Another Horror Story about Government-Run Healthcare that Can’t Possibly Be True According to Paul Krugman

Paul Krugman has told us that awful stories about government-run healthcare in Britain “are false.” I guess this means that the media must be dominated by conservative liars, since we keep getting reports about substandard care and needless deaths (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here). And the Boston Globe and Associated Press must be part of this vast right-wing [...]

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♫♪ Rudolph, the Class War Reindeer, Was Part of the 1 Percent ♫♪

Yes, the Christmas season is over, but somebody just sent me this cartoon and it’s worth sharing because it captures the hate-and-envy mentality of the parasite class in Washington. And I probably like it because it is sort of similar to the riding-the-wagon-pulling-the-wagon cartoon drawn by a former Cato intern. And if you like cartoons [...]

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Government Insiders Rip Off Taxpayers…Again

I’ve written many times about politicians and bureaucrats screwing taxpayers with lavish compensation packages, but this story from Philadelphia is jaw dropping. Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco is retiring Friday, but only so she can collect a $478,057 pension check and return to work Monday, when she will be sworn in for her seventh term. Tasco [...]

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Obama Has United the World…in Opposition to Bad U.S. Tax Policy

Last year, I came up with a saying that “Bad Government Policy Begets More Bad Government Policy” and labeled it “Mitchell’s Law” during a bout of narcissism. There are lots of examples of this phenomenon, such as the misguided War on Drugs being a precursor to intrusive, costly, and ineffective money laundering policies. Or how [...]

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What’s Worse, Being Endorsed by a Racist or a Communist?

Because of his semi-frontrunner status in Iowa, Ron Paul is now attracting some negative attention, including the fact that he received a $500 campaign contribution from an avowed racist. Very few people think Paul is biased, but read this article by Steve Horwitz, my grad school classmate. Since I’ve written both supportive and critical posts [...]

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The Poisonous Combination of Wall Street and Washington

Kevin Williamson of National Review is always worth reading, whether he’s kicking Paul Krugman’s behind in a discussion about the Texas economy, explaining supply-side economics, or even when he’s writing misguided things about taxation. But I’m tempted to say that anything he’s written to date pales into insignificance compared to his analysis of the corrupt [...]

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Margaret Thatcher Debunks the Leftist Agenda on Income Equality

The statists are making a big issue out of income inequality, hoping to convince ordinary Americans that redistribution is their only hope for a better life. I’ve explained with a pizza analogy that this is horribly misguided because it falsely assumes the economy is a fixed pie. Simply stated, it doesn’t make sense – or [...]

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Getting Rich While Serving in Congress Isn’t Proof of Corruption, but It Stinks to High Heaven

Mark Twain famously observed that, “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” That’s a generalization, of course, but one that makes a lot of sense. Especially since I’ve written about the sleazy practice of swapping earmarks for campaign cash and also about [...]

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You Can’t Go Wrong When You Combine Self Defense with the Philosophy of Self Reliance

I’ve written a few times about the importance of self defense. And I’m definitely a fan of self reliance. So kudos to Mr. Mothershead, a true American. I especially love his quote: “If he wants money, get a job. Work, like everybody else in this world.” In the spirit of fairness, though, we should say [...]

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Will the Last Job Creator to Leave California Please Turn Off the Lights?

I’ve written before about whether California is the Greece of America, in part because of crazy policies such as overpaid bureaucrats and expensive forms of political correctness, And we all know that California has one of the nation’s greediest governments, imposing confiscatory tax rates on a shrinking pool of productive citizens. So it is hardly [...]

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Rich Statists Exposed as Complete Hypocrites

Welcome Instapundit readers. If you want to know why rich liberals are not just hypocrites, but also wrong, read this post that tries to teach President Obama about the Laffer Curve. ========================================================== I’ve written before about how some leftists have a masochistic desire to pay higher taxes. I’ve also exposed Warren Buffett’s dishonest math, which [...]

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Political Incorrectness for Christmas

Here’s my politically correct Christmas greeting from last year, and here’s the PC version of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas that I posted this year. But what about politically incorrect humor? Okay, even though Christmas already has passed, you’ve twisted my arm. We’ll start with some Christmas music from Achmed the Dead Terrorist. And here’s [...]

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When Government Replaces Santa Claus

Chuck Asay is a superb cartoonist, and he produced one of my all-time favorites, capturing the negative impact of big government. But this one is quite appropriate for today. And if you like that cartoon, you may want to check out this one and these two.

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Santa Claus Arrested Following Joint Investigation by IRS, INS, and FWS

Overseas Americans are not exactly happy that federal law is making their lives so miserable, so I’m not surprised that they seem to be the ones who put together this great parody. =========================================================== U.S. Federal agents arrested Santa Claus earlier today at the North Pole. The United States Department of Fish and Wildlife has arrested [...]

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A Politically Correct Christmas Eve

I’ve written before about Christmas and political correctness, but I think a humorous approach would be good today. Here’s Larry the Cable Guy reading a modernized version of a Christmas tale. Speaking of which, here’s a more elaborate version. ‘Twas the night before Christmas and Santa’s a wreck… How to live in a world that’s [...]

