Mexico Legalizes Drugs

As if enough people weren’t already pissed off at Mexico (or at least Mexicans in the US), Mexico is about to legalize possession of small amounts of drugs, including cocaine.

From my libertarian perspective, this is a good idea. Outlawing drugs hasn’t seemed to work so far, unless you consider violent drug trade to be a success. Where there is demand, there is supply. Better to keep that supply within a legal, regulated, taxed, and open market than drive it into the lawless underworld. And, as has been shown with cigarette smoking, social stigma is much more powerful than law enforcement when it comes to reducing demand, and a lot less expensive and prone to abuse of civil rights.

Increasingly, the US is running against the grain of logic and rationality when it comes to drugs. Big Pharma gets away with creating illnesses out of average human imperfections and then selling powerful drugs as a solution. They even sell amphetamines to children. In light of that, it’s hard to understand why the government would concern itself with consenting adults smoking a little marijuana.

Lately, even Rush Limbaugh should agree.

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Ouch

Ryan Blethen, part of the family that owns the Seattle Times, shows his family’s insecurity over its declining newspaper business. He’s mad at the blog-o-sphere, Google, and Yahoo. Oh, also the usual Seattle bogeyman - corporations. Not much mention of his own newspaper's failings. Meanwhile, his prescription to cure the newspaper industry’s ails is about as incoherent as most of the “opinions” expressed by his newspaper.

Word of advice, Mr. Blethen: If you really cared so much about your newspaper’s contribution to democracy, you would have been much more critical of Ron Sims and Co. for throwing the 2004 election. You would also attempt to pierce conventional wisdom on occasion. Otherwise, your “readers” see through your mixture of political, ideological, and business interests, and seek out information from sources that are more honest about where they are coming from.

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Day of the Worker

While I have stated here that I do not think the solution to stemming the tide of illegal immigration to the United States should involve persecuting poor people who are only looking for work, Monday's planned walk-out and street protests by this population are disconcerting.

The problem with this particular protest, in addition to the fact that it will leave many Americans who were on the fence about immigration annoyed and disturbed, is the day they have chosen. You see, Monday, May 1 is not just any day for illegal Mexican immigrants (Mexicans make up more than 50% of all illegal immigrants). Monday is actually the Day of the Worker in Mexico (it is International Day of the Worker, but as far as Mexicans are concerned, it is a national holiday and "international" does not enter the equation).

This begs the question of why groups of illegal immigrants have chosen this day. Doesn’t this smack just a little too much of solidarity with their country of origin?

Chosing this Mexican holiday is disturbing to most people aware of the significance of the day in Mexico. Among the complaints often heard about illegal immigrants, especially Mexicans, is that they do not seem to be interested in learning the language and assimilating culturally. The rap is that they seem to hang on to their connection to their homeland, even though Mexico let them down and forced them to cross the border in order to find employment.

The choice of the Day of the Worker as the day of protest in the US also suggests to me that various organizations in Mexico, including probably agencies of the Mexican government, are involved in its organization. This yet again indicates that the Mexican government has no qualms about interfering in the internal affairs of the United States. This is particularly ironic since Mexican politicians always expect visiting US presidents to proclaim their respect for Mexican sovereignty.

Well, Mexico does not deserve respect for its sovereignty any longer. They are happy to mess with our internal affairs. Meanwhile, when one looks at the destitute state of most of the Mexican population, it is clear that sovereignty is only for the benefit of the wealthy ruling class of the country. Poor people pour across the border to the north precisely because the ruling oligarchy of Mexico has a lock on the economy, which it slows and stifles for its own benefit. And, exporting unemployed workers is all too much to the liking of the Mexican oligarchy because, if these ambitious Mexicans were not able to risk life and limb to get to the US for work, they might well be on the streets protesting in Mexico.

All told, the only moral action is for the US to begin meddling in Mexican affairs. The US should make genuine efforts to force Mexico to eliminate the privileged status of its feudal lords, knocking down protections for their monopolies, and open opportunity in the Mexican economy to all citizens.

So, while you find yourself annoyed and perhaps alarmed by the illegals marching in the streets on Monday, you may want to contact your representatives in Congress and ask them why they are not doing more to force change on Mexico. They can start by putting some real teeth into their vapid calls on the Mexican government to open up industry to competition. And they can follow that up by constraining use of American capital markets by Mexican oligarchs, such as Carlos Slim.

