News
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- Written by: Octavius Del Monte
- Category: Latest News
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
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The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society. - Mark Skousen, Persuasion versus Force |
Today at work we were discussing the recent news that AT&T will take a $1 Billion dollar non-cash accounting charge as a result of the recent Health Care Act. Surprisingly not many of my coworkers were even aware of this news. We discussed what effect this may have on our pay and benefits. Most of the group expressed their disdain over the Act. However two coworkers wouldn't accept the fact that this Health Care Act is bad for our country.
The first, lets call him Boris, made the argument that this bill will cost AT&T money, but it won't affect our pay or benefits. He is normally an intelligent guy, but when it comes to economics he just doesn't get it. He believes that if AT&T shows a profit then that profit is coming out of our pay. We tried our best to explain to him that when AT&T loses money, they are going to pay their employees less, not more. The same is true of the insurance companies. When insurance mandates increase costs, companies will pass the expenses down to their customers and employees.
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- Written by: pugmaster
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A few years ago, I was watching a story of how the terrorist group Hamas acquired power in the Palestinian territory. While the Fatah faction was busy "governing," it was Hamas and its leaders that were providing social services, health care, social programs, food and money to the poverty stricken Palestinian people. When the call for direct elections came, the Palestinian people elected Hamas to run their territories. It was the classic tale of "you scratch my back and I'll starch yours. "
For many years, the Democratic Party in the United States, in the inner cities, and in Washington, have maintained power by using the Treasury to provide entitlements, regulations, social programs and more to the American people. It started in the 1930s when Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democratic Congress of that era, raided the Treasury to provide relief funds to the down and out, social security, welfare and more. This caused the Democrats to maintain power in the 1930s and early 40s and afterwards for 40 years. This practice continues today.
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- Written by: pugmaster
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Back in the 1950s and 60s, African-Americans stood up and demanded their equality in American society. Thus, the Civil Rights Movement was born. They cried and shouted that the belief of 'separate by equal," and businesses catering to whites only was an abomination, a tyranny and an unjust policy. In the 1960s, with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African-Americans achieved their goal of equality. The United States stood proud.
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- Written by: Tom Palven
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John Locke made the argument that if one person did not have a right to coerce or control another person, that he could not transfer this right, that he did not possess, to a third party. Thus, Locke not only questioned the divine rights of kings and popes, but also the "rights" of democracies. Later, he changed his mind and accepted a version of Thomas Hobbes' "social contract", which was later popularized by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The social contract effectively said that all people are obliged to obey the dictates of whatever political power is in control of a given area, and to "render Caesar's unto Caesar".
Later, Josiah Warren and Lysander Spooner, political activists in the US, argued for Locke's original case, saying that no person could logically delegate a right they did not possess to a third party, and that no group calling itself a government could legitimately claim to have power a person without his or her consent, thus leaving all people as sovereign individuals.
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- Written by: pugmaster
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If I were to ask people where do the rights of Americans come from, what would the reader think that the answer would be? Would the reader say from the Constitution? Would the reader say that it comes from statutes and other laws? Most likely they may answer “yes,” but they are wrong.
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For many years, the United States has always involved itself in the affairs between Israel and the Palestinians. Both sides have literally been dragged to many a peace process by the U.S. only to see that peace has never materialized. Decades after decades, the Israelis have attempted to seek peace and have offered many proposals in that effort, only to see the Palestinians shoot them all down. Yet, time and time again, the United States continues to drag both sides, offering foreign aid to both, all for the purpose of getting an elusive peace plan to the satisfaction of all.
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- Written by: Walter Williams
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Most politicians, and probably most Americans, see health care as a right. Thus, whether a person has the means to pay for medical services or not, he is nonetheless entitled to them. Let's ask ourselves a few questions about this vision.
Say a person, let's call him Harry, suffers from diabetes and he has no means to pay a laboratory for blood work, a doctor for treatment and a pharmacy for medication. Does Harry have a right to XYZ lab's and Dr. Jones' services and a prescription from a pharmacist? And, if those services are not provided without charge, should Harry be able to call for criminal sanctions against those persons for violating his rights to health care?
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
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It is not often that I link to the American Conservative Magazine but I found this article very interesting. Real libertarians do not demand labor protectionism, bigger government bureaucracies and a police state on the border.
Mr. Unz was interviewed on Free Talk Live on Saturday.
Talk TV sensationalists and axe-grinding ideologues have fallen for a myth of immigrant lawlessness.
