Barry Kuzay

Google Starves the Feds; Bloomberg Unleashes its Hate for Freedom

Oct 21, 2010 at 6:52 PM

By Barry Kuzay

Congratulations to Google, Inc. on using tax loopholes to prevent the criminal leech mafia (IRS) from collecting $3.1 billion dollars. Bloomberg has the report, which considers this a travesty rather than a win for liberty. Here is a disgusting excerpt from the article:

Google is “flying a banner of doing no evil, and then they’re perpetrating evil under our noses,” said Abraham J. Briloff, a professor emeritus of accounting at Baruch College in New York who has examined Google’s tax disclosures.
“Who is it that paid for the underlying concept on which they built these billions of dollars of revenues?” Briloff said. “It was paid for by the United States citizenry.”

Wait...what? Google is a government-funded institution? I didn't know this! Oh wait, it isn't. But, here is Bloomberg's [lack of] logic: Google's cofounder Sergey Brin received taxpayer funded scholarships while in college, therefore Google partly belongs to the government.

Alert to college students: Bloomberg is claiming that if you receive any government financial aid in college, any future use of the skills you learned in college belongs partly to the government. Extending this illogic leads to the conclusion that anyone who teaches you something, or pays for you to learn something, can lay partial claim to the fruits of your labor for the rest of your life.

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The Recession is over! Really, it is! Now go buy stuff!

Sep 20, 2010 at 8:06 PM

By Barry Kuzay

The recession is over, at least according to the official version of history as the National Bureau of Economic Research (a private nonprofit group, despite the name) wants to see it. I think if they declare it just a few more times, that will make it happen. Poof.

I am glad I read this article, though, because otherwise I would not have even known that this is only a post-war recession we're experiencing! Luckily the experts are here to inform us:

The December 2007-to-June 2009 recession is two months longer than the two previous longest postwar recessions, in 1973-75 and 1981-82. Between 1945 and 2001, there have been 10 recessions that on average lasted 10 months, according to the NBER.

Notice how the article refers to the panel of experts that came to these conclusions, without naming any of the supposed experts. Not that it matters. The overlords have spoken. I'm just here to grovel and thank their boots for the good news.

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Libertarianism Is Pragmatic

May 13, 2010 at 6:01 PM

By Barry Kuzay

Libertarians often give pragmatists a hard time, and poke fun at supposedly "pragmatic" political solutions. Unfortunately the general public, and the libertarians that poke fun, are dead wrong. They have it absolutely backwards.

First let's be clear about terms. The basic definition of "pragmatic" is

Practical, concerned with making decisions and actions that are useful in practice, not just theory.

The opposite of pragmatic is usually considered to be "idealistic," as opposed to realistic. Moderates poke fun at libertarian solutions for being "idealistic." Again, this is dead wrong.

A society where the right to life, liberty, and property are uncompromisingly upheld is a pragmatic solution. I as a libertarian understand that there will always be murder, theft, corruption, terrorism, and poverty in any society. Maximizing liberty is simply the only moral way to minimize these problems, and it also happens to be the way that minimizes them the most.

The Government Tries to Launch a Balloon

Apr 29, 2010 at 1:54 PM

By Barry Kuzay

From Slashdot:

NASA's latest multimillion-dollar stratosphere-bound balloon launch has gone horribly wrong and crashed into a car, turning it over and narrowly missing two elderly people who were observing the launch. The payload fared worse, reportedly being smashed into a 'thousand pieces.'

Video of their hilarious attempt is available here.

Contrast this with an individual enthusiast who spent just $750 to send a balloon into space and captured images like the one below. NASA then called him and begged him to tell them how he did it.

stratosphere

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RE: Two Sides of the Same Card

Mar 31, 2010 at 3:17 PM

By Barry Kuzay

Bonnie, you got me perusing that interesting website and I came across some more humorous political artwork, but this time in the form of crafts and sculptures! Take a look at the "Dick Cheney Shredding Secret Documents" snowglobe:

Cheney shredding documents

Other amusing, somewhat darkly humorous, items can be found here.

YAL at the Wisconsin C4L 2010 Convention

Mar 29, 2010 at 7:53 PM

By Barry Kuzay

This past weekend I attended the Wisconsin Campaign for Liberty 2010 Annual Convention. What an amazing event! I had the privilege of speaking about YAL at this event (video coming soon), and I tabled for the organization as well. My favorite speakers from the event are Ed Thompson, Tim Nerenz, and of course Austrian economist Yuri Maltsev.

One huge success from this event was fundraising for YAL. At the end of my speech I mentioned that a $10 donation will get you a YAL pocket Constitution with a forward by Ron Paul that appears in no other pocket Constitution. The donations then came pouring in for the rest of the day! Chapters take note: Tabling at a philosophically-friendly event is a great way to raise funds. (Focal point of donations shown below.)

YAL Table

Right to Life, Liberty, and 1Mb Broadband Internet

Oct 14, 2009 at 9:20 PM

By Barry Kuzay

Finland has passed legislation that makes 1Mb (Megabit per second) internet access a legal right starting in July 2010, and Finnish rights will grow to 100Mb in 2015. Huh, and all this time I was thinking that rights never changed!

CNET recalls a similar happening in France:

France, one of a few countries that has made Internet access a human right, did so earlier this year. France's Constitutional Council ruled that Internet access is a basic human right. That said, it stopped short of making "broadband access" a legal right. Finland says that it's the first country to make broadband access a legal right.

It seems the "information superhighway" is the new transcontinental railroad for the government to pour money into, lest us dumb civilians suffer the terrible consequences of our own priorities.

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FBI biometric photo scanning at the DMV

Oct 13, 2009 at 1:01 PM

By Barry Kuzay

AHuxley at Slashdot reports:

DMV

The FBI is getting fast new systems to look at local North Carolina license photos via the DMV. As the FBI is not authorized to collect and store the photos, they use the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles. The system takes seconds to look at chin widths and nose sizes. The expanded technology used on millions of motorist could be rolled out across the USA. The FBI's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System is also getting an upgrade to DNA records, 3-D facial imaging, palm prints and voice scans.

Slashdot is a great site for those who love technology, but more importantly, it seems to be run by libertarians. (They ran quite a few stories on Ron Paul during the presidential campaign.)

Are you a lonely Wisconsinite?

Sep 30, 2009 at 8:22 PM

By Barry Kuzay

Are you a Wisconsin resident looking for a YAL chapter to join? Good news; there are active chapters around the state and I have been planting lots of seeds today to help bring more freedom fighters together! If you live anywhere in Wisconsin, join the statewide coalition. If you are near any of the following campuses, join its Facebook hub. Many of these are newly forming seeds* just planted today.

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Madison Newspaper Covers YAL

Sep 23, 2009 at 6:43 PM

By Barry Kuzay

The largest newspaper on the UW-Madison campus of over 40,000 students, the Badger Herald, published a lengthy and friendly article today about Young Americans for Liberty. Eric Schmidt, a self-described socialist, was inspired to write the article when he saw a YAL table on Constitution Day which reminded him of Young Americans for Freedom of the '60's.

Eric admits in his article: