The Genius Of Milton Friedman

Today marks the 100th birthday of Nobel Prize-winning conservative economist Milton Friedman.  Remember him?  He is the conservative economist that rescued the U.S. economy from President Carter’s stagflation [i.e. rising inflation and unemployment] and gave us Reagan’s recovery miracle.  He led the to disassemble the central planning nightmare that progressives and bureaucrats had inflicted upon this nation.  Many on Wall Street and in the business world believe he is the man who saved capitalism and therefore America.

Here are a few of his observations and ideas on government that should be dusted off and tossed at the left daily:

• “Governments never learn. Only people learn.”
• “If you put the Federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”
• “Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.”
• “I think the government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem and very often makes the problem worse.”
• “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”
• “I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible.”

And then there are his ideas on freedom:

• “Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.”
• “Every friend of freedom… must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence.”
• “A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.”
• “Because we live in a largely free society, we tend to forget how limited is the span of time and the part of the globe for which there has ever been anything like political freedom: the typical state of mankind is tyranny, servitude, and misery.”
• “Life is unfair.”

The progressive left has made an idol of big governance.  They have infiltrated all levels of government and they control the indoctrination of our children.  When they toss the ideas and ideals of great men like Friedman into the dustbin, they add more links to the chains that bind our once-great nation in poverty, stagnation, and ignorance.

Presidential Trivia – Gerald Ford

The Clockwork Conservative

Think you know a lot about the President of the United States?  Let us dig down into the dustbin of history and see what we can find.

Our candidate today is:  Gerald Rudolph “Jerry” Ford, Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.), 38th President of the United States

• Born July 14, 1913 in Omaha, Nebraska
• Died December 26, 2006 in Rancho Mirage, California
• Height: 6’0″
• Childhood and school activities:  Boy Scout and Eagle Scout; captain of high school football team; member of the National Honor Society; member of 1932 and 1933 University of Michigan Wolverines national champion football team; member 1935 Collegiate All-Star football team
• Education:  University of Michigan Bachelor of Arts degree in economics 1935; LL.B. and J.D. from Yale Law School 1941
• Military Service:  United States Navy 1942-1946, final rank Lieutenant Commander
• Civilian profession: Lawyer
• Married to Elizabeth Ann “Betty” Bloomer (April 8, 1918 – July 8, 2011) on October 15, 1948…

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Calvin Coolidge on the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

The Clockwork Conservative

Several Presidents have died on July 4th but Calvin Coolidge was the only to actually be born on that day.  No one knew on that day in 1872 that he would grow up to become the 30th President of the United States.  You cannot attribute the strong, silent, and conservative nature of his person and presidency on the date of his birth.  But perhaps he took some inspiration from that auspicious date and informed his character and philosophy with its import.

On July 5, 1926, President Coolidge delivered an address celebrating the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  He speaks not only on the ideas of individual freedom that are expressed in the document, but also on the spiritual elements that brought these ideas and movement that led to independence being considered at all.  In addition, he explains that to stay prosperous and free we must as a nation return…

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How’s That Gun Control Thing Working Chicago?

I have dear friends that are unfortunate enough to be residents of the PRC (People’s Republic of Chicago).  Under some of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation you might expect them to feel safe and secure on their streets and in their home.  Surely gun crime must be nearly nonexistent after almost a century under their benevolent and wise Democrat overlords politicians.

Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy went to great lengths to promote that illusion on Monday saying that “To date, we’ve had fewer shootings than we had in recent years, and fewer murders than in any year since 1965.”  Unfortunately, reality is a hash mistress.

Hey Jackass: Illustrating Chicago Values is a website that chronicles the true plight of the residents of the PRC.  Having collected internal police department data, their graphics show 2013 YTD homicides are tied with the same YTD period in 2011 and that total shootings are up overall.

If you live in Chicago and are a law-abiding citizen that would like to acquire a firearm to defend yourself, good luck.  YOU are not considered competent enough to be responsible for your own safety.  The taxpayers MUST place their hope in a police department that spews propaganda while relinquishing the security of “unpoliceable” neighborhoods.

Be safe my friends and remember: “when seconds count, the police are just minutes away”.