Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

Amity Shlaes compares Obama's policies to FDRs and discovers Obama is repeating the mistakes of the Great Depression. It's unclear if FDR was trying to harm America on purpose, but we have the luxury of hindsight to realize what the consequences of those policies are - they're sending us deeper into depression. Obama knows this. He's doing it to us on purpose.

The death tax incentivizes people to die instead of fighting to live and potentially costing their children millions of dollars.

"The math is ugly: On a $5 million estate, the tax consequence of dying a minute after midnight on Jan. 1, 2011 rather than two minutes earlier could be more than $2 million; on a $15 million estate, the difference could be about $8 million."

The health costs of staying alive also cost children twice as much when the government steals half the money of people who die. I don't agree that this is an accident. Democrats know exactly what they're doing. They just don't care.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

When the US dollar was the world's reserve currency, the Fed could inflate at will, but because foreign banks soaked up the newly printed dollars, price inflation didn't hit the US hard. But now that banks are getting rid of the dollars, that's not true any more. If our economy ever experiences a recovery, which probably won't be anytime soon, we're going to see significant price inflation. I already see price inflation all around Dayton, and it's going to get worse.

GLOBAL WARMING:

Another global warming fraud called Amazongate exposed.

British MP who happens to be a scientist attacks the climategate whitewash (but he doesn't call it a whitewash) and calls on parliament to investigate.

WAR:

Six more Americans die in Afghanistan.

POLITICS:

All eyes are on the Nevada senate race.

LOCAL:

Evil SUVs are not only killing the planet through global warming, their drivers are running people over. You never see a headline about an minivan or hybrid running people over. Only evil SUVs get that coverage.

Even the local paper has recognized that private practice doctors are being squeezed out of business and into the government protected monopolies of the socialist hospital system. This companion article which tries to explain how this is a good thing provides a lot more information than usual for the press - probably more information that the statists wish was out there. Not only does it explain how Obamacare is driving private practice doctors to shut down and become part of the government system, it also tells us this:

"And more physicians, particularly younger ones, are eschewing an entrepreneurial career in medicine, instead looking for a more defined role that frees them up for pursuits outside of work, said Tom Ferkovic, managing partner of Akron-based SS&G Healthcare Services, a management services consultant that works with Premier Health Partners.

“The reality is, we are seeing very few young physicians coming out starting a practice from scratch,” Ferkovic said."

This is socialized medicine through the back door.

MISC:

24 types of authoritarians.

LeBron, Wade and Bosh all sign for $15 million less than the maximum. Do you think they'll be praised for sacrificing to win or will the press twist that into another excuse to bash them?

How the American people empower conspiracies to dominate us.

"Any attempt to expose a conspiracy on the assumption that once there is a successful exposé, the American public will throw out the conspirators, is naïve. Even if we were successful in exposing conspiracies in this way, the public would not change the system. The best that we could hope for would be to get a new set of conspirators running the show.

The problem is not the conspiracies; the problem is the corruption in the hearts of the people. The fact that the voters would allow and even promote the creation of the modern welfare state is indicative of the fact that larceny is in their hearts. It does no good to replace one conspiracy with another conspiracy if you leave the system intact that enables the conspiracies to gain power.

This goes back to the famous chapter 10 in F. A. Hayek's book, The Road to Serfdom. The chapter is titled, "Why the Worst Get on Top." Hayek argued that the modern socialist state, meaning the modern welfare state, encourages the worst people to get on top, because the worst people are the most successful in seeking and maintaining power.

Because central economic planning centralizes power, it grants to the state the right to confiscate the wealth of the public. We should not expect kindly people to be successful in the pursuit of power within such a system. We will find, and what we have found, is that the most ruthless people seek out the levers of power, precisely because the levers of power enable them to achieve their goal: control over other people."

Think about it. Do evil people prefer to work in the private economy where they have to work hard to provide a valuable good or service that improves the lives of their fellow men in order to gain themselves, or do they prefer the political economy where they can use the government's gun to loot the people and force their will on others without working hard? The answer is obvious. Government attracts the most evil people, and the worst of the worst, the ones who are best at lying without conscience, controlling others through threats of violence, and looting them at gunpoint for personal gain and the advantage of their cronies, rise to the top. Of course some good people go into politics, but the system either chews them up and spits them out or corrupts them over time.

"When the Tea Party movement comes out foursquare against Social Security and Medicare, I will begin to take it seriously. I do not expect this."

Agreed.