Best of The Freedom Pub This Week

This job of bringing you the Best of The Freedom Pub is getting harder every week. It's a good problem to have, and I thank all of our contributors for making the decisions so tough. Help make the decision process even more difficult for me by telling your friends to join us by hitting the "Invite" link in the top right column of The Freedom Pub home page! That said, let's get right to the digest of stuff you would be poorer for having missed (NOTE: I sent this out as an email message to all members of The Freedom Pub, but it apparently didn't take. So I'll be trying that again later.):

In "A Tax Cut Parable – Putting the Bush Tax Cuts in Perspective," Kevin R Mullins wrote: "If you felt the Bush tax cuts were unfair, to put this in perspective, I am adding a story that will make this clear for everyone to understand." And what he makes clear is that the tax cuts for "the rich" are more than fair.

In "California's Shoddy Global Warming Law Springs a Leak," Ben Boychuk draws attention to the Golden Fool's Gold State's economically ruinous "Global Warming Solutions Act." Boychuk wrote for The City Journal in February that "Gov. Schwarzengger would be insane not to suspend the law in the face of record unemployment and a sluggish economic recovery." The only thing that has changed since then is that the justification for suspending the law — and attempts to do just that — have increased.

In "It's time for conservatives and libertarians to end their love affair with Property Taxes," Bruno Behrend offers an informative dissertation justifying putting caps upon, and then cutting, property taxes across the country. You didn't know property taxes were once a major plank of libertarian public policy theory? Me, neither. Read on and learn a lot.

In "Expressing outrage over the obvious display of media bias through the absence of coverage here in Chicago of Heartland's Conference," Nancy J. Thorner wins this week's Longest Headline Award ... (I kid). Still, Thorner "can't reconcile [herself] to the fact that not one newspaper or TV station sent reporters or camera crews to cover the Heartland Institute's 4th International Conference on Climate Change, where 73 distinguished scientists, economists and policy experts from 23 countries were in attendance to present their scientific findings on global warming." So Thorner wrote letters to local Chicago media, and shares them with her fellow Pubbers.

In "Submersible Oil Well Sealing Vehicle," FairDealDaveNH offers an engineer's perspective on plugging the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. If you've been looking for some good information on the challenges of the job, and some interesting solutions, Dave's post is a good place to start reading.

In "Put out the lights ...", Rick Henderson takes a look at the demographic decline that dooms the welfare state in Europe — and, at some point, even the United States if we don't wise up. He quotes the great Lady Thatcher: "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." As Henderson notes: "It appears that the folks over there [in Europe] just have."

In "The Feds Are Coming For Your Bacon," Benjamin Domenech notes with horror, and humor, that the federal government is not satisfied coming after your health care, your car company and your bank. Now, he writes, "the Obama administration is turning its attention to your kitchen." I don't know about Ben, but the government will get my bacon only from my cold, dead and greasy fingers.

In "Political Correctness Ruining Our Nation, Part Two," Rebecca Roy continues a series she started talking about "how we treat the POWs overseas and how it has harmed this nation." In this installment, Roy explores her ideas for a more sensible, non-PC terrorism policy that should have been implemented immediately after 9/11.

In "Memories of Munich, Threats from Iran," Alan Caruba draws a parallel between the West's dealings with Nazi Germany in 1938 and an "Iranian regime [that is] is begging for war." As Caruba notes: "There is simply no way to use diplomacy when you are negotiating with crazy people." He also shares a great Michael Ramirez cartoon.

In "Left-wing Radicals Declare War on John Stossel," PUMABydesign001 shares an email a friend sent him from the "left-wing radical group, Color of Change." Puma writes: "They are of the opinion that both Rand Paul and Fox anchor and libertarian, John Stossel’s views and opinions are racist. The plan, of course, is to deal with Rand Paul in November. However, in the meantime, they are going after John Stossel now by demanding that Rupert Murdoch terminate Stossel for his views." Share the outrage by reading the whole post.

In "What do copyright abolitionists think of David Byrne's beef with Charlie Crist?", Arin Greenwood offers reporting and commentary on the former Talking Heads front man's copyright lawsuit against Florida governor and U.S. Senate hopeful Charlie Crist "for using one of Byrne's excellent songs - Road to Nowhere - in a campaign ad." How does this suit square with the desire of lefties like Byrne to "see copyright law abolished, more or less"? Read Greenwood to find out.

Cheers!

Your Host and Bartender