The On-going War Against Nutritional Supplements

The mainstream media has launched yet another scare story about the dangers of nutritional supplements.

It's the same old story that the establishment has been trying to paint for 60 years -- there are no benefits whatsoever from taking supplements and they might even be dangerous.

Politicians who are bought and paid for by Big Pharma have been trying to shut down the nutrition industry for decades (at least since the 1950s). But Americans are just not going along.

There is great evidence that American's eat lousy, unhealthy diets and could benefit greatly from using supplements like B complex, C, and D vitamins and more.

Sure, there are things that are more controversial, but some of the things that were most controversial in the past have proven to be true (like Zink preventing the cold virus from spreading).

That doesn't mean that every controversial thing will be proven to be true.

There are "supplements" that may be dangerous, especially to our liver. So we need to be very careful. This is why we need an open marketplace of information to make decisions, not government control which obscures information.

The latest politically sponsored crap from the "mainstream" media about nutritional supplements is nothing more than another attempt in a 60+ year long campaign to frighten Americans into submission to the politicians (who don't know squat about this) and the big pharmaceutical companies (who have a vested interest in keeping you unhealthy and dependent on their drugs).

We should give this latest nonsense the attention that it deserves.

Freedom in America

I make a lot of comments about public policy. I mostly comment on economic issues.

I normally don't like to comment on social issues, but there were a couple of related social issues that surfaced last week that have potentially huge economic implications, so I will comment.

- The Arts & Entertainment Network suspended the star of Duck Dynasty for expressing his religious views that homosexuality is a sin.

- At the same time, East-side Catholic High School (in Sammamish, WA) terminated a Vice Principal for marrying his gay boyfriend.

I have great friends on both sides who are up in arms about these situations.

In 2012, I voted to legalize homosexual marriage in Washington.  The reason I did so was the same reason I voted to make Affirmative Action illegal in Washington State many years ago.  Namely, the government has no business whatsoever in discriminating against anyone.

However, the situations at A&E and East-side Catholic High School have nothing to so with government discrimination.

The issues here are about property rights.

Both the Arts & Entertainment Network and East-side Catholic High School should have every right to employ or not employ anyone they please.

We as individuals might not like the business decisions made by those organizations.  If don't like them, we every right to not do business with them and even organize boycotts against them.

This is called freedom.

People on all sides who want to force their views on others should be viewed with a lot of skepticism.

Lesson Learned: Facts + Perspective = Truth

Huge snow storm in the Midwest.

In Seattle, snow = driving to one of the passes to have some fun on the ski slops.

To me growing up in Michigan, snow = my dad hollering at me because I'm not shoveling fast enough to clear to sidewalk and driveway...

It's funny how one's perspective can be so different even on something so simple as snow.

Yet another point on how the "public" (government monopoly) schools fail our kids

There are 3 million jobs going begging in American today, even though 20 million people are unemployed or under-employed. Unfortunately, Americans don't have the skills to fill these jobs.

This is entirely the fault of the government.

The public (government monopoly) school system has failed our kids in two different ways:

First, it doesn't provide the math and science background needed for the best and brightest to enter science, math, engineering, or computer science programs in college.

Second, it completely fails everyone else by allowing people to slack off for three or four years in high school, taking worthless classes when they should be learning a vocational skill that could provide them a living.

The government is spending tons of money promoting kids to run up huge debts pursuing college degrees in worthless majors, when we should be pointing these kids to vocations in manufacturing technology, auto mechanics, carpentry, and other well paying trades.

Anyone who calls themselves a "conservative" or "libertarian" needs to understand that our rotten education system is the root of our problems as society.

How Government Programs HURT the Poor

You are a factory worker  in New Jersey who was laid off.  Or maybe you are an immigrant from the Dominican Republic.

You have a car. You get it inspected.  You get your Chauffeur's License.

Can you open a business in New York City?

NO.

New York City places severe restrictions on who can own a taxi company,

Today, it cost about $1 million to enter the taxi business in New York,

Who can afford this?

How does this help the poor?:

Government restrictions like this are why the poor and middle class are no longer upwardly mobile.

The Democrats Doesn't Have a Mandate to Spend, the GOP Has a Mandate to Reform

While driving today, I heard a great interview with Rand Paul.

He has it exactly right.

This was not a blow out election.  It wasn't even close to a blow out.

It was 51% versus 48%.  1% went to an ex-GOP governor (Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate) who wanted even less government than Romney.

The far left are trying to claim some kind of mandate for more government, when they have none.

Over the last couple of election cycles, the Republican party has elected some great people, like Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Marco Rubio.  They have also nominated some complete morons, like the Witch of Delaware and the Rape kooks in Illinois and Missouri.

Obama's reelection team did a great job using the very few GOP losers to paint the entire GOP in a negative light.

Hat's off to the Obama team for being able to elevate someone who sat is Reverend Wright's church for 20 years listening to Wright "damn America" as the "moderate" in this election. It is truly the largest triumph of propaganda  versus reality in several decades.  From a skills perspective, they are the best.   With regards to the future of America...  not so good...

Yes, the GOP establishment are dumber than dirt in understanding how to talk to Asians and Latinos.  The GOP's lack of basic outreach to many people who are natural allies has enabled the left to claim that the GOP are full of racists.

I am married to an Asian woman.  My mom was also an immigrant, from Germany.

I understand that most immigrants come here to fulfill their dreams.  Unfortunately, the ranks of GOP voters are filled with people who just don't understand this.

Even though close to a majority of American's now collect government checks, the American values of individual liberty and responsibility still ring true to our hearts.  Yes, some people are content to let the government take of them, but most people hate being in this situation.

Romney just didn't get this, and that was a big part of the problem.

In spite of the GOP's idiocy, it was still basically a 51% / 49%.  That is not a mandate to destroy America.

The Stupid Party Ready to Strike Again

News outlets are reporting that GOP Senator Saxby Chambliss is ready to cave into Democrats and go along with their tax increases.

As predicted, the Republicans will agree to immediate specific tax increases in exchange for some unspecific promises for some unspecified spending cuts at some undetermined future date.   Of course, the spending cuts will never materialize.

The GOP has done it before.  They will do it again.

This is why the GOP is known as the Stupid Party.