Misc

Boy Scouts to accept gay boys but not gay adults.

War on Drugs

Our gracious and benevolent masters have allowed registered voters to sign petitions to allow people to vote to legalize marijuana for medical use.

Freedom of Speech

Prosecutor seizes records of White House and Fox News phones including James Rosen's parents. This is another case of watching snakes eat each other. Have you noticed how the IRS and media scandals have pushed the Benghazi scandal out of the news?

Judge Napolitano on the government's invasion of James Rosen's press rights.

"Prior to securing Kim’s indictment, the Department of Justice obtained a search warrant for Google’s records of Rosen’s personal emails by telling a federal judge that Rosen had committed the crime of conspiracy by undue flattery of Kim and appealing to Kim’s vanity until Kim told Rosen what he wanted to hear. In a word, that is rubbish. And the FBI agent who claimed that asking a source for information and the federal judge who found that the flattering questions alone constituted criminal behavior were gravely in error.
Reporters are protected in their craft by the First Amendment, and the Supreme Court has ruled that they can ask whatever questions they wish without fear of prosecution. If Kim revealed classified information to Rosen — a charge Kim vigorously denies — that is Kim’s crime, not Rosen’s. The Supreme Court ruled in the Pentagon Papers case that it is not a crime for a journalist to seek secrets, to receive them, to possess them and to publish them so long as they affect a matter of material public interest.
The government’s behavior here is very troubling. Government lawyers and FBI agents are charged with knowing the law. They must have known that Rosen committed no crime, and they no doubt never intended to charge him, and they never have. They materially misled the judge, who saw the phrase “probable cause” of criminal activity (taken from the Fourth Amendment) in their affidavit in support of the search warrant they sought, and he signed. The judge should have seen this for the ruse it was. It is inconceivable that a person could conspire to commit a crime (release of classified information) that is impossible for that person to commit, particularly with a Supreme Court case directly on point."

This sounds much more like intimidation than criminal investigation. Article mentions a few of the many examples of Obama lawlessness.

Federal Reserve

The Fed has injected foreign banks with over $1 trillion in cash.

Media

CBS news marginalizing aggressive reporter for her focus on Benghazi to the point where she is considering leaving CBS, probably because the president of CBS news is the brother of Obama's deputy national security advisor, a key figure in the Benghazi scandal.

""CBS News executives" are wringing their hands that Sharyl Attkisson maybe "wading dangerously close" to advocacy on Benghazi.  It's now entirely reasonable to ask if the top executive at the network may be "wading dangerously close" to a massive conflict of interest.  Is David Rhodes trying to protect his brother -- who's just been revealed to be knee-deep in the Benghazi cover-up -- by muzzling and marginalizing a problematic journalist within his news division?"

This is another example that the media and government are in bed together, often literally.

Police State

Cops trained to claim cell phones could be firearms so they can seize them to prevent being recorded.

Miami police employ cameras, military vehicle to patrol the beach over Memorial Day weekend. Our government has gone nuts, allowing testosterone junkies to oppress us, and the scariest part is most Americans support it.

The unbelievable story of the FBI agent shooting a man he was questioning about the Boston Marathon bombers is already collapsing.

"Initially, FBI officials said Todashev, 27, became violent and lunged at an agent with a knife while he was being questioned about Tsarnaev and an unsolved 2011 triple murder in the Boston suburb of Waltham. The agent, acting on an "imminent threat," then shot Todashev, they said. However, later in the day, some of those officials had backed off that preliminary account, and it's no longer clear what happened in the moments before the fatal shooting, The Associated Press reported."

This stinks.

"Sources told Fox 25 News in Boston that Todashev, a Russian national living legally in Florida, was about to sign a confession linking him to the Waltham slayings just before the shooting took place. "I heard a couple of loud bangs and saw a couple of cop cars riding by," said Jared Morse, who lives in the area. "They wouldn't let anyone out to see anything or anything like that, so they made us go back inside.""

Cops have no power to force people to go inside. This doubly stinks. Man killed was planning to visit his parents in Russia after the interview. The FBI hasn't even clarified how many people were interviewing him. They're still trying to get their lying stories straight.

Blogger tests the pressure cooker theory of the Boston Marathon bombing.

"“We don’t sell pressure cookers,” she said.
“How can a cookware section not sell pressure cookers? Anyhow, your website says you sell a line of Fagor pressure cookers.”
She replied, “We stopped selling them after the Boston Bombing.”
So it goes. Guns—even the gun used in the incident, still get sold in stores after the Newtown, CT, school massacre, but when someone makes a bomb with an ordinary kitchen implement, they are taken off the shelves. (What’s next, a demand for licenses to buy canning equipment?)"

At least it was voluntary. I understand that Macy's feared a backlash if they didn't remove those pressure cookers.

"After getting a calculation that a quart of black powder weighs about two pounds (a very general measurement, because the compound changes weight according to the humidity, and can be loosely or densely packed like any powder), and testing a bag of small nails to find that they weigh about six pounds per quart, and after weighing the pot itself, we found that the whole contraption, fully loaded with four to five quarts of powder, two quarts’ worth of nails and BBs, and a battery and ignition device, would weigh about 30 lbs. So we put a sufficient number of exercise weight plates into our container, shut the lid, and tried carrying it in two backpacks similar in construction to the ones on the two brothers’ backs."

Needless to say, the result doesn't match the photos of the backpacks carried by the brothers, but the blogger is making assumptions about the amount of powder, nails and BBs. This is interesting:

"As for Dzhokhar, the photo of a pack set on the sidewalk in front of a bunch of spectators, in the spot where bomb number two exploded bears no resemblance to the pack he was photographed wearing, which had wide black seam lines and zippers."

They are obviously different packs. BM suspect 1's pack might be the same as the exploded one in the picture, but the other one is not even close.

"Meanwhile, there were people on the scene near the finish line who were wearing backpacks that were both very dark black and large enough and full-enough looking to be containing a loaded pressure kettle. These men were observed and photographed wearing baseball caps and shirts bearing the uniquely drawn white skull logo of a Houston, TX-based mercenary-for-hire firm called Craft International Security (whom no governmental agency will admit to having hired). Curiously, images of several of the men wearing those packs show them to have an unusual white square image on the top of the pack, quite like the white square visible in the FBI’s image of the exploded black pack. The Craft personnel’s packs are made of material that looks remarkably similar to  whatever was used to make the exploded pack. (The man on the right below is photographed before the bombing. He is also seen, in an image taken after the explosion, running alongside a second identically-dressed Craft man wearing a pack and the company’s logo-emblazoned hat. Note that the left runner, interestingly, now no longer has on his pack. Where did it go?)"

His pack also seems to match the color of the exploded pack better.

