The New York Times versus the KKK--Who Hates the Most?

The KKK hates Jews, Blacks, immigrants, Asians, and Obama.

The New York Times hates Republicans, Bush, Christians, Tea Party,  and the Koch brothers.

Who hates the most?  

Read More

Karl Pearson on Environmentalism

"The first aim of any genuine work of science, however popular, ought to be the presentation of such a classification of facts that the reader's mind is irresistibly led to acknowledge a logical sequence —a law which appeals to the reason before it captivates the imagination. Let us be quite sure that whenever we come across a conclusion in a scientific work which does not flow from the classification of facts, or which is not directly stated by the author to be an assumption, then we are dealing with bad science."

Karl Pearson (2008-05-21). THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE (1900) (Kindle Locations 370-375).  . Kindle Edition. 

The Grammar of Science was published in 1900.

Read More

Americans Bid America Farewell

Two pro-freedom friends have told me that they are relocating to foreign countries.  One, the head of an academic department at CUNY, is moving with his wife and 12-year-old daughter to a university in Dubai.  A second, the owner of a diner on Route 28 in Phoenicia, New York, told me that he is moving with his pregnant wife to the Philippines.  Both have numerous reasons for the moves: The former is frustrated with CUNY while the latter's wife is originally from the Philippines.   Both, though, named the American political-and-economic situation as an important consideration.

Benjamin Franklin said, "Where liberty is, there is my country."  Neither the UAE nor the Phillipines is, according to the Heritage Foundation's rankings, freer than the US.   However, I suspect the Heritage Foundation overrates the extent of freedom in the US.

The Heritage Foundation considers five countries as free:


1. Hong Kong  89.3
2. Singapore     88.0
3. Australia      82.6
4. New Zealand  81.4
5. Switzerland    81.1-0

In addition, the ranking lists 30 countries as mostly free:

6	Canada	79.4	-0.5		21	Georgia	72.2	+2.8
7	Chile	79.0	+0.7		22	Lithuania	72.1	+0.6
8	Mauritius	76.9	-0.1		23	Iceland	72.1	+1.2
9	Denmark	76.1	-0.1		24	Japan	71.8	+0.2
10	United States	76.0	-0.3		25	Austria	71.8	+1.5
11	Ireland	75.7	-1.2		26	Macau	71.7	-0.1
12	Bahrain	75.5	+0.3		27	Qatar	71.3	0.0
13	Estonia	75.3	+2.1		28	United Arab Emirates	71.1	+1.8
14	United Kingdom	74.8	+0.7		29	Czech Republic	70.9	+1.0
15	Luxembourg	74.2	-0.3		30	Botswana	70.6	+1.0
16	Finland	74.0	+1.7		31	Norway	70.5	+1.7
17	The Netherlands	73.5	+0.2		32	Saint Lucia	70.4	-0.9
18	Sweden	72.9	+1.2		33	Jordan	70.4	+0.5
19	Germany	72.8	+1.8		34	South Korea	70.3	+0.4
20	Taiwan	72.7	+0.8		35	The Bahamas	70.1	+2.1

The freedom rankings are based  on 10 measures of economic freedom (in parentheses) grouped in to four main headings:

1. Rule of Law (property rights, freedom from corruption);
2. Limited Government (fiscal freedom, government spending);
3. Regulatory Efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom); and
4. Open Markets (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom).

It seems to me that one of the chief freedoms, freedom of exit, is given insufficient weight.  Freedom to flee a renegade state is so crucial to the overall state of freedom that it should be given a broader heading.  Among the mostly free and free countries America comes nearly last with respect to freedom of exit.  Expatriates' income is taxed and those who wish to renounce American citizenship have their retirement accounts taxed; for many Americans this makes exit tantamount to financial suicide.

In America, the median household wealth was $77,300 in 2010 and $126,400 in 2007, according to the New York Times.  According to OECD data, which is probably a few years old:

Household net-adjusted disposable income is the amount of money that a household earns each year after tax. It represents the money available to a household for spending on goods or services. In (the) United States, the average household net-adjusted disposable income is 38 001 USD a year, much higher than the OECD average of 23 047 USD.

Household financial wealth is the total value of a household’s financial worth. In the United States, the average household net financial wealth is estimated at 115 918 USD, much higher than the OECD average of 40 516 USD and the highest figure in the OECD. While the ideal measure of household wealth should include real assets (e.g. land and dwellings), such information is currently available for only a small number of OECD countries.

Much of Americans' wealth is in IRAs and retirement accounts.  That money is taxed upon renunciation of US citizenship.


