Say it Ain't So, Joe

Ted Mondale (yes, that Mondale) says the assertion that the new Minnesota Vikings' stadium is $50 million over budget is "patently false." Well, good...for a minute there I was worried. Then again, what's $50 million when you've already thrown in half a billion.

The country's been on a stadium building binge the last few decades and these billions in Keynesian stimulus have done nothing for the economy as a whole--and (as the WSJ graphic shows) have done very little for the sports leagues or teams themselves. Talk about corporate welfare--if we can't collectively say 'no' to billionaire owners and millionaire players--not to mentioned, pampered fans, then we can't quit subsidizing anything and may as well 'throw in the towel.' Sorry, but it's as simple as guns and butter--if you spend it on sports stadia you're not letting the private sector invest it in something more productive.

Folks, all the subsidies in the world won't make something economically viable that isn't; and that which is economically viable doesn't need the subsidies in the first place.

The Real Fourth of July

The 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence did not put their 'lives, fortunes, and sacred honor' on the line to preserve food stamps, corporate welfare, farm subsidies, public pensions, Obamacare, the EPA, and the Dept. of Housing & Urban Development. No, they decided, according to Ben Franklin, to 'hang together...or hang separately' so that 'a wise and frugal government,' as Jefferson put it, 'which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.' Celebrating the 4th of July is more than a blind loyalty to flag and country--rather, it is a devotion to those ideals they once stood for.

Silencing the Donald--And the Rest of Us.

"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best...They're sending people that have lots of problems...They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

It matters not one iota what Donald Trump said about Mexican immigrants--what matters in a free country is the apparently forgotten quote from Voltaire: "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."

Now if America's spineless corporations want to disassociate with the outspoken mogul now running for President, that's surely their prerogative. Indeed, you can now add Macy's to NBC Universal when compiling the list of brave businesses running for the politically correct hills the first time an activist group robocalls them. Of course, the interesting question now is: which large media company living off the First Amendment will step forward to defend Trump? None, I suspect. NBC and the rest of the networks (MTV) would rather show children how to 'twerk' than allow anyone to hear what the facts clearly point out--no matter how offensive the delivery (one FBI study revealed 75 percent of those on the most wanted criminals list in Los Angeles, Phoenix and Albuquerque were illegals).

But whether Trump was right or wrong misses the one salient point: liberals in this country want to silence anyone who does not agree with them. That's just plain scary. And if you don't think it can get worse than pusillanimous corporate boards forcing a CEO like Brendan Eich (the fellow who invented JavaScript) to resign from Mozilla because he supported traditional marriage via Prop. 8 in California, think again. The mayors of Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco put free speech in the crosshairs by trying to deny city permits to Chick-fil-A due to CEO Dan Cathy's religious views. Now comes New York commisar Bill de Blasio who wants to undo binding contracts with the Trump organization all because he didn't like what the Donald said.

What's next, the IRS going after the Tea Party?

It's bad enough when the thought police in the private sector exercise their censorious impulses, but it's flat out unconstitutional when the government does. So much so that Sens. Chuck Schumer and Tom Udall want to change the First Amendment to allow government to regulate political speech from anyone who's not employed by their allies in the press. This is dangerous territory folks and we'd better, in the words of that great patriot, Barney Fife, 'nip it in the bud' before it's too late.