Who We Should Occupy

Salute to John C. Wright, who had this on his blog:

I like this guy. He tells the truth, and he has his head on straight.

One of his points that I'd like to more strongly emphasize is that smaller businesses are crowded out by regulation, and megacorps are the natural adaptation of business to extreme regulation. Furthermore, a megacorp is always going to have an easier time ensuring that no regulations to onerous to survive will affect them, by buying legislators, sending its lackeys as moles into regulatory agencies, or both.

Another is that subsidy and bailouts are theft, not laissez faire or capitalism.

A third is that we in the US also have a central bank, and it's the Federal Reserve. And it is almost entirely outside the law.

I Want This Gun Control!!

Salute to the Pittsford Perennialist:  Some gun control I can give my ringing endorsement!!

Want to know why I'm in favor of this proposal?  Here's the numbers.

Assault Weapons Round-Up!

I could spend a lot of time writing about the new attempts to impose victim disarmament gun control, but others have done it for me, and better than I was likely to do.  So that means it's time for an assault weapons round-up!

First, William M. Briggs, Statistician to the Stars!

Firearm Homicides Dropping.  Assault Weapons Ban Not Correlated With Decrease In Homicides. No Need For New Restrictions.

Darwin Catholic, on the whole matter:

Assault Weapons Part 1:  Battle Rifle to Assault Rifle

Assault Weapons Part 2:  Assault Rifles vs. "Assault Weapons"

Assault Weapons Part 3:  Gun Control

I'll add that beyond target shooting, high capacity semi-automatic battle carbines are the deterrent weapon of choice for (say) a single shop proprietor or home owner, faced with a rioting mob.  This is all the more so if he's using highly frangible rounds, which do not have overpenetration issues.

Proving God's Existence

To all you atheists out there, demanding proof of God's existence: Ask Him for it, and He will provide it to you.

There are, however, some warnings.

• He will grant you this proof only if knowing the truth about His existence is more important to you than anything else.
• The proof He provides will be specific to you, and in all likelihood it will convince nobody else.

Governing Free People

Here is what the government of a free people does.

Why Single Payer Is a Bad Idea

I've long opposed any government takeover of medicine. Harry Mount explains why here. There's an exception to the scenario he paints, of increased demand, reduced resources, longer lines, and surly service -- the politically connected will get moved to the head of the line, and treated with deference, because in a politically controlled system, the politically powerful are in charge.

Salute to Big Pulpit.

What Losing Liberty is Like

You've probably heard increasing tyranny and ratcheting regulation compared to boiling a frog slowly or (to borrow a phrase from an infamous tyrant) slicing away at a salami. But (salute to Donald Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek) there's a far better analogy, more stark, more sobering, more depressing, and more realistic: the Salmon Trap.