if you own municipal bonds, you have been forewarned.

Larceny is the new community outreach

Once again we are taught an important civics lesson by Chicago politicians. On October 4, 2010 authorities arrested Carla Oglesby, a top aide to Cook County Board President Todd Stroger as part of a probe into whether contracts were steered to the aide's company and her associates. The full story can be found at this link:

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/clout_st/2010/10/top-stroger-aide-carla-oglesby-arrested-in-contract-probe-.html

Here are the highlights:

Oglesby, a one-time promoter of sports stars and hip-hop artists, was the spokeswoman for Stroger's failed Democratic primary re-election campaign. Stroger briefly suspended Oglesby earlier this year from her $120,000-a-year county job after reports that she authorized a $24,975 contract to her public relations firm, CGC Communications, to inform suburban residents about federal flood relief grants.

Later, it came out that Oglesby sought approval to spend nearly $150,000 on census outreach contracts. The deals were given to people recommended by Oglesby and Eugene Mullins, Stroger's spokesman and boyhood friend.

The civics lesson I have learned from this episode and countless others from the past is that the corruption never ends.  If you do not live in Cook County Illinois you may be consoling yourself in your belief that this type of behavior does not happen where you live.  You are wrong.  This type of behavior happens everywhere.  To decontaminate the political cesspool we must vote out the incumbents.

Workers of the world, Unite!

On Saturday 10/2/10 organized labor and left wing political organizations held a rally on the mall in Washington DC.  The title for this rally is “One Nation Working Together”.  The following video highlights some of the “socially progressive” organizations, signs, and literature that were prevalent at this rally:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkw7n9Qagu8&feature=player_embedded