Free kibbles

LIBERTY:

Constitutional basis for civil disobedience against the census.

ECONOMY:

Gerald Celente predicts a global economic collapse this year, but he thinks Turkey will recover fairly quickly. He also mentions a few countries in Europe, but none by name. I'm going with Switzerland.

TAX AND SPEND:

Boortz highlights a difference between private sector unions and government unions - government can't go out of business so government unions have no limit on how much they can demand.

GLOBAL WARMING:

Author lists 19 global warming scandals. Some are related, but it's still pretty enlightening.

POLICE STATE:

This story of cops bullying then arresting a man whose son was trapped in a car under live power lines is heartbreaking. Americans need to wake up and understand this is the norm in America and it's unacceptable.

FOREIGN POLICY:

I haven't read this about the proposed agreement for the west to enrich uranium for Iran:

"Tehran has offered to swap its low-enriched uranium for fuel rods from Europe and Russia. But Iran says the swap must be simultaneous, while the US-led Western powers demand Iran hand over its 22 lbs of uranium first, then get the fuel rods at some later date – if it behaves."

If that's true, it's no wonder Iran won't accept the deal. Why would it allow the west to have that kind of power over it? We've heard it claimed that Iran needs nuclear power like it needs sand, but that's not true

."This rather silly fracas comes as Iran slowly develops a nuclear power industry to produce what it maintains will be electricity. Iran’s oil is being depleted."

And fast. The Iranian government's story always makes sense, but we know they've coveted nuclear weapons for 20 years. This whole quandary highlights the fantastic failure of socialist intelligence agencies. We spend 10s if not hundreds of billions on intelligence, yet we don't know for sure if Iran is developing nuclear weapons or not. What are they doing with that money? Buying billion dollar nose pickers? Private sector intelligence services would discover for sure what Iran was up to and the other important things we need to know in the world for a fraction of the cost.

"But this did not stop US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from insisting Iran was working on nuclear weapons. Apparently, she puts more credence in Israel’s intelligence estimates than those of the United States."

Who wouldn't? The failures of the CIA are legion. I can't come up with words for how big a failure that agency is. It does all kinds of things it shouldn't do and constantly fails to do what it should. The CIA is poster child for rogue Cold War dinosaur bureaucracies, and it should be abolished along with the rest of our intelligence services. We should start from scratch with new, small, accountable services that leverage competing private sector intelligence firms in a system designed to meet the security needs of our generation.

"She also blasted Iran for becoming "a military dictatorship," seemingly heedless of the fact that Egypt, one of America’s key Arab allies, has been a military dictatorship for decades. Or that Washington is now all smiles and hugs with the ghastly dictatorship in Uzbekistan where opponents of the regime are boiled alive. Such selective morality is a leading cause of anti-Americanism around the globe."

I hadn't heard that about Uzbekistan either.

POLITICS:

Obama changing the delivery of the message, but not the message.

MISC:

Wearing weighted shoes doesn't sound like a good idea. Remember the ankle weight fad decades ago? Lots of people hurt their knees with ankle weights.

"Wraparound ankle weights provide the same physiologic benefits as weighted shoes do, but they are much less comfortable and can place too much strain on the unsupported ankle and injure it. It is much better to place leg-bearing weights in the sole of a shoe. That way padding in the upper part of the shoe can support the ankle."

This sounds like an acknowledgement of the potential for injury. I think these Vibram Five Fingers are the way to go.

This analysis about size of states doesn't hold water. He started off by showing that most states are small. That most well governed states are small follows from his first observation. If most well governed states we're small, that would be worth noting. All that said, it makes perfect sense that smaller states would be better governed because every individual would have a greater say in government.