Blog Founder's Manifesto

The creators of this blog, well, they have a few opinions (reasonable right-wing ones). Just give you a sense of what they are, we have composed the following. We believe not only that these views are correct, but that politicians, if they would adopt them, would get elected. However, we're open to reasoned disagreement:


I. Rights Generally.

A. You have a right to be able to try. That's it. You do not have a right to obtain any specific result. That's as fair as life will be, and government policy cannot change this.

B. We believe generally in a libertarian social culture, except for certain limited issues that have proven over very long periods of time to help maintain stability and health of the culture.

1. So: We would allow banning of certain drug use, but mostly in a decriminalized/fine/regulatory manner vs. expending crime-fighting resources on the problem

2. We do not have the right to prevent your being a nonbeliever, a hippie, or a pervert with other consenting adults. But you do not have a right to be so damned flagrant about your deviance, because a hundred plus years of common mores have proven to provide healthy social glue.

3. The government has no obligation to save you from yourself, your ignorance, or your idiocy.
a. Milton Friedman was correct, however, in noting that government information and labeling (i.e., reminding you that something is idiotic) is a wise use of government power to promote perfect information in the capitalistic marketplace.

C. We believe there is no federal constitutional right to life to death, or, for that matter, to "choose." Having said that, neither the states nor the federal government has any business telling adults when Dr. Jones can pull the plug on us or when you can decide to have a D&C with a non-viable unborn child inside you. But hey, let's not kid each other: you're killing something in such circumstances. Life is hard.

D. You do not have right to health care, or to food, or to a place to live.

1. Though government should promote private and charitable efforts to ameliorate your suffering when you are without these things.

E. You do not have a right to a job. You also do not have a federal right to a safe job, though the States should police the workplace where individuals cannot easily find information themselves on which to base employment decisions. But someone needs to mine that coal, and no, farm workers are not entitled to Port-a-Johns.

F. In order to protect our citizenry and our borders, the federal government shall have plenary authority to perform domestic and international intelligence activities so long as such are performed in a manner that does not discriminate based on a citizen's race (racial discrimination being expressly prohibited by the Constitution – and no, other categories are intentionally not listed and don't even get us started on the equal protection clause) – so long as there is confidential congressional oversight over such activities.

G. The death penalty is cruel, but it takes defective members of society out of the equation without taxpayers having to feed them in perpetuity. Consequently, there shall be a death penalty as Congress and the several States shall deem fit. You get one run of appeals up the state and federal ladder, but one run only, and judges must put your case to the front of the line.

1. You do not have the right to have your punishment devoid of pain.

F. You do not have a federal right to an education of any type or quality. The federal government should not subsidize education, K-12 or college, in any way. Except that the government may contract with soldiers to pay for their college tuition if they are shot are for a suffiently long period of time.

G. You have an absolute right to own firearms, including automatic weapons, so long as you are not convicted felon. The government, however, has the right to impose the death penalty against you if you leave the trigger lock off your weapon and some kid picks it up and gets hurt.

II. Foreign Policy and National Defense.

We believe in a foreign and national defense policy that is:

A. Only rarely interventionist,

B. One that will intervene to stop "genocide" and the like only when treatied allies in the geographic region at issue request assistance to stop the action in question and cannot stop the action themselves. Otherwise, we must sit back and pray about it and/or join the Red Cross, but the U.S. government stays the heck out of the situation,

C. One that generally respects the internal political integrity of other nations, even when we disagree with those governments (and if we do not follow this rule, we do so in secret and no, we do not even tell our own citizenry about it),

D. One that does not use interference with free-market economics as a weapon of foreign policy, but one that will use free-market economics to induce peaceful and democratic change around the world (i.e., we do not tie free trade to "human rights," but we also can promise to buy more cheap flags from your factories if you allow the six-year old employees to have lunch),

E. One that will react fiercely, decisively, and permit only outright and overwhelming military victory in response to direct attacks on U.S. citizens, U.S. lands or troops, or the citizenry, lands, or troops of treaty-bound U.S. allies,

F. One that will not use military action to enforce alleged "rights" for those in other nations that are acknowledged above not to be rights for our own people,