We have done this before in South Africa, and it helped change that country. It's time to do the same thing to Mexico.

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Paradise in the Making

Don’t be fooled by all that green around you, or those large blue “spots” of something with boats on it, or the white stuff up on the mountains to the east and the west. Ignore the frequent stretches of gray with long periods of odd liquid droplets spraying from the sky.

Seattle is really right smack in the middle of a large desert. For this reason, we should be paying sky-high rates for water.

This, of course, adds to the litany of other high rates we should be paying. Higher sales tax, higher property taxes, higher gas prices, and the most expensive landing fees of any airport in the country by far, and so on.

Stop thinking so rationally. When roads are dilapidated, with a $500 million backlog of repairs and maintenance required, the natural response is to build an expensive tunnel. When current spending commitments are expected to drive a budget into deficit, it is only natural to make more spending commitments. Heeelllooooo! Haven’t you gotten the message?

You deserve it. Look in the mirror. Your behavior needs to be modified. You drive too much. You flush your toilet too much. You do not devote enough hours of the day to sorting your garbage. You eat too many beans.

So, shape up or ship out. Seattle has a plan to replace you. Sky-scrapers full of empty-nest (or never nested) and retired baby boomers, better able to pay inflated prices and more willing to undergo punitive behavioral modification, will replace you. More professional baseball players, football players, and basketball stars, paid by the million, wearing gold chains and conducting TV interviews with snarled lips. More government employees and a dependent class for them to serve.

And, any remaining space will be filled by the mega-rich. Working and middle class families don’t forget to turn the lights out before you leave. You already used up your electricity quota anyway.

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Rome in Seattle?

There is at least one thing about Seattle that is similar to ancient Rome. No, we don’t have much democracy around here like they had back those days. Ron Sims has ruined that by finding votes under desks and stuffed in drawers. We don’t have much political intrigue either. We are a pretty boring lot of Borg, afraid of debate and living in a political environment more akin to an echo chamber.

But, we are like Rome in our propensity to provide public funding for coliseums whose sports teams divert the attention of the masses. Hell, in Roman days, any real city had to have a coliseum. Plenty of money was made by those providing spectacles in those ancient coliseums. The citizens of Rome were placated with the entertainment provided. It was a useful tool of Rome's political leaders that helped to diverst the attention of citizens from the squalid conditions of Rome.

But, hell, let’s just take that one step further. Taxpayers are already in the hole to the tune of $1 billion for stadiums for both baseball and football. Never mind that the owners of these teams are gazillianaires and the players are multi-millionaires. Forget the fact that ticket prices to these stadiums are out of reach for the average member of the working class. No, let’s keep going with this formula. Let us build a third grand coliseum.

Don’t worry that taxpayer money is diverted from things like schools and building roads. Our educational requirements are minimal. We can orient schools towards getting that 1 in a 1,000,000 shot basketball player into pro basketball. He can drive to games in a limo, perhaps with Mayor Nickels in tow, over bumpy roads filled mostly with empty buses (and lots of them, after Sims gets his plan through).

Not many of the taxpayers paying for the stadiums will have the opportunity to attend games of course. $100 tickets will not fit in their budget. But, not to worry, we will attract sports tourism and just generally feel so good about our place in the world as a major city with three sports teams.

And, think of the alternative. What if Bellevue got the Sonics? Think of the fear that would evoke in Seattle's City Hall. With existig and new technology companies, the Eastside is already threatening to become the primary economic engine of the area. The Sonics playing on the Eastside would surely spell an unstoppable move of business eastward and leave Seattle in a state of decline.

The Romans would be proud of Seattle if they saw us today. But, they might also have a warning for us: A little too much spectacle kills empires.

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Mayor Pootles Panics

No Beans Day 

Above average temperatures over the past few days prompted Mayor Nickels, referred to as Mayor “Pootles” by has staff due to his prodigious methane production, to issue a global state of emergency today while being driven in his limo.

Recently, the Mayor sought to correct lower than normal temperatures by eating large amounts of beans. He now suspects his program to have every day be average may have overshot his goal.

“Today is too warm,” he said in his emergency statement. “We have been eating too many beans.”

