This was originally posted on Live Oaks on May 20, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. I have previously argued that the city of Houston should begin selling off assets, such as parks and libraries, in an effort to reduce spending, cut taxes, and return to its proper function of protecting individual rights. An editorial…
This was originally posted as a series on Live Oaks in May 2009. Comments have not been migrated. Death and taxes, we are often told, are two inevitable facts of life. However, a crucial distinction exists between the two—death is a metaphysical fact, while taxes are a man-made fact. As such, death is in fact…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on April 22, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. I previously wrote about the use of eminent domain by the Texas Medical Center to seize land for an expansion. Now, the Texas legislature is considering a bill that will strip Houston’s largest employer of most of its eminent…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on April 20, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. I did not intend for this to be a two-part post, but one point has been gnawing at me. In building a coalition for their movement, the organizers of the Tea Parties are repeating the same fundamental error as…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on April 17, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. I attended the Houston Tea Party on Wednesday, and along with a dozen friends distributed 150 copies of Atlas Shrugged and a similar number of pamphlets such as “Man’s Rights”. At an organizational meeting for the Tea Party, the…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on April 15 and April 16, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. Since announcing my virtual candidacy for mayor of Houston, I have patiently waited for the media to interview me on the issues facing the city. Since that is not occurring, I will take it upon myself…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on March 26, 2009. Comments have not been migrated Anger over the profligate spending of Congress is leading to renewed cries for term limits. If we throw the “bums” out, the thinking goes, we can elect representatives who are more responsive to voters. While the appeal of such…
This was originally posted in a series on Live Oaks in March 2009. Comments have not been migrated. Last week it came to light that the city was considering a plan to help potential home buyers pay off debt in an effort to improve their credit scores. Though that plan was quickly pulled following public…
In February 2009, I announced my “virtual” candidacy for Mayor of Houston. It was a campaign conducted solely through my blog, Live Oaks, and was intended to demonstrate the positions that a freedom-loving candidate would take. Below is my platform. Over the past few months I have previewed some of the potential candidates for the…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on February 11, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. The Quality of Life Coalition (QLC) is an umbrella organization of civic, business, and charitable organizations dedicated to making Houston a better city. This sounds laudable, until we examine what they advocate, and how they propose to achieve their…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on February 5, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. Last week Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. The act is intended to end pay discrepancies between men and women and circumvent a Supreme Court ruling that workers had 180 days to file a discrimination claim. Under…
This was originally posted on Live Oaks on January 30, 2009. Comments have not been migrated. Wednesday’s Chronicle had an interesting article on fish farms. A proposal to establish large mesh cages in the Gulf of Mexico is being considered by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, a federal agency that manages fisheries in…