Free kibbles

Visitors to the US from visa-waiver countries forced to register online 72 hours before traveling. That ought to stop a bunch of tourists from visiting the US and further isolate us from the world, while terrorists will just use fake names and travel undeterred.

Russian gas to Europe still blocked despite agreement. Notice Russia didn't block the gas in September. They waited until January. This is one new facet of the new Cold War of terror.

Fed fingers the 2005 bankruptcy law change as one of the triggers of the mortgage meltdown. Thanks, government.

Obama requested the President Bush get the remaining $350 billion TARP funds ready for him on inauguration day. He doesn't want to wait one minute to start passing out taxpayer money to buy votes.

Who in Congress is so stupid that they want to try to subject OPEC to US anti-trust law?

The Feds to dole out $80 billion to government schools in a handout to teachers unions. Our children's education will suffer as a result.

Article highlights 10 "achievements" of the Bush administration, but since it includes No Child Left Behind and Medicare Part D, the author exposed himself as a big government conservative and can't be taken seriously. And although the surge was an achievement, it also highlights just how bad Bush's Iraq strategy was for the previous 4 years.

Government education and pervasive laws brainwash Americans into thinking government has the solution to our problems.

Surveillance cameras in San Francisco don't prevent crime. That just proves we need more of them, right?

Fewer divorces in the recession. I've noticed this too. Apparently divorces are a luxury item.

Great essay compares the economy to building a house and compares loose monetary policy to mistaking the number of bricks available for the house. This is an excellent analogy to our current economic problems.

Poetic essay explaining the overwhelming complexity of our economy told from the point of view of pencil relating its genealogy.

Mises scholar pulls no punches in denouncing the New Deal for transforming a typical recession into the Great Depression and he compares the actions of Bush and plans of Obama directly to the actions of Hoover and FDR. In each case, politicians exploited crises to orchestrate titanic power grabs. The first power grabs prolonged the crises, enabling bigger secondary power grabs. You can't help but share his frustration at watching history repeat itself. But he has hope because the people have access to far more information today than in the 30s. That's why the Fairness Doctrine and attempts to regulate the internet are so dangerous.

The Mises Institute has a page devoted to essays regarding the financial crisis and the bailout. I don't know when I'll have time to read all this, but I sure want to.