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He looked to be in his 60s, with dark-red betel-stained teeth, wearing a faded blue and white checked sarong. He walked over to me slowly as I was standing on the sand, watching my children play in the waves. Through broken English and gestures, he told me something of his story. He used to have a home and a small jewelry shop in this touristy beach town of Hikkaduwa. Then one morning, it was literally all washed away and his life nearly with it.

I asked him, using my hands as much as words to express my question, of that infamous December 26, 2004 tsunami, “How big was the wave?” His answer was indeterminate — probably something around 20 or 30 feet high (the wave height varied greatly even among nearby locations) — but he said that what was most frightening was what happened before the wave: as if by the hand of an angry god, the ocean disappeared. Prior to coughing up a destructive wall of water on the shores of Sri Lanka (and many other vulnerable, low-lying, and usually poor coastal areas around the Indian Ocean), the tsunami swallowed the sea. According to the old man, the beach suddenly stretched two kilometers further out, with sand exposed to the sky in a way I have only imagined on Passover, hearing the story of the Jews escaping Pharaoh through a parted Red Sea.

(A young man we spoke to later in our trip said that the incoming tsunami wave, if its size were not menacing enough, was also black, fiendishly presaging damage of mythical proportions.)

Perhaps it is Buddhism, I think, as he shows me the scars on his shin where four surgeries have been required to repair the bones he broke as he stumbled through a mile of jungle to escape the oncoming wave, which lets him face with relative equanimity the fact that he lost every material possession he had accumulated over what must have been the majority of his life. Maybe it is because what he had accumulated was, by Western standards at least, not very much. Maybe I will never really understand. And maybe I should be thankful of that.

Later, as we drive through this area, my four-year old son points to the shells of former homes, shacks, and temples, asking “Did the salami do that?” The unintended comic relief is welcome as we recognize the real human cost of the disaster of Boxing Day eight years ago.

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2013/01/11/paradise-island

On Sunday, at 1:05 PM Mountain Time (3:05 PM Eastern), my guest on The Ross Kaminsky Show will be former Senator Alan Simpson (WY), recently of Simpson-Bowles Commission fame.

In recent days, Senator Simpson has seen a YouTube video of his current project, The Can Kicks Back, go viral. It’s rather amusing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjLuj0EhsQg

Our conversation should be informative and entertaining. I hope you’ll try to listen in. If you’re not in range of the radio waves, you can listen online at http://850koa.com

A friend e-mailed me some months ago to suggest that I contribute money to a particular congressman’s campaign. My friend is a Democrat of some national prominence, and I responded to him, “You know I never give money to Democrats.”

He said, “No, this guy is a libertarian-leaning Republican, sort of like a young, sane Ron Paul.” So I said I’d do some homework and consider a contribution if the congressman would be willing to have a phone conversation with me.

The next day, with the ringing of my cell phone, began my introduction to Congressman Justin Amash (pronounced uh-mosh’), the 32-year old representative of Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District (Grand Rapids and surrounding areas).

We spoke for nearly half an hour, on topics ranging from abortion to government spending to national defense and – this was Justin’s topic – the idea of private enterprises issuing competing currencies given the debasement being done to the U.S. dollar by our Federal Reserve and Treasury. Clearly, no inside-the-box thinker on my hands.

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator, which includes an extensive exclusive interview of Congressman Amash:
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/12/07/boehner-punishes-the-principle

If someone writing for Black Agenda Radio says that Newark (NJ) Mayor Cory Booker is “worse” than Barack Obama, in part because Booker has “railed against wealth distribution” and “is ideologically committed to the privatization of public education and to government that serves the rich,” then Booker is probably not the total disaster we have come to expect of big-city Democrat mayors. Some Republicans were no doubt positively disposed toward Booker during the presidential campaign when the mayor criticized an Obama campaign ad that was demonizing Bain Capital.

