Anti-Positivist

It fits him quite well. -- Jim

From a reader (lack of formatting is due to my laziness -- but it is what it is):

CIVIL CASE DETAIL


CASE NUMBER TYPE of CASE STATUS DATE FILED

09 CV 016429 OTHER CIVIL ACTIVE 11/03/2009

JUDGE COURTROOM

KIMBERLY COCROFT COURTROOM 7A
369 SOUTH HIGH STREET
7TH FLOOR
COLUMBUS, OH 43215

PLAINTIFF(S)

Name Attorney
TULLER SQUARE NORTHPOINTE LLC EMILY J JACKSON

DEFENDANT(S)

Name Attorney
DELAWARE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS NO ATTORNEY ON RECORD
DELAWARE COUNTY AUDITOR GEORGE KAITSA NO ATTORNEY ON RECORD

CASE SCHEDULE

Date Description
11/03/09 CASE FILED

When Todd Hanks was county auditor, he took liberties with his statutory authority, and guess who ends up paying? You and me -- the taxpayers.

Hanks ... wallowing from one mess to another. Sounds like a certain type of animal. Can you guess which one.

The following was obtained by a reader via a public records request.

From: Betts, Christopher
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 12:11 PM
To: Kaitsa, George
Cc: Owen, William
Subject: BMV Lease

Auditor Kaitsa:

This email responds to the voicemail you left for me last evening (7-9-09). In your voicemail, you requested that I provide you with authority supporting the invalidity of the lease for the BMV space with Tuller Square Northpointe LLC. Specifically, you asked for authority supporting why the signature on the lease of Former County Auditor Todd Hanks was insufficient to create a valid lease.

As you are aware, a county and a county auditor are creatures of statute. In other words, they are both created by statute and, as a result, have only the authority specifically bestowed upon them by statute. Relative to the current circumstances, this means that the Ohio Revised Code would need to specifically grant authority to a county auditor to sign a lease for office space. I am unaware of any statute that provides such authority. Thus, the county auditor, on his or her own, lacks authority to enter a lease for office space.

The board of county commissioners, pursuant to RC 307.02, has the authority to acquire office space for county offices, including office space for the county auditor. This means that the board of county commissioners must approve any lease for office space. Given that only the board of commissioners, not the county auditor, has such authority and that the lease was not approved or signed by the commissioners, the lease is invalid.

Hopefully this information is helpful. Should you have any questions or need anything further, please feel free to contact me. Thanks.

Sincerely,

Christopher D. Betts
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney
Delaware County Prosecuting Attorney's Office
140 North Sandusky Street, 3rd Floor
Delaware, Ohio 43015
Telephone: (740) 833-2690
Facsimile: (740) 833-2689

It will be interesting to watch this play out over the next weeks and months. -- Jim

From the Delaware Gazette:

County corrections officer under investigation
Friday, November 13, 2009
By MELISSA MACKEY
Staff Writer

The director of the Delaware County jail is on unpaid administrative leave pending an internal investigation by the Delaware County Sheriff on allegations of misconduct.

Sheriff Walter L. Davis II suspended Christopher L. Smith, 34, Monday and ordered him to turn in his handgun and badge and to not visit the jail or the sheriff’s office.

A letter in Smith’s personnel file states that he is being investigated for violation of office policies concerning non-discrimination and harassment.

The letter also states that Smith should have no contact with the person who filed a complaint against him and with employees of two companies that provide health care services at the jail. The investigation stems from an anonymous letter sent to county officials earlier this week.

The investigation is not a criminal investigation, a sheriff’s office spokesperson said.

Delaware County Commission president Tommy Thompson said he did not receive a copy of the letter about Smith, but heard about the situation from other county officials.

“Any information that was received or accusations have been handed over to the sheriff who is investigating it,” Thompson said.

The sheriff’s office also declined to talk about the existence of the letter and its contents due to the investigation.

Smith, who earns $51,002 a year as jail director, was hired at the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office in March 2008 after working for the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office for 10 years. Smith does not have any disciplinary actions on file with the Morrow County sheriff, according to his personnel file.

Smith was honorably discharged for unsatisfactory performance from the United States Air Force Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, according to a certificate of release from the Air Force.

In an annual performance review dated Nov. 7, 2008 for the jail administration supervisor position Smith held prior to jail director, Smith’s superior wrote that Smith “needs to be mindful of his nonproductive activities to be able to complete daily tasks.”

Delaware County Commissioner Todd Hanks declined comment for this story, citing the ongoing investigation.

Delaware County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office projects coordinator Traci Whittaker declined to comment on whether the case was being looked at by the prosecutor’s office and referred all comments to the sheriff’s office.

Delaware County Commissioner Ken O’Brien and Smith could not immediately be reached for comment.

mmackey@delgazette.com

Thanks to fellow bloggers RonMcK at Blessed Economist and Steve Scott at From the Pew for doing the heavy lifting on Christian issues, especially their research on biblical insights in the study of economics.

These two bloggers make it tough to write on Christian topics as they grab hold of their subjects with vigor and polish. Excellent writing. Check them out when you get the chance, you'll learn something and really enjoy yourself.

Note: In addition, Blessed Economist has an excellent blogroll that links to many other interesting and informative sites. One site of note is KingdomWatcher's series on Christian Economics.

From a recent edition of the Email Update from the Future of Freedom Foundation:

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that, if it is comfort or money it values more, it will lose that too.

— William Somerset Maugham [1941]

The Marxists over at Teachers College Record -- the propaganda arm of the Teachers College of Columbia University -- (inter alia) dream of a command and control society. To foster that dream, those folks work tirelessly toward the goal of indoctrinating all children into the religion of the state -- the state's true religion.

Note: When these folks (including Scholz) use the term "nation," they are not referring those who pay taxes. No, they are referring to the social apparatus of coercion and compulsion (politicians and bureaucrats) that has arrogated our rights and our property, and desires to arrogate our families. Will WE abrogate with a sigh?

From Sally Scholz's review of Public Education--America's Civil Religion: A Social History over at TCRecord.org:

Education in every era, the authors suggest, is the primary instrument in fostering civil religion. The Pledge of Allegiance is the most prominent statement of the creed. When it was first written in the early 1890s, the Pledge commemorated Christopher Columbus’ landing 400 years earlier. The Pledge soon became a “national rite” and a centerpiece of our civil religion. Schools fostered national solidarity and although the growing sense of nation-pride may have started with the simple rite of the Pledge, Bankston and Caldas show how holidays celebrating American heroes like Washington and Lincoln took on the aura of holy days in the civil religion, uniting fellow countrymen and women in a collective expression of faith in the nation. They offer a stirring summary of the development of these elements of ritual for our civil religion: “By the end of World War I, the nondenominational state cult of American civil religion entailed sacred objects and places (the flag and monuments), a set of rituals based on those objects and places, martyrs and holy ancestors (the dead of American wars and the Founding Fathers), sacred days of commemoration, a creed (the Pledge), and a strong sense of the transcendent nature of the nation” (67). Schools taught the histories, practiced the rites, and celebrated the holidays that sustained and nurtured the faith in the nation.

From WSYX ABC 6:

Delaware Co. Deputy Under Investigation

Delaware, Ohio -- The subject of an ongoing internal investigation, a Delaware County Sheriff's deputy is being told to stay away from his place of work while being placed on unpaid administrative leave.At least one of the Delaware County commissioners reported receiving a letter -- possibly containing graphic materials -- trashing the deputy. ABC6 News learned the letter was turned over to the local prosecutor's office.Now, the sheriff is in charge of figuring out if there was any harassment, if anything sexual and inappropriate took place at the Sheriff's Office.Delaware Co. Deputy Under Investigation

Posted: Wednesday, November 11 2009, 06:52 PM EST

Quality is a Market Notion
by Jim Fedako

Published by The Ludwig von Mises Institute

For generations, products have advertised themselves as "new and improved." We are too quick to dismiss this phrase as a promotional boilerplate. The market really does generate unrelenting improvements in our living standards. Meanwhile, the public sector is forever promising to improve its services and products but every attempt creates only conflict and eventual stalemate.

