OPINION

Beware of Global Slowing

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Here are some thoughts and punches from my Facebook. Feel free to  punch back.

Atrocity. Insanity. Utter tragedy. But, before the tragedy whores pounce, consider this: Guns are against the law there already. Why does anyone with a brain think more laws will help? And when more laws don't stop the next monster...then more laws!

At some point, the compassionate might think to look beyond the statutory code.

If government were as involved in producing bread as it is in delivering health care, we'd have serious cost and shortage problems, and progressive demands for a Single Baker policy.

Just paid a traffic infraction after waiting through the cattle call at Adams County Justice Center.

For the record I was not texting...I was Facebooking.

Freedom of speech does not compensate for loss of freedom of choice in enterprise and commerce. That folks can jabber about what we please on the street or in the pub does not erase the fact we must dance to the state's choreography in all our productive labors.

If I want to share my thoughts with you, the 1st Amendment says: “Government butt out!” And progressives grudgingly accede, sort of.

If I want to share my DNA with you, progressives demand: “Government, butt out!”

But, if I want to share with you my labor or what I've made, progressives say: “Whoa, whoa!! We all better take a look!”

Some liberals wonder when conservatives will give the president credit for declining gas prices. How about as soon as liberals give the petroleum industry credit for relaxing its iron-fisted "conspiracy" and letting prices fall?

A quarter-to-seven in the morning and still darkish? How late is sunrise these days? I’m pretty sure all the SUVs that Americans drive are sapping kinetic energy from earth's inertia, thus slowing its rotation and delaying the light.

Beware of Global Slowing.

The producers/laborers of our economy are getting killed..Why? Because the manipulators/takers of the economy have slicker PR and the slavish loyalty of the electronic voice.

Progressives want government to have a bigger role steering everything. Liberty activists want government to yield a lot of its ill-possessed ground and let freedom work more of its miracles.

How do you "compromise for solutions" in that scenario?

You don't. Sometimes, the loyal opposition has to make its case and then win or lose, not sign on to half or three-quarter measures that still go the opposite direction of its beliefs. Then, let the people judge the results and let the civil debate of self government debate continue.

As the economy continues to struggle, employers continue to not hire, US standing spirals, and the world breaks out in flames and blood, it will be fascinating to watch the media cover the national and global debacle:  “Things are fine! Who are you going to believe? Us or your lying eyes? The president’s policies are terrific! We like them! What's not to like?!”

Is default/devaluation the least bad, least dishonorable solution to looming national insolvency?

Who should bear the loss of reckless current spending? The investors who knowingly lend the money, or our innocent grandchildren? When did they approve the prospectus and volunteer to be indentured?

Freedom is likely doomed eventually because a concerted organism (like government and its appendages) has more incentive and urgency to pursue its interests (taxing, spending, controlling, expanding) than the motivation of a diffuse system (all the rest of us) to push back.

I don't see a way past the unbalanced incentives.

Has any good thing come of the Arab uprisings the US president threw US prestige and firepower behind? Is Morsi better than Mubarak? Lawless Libya better than Qaddafi's Libya? America better received anywhere?

Will Old Media ask these questions? Nope. They don't hurt Bush.

That awkward moment when you disagree with someone you value, but you realize the minor issue in dispute is not worth pressing...

Has anyone figured out a graceful way to stand down, without lapsing into sullen silence, or saying something terse like: "I disagree, but I don't care; let's just drop it!"

The tens of thousands of Syrian dead would be featured incessantly on American news, if only Israel had killed them.

If expansive, progressive government works, how did California go in just a few decades from one of the richest states to one of the poorest, scant steps ahead of the creditors and soon to be begging a bail-out?

Trying to make sense of those who allege there’s a war on women:

Keep your laws off my body!
Please, Mr. President, regulate my whole body, and enforce it with a federal mandate!
And focus your subsidies on my lady parts!
Uh...I get it.