Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

Malinvestment may not make much of an impression as an abstract concept, but these pictures of thousands of railroad cars designed to haul lumber built during the housing boom sitting idle is a specific example of malinvestment.

"I marked 22 miles of steady empty rail cars on dad’s truck odometer as we drove along the rail line, and I subtracted 2 miles for short breaks here or there where the road crossed or farm houses were allowed a unobstructed view. The Wallowa County Chieftain reports however that up to 30 miles of rail line have been leased for the purpose of mothballed lumber car storage."

That's an example of malinvestment created by the Fed and government policy.

It's kind of funny to watch Obama and Democrats claim how successful their policies have been at reviving the economy. If things stay about the same, they'll beat that drum until November. But what will they do if the double-dip because obvious before November, as I think it will. Of course as Peter Schiff points out, it's not really accurate to call this a double-dip even though the artificial numbers say it is. It's all one big depression that's getting deeper by the day.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

Because of fractional reserve banking, our money supply is based on debt. If everybody pays off their loans, our money supply is gone.

Peter Schiff on how the Fed has trapped us into an economy decline that we can't escape until the dollar collapses and we're freed from the Fed.

"Like their patrons in the White House and on Capitol Hill, the Fed is totally dedicated to postponing the short-term consequences that would result from breaking America's addiction to cheap money and easy credit. Compared to this imperative, the long-term economic health of the country barely gets a second thought."

People don't vote in the long run. They vote in the short run, so the aristocrats never care about the long run, but they will when the system collapses and the people hold them responsible. Ted Kennedy, Robert Byrd escaped by dying before the collapse, and others might, but the people will not treat the aristocrats still alive when the system collapses kindly. I shouldn't worry for them. They probably all have escape plans that include fleeing the country and living high on the hog overseas while they watch the country they set on fire burn.

"The problem is that each round of stimulus, as with each hit of an addictive drug, requires ever larger doses to produce the same result. The more leveraged an economy becomes, the bigger the lever required to move it. So the more the Fed stimulates now, the more it will be forced to stimulate later. The only exit strategy this course allows is an overdose – hyperinflation."

"Those who fear a double dip recession are justified in their concerns, but they are also missing the big picture. The 2008 recession never ended. It was merely interrupted by trillions of dollars of stimulus that purchased GDP "growth" with borrowed money. But as the bills come due, GDP should now contract so we can settle up – but instead we'll take on more debt.

I expect the coming doses of quantitative easing will finally spark adverse reactions, first in the dollar and later in the bond market. When a falling dollar forces consumer prices and long-term interest rates to rise, the Fed's actions will be rendered impotent. The Open Markets Committee will have to make a horrific choice: fight inflation by tightening policy into a weakening economy, or fight recession by allowing inflation to burn out of control. I think it's obvious that they will choose inflation, all the while pretending that it doesn't exist."

Isn't central planning fun? It is for the central planners who have robbed us blind and who will escape all the damage they've caused.

EDUCATION:

Atlanta government schools fraudulently inflating graduation rates. I bet all school districts do this.

Principles write textbooks then buy them for classes in their schools with taxdollars.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Yet another fraudulent manipulation of data to make modern times appear warmer compared to the past discovered, this time in New Zealand. The amount of blatant fraud that's been uncovered in the last year is phenomenal. That these frauds have escaped prison compounds the crime.

Britain backs off green laws because of economy. The British government is turning around amazingly fast for a government. Good for David Cameron.

WAR ON DRUGS:

Boortz claims that border patrol agents are being pulled out of Cochise County, Arizona because the area is filled with Mexican drug dealers, but he doesn't provide a link. I found this link about a new sheriff's unit that is interdicting Mexican drug dealers in Cochise County. Here's an article about a drug bust by US border agents and local police. I can't verify Boortz's claim, and it seems the opposite is true at least at the moment, but I don't put it above Obama to pull the border patrol out just to punish Arizonans for the law Obama doesn't like.

POLICE STATE:

Recommendation of three documentaries showing the development of our national security state starting with Truman and focusing on Nixon, Reagan and Clinton.

WAR:

Accusation that western agents had UN weapons inspector David Kelly murdered.

"The weapons inspector's body was found after he was unmasked as the source of a damaging BBC news report questioning the grounds for the Iraq war. 

Officially, he took his own life.

Yesterday Dr Spertzel told the Mail that the British authorities were 'intentionally ignoring' the issue.

He believes that there is something 'fishy' and insisted that a coroner should examine the death as soon as possible.

His demands come 24 hours after nine of Britain's leading medical experts wrote an open letter to minsters demanding a full inquest." 

"Concern over the cause of death has been mounting after it emerged in January that all medical and scientific records, including the post-mortem report and photographs of the body, were secretly classified for 70 years in 2004."

70 years?

If you're a disgraced ex-General who severely screwed up in Afghanistan, what government-loving institution would you expect to land a job at? McChrystal to teach at Yale.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION:

Supreme Court says that babies born to members of an invasion force are not automatically made US citizens. This makes perfect sense, we wouldn't want them to be, but it violates the plain language of the Constitution. The Constitution didn't give the government power to exclude anybody. And illegal immigrants are not an invasion force anyway.

POLITICS:

There has to be hope for conservatives, because they're our only hope. If they don't reject the big-government Republicans who have been working with Democrats to destroy America, our country as we know it won't survive.

Even the poor are jumping ship on Obama. Of course they are. This idea that if half of Americans received benefits from government, Democrats would hold a permanent majority was always a stupid claim. The poor don't want to stay poor forever, and Obama is locking them in poverty as he pushes the rest of us into poverty with them. Government handouts are part spider and part spider's web. People don't want that. They want jobs. They want opportunities to move up the ladder.

Obama pulls out the tried and true scare tactic of claiming that if Republicans take back power, they'll kill Social Security. Give me a break. Republicans love the entitlements as much as Democrats.

LOCAL:

The local news in Dayton is abysmal. I'm afraid we're a bell-weather for the country.

Since when did having a weapon on your own property while under the influence become a crime?

"Christopher Heizer, 37, was still in the Miami County Jail as of 2:30 p.m. Monday, Aug.16. He was arraigned Monday morning in Miami County Municipal Court on charges of tampering with evidence and having a weapon while under the influence. Judge Mel Kemmer ordered a $5,000 cash bond for each charge and ordered that Heizer receive a mental health evaluation."

This is another case of a man who didn't hurt anybody suffering the government violence.

Government cuts in Medicare payments pushing Ambulance services out of business. Only government kill such a wonderful, life-saving service.

Because we've given so much power over our lives to government, the benefits for winning make a huge lottery payout look like peanuts, politicians and special interests are videoing every word said by their opponents. The days when politicians might accidentally speak the truth are at end. It's too costly for these professional liars to make that mistake.

Declining economy is forcing Daytonians into longer commutes, and with our horribly torn up government roads that will probably never be repaired, that means more wrecks and more deaths.

Declining economy is hurting area festivals. Cityfolk charged $10 for pins this year - they're generally five - and they're still claiming they're underfunded.

MISC:

Deleted scene from Return of the Jedi showing Luke assembling his light saber.

More fear-mongering about imposing Sharia law in the US. The problem isn't that taxpayers are funding Sharia compliant insurance through AIG. The problem is government owning any business including AIG.

More on Obama's land grab. I had no idea the federal government already owns 30 percent of US land. That's incredible. D.C. isn't counted in this because most of it is privately owned. It's just managed by the federal government.