According to International Living the best places to retire are these:

1.Ecuador	100	95	73	62	72	45	86	96	81
2. Panama	93	100	62	63	77	74	93	69	80
3. Mexico	94	90	68	66	76	59	81	92	79
4. France	78	60	59	81	100	92	100	87	78
5. Italy	85	65	64	85	90	62	100	87	78
6. Uruguay	94	80	64	72	72	61	100	93	77
7. Malta	88	72	66	71	80	52	100	95	76
8. Chile	95	87	60	67	73	73	98	59	76
9. Spain	90	65	56	68	90	66	100	79	75
10. Costa Rica	95	76	62	60	78	60	95	79	75
11. Brazil	92	74	66	61	73	62	83	82	74
12. Argentina	92	60	61	70	82	56	100	91	74
13. Colombia	98	70	68	58	72	44	71	92	73
14. New Zealand	96	55	58	59	86	70	100	84	73
15. U.S.	57	78	57	79	78	100	100	80	73
16. Portugal	72	74	60	72	77	56	100	83	72
17. Australia	57	69	56	58	87	92	100	84	71
18. Belize	83	78	69	58	60	60	82	65	70
19. Malaysia	96	62	66	71	68	44	86	43	69
20. Ireland	78	80	28	81	79	60	100	65	68
21. Nicaragua	98	60	66	57	66	36	69	68	67
22. U.K.	57	80	30	70	84	80	100	66	67
23. Honduras	97	50	65	32	66	40	71	83	64
24. Dom Rep	97	60	58	47	60	40	70	57	63
25. Thailand	92	45	68	65	63	32	60	24

The only country freer than the US that is also a desirable retirement destination is Chile. This makes a choice difficult.  I am thinking of doing a systematic study of the top twenty countries on both lists to draw my own conclusions.  I haven't traveled much, so this would be an enjoyable and useful project.

Read More

Saratoga Says No to Environmental Extremism

I submitted this piece to the Lincoln Eagle this morning. 

Saratoga Says No to Environmental Extremism

Mitchell Langbert

David Chew, a Saratoga freedom fighter, has flung himself into the Agenda 21 maelstrom, and he aims to show Kingston citizens how to resist Mayor Gallo's assaults on your freedom, which include Gallo's Block by Blockheads program and his comprehensive plan now discussed in City Hall under the chairmanship of Alderman at Large James Noble.  

Chew says that, like Saratoga's comprehensive plans, Gallo's comprehensive plan links with Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Cleaner Greener Communities regionalization scheme.  Gov. Cuomo's scheme, which he has funded through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to the tune of $100 million, aims to force you to drive a smaller car and live in a smaller home.  It aims to end the American tradition of electing the officials who govern you, replacing local democracy with regional soviets.  

Chew believes that Saratoga County is a microcosm of what is happening nationally, including in Kingston.  With just under 27,000 in population, Saratoga Springs is about the same size as Kingston.  Just as, under Alderman Noble's leadership, Kingston is discussing adoption of a comprehensive plan linked to the Cleaner Greener Communities program, so has Saratoga Springs adopted one, and Saratoga County is following with its own.   

Chew says that Saratoga Springs has commissioned a 15-member comprehensive planning committee to review and update the city’s present plan.  The Saratoga Springs Comprehensive Planning Committee is stacked with insiders with extremist environmentalist agendas.  A third of the planning committee seats have gone to members of a radical environmental organization, Sustainable Saratoga.   “Sustainable Saratoga submitted an 11-page position paper that contained extreme ideas that are receiving undue attention from the paid consulting firm and the CPC members," Chew says. 

Chew says that another organization, Saratoga Preserving Land and Nature (PLAN), has had undue influence in the comprehensive planning process.  Saratoga PLAN is the local affiliate of the national Land Trust Alliance, and it has an organization member sitting on the comprehensive plan committee. The land trust is in the business of working with federal agencies offering grants and land restriction programs tied to crippling conservation easement contracts, sale of private property development rights, and the acquisition of lands for land-use-management purposes.  The land trusts' stock-in-trade is environmental extremism.   

Alderman Noble's son, Steve Noble, is chair of the Kingston Land Trust, which is listed as a local land trust on the website of the national Land Trust Alliance, the same national organization to which Saratoga Springs PLAN belongs.  As well, Julie Noble is on the comprehensive planning board along with Alderman Noble.  Julie bills herself as an environmental educator.  The Lincoln Eagle has called Alderman Noble for comment.

Chew points out that Saratoga's politicians are increasingly overt about transfer of home rule and local power to regional authorities.  In our region the regional soviet to whom Gov. Cuomo and Mayor Gallo aim to transfer political power is Engage Mid-Hudson; in the Capital Region Cuomo's soviet is called the Sustainable Capital Region. Both key off Agenda 21.  In the Capital Region, "The politicians, including 23 town supervisors, are talking openly of transferring power. The corruption is overt; the message has been reiterated in their minds for many years," says Chew.   

On July 11 and July 15 Chew led two groups of local freedom fighters to comprehensive planning meetings.  On July 11, 25 to 30 local freedom fighters showed up at the comprehensive plan meeting, overwhelming the mere dozen of green insiders.  On July 15 four local freedom fighters appeared, but given that ten green insiders were again present, the freedom fighters constituted nearly a third of those present.  

John Anthony has proposed a sustainable freedom pledge that he suggests all city planners and members of comprehensive plan committees sign.  To make a sustainable freedom pledge, elected officials make a public commitment to maintaining private property rights--the source of your standard of living.  Is Mayor Gallo willing to defend your right to live in your home? 