By Ron Unz
According to Lou Dobbs, "a third of the prison population in this country is estimated to be illegal aliens," and Glenn Beck regularly warns of "an illegal alien crime wave." Congressman Tom Tancredo insists, "The face of illegal immigration on our borders is one of murder, one of drug smuggling, one of vandalism for all the communities along the border, and one of infiltration of people coming into this country for purposes to do us great harm." Michelle Malkin adds an even more terrifying note, calling our borders "open channels not only for illegal aliens and drug smugglers, but terrorists, too." Even as far back as 2000, the highly regarded General Social Survey found that 73 percent of Americans believed that immigration caused higher crime rates, a level of concern considerably greater than fears about job losses or social unity.
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- Written by: Jay Edgar
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Get yer Baileys out! Longtime Reason science correspondent Ronald Bailey will be making two speaking appearances in the greater New York City area next week, at Princeton Univ. and at The New York Salon.
Info on the Princeton gig:
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- Written by: pugmaster
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In 1995, Libertarian Presidential Candidate, Harry Browne wrote a book called Why Government Does Not Work. In it, he wrote his take on issues and offered his proposals on how to solve this nation's challenges. What caught my eye at the time was his proposal in reforming Health Care. I was thinking about his solutions recently when Barack Obama had his Health Care summit at the Blair House.
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Today, I was watching and hearing the Barack Obama Health Care Summit. Republicans and Democrats sat down and discussed the present Health Care bill supported by the President and what they liked and disliked about it all. What caught my eye and ears, was when some members of Congress used sob stories and emotionalism to convince that those who were opposed were "ugly," "insensitive" and "mean-spirited." Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) used a sob story of a farmer who wrote to his office stating that the farmer had difficulty paying for his insurance and for those who work under him (it was later discovered that the farmer in question was a relative of one of the Senator's political aides). Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-NY) used a story of a woman in her district that wrote to her stating that because she cannot afford health insurance, she had to use her dead sister's false teeth instead of getting her own pair. There were other sob stories that were presented at the summit and after a while, I felt nauseous.
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- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
By DEREK HARPER Staff Writer, Press of Atlantic City
Municipalities and schools will no longer be able to charge more for copies of public records than what it costs to copy them, a state appeals court recently ruled.
Open-records advocates applauded the decision.
“You couldn’t possibly say the cost comes out to 75 cents a page” said John Paff, chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party’s Open Government Advocacy Project. “As a libertarian, I know government is inefficient, but I would hope that New Jersey governments can produce a photocopy at least within 10 times the cost of a private vendor.”
Subcategories
NJ Libertarian Blog
Imported from NJ Libertarian News from the published feed
Videos
This is a page of various videos that we have either created or found interesting. Be sure to check out and follow our YouTube page.
Open Government Advocacy Project
The Open Government Advocacy Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to ensure transparency and accountability at all levels of government. Articles posted here are a subset of the work of the committee. For more information visit the Open Government Advocacy Project blog.
If you would like to demand accountability and ensure that your local governing body or school board adheres to the Open Public Records Act we can help you request information from them. Contact John Paff, the project chair here.
Insight New Jersey
NJ government is huge and complex. Private industry is shrinking while the size and cost of government bureacracy continues to grow. The articles posted here provide a guide of the NJ State Government and can be used by citizens and candidates for office to evaluate what departments can be reduced drastically in size.
We'll start with just some of the departments and provide a breakdown on what they do (or purport to do), how many employees they have and how big their budget is.
Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project
The New Jersey Libertarian Party's Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project (“the Project”) seeks to get New Jersey municipalities to repeal loitering ordinances that should have been -- but were not -- repealed when the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice was enacted in 1979. The Project has successfully had loitering ordinances repealed in over 30 towns. For a summary listing of all the towns see Preempted Ordinance Repeal Project page.
Police Accountability Project
The Police Accountability Project is a committee of the NJ Libertarian Party. Its goal is to search out cases of police misconduct, file former Internal Affairs (IA) complaints when appropriate, and to publicize violations of rules and laws by the police. There may be other stories posted on the NJLP Police Internal Affairs Complaint Blog page.
If you would like to help or know of a case we should be looking at, contact the committee at
Legislative Affairs Committee
The Legislative Affairs Committee was created to allow a select core of Volunteers to take action on legislation and policies which directly affects the people of New Jersey.
[INTRO VIDEO - HOSTED ON NJLP STATE YOUTUBE AND EMBEDED HERE]
Staff
Legislative Director and Committee Chair
Volunteers: