john locke foundation

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Lately I've been wondering how groups of people on different sides of issues can come to such dramatically different conclusions about the direction of public policy. In many cases, those differences appear to be grounded in honest disagreements. That's how I see the abortion issue, for example, where personal beliefs dominate the political landscape like so many hair-trigger land mines.

In other areas, the differences seem more rooted in deep philosophical divisions where honesty gets caught in the cross fire. That's what's happening in the continuing debate about global climate change, where free-market fundamentalists looking for free-market solutions are cooking the scientific books in pursuit of an ideological agenda. We need look no farther than the Journal of the John Locke Puppetshow to see the phenomenon in action. Today's edition features an ad for another seedy little free-market tank called the Heartland Institute.

Cross posted from The Progressive Pulse
Now that the right-wing hive mind has decided that today's free-market mantra is "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less!"…resistance is futile. It's as if the Borg has directed the think tank drones to signal that their assimilation is complete by embedding the moronic meme in their blogs. Like other examples of right-wing GroupThink ("Lower Taxes, Increase Revenue!"), this one is embarrassingly and demonstrably false.

I confess: It's fun to poke at the True Believers over in Lockeland.

There’s a new puppet show in town, but you wouldn’t know it from their website. Capitol Monitor claims to “shed daylight into the darkest corners of our "citizen" government”:

It's all about transparency.

The problem is, there is no transparency about the website and its owners. But, it's got Art Pope's fingerprints all over it

Of all the millions of people in North Carolina who could offer opinions about stormwater management and coastal pollution, the Charlotte Observer turned this week to a reliable source at the John Locke Foundation, Mitch Kokai, whose main qualification is the fact that he's part of Art Pope's multi-million-dollar opinion manufacturing machine.

Cross-posted from The Progressive Pulse.
There are few things I dislike more than being called unpatriotic because someone disagrees with my politics. Allow me to introduce you to John Locke Foundation blogger Jon Ham, who can apparently determine your patriotism by what yard sign you display. Here is Ham's 4th of July offering:

Not questioning their patriotism, but …

Yesterday I took my seat at the Civitas polling luncheon and began to chat with the other folks at the table. Turns out that the couple I sat down next to had come up from Wilmington specifically to attend the Take Back the State Rally, and that this was their first Civitas meeting. They heard about the rally from their WPTF affiliate, which had been promoting the event for several weeks.

The commentary part of the luncheon was like it always goes:

Fridays at the Art Pope Puppetshow are always interesting affairs. John Hood takes a much need break from his daily hackery, allowing the minions to step up to the plate of free-market fanaticism. I read the stuff every week because it provides good insight into how the JLF brainwashing machine operates.

Today's guest column features a screed against the City of Raleigh's impact fees on new development by Jon Sanders. What's most interesting (but not at all surprising) is the thinking behind Sanders' commentary. Simply put, Sanders conflates "money" and "benefits" as though the two are indistinguishable concepts. In reporting the results of a study by Michael Walden, an economics professor at NC State, Sanders weighs into the "all growth is good" swamp with both feet.