For example: the proposed solution to the ills of public education is for government to raise the quality of teachers by increasing salaries and certification requirements. The belief is that a better workforce will lead to better educational outcomes and an improved economy.

Of course the adjective better has no agreed upon definition. Every pressure group and political faction has its own definition of better. Mostly these disparate definitions contradict each other. Regardless, the call for better continues to grow louder each election cycle.

There are perceived ills in the free market too — not ills in the same sense as discussed above, but ills in that all consumers have wants that are unmet. The argument for better can be applied to any sector of the economy. Better factors of production are always sought since acting man desires improvements in consumer goods; improvements that are reflected in increased selection and quality, as well as lower price.

In this case, the adjectives better, improved, and increased can go undefined since they are subjective value judgments of each individual consumer. No one needs to define them in literal terms; the actions of consumers define those terms as ends that are either satisfied or unsatisfied. More importantly, acting man does not need government bureaucrats or commissions to codify such terms for quality. The entrepreneur knows he matched the market definitions of better, improved, and increased simply by looking at his profit-and-loss statement at the end of each accounting cycle.

That better factors are not simply added to each and every recipe — the directions for producing desired goods — is explained in one simple word: scarcity. Scarce factors have to be correctly employed in the production of the most sought-after ends. Any other application leads to accounting losses and financial ruin for the entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurs have more solutions to the unmet wants of man than capital goods. Capital goods are required in the creations of factors of production, which are themselves required in the production of consumer goods. Using resources to produce goods other than those most wanted leads to economic losses, as does using goods inefficiently to produce most-wanted goods. Consumers buying and abstaining from buying along with double entry bookkeeping provide guidance for the allocation of factors of production.

The socialist utopian belief that the burden of scarcity can be lifted with the correct utilization of current capital and factors of production is still prevalent. The line of thought goes that once the altruistic and omniscient bureaucrat grabs the reigns of the economy and guides the factors to their correct application, scarcity will fade away and the Land of Cockaigne will appear on the horizon.

But this is not reality. Scarcity will always be with us as long as man's desires exceed his ability to satisfy them. Of course, once scarcity is lifted, once all desires are met, society will meet the same fate as the ants in an Uncle Milton's Ant Farm: it will quickly die off.

At any given point in time, each factor is limited. Successful entrepreneurs recognize this and direct scarce resources to the most pressing needs. Government, on the other hand, recognizes no concept of scarcity. It only sees one side of the equation, or only one result of its actions. Government functions counter to Hazlitt's admonition to see the unseen; to look for secondary effects of any proposed action.

It's important to employ resources and factors where they will have the greatest effect. The successful entrepreneur would not use a high-quality diamond in a simple industrial process when a low-quality one would work fine. A CEO would not place his or her CFO in the company cafeteria to run the register simply because a $10 cash-versus-sales shortfall was being reported on a daily basis. To employ a highly skilled and hence scarce resource to chase the odd $10 would be wasteful and inefficient.

Human qualities are indeed scarce resources. No one would suggest that Joe Paterno would be most efficiently employed as a high school junior varsity coach. Would Joe Pa be effective? Of course he would. Would it be the best use of such a quality resource? Of course not. Many less experienced coaches could achieve the same result, though those same coaches could not generate Joe Pa's lifetime college win record.

The same goes with other scarce resources. Would Mises have generated the greatest bang for the buck teaching eighth grade economics? Would the resource known as Bill Gates be most efficiently employed as a ninth grade business teacher? How about Einstein as an AP physics instructor? It depends on who you ask.

The socialist utopians truly believe that a Mises, a Gates, or an Einstein would be most efficiently employed in the classroom. They have no concept of scarcity of human qualities and have adopted Trotsky's vision of all men rising to the height of Goethe and beyond. A utopian's fantasies do not allow him to see the world as it is. His epistemology is invalid so his beliefs and conclusions are errant.

Mises said that only a handful of any generation has the abilities to advance economic knowledge, and indeed he was correct. But to coerce the best and brightest to become primary and secondary teachers is to rob future generations of essential knowledge. The same can be said of the use of tax dollars to guide such geniuses into the primary and secondary classrooms by raising the incomes of teachers above their marginal product.

The unhampered free market correctly allocates resources to their best use. Interventionism changes the allocation so that resources are applied to uses that are not beneficial to a society. Government loves to create roadblocks to entry into fields of choice.

Raising teacher certification standards above that required by the desires of man simply creates shortages where none should exist. Attracting the best and brightest with too-high salaries — salaries above their marginal product — or by creating shortages (real or perceived) succeeds only in raising the cost of education; it does nothing to solve the ills of a government-run education system.
Because of this, education is best left in the hands of the free market. Under a free market, the allocation of scarce human qualities and knowledge will be matched to the desires and wants of man. Public school math teachers, gym teachers, librarians, etc., would be paid exactly what they produce; no more, no less.

Should the desire for knowledge garnered in a ninth grade business class exceed that of the desire for faster and cheaper personal computers, Gates would find his most remunerative employment in the classroom. Otherwise, keep the Miseses, Gateses, and Einsteins of the world out of primary and secondary classrooms, and keep government out of education. We will all be better off.

A bow to Chodorov, and then a hasty exit from the ring

I think I knew from the very beginning he would have the best of me. Not that I wouldn't venture into the ring and stand my ground, full of pride in my own possibilities. But it was obvious from the start that his powerful stature and lengthy reach would easily deliver strikes capable of staggering me to no relief.

It ended up a short fight. For two rounds I held my own. Or so my story goes. You may have seen the first two rounds and think otherwise. Yet for those two rounds I dreamed a chance -- the challenger's fatal conceit.

With Chodorov, distilling his writing into summary quotes is a challenge best reserved for the foolish. And I had played the fool.

I did what I could to delay the start, but I finally took the bell for round three. I stepped toward him and saw his stance. His style was something to behold. I took a second step and once again felt the doubt that separates champion from journeyman.

In the previous rounds, I had wanted to fold into a literary rope-a-dope and let Chodorov pound himself into exhaustion. But the rope-a-dope defense of simply copying full chapters is not permitted the live blogger. In each round, I had to throw my own punches in order to be allowed to continue the fight.

Without a defense and no offence, drained and tired, I took my pounding in that third round without even raising a hand. I took a dive and threw the fight.

Chodorov won, and only I am shocked.

I simply ask that the reader take a walk with Chodorov. It sure beats facing him in the ring.

Note: The challenge is here. The rounds are here and here.

The Ohio School Boards Association exists (inter alia) as the chief lobbyist for Ohio's government schools.

With one hand, they grab for more property taxes while, with the other, they grab for more income taxes.

While the private sector contracts, government expands. While folks are losing their jobs, district staff are demanding and receiving hefty raises. While we desire to keep as much money in our wallets, government schools are grabbing with both hands.

And these are the very same folks influencing the leaders of tomorrow. Sad.

Note: Your tax dollars pay for OSBA lobbying. Keep that in mind.



From OSBA:

OSBA testifies on tax freeze measure

OSBA, along with the Ohio Association of School Business Officials and the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, testified in the Senate Finance and Financial Institutions Committee in support of House Bill (HB) 318, legislation that will postpone for two years the last of five previously scheduled reductions in state personal income tax rates.Our organizations lent support because the uncertain fate of the video lottery terminal money creates a loss of anticipated education revenue of more than $850 million. We urged the committee to support this timely legislation so that additional budget reductions will not be necessary.To view our testimony, click here.

Poor Todd, this stench will not easily wash off. I have to ask: What other activities is Todd engaging to "make ends meet"? Hmmm. - Jim



From The Delaware Gazette:

Hanks leaves consulting position
Friday, November 6, 2009
ANDREW TOBIAS
Staff Writer

Delaware County Commissioner Todd Hanks has resigned his job working as a part-time consultant for a local civil engineering firm, the Gazette has learned.