A writer for the Care2 social action network that emphasizes “a healthy sustainable lifestyle and support(s) socially responsible causes” calls Booker a “superhero” for living in a housing project for eight years and cutting his own salary twice. (He also gets extra points from Care2 for being a vegetarian.)

But what is bringing out this week’s plaudits for Booker from commentators throughout the liberal intelligentsia is his announcement, following a November conversation with a conservative on Twitter, that he is going to live on a food budget of $30, the equivalent of being on a food stamps program, for the next week.

Other politicians have participated in the “food stamp challenge,” and I have no doubt that many of them are well-intended, as Booker’s move may be. But I, for one, am unwilling and unable to judge a policy based on claimed good intentions of its supporters rather than on actual outcomes and compliance with modest philosophical and legal guidelines, such as our Constitution.

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/12/06/pied-pipers-of-poverty

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has put together a great video entitled “I, Pencil“, after the short allegorical story of the same name by Leonard Read. It’s an excellent, non-academic, explanation of the complexity behind things we perceive as simple.

One important lesson is that effective central economic planning is simply impossible because no person, and no small group of people, can possibly know enough to make the right plan. (And of course, central planning is antithetical to liberty even if it were potentially effective.)The importance of voluntary cooperation among people who don’t know each other (and don’t necessarily care about each other) becomes clear. It’s a lesson which should be imparted to everyone, including our children.

Please view and share widely.

The web page at http://ipencilmovie.org/ also has further commentary on the video, as well as hosting the video in a larger format, so I recommend checking it out on that page.

Apparently Rex Nutting didn’t get the memo. Nutting, a Marketwatch columnist who is the poster child for the maxim that a master’s degree doesn’t mean you actually know what you’re talking about, lists Grover Norquist eighth on his list of “10 people who led us to the ‘fiscal cliff.’” Eighth!

By listing Mr. Norquist, the President of Americans for Tax Reform and perhaps the most successful individual bulwark against higher income tax rates for two decades, behind former President George W. Bush and the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors in terms of responsibility for the “fiscal cliff,” Nutting has obviously missed the talking points that Democrats are trumpeting and useful idiots are parroting.

Sadly, by “useful idiots” I don’t mean the media, whose complicity in the growth of government is perennial, as much as I mean gullible Republicans, desperately seeking to be seen as participating in “cooperation” and “balance,” code words which mean today what they always mean: Republicans buying into Democrat proposals and getting little or nothing in return.

The biggest arrow in Grover Norquist’s quiver is the Taxpayer Protection Pledge which ATR asks candidates to sign, and which most Republicans do indeed agree to with at least superficial enthusiasm. By signing, politicians promise to “oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and… oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.”

In the upcoming 113th Congress, there are 219 Representatives and 39 Senators who have signed the pledge. With the exception of Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ), all the signers are Republicans. Sixteen GOP House members have not signed, along with six GOP senators although at least two (Jeff Flake of Arizona and Tom Barrasso of Wyoming) are not likely to succumb to the worst of Potomac Fever.

Unfortunately, several of those who have signed are now showing indications of Gelatinous Spine Syndrome, a Republican-selective symptom of Potomac Fever which precedes total collapse of both spine and cerebrum and allows a senator to be elected in Maine. Republican senators who are walking away from their “no tax increase” pledge include not just the usual suspects such as Lindsey Graham (SC) and John McCain (AZ), but relative newcomers to such intense levels of squish, such as Bob Corker (TN) and Saxby Chambliss (GA). Even Jeff Sessions, usually more reliable than other veteran GOP senators, seems to be mistaking “the political reality of the president’s victory” for a non-existent mandate to implement highly destructive tax policy. Political epidemiologists are very worried about the spread of the disease from the Northeast into the previously resistant South.

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/28/blaming-grover

Ross on the radio: I’ll be on the air Wednesday, 11/21, for Peter Boyles on 630 KHOW from 5 AM to 9 AM Mountain Time, and then on Thursday (Thanksgiving) from 9 AM to noon for Mike Rosen on 850 KOA.

Please listen in and join the conversation by calling the show.

