john locke foundation

“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.”

It is often said that one can judge the strength of a person's character by observing their behavior in the face of a moral dilemma. If that is indeed the case, the silence by Art Pope's minions at the John Locke Foundation says all we need to know about their political perversion. Kudos to Rob Schofield for calling them out.

In the final analysis, this kind of hypocrisy has emerged as the defining quality of the free-market right in North Carolina. Cowards one and all.

Today's Meck Deck blog, a division of the Art Pope Puppetshow, has a particularly good example of the use of circular logic. In a post titled "Smaller State Budget Means More Jobs", Jeff Taylor states

... to defenders of the status quo, who insist if you cut North Carolina’s taxes and shrink the state budget you are somehow impoverishing the state — and wiping out jobs. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Business as usual at the Show.

Too bad they couldn't get Sarah Palin. At least then Puppet General Ta-ta would have been happy.

Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, will be the featured speaker at the John Locke Foundation's 21st anniversary dinner in February. Cheney, 44, is a former State Department official in the Bush administration, who has become a frequent Fox News commentator, often discussing Middle Eastern policy.

A whole room full of experts! Very funny.

There's broad agreement among scientists nowadays that global warming is real and caused in large part by human activities like burning fossil fuels and cutting down forests.

For example, a survey by university researchers published last year in EOS, the journal of the American Geophysical Union, found that 90 percent of earth scientists agree that mean global temperatures have generally risen since the 1800s, and 82 percent think human activity contributes significantly. As respondents' level of specialization in climate science increased, so did their confidence in human-caused global warming, with climatologists who actively work on climate change agreeing most strongly. That broad agreement is why prestigious scientific organizations including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Meteorological Society and the National Academy of Sciences all refer to a climate science "consensus."

Though many of the projects and foundations funded by Art Pope are upfront about their conservative bent, the North Carolina History Project (northcarolinahistory.org/) bills itself as "an edited, evolving, and free online encyclopedia of North Carolina that also includes commentaries, lesson plans, and a community calendar" and its website as "a special project of the John Locke Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank in Raleigh, North Carolina." However, an extensive study of their work reveals that the NCHP champions subjects that fit into a conservative, anti-feminist worldview while glossing over the bigoted legacy of conservative icons such as Jesse Helms.

Dear friend.

There are very few opportunities to make your money go twice as far. That’s why I’m delighted to remind you of our Spring Matching Gift Challenge. When you give to the John Locke Foundation, your gift can double in value and support the investigative journalism of Carolina Journal and the open-government work of JLF’s transparency program.

The John Locke Foundation has recently received challenge grants from generous foundations that believe in the free-market, limited government cause. If we can raise an additional $40,000 by the end of June, we’ll receive a dollar-for-dollar match on those contributions. That means the $40,000 will become $80,000 – and we’ll have the resources we need to maintain and expand these successful programs.

Time is limited and we hope you will help us with this special request.

Today we'll explore the inner workings and hidden mechanisms behind the Puppetmaster's remarkable empire. For those unfamiliar with the Show, it's helpful to think of a three ring circus.

In the main ring, of course, is the inimitable John Locke Foundation. Staffed by a core of self-styled free-market extremists, JLF cranks out propaganda like a photocopying machine, regurgitating five sets of pseudo-Libertarian talking points shamelessly. Taxes bad. Freedom good. Public education sucks. Government planning destroys value. Poor people get what they deserve. I say "pseudo" Libertarian because JLF rarely takes on anti-freedom forces in the personal responsibility arena. For example, their silence on America's insane war on drugs is all but deafening.