Liberty is for me…

Richard makes an excellent point in his comments to Liberty Girl’s post on the cigarette tax. He uses price elasticity to suggest I’m wrong to advocate on behalf of the carbon tax, as I do in the comments section.

Funny enough, The Teaching Company promotes their course on economics with this passage:

If you complete this course and devote some thought to its subject matter, you’ll be able to hold your own any time the discussion turns to economics, whether it’s at your office, in the news, or at the dinner table.

If you hear someone say, for example, “A tax on gas could be a good way of encouraging people to drive less,” you’ll be able to add, knowingly, “Perhaps, but of course, it all depends on the elasticity of demand for gasoline.”

Today in the New York Times there’s a piece on this very issue by Bryan Caplan, GMU economics professor and author of the wonderful book, The Myth of the Rational Voter.

Caplan is in Richard’s camp, advocating for the gas tax holiday. He freely admits, however, that the vast majority of economists agree with me:

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Guess whose birthday it is?

A few hints:

The great aim of the struggle for liberty has been equality before the law.

There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal.

If we wish to preserve a free society, it is essential that we recognize that the desirability of a particular object is not sufficient justification for the use of coercion.

Answer here.

You must watch this CNN video of cops beating three alleged shooters.

This is the story:

Philadelphia city officials said Wednesday the beatings of three suspects, captured on video by a television news crew, were ‘unacceptable,’ and added officers’ emotions are running high after the slaying of a sergeant last week. ‘We certainly are concerned about what we saw on the tape,’ Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

This is the greatest postcard from PostSecert.

This is my secret too.

Hillary loses, I become the first female President and then I can say during the State of the Union Address, eff this bureaucrats.

On Monday, May 12th, the cost of mailing a normal 1 oz. letter will increase a penny - from 41 cents to 42 cents.

NY’s new governor recently approved a new tax of $1.25 on cigarettes. This is on top of its existing tax, $1.50.

The government is making smoking unaffordable, so be prepared to drive to NJ or PA for a pack of smokes.

Better yet, organize a couple of you and your friends to start a black market. Sure it’s illegal but it’s cheaper. In addition, you would be a hero, you wouldn’t let the government steal $2.75 from thousands of smokers.

One of today’s opinions published in the WSJ deals with exactly what I described above, government’s evil action forces markets to find illegal alternatives to keep consumers happy.

While the problem first surfaced during the Great Depression, tax hikes in the early 1960s created a major profit opportunity for smugglers and kicked the epidemic into high gear. By 1967, a quarter of the cigarettes consumed in the Empire State were bootlegged. New York City’s finance administrator labeled cigarette smuggling the “principal stoking facility of the engine of organized crime.”

Crime rapidly spread beyond New York’s borders, as trucks carrying cigarettes across the country were hijacked and businesses selling them robbed to supply New York’s black market. In 1972, the chairman of a New York commission told Congress that retailers and other workers were “confronted almost daily with the risk and dangers of personal violence which are now inherent in their industry.”

Fast food chain McDonald’s Inc. says it will give out millions of free samples of its two new chicken menu items.

On May 15th, the Oak Brook-based restaurant chain will give customers samples of its “Southern style” chicken biscuits and sandwiches.

Customers can get the free lunch and breakfast items when they buy any medium or large drink at the company’s 14,000 U.S. restaurants.

The promotion’s part of McDonald’s efforts to convince customers to try their expanded chicken menu.

H/T: LFS

Today the East Valley Tribune reports on a wonderful story about David slaying Goliath to successfully defend freedom.

Dale Bell just wants to run his family business — a steakhouse called San Tan Flat — with his son, but a ridiculous obsession with dancing has been standing in the way of his American Dream. Apparently, government bureaucrats in his neck of the woods had nothing better to do than dust off an absurd, 60-year-old ban on outdoor dancing just to try to drive a successful entrepreneur out of business by threatening him with over $200,000 a year in fines.

Saying people can sway to the family-friendly music provided at the restaurant, but not move their feet because that would be dancing, rightfully made Pinal County, Arizona, a national laughingstock. Drew Carey did a feature on it with Reason TV; even nationally-syndicated columnist George Will got involved.

Well, it’s official. The dance ban is over and the celebrations can begin! This Friday, San Tan Flat is having a victory party. So, regardless of where you’ll be Friday, do kick up your feet for a bit and celebrate!