Taxing the rich -- again

Michael Barone identifies the reason liberals want to continually tax the producers (rich) in this country in this article "Why liberals like taxing the rich".  He's right!  It has to do with aggregating economic power in the central government while taking it away from individuals and their charities of choice. Barone points out that Alexis de Toqueville made the observation in the 1830's, that what set America apart from his own country (France), was the generosity of spirit of the average American reflected in the charities that flourished all over the land.  It has always been the case that Americans have given freely and generously to charities, much more than in any other country.  Liberals do not like this state of affairs because it limits the state's power and control over the lives of citizens.  The more the rich are taxed and have less to give to charities, the greater the demand for government programs to help the needy and to thereby exercise more control over the lives of everyone.  Herein lies the real danger of electing any liberal to public office,  especially one as doctrinaire as Obama.   Barone concludes that this coming election is critical to preserving the America de Toqueville admired and extolled in his writings.  One has to believe it is the America most Americans would prefer providing they fully understand the motivation and goals of liberals.

Yale in the news

K.C.Johnson, the history professor from L.I.U, does very good work holding out-of-control college administrators'  feet to fire over outrageous policies, including those involving sexual harassment, rape, etc.  Here he looks into the case involving the Yale football quarterback, Patrick Witt,  his application for a Rhodes' scholarship while challenged for some alleged sexually related misbehavior.  This is another example of the influence of the feminists, gay and lesbians, turning colleges into dangerous venues for straight males.  Yale and other "elite" schools had best get these extremists under control or their student bodies are going to look more like gay, lesbian and transgender freak shows than wholesome student bodies since no traditional, "normal" young people would want to go there.  It's no secret that Yale is called the "Gay Ivy" in some circles, the result of pandering to these segments of society with policies such as on display in this article.  It's probably just a matter of time before some student sues one of these schools over freedom of speech issues relating to their draconian politically correct policies.

Gold based currency

Doug French, president of Mises Institute, provides a very concise and convincing history here of why we need to return to a gold based currency.  Fiat currency, managed by central banks, simply doesn't work.  What we've had since the Federal Reserve bank was created in 1913, is a series of booms and busts largely because the government has used the Fed to micromanage the currency and economy.  But if you believe, as many do, that the economy simply cannot be micromanaged by the government, anymore than the weather or climate or sale of soap can be,  then the only question is how to get the government out of the micromanaging business.  How to do this?  Austrian School economists believe the only way is to peg currencies to the price of gold, just as was done prior to central banks.  The argument is that worldwide gold supply historically only increases 1-2% per year and the commodity is "trusted" by people all over the world.  Once currencies are pegged to the price of gold governments cannot pursue destructive programs like deficit spending and unilaterally inflating money supplies without losing their reserve supply of gold and undermining the value of their currency.