Sometimes, Thomas Sowell hits it out of the ballpark. He certainly did so with his column today, where he managed to explain how government meddling led to the recent housing and financial crises (in a simpler and shorter way than anyone I know), all the while giving an important lesson in economics.

With regards to the economics lesson, the money section is as follows:

When more cows are needed to produce more milk to make ice cream, then fewer cows will be slaughtered and that means less cowhide available to make baseball gloves. Supply and demand mean that catcher’s mitts are going to cost more.

While this may be easy enough to understand, its implications are completely lost on many people in politics and in the media. If everything is connected to everything else in a market economy, then it makes no sense to have laws and policies that declare some given goal to be a “good thing,” without regard to the repercussions, which spread out in all directions, like waves that spread across a pond when you drop a rock in the water.

In other words, the American people, through the market place, have accepted milk and mitts as "good things" to a certain degree. Now when the government decides that milk, or ethanol, or home ownership, or American cars, or a library is a particularly "good thing" and politicians make speeches about how "we" are going to "make sure" we get more of it, they are by definition taking away from some other part of the economy - sometimes easily visible, sometimes not.

If there is one economics lesson that tremendously helps you to understand all others, it is this. For more info, look at a related chapter in Henry Hazlitt's classic, "Economics in One Lesson." If you have time, you might as well read the entire book online - it is easily accessible here, and for free.

From my column today:

Strangely, all of these valiant reparation attempts by Obama have not been merrily received by the international community. Despite the siren-like beauty of Obama’s words and the incredible extent of his apologies, the Europeans have refused to send additional troops to Afghanistan. North Korea has yet to heed his call for a nuclear-free world. Few countries have volunteered to take on Guantanamo Bay prisoners. Russia is blankly watching as Obama resets relations on his own by abandoning the Central European ballistic-missile defense shield.

The British unilaterally released the man convicted of killing 270 people, including many Americans, in and above Lockerbie, Scotland. Iran is going forward with its goal of acquiring nuclear weapons. The Saudis were hardly swayed by Obama’s gentle request to relax relations with Israel. The Chinese and Indians have yet to sacrifice their economies at Obama’s environmentally-friendly feet. The Israelis and Palestinians are for once united, this time in realizing how inconsequential the American president truly is.

In March, the Pakistanis opposed cooperation with the U.S. by a disturbing margin, 61%-37%. Obama has since achieved the unimaginable by exacerbating that margin to 80%-18% – change we can believe in. Polish newspapers recently shouted “Betrayal! The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back,” after Obama unilaterally withdrew from an American commitment to its European ally. Czech newspapers, equally affronted, echoed the sentiment, writing that “an ally we rely on has betrayed us.” Good thing Obama is repairing Bush’s broken relations!

Read the rest here.

This crime is not an isolated incident. It is a necessity in a socialized system.

No, seriously. Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, joining the likes of Yasser Arafat in discrediting any value the award has. Maybe he managed to disqualify his competitors from the ballot, like he has done all his life.

Oh, the bigotry of low expectations.

The Cato Institute has launched a website that is simply a guide on how to downsize the federal government, department by department. (via CfG)

Long piece, but a good refresher on why capitalism is amazing.

Remember when the Democrats in 2006 complained endlessly about short work weeks on Capitol Hill and promised to work a lot "harder"? So much for that:

After taking control of the House in 2006 — and again when President Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 — Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) boasted that lawmakers would work four or five days a week to bring change to America

But midway through Obama’s first year in office, Hoyer’s House has settled into a more leisurely routine. Members usually arrive for the first vote of the week as the sun sets on Tuesdays, and they’re usually headed back home before it goes down again on Thursdays.

Since the House returned for its fall session on Sept. 8, it has stuck around to vote on a Friday just once: to approve a 5.8 percent increase in Congress’s own budget.

But you know, I've always maintained that short weeks in Congress are usually great weeks, because the less time politicians are on the Hill, the less they will be able to damage the economy with government growth (Rep. Roy Blunt agrees: “Imagine the damage they could do with five-day workweeks.”). I have already written about how there is an inverse correlation between politicians working and economic growth. So, I didn't mind Republicans having short weeks, and I don't mind the Democrats having them now.

What I do have a problem with is that the Democrats were dishonest about it. You want to have short weeks, fine, but don't promise you're going to have full weeks because you know it is what most voters want to hear.