Hanks had been working part-time for Civil Engineering Consultants, a firm with specialties that include environmental studies and solid waste management, since shortly after being appointed to the county commission last January. Hank was slated to make a $50,000 annual salary, plus a commission based on work he referred to the company.

When asked by the Gazette, Hanks said he resigned from the position on Oct. 6.

“I felt it was in the best interest of the county,” Hanks said Thursday. He declined to elaborate, but said he arrived at the decision independently of his employer. A representative with CEC could not be reached for comment.

Hanks was county auditor when he was appointed to the county commission last January. He took a $14,000 pay cut to become a commissioner, and Hanks said he accepted the job with CEC to help make ends meet.

It is not illegal or particularly unusual for elected officials to hold an outside job, but ethics laws require elected officials to clearly separate their public and private work. A written opinion from the Ohio Ethics Commission said the law prohibits Hanks from representing CEC before any county agency or from using his influence as an elected official to benefit his employer.

However, a May meeting between Hanks, county officials, Village of Sunbury officials, State of Ohio officials and CEC representatives may have blurred the line between Hanks’ private and public jobs, legal sources have told the Gazette.

Hanks invited the CEC representatives to the meeting to try to find them work with a private landowner who was working with Sunbury on a redevelopment project.

Delaware County economic development director Gus Comstock had set the meeting up with the Sunbury village administrator, and Comstock discussed seeing if county revolving loan funds could be contributed toward the project. Neither the landowner nor the Sunbury officials knew Hanks worked for CEC until months later.

No county money was ultimately contributed to the project. Hanks has said he did nothing wrong, and pointed out that he abstained from votes from boards that he was sitting on that would affect CEC’s work for private contractors. CEC has not done business with Delaware County since August of 2008.

Although Hanks declined to explain his exact reason for resigning from CEC, an engineering and contracting source said attention prompted by Gazette articles was a factor in the decision.

Political pressure may have been a factor too — sources within the Delaware County Republican Party said Hanks’ employment led to “grumbling” and concern among some Republican party central committee members. Hanks is up for re-election next year and the county GOP will likely begin the endorsement process late this year, in advance of the May primary election.

Delaware County Democratic Party Chair Ed Helvey said even though Hanks has given up his private job, his party would make an issue out of Hanks’ former employer come election season.

Helvey said he thought Hanks’ employment with CEC inappropriately “collided head-on” with his authority as a county commissioner.

“It goes to the heart of his integrity and honesty as to why he’s an officeholder,” Helvey said. “Is he there to serve the people or is he there for personal gain?”

atobias@delgazette.com

This in full view of the judge. But do you really believe that she is about to punish "her deputy?" Catch the "courtroom security" nonsense. A travesty of justice. (HT LewRockwell.com)-- Jim

In a real sense of irony, I was attending the Bob Dylan concert last night as the votes were counted. Dylan must have gotten advanced notice of the pending results. How else would he have known to serenade Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum on their victories? -- Jim

A recent article of mine over on the Blog at Mises.org:

The Austrians versus the Mainstream Potter and His Wheel
Jim Fedako

Is capital an amorphous mass? A mass formed out of the ether, which can be reformed as desired and without effort? Or is capital a physical mass that can be reformed only through the use of scarce resources over a period of time?

The prevailing view assumes that capital is simply one of many factors used in equations, functions, and models. Capital is homogenous, so the greater the amount of capital, the better off society is. And it does not even matter how capital has taken shape in the past, since, once formed, it can be reformed wherever and whenever needed.

But, of course, that is not reality. Capital, in all places and at all times, is a historic relic. It is physical, in many instances hardened, while in others only slightly malleable. It is not some mass that can be modified free form to fit the needs of today and tomorrow.

Life in a Northern Town

I grew up near a northern town. As I rode my bike along the mighty rivers of southwestern Pennsylvania, the scene was always the same: in valleys nestled in green, rounded hills, the rusting remains of Pittsburgh's once-proud steel industry sulked while the slow and deliberate flow of water marked the passage of time. These colossal structures of industry past stood (and stand) as a testament to the massive amount of resources invested in that area.

As the steel industry moved elsewhere, businesses abandoned most of the factories. Certainly, new entrepreneurs utilized some components of the capital for other purposes. However, in the main, those past investments were left fallow, to be slowly reclaimed by nature — dust to dust.
If capital were homogenous and plastic, able to take on new shapes without the need for time and the expenditure of scarce resources, the Pittsburgh region would have remained in bloom. However, a quick trip through the area reveals the unbending nature of most capital — a sunk cost with little to no alternative use.

"There's Millions Buried in those Mines"

Hardly.

I spent my youth living near a coal mine that had been abandoned for as long as I can remember. Folks in the area liked to talk about all the equipment buried when the shafts were finally sealed — the implication being that the mine owner had left behind something of value.

However, the mine owner recognized that the equipment buried deep in the ground no longer had any value to the market. It was as worthless as all the slag piled nearby. The market had reduced its K value to zero. The owner sealed his mine and walked away, leaving behind nothing of value.

Technology as Capital Infrastructure

Technology is essential to the modern economy. In particular, the transactions of the modern economy move on electronic highways built with computers and software. In order to satisfy consumers and stay profitable, businesses must continually maintain their computer systems and applications. And since businesses are faced with the ever-changing wants of fickle consumers, they must invest in new and improved technology. To ignore change is to fall behind.
"In the main, those past investments were left fallow, to be slowly reclaimed by nature."
The development of new software applications is never an easy process. Put end users in a room with technologists and ask them to devise the best solution. The end product will be a utopian dream: a plan that does not respect the economic law of scarcity — scarcity of time and resources.

Send those very same folks back into the room with a prioritized list of business needs, along with a budget, calendar, and list of resources, and the end product will be a solution that is viable.

Nevertheless, in order to define the solution, the development team has to understand this essential given: the current state of the company's computer systems and applications. The existing infrastructure is the product of investments in past solutions. But it is an infrastructure that can be as unbendable as the rusted hulk of an abandoned steel plant.

While it is true that the company has (say) $100 million invested in technology, it is not true that the $100 million is a resource that can be reengineered into the new solution. The $100 million is for the most part a sunk cost, a relic of previous development efforts.

Therefore, as the development team goes about defining the future system, it has no concern for the cost of previous investments. Consider this example:

If the cost of the new system is $110 million, the development team does not claim that the effective cost is just an additional $10 million ($110 million minus the current capital of $100 million). The team recognizes that the $100 million does not sit in some pool of "K" that they can dip into when building the new system. That $100 million is sunk.

While it may be true that some components of the current system are portable to the new system, thus reducing the total expenditure, capital is, for the most part, fixed and sunk. This is especially true when a system is mature and integrated into other systems and applications.

The Austrians versus the Mainstream Potter and His Wheel

The standard view is that capital is clay, ready for the potter to reshape it in a moment's time. In contrast, the Austrian view takes the current structure of capital as a given, something that the entrepreneur must take into consideration when formulating his plans. If an entrepreneur wants to change the current structure of capital, he will wield dynamite and dozer, not water and wheel.
The different views of capital lead to different views of government interventions in the market. If capital were similar to pottery clay, there would be no real concern of credit expansion leading to a misallocation of capital.

Misallocations would be nothing more than a minor inconvenience — a sidestep, so to speak. Once the potter discovered a misallocation, he would simply wet his hands, spin his wheel, and reshape the capital into its desired form. Oh, if life were only so.

Our reality is this: Misallocations are wasted resources, including precious and scarce time. Misallocated capital is of no use to anyone. It is a loss to the entrepreneur, the investor, and the consumer.

We all champion the development of new capital. But if new capital is the direct product of government spending or the indirect result of its fiscal policy, we are all worse off. Building capital structures, unsupported by consumer demand, does nothing to increase an aggregate societal K (assuming such a K exists). It only takes us farther from the path leading toward our desired end: the removal of unease felt by acting man.