“I shall stop eating beans.”

“The people shall not eat beans,” he proclaimed.

The Mayor promised that this further refinement in his global warming program would return normal temperatures to Seattle as well as portions of northern Africa.

He then proceeded to scowl at people in their cars while being driven in his limo around the city.

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Convicted

What better than two white boys from a prestigious university that play a sport of privileged kids to serve as sacrificial lambs on the alter of political correctness and orthodox feminist hysteria.

Not all women agree with the cheapening of something as serious as rape, however. See what Kathleen Parker has to say here and Wendy McElroy here.

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The Insatiable Borg

The contrived “controversy” between the rival faith-based environmentalism plans of King County Executive Ron Sims and Mayor Greg Nickels highlights once again the Planck Rule of political debate in Seattle.

The Planck Rule of our fair city is borrowed from Max Planck, the great German physicist of the early 20th century. Max Planck helped usher in the field of quantum physics by defining the Plank Distance, which is the scale at which concepts of gravity and space-time cease to become valid. The Planck Distance, at roughly equal to 1.6 x 10-35 m or about 10-20 times the size of a proton, is unimaginably puny.

Such is the case for the spectrum of political debate in Seattle. An electron can’t fit in the gap between the political perspectives of Seattle’s Borg-landia. Nickels, worshipping at the alter of extreme environmentalism, wants to tax downtown parking and add yet another layer to already high property taxes in Seattle to fund public transportation (and probably his Tunnel of Love). Meanwhile, Sims has a competing proposal to increase the sales tax yet again so that “people can hop on buses like they hop in their cars” and so that “there are so many buses, nobody needs a bus schedule.” Both of these guys scoff at you in your car while they drive around in chauffer driven limos.

The fact that the Seattle Borg politicians were not speaking with exactly the same voice had Nicole Brodeur of the Seattle Times so upset, she devoted a column to the topic. Sadly, nobody in area politics asking the questions that need to be asked. For example, why are there HOV lanes? Does limiting the capacity of highways really discourage people from driving, thus saving gas and reducing pollution? Or, do people drive anyway and actually pollute more because it takes them longer than it should to drive from point A to point B? What trick does Nickels have up his sleeve to divert tax money to doing his own wasteful Big Dig in Seattle? If we need so many more buses, why are they usually empty?

The demise of the monorail project should have sent a message that even Seattle’s sleepy voters eventually wake to dumb and expensive ideas. One can only hope that the insatiable appetite of Borg politicians for your tax dollars will ultimately go too far. Because, until it does, they will always be hungry for more.

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Political House

Occasionally, even the idealistic and emotionally baiting columnists of Seattle newspapers stray into relevant thoughts. The Seattle Times’ Danny Westnut did that by wondering about the high cost of real estate in Seattle. He points out that working class people can no longer afford to buy a home in Seattle. He’s right and it’s even worse than that. Purchasing real estate in Seattle is unaffordable to anyone solidly in the middle class as well.

Westnut could only muster blaming prosperity for the high prices and, of course, did not have a solution. He should have gone the extra step and asked a non-political economist why real estate prices are so high. The answer would have focused on supply and demand.

In fact, recent reports show demand for real estate in Seattle is waning, even while prices continue to rise. Supply, on the other hand, is severely restricted. Supply restrictions are due in part to the simply fact that large cities just run out of space. But, the more important reason is that Mayor Nickels and the Seattle Silly Council are interested in only two types of real estate development.

The first involves condos that are affordable only to the wealthy or to baby boomers nearing retirement or already retired. People that are 50 or older have years of equity building under their belts, started when the real price of a home was not nearly so high, and so they can afford a condo for $1 million or even more. Low income people form the second group, which will have housing subsidized by permitting fees on those luxury condos. Current development plans ensure that those pesky middle class voters, who are skeptical of new taxes and demand performance from public schools, will not grow and will likely shrink.

So, in one group, you have generally reliable voters for Democrats. In the other, you have a dependent class that also reliably votes for Democrats. Among all the proclamations of the political mafia that runs the city, there is nairy a mention of affordability for middle and working class families. In other words, the Seattle real estate market is driven by political imperatives.

