The ultimate measure to protect property rights:

A proposed constitutional amendment to abolish property taxes in North Dakota has been approved for the ballot.

Secretary of State Al Jaeger said Friday the initiative had enough petition signatures to qualify for the June 2012 primary election. It will be listed as Measure 2…

As long as there are property taxes, no person owns their property. This is hopefully going to be the first pebble in an avalanche. Cities, counties and States use property taxes as a stealthy way of hitting up the people for ever more money – most people paying their taxes via their mortgage and don’t even realize the increases. But over the years they go up and up and up…and if you don’t pay, they take your property.

Time to put an end to this – both the threat of property loss, as well as the government being able to sneak tax hikes through.

Color me doubtful convinced.

USA! USA! USA!

UPDATE: President says killed in a firefight just today. Hat’s off to the President for ordering the attack and our thanks and prayers for the brave soldiers who carried out the attack.

UPDATE II: Funny how, just now, President Obama notes that we’re at war…first time I can recall him using that word. Here’s another word for you, Mr. President – its called “victory”, and its what we should be shooting for.

UPDATE III: While Obama made it out that it was his superb leadership which brought down bin Laden…it might be that the Pakistani’s just dropped dime on him in order to help us withdraw from Afghanistan – from Hot Air:

Good point from Dave Weigel: Now that we’ve gotten the scalp we wanted the most, the public will probably be even more inclined to support withdrawal from Afghanistan. Which, of course, is what Pakistan’s been after for years. Again, I’m very curious to know just what role their intel services played. Especially if the almost unbelievable detail about where this happened is true.

From The Hill:

…On Sunday Trump said that all the jokes were inappropriate given the problems facing the American people.

“I don’t think the American people are having a good time paying $5 gasoline and their clothing prices doubling and all of the other problems that they’ve got,” Trump said. “You look at what’s happening with food, so I was thinking to myself as they were doing this, the American people are suffering and we’re all having a good time. I think it’s inappropriate in certain respects, but I thought the delivery was good.”…

I have been detecting a level of moral growth in Donald Trump – as a very rich man, he’ll never really know what its like to live middle class or poor, but he’s at least reaching for understanding. That there is something wrong with a bunch of people having a lavish party while people are out of work, suffering from natural disasters, plagued by war and so many other problems is just wrong – it is the act of an out-of-touch Ruling Class. Yes, Trump is a firm member of that class…but there is something dawning there.

Most rich people, you see, are just as Chesterton described them:

Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.

And to be sure, Trump wanted it – and he set himself out to get quite a lot of it. Which is why, on the whole, very rich men don’t usually make it too far in politics. They can get on a bit, but there is a falsity about them – and a clear comprehension by most people that the super-rich simply don’t understand. But Trump seems to be learning – first off, in learning to be pro-life, now in understanding that just because you can live swell, it doesn’t mean you necessarily should.

In the end, there may be a lot more to Donald Trump than a lot of us suspected.

Excellently done – lays it out in an entertaining manner.

From Rasmussen:

Voters continue to believe tax cuts and decreases in government spending will benefit the nation’s economy. But most also still think government spending will go up under the Obama administration.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters say, generally speaking, tax cuts help the economy…

…A plurality (48%) of voters say decreases in government spending will help the economy…

Are you listening, GOP leadership? I’m telling you, this is a fight we can win…the people are on the side of rational fiscal policy. Now is the time to press tax and spending cuts and carry that battle all the way through 2012. Let the Democrats try to justify spending; let the Democrats keep up the “tax the rich” class warfare nonsense – they have already lost the public; no one is listening to them any more.

To win, we need only fight – right is on our side, and it will make us mighty enough to defeat Obama, defeat the Democrats and utterly crush liberalism.

Keep wondering when we’ll hit the bottom of the stupid well – still haven’t; from CNA:

Several atheist, agnostic, and secular humanist organizations are pushing to establish their own U.S. military “chaplaincy” for soldiers. The head of the United States Military Archdiocese thinks the effort may be more about opposing religion than meeting non-believers’ needs.

“The idea of a ‘chaplaincy’ for atheists seems contradictory,” U.S. Military Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio told CNA…

Yeah, no kidding. What will they do? Build a cathedral “No Lady of Nihilism” and meet to discuss the different ways they can not worship God? Its just plain and simple idiotic – for crying out loud, if you don’t believe in God, there’s an end on it: there is nothing else to do. Anything beyond that is just an attempt to irritate people who do believe in God. I don’t believe in the Hindu pantheon…what am I supposed to do other than merely state that? Anything else I might do on the subject would merely irritate people of the Hindu faith…so, why do it?

Just give it a rest, already. You atheists out there are free to believe that you’re smarter than all us dunderheads who believe in God. Smugly believe that and leave us alone.

