Arkady's Thoughts

Today America's highest court stood by a decision to maintain the ban on gays serving in the military, a decision that was supported and encouraged by the White House. There are several important issues at play and while I contend that this is an extremely sensitive topic, it is no less a topic that should be openly discussed with out the fear of infringing upon political correctness. First of all, I fail to see how a ban on gay military service is at all constitutional. Whatever happened to individual liberty and freedom? I for one do not approve of the homosexual lifestyle, but this is my own personal conviction and not anything I would ever use to enact policy from. Homosexuality is something an individual is born with, discriminating against sexual orientation is akin to discriminating against skin color. Even if we were to assume that homosexuality is a choice, then under whose authority and under what right can we discriminate against that choice? I choose to be straight, wha...

P resident Obama has finally made a choice for his pick to replace retiring Justice David Souter . A question on every one's mind including those that do not follow politics, is Sonia Sotomayor a good choice? Let me preface by saying that my position on supreme court and the justices that serve there is quite simple. Our country has a piece of document on which this nation was built, this document is called the Constitution and it can be best described as vague. While this nation strives it's best to abide by what is written within the document, often the language can lead to disputes. When no one can determine whether or not laws violate the constitution the burden falls on the supreme court to determine this vital question. Therefore a justice on the supreme court has one task and one task only as far as I am concerned; interpreting the constitution and ensuring our laws are valid. Under no circumstance should our highest court, create laws, for better or worse we have Cong...

I feel compelled to make frivolous commentary regarding the latest spat between former VP Dick Cheney and Mr. Obama. Current topic of conversation? War on terror, a topic that Obama has undoubtedly mastered and fully understood in his short time as the president of this great nation. Positions? Cheney maintains his unwavering stance that dealing with terrorism requires a strong and calculated approach, a recognition of who the enemy is and what they are capable of doing is constantly reiterated and never forgotten. Obama maintains his wavering stance that America is built on certain principles and this "war on terror" is potentially violating these principles, furthermore that our political spectrum has it wrong and only a compromising approach can be a solution to avoid "man-made disasters". Who is winning? Once again, I must apologize to the frivolous nature of this post because I fail to see this as even a battle worthy of commentary. Considering of course the pa...

A video has been circulating around the web and is currently available on YouTube. This is an absolute must watch and demonstrates the complete ineptitude of our government officials. In the video you see the inspector general of the federal reserve board being questioned. She is asked a very simple question, that is - can she explain why the federal reserve balance sheet expanded by one trillion dollars and where that money went. In other words, in the past half a year our federal reserve borrowed roughly one TRILLION dollars and the sole agency responsible for auditing this money has absolutely no clue as to where it is. We are talking about a devastating amount of money that will forever enslave this and further generations with crippling debt. Keep in mind that the entire existence of the federal reserve starting with the creation of this semi-private institution has been questioned for decades now. Due to the work of brilliant men like Milton Friedman and to a lesser extent the ad...

At the heels of one of the worst financial and housing meltdowns in the history of this country, rising unemployment and shrinking GDP the sentiment has surprisingly jumped from doom and gloom to mindless optimism. One does not need to look far to overhear bullish sentiment about the US stock market and little bits of chatter asking hopefully whether this recession is slowing down. Not to be outdone, this irrational exuberance (Greenspan would be proud) goes beyond the local talking heads or financial gurus at the water cooler, our own government hot shots have now proudly announced a reversal in fortune. Both Tim Geithner (tax cheat) and Ben Bernanke ("student" of the Great Depression) have commented on our strong economy and the ability for us to recover. So what is behind this jolly rhetoric and can we deduce any veritas seemingly from the same people who lead us into this debacle in the first place? Regarding pundits, talking heads, 99% of the staff of CNBC and other...

I have embarked on a new reading adventure The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek arguably one of the most notable and influential of the Austrian economists. I plan to dissect this book very carefully and plan to do so here on this blog, perhaps chapter by chapter. I presume it will serve as a reminder during the reading of a difficult text that I must pay attention. As of now this will be one of the more challenging texts that I have tackled on the matter of politics and economics, although this is still principally a political book. I have also somewhat lost appreciation for Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg as I am seeing far too many parallels between the two works. Although Goldberg's message was that of drawing parallels between modern day liberals and fascists, the underlying message seems to resonate largely from Hayek . While I am still in the early stages of the work, some of the focal messages in the book are those that many of us on the right tend to parrot each and ev...

This is probably the best news for Chrysler and long overdue. Propping a failed car company with taxpayer funding is utter nonsense and the Obama administration has wasted time and energy "fueling" GM and Ford. By filing for Chapter 11, Chrysler might have an opportunity to restructure and drop some of the dependencies that lead to the bankruptcy in the first place. The details are unclear as of now, but if Chrysler plans to exist and proceed further then it needs to completely shed itself of it''s union obligations. As of now, the United Auto Workers are holding Chrysler by the proverbial balls and until that hold is released then Chrysler or GM/Ford for that matter will squirm in place and howl in pain. Unions got their teeth and power during the Great Depression armed with legislation stemming from FDR's policies. Unions use strong arm tactics to leverage their demands and siphon profits out of the company's coffers. Worse still, domestic companies ...