Free kibbles

This light bulb is not an example of how government regulation spurs innovation. It's an example of how government regulation increases the costs of goods. It didn't exist before because nobody would pay 20x for a bulb that was 1.3x more efficient. This is step backward, not forward.

Mainstream media misinterpret Pope's treatise to make it sound like he's anti-capitalist when his treatise shows the opposite.

Mises scholar continues to pound Paul Krugman for advocating the creation of the recently burst housing bubble. The intellectual dishonesty of Krugman and his apologists is on display.

Mises scholar praises Thomas Sowell's book on the housing crisis, The Housing Boom and Bust.

Latest global warming scam proposal illustrates exactly what I've been saying for a couple of years now - the global warming fraud is an attempt to impose world-wide communism. This proposal would tax, using the same carbon credit scheme being proposed for businesses, every individual for creating more CO2 than the magic number the communists decide on. This is a proposal to effectively cap the wealth of every individual in the world and transfer any wealth above the cap to the people below the cap. It's an attempt to create equality of outcomes for every individual. It's communism. It plays on wealth envy to get its nose in the tent, then it keeps on coming. It's a scam.

Questions and answers about the House tax and trade bill.

Here we go with another example of how socialists utilize wealth envy to harm us all. The House will likely add a surtax on the rich to pay for its health care power grab. This makes for great politics. Anybody who fails to vote for the bill will be painted as being owned by rich people when in fact the Democrats are owned by rich people, Wall Street and health care companies.

Unemployment is higher than Obama's predictions with and without the stimulus. That's because his stimulus is sucking money out of the economy and therefore killing jobs. This is no surprise to anybody who uses their brain. Obama knew this would happen. His advisers told him this would happen. That's why he did it. As Lenin said, the worse, the better for Obama's plans.

And just to make things worse, the minimum wage is going to jump up July 28 and kill more jobs.

Obama is doubling down on his support for leftist dictator wannabe Zelaya over the rule of law in Honduras by inviting him to Washington to meet with Hillary Leftist Clinton. The OAS suspends Honduras and lifts ban on Cuba. I shows you how legitimate that organization is.

Why didn't article by Obama about a nuclear free world come out before the election. There's nothing wrong with a pipe dream of a nuclear free world for a college kid, but it's not realistic for a man wanting to be president. No weaker power nukes is going to give them, so we're not going to give them up. I applaud Obama's efforts at nuclear reduction though. It would be better to freeze nuclear warhead counts elsewhere too.

This author implies that Obama is pursuing unilateral nuclear disarmament. That would be insane, and it's quite a bit different from what I read yesterday. I'm glad to see somebody in the mainstream media finally saying this:

"The basic reality that the US is being led by a radical ideologue who clings to his views in the face of overwhelming proof of their falsity is the most fundamental fact that world leaders must reckon with today as they formulate policies to contend with the Obama administration."

This essay morphs into a discussion of Obama's Israel policy.

Ralph Peters says, we got nothing in the bargain with Russia, "Unless you think trading our military superiority for hamburger sales is a winner." I'm all for arms reductions. I don't like us paying the price to project power all around the world. The US isn't an empire. We're stupider than an empire. We pay all the costs of empire and extract none of the benefits. We spend blood and treasure, then afterwards, we spend more blood and treasure. We suffer the slings and arrows but bring home none of the loot. Our military is a gigantic welfare system to the world and a subsidy for businesses which operate in risky areas. We should put an end to that. And these cuts can't possibly bring our military down to the level of the Russian military. But Peters's hyperbole aside, getting nothing in return for our cuts was destructive. That's a shift in the balance of power toward Russia, and that's not good for anybody. Assuming Peters is right, Obama has succeeded in harming America once again.

By a 2-1 margin, Americans say they've become more conservative in the last few years. Voters were conservative before then too, so the country is becoming much more conservative. At the same time Republicans are acting more and more like Democrats, and that's why voters punished them in 2006 and 2008. That's also why Obama ran so far behind the generic Democrat - voters don't like leftists - but they still had to punish Republicans. But like Democrats and all politicians everywhere, Republicans just want power for themselves, not the people. Republicans know what's going on. They don't want to get it right. That's why the people lose whenever they vote either Republican or Democrat.

I don't care how much Michelle Obama's European vacation cost. Whatever it was, it was a infinitesimal drop in the budget bucket. She's first lady. If she goes on a vacation, she doesn't have the option of doing it without government provided entourage. And I certainly don't begrudge her a vacation. Focusing on irrelevant crap like this is a distraction from real issues.

I would like to be able to see budget expenditures for everybody in congress.

Symbiotic is a good description of how the press and Obama get along. He gives them ratings. They give him glowing coverage. We all lose.

If this is the real reason Palin quit, why didn't she just say so? Her speech was terrible. She never gave a clear reason. If she intended to give a clear reason, she failed horribly. It seems to me a lot of issues dovetailed for her - the frustration mentioned here, the need for money, the need for time off to educate herself for a run at the president, and the desire to end the attacks on her family. But her handling of the situation was terrible.

Following up what I posted yesterday, Cato predicts that China's yuan will compete with he dollar to become the global reserve currency. Unless we change course and quickly, it won't be much of a competition.

This essay about Iran makes me wonder if Doug Bandow is writing President Obama's speeches or if Obama's staff is writing Bandow's essays. Three paragraphs blaming America for the situation in Iran before he even begins to talk about Iran is ridiculous. Libertarians believe in personal responsibility. While our government is responsible for its interference in Iran in the past, it should go without saying that the situation in Iran is the responsibility of the Iranians. Libertarians also believe in self-defense. We don't have to allow a lunatic to shoot us in the head before we disarm him, and we don't have to allow a lunatic to nuke one our cities or Israel before we disarm him. Apparently Bandow believes in neither of those principles. Libertarianism is a pretty broad term, but in all the essays I've read from Bandow, I've seen nothing to make me believe he's a libertarian. He sounds far more like the Democrats in power.

Worse, Bandow the expert seems not to grasp the situation in Iran. The Iranian government has squandered the nations resources. Within a few years, Iran won't be able to produce oil and sustain itself. The mullahs know this, and like aristocrats everywhere, they refuse to give up their power. They know the only way they can remain in power is to develop a nuclear bomb and use nuclear blackmail to retain power. Nuclear power won't save them. The loss of jobs from the oil fields, the loss of money from oil exports, will harm their economy and prove they are inept. The opposition undoubtedly knows this too. The mullahs obviously felt the nuclear blackmail option was jeopardized if Ahmadinejad lost this last election, so they stole it. Bandow's policy would empower the mullahs to remain in power and threaten the US, Europe and Israel with nuclear holocaust forever. What's libertarian about that? That's what I expect from Obama. I've come full circle.

Because of the Democrat control of the legislature and subsequent domination of government by service unions, California's pension fund contribution "vaulted from $321 million in 2000–01 to $7.3 billion last year." Wow. There's that same Service Employees International Union, the head of which has such unusual access to the White House. This Andy Stern guy is a menace. Obama's doing the same thing at the federal level.

The Naval Academy sets lower standards for SAT scores and high school grades for minority applicants. You've got to be kidding me. Pat Buchanan qualifies by saying "If this is true..."