"A copy of the transcript of a hospital bedside visit to Dzhokhar in Beth Israel Hospital by Federal Judge Marianne B. Bowler, who had finally called a halt to the interrogation (all conducted without a lawyer or witness present, despite reports that Dzhokhar had repeatedly requested and been denied an attorney), gives a good idea of how aware and capable of talking he actually was:"

He couldn't speak. He can only nod.

Riots in Sweden. British machete terrorist claims he wanted to start a war in London. If there were lots of people surrounding the terrorists, why did they let them behead their victim? The attack retaliation for the war in Afghanistan. Links between terrorism in Britain and the rebellion in Syria.

"That US overt and covert support of the insurgency in Syria, including its radical and al-Qaeda affiliated elements, is a known fact. Yet Kerry with a straight face simply fails to mention it. As in the days of Bush, the Obama administration is making its own reality. But we know that eventually these US-supported Islamist radicals with Western passports will come home -- and now we have a better idea of what might be in store for us when they do."

More blowback.

"But here is the really good part: Kerry in the above quote argues that a government using deadly military force on its own citizens without trial justifies foreign-sponsored "regime change" on the very day that the US government has admitted to using deadly military force on its own citizens without trial!"

Nice catch on the hypocrisy.

Opportunists jump on the British attack as excuse to monitor all electronic communication.

Antiwar.com sues FBI over surveillance. Background.

Private policing is superior to government policing.

"The key to effective protection, says Dale, is love. Not guns, not violence, not laws. His employees have to love their customers. They have to care about their customers' safety more than their own. They also have to be the kind of people who would rather not use violence first. This is the exact opposite of what the government advocates for its police officers."

The customer comes first. Government has no customers. It only has victims.

"The market is the true will of the people. Providers have to respond to the people's will or else they will be out of business. The state has no such pressure. At most it has to worry about its image a little, sort of the way a serial killer has to worry about mimicking human emotion so his victims will let their guard down. "

That's a great analogy.

Health Care

Study claims women 40 percent more likely to develop mental illness than men. I'm skeptical. At best, mental illness is greatly over diagnosed. It may be a complete sham. This is more likely about reporting. Women tend to talk about being upset more than men.

Tax and Spend

Congress and the media go after Lois Lerner. Congressmen claim she waived her fifth amendment rights, but they don't call it a right. They call it a privilege. Lerner placed on administrative leave. She's being punished for spilling the beans, not for taking the fifth. She refused to resign.

Award winning, long time St. Louis anchor man fired over claim the IRS targeted him after interview of Obama.

"The IRS claims Conners and his wife, Janet L. Conners, owe more than $85,000 from 2008, 2009 and 2010. Larry Conners said he has had a tax accountant prepare his statements for years and that he and his wife had paid taxes for 2008-2010, but the IRS disagreed with the Conners over some deductions. He was on a payment plan with the IRS, he said, but after the Obama interview, the IRS cancelled the plan. In September a lien was placed on their Clayton home. The IRS declined to comment."

Sounds like retaliation to me.

It would be kind of exciting to see a special prosecutor appointed. Those guys want to make a name for themselves, and they do it by taking down other big-time politicians. It's like watching snakes feed on each other. And the IRS is about the worst of the snakes.

I don't want the government using stolen money to pay for tornado safe rooms or anything else.

Government bridge collapses in Washington State.

Global Warming and Energy

EU energy summit rolls back global warming agenda in favor of cheaper energy. The US government is too evil to do the same.

I don't think Obama supports fracking and natural gas. His EPA regulations restrict them. Those industries are booming despite him.

The same as they do every year, federal forecasters predict busy hurricane season. They probably just bring out the same forecast year after year and just change the date.

"The federal government predicts an above-average hurricane season in the Atlantic this year, with seven to 11 hurricanes expected."

That's a huge range. That's not a prediction. The bad news is Joe Bastardi also predicts a heavy season.

"Although Bastardi predicts 3 fewer named storms than the 19 that formed in the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, he expects the storms on average to be stronger and more energetic.
Bastardi forecasts the Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) index -  a metric of storm energy and longevity totaled across an entire hurricane season – to reach 165, well above 2012′s season total of 126."

Let's hope they don't make landfall.

A series of lies, exaggerations and mistakes by environmentalists.

Economy

Exposing bogus claims about sweat shops.

"One of the most elementary propositions of the science of economics is that the higher the price of anything, the smaller is the quantity of it that will be purchased. This applies to labor no less than to goods. If wage rates in Bangladesh are arbitrarily increased, fewer workers will be employed in Bangladesh. In that case, workers who would have earned low wages will earn no wages. They will starve. If employers in Bangladesh are compelled to make improvements in working conditions of a kind that do not pay for themselves, the cost of those improvements represents the equivalent of a rise in wage rates. Again, there will be unemployment."

People work in those jobs because doing so is better than the alternative. Arbitrarily raising prices would take away the better opportunity for many.

"The high profits that can be earned in a Third World country, if not prevented by too many obstacles, will be heavily saved and invested, mainly in that Third World country. As the experience of Taiwan, South Korea, and now even mainland China shows, a generation or more of such a process results in a vast accumulation of means of production in the country—i.e., numerous new factories, with better and better equipment."

And better working conditions and higher wages.

Bernanke hints at slowing bond purchases. Stocks fall. This shows that the stock market is a bubble blown by the Fed.

"U.S. Treasuries sold off on Bernanke's comments about possibly tapering bond purchases, with the yield on the 10-year note, which moves inversely to the price, crossing 2 percent. European shares .FTEU3 ended 0.2 percent higher, with European markets closing before the release of the Fed minutes."

This shows how trapped Bernanke is. If he slows down purchases one iota, the stock market and treasury bubbles will burst. The US government will be forced to admit it's broke.

Japanese stocks fall over 7 percent.

Texas, red states at the top of economic growth stats. Ohio, blue states at the bottom.

The economy is not a machine.

While elites like George Soros keep talking down gold, they're loading up on it.

"If the orchestration is apparent to me, a person with no experience as a gold trader, it certainly must be apparent to federal regulators. But don’t expect any action from the Commodities Futures Trading Corporation. It is headed by a former Goldman Sachs executive."

He's doing his job for our rulers.

Gold and silver bullion shortages continue.

War

US and allies to increase aid to rebels.

"The U.S. and several key allies looked again Wednesday for a strategy to end Syria's civil war, their united efforts unable at the moment to stem the Assad regime's military gains and Washington still unwilling to join those providing the rebels with lethal military aid."

If they really want to end the war, the solution obvious: stop aiding the rebels. Instead the US is prolonging the war and increasing casualties by aiding the rebels. US claims of caring about humanitarian issues are lies. Not only that, but the rebels are affiliated with al Qaeda. We're at war with al Qaeda and its affiliates. The US is aiding them. Aiding and abetting the enemy is the definition of treason. The US government is implementing a policy of treason.

Syrian rebel rips out and bites soldier's heart.

Military suffers wave of gay sex assaults. This was easily predicted.

Obama to transfer drone program from CIA to Pentagon. Here's the text of Obama's long, droning speech. The press claims he's limiting drone strikes, but I doubt there'll be any limits in practice. I bet this is pure political theater.

Obama continues war on terror unabated. Press pretends he's putting an end to it.

Obama must have listened to me when I advised him to lift the ban on transferring Guantanamo prisoners to Yemen.  Too bad he doesn't listen to me on everything.

Senate unanimously calls on Obama to obey the law. Apparently this is a big deal with libertarians. The problem is the law, not this resolution.

How Bush and Obama expanded the war on terror beyond the Authorization for Use of Military Force and legislation to reign the president in.

Local

Another bomb threat closes a local school.

"The threat was written on the back of a stall door in a girls’ bathroom."

These people are making the authorities look like idiots.

Another car fire.

Schools pushing costs for extracurricular activities onto parents. Hopefully this will lead to more parents pulling their kids from government schools and putting them into private schools.

Springboro teachers prepare to strike. This is an opportunity to fire all the teachers and close all the schools. This would get the bureaucrats out from between the teachers and the parents so they could work together to insure children got the best education at the lowest price.

"The school board is seeking significant concessions on salary, insurance, and working conditions, according to the union."

Abolishing the government schools would free teachers and parents to negotiate individually and reach voluntary agreements on wages included benefits and working conditions. Think of the cost savings that would come from not paying bureaucrats and not maintaining giant, cookie cutter prison schools. Better yet, think of the great education children would get as teachers focused on what was important to parents, not politicians, not bureaucrats.

After 80 years of the war on drugs, heroin rings are everywhere because there's a ton of money to be made. The government can't change the laws of economics.

Orwell would enjoy this headline: Fifteen graduate from Juvenile Drug Court.

Regulation

Ohio to effectively ban internet sweepstakes cafes. The casinos win.

How in the world does a marriage decree prevent one former spouse from having overnight guests? This is what you get when the government takes control of marriage. This judge is actually obeying the law. The law - government control of marriage in any form - is the problem.

Local

I've been writing about Dayton and big cities in Ohio except Columbus losing population for years. The DDN suddenly noticed.

"Of the 729 cities nationwide that have more than 50,000 residents, nine of every 10 gained population from 2010 to July 1, 2012, according to the new Census data.
But in Ohio it was the reverse, as 14 of the state’s 15 largest cities lost population in that same period. Every major Ohio city except Columbus ranked near the bottom in percentage population change, with Youngstown listed dead last at 729th in the Census estimates, the only city in the nation to lose more than 2 percent of its population the past two years."

Neither the words tax, fee nor income appear in the story. Cincinnati, Dayton, Kettering and Springfield are near the bottom of the national list. For comparison,

"The fastest-growing cities in the nation the past two years were small cities in the south and west, according to the Census estimates, with suburbs of Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, Texas taking five of the top seven spots."

It's the taxes.

Misc

Dad saves kids from burning car. I seem to be seeing burning car stories all the time now.

Tax and Spend

Oklahoma school destroyed by tornadoes had no tornado-safe basement. I don't want government spending stolen money on tornado-safe basements for schools. I want them to get out of the school business.

Tesla motors pays off government loan because government policy and the Fed printing money has driven its stock into a bubble and because the feds heavily subsidize the purchase of its vehicles.

"Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, 'I would like to thank the Department of Energy and the members of Congress and their staffs that worked hard to create the ATVM program, and particularly the American taxpayer from whom these funds originate. I hope we did you proud.'"

Tesla is using government money to pay off its government loan, and Musk knows it..

Federal Reserve

More evidence that we should never believe the government about counterfeiting.

"The Bank of Canada unveiled the new series of bank notes in 2011, touting the their world-class security and durability.
In the past several weeks, police have seized counterfeit polymer bills in cities within the Lower Mainland area surrounding Vancouver.“What we think is happening is that people are so confident in the notes is that they’re not really looking at them,” said Sgt. Duncan Pound, who works with the RCMP Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit.
“The security features only work if people are looking at them before they accept them,” he said."

It's just a false sense of security.

Analysis of bitcoin and crypto-currency in general.

Health Care

ADHD symptoms linked to increased risk of obesity later in life. This provides more evidence ADHD has a lot to do with feeding children sugar.

Vitamin C kills drug resistant tuberculosis. How much money has the government stolen from us to develop dangerous and debilitating drugs before somebody noticed that an everyday vitamin could be a cure. Whoever announced this discovery will probably be fired for putting and end to this government gravy train.

Politics

Photo of young Angela Merkel in a communist military uniform with East German superiors upsets the former communist who doesn't want her past known.

"All children had to take part if they wanted to go to university, but Mrs Merkel is also alleged to have been a propaganda secretary for the youth movement, the FDJ. "

There's no way to know how much she's being slimed for doing what she had to do to succeed in East Germany and how much she bought into the communist philosophy.

Global Warming and Energy

1975 article warns of global cooling.

"And there you have it: whether it is "global cooling," or "global warming," or that even more empty phrase "climate change," whatever atmospheric conditions exist provide fodder for those of a collectivist mindset to want to control all human action.  I suspect that, if the evidence emerged that the climate was at a standstill, this would lead Sen. Boxer and her people-pushing cronies to argue that we must have a federal "stimulus" program to get the climate moving again!"

True.

On the phony and collapsing consensus about AGW.

Tracks of the Moore, Oklahoma tornado. Opportunist Barbara Boxer blames global warming.

War

The US liberation of France led to rape and sexual assault.

"The soldiers who landed in Normandy on D-Day were greeted as liberators, but by the time American G.I.’s were headed back home in late 1945, many French citizens viewed them in a very different light.
In the port city of Le Havre, the mayor was bombarded with letters from angry residents complaining about drunkenness, jeep accidents, sexual assault — “a regime of terror,” as one put it, “imposed by bandits in uniform.”
This isn’t the “greatest generation” as it has come to be depicted in popular histories. But in “What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American G.I. in World War II France,” the historian Mary Louise Roberts draws on French archives, American military records, wartime propaganda and other sources to advance a provocative argument: The liberation of France was “sold” to soldiers not as a battle for freedom but as an erotic adventure among oversexed Frenchwomen, stirring up a “tsunami of male lust” that a battered and mistrustful population often saw as a second assault on its sovereignty and dignity."

More evidence that war violence breeds sexual violence.

Army Sergeant accused of secretly filming female cadets at West Point.

