Free kibbles

REGULATION:

This is how government rolls:

"One of the most important differences between the political process and the market process is that they provide totally different feedback mechanisms. Had the politicians largely responsible for the housing crisis done their dirty deeds while working for private firms, they would have been fired, likely prosecuted, and memorialized in cautionary tales in business ethics casebooks from here until eternity. Instead, they’re busy crafting 2,319 page pieces of legislation aimed at increasing their power over the marketplace."

Yep. Every time the politicians screw us and create a crisis, they seize more power ostensibly to prevent the crisis they caused from ever happening again. Then we keep re-electing them 94 percent of the time. We're the stupidest people in the world.

ENERGY:

Florida House Republicans block attempt to put a oil drilling ban constitutional amendment on the ballot. Good for them. No government, including a majority,  has the legitimate power to tell citizens what they can and cannot do with land, even land under the sea.

WAR:

Former MI5 chief testifies that Iraq war increased the terrorist threat against Britain.

"She told the inquiry: "Our involvement in Iraq radicalised, for want of a better word, a whole generation of young people - not a whole generation, a few among a generation - who saw our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as being an attack on Islam…

“Arguably we gave Osama bin Laden his Iraqi jihad so that he was able to move into Iraq in a way that he was not before.”"

Same with the US.

US general testifies, "It's good fun to shoot people." If you ever wondered how corrupting government is, this should make it clear.

Gordon Brown admits aristocrats overthrew Saddam Hussein because he would not bow to the new world order, and its credibility was at risk. Wow. Apparently that's a good enough reason for aristocrats to kill 10s of thousands of people. You know those aristocrats hate when the truth accidentally escapes their lips.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION:

Fantastic cartoon about our misplaced priorities.

POLITICS:

Our government problems aren't just federal, they're at the state and local levels too.
"One reason why state and local governments all over the U.S. are bankrupt is that there are bureaucrats like this “city manager” in a small town of 38,000 in Califorinia who makes $800,000/year plus benefits.  The police chief in this town of Bell, California, makes almost half a million a year (the per capita personal income there  is $24,800).  To fund this and other extravagances, the per capita debt of the city government of Bell has more than tripled in the past six years"

LOCAL:

Unemployment rate jumps in Dayton and Montgomery County.

MISC:

E-book sales surpass hardcover.

The Hoover dam may turn out to be the biggest single malinvestment in history.