# posted by Jim Fedako @ 10:08 PM 0 comments links to this post

The political parties are of one mind; a confluence of ideologies that flows as one water down the stream of state control. The land of the free and the home of the brave is no more. Instead, we have become the nation that was the dream of Prussia's Otto von Bismarck, a nation that worships the state as both a paternal figure (providing supposed safety and security) and a maternal one (nurturing and raising children and caring for the elderly, and providing for the needs of everyone else in between).

We are no longer the brave individuals who stood against the world's most powerful king. No, we are now a nation that sits mesmerized while watching the scripted political power-play that is Fox and CNN; a soma-induced haze that has replaced the individual with the collective.

Oh, sure, you hear folks complain, but in the end, they line up on election day and dutifully pull the lever for Tweedledee or Tweedledum. Then, it's back to the mindless chatter and bickering that is the mainstream media.

For the most part, the Founding Fathers of this nation recognized government as an evil; an evil whose powers must be circumscribed, limited by our God-given rights. And, "[t]hat whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

But that's not what children are taught at public schools. Of course, how could it be otherwise? How could government instruct the next generation that government is only to be tolerated when it does not attempt to limit Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness?

So, government grows, generation by generation. The Fabian Society won the historical battle of ideologies and change. Gramsci was right all along, the path to socialism is through a slow decay of the institutions of society, the replacement of the family and church for the state.

As it turns out, Marx and his dialectical materialism were correct, except that it wasn't capitalism that housed the contradiction. Instead, it is democracy that contains a self-destroying contradiction: the power of the vote to expand the state beyond the ideal of Liberty.

There was never a need for the workers of the world to rise up and unite as government and time slowly rob Liberty, institutionalizing envy and leading a nation to believe that only government provides good.

Those of us who are Christians look to the state to sanctify our actions. When is someone married according to the Church? When they hold a marriage license issued by the state. The same holds for divorce. The state decides who is single, married and divorced.

We allow the state to license clergy, and we allow the state to decide what constitutes a church. What's worse, without such licenses and state recognition, fellow Christians hold the individual in contempt. You say you are married, but where's your marriage license?

Churches refuse to speak lest the feds remove their nonprofit status, in essence removing recognition of the entity as a body corporate; a corporation beholden to the state.

As the evangelical church moves toward the emergent church and embraces the state as an equal partner in social justice, the end will be the same as was experienced during the Progressive Era. The state will subsume more aspects of the church and God's Church will lose relevancy.

Oh, sure, the remnant will remain. But the host of saved will dwindle as more and more folks seek the manna from DC and Columbus and bow before the idols of government.

It's time for another Awakening; a movement from government back to God and the ideals that founded this nation. Otherwise, a brave new world awaits our children. A sad inheritance indeed.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher of the late 1700's and early 1800's. He was a intellectual father of Hegel and Marx. In his "Outlines of the Doctrine of Knowledge (1810)," Fichte attacks the existence of God by creating god as an ideal type and then arguing that man is in essence god.

It's a neat little trick, and it's very effective. But Fichte's god is not the God of the Bible -- it's a mental construct that is his alone. Yet many today employ a similar process when discussing God. And by doing so, they fall into the philosophic trap of arguing against their own mental construct. So, instead of learning more about God, they simply debate nonsense.

Since Fichte, Hegel, Marx, and many others saw no need for God, they went about creating sophisms that stand against God. As a point of truth, they never succeeded; as a point of obfuscation, they achieved brilliant success. And the results of their mental games are the evils of our day.

Be careful that when you seek God, you seek Him through the Bible and not through your own abstraction.

note: Thanks to the folks over at Marxists.org -- the Marxist Internet Archive -- for exposing 8 gigabytes of Marxist writings and other media. It's an extensive resource of nonsense. That said, I hope that the curators see the light before it's too late.

Originally posted on 12/16/08. -- Jim


Sure, the OFK bobbleheads will shake off this reality, but the truth is the truth.

The district's latest Five-Year Financial Forecast shows that there was no need for a levy last May -- the district and its minions knew it all along. Furthermore, there was no need for a levy NEXT year either.

Keep that in mind as you survey the current financial landscape of the US, Ohio and your neighborhood.

And, don't forget, your bill for this unneeded levy hits early next year. That plus your escrow catch up -- a double bill in a time of financial uncertainly.

Or, should I say, the uncertainty applies only to those not employed by OLSD. Meider and Feasel are leading the board in this little sing-song:

We are so happy, happy, happy,
we are smilin' to a tear;
'cause we're getting an expensive superintendent,
wrapped under our tree this year.

As you tighten your belt this Christmas, the district will loosen its. We've fattened them with our money.

Originally posted on 12/14/08 -- Jim


From the Olentangy Valley News:

Communication snafu puts squeeze on Shanahan
* Board-approved upgrades accidentally leave students with an undersized library.
By MATT GERISH

Published: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 9:06 AM
EST

District officials are looking for solutions after a lack of communication led to cramped quarters in a district library.

In the midst of upgrades to Olentangy Shanahan Middle School and district offices approved with the passage of 2001's bond issue, students at Shanahan have found themselves accidentally downgraded to a smaller library.

The Shanahan building formerly included two libraries: one on the west side that served as the old high school and middle school libraries, and a smaller library on the east side that served as the elementary school library.

Officials decided to consolidate both libraries into the east side of the building and remodel the west-side library into offices to expand the district's curriculum department.

Board members approved upgrades to the west library, believing they were upgrading it for continued use as a library, not converting it to offices."

I think the promise was to upgrade the facility where it was to make it in line with facilities that are offered at our other middle schools," said board member Jennifer Smith at the Nov. 25 school board meeting. "Instead, what happened was this library got moved to a smaller space that isn't on par with what we're offering students at our other locations."

While three classes can fit in the libraries of the other district middle schools, only one can fit in the new Shanahan library -- and "not comfortably, I should say," Smith said. "It's just not a good environment or a good space that's conducive to learning."

Board member Julie Wagner Feasel said there was an obvious lack of communication."

I've been in enough meetings in that room to tell you I don't need to measure square footage -- that room is much smaller than the room that it came from," Feasel said during the Nov. 25 meeting. "As a parent who doesn't even have a kid in this school, I'm concerned at the inferior quality of that library."

Interim Superintendent Jennifer Hooie said she would be the first to admit there wasn't enough communication on the plans.

"None of us are happy with the space as it is," Hooie said Nov. 25.

Communication on the plans was hindered because most of the people who developed the original plans are no longer working in the district."

Somewhere in the midst of construction, the board was not informed," Feasel said. "All the people who knew about it are gone."

"It sounds like we kind of blew this one," said board Vice President Dimon McFerson during the Nov. 25 meeting.

Board President Scott Galloway said an immediate solution will be to use locked storage space across from the east library to store audio-visual equipment currently stored in the library.

The board tossed around a few ideas, including moving the library again to the building's second gym or the current team room. Moving the library back to its old location is not an option because work already has begun on converting it into offices.

Hooie said they would need to work with faculty at Shanahan to come to a solution."I would expect relatively quickly to solve this," Galloway said.

Copyright © 2008 - Columbus Local News

This whole article is full of whoppers, but I think my favorite is the one from Hooie: "None of us are happy with the space as it is." Yeh, right. The administrators have new offices and you think they are unhappy.

Miscommunication. Please.

# posted by Jim Fedako @ 11:07 PM 3 comments links to this post

Jesús Huerta de Soto writes the truth with this quote from Classical Liberalism versus Anarchocapitalism over at Mises.org:

Not even the most respectable churches and religious denominations have reached an accurate diagnosis of the problem: that today statolatry poses the main threat to free, moral, and responsible human beings; that the state is an enormously powerful false idol which is worshipped by all and which will not countenance anyone's freeing himself from its control nor having moral or religious loyalties outside its own sphere of dominance.

Galloway for Quigley? Sure. Why not?

Katz attended Cassady's fundraiser. Galloway is shilling for Feasel and King. King returns the favor by attending Cassady's fundraiser. So why wouldn't Galloway work for Quigley? It's just so incestuous.

It sure seems Cassady will end up running the township ... into the ground, that is.

Isn't that the same as what Galloway is doing at the district? Hmmm.