MoveOn.org recently partnered with some of its Hollywood friends to produce the first video below. Non-celebrity commoners responded, frame by frame, in the second video below. Conservatives are really starting to exploit the Internet's opportunities quite thoroughly. Excellent work.

What's most hilarious about this is that it's not a joke.

I love how the guy acts like nothing happened:

Dove Doesn't Make it Through Peace Day - Watch more Funny Videos

Fifty-two right-of-center bloggers, including yours truly, were polled by John Hawkins over at Right Wing News regarding who their least favorite people on the Right are. The top ten are as follows:

10) Meghan McCain (14)
10) Ron Paul (14)
9) Michael Savage (15)
6) Pat Buchanan (16)
6) Charles Johnson (16)
6) Susan Collins (16)
5) David Brooks (17)
3) Lindsey Graham (19)
3) David Frum (19)
2) John McCain (22)
1) Olympia Snowe (26)

See the entire list here.

One of the finest pieces I have read recently, by Victor Davis Hanson.

Last year, scientists thought that the North Pole would melt that very summer. Now, they think it's going to take another 20-30 years.

Wow.

The lesson here is that the government cannot simply pass significant life-altering legislation based on sketchy information and sketchy predictions (remember when they said that their "stimulus" would halt the rise of unemployment at eight percent?). Yet despite the incredible lack of consensus on climate change, U.S. and world governments insist on killing our economy and our freedoms based on the predictions they choose to believe. It is, quite simply, scary.

From my column today:

So who is Obama’s “protectionism” really protecting? It is not protecting Chinese manufacturers. It is not protecting the international community. It is not protecting American car accident victims. It is not protecting American tire installers. It is not protecting American retailers. It is most certainly not protecting American consumers. In fact, it is hurting all of the above, some severely.

Obama is only protecting his labor unions. Which, in his upcoming policy fights, and especially now that ACORN is temporarily out of the picture, he most desperately needs to protect himself.

Read the rest here.

For nearly four years now, I have been writing a column syndicated by North Star Writers Group. The company, and its website, had been designed primarily to attract business from newspapers, and not to expand online.

But now, I am happy to announce some changes. The North Star Writers Group website is no more, and has been replaced by the North Star National, which was launched last week. The National is designed to be primarily an online destination, and features a blogging platform that will include both columns and blog posts from the National's writers (conservative, liberal, and everything in between). The columns will still be syndicated and available for purchase by newspapers, but the operation will be primarily online.

Because of this, I will no longer have a once a week, Monday column schedule. Things will be much more flexible, which is good. For the time being, however, I will still send out my weekly newsletter on Mondays (click here to sign up). And one more thing - in the transition, my old columns are temporarily floating in cyberspace, but we are working on a way to make archives easily accessible. I will let you know when it happens. For now, the "Columns" link on the upper left will only take you to my National archive, which at this point is rather short.

I encourage you to visit the National and poke around a bit!

Oh and by the way, ACORN gets your tax money. Enjoy.

From my column today:

We can, however, agree with one of Biden’s assertions: “The Recovery Act has played a significant role in changing the trajectory of our economy.”

It has. It has dug the nation much further into debt. It has transferred wealth from the job creators to the well-connected. It has enhanced the power of crooked politicians and the coffers of their special interests. It has and will have caused the loss of countless jobs. It has helped increase the unemployment rate to 9.7 percent, already.

This painful reality has been brought to you by Barack Obama. Tax increases, threats of bigger government, egregious federal spending, higher energy costs, and special interest power, all proudly espoused by Obama, do marvels at encouraging layoffs and discouraging new hires.

Happy Lack of Labor Day.

Read the rest here.

I've already written about this, but here's a video for your enjoyment:

From my column today:

Since November, we have heard it from political “strategists” on TV and read it in online commentary: The Republican Party is in trouble. The Republican Party cannot win if it remains the “Party of No.” The Republican Party is “leaderless,” and absolutely must figure out who its “leader” is. The Republican Party must “moderate” its views in order to stand a chance in future elections.

Well, it has been only eight months since the inauguration of the unequivocal “leader” of the “Party of Yes” and his enormous congressional majorities, and, well, he’s not doing so hot. The half-deity at the Democratic Party’s head has seemingly made an impressively concerted effort to force a collapse in his numbers in every single poll, some of which have shown his approval ratings fall below 50 percent and his disapproval ratings in majority territory.

Read the rest here.