Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Free kibbles

RKBA:

You can't help but love a headline reading: "Why not carry the big gun?" Are you carrying a gun for comfort or protection?

ECONOMY:

Stocks up six days in a row. It won't last.

Real jobs versus fake jobs. I'm sure the fake jobs are real enough to the people receiving the pay check. I prefer to call them productive jobs versus unproductive jobs.

More data showing silver is under-priced.

Thomas Sowell makes the point that nobody is investing in the US economy because of the fear of government.

Retail sales down in June. The American people are trying hard to wash out the bad businesses and bad investment so our economy can recover, but government is thwarting them every way it can.

In response to the Fed economists who claimed that economics is hard and for people to ignore blogger economists who aren't part of the government economics industry, Mises scholar replies, "Economics is Easy." Who you going to believe, the government economists who failed to predict the current economic crisis, the housing bubble, the dot.com bubble and every other crash before them or the Austrian economists who predicted them all? Answering that question is easy.

TAX AND SPEND:

The Bush tax cuts didn't create our debt problem, more government spending did.

Obama blocks annual release of Social Security report because Social Security is already in the red. He takes the usual criminal activity of government to a new level.

Stimulus funds meant for education spent on movie and water park tickets. Government is corruption.

The federal deficit topped $1 trillion, and there's still three months to go. Thanks, Democrats, who've had control of the purse strings since 2006.

The estate tax will force many families to sell off family businesses when the owner dies. This a reason Obama loves it.

I've recently been wishing the feds would default on all our debt which would punish all the people who voluntarily funded the crimes of government by buying that debt and would insure nobody would lend money to the government again for a long time, and out of the blue comes an article advocating the same. I like this idea for myth-busting:
"The following example might serve as an effective means of getting the state to formally acknowledge that it is not the agent of any ordinary people. One might identify a given candidate – perhaps for the House of Representatives – and send them a certified letter [for evidentiary purposes] telling that person as follows: "I intend to vote for you, in the general election, to be my duly selected representative in Congress. If you are elected, I hereby direct you to never vote for any measure that would, whether directly or indirectly, increase my tax obligations." Should that person be elected, a follow-up letter should at once be written stating: "Congratulations on your being elected as my representative to Congress. I voted for you in yesterday’s election. You will recall my letter of [previous date] in which I directed you, as my agent, to never vote for any bill that would increase my tax obligations." After taking his or her seat in Congress, should the representative vote in favor of any such tax-increasing measure, the alleged "principal" would immediately file an action against the so-called "agent" for breach of contract. The courts would then have to confront the issue of whether an elected official is or is not such an "agent" of those who so select them. I suspect the judiciary would hold that such officials are not the agents of anyone other than themselves."
It's impossible for any 'representative' to represent all of us, so he or she can only represent one of us, and that one is inevitably himself. He profits at our expense.

REGULATION:

Democrats start the process of taking over control of retirement accounts by proposing forcing employers to enroll new employees in IRAs. That way there will be more money in IRAs when they seize them later. In the mean time, it means another obstacle to hiring, making sure our economy does not recover.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

How the Fed and Wall Street banks are robbing the American people in the con of the decade.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Here comes tax and trade again. These Democrats are scarier than the scariest horror movie monster. No matter how many times you kill beat them back, they come back and attack again and again.

In a stark reminder that the government can only be an enemy to progress, government blocks BP from pressure testing its new cap, holding up this attempt to limit the damage. This fits perfectly with my theory that President Obama wants the leak to do as much damage as possible.

38 people have built nuclear fusion reactors. The 39th might be a 14 year old who built his for about $5,000. But they don't produce net energy - yet.

WAR:

Taliban kill 12 NATO troops. Here's a fine summary of the war in Afghanistan:
"After nine years of war, the immense military might of the US, its dragooned NATO allies, armies of mercenaries and hundreds of millions in bribes have been unable to defeat resistance to western occupation or create a popular, legitimate government in Kabul."
That one sentence makes it clear we should not continue fighting in Afghanistan. This article on US actions in Afghanistan will turn your stomach.
"According to a Dec. 31 article published by the Times of London, the CIA death squad flew by helicopter from Kabul, landing about two kilometers from the village. The commandos snuck up to the residence, taking the inhabitants by surprise as they slept. The commandos entered the first room and shot two of their victims – a guest and a student – then entered the second room and handcuffed seven other students, whom they executed in cold blood. When the farmer with whom the students were staying heard the shooting and came outside, the commandos killed him too."
"Protecting Americans from any knowledge of the horror their government inflicts, is the job of the mainstream media. Its propagandists will not tell you that the CIA has a policy of targeting civilians for recruitment as agents and informants, or that it intentionally detains, without charge, and interrogates civilians as a means of coercing information from them about the Islamic resistance to American aggression. Civilians are knowingly killed and maimed in drone attacks, as well as raids by CIA commandos, as a means of terrorizing the people from associating in any way with the resistance."
"CIA officers too are among the Protected Few. Blessed with false identities and bodyguards, they fly in private planes, live in villas, eat fancy food and enjoy state-of-the-art technology. CIA officers tell army generals what to do. They direct Congressional committees. They assassinate heads of state and innocent children with equal impunity and indifference.
In Afghanistan they manage the drug trade from their hammocks in the shade. They know the Taliban tax the farmers growing the opium, and they know that Karzai’s warlords convert the opium into heroin and fly it to the Russian mob. They are amused by the antics of earnest DEA agents, who, in their patriotic bliss, cannot believe such an accommodation exists."
End this war.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION:

Harry Reid's claim about illegal immigration is neither ignorant nor arrogant, it's dishonest.

POLITICS:

The comparison to Lenin is right on, but they shouldn't have put Hitler on this billboard. That's guaranteed to provoke a backlash.

Reagan's budget director, David Stockman, the one who finally resigned because Reagan failed to reduce spending, supports Ron Paul for president. He also calls Ben Bernanke the worst Fed chairman we've ever had.
"He is the greatest enabler of Wall Street speculation and of the disasters that brewed both before the financial crisis of 2008 and are brewing again, and I would blame the Bush White House. I would lay this right at the doorstep of Karl Rove. How did they vet the appointment of a new Fed chairman and not even read the black-and-white writings of this Bernanke fellow who said, ‘If push comes to shove, I’ll print money until the cows come home. I’ll drop it out of helicopters!’ This is Republican doctrine? This is sound money?”   Stockman concludes: “The Wall Street casino is simply a consequence of what Bernanke is doing, and for that alone, he should be removed from office."
The Republican party must repudiate Bush and Rove in similar fashion if the US as we know it is to survive.
"[Friedman is] the one who basically told Nixon, ‘Close the gold window, throw out the old disciplines, eliminate the old rules, just let the Fed manage the money supply, let the exchange rate float, and everything will work out perfectly.’ Friedman was utterly naïve politically, and he didn’t recognize that once you threw the restraints away—of fixed exchanged rates, of a dollar tied to some metallic reserve—the Fed would be under enormous pressure politically and intellectually to make excuses to flood the market with easy money…Today we’re reaping the harvest.”"
It's interesting that he ultimately blames Friedman - the so-called supporter of free markets. Too bad he's wrong about taxes.

MEDIA:

Don't just email your comments, blog them. I didn't know the Drudge Report was worth more than Newsweek. That's awesome.

Researchers believe they've discovered King Arthur's round table, and it's in fact an amphitheater that would seat 1,000 or so knights.

An example of how copyright restricts the progress of the arts.

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