Why Pick on eBooks?

The Justice Department has announced it’s going after eBook publishers.  They allege that these publishers are colluding to keep the price of eBooks up.  There is a great article here that explains exactly why eBooks cost what they do.

I find myself somewhat suspicious of the timing of this latest announcement.  The Justice Dpartment claims that Apple and a number of publishers intentionally tired to raise the price of eBooks. Are eBook prices a great threat to our nation?  No.  I spend a small fortune on eBooks.  I would love to see the price of eBooks drop.  I would also like to see eBooks become more interactive.  I would love to see them really utilize the tablet platform.  However, when I buy an eBook, I decide if the product I am getting is worth the $9.99, $12.99, or more I am paying for.  I am never forced to buy any of these eBooks.  I make a choice to.

However, let’s accept the possibility that a crime has been committed.  Any administration, and any Justice Department can only pursue so many cases.  The Administration and the Justice Department must decide what their priorities are, and prosecute those cases.  I wonder what it says about President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder that they are going after eBook publishers and not looking at these issues:

- On April 3rd, a man walked into Eric Holders voting precinct and obtained Mr Holders primary ballot.  The man (who looks nothing like Eric Holder) even offered to show his ID, which the poll worker wouldn’t look at.  Yet Mr Holder has stated numerous times that there is no need for voter ID laws.

-The  New Black Panthers have offered a bounty for the capture of George Zimmerman.  As of yet, Mr Zimmerman has not been tried and is presumed innocent of any crime.  However, the Black Panthers have been allowed to offer a$10,000 bounty on his head, an illegal activity, without any comment from the Justice Department.

-The Justce Department has stated they are going to look into the actions of the local police  department.  They want to ensure that no civil rights were violated in not arresting George Zimmerman earlier.  Perhaps the Justice Department should also verify that Mr Zimmerman gets a fair trail.

- The Justice Department also seems to be silent on the increasingly violent “Occupy” movement. This weekend, it smashed up a Starbucks andvandalized part of New York City.  I can only wonder what would have happened if this had been part of the Tea Party movement…

Whether this attack on ebooks is a timed distraction or not, it shows the Justice Department, and this administration, isn’t focused on the important issues.  This is just another reason why we need a new President and a new administration this Fall.

Book Review: The Path to Tyranny

Michael Newton’s book,The Path to Tyranny: A History of Free Society’s Descent into Tyranny, traces how a number of the great societies in world history collapsed into tyranny.  Each chapter has one nation that followed this path.  This leads up to the final chapter which discusses the demise of the United States.

Newton covers the descent of Greece, Rome, Israel, Russia, Italy, and Germany.  Much like Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg, Newton establishes certain traits each of these nations have in common before pointing out those same markers in today’s U.S.  In Goldberg’s case, he was talking about individual leaders.  In Newton’s case, he is pointing out a problem with an entire society.

What I found most surprising is that the descent into tyranny for these countries wasn’t really at the hands of an armed revolution.  There were no storm troopers who suddenly appeared on the scene while a new tyrant took control.  The path to tyranny is apparently a self guided one.  These nations started their trip by voting in people who promised to give them more from the government.  In looking at this in Nazi Germany, Newton writes:

The Nazi regime was possibly the most tyrannical in history but, like the Fascists in Italy and Peron in Argentina, they took power primarily through legal means.  That the tyrannical Nazis convinced large portions of the population to vote for them and power was given to them according to the constitution, demonstrates the fragility of freedom and the ease at which tyranny can emerge.

He also writes..

…the Nazis did not magically appear out of nowhere to take over Germany, as many would like to believe.  In three consecutive elections, the Nazis, under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, convinced the German people to give them large pluralities of the vote.

I think there are a number of lessons to take from this book.  First, great nations aren’t conquered, they crumble from within.  Second, there are a number of lessons we as a society should draw from the collapse of other nations.  Theses nations started voting for people or parties who promised to give them more.  The citizens didn’t want a good ruler or president, they wanted to raid the treasury.

In today’s world, we see a lot of this still going on.  There are a number of politicians who want to run on a platform of what they can provide for the voter.  Newton cautions that this leads to citizens giving up freedom for more “perks”.  We should beware of this and look for parties and candidates that can guide the nation in the right direction, and not simply steel the most from the taxpayers for us.

The book is well written and easy to follow. It’s also very thoroughly researched with around 35 to 40% of the book devoted to footnotes and bibliography.  As of this writing, a paperback version costs $12.98 with an e-version going for $8.  As we enter the Presidential election this year, this is a very timely and important read.

Top Stories You Missed While Media Talked about Rush.

The media has spent a lot of time over the last two weeks attacking Rush Limbaugh.  A Georgetown University female student testified to Congress that she spends so much money on birth control that she needs government assistance.  She asked that taxpayers help cover the approximately $1,000 a year she currently spends on contraception.  For this, Rush called the woman a slut.  He has since apologized.  However, the media has covered this so much that you may have missed a few other important news stories from the last few weeks.

Gas is getting more expensive.  If you’ve filled up at your local gas station, you already know this.  However, the news isn’t covering this as much as they did during the last presidential campaign.  As of this writing, the website Gas Buddy reports that gas in the Atlanta area is between $3.59 and $3.99 per gallon depending on where you fill up.  AAA reports that the national average for a gallon of gas is $3.76.  For comparison, four years ago the national average was $3.16.  The most expensive gas has been reported in California at $6.00 a gallon.

