Thursday, March 20, 2014

Ordered Liberty, State Religions and the Pedagogical Aspects of Law

Both libertarians and (American) conservatives find considerable value in social constructs outside government to encourage and enforce social goals through social means. Conservatives call limited government plus a large number of groups like churches, professional societies, charities, open source initiatives and so on, working generally together, but often at cross purposes, "ordered liberty". Libertarians like "ordered liberty" also, but with less order and more liberty.

Tribal leaders, feudalists, certain kinds of monarchists (examples are German but not British, in my opinion), progressives, socialists, fascists and Marxists tend to make all those social groups part of the government. This difference is particularly noticeable with regard to religion. Tribal leaders, feudal leaders, monarchs and Marxists tend to regard people outside the state religion as disloyal. (Actually, I just realized, so do American progressives, whose religion is progressivism.)

Conservatives are more likely than libertarians to embrace the pedagogical aspects of law. This conservative would prefer that more crimes be dealt with by parking ticket style fines. For example I would have relatively small fines (max $100) for using drugs but none for selling drugs (except to minors). I would have fairly large fines for engaging a prostitute ($500 to $1000) but none for prostituting itself (except to minors). I would have similar fines for adultery, including for married same sex couples. I'm a big fan of alienation of affection lawsuits (i.e. sue the home wrecker). This preserves the pedagogical aspects of law while minimizing many of the horrible side effects of throwing people in jail. Someone less conservative and more libertarian than I would skip both the fines and the law in the cases I mentioned.

Sunday, March 02, 2014

Did You Know That Part Of The League Of Women Voters Is A 501 (c)(3)?

Many Tea Party organizations were trying to organize as social welfare non-profit organization, or 501 (c)(3) organizations, like the Sierra Club Foundation.
Gifts made directly to The Sierra Club Foundation are tax-deductible and provide funding for the charitable activities of the Sierra Club. Those activities include research, public education on environmental issues, publications, presentation of testimony before administrative and regulatory agencies, environmental litigation, and volunteer training. The Sierra Club Foundation was established on July 13, 1960 as the sole source of tax-deductible support to the Sierra Club.
Some these Tea Party organizations wanted to teach history, for example. According to the I.R.S. social welfare organizations are allowed to spend up to half their time and money on political activity. That makes sense, since our absolutely huge government has it's very large nose in every aspect of our social welfare. It would be impossible for them to be apolitical.

Did You Know That Part Of The League Of Women Voters Is A 501 (c)(3)? It's their education fund.
The League of Women Voters Education Fund (LWVEF) is a 501 (c)(3) citizen education and research organization. Established in 1957, the Education Fund provides research, publications and forums on public policy issues and disseminates information and training that helps citizens be thoughtfully engaged in the democratic process.
In communities across the nation, Leagues are well known for providing voters with factual, nonpartisan information on candidates and ballot issues. State and local Leagues are also known for hosting citizen educational forums on critical public policy issues of the day.
In short, the League is well recognized for its ability to make complex and controversial issues accessible to the nonexpert citizen in a balanced manner, for its ability to gather citizens with diverse views, and for its expertise as a trainer of community leaders and activists.
The I.R.S. has had no problems with the League of Women Voters Education Fund being a 501 (c)(3) since 1957. Look at that list of activities. Would you describe it as apolitical?

The I.R.S. was and is harassing the Tea Party illegally, immorally and unethically. It's plain.

Saturday, March 01, 2014

I Knew Obama And Reid Were Corrupt - I Had No Idea It Was This Bad

President Obama and Senator Harry Reid claim that they can't work with the Republican House. I knew that the House had passed bills which helped Obama extend the Obamacare deadlines, but I thought there must be some provision in the bills that Obama could object to. Then I found the bill linked below, which the Republicans passed in July. I read it. It has to be one of the simplest bills I have ever read. All it does is change dates to extend deadlines. That's all. There isn't one poison pill. There isn't one change to the substance of Obamacare. Zero. Zilch. Nada. So why is Reid sitting on it? Why are Obama and Reid lying about the Republicans? Clearly, they can work with the Republicans in the House. They just don't want to.

Bill Text - 113th Congress (2013-2014) - THOMAS (Library of Congress)