"A sergeant first class on the staff of the United States Military Academy at West Point has been accused of videotaping female cadets without their consent, sometimes when they were undressed in the bathroom or the shower, according to Army officials. "

It's everywhere.

With three scandals battering Obama, he might attack Syria to change the media focus. Americans generally rally around the flag when the president attacks somebody, but Americans strongly against attacking Syria, so this might blow up in his face.

"This week Obama told the press his administration has fairly solid evidence that chemical weapons were used by Damascus against al-Qaeda and its allies. Obama also said he still wants more and better evidence that Asaad used the weapons. This long has been his standard line.
But then, before closing his remarks, Obama lapsed into his patented weeping-for-humanity mode, saying in an almost off-hand manner enough thousands of Syrians had been killed in the civil war to justify intervention by that American-killing and nation-bankrupting fiction of our bipartisan governing elite’s imagination, the “U.S.-led International Community.” In other words, our beleaguered president already is looking to distract Americans from his administration’s rampant felonies, and what better way to quiet the hounds of just retribution than by consigning U.S. soldiers and Marines to death in a useless intervention in Syria, a place where no genuine U.S. national interest is at stake. One straw in the wind: Friday’s news brought word of Obama’s talking-points-changing, intelligence-leaking lickspittle of a CIA Director, John Brennan, sneaking into Israel to “discuss Syria.”"

Americans are less resistant to intervention if the Syrian government used chemical weapons.

AG Holder admits US drone strikes have killed four Americans.

"In a letter to Congressional leaders obtained by The New York Times, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. disclosed that the administration had deliberately killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen.

The American responsibility for Mr. Awlaki’s death has been widely reported, but the administration had until now refused to confirm or deny it.

The letter also said that the United States had killed three other Americans: Samir Khan, who was killed in the same strike; Mr. Awlaki’s son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was also killed in Yemen; and Jude Mohammed, who was killed in a strike in Pakistan.

“These individuals were not specifically targeted by the United States,” Mr. Holder wrote."

I hope the press presses Obama about this after his speech.

Police State

FBI agent kills man after questioning him about the Boston Marathon bombing. That's a sure way of silencing him. FBI agent says the dead man was "directly involved" in the triple murder of three drug dealing friends of BM suspect 1. I guess we'll have to take government agents word for it since one killed him.

"The agent shot in self-defense in the incident, which occurred at Todashev's house, the law enforcement source said."

"While the man was being questioned by an FBI agent, two Massachusetts State Police troopers and other law enforcement personnel, "a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual," FBI spokesman Jason Pack said."

They had this guy heavily outnumbered, so they could have restrained him for more questioning, but they killed him anyway. I bet it will come out that he was unarmed.

"Taramov said his friend had told him he had a bad feeling about the direction the investigation was heading. "He felt like there's going to be a setup ... bad setup against him. Because he told me, 'They are making up such crazy stuff, I don't know ... why they doing it. OK, I'm answering the questions, but they are still making up some, like, connections, some crazy stuff. I don't know why they are doing it.' "

Before meeting with the FBI for a 7:30 p.m. interview Tuesday, Taramov said, his friend asked him to take his parents' telephone numbers. "He just told me, 'Take the numbers, in case something happens, if I get locked up, or whatever, call them.' You know what I mean?

"We were expecting to get him locked up, but not getting him killed. I can't believe it.""

That doesn't sound suspicious. Now they've killed two of three people with any insight into the BM bombings, and they tried to kill BM suspect 2 by riddling the boat with bullets while the suspect cowered unarmed. BM suspect 2 is now hidden away and can't talk. I'll bet he takes a plea deal that will guarantee he never talks. This report claims the dead man implicated himself and BM suspect 1 in the triple murder. That's convenient.

"The Chechen immigrant pulled out a knife and stabbed the FBI agent several times before the agent shot and killed him. The agent's injuries were non-life threatening. "

Not quite unarmed, he just brought a knife to a gunfight with a bunch of cops.

"Sources with "direct knowledge of the case" told ABC News that Todashev was "about to sign a statement" confessing that he and Tsarnaev had been involved in the killings. "

We're supposed to believe a guy cooperating with many armed police officers suddenly pulled a knife and attacked the FBI agent he was cooperating with, and that agent, shot him dead while all the rest of the cops stood around doing nothing. Maybe aliens possessed him.

DHS has cars with POLICE written on them providing security at IRS protests. The federal government has officially taken over the job of local policing.

Terrorists in Britain kill man with machete. Fighting them over there does not keep us from having to fight them here. It makes more of them try to kill us here.

Education

Ohio universities supposedly voluntarily freeze tuition.

"In response to ballooning student loan debt, which now exceeds $1 trillion nationwide, a new trend is emerging this year: universities voluntarily freezing tuition."

If it was voluntary, why did they do it all at once? Why didn't they do it ten years ago? This is a crock. This is price fixing, and it will have the same consequences as price fixing always has: shortages.

Politics

Iran criticized for being like the US.

"Iran's election overseers removed potential wildcard candidates from the presidential race Tuesday, blocking a top aide of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a former president who revived hopes of reformers.Their exclusion from the June 14 presidential ballot gives establishment-friendly candidates a clear path to succeed Ahmadinejad, who has lost favor with the ruling clerics after years of power struggles."

That sounds pretty much exactly like corrupt US primaries. Like they always say, if voting changed anything, they would make it illegal.

Tax and Spend

IRS official to take the fifth to protect her superiors. It won't protect her.

The Onion regarding congressional hearings about Apple's taxes:

"You get ’em, Congress. Just because you created loopholes doesn’t mean companies should take advantage of them!"

Praise for the Onion.

Immigration

Senate Judiciary committee passes new immigration bill with 13-5, bipartisan majority. Anything passed bipartisanly is doubly bad for Americans. Bend over and take it in Spanish.

War

Special Ops to launch eight communication satellites into orbit to aid in manhunts. These sound like cell phone towers in the sky. You can bet they will be used against Americans too.

General suspended of assault and sex charges.

Misc

Study of gay and straight identical twins.

Global Warming and Energy

A local weather man said:

"He said sun early in the afternoon will help to destabilize the atmosphere and a chance for thunderstorm development will be enhanced as a result."

As if the sun doesn't shine on the atmosphere all day, every day. There's not a drop of rain within 500 miles of us.

Health Care

FDA threatens farmers with jail time over raw dairy sales.

"Our federal health agencies claim to be protecting us from this 'dangerous' product.   As you walk down the aisles of junk food at your local grocery store, pass by the liquor section, and watch individuals buying cartons of cigarettes - you have to wonder is this really about our personal safety or the safety of the milk industry."

It's about protecting corporate milk producers.

Breast cancer rate increasing in younger women.

Police State

Cato's police misconduct site.