Answer: 2011 is worse. From Graham Summers at Zero Hedge:

My point with all of this is the following: we have entered a period quite similar to 2008 all over again. Energy and food prices are soaring. And the US Dollar is collapsing.

The only difference is that this time around, the US economy is FAR more fragile than it was in 2008. The average American has far less to fall back on than in 2008. And there are far fewer people with jobs than then.

On top of this, the US debt load and balance sheet is far FAR worse than it was in 2008. We’re running deficits and debt-to-GDP levels comparable to Greece.

In other words, when this mess comes unhinged it’s going to be much, much worse than in 2008. And believe me, it WILL come unhinged…

This has been my view all along – the efforts to stave off the crisis will, in the end, only result in a worse crisis. Remember how we got in to this – borrowing too much while continually running down our ability to create the wealth which be the only way to pay the debt. Since 2008 we’ve just done that same thing, except now on the steroids of massively increased money supply. The bow was over-stretched in 2008, snapped and then was tied back together…now the bow is over-stretched, again, and there is no way to put it back together again when it breaks.

We’re going to have to realize that we can’t have manufactured goods without manufacturing; that we can’t have food without farming; that can’t have investment without saving. There is no free lunch – everything has to be paid for. We’re going to pay for the folly of past 80 years with a bout of poverty and no amount of hopey-changey money-printing is going to alter that fact. And we’re going pay extra for it because we elected a President in 2008 who understands nothing.

Just get ready for it; pay off your bills or otherwise discharge them if the burden is too high. Save as much as you can (I know, in an inflationary time that is hard…but I fully expect deflationary time to follow this…so, saved money will be a great thing). Learn to live with less; give up dreams of a big house, a fancy car and a swank vacation. Get back to church/synagogue/mosque/temple or what have you – regardless of how you slice it up, God is going to be your only certain friend and helper. All of this can and will be endured – and I think a better America will come out of it.

WARNING: Some bad language.

So much for the students of UC Berkeley – how about the rest of you liberals out there? After all, we can’t cut spending, right? But it does have to be paid, doesn’t it?

From USA Today:

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said today he will sign a controversial bill that cuts off government funding to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider.

Indiana will become the first state to take such action.

“I supported this bill from the outset, and the recent addition of language guarding against the spending of tax dollars to support abortions creates no reason to alter my position,” said Daniels, a Republican…

This is a good move for the Governor – not least because, of course, cutting off PP from government funding is just common sense, as well as a requirement for common decency. Additionally, though, if Daniels is thinking about getting in to the 2012 race (and rumors abound that he is), then making this move will go a long way towards placating the pro-life movement. Placates me, at any rate…though I do hope that Daniels takes the matter to heart and fully understands that a tactical retreat on this or that issue is ok, but you can’t really have a truce with the left. Not now, not ever.

From Iowahawk, naturally:

Thousands of celebrating Britons gathered outside Peckham Council House Abbey to toss rice and empty vodka bottles this afternoon, following the gala royal wedding of HRH Tiffany Skinner, Chavesse of Alcester, and Wayne MacDuffie, Grand Ned of Glasgow.

“Blu’y ‘ell, issa roit fookin proppa chushdy bok, innit?” said Manchester great-grandmother Sharron Spebbington, 38, tearfully echoing the thoughts of many while kicking the skull of a unconscious co-celebrant…

I have to say that something rankles me about the whole show yesterday – the vast sums of money expended to put on a show…the tail end of a monarchy, reigning over a dying nation. I mean, I’m sure they’re a nice couple and I hope they have a long, happy life together…but, let’s face some facts here: Brits aren’t having kids, demographically they are heading straight in to decline; whom will William reign over 50 years from now when grandma and dad are finally gone?

The monarchy is, well, kind of fake. Originally imported from Germany in order to forestall the horror of a Catholic monarch, the institution atrophied over the years, leaving Britain entirely at the command of whichever group of politicians got the most votes at the last election. The monarchy plays a role no more important than that of a puppet; a well-programmed robot could do it. If there was something real in the show yesterday, I wouldn’t have minded it…but its play acting by all concerned. Fine for a childrens play, but not for something which is costing tens of millions of dollars.

And imagine how it is for them – having to be perfect at all times, never daring to make a mistake. The press which is slobbering over them right now will turn on them in an instant if it means more ratings or newspaper sales. Kids have to be brought up in a security bubble, always on guard lest some nut out there decide to take a shot. And what future for the couple’s first born? Given the way the royal family is living on in to advanced old age these days, any kid born in 2012 will be lucky to make it to the throne before 2070. A whole life scripted and acted out on a movable stage, with no real opportunity to affect the course of events either in personal life or the life of the nation.

Better to just give it up as a bad job – or start electing the king; at least then the king could have some power and do something useful…and not be chained to the oar for a life time.