Notes:

1. Someone sent this photo to me anonymously. It is purportedly a picture of Galloway's porch with a Quigley sign outside. I will assume that the photo is correct, at least until I'm shown otherwise.

2. As far as an anonymous email: the Federalists and Anti-Federalists debated anonymously. So anonymous has a rich history in the US.

3. The Mole seems to know what's going on at the township hall. Visit Orange Township Mole for more info.

After returning from exercising outside, I happened upon Val Scheibeck's campaign flyer. Scheibeck (running for Orange Township trustee) is going to reduce wasteful spending by ... get this ... adding more wasteful spending. Only this time the spending will directly benefit Scheibeck and her friends.

If I want to run, ride, or skate, I head out my front door. If I want to workout with weights, etc., I head downstairs. In both instances, I pay for all my exercise costs. I do not ask my neighbor to contribute to the cost of my workout, and he doesn't ask for me to contribute to his. That's only fair.

Scheibeck has a similar goal in that she wants to workout in her local area. The difference is this: she wants us all to pay a portion of her costs. According to Scheibeck (from her flyer):

I envision a community where we do not need to go to neighboring communities to take classes, work out or watch fireworks.

That holds true today -- as I just noted. But Scheibeck wants more, and she wants us all to pay for it.

Wouldn't life be better if Scheibeck paid for her workouts, just like I pay for mine. That way, we all keep our own money to spend as WE see fit. Not as Scheibeck and her ilk see fit.

Note: The same holds for classes and fireworks. In fact, my neighbors have better fireworks displays than most townships.

From a recent edition of the Email Update from the Future of Freedom Foundation:

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.
— Frederick Douglass, Speech at Civil Rights Mass Meeting,Washington D.C. [October 22, 1823]

Originally posted January 23, 2009. -- Jim

Wade and Feasel run the numbers, Olentangy style

Just our luck. The district recorded the climax of the contract negotiations between the board and Wade. The video shows Wade runnin' the numbers, with Feasel proudly showing her command of public finance.

Who is the man talking sense? Why Billy's the ghost of the forgotten taxpayer. Somehow, common sense entered the board room, only to be obfuscated out the door by the sophistry of the public servant and his elected enabler. And Billy certainly got cheated. We all did.

Remember, it's all about the kids -- all 1.3 million of them.

Well, King makes his living off of (inter alia) local governments. Do you think he will ever challenge the status quo? Not a chance.

And that's why ol' Wade-O is stumpin' for King. Jut keepin' it in the family.

A recent post of mine over on the Blog at Mises.org:

Of course, they are the government's schools

Jim Fedako

"The U.S. Census Bureau has created a Census in Schools program called 2010 Census: It's About Us. The program will provide educators with resources to teach the nation's students about the importance of the census so children can help deliver this message to their families." U.S. Census Bureau

Little Johnny sits attentively in his seat. Being in first grade, Johnny is very impressionable. And he really wants to please his teacher. So he gladly listens and repeats everything she says, taking it to heart as well as any young child can.

For her part, Ms. Jones believes in education. She hasn't engaged in the debate over the role of government in schools. She just wants to help her students succeed as best she knows how.

So when she receives a package of lesson plans from the U.S. Census Bureau, Ms. Jones doesn't even think to read between the lines. Instead, she decides to integrate the census into her social studies curriculum. It's topical and her students seem interested.

Ms. Jones reads the first lesson plan and follows the instructions:

1. Write the words good neighbor, law, and responsibility on the board. Ask: What do these words mean?
2. Ask: Are you a good neighbor? What laws do you know about? What does it mean to be responsible? Encourage a classroom discussion that reinforces the concepts of being a good neighbor and civic responsibility. Make a list on the board of different laws with which students are familiar (e.g., wear a seat belt, children must go to school, drivers must stop at red lights, etc.). (emphasis in original)

She then continues with the lesson. At the end, Ms. Jones transitions into the wrap-up:

9. Write the sentence, "It's about us" on the board. Discuss how it relates to the concept of being a good neighbor (if everyone is a good neighbor, our country will be a better place).
10. Have students create "good neighbor" badges. Distribute a sheet of colored paper to each student. Ask students to trace around their right hands to make a handprint.
11. Ask students to decorate their handprint badges with drawings that show how they are good neighbors. Use tape to attach the handprint badges to students' shirts.

Little Johnny wants to please Ms. Jones, so he decorates his badge with a drawing of him helping his dad fill out a census form. He whispers to himself that he will try to be a good neighbor. And he will always remember her words, "A good neighbor is a person who does useful things for his or her neighborhood, town, and country."

Next year, Johnny will nag his parents to complete the census form. And just like Sinatra's character in The Manchurian Candidate, Johnny will react as instructed whenever he hears the phrase, "good neighbor."

As an adult, Johnny (now going by John) will reflexively vote for local school issues, etc. He will support government in every way possible. Because to be a bad neighbor would disappoint Ms. Jones.

The Mole seems to know. Visit Orange Township Mole for more info.

Ol' Wade-O must love the current board president. Why else would he commit tax dollars to the new newsletter that hit mailboxes this weekend -- one week before the election?

COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER FEATURES ACADEMIC SUCCESS AND CONSTRUCTION HISTORY
Olentangy Local Schools November Community Newsletter will be delivered to most homes in the district on Sunday, October 25.

How does Springer account for this expense? Feasel's campaign? Hmmm.

Remember, money spent on friends is not an expense. Especially when it is someone else's money.

"I have long been impressed by the operation of Gammon's law in the U.S. schooling system: Input, however measured, has been going up for decades, and output, whether measured by number of students, number of schools, or even more clearly, quality, has been going down."
-- Milton Friedman (Gammon's Law Points to Health-Care Solution)

Despite known budget shortfalls (huge shortfalls), the Olentangy district is pursuing larger administrative raises. And we are only 12 months away from discussions of (what is looking to be) a 10 to 15 mill levy. Amazing. -- Jim

Note: Folks, please do not construe this post to mean that Archana Springer would not be supportive of increased salaries -- or, for that matter, the upcoming 10 to 15 mill levy. I would hate to see her ostracized by her friends in the tax and spend crowd.

It's all about public safety and homeland security (and that was sarcasm). -- Jim


From today's edition of OSBA's Facts in a Flash:

House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee

The committee heard sponsor testimony on HB 80, sponsored by Rep. John Domenick (D-Smithfield), requiring that all new school buses be equipped with a single white strobe light to be activated at all times when the bus is transporting passengers.

From a recent edition of the Email Update from the Future of Freedom Foundation:

Thursday, August 20, 2009
Good Lord! What a lot of trouble to prove in political economy that two and two make four; and if you succeed in doing so, people cry, "It is so clear that it is boring." Then they vote as if you had never proved anything at all.
— Frédéric Bastiat, “"What Is Seen and Is Not Seen” [1850]

Hey, Ken O'Brien, don't swallow the pill. -- Jim




From The Delaware Gazette:

Thursday, October 22, 2009
Some commissioners agree: Dispute resolution is needed
ANDREW TOBIAS
Staff Writer

Delaware County commissioners Todd Hanks and Tommy Thompson feel that a visit from a state conflict resolution agency will work through some of the conflicts that they feel has divided the board. Commissioner Ken O’Brien disagrees.

In a split 2-1 decision, county commissioners have decided to set up a meeting with a mediator from Ohio Commission of Dispute Resolution, a state-funded agency that provides conflict resolution services to elected officials.

Before casting his “no” vote, O’Brien said earlier this week the program was unnecessary. The voluntary program would be free to the county, but O’Brien said the state-funded program was still financed by tax dollars.

“I don’t see conflict,” he said. “I don’t see consensus, but that’s not conflict.”

If there is indeed an ongoing conflict among members of the board, it largely centers around O’Brien’s concerns about a consulting contract for a $3.13 million waste-to-energy facility county commissioners quickly passed, and then later rescinded. The project, which drew heated criticism from O’Brien and members of the public, has since been abandoned.

