Free kibbles

SOCIALISM:

Maybe bus passengers know this, so they really are spitting on bus drivers.

"Bus drivers in New York City (unionized) took an average of two paid months off last year. They got paid to not come into work. Why?Because they claimed that they were spat upon by upset riders and this is considered an "assault" under the drivers' union contract. When a bus driver is spit upon they are then entitled to take a paid leave of absence. The unions claims that being spat upon causes psychological trauma because workers could catch diseases or risk being assaulted again."

But probably not.

ECONOMY:

This is an excellent top 10 list of the lessons learned from the global meltdown, but I would note that while no individual understands any economy, the Austrian economists understand economic principles which is why they accurately predicted this crisis and they're predicting we're still going downhill.

Against the underground economy.

TAX AND SPEND:

Good reminder of the character of the people who rise to the top of our political system, people who lie without conscience, and who are the most power-hungry, selfish and self-absorbed people in America:

"Democrats in Congress have added $173 billion in new spending to the federal deficit in just three months since they passed a law requiring that any new expenditures be offset by cuts elsewhere in the budget.

They will try this week to add another $197 billion in two separate measures. The House is expected to vote Wednesday on a package of extensions in government aid to unemployed Americans, Medicaid funding for states, and tax breaks that will add $134 billion to the $1.4 trillion deficit."

These are people who spend their lives in and out of prison in a free society because the only way they can get ahead is using violence against others, but who become rulers in a government dominated society.


Obama wants $30 more billion to create price inflation - I mean entice banks to make loans to small businesses. Additional loans are the source of price inflation.


This kind of corruption is the inevitable result of government stealing money from the people at the point of a gun to fund itself.

"Twenty one employees of the Federal Protective Service spent more than $100,000 in government funds for clothing and flat-screen TVs, gym memberships and tuition payments, according to a General Services Administration inspector general report, but none has faced disciplinary action."

We have nobody to blame for this but ourselves. This corruption will never go away until we take away the government's power to tax.

REGULATION:

BP admits it decided to continue work on the Deepwater Horizon oil well despite a test that warned of a very large abnormality.

"Oil giant BP PLC told congressional investigators that a decision to continue work on an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico after a test warned that something was wrong may have been a "fundamental mistake," according to a memo released by two lawmakers Tuesday.

The document describes a wide array of mistakes in the fateful final hours aboard the Deepwater Horizon—but the main revelation is that BP now says there was a clear warning sign of a "very large abnormality" in the well, but work proceeded anyway."

Why would BP take that risk? Because it could afford to be wrong. Because BP and other oil giants are protected from competition by onerous regulations, BP has very little competition. That allowed it to charge higher prices and develop deeper pockets than it could have in a free market. In a free market, BP would not have made that decision because it couldn't afford to be wrong. That would have bankrupted the company. Regulations freed BP from the discipline imposed by free markets. Regulations insulated BP from the consequences of risk, so it made a risky decision, 13 people died and hundreds if not thousands have lost their livelihoods. Government kills. BP must be held responsible for the consequences of its actions, but we must also get rid of the regulations that create perverse incentives to take dangerous risks.

There's a culture of cronyism between corporations and regulators in every industry, not just oil. It's called regulatory capture. It's a well known phenomenon, and the laws of human nature make it inevitable. But even if regulatory capture wasn't inevitable, there's no such thing as good regulations because regulations always protect the biggest corporations from competition and market discipline, allowing them to grow bigger and take more risks.

The brownie recipe for US troops is 26 pages. You wonder why we're being crushed under the burden of government.

Ohio dairy farm cruelty. Somebody should catch these sadistic freaks in a back alley and do the same to them. It makes me want to only buy dairy from farmers I know. I'm happy to see this video publicized, but government regulation is not the answer. This is already a consequence of the corporatization of farms because of regulation. No matter how much you dislike this violence, government regulation will only make things worse. It always does.

POLICE STATE:

We often overlook one of the major priorities of the police state - raising revenue by uniformed tax collectors like from red light cameras.

"Just take a look at the statistics from West Palm Beach's little experiment with red light cameras. During the first 90 days that red light cameras were in place, rear-end collisions doubled and the number of accidents increased from the same time last year. But that matters not, because all city officials see are dollar signs - 2,675 camera fines were issued, generating a third of a million dollars .. and that was just in the month of March."

We know the public safety argument is a fraud in all aspects of the police state. We watched the video of the SWAT team endangering the lives of a seven year old child and his parents when the warrant could have been served far more safely in another fashion. The police state has nothing to do with safety. It's all about power.

POLITICS:

President Obama continues to pretend that bipartisanship means Republicans must jump on board his agenda. He's incapable of seeing it any other way.

"President Barack Obama and Senate Republicans called a high-noon cease-fire in their long-running political feud Tuesday, holding a rare, private meeting on Capitol Hill to discuss what legislation can be achieved during this volatile election year.

"We want to see if we can get some more work done," Obama told reporters on the way into the session."

The last thing I want to see is a cease-fire between Republicans and Democrats. I want to Obama to cease firing on the American people.

Then Senator Obama opposed the executive power grab over the budget that President Obama now supports. Duh. That's like saying that a baseball player on the Reds wanted the Reds to win then but now that he's on the Indians he wants the Indians to win. Why is this news?

Unions plan to spend $100 million to keep Democrat incumbents in office. That's our money. That's money that Democrats looted from the people at the point of the government's gun on behalf of the unions.

MEDIA:

The press is using the Civil Rights Act to distract people from the issues that prompted them to vote for Rand Paul: debt, health care, etc.

MISC:

Ron Paul explained the problems with the Civil Rights Act in 2004. This is well worth a read. His son should have studied it better.