Gary’s Note: Patrick Cox explains how and why the intellectuals keep getting it wrong about the government and the free market…and how as the states the world over hit insurmountable debt crises, you can stand to profit enormously.

Today is the 99th anniversary of the signing of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. It enshrined into law an idea that stands in total contradiction to the driving force behind the American Revolution and the whole idea of freedom itself.

A horrifying aspect of modern life is how nearly daily threats to fundamental freedoms and human rights nearly require that citizens become politically aware and active.

Here we are struggling to put food on the table, cultivate a civilized private life, support things we care about, manage our households, and otherwise meet all the challenges of modern life, and then some jerk politician pushes some dangerous legislation that poses an all-out attack on everything we take for granted.

First, a correction. A Bar regular writes…

“Joe Lieberman is not a Democrat. He is an independent, as he resigned from the Democratic Party. Don’t you ever check things out before stating them as facts?

“Wish you the best with your paranoia,”

“– Steve K”

This comes from one of our most-faithful, unswerving, persistent critics. A man who has dutifully read our material for years so he can tell us why we’re wrong about the economy, politics, art, science and love.

The debate about the Fed is under way, and thank goodness. But as with many policy debates, there really shouldn’t be a debate at all. That’s because, if you think about it, the idea of central banking makes no sense.

Enthusiastic tax shill Warren Buffett has put his money where his mouth is.

He’s ponied up $49,000 to help pay down the national debt. He’s simultaneously matching voluntary contributions already made by Rep. Scott Rigell of Virginia.

Yes, $49,000 to Mr. Buffett is the equivalent of 49 pennies to the rest of us (Mr. Buffett is a billionaire and most Americans are thousand-aires or hundred-aires at best, so this is actually pretty accurate).

Last week’s violent government attack on the hugely popular site Megaupload — the U.S. government arresting Belgian citizens in New Zealand, of all places, and stealing at gunpoint servers bank accounts and property — has sent shock waves through the entire digital world.

There are two main explanations for how a smart guy like Krugman (and other sharp guys desiring more inflation, such as Tyler Cowen) can hold the views they do without their heads exploding.

Slow news day, huh?

We are kidding, of course, good patrons. There’s been some pretty big news.

The  S&P was forced to admit what we fringe pundits and kibitzers have been saying for years: U.S. debt is not quite as sound as the official ratings agencies would like you to believe.

The S&P 500, Dow and Nasdaq all took the official admission pretty hard. The S&P and Nasdaq are down 5%, the Dow nearly 4%.

As Obama demonizes the wealthy and pitches a dozen plans to restructure the economy, opponents of this program need a reminder of what exactly we’re fighting for. We are resisting bureaucracy, central planning, and encroachments on our freedom and communities. Yet this does not get to the heart of the matter. We are not only an opposition movement, countering the president and his partisans’ agenda. More fundamentally, we stand in defense of the greatest engine of material prosperity in human history, the fount of civilization, peace, and modernity: Capitalism.