Massachusetts teen and aspiring rapper jailed as a terrorist and facing 20 years in prison for posting unapproved rap lyrics online.

Media

Yesterday the news reported 51 people killed by tornadoes in Oklahoma City suburb. Today the number is revised down to 24.

"There was a strand of good news Tuesday: Authorities dramatically reduced the confirmed death toll after earlier reporting that at least 51 people had died Monday. "

This is a huge error in reporting. Why did government agents report the wrong number?  Poor reporting is why the mainstream media is dying to rapidly.

Freedom of Speech

Hollywood giants improperly using DMCA notices to censor free Pirate Bay documentary. These guys know they exist only because of government bans on free speech.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Gunsmiths print handgun on inexpensive, consumer 3D printer and fire nine rounds of .380 through it.

Immigration

Rand Paul sounds like a leftist in this quote.

""We're going to win when we look like America," Paul said. "We need to be white. We need to be brown. We need to be black. We need to be with tattoos, without tattoos, with ponytails, without ponytails, with beards and without beards. We need to look like the rest of America.""

I expect to hear that from Chris Mathews, not Rand Paul. Who in the Republican party rejects people based on their brown or black skin color? Who rejects them based on their tattoos or ponytails or beards? I'm sure this is associated with his immigration plan, but Paul is parroting the myth of group identity here, and it's going to cost him.

Foreign Policy

The ultra-establishment Rand corporation destroys the case for war against Iran with report that a nuclear Iran would not threaten the US or Israel.

"Entitled “Iran After the Bomb: How Would a Nuclear-Armed Tehran Behave?“, the report asserts that the acquisition by Tehran of nuclear weapons  would above all be intended to deter an attack by hostile powers, presumably including Israel and the United States, rather than for aggressive purposes."

A lot of other people have been saying that.

Tax and Spend

The White House is scrambling to protect Obama from this IRS scandal.

"A Treasury Department official informed White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler on April 24 about the preliminary findings of a report that would fuel the latest in a series of scandals to confront Obama at the start of his second term.
The report was issued by a Treasury inspector general on May 14, four days after an IRS official had acknowledged, and apologized for, the agency's targeting of conservative groups with names such as "Tea Party" and "Patriots" that had applied for tax-exempt status.
Soon after learning of the report's preliminary findings, Ruemmler briefed White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and some other senior staff members, White House spokesman Jay Carney told a regular news briefing.
Ruemmler chose not to inform Obama about the findings to avoid any appearance that he had any role in shaping the report - a role the president would not have taken anyway, Carney said."

As with all political scandals, the more they talk about it, the worse it looks for the president.

Apple manages to legally avoid paying billions in taxes which means lower prices and higher quality products for its customers. Good for Apple.

Economy

As government has explosively grown, poverty has doubled in the suburbs since 2000 including around Dayton.

Dayton Construction

Here's the previous Dayton Construction post.

They finally got the sidewalks finished in McKinley park. They poured the last sections Friday. They were dry Saturday, but since government workers don't work weekends, they didn't remove the tape until today, this afternoon, not in the morning when they could have. It took them nearly two months to do what should have taken a of couple days. The park is still a wreck. The heavy machinery has torn up tons of grass created mud holes whenever it rains. There's still piles of rocks like land mines waiting to break somebody's ankles. I wonder if they'll ever clean that up or just leave it. This park has been under construction for two years, including putting in Great Miami Blvd., to do what should have taken a few months at most. And equipment sat idle the vast majority of the project time.

Global Warming and Energy

Midwest gas prices spike. I like the honesty in this article.

"Southwest Ohio gasoline prices have spiked 20 cents a gallon in the past week to an average price of $3.85 a gallon while prices nationwide have fluxuated for no apparent reason. One petroleum industry analyst struggled Monday to make sense of it all.
“The last seven days have delivered some shocks at the pump for motorists in the nation’s Midwest,” said GasBuddy.com Senior Petroleum Analyst Patrick DeHaan. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen gasoline prices in the Midwest surpass California — areas of Nebraska, Minnesota, Oklahoma, North and South Dakota, and Kansas — have done that. Gas price records in these areas aren’t being quietly replaced, they’re being blown out of the water.
“I don’t believe I’ve ever seen such crazy trends in gasoline prices occur all at one — prices spiking in one area, falling in another, and holding steady in others. What we’re seeing today is certainly rare,” DeHaan said."

I like the "no apparent reason" part. I bet it's because individual sellers are making individual decisions that hope will benefit their business.

"Gasbuddy’s Dayton-area website, DaytonGasPrices.com, showed numerous stations charging $3.89 per gallon for regular-grade gasoline on Monday morning. The average price among all monitored stations was $3.84 a gallon. That’s 20 cents higher than a week ago and 19 cents higher than a year ago, according to the website."

This makes sense to me given that people believe the economy is heating up.

Nanana ice tripod unchanged on record morning.

"According to the ice breakup log, the latest the ice has ever gone out was May 20th, 1964 at 11:41 AM Alaska Standard Time."

"The Nenana Ice Classic is a pretty good proxy for climate change in the 20th century."

It's about two and a half hours until it sets a new record. Ice breakup happens quickly in time lapse video, setting a new record by several hours. It's getting colder. This is an interesting comment...

"The previous record was in a leap year, so this one shouldn’t count as a record."

But the leap day doesn't extend the season by a day. It's a correction to a process that occurs constantly. Using the leap year argument, you can't make year to year comparisons, only four year to four year comparisons. I think the record stands. From another comment:

"The vernal equinox in 1964 and 2013 both fell on 20 March. In 1964 it occurred at 1410Z and in 2013 is occurred at 1102Z. Those are, respectively, 0510AST and 0102AST.
The ice breakup on the Nenana river occurred on 20 March in both 1964 and 2013. In 1964 ice breakup occurred at 1141AST and in 2013 it occurred at 1441AST.
The total span of time between Vernal equinox in 1964 and ice breakup was 61 days, 6 hours, 31 minutes. The total span of time between Vernal equinox in 2013 and ice breakup was 61 days, 12 hours, 39 minutes.
So, like it or not, the ice breakup was more than six hours further into Spring in 2013 than it was in 1964, and 2013 is a record."

Since when do we track anything by comparing it to vernal equinox instead of by date? The record would stand either way. They've measured this ice breakup for 97 years, and this is the latest.

Heat related deaths falling in the US.

Monckton gets serious about accusing the global warming frauds of fraud.

