Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

The US lost more jobs and the official unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent. That's a 26 year high (since 1983, when Ronald Reagan and Paul Volker allowed interest rates to rise so the American people could fix the economy).

FED / INFLATION:

Accounting fictions of the Treasury and the Fed created by legal tender laws.

Should the government stop dumping money into a giant hole? Funny.

Excellent half hour interview with Ron Paul.

WAR:

NATO air strike kills "up to" 90 in Afghanistan. "Up to" is a way of inflating the number to make it look worse than it probably is. Notice whenever the terrorists kill anybody the media reports only the number of casualties that are certain at that time. When the US military kills somebody, they find the highest number they can and report it. Another thing always assumed in reporting like this is that these civilians are innocent. I.e. they don't support the enemy. I think it's more likely the civilians surrounding the enemy support the enemy. But all that is neither here nor there. We have never declared war on the Taliban, so we shouldn't be in Afghanistan. It's a losing proposition anyway.

Reason highlights the futility of staying in Afghanistan.

POLITICS:

I don't understand this concern over Van Jones. He's an adviser to the president. I'm concerned because Obama is at least as radical as Van Jones and he's our president. This must be a convenient target for those who fear to say the president is a radical leftist and Marxist wannabe to rail against. Obama must be having the biggest laugh at Americans for still not recognizing how dangerous he and his agenda are.

FOREIGN POLICY:

Obama upset that Israel didn't bend to his will, instead continuing to build settlements in occupied territory. Poor little Barack doesn't like it when people don't follow his dictates. This just highlights how counterproductive it is for the US to be involved in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. When both sides want peace, they'll make peace. In the absence of peace, they'll either fight a perpetual war or one of them will get serious and defeat the other, and they'll get peace through victory. For all you who say that victory can't be won through fighting, I'll remind you you said the same thing about Sri Lanke.

MISC:

New economics paper supports Rothbard's view that the Great Depression was caused by government policies, most importantly the policy of propping up wages above their natural value, not monetary policy as asserted by Milton Friedman.

Private sector innovation for security.

The Ohio government's education analysis is hidden behind IP laws. The government decided that school districts all over Ohio performed better than expected (by whom?), and they will brook no criticism. The IP laws say so. On the one hand, if your expectations are low enough, any achievement looks like success. On the other, hiding your analysis behind IP laws is bull****. They're from the government. They're here to help. Who are we to question?

Cash strapped states are shutting prisons. It seems wrong on the surface, but given the nature of government and a little bit of serious thought, it suddenly becomes clear how the wealth leads to grotesque abuse of imprisonment.