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Illegal Immigration Debate is All Wet

As usual, the Seattle Times Danny Westnut willfully confuses legitimate concerns about an illegal immigrant using taxpayer money for things like subsidized housing with xenophobia. Westnut is a perfect example of why it’s so hard to get the political extremes of our society, which are unnaturally forced into a two party duopoly, to discuss anything rationally.

Westnut makes half of a good point, while dismissing the valid points of those upset over an illegal immigrant using scarce resources in a city that makes the pompous claim that it will end homelessness within a decade. By doing nothing more than emotional baiting, he skirts proposing solutions. The inability to have a rational discussion on the topic is bad enough, but what’s worse is the fact that nobody yet seems interested in looking at and solving the source of the problem.

I will not pipe in with anger at illegal immigrants. I can’t find it in myself to drum up hostility towards mostly Mexicans simply because they are poor and desperate for work. These are not people that are consciously part of an international conspiracy to dilute American culture and bring down our republic. They are driven by nothing more than a desire to take care of their families. A small percentage of illegal immigrants engage in criminal activities once in the US, but most work and work hard. And, believe me, these people have less in common with Islamo-fascists than the average American; they are hardly a security risk when it comes to terrorism.

Yes, the people that are upset over illegal immigrants, their employers, and our government’s pathetic inertia on the issue, make many good points. It’s true that illegal immigrants are a drain on social services. It’s also hugely frustrating to see our government enthusiastically enforce laws on American citizens, but then turn around and discuss amnesty for illegal immigrants. If an American citizen, for example, were caught forging an identity document, he or she would be punished severely. There is a threat to our culture as well, in the sense that multi-culturalists encourage both legal and illegal immigrants not to assimilate. Not learning English is the least of the problem, when these immigrants come from a culture of corruption and lawlessness - we want them to learn that these things are not acceptable in the US. So, let’s not pretend that people upset over illegal immigrants do not make good points.

The problem I have with all of this is that nobody has talked about real solutions. Just letting millions of people across the border simply because it “feels bad” to stop them, as Westnut suggests, is no solution. Even within his own circle of silly Seattle idealists, it must be recognized that a stated goal like ending homelessness within a decade can never be achieved if there is a constant supply of new people from a foreign country that are relying on government services and subsidies. At the same time, those that believe that building a wall of some sort, or putting the military on the border, can actually stop illegal immigration, are just as unrealistic. People will do amazing things when they are hungry and seeking opportunity.

Our focus should be on the source of the problem: There is little to no opportunity for 95% of the population of Mexico. This is not simply because the country is poor, but because it is held back by the ruling oligarchy of the country. People like Carlos Slim, with elected government officials in their back pockets, run a feudalistic society that is neither capitalist nor socialist. They limit competition and monopolize all major segments of Mexican industry.

Carlos Slim’s companies, for example, represent more than half of the market capitalization of the Mexican stock exchange and collectively buy more than half of all advertising in the country. Any move made to restrict his monopoly power meets with the threat of bringing down the Bolsa. Any major news media that criticizes him risks loosing 50% of their advertising. Slim is now the third wealthiest person in the world, with a net worth of more than $30 billion, mostly attained through keeping things like telecommunications services in Mexico more expensive than 90% of the world.

When oligarchs constrain economic activity for their own benefit, the overall economy of a country suffers mightily. Costs are raised for all participants. Investment is lowered. Reduced investment constrains employment. So does the fact that monopolies have undue negotiating power over all inputs, including employment.

You want to stop illegal immigration? Start telling Congress that you want the US to force change on Mexico’s oligarchy and the corrupt political system that supports it.

The Mexican government has given the US plenty of openings for involvement in Mexico’s internal affairs. Agencies of the Mexican government provide assistance to people as they illegally cross the border, while the Mexican government seeks to maintain contact with them and promote their identity with Mexico through things like allowing illegal immigrants to vote in Mexico from the US. The recent protests in the US by people carrying Mexican flags could not have happened without some major organizational help from Mexico.

The Mexican oligarchy itself lobbies our Congress while profiting from our open markets. Carlos Slim owns companies with major operations in the US, such as CompUSA, while using the Mexican government to drive Mexican companies supported by US investors into bankruptcy. Ironically, Slim sells Vonage service in the US through CompUSA, while working hard to ensure that the benefits of voice over the Internet do not reach Mexicans. Meanwhile, most of Slim's wealth derives from the fact that the companies he owns and controls trade on US stock exchanges.

