Clarkson Energy Homes

David H. Rittgers discusses the importance of treating terrorists as criminals and thugs to be tried and jailed, not warriors or patriots to be worshiped by their comrades.

Here’s an excerpt of a dialog I am having with someone in my local newspaper that I thought was of interest. (I cleaned up a few typos.) Creed wrote:

If we treat drug addiction as a disease, yet legalize drugs, are we not offering up the disease to even more weak-willed persons?

Yes. But protecting weak-willed persons from their own self-destructive behaviors is not a legitimate use of government. I’m addicted to those Little Debbie Swiss Rolls. I know I shouldn’t eat them. They’re little rolls of sugary goodness, but they are detrimental to my health. I don’t think anyone would seriously make the case that making them illegal is a legitimate use of government. BTW, I just ate a whole box of HEB Swiss Rolls while I was writing this reply. [Don't say it. Don't say it.] (more…)

Should a drug user commit murder, rape, theft, assault and fraud while high he or she is still subject to those laws. Driving While Under Influence laws are not dependent on controlled substance laws. Though not through personal trial, I fully understand the destructive nature of drug abuse and the power it can hold over people. I also understand that the law is not a legitimate means to end or curb drug abuse. It is a personal choice that will be changed (or not) by the changing attitude of our society. Ending controlled substance laws will not create a nation of more drug abusers. It will not end any social problems associated with drug abuse. It will not stop drug users who commit murder, rape, theft, assault and fraud from being arrested, tried or imprisoned. It will allow U.S. citizens to pursue their Happiness. A right guaranteed by the founding of our government. A right that all U.S. government officials and all police have sworn to protect and to uphold.

I found this great resource for Storm Shelters. The page illustrates the old web adage that content (and not form) is king. The frames version, for example, keeps removing the menu frame and resorting back to the frame-less version, which has no navigation. A very clunky interface that people are obviously willing to deal with to get this information. I read the storm shelter page with great interest. It has all the stuff I needed for my research into storm shelters and there is another page hidden away that has still more external resources about storm shelters. I don’t know if they are still working, but at least they existed at one time. So what does this have to do with economists? Well, close to the bottom of the page is this little story to illustrate another old adage: Let the buyer beware.

However, this is a good time to remind everyone that there are always “companies” that rush in after a disaster to take advantage of the victims of that disaster. It is sad but true. After Hurricane Andrew struck southern Florida, trucks crammed with jugs of tap water pulled into town, charging exhorbitant [sic] prices for something that, a day or so before, was not even considered valuable. After the ice storm struck Quebec, Canada in January, 1998, the same kind of thing happened. We heard of one person buying a whole truck-load of generators, then trying to peddle them to power-less Canadians at twice the price. There are companies that have products that can be “turned into” storm shelters. They have jumped into the shelter business, adapting these products somewhat. So go by the old adage, “Let the buyer beware!” If you have already decided that you are going to buy a shelter, ask the hard questions before you invest–because it really IS an investment.

The little amateur economist in me keeps pestering me about another old adage. People who excel in one field of study or research do not necessarily have more or better insight in another field which they have not studied or researched well. In this case, these storm shelter experts do not have any better insight into economics, which they have obviously not studied well. The owners of those “trucks crammed with jugs of tap water [that] pulled into town, charging [exorbitant] prices” were well compensated for their risk of negotiating washed out roads, looters and other disaster related dangers. Had they not pulled into town with their high priced water, the town would have had many truckloads less of much needed potable water. The incentive to provide cheaper water to survivors was not lessened by their arrival. The incentive to do better future disaster planning was instilled in the buyers of that high-priced water. The “person buying a whole truck-load of generators, then trying to peddle them to power-less Canadians at twice the price” provided a whole truckload of generators which might never had arrived at the site of the disaster had that person been forced to sell the generators for a more “reasonable” price. The incentive to provide cheaper power to survivors was not lessened by the arrival of that one truckload of generators. The incentive to do better future disaster planning was instilled in the buyers of that high-priced power. Note to self: Avoid supplying extra information about the reasons you are providing information on a web site. Stick to the subjects you know best.

The U.S. President is often called the Leader of the Free World. This is an oxymoron. Free people are able to choose at a whim who their leaders are without being locked into a choice for an arbitrary period of time. Having an elected leader of the free world makes the world less free. True freedom dictates that any person has the freedom to choose their leader or not choose any leader at all. A free person should be allowed to change that leader or elect to follow no leader or to elect to follow multiple leaders at any time. Truly free people would be allowed to follow different leaders. If John wishes to be led by Bob on financial matters and by Sue on political matters it should also be possible for Sue to follow Jean for political matters today and change her leader tomorrow to Sarah. Getting everyone to elect one person as a leader for any set period makes people less free. The President of the United states is not the leader of the free world. No one person is. Freedom requires that we are not bound to the poor decisions we made earlier except when we do so willingly, like under a private contract.

Glenn Beck and Judge Carter go over the latest in the saga of House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel’s failure to pay income taxes. I make a monthly payment to the IRS for back taxes. Perhaps I should call them to take advantage of “The Rangel Rule.”

I ran across a reprint of these questions in The Week That Was by Fred Singer. If you are a Global Warming Apologists you will probably want to skip that second link. It will spoil all your fun. I recently posted a message at 20/20 which mention Erlich’s book. It is not comforting to know President Obama is getting advice from a former disciple of The Population Bomb.

Joining the crowd, President Obama condemned the bankers who paid out bonuses:

President Obama branded Wall Street bankers “shameful” on Thursday for giving themselves nearly $20 billion in bonuses as the economy was deteriorating and the government was spending billions to bail out some of the nation’s most prominent financial institutions.

So, why is he bailing them out?

In a recent newspaper article:

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said of the executives: “I’d like to throw these guys in the brig. … They’re thinking the same old thing that got us here: greed.”

Greedy politicians, who will continue a 200 year trend of spending more money this year than last got us into this economic crisis (and all the one’s before it) and greedy business people are our only chance to get out of it. Let’s not keep depending on greedy politicians to do right by people who have little or no political power. How many times do we have to spend more taxpayer dollars this year than last year before we figure out that it doesn’t work? Let’s try making government smaller. If for no other reason than because we have never tried it before!

This is really amazing to me. President Obama and the DNC have pledged to spend like there is no tomorrow to “fix” the economy. On several occasions, President Obama has pleaded with American youth to get involved with service to their country. Apparently working harder and more productively to pay off the huge debt he and his friends want to burden our youth with is not enough.