Public debate among the commissioners has been civil lately, although it grows heated any time issues relate to the consulting contract. Commission president Thompson said a commissioner from a nearby county who had heard about the fallout surrounding the contract approached him recently and recommended the state program.

“They read the papers like anyone else does,” he said. Under the program, a representative of the state agency would meet with the individual commissioners and try to identify issues.

Commissioners have not been arguing in closed-door executive sessions, Thomson said. He just wanted to feel like the commissioners were “on the same team,” even if they disagreed on issues.

“It’s obvious that there are still some question and doubts, and we need to get through that,” Thompson said.

O’Brien has made a records request for e-mails and other written communications between all county commissioners and the county prosecutor’s office, which officials have said entails about 4,000 different documents. In the past, Hanks has referred to O’Brien’s request as a “witch-hunt,” among other unfavorable terms.

O’Brien suspects he was kept out of the loop as the project moved forward, and said earlier this week at the public meeting where the vote was held that he was still waiting for his request to be fulfilled.

This prompted Hanks to defend the project’s merits and say it was to be funded by a federal grant, which O’Brien said was “revisionist history” and unfounded. The two soon began speaking over each other.

The dispute resolution program is co-sponsored by the County Commissioners Association of Ohio.

John Leutz, a senior policy analyst with the CCAO, said the mediation program could help resolve conflicts among elected officials.

“We certainly participate with them and support the activities that they’re engaged with … and in some instances, using their services makes sense,” Leutz said.

A meeting with the dispute agency will be set up over the coming weeks. The results of the mediation meetings are secret under an Ohio law pertaining to confidential testimony in a court case.



atobias@delgazette.com

Originally posted on 4/17/09 -- Jim

She must think so.

It's amazing what you can get with the right public records request. Note the email exhange between Feasel and Jennifer Smith (below). It certainly appears that Feasel is skirting Ohio's sunshine laws by conducting a serial meeting -- you know, polling votes with a nudge, nudge, say no more, say no more.

Feasel is president of a board that has already been in hot water for violating sunshine laws, so she should know better. Maybe she does and doesn't care. You know, power and corruption.

Note:

1. At least one board member (Smith) follows the law, the rest just hold the public in contempt.

2. OFK, How can you still support Feasel in the face of all this? Hmmm.

To: "Julie Wagner Feasel"
Cc: jaheavilin@insight.rr.com
From: "Jennifer Smith"
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="--=_--0291526e.0291429d.c60a67a8"




Julie,


I have not returned your phone calls soliciting my opinion regarding an upcoming work session, because you made it clear in voicemails that you were - and now have- contacted every other board member and polled them as to whether or not Kathy LaSota should be hired to facilitate a future work session. It is improper to discuss board business outside of public view (properly notified public meetings). This "round robin" voting and discussion is highly improper and there is case law that substantiates that this activity is a violation of ORC 121.22. I will not be party to violating the law.


Jennifer



Julie Wagner Feasel writes:

Jennifer,

I didn't get to make any board calls on Saturday because we spent the day doing graduation and prom stuff so I made my board calls tonight. What I've been asking the other board members is there thoughts on hiring Kathy Lasota for at least one more work session to help us finalize the items we didn't finish on Thursday. So please let me know your thoughts as I would like our next work session to be sooner rather than later and everyone's (sic) schedules will have to be coordinated. Also, I was talking to the other board members about their thoughts and opinions on Thursday's session so I'd like to talk to you about that as well. Finally, I never got to talk to you about your thoughts on the budget subcommittee meeting. I've spoken to Sue, Teri, Mr. Lidle and Becky on their thoughts and I'd like to talk to you as well, specifically about making the budgeting process better next year.

Let me know when a good time to call you will be. I don't have anything on Monday night so I'm open. Or I can call you during my lunch hour noon-1 on Monday.

Julie Wagner Feasel, member
Olentangy School Board
Please note that all e-mail communication to elected officials is public record and maybe viewed by anyone who requests it.

This would be funny if it wasn't true.

Originally posted on 5/22/09 -- Jim


Your Olentangy school board is feverishly working on phase two of its "brick wall." The board is now looking to clamp down of dissent -- defined as any voice on the board that does not parrot the party line.

I have to say that Feasel, Meider, Galloway, and McFerson are four of the most evil folks ever elected to a local office. While their political affiliations may differ, they all agree on one thing: The community is to be held in contempt.

And folks, it's not just them. It's also your gang of administrators, including your treasurer and new superintendent.

These folks care nothing about the community.

Of course, it goes beyond those listed above. It includes community volunteers who choose to remain silent. Volunteers who refuse to question the majority position since to question may mean the end to the petty offices those volunteers so desperately enjoy -- better to play along than to lose access.

Remember, for all of these folks, power and influence is their raison d'être.

note: Whenever you read the evils of history and you begin to raise the "it could never happen here" argument, consider for a moment, just a moment, what would happen if those like Feasel held positions of real power, supported by efficient and silent community members. Can you even imagine? "Papers, please."

From Freedom Watch

"The Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."

- Samuel Adams

From the Future of Freedom Foundation

Friday, October 16, 2009

The right of a citizen to bear arms, in lawful defense of himself or the State, is absolute. He does not derive it from the State government. It is one of the "high powers" delegated directly to the citizen, and is excepted out of the general powers of government. A law cannot be passed to infringe upon or impair it, because it is above the law, and independent of the lawmaking power.
- Cockrum v. State [1859]

A recent post of mine over on the Blog at Mises.org:

The wind and wave theory of property

Jim Fedako

There is nothing like a week at the beach to relax and refocus. The water, the waves, and the fun are a vacationer's dream, creating the perfect place to drift between musing and being amused.

I really enjoy observing individuals interacting, using scarce means to obtain very personal ends. Many times, these observations lead to greater understanding, reinforcing or challenging beliefs and ideas.

For me, our family trip to the beach this summer provided such an opportunity - it provided an opportunity to study the process acting man uses to establish property rights absent government interventions.

Consider the beach in the early morning sun. The sand is rippled but devoid of form, with evidence of yesterday's labor wiped clean by the nightly action of the wind and wave.

As individuals, families and groups begin migrating to the empty expanse on the edge of the surf, the first arrivers homestead, what is for them, the very best spot. They stake out a claim by planting umbrellas, unfolding chairs, and spreading blankets and towels. And as pails are emptied of plastic shovels and tools, adults and children begin mixing labor with sand and water to form castles, trenches, and other structures and designs.

Subsequent arrivals naturally note the delineated property lines established by those who arrived beforehand. As these folks begin staking out their own claims, volleyball nets appear and Frisbees take flight.

All of these activities further define and refine property boundaries as acting man and women homestead in a peaceful and orderly process, without the need for interventions from the state, nonetheless.

None of what follows is theory or law; it is simply observations of human action. But, if what are sometimes referred to as natural laws are truly natural, they should be found guiding the natural course of human action. And they do.

No one owns his view

This is easy to observe. The early homesteader sets up his chair some distance from the water, but in full view of the pounding surf. As latecomers stake out their claims, both early and late arrivals understand that a view cannot be homesteaded. A latecomer can set up anywhere between the early-occupier and the surf, as long as existing property boundaries are respected.

Furthermore, all beachgoers understand that if someone wants a continuous, open view of the water, he had better place his chair at the edge of the surf and make ready to move with the tide - that is if he can relocate to a space not already homesteaded.

Finally, anyone has the right to stop and stand in front of your chair - though outside your borders - for any length of time, for any reason.

You can homestead more than your physical property

While it is true that the early-established volleyball court is defined by it boundaries (either physical boundaries furrowed in the sand, or assumed boundaries created by the footsteps of players), the owner of the volleyball court also homesteads the right to have his ball bounce in then-unoccupied areas. Latecomers therefore have to accept the occasional errant bounce, but earlier homesteaders have a right to complain.

The same holds for the tossed Frisbee, etc. Homesteaded property rights include more than just visible boundaries.

Mixing your labor defines your property

If you want to secure rights to an area of sand, build a castle or other physical structure. On the beach, such structures provide secure property rights, until they are abandoned or the wind and waves once again erase them from view.