"In my letter to the police in Geneva, which I also copied to the Serious Fraud Office in London and the Office of the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Virginia, I wrote:

“The attached correspondence evidences a fraud at the IPCC. Its secretariat has not responded to my report of an error in its Fourth Assessment Report (2007). The error is serious. I can prove it is deliberate. It is designed to demonstrate by deception that the world is warming ever faster and that we are to blame. It is one of a series of ingenious, connected frauds that have profited a few at great expense to many.
“The frauds are wilful deceptions calculated to cause loss to taxpayers by tampering with scientific data and results so as to exaggerate the rate and supposed adverse consequences of global warming. Scientific debate is legitimate: subjective distortion of objective science for profit is not.
“This letter is for information. If after a further week the IPCC (to which I am copying this letter) fails to acknowledge my report of its error as its own procedures require, I shall invite you to investigate this and other connected frauds, which involve larger sums than any previous fraud.”

"

Excellent. From a commenter:

"This matter regarding the 17 years was the case earlier, however the situation with GISS, which used to have no statistically significant warming for 17 years, has now been changed with new data. GISS now has over 18 years of no statistically significant warming. As a result, we can now say the following: On six different data sets, there has been no statistically significant warming for between 18 and 23 years.
The details are below and are based on the SkS site:
http://www.skepticalscience.com/trend.php
For RSS the warming is not significant for over 23 years.
For RSS: +0.123 +/-0.131 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1990
For UAH the warming is not significant for over 19 years.
For UAH: 0.142 +/- 0.166 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1994
For Hadcrut3 the warming is not significant for over 19 years.
For Hadcrut3: 0.094 +/- 0.113 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1994
For Hadcrut4 the warming is not significant for over 18 years.
For Hadcrut4: 0.094 +/- 0.109 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1995
For GISS the warming is not significant for over 18 years.
For GISS: 0.103 +/- 0.111 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1995
For NOAA the warming is not significant for over 18 years.
For NOAA: 0.089 +/- 0.104 C/decade at the two sigma level from 1995
If you want to know the times to the nearest month that the warming is not significant for each set to their latest update, they are as follows:
RSS since August 1989;
UAH since June 1993;
Hadcrut3 since August 1993;
Hadcrut4 since July 1994;
GISS since October 1994 and
NOAA since July 1994.
(By the way, RSS shows a slightly negative slope since December 1996 or 16 years and 5 months through to April 2013.)"

The frauds are in a bad position. They have defrauded every taxpayer in dozens of countries. It seems to me that means any prosecutor in any of those countries could prosecute the frauds.

Economy

Most of the new jobs in the US are part time.

War

The failure of interventionism on all fronts.

"The ideological rationale for the Iraq war – that we would “drain the swamp” of Arab stagnation and therefore eliminate the sources of Islamist radicalism – turns out to have been imported straight from Bizarro World, where everything is stood on its head. Instead of neutralizing the factors that made bin Laden a hero to much of the Muslim world, the conquest and occupation of Iraq created a base for Al Qaeda that had never existed previously (despite the Bush administration’s quite effective effort to link Saddam Hussein in the public mind to the 9/11 attacks).
The political rationale for the Iraq and Afghan wars is another example of Bizarro World “logic” in action. All those years after we were told “we’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here,” two terrorists succeeded in shutting down a major American city, murdering 3 and injuring more than 260. Will we now invade Chechnya, Dagestan, and the other ‘stans in a futile crusade to deprive “the terrorists” of safe havens?"

The wars are obviously making the world more dangerous and us less safe.

Attacks kill 116, wound 240 in Iraq.

Health Care

Article blames whooping cough resurgence on safer vaccines.

Media

DOJ also subpoenaed records of Fox News reports James Rosen.

"AP President Gary Pruitt said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that the AP records grab was not only unconstitutional but damaging to the operation of the press.
"It will hurt," he said. "We're already seeing some impact. Officials are saying they're reluctant to talk.""

They're probably reluctant to talk to Wikileaks too.

Misc

Wal Thornhill of electric universe fame predicted that some forces could move significantly faster than light. Now scientists discover that spooky quantum action travels 10,000 times faster than light.

Economy

Crash alert because it looks like 2007 all over again.

Workers are suing employers at record pace. This boosts unemployment because it makes business owners reluctant to take the risk of hiring somebody.

Tax and Spend

The head of the TARP program answers the question about where the $700 billion, ultimately over $800 billion, went.

""I wondered the same thing," he said (from memory). "It was amazing to me that no one knew. We gave it to the banks. But no one knew what they did with it. I proposed to Tim Geithner that we find out. He was outraged. He cursed me out, using the F-word. He said it would bring the whole banking system down, if I asked.
"I went ahead and sent out a letter. I didn't really have the authority or the staff to insist. But all of the big banks wrote back. And most of them gave me dodgy responses or gave me the brush-off.
"What did they do with the money? They were supposed to increase lending to help bring about a recovery. None of them did that. Instead, they used it to repay each other's loans. In other words, they used it to reduce the amount of credit available... not increase it. And they bought US agency bonds... just as you'd expect. And they paid out their bonuses.
"In other words, they looked out for themselves... just as you'd expect. I didn't know this information was going to bring down the banking system..."

The bankers are thankful.

""Another thing I wanted to know was exactly how much money was really at risk. We gave away $700 billion. But we also guaranteed loans... and gave lines of credit... and stood behind various financial transactions. I asked how much was at stake... how much was at risk. No one seemed to know. So we added it up. We found a total of $23 trillion. That's ‘trillion' with a capital ‘T.'
"Again, I'm not saying that we would ever have to pay out that much. Some of this was guarantees on top of guarantees and cross-guarantees... very murky... very difficult to disentangle. But I thought it was worth knowing how much we had at risk. And again, the banks didn't want to tell. And the people in the Treasury department didn't want to know."

I hadn't seen that number before.

""The more questions I asked, the more I found myself isolated... and at odds with the Treasury Department, as well as the banks. I was having shouting matches in the Treasury. The banks hated me. And then the undersecretary of the Treasury called me into his office.
"He explained that if I eased up on the banks, I could have a very nice career after the TARP appointment expired. If I didn't play ball with them, I would find it hard to find a job.
"That's how it works. You go along and you get along. If you don't go along with the scams and the technical mumbo jumbo... you're out.""

I imagine he's doing well.

IRS gets warrant to collect financial records of one health care company employee, seizes 60 million health care records on 10 million people. Obama's putting the IRS in charge of Obamacare.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Five examples of gun banners admitting they want to ban guns.

Just like government can't ban drugs out of the hands of the people, it can't ban guns away either.

Immigration

Civilization south of border looks better than US banana republic. This post is in response to the claim that illegal immigrants have lower IQs on average than Americans, but it doesn't address that issue. Illegal immigrants didn't develop Latin America. They left it for the US. That's looking pretty stupid right now.

Foreign Policy

US bans gold sales to Iran, threatens neighbors.

