Rights -- A Working Definition

Sherry and I went to the NM Progressivist's "Oxford Style Debate" in Santa Fe tonight.  The debate topic, "Cut Education and Public Services or Raise Revenues" was poorly framed, since it left the affirmative a choice.   "The State of New Mexico should raise taxes rather than cut spending," would have been better, but the debaters certainly didn't mind, and their arguments would have fit my restatement just as well.

(Stay with me, I'll get to the definition of Rights... eventually.

Oxford Style Debate: Raise Taxes or Cut Services

For New Mexico, this issue was settled last fall with the election of Susana Martinez and enough Republicans to the State House of Representatives to uphold her veto.  She will veto any tax increases, and that will be that.  But for the looter/planners who live and breathe the leftist atmosphere in Santa Fe, there is need to gather together and vote for their position in front of the cameras.

So below the jump is your chance to foil their dastardly plan of self-gratification.  Go.  Vote your heart and mind.

There will be a vote.  Pack the house.  Tell everybody you know to go and to get there early.

Do it now.  Forward this to everyone in New Mexico you can.

Mitch is The Man

Mitch Daniels is the Republican Governor of Indiana, and a former member of the Bush 42 Administration.  As a governor, and especially as a governor who has shrunk his State government and avoided tax increases in this difficult economy, he has been mentioned as a potential Presidential candidate.

He was invited to address the Conservative Political Action Convention (CPAC) this last weekend. CPAC is put on by the American Conservative Union, and is the biggest conservative wingding of all.

Here you will find the video of the first ten minutes of his speech, and here, the full text.

Nails in the Coffin of Statist Ideas

John Stossel and Robert Samuelson just can't miss.  They keep swinging those big economic freedom hammers and keep hitting those crazy liberty nails right square on their heads, fastening ever tighter the coffin lid on the Obama's preferred state-planned economy.

Here Stossel explains prices as information and their ability to enable spontaneous economic organization.  In a free market, that is.

And here Samuelson explains just how economically dead high speed rail schemes are. 

I really like this paragraph:

Whose Constitution is It?

Ruth Marcus is "bristling" at conservatives who insist that the Constitution has been hijacked by the left and who are out to take it back.  She says " Hey. It's my constitution, too!"

She is leg-tingling proud of Obama for offering up morality -- presumably his and hers -- as the proper authority for government action.  She quotes him as saying

No Newt is Good Newt

Newt Gingrich is on the stump seeking the Republican Party nomination for President -- in all probability, at least.  That's why he was in Iowa touting the green benefits of the heavily subsidized ethanol production industry, though those benefits mostly accrue to that industry itself, and, of course, to its touts like Newt.

He took a swipe at the Wall Street Journal editorial board for pointing out the illogic of the subsidies, and look what he got in return.

It is my belief that we can do much better than Newt and my hope that we will.

The Rule of Law and Individual Liberty

High toned discussions of the American legal system almost always hinge on the phrase "the rule of law."  Lawyers wield the phrase like a cudgel.  But what does it mean?

Generally we accept it to mean that the rule of law protects men from rule by the whims of other men.  How exactly does that work?