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Since Romney Is Willing to Consider a VAT, Should Libertarians and Conservatives Be Willing to Consider Him?

There’s been a lot of discussion about Mitt Romney’s appeal – or lack thereof – among supporters of limited government. To put it mildly, many libertarians and conservatives are underwhelmed by his less-than-stellar record on healthcare, his weakness on Social Security reform, his anemic list of proposed budget savings, and his reprehensible support for ethanol [...]

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An In-Your-Face Smackdown of Europe’s Bureaucratic Empire

I’m not a big fan of the European bureaucracy. Indeed, I was semi-serious when I stated that Brussels was the “most statist place on the planet.” Which is why I greatly enjoyed this speech by the head of Ryan Air, who ripped the bureaucrats a new you-know-what while speaking at an event sponsored by the [...]

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Can You Identify the Most Egregious Example of Wasteful Spending by the Welfare State?

I’ve commented many times about wasteful government spending, including Social Security bureaucrats spending $700 thousand to party at a luxury resort, HUD bureaucrats giving huge subsidies for welfare recipients to live in upscale neighborhoods, rampant fraud in the unemployment insurance program, and tax dollars being used to subsidize a grown man wearing diapers and living [...]

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Open Your Heart at Christmas and Help a Gun Find a Good Home

I’ve posted some serious videos about the Second Amendment (here, here, and here), and I even got to appear on NRA News to talk about the importance of firearms ownership. But this video should win the marketing prize. By the way, if you’re looking for something more substantive, this powerpoint presentation makes a very strong case for [...]

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What If Obama Ran the North Pole?

This is the time of year when it’s good to post some holiday-themed political humor. In prior years, I’ve shared IRS Christmas gifts and presents from Ben Bernanke. But now we have a video. And if you like that video, you’ll probably want to watch Santa complain about intrusive government.

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Merry Christmas from the TSA

Remember the TSA hokey-pokey song? Well, now the folks at Reason TV have a new song to celebrate the bureaucrats clogging our airports. Here’s another version of the song with even better lyrics (and there’s also another bonus Christmas TSA song at the link).

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European Fiscal Agreements Show that Balanced Budget Rules Mean Higher Taxes, not Smaller Government

I have many frustrations in my life, and near the top of the list is the conservative fixation about balancing the budget. This view is very misguided. Red ink isn’t good, but the fiscal problem in America (as well as Europe, Japan, etc) is that the public sector is too big. Milton Friedman was right [...]

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Political Humor: Jon Corzine’s Airtight Defense

I haven’t said much about the losses/scandal at MF Global. If Jon Corzine or any of his people committed crimes, I hope they spend the rest of their lives in jail, hopefully with big burly biker cellmates. And if this was just a case of bad investments, then I’m glad there was no bailout. Maybe [...]

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Big Government Causes Crime, the Norwegian Version

I’ve written several times about the foolish War on Drugs, which has been about as misguided and ineffective as the government’s War on Poverty. So when I saw a news report about a couple of Swedes getting busted for smuggling 200-plus kilos of contraband into Norway, and then another story about a Russian getting caught [...]

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The Brutal Impact of North Korean Statism

One hopes that the dictator of North Korea suffered greatly before he died. After all, his totalitarian and communist (pardon the redundancy) policies caused untold death and misery. But let’s try to learn an economics lesson. In a previous post, I compared  long-term growth in Hong Kong and Argentina to show the difference between capitalism [...]

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Federal Court Ruling Ignores the Constitution and Gives More Power to the IRS

The tax code is punitive and corrupt, but the economic damage caused by a bad revenue system is just part of the problem. Thanks to a punitive “worldwide” approach to taxation, we have needless conflicts with other nations, leading the United States to side with high-tax governments and persecute low-tax nations. But the impact on [...]

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Der Führer Ist Nicht Happy about the Downgrade

I’ve written a couple of serious posts about the European fiscal crisis, including an explanation of how the problem could be solved and one about the importance of gun ownership in case the pessimists are right and civil society collapses. But something funny would make this day better and this Hitler parody is the best [...]

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Robert Francis Mitchell, 1929-2011

Very sad news from Vermont. My dad passed away last night. He lived a full life and good life, died peacefully, and was surrounded by his wife and seven of his kids at the end. All things considered, a decent way for a bad thing to happen. Although he didn’t seem very interested in politics [...]

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The Latest Batch of Political Jokes from the Late-Night Talk Shows

Newt Gingrich seems to get the most abuse in these jokes, which doesn’t distress me for obvious reasons. Jay Leno: If there is a shutdown, 800,000 nonessential federal employees will be suspended. You know, maybe that’s our budget problem right there. We have 800,000 nonessential federal employees. A new poll shows that, for the very [...]

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Ending American Tax Dollars to the OECD Should Be a Minimal Test of GOP Fiscal Responsibility

I wrote last week about how the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based international bureaucracy, has launched a new campaign to promote class-warfare tax policy. I’ve since learned that the OECD’s effort is even more objectionable than I first reported. For instance, the bureaucrats earlier this month organized a fancy three-day conference in [...]

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