Usufruct rules

While you can homestead areas of sand, you cannot enforce secure borders. In other words, you cannot stop folks from entering your property as they move about the beach. This does not provide for aggression or destruction, just the free movement within your borders. Of course, your physical structures are secure from intrusion; no one can step into your castle grounds unless invited.

Abandoned property is subject to homesteading

If you physically leave the beach area, you have abandoned your property and your property rights. This opens up your area to homesteading by anyone. The same holds when the incoming tide has destroyed your castle. Once the tide recedes, the area is again open to homesteading by all.

It all just conventions

What I have described are not laws, they are self-enforcing conventions. And I have seen them in actions on every beach I have visited, in many different countries of the world.

Just as important, while sitting on the sand, I have never seen someone appeal to the social apparatus of coercion and compulsion to settle a property dispute.

Of course, observations on a beach do not define and justify an ethical system of property rights (such as that proposed by Hans-Hermann Hoppe). But neither do those observations disprove the existence of an ethical system of property rights. They simply show that, absent interventions by the state, acting man, left to his selfish ends, tends to organize his means in a way that agrees with the concept of property.

In this, we should not be surprised.

Steve Scott over at From the Pew is one of my favorite bloggers. Like many throughout the US, Steve has fallen on hard times. To his benefits, and ours, Steve has chosen to share his trials with us through his blog. I suggest that you click over and read a thoughtful reflection on finances and faith. And keep Steve and his family in your prayers.

note: Read the comment from his wife to see the fruits of a Christ-centered marriage.

A recent post of mine over on the Blog at Mises.org:

More sleepless nights

Jim Fedako

I just finished repairing grout in my master bathroom. As a home repair hack, I typically remove excess caulk and sealant with my bare fingers -- it's messy, but quick and easy.

OK. So far, so good.

Then, while washing my hands, I read this warning on the back label, "This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer."

Seeing the capital "S," I decided that state does not refer to everyday residents of California, but instead refers to the occupying apparatus of coercion and compulsion.

Such a realization means a lot to me. You see, I don't like to be out of it, the last to learn what everyone else knows. A small matter of pride. But there it is.

So I relaxed a bit.

Yet that cancer thing got me thinking and doubting once more.

Am I OK? Especially considering that my state, the State of Ohio, has not seen fit to warn its hapless residents.

I have to assume that agents of the State of Ohio can read labels and are aware that the unspecified chemical is known to the State of California as a cancer risk. So is the cancer concern a function of geography, and I am OK out here on Ohio? Or is my state keeping something from me?

I'll be tossing and turning for the next three nights, until Tuesday morning when Ohio's health department reopens its doors to the masses. Only then will I know my fate - that is, of course, if they'll even tell me the truth.

Oh, well ...

Originally posted on June 5, 2008.

If reelected, Feasel will continue to keep the sunshine from board deliberations. -- Jim



Down is up, and illegal is now confidential. We are now lost in the rabbit hole.

Starting with Edward Bernays, propagandists have lived by this maxim: Tell a big lie, repeat it over and over, and the masses will accept it as truth. In accordance with this, board has told the big lie and is now in the repeat phase. The question remains: Will the community accept it as fact.

Board member Jen Smith notified the board of a pending sunshine violation, yet the board voted anyway. Why? I assume arrogance. Now the board majority is taking Smith to task in a letter to the Olentangy Valley News (below). The goal is to repeat the lie until it is believed.

If you want the facts, read the newspaper articles on this issue. The board schemed to violate Ohio sunshine laws, with the smoking gun -- the instructions on how to circumvent state law -- penned by McFerson (as reported on the OVN).

It seems like the board has taken a very Bernaysian turn. Will you believe them?

note: You have to love the implication that board policy trumps state sunshine laws, along with the mention of ethics from one (Dimon) whose own actions caused then-governor Taft to commit ... you guessed it ... ethics violations.

Letter: Smith should not have given confidential info to press

Published: Wednesday, June 4, 2008 11:11 AM EDT

To the Editor:

In the news recently, our fellow board member Jennifer Smith attacked the process the Olentangy School Board is using to hire a new superintendent. As two fellow board members, we feel that these attacks are unwarranted and simply untrue.

Dr. Davis told the members of the Olentangy Board of Education that he would be stepping down due to his illness in a closed executive session. Board President Scott Galloway appointed Vice President Dimon McFerson to lead the search committee. Since three out of the five board members had never participated in a superintendent search, McFerson's background made him the best person to head up this process.

For some reason, Mrs. Smith felt the need to share confidential information discussed in executive session with the press. Mrs. Smith has always voted to go into every executive session the board has had this year, and at no time during any of our executive sessions has she voiced any opinion about why the board should or should not be in executive session. By sharing this executive session information with the press, Mrs. Smith broke the board's governance policies GP 4.1 in the code of ethics, which states "respect the confidentiality of privileged information," and GP 4.2 in the code of covenants, which states "remember that board business at times requires confidentiality, especially in the process involving personnel, land acquisitions, negotiations and the need for security."

Mrs. Smith also told the press that Galloway and McFerson screened the 15 applicants to pick the top five for interviewing -- that is true. What she didn't mention was that she reviewed the same 15 applications herself and picked out five applicants to interview. Ironically, she picked the exact same five candidates that Galloway and McFerson selected. Thus, this process is hardly "rigged" as she told the press it was.

Did the search firm hired to find the best superintendent for Olentangy personally contact potential candidates and talk to them about applying for the position? Absolutely. Did McFerson himself talk to potential candidates about applying for the position? He did. There is no law in Ohio that says these actions cannot be done. That is why the process is called a search. This is done all the time in the business world and in superintendent searches as the great leaders are usually employed. Once candidates apply, their names then become public and the entire board is involved. But until the candidates apply, it is just one person talking to another to get them interested in the position.

Both of us are hopeful that Mrs. Smith will realize she jeopardized the work of the board by discussing confidential information with the press. We also hope she realizes she will get more accomplished through collaboration. She has some good ideas and a passion to improve where improvement is needed. However, she needs to follow the board's governance policies just like every other board member.

Julie Wagner Feasel and Dimon McFersonOlentangy Board of Education members

Copyright © 2008 - Columbus Local News

First published on February 29, 2008. At least the calendar can stretch a month ever now and again. Too bad Feasel can't stretch one simple buck. -- Jim



Olentangy board member Julie Feasel posted this comment on another blog:

I just want to point out that Olentangy did make $6 million in cuts to future spending BEFORE even going on the ballot and we continue to look at how we can trim costs. (emphasis added)

Did you get that? The district made cuts to future spending when the issue is this fiscal year and next fiscal year. Is this her idea of cutting costs?

Really, why do I care that they cut projected costs, effective FY2010, when it's FY2009 that has the supposed negative balance (I say supposed as there is no real deficit -- read my previous post)?

Inane!

Just think about it: There are costs that can be cut, yet Feasel and company are waiting until 2010. And, they want to raise your taxes for such nonsense.

This is the logic which guides the district. Amazing!


note: According to Feaselian logic, I am a financial genius and a good steward of my money since I decided not to buy an aircraft carrier in 2010. I cut $1 billion in future spending. Wow!

Over the next four weeks, I will be republishing the very best of Julie Feasel -- 'cause, you know, she really wants to continue running the district.

(OK, she really just wants to cheerlead the administration and the unions as they run the district and spend your hard-earned tax dollars like there is no tomorrow).

So maybe Feasel is correct and her work is only half done. But can we afford the second half?

I know that I can't. Can you?

A recent post of mine over on the Blog at Mises.org:

When worse is better

Jim Fedako

Last week, my family went camping down in the wilds of southeastern Ohio. In addition to wonderful hikes and cookouts, each afternoon I set out on a scenic bike ride. One day, while peddling through the hills and hollows, I ventured along a state route that bisects a tiny hamlet.

Just on the edge of civilization, right before homes once again give way to pine trees, I passed a tavern and caught (what has become for me) the smell of liberty: cigarettes and fried grease.