Iran is about to get the bomb.  The International Atomic Energy Agency is now warning that Iran may be months (not years) from having a nuclear weapon.  Iran has ramped up their nuclear production in the recent months, is beginning to move production facilities deep underground to avoid a military strike, and is continuing to draw out the negotiations process.   I would argue that they are at the diplomatic table to buy time and not to seriously reduce their nuclear ambitions.  Experts believe that Israel has a very narrow window when it can make a strike against Iran to stop its nuclear program.  Within a few months, Israel must either attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, or trust the United States to protect them if Iran gets a bomb.  While this is going on, the White House has admitted to the Washington Post that, “We’re trying to make the decision to attack as hard as possible for Israel.” If only they showed the same determination to make things difficult for Iran.

Unemployment rose to 9.1%.   Gallup reported that unemployment went up to 9.1% this month.  This is at the same time that many in the media and the White House are trying to convince the public that the US is in a recovery going into the presidential election this year.  Three years ago President Obama famously said that if he hadn’t turned the economy around in three years, he didn’t deserve to be elected to a second term.  At this point four years ago, unemployment was at 5.1%.

The Earth experiences a massive solar flare.  Fox News reports:

The largest solar storm in five years — spawned by a double whammy of flares from the sun — has engulfed the Earth, but scientists say the planet has lucked out, largely missing the predicted dangers.

There was a lot of build up to this storm with forecasts including massive satellite damage.   However, in the end this appears to have only affected a few airline routes.  While I wouldn’t normally report on this here, I think it’s more important than the circus the media created out of Rush calling a woman who wanted others to bear the responsibility of her sexual activities a slut.

How I’m Voting on Super Tuesday

A few weeks ago I wrote to the voters of South Carolina.  In my post, I argued they should be voting for Newt Gingrich.  Super Tuesday is this week, and a number of states will be holding their primary, including my home state of Georgia.  If you had asked me a month ago, I would have told you the same thing I told South Carolina voters:  vote for Newt.   However, a month can change things, especially in politics.  On Tuesday, I will be voting for Rick Santorum.

Last month, I dismissed Santorum because I didn’t think he could get enough voter support to get the GOP nomination.  Recent primaries have proven me wrong.  The current delegate count going into super Tuesday has Romney in the lead, with Santorum in second.  Gingrich and Ron Paul are in third and forth.  If anyone has proven in the last month they can win the nomination, Santorum has.

Additionally, Santorum has been focused through the entire primary process on the most important issue this election cycle, Obamacare.  Obamacare threatens to wreck the U.S. economy.  The President’s promise that taxpayers can keep their insurance policy, if they like it, has proven false.  If Obamacare goes into full effect in 2014, we can say goodbye to the greatest medical care the world has ever known.  Instead, we will all soon be under the governments health care program with Obamacare.

Santorum also has a plan for our economy.  He has a section of his website devoted to his “First 100 Days Economic Freedom Agenda”.  His agenda includes policies such as reigning in the EPA, approving the Keystone Pipeline (and all the domestic jobs that go with it), and balancing the budget.

While Romney and Gingrich have their own economic plans, they have been a little squishy on traditional conservative issues.  Romney has been a successful businessmen, but he has also governed as a moderate.  And both Romney and Gingrich have gone on record supporting the political hoax of catastrophic man made global warming.  Both Romney and Gingrich support some sort of individual mandate when it comes to healthcare.  This part of Obamacare forces individuals to buy insurance simply because they breathe.  A government that can force you to buy insurance for breathing can force you to buy anything it wants.

This election needs to be about repealing Obamacare and improving our economy.  Everything else is a distraction form those two issues.  Rick Santorum has been clear that he is against all of Obamacare through the entire process.  He is the best candidate to hold President Obama to his record and to Obamacare.  Let’s present the voters with a clear choice in November.  Do they want more of Obamacare and the last four years, or do they want to see Obamacare repealed?

A Letter to South Carolina

Dear Voters of South Carolina,

You have a very important weekend ahead of you.  The eyes of the United States will be on you this weekend.  You will cast your votes to help select the GOP nominee who will hopefully defeat President Obama.  I think the best candidate to do that is Newt Gingrich.

Is Newt perfect? No, not even close.  No one is.  There have been a lot of articles written about Newt’s personal life going back to the Clinton years.  As Thomas Sowell has written, “If Newt Gingrich were being nominated for sainthood, many of us would vote very differently from the way we would vote if he were being nominated for a political office.”

Gingrich isn’t the perfect candidate.  He’s not the most conservative politician in the United States.  However, he is at least as conservative as the other candidates.  He also has an impressive list of accomplishments.  I think most political observers would say he is the smartest person in the room among the presidential candidates from both parties.  He deserves credit for engineering the Republican take over of the 1990′s.  He deserves credit for the “budget surplus’s” and the welfare reform of the Clinton years.  I think he is more knowledgeable on domestic and international issues.

A general election would stack up Newt’s record against the President’s record. If you boil President Obama’s record down two or three issues, they’re 1) Obamacare, 2) a terrible economy, and 3) an abysmal foreign policy.  On issue 2 and 3, I honestly believe the GOP candidates that are left will all be a great improvement over the current president.  That leaves Obamacare.

If Mitt Romney is the GOP nominee, then Obamacare is entirely off the table.  ”Romney-care” from Massachusetts  share’s many similarities with Obamacare.  The White House is going to say in a general election that they based Obamacare on Romneycare.  Mitt Romney has failed to distance himself from his Massachusetts health care plan, and has defended his plan over and over.  The American people deserve a debate on Obamacare, and the president deserves to be held accountable for his health care plan, one way or another.

Newt Gingrich isn’t a good candidate for sainthood.  He is a great candidate for President.  He should be your choice for the GOP primary.