Since Mexicans are meddling in our internal affairs, we should not feel hesitant about meddling in Mexico’s. They’ve lost any claim to respect of their “sovereignty.” Respecting Mexican sovereignty amounts to protecting the oligarchy at the expense the poor people it exploits. The most moral thing we can do is knock Mexico’s oligarchy from power and help the country replace feudalism with capitalism.

It’s a lot harder to push around rich and powerful people than it is to pick on the poor. But, in the case of Mexico, that’s what we ought to start doing.

Until then, none of the hysteria centered on illegal immigration from the right or the left amounts to anything. It’s all bull shit. And, it will likely help Carlos Slim move from third to first position on Forbes' list of the wealthiest people in the world.

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Pro-Family?

If you are Republican, and consider yourself a values-based and pro-family voter, you should read the column quoted below.

Many consciences should be burdened with the realization that taxpayer money provides financial incentives to deprive millions of children of their own fathers.

Sometimes you garner more respect if you can admit that one of your "sucesses" was actually a failure.

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Banana Republic Zoning

Once again, the City of Seattle signals its disdain for middle class citizens. The latest development plan will drive middle class folks out of the city, while attracting wealthy baby boomers with a liberal urban bent and more lower income people reliably dependent on government. In fact, Mayor Nickels and the Seattle Silly Counsel brag that this will be the case. Seattle is looking more each day like a Banana Republic.

The plan is quite simple. Allow developers to go as high as they want in the construction of condos, while requiring them to pay a fee to the city to subsidize the construction of low income housing. Meanwhile, the fees paid by developers to the city will help to insure that only pricey luxury condos will be built, well out of the price range of middle class families. So, the city will become even more demographically bi-modal, with extremes of low income young people and high income and older baby boomers, and little in between.

Real-estate experts say conditions are ripe for a surge in downtown high-rises, driven largely by empty-nest baby boomers who want to live near cultural amenities.

..... But Joncas warned that requirements imposed by the council would cut into profits, prompting developers to build mostly luxury housing, rather than less-lucrative apartments and condos for moderate-income residents.

In reality, this deceptive plan is self-serving of the Democrat mafia and their favorite constituency, wealthy liberals that come with no kids (and thus no built in costs for the city). First, older baby boomers will need services, such as maids and the like. Pampered their entire lives, wealthy baby boomers choosing an “urban village” lifestyle will not be happy if left to their own devices. Second, a class of low income people living in subsidized housing not only provides these bratty baby boomers these services, but also ensures the presence of a Democratic voting block.

This is what Nickles’ “urban village” fantasy is all about? Silly me. I thought it was about people living closer to where they work and thus needing to drive less. But, in the anticipated building boom, I don’t see much talk about expanding commercial office space. Just more condos designed to attract retired baby boomers who don’t work anyway, together with a built-in class of people to service them. For those that currently live out in those dreaded suburbs but work downtown, there will be precious little available in their price range. So, commuting will not be abated. If anything, it will be increased, as these condo dwellers and subsidized housing folks stream out of the city to do their shopping at the "big box" retailers the city will not allow in.

In the meantime, don’t be fooled by the Seattle Silly Counsel's plan to “study” building a public school downtown. Head fakes toward improving public schools are only part of the deception. They want you to believe that they care about average people based on their psuedo-concern about low income people. The suggestion is that somehow low income people benefit from living amongst wealthy elitists. You know, “culture” rubs of on them or something. I suppose a miracle of science will cause retired baby boomers to suddenly start procreating again and they will send the results to public schools to mingle with poor kids.

And so, we can once again see that the “sustainable living” jargon of Seattle politicians is a load of crap. Their plans do nothing for middle class workers that currently commute from the suburbs, where they find safe and affordable neighborhoods, to their jobs downtown. Downtown will become a retirement community of pampered people that were not doing much commuting to begin with. Fewer of those annoying middle class people, who care about things like the quality of public schools, decent roads, and access to shopping at reasonable prices, will be around to complain.

The Seattle PI’s Bill Virgin had it right: The productive class will stay in the suburbs and their employers will probably follow. It’s hard to say what Seattle will become, but to get to the commercial center of the Northwest twenty years from now, you’ll likely have to drive East.

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