Some of the members of the Kingston Comprehensive Plan Committee who should sign a sustainable freedom oath are as follows:  James Noble, Julie Noble, Suzanne Cahill, Kyla Haber, Alderwoman Deborah Brown, Alderwoman Mary Ann Mills, Dennis Doyle, Kevin Gilfeather, Toni Roser, Ralph Swenson, Michael Schupp, and Judith Hansen.

Read More

America Needs a News Media

It is unbelievable that a country that has been developed for as long as the United States lacks a reliable information source that people concerned with current events can use to learn about what is occurring at the international, national, regional, and state levels.  At the local level we in Ulster County are blessed with The Lincoln Eagle, Mike Marnell's people's newspaper.  What is wrong with this country that there is no day-to-day information source at the higher levels?  Entrepreneur Marnell should consider going online and taking his Lincoln Eagle idea national.

Read More

Agenda 21--No

PO Box 130

West Shokan, NY 12494

July 19, 2013

Senator Chuck Schumer

322 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC  20510

Dear Senator Schumer:

Agenda 21 is a mistake, and I oppose it and Andrew Cuomo's Leaner and Greener Communities program.  The concept of sustainability is vacuous.  Like freedom and equality, it can mean anything, and it can be used to institute tyranny.  The Agenda 21 document is based on a fallacy:  rich countries are rich because they make poor countries poor.   I don't know what they taught you at Harvard, but if that belief is consistent with what you know, then Harvard made you ignorant.

People become rich for four reasons:   (1) the marginal value of their labor is high because they have skills that make them productive*,   (2) they work hard, (3) they save their money,  and (4) government provides a stable, limited support to their hard work and  saving and does not arbitrarily interfere, steal or redistribute their earnings.   In contrast, the UN claims that people become rich by stealing from the poor.

The US already has a sufficient level of government.  While coordination among governments is a worthy aim, there is no need for the UN to be involved, even if through a non-binding agreement, with economic regulation.  In fact, though, the implementation of the economic illiteracy in Agenda 21 has not been non-binding.  Through policies like Andrew Cuomo's Leaner and Greener Communities program, one of which is Engage Mid-Hudson, government is turning Agenda 21 into law.

Andrew Cuomo's program is based on deception.  The regional leaders have lied and claimed that there was consensus at the meetings, but there was no consensus.  I was present when the leaders of the Engage Mid-Hudson meeting suppressed those who vocally opposed the ideas that the document expresses.   Opponents were not allowed to be involved in the process.   The document is based on a ridiculous aim, 80% reduction in carbon emissions, that cannot be accomplished without major technological breakthroughs and that, if implemented, will create an unsustainable economy that will make New Yorkers poor.  Who wants to live in a country that will support the Leaner and Greener Communities program, a program that establishes regional soviets to implement ignorant, socialist economic strategies?  My ancestors came here to escape tyranny, not to recreate it.  

The UN has no place in the governance of the American economy, and the US should rescind its association with the Agenda 21 document.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D.

*William Lewis observed that the organization of work is a critical factor to national productivity levels.  The phrase "marginal value of labor" assumes that hardworking entrepreneurs have, over a period of time, invented work processes with escalating levels of output. Such improvement cannot be accomplished through government because it depends on the ability to fail, go bankrupt, end programs, and learn--processes that no government can implement.

Read More

Pennsylvania Town Rejects Agenda 21

Lynne Teger forwarded a February Lebanon Daily News (LDN) article about West Cornwall, Pennsylvania's rejection of Agenda 21.  West Cornwall is in southeastern Pennsylvania's Lebanon County. LDN says that the town passed a resolution opposing Agenda 21 and then withdrew from the state's regional plan.  As the article points out, Agenda 21 is a UN-based plan to globalize the world economy and redistribute wealth from more to less economically productive nations' citizens.  It aims to eliminate property rights by imposing taxes that one-percent property owners can easily afford but that those with constrained resources cannot. The United States signed it under George H. W. Bush, and the nation has funded its implementation ever since through the President's Council on Sustainability and, more recently, through a range of government agencies.

In the Empire State, Andrew Cuomo, emperor of economic destruction, has funded 10 regional councils or soviets to implement Agenda 21-based plans.  The regional soviets are Emperor Andrew's first goose-step toward attacking local democracy.  Given the abject failure of the emperor's economic policies, it stands to reason that  His Majesty Il Duce now pursues fascistic environmental policies.  

One of the tactics that proponents of Agenda 21 use is to forestall intelligent conversation by claiming that Agenda 21 does not exist or that it is a "tin foil hat" conspiracy theory.  Such proponents usually have not read the document and have not thought through the implications of global redistribution of wealth and soviet government.

Agenda 21 is no more a conspiracy theory than is the World Trade Organization, NATO, or the UN itself; you can read it here.   Under town plans like the Woodstock, Saugerties, and Olive, New York comprehensive plans, people who live in rural or suburban areas with constrained cash flows or limited means will be the first to see their lifestyles curtailed.  In exchange for escalating taxes and ever-increasing environmental regulation and control, the towns will build cramped urban housing in mixed-use areas. 

Read More