Free kibbles

Putin is putting Kremlin officials on the boards of Russia's biggest companies.

Canada to get enhanced drivers licenses similar to the US Real ID.

If a prosecutor knew that tapes of the interrogation of the defendant had been destroyed, he has the responsibility to provide that information to the defense.

It's good to know our leaders were smart enough to set up a high security, separate, camp in Guantanamo for high value al Qaeda suspects. It would be better if it had remained secret. Liberals will invent some fantasy outrage over it.

NATO isn't interested in sending more troops to win the war in Afghanistan.

Why should churches be exempt from laws blocking the showing the Superbowl in public places for free? These laws protect the rights of the NFL and the network and should apply to churches as well as everybody else.

Reason has more on how Google and Microsoft are battling in Washington as much as the market.

Reason discusses the GOP voters and illegal immigration, which becomes a non-issue if McCain and his amnesty plan with the nomination.

Reason explains that tough standards work for middle class and rich students (of course schools should have tough standards - what idiot ever though otherwise?), but that's not enough to help poor students. The solution is to empower parents by cutting federal, state, and local bureaucracy and by allowing school choice to promote competition. When schools and teachers are accountable to parents, not government or teachers unions, our education system will flourish.

I'm all for spreading security and freedom, but Reason misses the boat in this essay (though the book author is closer to getting it right). There's several reasons the US is losing moral authority. First, our prosecution of the Iraq war was terribly botched, costing us a lot of respect in the world. Second, the Iraq war has stretched our army so thin we can no longer project power in the world as we usually can. Third, we don't support freedom as much as we promote the fiction that an election magically transforms nations with a history of despotism into responsible, self-governing countries. Nothing could be further from the truth. Spreading security and freedom go hand in hand by promoting the development of democratic institutions around the world so countries can evolve to self-government on their own. Backing leaders who develop democratic institutions like security, economic freedom, and educating the population, on the path to self-government is the best approach - not supporting tyranny and not trying to rush elections in countries that don't have democratic institutions and are therefore doomed to backfire.

Reason slaps the Weekly Standard for attempting to blame libertarianism for the failures of the Republican party. What gall! This is a must read for anybody interested in understanding libertarian principles and how the GOP have abandoned them. The GOP never really embraced libertarian ideals either, it just ran on them to get in power, then tossed them aside and paid the price (as are we all). It also explains that libertarians do not espouse a "greed is good" philosophy (enlightened self-interest is different), and it shows that free markets harness human nature for the good of society, that's why they evolved through natural selection, and we evolved with them, while that same human nature leads to the evil excesses of governments.

At the bottom of this essay, Zogby explains why his prediction for California (supposedly within 2.7% error or some bull) were off by 20% or so. The answer is assumptions. It's those assumptions that make polling little more than educated guesses. Our reliance on polls is the ignorance of assumptions masked as science.

Obama raised $32 million in January, $7 million since Tuesday, while Hillary had to loan herself $5 million. Some Hillary aids go unpaid. That doesn't sound good for corrupt, establishment candidate. But about 1/3 of Democrats' delegates are super-delegates, i.e. the ruling class of Democrats, and Hillary has a big lead with them. Those super-delegates make their own decisions how to vote.

Clinton challenges Obama to debates to regain momentum. Smart. If he ducks her, he looks weak. If he takes her on, it works to her advantage.

Study shows that obesity may be genetic. This is a stupid conclusion. Certainly some people are more genetically disposed to get fat in a world of plenty than others. But obviously, those same fat genes were around 50 years ago, when almost nobody was obese. What changed is our eating and activity habits.

Trying to push homosexuality on school kids is dangerous. Leave them alone. Stop pushing. All it does is make people angry and hurt the kids by confusing their biological programming. They'll figure out about sexuality and homosexuality just fine on their own in their own time. Stick to reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Cato reports on the failings, and they're major, of RomneyCare.

Cato really can't stand the so-called stimulus package.

Devin is a romance novel editor.