Feb

25

Winning the War on Dru–,,,wait,, What?!?

February 25, 2009 | | Leave a Comment

So this morning I took a trip to the pharmacy and started thinking about drug legalization. I started wondering why our FDA and Federal Government allows us to consume certain substances that could be considered dangerous (ex: alcohol, ephedrine, Chinese toothpaste, etc.) But not others (ex: marijuana, opiates, cocaine, heroin, etc.)
See, I am of the school of thought that ALL drugs should be legalized, regulated, taxed, and sold. I just don’t see where the Federal or even State government has the power to tell me I can go out to a bar and get hammered, then come home and beat up my wife and kids, but I can not go score cheeba and come home to get high and read or watch a movie.
Its more than that though. Its the ideal of prohibition in any form that really gets to me as a Libertarian. I whole-heartedly believe that you should have the right to go out and do whatever the hell you want to as long as you don’t hurt or otherwise infringe on the rights of anyone else.

Take this into consideration. ( I only know these numbers because I did a persuasive speech in school on drug reform so no nasty comments if I’m off by a few million )
We have roughly three million or for those of you who need a visual aid: 3,000,000 people in prison at any given time, more or less. Out of those 3,000,000 prisoners, roughly one third, 1/3, or 1,000,000 are in prison for “drug related offenses”, sometimes referred to as “victimless crimes”. Now the daily cost to the taxpayer for housing and feeding all three million of these inmates is roughly $67.55 Per Day. You do the math because I suck at it, which is why I don’t do math, I write.
Anyway. You would think that the government would have learned its lesson back in the good old puritan days of alcohol prohibition, which basically was the catalyst for what we now know as organized crime.
My only point is really related to the free market that people are always on about. The demand for these “illicit” substances is so high that people will do almost anything to get it. Hence the supply. Ever wonder why it is so easy to find drugs? If your sitting in a room with more than two other people in it, one of them is high on something. If you’re reading my blog then its probably you.
Anytime there is such a demand for a product, any product, and the government tells you that you cant have it, be it oranges, macbooks, heroin, oxycodone, cocaine, etc. there will always be some American Hero (the ever present entrepreneur) who will be willing to take the risk to meet the demand with an adequate supply. It just creates a parallel free “black” market as they like to call them.
Prohibition didn’t work for alcohol and it certainly wont work for anything else.
Ill leave you with this quote from an article in the Wall Street Journal:

Prohibitionist policies based on eradication, interdiction and criminalization of consumption simply haven’t worked. Violence and the organized crime associated with the narcotics trade remain critical problems in our countries. Latin America remains the world’s largest exporter of cocaine and cannabis, and is fast becoming a major supplier of opium and heroin. Today, we are further than ever from the goal of eradicating drugs.

Over the last 30 years, Colombia implemented all conceivable measures to fight the drug trade in a massive effort where the benefits were not proportional to the resources invested. Despite the country’s achievements in lowering levels of violence and crime, the areas of illegal cultivation are again expanding. In Mexico — another epicenter of drug trafficking — narcotics-related violence has claimed more than 5,000 lives in the past year alone.
–Former President of Columbia, Mr Gaviria

Till Next Time
Alex

Feb

18

So what exactly does this Stimulus Package,,,,Stimulate?

February 18, 2009 |  Tagged | Leave a Comment

I’m sure everyone is sick of hearing about this issue by now, but I stil feel the need to throw in m $0.02 in.

This week the House is expected to pass an $825 billion economic stimulus package… As before, a sense of urgency and impending doom is being used to extract mountains of money from Congress with minimal debate. So much for change. This is déjà vu. We are again being promised that its passage will help employment, help homeowners, help the environment, etc. These promises are worthless. This time around especially, Congress should know better than to pass anything of this magnitude without first reading the fine print…

There is a lot of stimulus and growth in this bill – that is, of government.
–Ron Paul

This quote expresses my feelings on this stimulus package pretty concisely. I simply do not trust the government to further debase our currency by printing more money out of thin air. More than just that, this money will not be used to help you, me, the old lady down the street or the woman working three jobs to feed her kids because she has no health insurance benefits and cant pay for her childrens medication.

No this money that is being taken from all of us is going to be used to expand government on a nightmarish scale.

Like I said I’m sure everyone is sick of hearing about it so I’ll stop.

Feb

10

What Libertarianism Means To Me

February 10, 2009 | | 3 Comments

What is Libertarianism?

Libertarianism: (from Wikipedia) “Classical liberalism (also known as traditional liberalism, laissez-faire liberalism, and market liberalism is a doctrine stressing individual freedom, free markets, and limited government. This includes the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, individual freedom from restraint, equality under the law, constitutional limitation of government, free markets, and a gold standard to place fiscal constraints on government.


Now, this rather broad definition being stated, what does it mean for me, a middle class 25 year old white male, to label myself “Libertarian”?
For me, Libertarianism is much more than a political ideology or dogma, but more of a way of life. I suppose for the sake of brevity, I’ll lay out a few key points of my political and social views that cause me to lean toward Libertarianism, or at least “Conservative” Libertarianism:

  • I believe any form of prohibition on illicit substances by state or federal government is categorically beyond the power of the state to impose. In short, all drugs should be legalized, privately manufactured, taxed, and sold for profit. If you make the choice to use drugs, which I believe is totally within your rights as a tax paying American citizen, then you and you alone must deal with the consequences of your actions. Example: You choose to get hooked on heroin, you cant go to a methadone clinic run by taxpayer money to get off of it. It is your responsibility to clean up when it becomes a problem. It is not my responsibility to make sure you’re able to do it. Make sense?
  • I believe that the federal government’s reach into our private lives must be drastically reduced. We’ve all heard the stories about warrantless wiretapping, American citizens being spied on for no apparent reason, and the infamous “No Fly List”. Things like this are a complete and utter waste of time and money. More examples of federal government bloat: The IRS, The Dept. of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the list goes on and on. I have some Federalist leanings, and I believe a lot of these duties could be taken over by the states themselves.
  • I believe the Constitution of the United States of America needs to be revised. For example, the Sixteenth amendment, which was never ratified by enough states to actually be put into the Constitution in the first place needs to be removed. You heard me correctly, Federal Income Tax is unconstitutional and frankly disgusting. If anyone can point out a law to me telling me where the government is allowed to take my income and use it as an unapportioned tax, I’ll eat my dirty underwear.