"From July 1, the US will ban sales of gold by anyone to either the Iranian government or to Iranian citizens, a senior US Treasury official said. Washington has warned Iran's neighbors Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, key regional centers of the gold trade, to stop gold sales to Iran, said David Cohen, treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence."

It's telling they link terrorism and financial intelligence into one agency.

War

Pentagon approves Apple devices for military use.

The military grants itself the power to police the US.

Afghan President Karzai tells the truth: Obama plans to keep US troops in Afghanistan until 2024. And you thought the war would end in 2014.

Local

Police endanger everybody in Lebanon with high speed chase through the city.

Misc

This looks like Atlantis. I'm not the first to notice. The criticism of too high and too far from the ocean make no sense since the catastrophe that supposedly destroyed Atlantis may have lifted Atlantis up and out of the ocean. Maybe western Mauritania was ocean not too long ago. That would be past the Pillars of Hercules. Plato could also have been wrong about the size.

The origin of the welfare state in America.Welfare state reading list.

Praise for smuggling. This is more about trade in general than smuggling.

Men who wear red tend to perform better at sports. I'm skeptical. Maybe sports teams which wear red happen to be better managed over the time frame of the study. Maybe 20 years from now, blue teams would do better. But there is something about red.

"Now a study has found that sportsmen with higher testosterone levels are more likely to choose that colour than any other."

The study seems to contradict itself.

"But despite the link with testosterone, those who chose red did not actually  perform better in the study in which 73 men were told they would be performing a competitive task and their performances would be placed on a leaderboard.
They then chose either a red or blue symbol to represent them in the table and completed the tasks, as well as answering questions aimed at gauging whether various personal reasons may have affected their colour choice.
Their testosterone levels were measured from saliva samples at the start of the study and again at the end.
The data revealed that men who chose red had higher baseline testosterone levels – and they rated the colour as having higher levels of characteristics such as dominance and aggression, than men who chose blue.
But colour choice did not seem to be related to performance in the competitive task."

Now they're giving red a bad name.

Claim that Watergate was driven by the Rockefellers to get Nixon out of office because he raised tariffs.

"Whether the Watergate break-in was planned to serve the higher goal or was pounced upon, after the fact, as the grand opportunity, is beside the point. It was there, and it was used. It became the starting point for the Washington Post, its publisher, veteran editor, and two cub reporters to break Richard Nixon into pieces.

And if the Rockefeller people needed an inside man to report on the deteriorating mental state of the president as he heated up in the pressure cooker, they had Henry Kissinger, who was another Rockefeller operative."

"The Washington Post was owned by Katharine Graham, who was herself a very close friend of the Rockefeller Family. Years later, she would be awarded a medal of honor by the University of Chicago, a an institution founded by John D. Rockefeller. On her death, a paid heartfelt obituary was inserted in the NY Times by the trustees, faculty, and staff of Rockefeller University, where she had served on the University Council.

And she and Nixon already hated each other by the early 1970s.

The managing editor of the Washington Post, Ben Bradlee, was an old hand at writing promotional material, having worked in Europe crafting releases for a CIA front group."

How does Deep Throat fit?

Deep Politics, the Unspeakable, and Libertarian Class Analysis reading list

Politics

I don't think being defiant in the face of three scandals is going to work in Obama's favor. Democrats are already running from him. They might throw him overboard if he keeps this up.

Obama, like every president before him, denies role in scandals.

Claim that meeting about Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on tiny South Carolina island is really a mini-Bilderberg meeting.

"As of right now, it seems like this closed doors event is sort of a mini Bilderberg group meeting of sorts. One local CBS affiliate, one of the only news sources to be covering this since it’s a local issue, says that around 20 highly expensive jets were lined up at the Charleston International Airport on Johns Island, and that Bill Gates and others were at the Sanctuary Hotel on Kiawah Island. The attendee list, according to the CBS report, includes Jeb Bush, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Bill and Melinda Gates, Dan Gilbert (owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers), Warren Buffet, Oprah, and others."

Please not Jeb Bush. This island isn't too far from Jekyll Island.

Health Care

How GM crops harm food production and health.

"Take the genetically engineered Bt plants, for example. In these plants, a specific genetic material for a single toxin protein has been separated from the bacteria (Bacillus thuringiensis, or Bt) and placed into the genetic material of a plant, such as corn, soybean, and potatoes. Other Bt plants are also in the pipeline. According to Dr. Ingham, there’s very clear evidence of harm in animals that consume Bt plant material. They end up with severe ulceration, starting in the digestive system.

“We saw massive damage to the liver and to many of the internal organs in the body of those animals when we went to compare the Bt plant material fed to those animals versus non-Bt plant material fed to a herd that started out exactly the same. We’re seeing very clear effects,” she says.

Unfortunately, and tellingly, virtually none of this research is being done in the US because no one is willing to fund it, and patent laws effectively prevent independent safety research on patented seeds. However, research done overseas, in Australia and elsewhere, clearly show genetically engineered feed is causing severe health problems in animals. Yet there are no human studies to evaluate the health effects of eating foods that contain a protein toxin in every single cell..."

I don't know how anyone could think this is a good idea.

"When Dr. Ingham and her colleague placed that GE bacterium into the root systems of plants, and compared it against the parent plant that had no GE bacteria in the soil, they found that the GE Klebsiella planticola caused total death to all plants that they put into the system. They were within just TWO WEEKS of that genetically engineered organism being released outside when Dr. Ingham presented her data at a United Nations meeting, which prevented outdoor plantings. Still, the USDA didn’t want to believe the results and questioned the methodology."

That's because the USDA is a partner with food giants like Monsanto and Dow.

The UN wants us to eat bugs, but you can bet they won't serve them at the UN.

Global Warming and Energy

World's ice sheets unlikely to melt any time soon, just like rational people expected.

Misc

Thomas Sowell, speaking about eduction, explains how government experts, despite always being wrong, never have to pay a price.

"Well, if you come up with a lot of wrong ideas and pay a price for it, you’re forced to think about it and to change your ways or else get eliminated. But there is no such test. The only test for most intellectuals is whether other intellectuals go along with them. And if they all have a wrong idea, then it becomes invincible."

Think CNBC.

I think this picture is photoshopped. The Rock is about the same size as Charles Barkley. In fact, Barkley looks stretched horizontally.

Politics

I've known for all my life that weak people, whether it be physically, mentally or emotionally, tend to vote for bigger government to protect them, and strong people tend to vote for less government. This is why women overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. Scientists have just figured out that physically weaker people tend to vote for less intervention compared to physically stronger people. I think intelligence would sway this survey even more against intervention.

Tax and Spend

IRS agents only targeted small tea party and patriot groups, not large ones. Of course they did. Large organizations are part of the ruling class. This isn't ironic. It's business as usual. Government always works against the little guy to enrich the big guys.

