More Lies From the LA Times

The headline on Google News reads:

Michele Bachmann confuses John Wayne Gacy with The Duke

I don't even need to read the story to know this is a lie. It's possible, I speculate, that Rep. Bachmann forgot the murderer's real last name. She may have any number of details wrong. But I'd bet the Managing Editor of the LAT dinner at his favorite restaurant that Michelle Bachmann absolutely knows who is the film actor John Wayne and that he is not the infamous murderer.

Which leads me to wonder, as I have so often in the past: Why can't Progressives any longer make up even semi-plausible lies when they try to smear a conservative?

P.S. Ok, I just scanned it. Here's what she said: "Well what I want them to know is just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa. That's the kind of spirit that I have, too," Bachmann told a Fox News reporter.

Here's the LA Times making hay out of the smallest of errors:

One small detail: John Wayne Gacy, the infamous mass murderer is from Waterloo. The Duke, although his parents met in Waterloo, is from Iowa, but from Winterset, nearly three hours away by car.

Shocking!

I'll best she doesn't know the difference between Guiana and Guyana, either. Clearly unfit to be President!

Sheesh.

Don Boudreax's Open Letter to Paul Krugman

Don Boudreaux of Cafe Hayek gives an excellent smackdown of Paul Krugman (albeit far more polite than he deserves). Krugman writes:

if you ask a liberal or a saltwater economist, “What would somebody on the other side of this divide say here? What would their version of it be?” A liberal can do that. A liberal can talk coherently about what the conservative view is because people like me actually do listen. We don’t think it’s right, but we pay enough attention to see what the other person is trying to get at.

The reverse is not true. You try to get someone who is fiercely anti-Keynesian to even explain what a Keynesian economic argument is, they can’t do it. They can’t get it remotely right. Or if you ask a conservative,”What do liberals want?”

You get this bizarre stuff – for example, that liberals want everybody to ride trains, because it makes people more susceptible to collectivism. You just have to look at the realities of the way each side talks and what they know. One side of the picture is open-minded and sceptical. We have views that are different, but they’re arrived at through paying attention. The other side has dogmatic views.

To which Dr. Bordeaux replies:

I’d be obliged to conclude that you in fact, contrary your claim, do not carefully engage the works of non-”liberal” scholars if you insist that “liberal” scholarship is ignored by conservative and libertarian thinkers such as James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, Ronald Coase, Armen Alchian, Harold Demsetz, Anna Schwartz, Gary Becker, Vernon Smith, Leland Yeager, Henry Manne, Deirdre McCloskey, Allan Meltzer, Richard Epstein, Tyler Cowen, Arnold Kling, George Selgin, Lawrence H. White, and James Q. Wilson, to name only a few.

The whole thing, while short, is well worth reading in its entirety, as are many of the comments.

The Odious Dr. Liu

I'm late commenting on it — for reasons I'll explain soon — but we really dodged a bullet when Republicans blocked the nomination of Dr. Gordon Liu for the Ninth Circuit of Appeals. Apart from the damage he would have done there, that job is often considered a stepping stone to the Supreme Court. If you wonder just how big the bullet was, this 2006 quote of his from the Yale Law Journal is enough:

On my account of the Constitution’s citizenship guarantee, federal responsibility logically extends to areas beyond education. Importantly, however, the duty of government cannot be reduced to simply providing the basic necessities of life…

Beyond a minimal safety net, the legislative agenda of equal citizenship should extend to systems of support and opportunity that, like education, provide a foundation for political and economic autonomy and participation. The main pillars of the agenda would include basic employment supports such as expanded health insurance, child care, transportation subsidies, job training, and a robust earned income tax credit.

It's a pity, actually, that Dr. Liu is allowed to teach at U.C. Berkeley's law school, where he may be doing more long-term damage than if he were on the Ninth Circuit.

If we're to reclaim this country from Progressives two things must happen: (1) the State-sponsored educational system must be privatized and returned to reason, and (2) all Progressive judges must be expunged from the courts.

We're still in considerable danger from both those influences, but at least we can claim this one (temporary) victory.

Obama Ignores Inconvenient Laws

Several pundits have commented recently on Obama's soup-thin rationalization for his illegal war in Libya. I share their disgust but I have to say it's utterly unsurprising.

Time after time, the Rationalizer-in-Chief has shown he's completely comfortable ignoring the law when it opposes his wishes.

Early on there was the violation of the GM bondholder's legal rights, a matter of long-established priority in bankruptcy cases. Then there was Holder's racially-motivated refusal to pursue the thugs of the New Black Panther Party. The HHS has issued hundreds of ObamaCare waivers based chiefly on political payback or the Secretary's whims. Recently, the NRLB — itself an illegitimate agency founded on the basis of an unconstitutional labor law — has tried to dictate where Boeing can locate a plant.

The list goes on and on, in every case showing Obama has exactly zero respect for the law when it would constrain what he wants to do. His actions go far beyond pursuing harmful policy with which a rational person might disagree. The man is a plain criminal with nice manners, and nothing in this country is going to go right again until he and his gang are removed from power.

Chilean Volcano Eruption Photos

I don't want to post them out of respect for the copyright owner, but check out these amazing photos of the recent (June 4) Puyehue volcano eruption in Chile.

Even more spectacular than the ones of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland last year. The ash cloud from the one in Chile spread south so far and so thick that flights from Australia to New Zealand were grounded, stranding the renowned Peter Cresswell of Not PC fame. (Serves him right for going all that way for a mere sporting event. :)

Introducing the Center for Individual Freedom

CFIF has some superb writers.

Ashton Ellis has penned a number of fine essays in the past couple of months, and his latest on Rick Perry is in that vein.

But Quin Hillyer's recent discussion of Tim Pawlenty's misstep in not pressing Romney during the recent GOP debates is - to use a word I rarely write - awesome.

And, for a final incentive, I offer CFIF's Question of the Week:

"How many Members of Congress have been expelled from office?"

Sadly, the options from which to choose (9, 20, 52, 103) does not contain the correct answer: Too damn few!