Now these are just a few of the things I have problems with as far as the way the Federal government of the United States of America chooses to treat citizens. The only thing I find more disgusting than the government itself, is the complete lack of concern and total apathy displayed by the American people to have these audacious regulations imposed on them.

You know, years ago we rioted over a tax on tea. TEA for christ’s sake! Now we take things like the recession, government bailouts, and even the USA Patriot Act lying down. Like these things are somehow “necessary”. like these things will somehow keep us “safe” from “evildoers”. People wake up. You are being conditioned and manipulated in to playing their game.

The only real question is what are you going to do about it?

Alex

“The government that governs best is the government that governs least.”                                                 -Thomas Jefferson

“Give me Liberty or give me Death.”      -Patrick Henry

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”                                                                -Benjamin Franklin

Feb

4

What To Expect

February 4, 2009 | | Leave a Comment

Ok here is the deal. From this site, which I am putting up due to the great duress applied to me by a friend, I will be blogging mostly about world events, wars, National Government and Libertarianism from a young, former leftist now conservative libertarian perspective.

Check back soon,

Alex


  • RSS Keeping an Eye on Kingsport

    • Tennessee Housing Market – 3rd quarter 2009 November 21, 2009
      Middle Tennessee State University has done a great job analyzing the housing market in Tennessee for the 3th quarter, 2009.  In the link below they give data on employment, permits, repeat sales, mortgage tax collections, transfer tax collections, foreclosures, and inventory. Economic activity contracted again for Tennessee’s economy in the third quarte […]
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    • Tennessee’s October Unemployment Rate 10.5 Percent November 21, 2009
      Seasonally Adjusted Rate Unchanged from September NASHVILLE – Tennessee Commissioner of Labor & Workforce Development James Neeley announced today Tennessee’s unemployment rate for October was 10.5 percent, unchanged from the September rate of 10.5 percent. “While the national unemployment rate increased to 10.2 percent, Tennessee’s unemployment rate h […]
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    • Red Light Camera Wrongly Tickets Woman Who Was Out Of State November 21, 2009
      In another story that ticket camera companies will insist is an isolated incident (despite a new incident seemingly surfacing each week), a Peoria, Illinois woman was sent a ticket that should have gone to another driver. WMBD/WYZZ TV has the story: A Chicago traffic camera could cost you hundreds [...] […]
      Montana
    • Chattanooga: 65,000 applications filed for VW jobs November 21, 2009
      Volkswagen’s Chattanooga operations have received more than 65,000 applications for its local jobs, including 35,000 for production slots. “We are overwhelmed by the response and we are very satisfied with the result. It gives us the confidence that we will be able to hire all the capable and flexible people we need to build our [...] […]
      Montana
    • Los Angeles Red Light Cameras Lead To Increased Accidents November 21, 2009
      Thanks to an excellent piece of investigative journalism by David Goldstein of Los Angeles television station KCAL, motorists are getting the real accident numbers at Los Angeles camera-enforced intersections. The city has claimed that the cameras reduced accidents by 34%, but a little fact-checking proved this assertion wrong: Is it money [...] […]
      Montana
    • Texas: Red Light Camera Company Blocks Referendum November 21, 2009
      Traffic camera vendor temporarily thwarts voter effort to take down red light cameras in College Station, Texas. Jim Ash on November 3A lawsuit funded by a photo enforcement company succeeded yesterday in temporarily blocking the results of the vote to end red light cameras in College Station, Texas. Judge Suzanne Stovall granted a temporary restraining orde […]
      Montana
    • October Revenues for Tennessee November 21, 2009
      NASHVILLE – For the third consecutive month in the fiscal year that began July 1, state tax collections fell below budgeted estimates.  Finance & Administration Commissioner Dave Goetz today announced that state revenue collections for October were $698.2 million, which is 1.53% below October 2008 collections.  October collections reflect consu […]
      Montana
    • Kingsport, TN City Officials Exposed November 21, 2009
      A reader of this blog has submitted information below on the series of events that certain Kingsport city officials took to help out their friends.  In my view, the City of Kingsport should keep it’s nose out of other organizations business.  See previous post on Kingsport’s downtown turf battle.  Mayor Phillips photo is [...] […]
      Montana
    • Photo Enforcement Defeated at the Ballot Box in Texas, Ohio November 21, 2009
      Voters in College Station, Texas as well as Chillicothe and Heath, Ohio vote to ban automated ticketing machines. Voters in three cities sent a clear message to local lawmakers yesterday by adopting charter amendments that ban photo enforcement. In addition to kicking two camera supporters from the city council, 72 percent of those voting in Chillicothe, [.. […]
      Montana
    • International Paper cutting 1,600 jobs, closing plants November 21, 2009
      Permanent closures to reduce IP’s North American capacity by 2.1 million tons MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Oct. 22, 2009 – International Paper (NYSE: IP) today announced plans to close its paper mill and associated operations in Franklin, Va., and its containerboard mills in Pineville, La., and Albany, Ore. The company also announced it would permanently shut down […]
      Montana

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