Free kibbles

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

Ireland passes blasphemy law. That's stupid. I doubt I'll visit Ireland now. I don't want to get punished for something I might say.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

Chart shows the change is price for numerous products between 1999 and 2009. Almost all of them have gone up, and that's even after the recent fall in prices, but the range of price increases is huge showing how silly it is to talk about one value for inflation.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE:

This is exactly right:

"By empowering police and prosecutors and providing them with immunity from their wrongdoing, the government is encouraging investigators to be sloppy and incompetent."

We have to hold government agents, people we entrust with power over our lives, to a higher standard than we hold regular citizens, not the lower standard we use today.

WAR:

Dutch government denies reports that the underwear bomber had no passport. Passenger claims Dutch government admits it allows the wannabe terrorist to skirt normal passport procedures. I can't verify that claim.

Not too long ago I wrote that terrorists would soon surgically implant bombs in their bodies. Looks like one already carried a bomb up his rectum. Ouch.

I have no problem with taking out the al Qaeda agents in Yemen who planned this attack. I have no problem with taking out any al Qaeda agent anywhere who's a threat to kill Americans. Even if you believe that our policies led to al Qaeda attacking us, we still have to defend ourselves. We don't have some duty to sit back and let them kill us. But how we take them out matters. Dropping bombs on whole neighborhoods should be the method of last resort. It makes more enemies. I'd much rather use their natural enemies to kill them.

Afghans accuse Americans of executing ten civilians including children. Americans say all the casualties were members of a terrorist cell. Both are probably right. We have nothing to gain by killing Afghans. We should pull out and refocus on taking out al Qaeda leadership and cells.

FOREIGN POLICY:

Iran's opposition leader says he has no fear of becoming a martyr. It's kind of funny because this guy isn't in charge of the protesters. He's provides a symbol of the corruption of the regime, but these protesters seem more radical than he is.

MEDIA:

Free TV may go the way of the dinosaur because of competitive pressure from cable and the internet.

MISC:

Government is the enemy of civilization.

"Victims are entitled to defend themselves against the individual aggressor and prepare themselves for the calamities of the occasional act of God. Resources will be reallocated to defend one against potential robbers, and provisions will be made for potential natural disasters.

However, when government aggresses, it is considered legitimate and "a victim may not legitimately defend himself against such violations." Democracy legitimizes this government aggression because the violence is sanctioned by a majority of voters."

Every advance of man other than in weapons has been made in spite of government. Anybody selling gold right now is making a mistake.

If David Stern is such a genius, how come he's transformed the league into a place where teammates draw guns on each other? This is the inevitable result of the corruption of the NBA that starts with the league having officials favor stars, big market teams and home teams instead of refereeing fairly. Corruption flows downhill.