G. One that will provide rights to actual or suspected non-citizen combatants that are no greater than those we want provided to our own combatants in enemy hands,

1. The Geneva Conventions only apply to recognized nations that can and do sign such treaties.

H. One that will use federal budget dollars for any given year to maintain a preparedness to meet the worst military threat (i) that is reasonably foreseeable, or (ii) equivalent to the worst surprise threat that occurred to our country's interests in the past 50 years, whichever is greater,

I. Convicted traitors shall be shot or hanged, at the election of their captors.

III. Proper Function of Government.
A. We believe that the federal government should not fund art. It may build federal museums where private parties may donate funds to display art, but it should not fund art creation or content. If it does, then the federal government has the right to dictate content, since it paid for such content. But in no circumstance is the government required to permit the display in public spaces of deviant items as described in Item I(B) above.

1. No government should fund television and radio programming, except for CSPAN and state and local equivalents (though we are in fact ashamed to acknowledge the propriety of even funding CSPAN).

B. We believe that the federal government should fund medical and scientific research only when there is a "market failure" (i.e., no single private entity has an economic incentive or ability to capitalize the venture). And only when such failure is demonstrated over an extended period of time, e.g. a decade, sudden plagues excepted.

C. We believe that the federal government should not provide pensions, health care, or payments for living expenses to any individuals except:

i. for those military veterans with whom the government has a social compact.

ii. for those for whom there is a wide cultural consensus that neither they nor their families are financially or physically able to care for themselves (such as those born with severe physical or mental disabilities), though these responsibilities should primarily be borne by the States. No, being raised by a single mom in the 'Hood or in a Trailer Park does not qualify you. Being born with a parasitic twin attached to you does.

D. We believe the current Social Security System should never be expanded. Current retirees and those persons actuarially in the second half of their careers can play out the game as it is presently constituted, and we must pay them what is promised, indexed no more than for inflation, but as for the rest of the nation, you have been forewarned.

A. We recognize that as a result of this policy, in the future, there will be a rare few who will starve. But we also believe that, in the future, no matter what, there will always be a rare few who will starve.

IV. Energy Policy and the Environment.

A. We believe that the federal government should lease all its natural resources to the marketplace for use by the citizens (excepting only those national lands current designated as parks and also physically occupiable and habitable by humans). Otherwise, the federal government should stay out of the subject, except to say "yes" to new attempts to create energy sources.

B. The federal government should have the right to regulate emissions and the like that cross state borders, but not because of global warming fears, but because a country that looks like China during a workday commute is a public nuisance and should be abated for aethestic if no other reason. The standard for such regulation is not elimination of pollution, but to maintain emissions consistent with presently implemented state of the art technologies prevailing at any given time in the industrialized world.

1. This means, e.g., yes to mufflers, maybe to catalytic converters, but don't go requiring hybrids or ethanol until folks want Toyota to build them without government incentives.

V. Space.

A. Because it is cool and makes our enemies in the world fearful of us, yes, go there at taxpayer expense until there is sufficient market capitalization to make private market exploration feasible.

VI. Immigration.

A. A free flow of labor being necessary to the well being of a free state, immigration policies shall be tremendously liberalized to allow the honest, hardworking nanny or landscaper as much access to the American dream as the honest, hardworking robotics engineer. But the States should use the power to tax in order to insure that public resource use by such persons is compensated by the employers or consumers who benefit from these immigrants (i.e., the government may act to prevent what economists call a "free rider" problem).

B. Persons entering or leaving the country, be they citizen or alien, shall consent to the most invasive background check and security investigations imaginable in consideration of their privilege to cross the borders.

1. Violators will be shot on sight.

VII. Taxes, Spending, and Economic Policy.

A. The 16th Amendment providing for taxes on incomes should be repealed and replaced by a consumption tax.

B. There shall be no tax on corporations, partnerships, or other non-human entities.

C. There shall be no tax on savings, investment, estates, inheritance, and/or capital gains.

D. All economic policies should be geared toward support and encouragement of the engines of growth rather than on distribution of wealth or the fruits of labors.

Respectfully submitted.

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