As a cyclist, that mixture of smells is enough to send my stomach spinning. But as a libertarian, that very same fragrance is a sign of rebellion -- a sign that liberty still has a place in the hearts of some men.

Now everyone in the area (including politicians, bureaucrats, and petty officials) must know the tavern allows smoking, in spite of state laws against it. Yet folks are silent, and smoking continues. Why?

Before I provide my reason, let me contrast this experience with one that occurred not too far from my home in suburban, central Ohio.

One weekend, my family camped at a local campground that has a party house serving burgers, beer, etc. The establishment also has a couple of pool tables and requisite television screens. Instead of eating the Dinty Moore meal we had prepared (heated) for our kids, my wife and I decided to drop in for a burger and pop. We entered, ordered, and waited for our takeout meal.

While waiting, we noticed a few burly men playing a rather loud game of pool. Just as we were paying for our meal, two of the men left to go outside. On our way out, we passed them smoking underneath the outside canopy. Sensing that moral outrage must be near, we stopped and asked them their thoughts on the then-new state anti-smoking laws.

Where we expected outrage, we heard indifference. One of the guys even stated that the law was good since it limited the amount of cigarettes he was able to smoke in a day. Wow, I thought, the nannies have reprogrammed the minds of those who were once free.

I attribute the very different reactions to the interventions of the state into the lives of the citizens of Ohio to one source: public education.

You see, the schools in my area outperform those of the wilds -- outperform them on state-mandated tests of state-mandated curriculum.

In a very real sense, the state, through its schools and curriculum, has succeeded in squashing public dissent of the continued loss of liberties.

So while my locals champion a state that intervenes in their lives, those who attended supposedly poor-performing schools still hold onto remnants of liberty. And these folks have held the state at bay, with their local apparatchiks and nomenclatura too afraid to stop open rebellion -- to enforce the state's anti-smoking laws.

For those who think that government schools are about the threes R's, I suggest asking any recent graduate of a so-called high-performing government high school some pointed questions on the rights of property -- liberty. You will quickly learn that the three R's are simply the diversion used to inculcate future generations.

Here's a funny spoof of the likely scene deep in the government bunker out in Larimer County. (HT: LewRockwell.com)

For district information that is not a product of the administration and board, turn to the ROC.

Dear Editor:

My parents recently returned from a trip that included a stop in Moscow. While there, as good tourists, they visited Lenin's tomb and reported back that more than a few Russians still worship Lenin and his vision of a worker's paradise.

It might seem odd that folks still desire the totalitarian state.Yet, according to the view of Greg Wourms ("Big government is necessary to keep big business in check," Dispatch, Sept. 19, 2009), we should all want for the warmth of big government -- the bigger, the better, of course.

Either you advocate for liberty -- a founding principle of this nation, or you advocate for the totalitarian state.

As economist Ludwig von Mises long ago noted, there is no such thing as the third way. Society either moves toward liberty or it moves toward complete state control -- there is no mythical resting point in the middle ground.

Wourms may fear liberty so much that he is willing to accept state control. But such a notion turns this nation on its head.

A nation born in liberty wanting the king's return. Where is Jefferson when you need him?

Sincerely,

Jim Fedako

For those who have a hard time understanding my assertion that the district spends $1 million on PR each year (and the true value is likely much higher), here is a real world example to help explain the difference between cost and expenditure.

I just received my September electric bill. At first I was shocked by the high amount, especially considering that September was not a warm month. But then I remembered my wife is pregnant.

You see, when she is pregnant, my wife likes to set the temperature low in order to compensate for her elevated metabolism. So while she sleeps with a light blanket, I spend summer nights wrapped and clothed as if it were the middle of winter.

It is true that my general fund expenditure for electricity is high, but some of the cost is correctly attributed to her pregnancy -- likely half of my expenditure on electricity in September was due to the September weather, with the other half due to wife's pregnancy.

If I didn't attribute costs as closely to their source as possible, I would not have a clear understanding of the true cost of pregnancy versus the true cost of AC.

The same holds for all entities: costs need to be attributed to their source in order to understand the drivers of those costs.

Olentangy recently hired Wade Lucas. Initially, Wade agreed to the salary set by the board. After receiving an offer, Wade then renegotiated a much better contract.

Yes, Wade snookered Dimon McFerson -- the supposed great negotiator -- and ended up being the winner of hundreds of thousands of tax dollars.

Why did the board agree to the new, more expensive contract? The answer is simple: Since the board had been burned in its previous closed-door superintendent search, it believed that it had to save face and accept whatever Wade demanded.

The expenditure for Wade's new contract came out of the general fund and is reported as an administrative expense. Yet the true cost of his new contract should be attributed to a PR stunt to cover up the foolishness of McFerson and the super majority of the board.

The expenditure is not a function of the administration of the district, it is a function of PR in order to save an inept board from more embarrassment.

There are many examples where the district expends money simply to look good before the public. All of these dollars are correctly attributed to PR. To pin those dollars on any other cost center incorrectly attributes costs.

Paul from the Save the Hilliard Schools blog buys the government versus anarchy false dilemma. Paul's comment is below. But first I have posted an exchange between Milton Friedman and Phil Donahue. Friedman thoroughly destroys the assertion that Paul's benevolent government is anything other than a utopian dream.

Note: I am more and more amazed when folks who know politicians and the political process (including the true inner workings of government) continue to assert a benevolent government as the solution. Such a proposition is one too many rainbows from reality.

The following is from recent Marc Farber's article over at LewRockwell.com:

Phil Donohue: When you see around the globe the maldistribution of wealth, the desperate plight of millions of people in underdeveloped countries. When you see so few haves and so many have-nots. When you see the greed and the concentration of power. Did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism? And whether greed is a good idea to run on?

Milton Friedman: Well first of all tell me, is there some society you know that doesn’t run on greed? You think Russia doesn’t run on greed? You think China doesn’t run on greed? What is greed? Of course none of us are greedy. It’s only the other fella that’s greedy. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The greatest achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty that you are talking about, the only cases in recorded history are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade. If you want to know where the masses are worst off, it’s exactly in the kind of societies that depart from that.

So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.

Phil Donohue: Seems to reward not virtue as much as the ability to manipulate the system.

Milton Friedman: And what does reward virtue? You think the Communist commissar rewards virtue? You think a Hitler rewards virtue? Do you think… American presidents reward virtue? Do they choose their appointees on the basis of the virtue of the people appointed or on the basis of political clout? Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest? You know I think you are taking a lot of things for granted. And just tell me where in the world you find these angels that are going to organize society for us? Well, I don’t even trust you to do that.

Here is Paul's comment left on this post of mine:

My initial comment said that I believe there is a role for a benevolent government in such matters.

We can observe that throughout the ages it has been demonstrated that mankind will readily choose what is good/easy/cheap in the short term with little if any regard for sustainability.

Native American cultures are romanticized for their supposed love of the land. Yet you can go to a place in the Dakotas where the Lakotas repeatedly stampeded whole herds of buffalo off a cliff because it was the most efficient way to kill large numbers of them. The only difference between this act, and grinding a mountain down for the coal is the size and sophistication of the technology available - the motivation is the same.

The rights afforded a landowner cannot be infinite. After all, the landowner has title to property only because the government says he does, and the power of the government can be engaged to enforce those rights granted under law.

We could choose to have a lawless county, where one must individually protect land rights, presumably by force if necessary. There are places in the world where this is true today, like Somalia. If someone wants to take over your house in Mogadishu, there is no government to complain to - you have to fight to keep it, or walk away.

And so I don't really understand those who argue against government, yet demand the protections that if affords.

I certainly fear a government that ceases to be responsive to the people, and our American government is becoming less and less so every hour.

And I am concerned that the way we find our way back to minimal government isn't by unwinding the scale of the government we have now, but rather a revolution that breaks out as a result of our government becoming intolerably intrusive.

Sadly, I see nothing in the natural world that suggests that natural systems self-regulate very well. There is always something gradually drifting out of whack, and the ultimate 'correction' is abrupt and severe.