For Boyles (Wednesday) the call-in number is 303 713-8255.

For Rosen (Thursday) the call-in number is 303-713-8585

Post-election Republican introspection has begun with authors including our own Jed Babbin offering explanations why Mitt Romney lost. (One wonders whether Jed, who penned six reasons, feels outdone by Keith Koffler’s note, “Seven Reasons Why Romney Lost.")

Both Babbin and Koffler left out a rather obvious explanation: Democrats used Republicans’ own words to make the GOP look like the very intolerant, bigoted bunch of old white guys which the left had been claiming Republicans to be for years. In short, the ignorant Todd Akin and the boneheaded Richard Mourdock, forgetting the lessons of Colorado Senate Candidate Ken Buck in 2010, allowed the transformation of a vague Democratic caricature of Republicans into a high-resolution image broadcast across the minds of the nation’s voters.

Putting this together with Mitt Romney’s desire for Hispanic “self-deportation” and increasingly out-of-touch anti-gay (or at least perceived as anti-gay) rhetoric, and you have all the ingredients necessary for those not descended from Mayflower passengers, and for young people, to abandon the GOP in droves.

Regarding immigration, and the non-lily-white more broadly, if one were to point to a single statistic that shows the degree of Republican disconnect with people who don’t look like Mitt Romney, it is this: Exit polls show Asians supporting President Obama over Romney by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. Asian-Americans, as Bloomberg News notes, “happen to be the highest-earning group in the U.S., out-earning whites, and they generally place enormous emphasis on family.” This made-to-order-for-Republicans voting block went for Obama by a higher percentage than Hispanics did.

A more significant canary in the political coalmine you will rarely find.

Please read the entirety of my article for the American Spectator here:
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/11/15/the-biggest-reasons

Election Day Is Just the Beginning:  So it’s to be four more years of President Obama, with House Republicans in a blocking position if they’re willing to use it.  Now more than ever, friends of freedom have their work cut out for them.  Will you be on the team in 2013?

Explore what the voters said, and talk about what must now be done, at two post-election forums.

WHAT NOW, CONSERVATIVES?

Special Guest: Guy P. Benson

Syndicated Radio Host & Political Editor of Townhall.com

Commentators: 

Mike Littwin on the Left   Ross Kaminsky on the Right 

Monday, Nov. 12, 7pm

CCU Beckman Center, 180 S. Garrison Street, Lakewood CO 80226

It’s rare that I’m happy enough with a company I work with that I think of offering them an endorsement on these pages.

As a professional trader, the quality of my clearing firm, perhaps even more in the area of technical support than in the area of customer service (though the latter is also quite important), is a major factor in my ability to make a living – or at least my ability to make a fair attempt at making a living.

I signed on with Advantage Futures after doing some online research (my career having been more in options trading than futures trading so I had some homework to do), with a particular focus on finding an FCM where I could use the particular trading software that I want to use. Since the software is server-based with the servers managed by the clearing firm, I was limited to the handful of firms that have that capability, but that’s fine because those firms are likely to be better in other areas as well given the infrastructure needed to support customers like me.

For traders with less demanding technology needs, Advantage has plenty of other software solutions, along with very fast access to all the major US futures markets, and some key foreign markets as well.

When I’ve had technology issues, they’ve responded quickly and professionally, including through their 24-hour tech help desk – a fairly remarkable feature for an FCM.

Their commissions are better than average, and damn cheap for the quality of their tech infrastructure. (To be clear, if you are going to host your trading software on one of their servers, there is an additional modest charge for use of the shared server, but unless you need a dedicated server it is still much cheaper than a dedicated solution.)

If you’re looking for a futures broker, I can (and do) offer my reccomendation (which was not requested by Advantage) to Advantage Futures.

My customer service representative, in the Professional Traders Group at Advantage is Jason Yoo, whom you can reach directly if you’re looking to open a futures clearing account, at (312) 347-4932 or by e-mail at jyoo(at)advantagefutures(dot)com