Obama knew about the IRS corruption. Of course he did.

The media is working hard to isolate Obama from the IRS scandal. Obama didn't have to order this. Government is packed with socialists and they knew they would get cover from the Obama administration. But Obama knew it was happening. Obama knows it's happening in every bureaucracy he oversees. The problem for Obama is he either looks stupid or evil. The press is trying to make him look stupid because that's less bad than looking evil. But he's evil.

Police State

The FBI already mandates that communications devices have backdoors they can exploit, but because more people are using encrypted communications, they want a new backdoor to access the unencrypted communication. No thanks.

Federal Appeals Court says agents must obtain a warrant to examine a cell phone. This decision won't stand up.

Decorated cop accused of rape. That's not surprising. It's typical. The scary part of this story for the vast majority of Americans is this cop was charged with terrorism for raping two women. Rape is heinous crime, and rapists always terrorize their victims. But rapists have never been charged with terrorism.

Report that garbage men are being encouraged to go through garbage to search for terrorists. I believe it because you can't make this stuff up.

Misc

Keynes blasts Marx, and Marx preemptively blasts Keynes. This would be funny if over a hundred million people hadn't died because of their mistakes.

Health Care

Officials warn Obamacare spawns scams, the same as every other government program.

Tax and Spend

Government welfare programs drove American settlers onto Indian territory, inciting the genocide of Indians.

Media

The Onion kills it again when discussing Obama's scandals.

"Oops! You forgot to mention the authorization of drone attacks that kill hundreds of innocent people."

Five stars for the Onion.

USA Today has just discovered the potential link between accused Boston Marathon bomber number 1 and a triple murder discussed in the alternative press the same week as the bombing. This makes me skeptical of the link.

Chris Matthews and other leftists reject Obama.

"Liberals could be shouting and claiming that the IRS targeting of conservative, patriot, and constitutional groups had nothing to do with Obama, that he’s entirely innocent, that he just got rid of the IRS chief and all is well…but they’re not saying it.
They could be insisting that the DOJ tapping AP phones was all on Eric Holder, and Obama had nothing to do with it…but they’re not saying it.
The current press virus is: Obama is Nixon."

They can't stomach covering for him any more. They were willing tools, but eventually they had to save themselves instead of crashing and burning with Obama.

"Has Obama failed to live up to his promises to people far more powerful than he is? If so, what is his betrayal?
Is it simply the fact that the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations have chosen Hillary Clinton as the next president – and in order to make that happen, major diversions have to guide the press and public away from her role in the Benghazi catastrophe? Is that why we’re suddenly seeing the IRS and DOJ scandals erupting?
Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission (TC) certainly wields enough power to torpedo Obama, if they want to. And they surround Obama."

This is purely self-interest. They're not going to willingly drown as the bad ship Obama sinks. Granted, Hillary's popularity and potential is a big motivator for them, but self-preservation is the bigger motivator.

Federal Reserve

Our our country descends deeper into banana republic status, the new $100 bill looks more like banana republic money than ever. This won't stymie professional counterfeiters like the Fed.

War

Attacks in Iraq explode.

Local

Bomb squad blows up another innocuous package. Our rulers are laughing at us so hard.

Now they're scaring us by saying spending cuts will leave Cincinnati to be overrun by rats.

"Budget cuts will mean, among other things, a reduction in resources for pest control."

Here we go again. Instead of cutting bureaucrats or welfare, corporate and otherwise, they're cutting pest control and lead paint workers because that will pressure people to submit to higher taxes. The city should sell of the property that needs pest control. The new owners will do a better job for less money.

I have two headlines in my local feeds purporting to offer 911 recordings of recent events. This is a gross violation of the right to a fair trial. Report 1. Report 2.

Government generously offers insurance for its water lines on private property. I like how the put it:

"Homeowners asked to consider water line insurance"

Asked to consider. More like coerced. If government's water line explodes on your property, it's your expense. Dig a well. A deep well.

Here's another laughable claim:

"Without any changes, the Beavercreek City School District would start the 2015 fiscal year with $5.2 million in the bank, not enough to open the schools for 2015/16 school year."

As if $5.2 million is not enough to fund the schools for a day. Or two days. Or 20 days. This is another lie that governments espouse to manipulate people into voting for more taxes. They didn't say the problem was this year. It's in the future, the very near future, so scared residents have a chance to save their children if they only vote to raise taxes. What a crock. If only it was true. If only Beavercreek government schools would disappear after the 2014/2015 session. If that really happened, the children of Beavercreek would enjoy a tremendous improvement in quality of education and their parents would pay a tremendously lower price to make that happen. But it won't. This is a scam, and it will succeed.

Freedom of Speech

CISPA is the zombie bill that won't stay dead.

Regulation

Google CEO says negativity slows down tech development, but when somebody questions him about patents, he avoids the question. The writer blames the problem on seeking profits, but the search for profits is facilitated by cooperation, not negativity.

Education

These Christian seeming do-gooders are just trying to line their own pockets. Kids don't need preschool. They need to be free to be kids. They certainly don't need the government controlling them through vouchers at an even younger age.

"They cited research that showed children who first attended pre-kindergarten were more likely to succeed in school and get jobs later in life, and less likely to have out-of-wedlock children."

This is a good example showing correlation does not mean causation. It's likely kids who attend preschool come from more affluent families or families with stronger work ethics. The-preschool itself probably does nothing at best and is more likely counter-productive.

Economy

Ohio unemployment drops to 7 percent.

Politics

As I stated before, Obama's scandals are business as usual, nothing to hyperventilate about. They hyperventilation tells me they're covering something up. I wonder if this AP thing and the IRS thing about about distracting Americans from the real questions about Benghazi, not the phony questions our rulers are talking about. In addition to the questions I mentioned the other day, we still don't know what the CIA was doing in the Benghazi annex.

Foreign Policy

Smugglers have to smuggle Kentucky Fried Chicken from Egypt into Gaza. This is nuts.

Global Warming and Energy

Global warming frauds looked at the papers produced, edited and peer reviewed by the global warming frauds and concluded that 97 percent of the papers promoted the global warming fraud. What a shocker. Talk about selection bias. This is supposed to be important. It's not. This is another desperate attempt to revive the phony belief that science is determined by consensus, not observation, theory and testing - the scientific method - at which the frauds have consistently failed.

Here's the dishonesty of the claim.

"Here’s the genesis of the lie. When you take a result of 32.6% of all papers that accept AGW, ignoring the 66% that don’t, and twist that into 97%, excluding any mention of that original value in your media reports, there’s nothing else to call it – a lie of presidential proportions. "

Selection bias is a form of lying too.

People are ridiculing the claim.

Not only are hurricanes down, Australian cyclones are too.