Free kibbles

SOCIALISM:

Big labor's legacy of violence.

As the Post Office spirals deeper into debt, the postal workers union demands raises.

"More — more control over activities at work, more money, better benefits — we want more,” said Burrus. “We will try to fashion our proposals to reflect the entitlement to more."

Damn. Is this guy vying to be the new poster boy for greed?

"Having watched the unionized workforces at GM and Chrysler receive preferential treatment from the federal government, there’s little incentive for Burrus and the postal unions to not ask for more. The postal unions are likely betting that in a worst case financial scenario for the USPS, policymakers will tap taxpayers for a bailout. Unfortunately, if recent history is a guide, they’re probably correct."

No kidding. I bet that's what's behind his claim of entitlement.

Another example of why socialism never works:

"The General Motors IPO, the second largest ever, is arguably this decade's most hyped financial event. But it might also turn out to be this decade's biggest financial fiasco. Its timing is driven not by the financial needs of the company—or the interests of taxpayers who are poised to get royally screwed—but the election-year needs of the Obama administration."

Political issues trump good business.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

Now we hear the rest of the story about why Craigslist took down its adult section.

"On August 24th, the Attorneys General of 17 states sent a letter [PDF] to the founder and CEO of the Craigslistonline platform, to “request” that they take down the “Adult Services” section of the site. The link to that section of the site now stands with a “CENSORED” label over the place where the link stood."

They took it down because 17 states put the government's gun to their heads. Those AGs should be prosecuted for assault. More on Craigslist censorship.

The guy who wants to burn a Quran on 9/11 is an idiot. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

"The idiot I refer to is one Terry Jones, the so-called "pastor" of the huge (50 members) Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida."

This nothing but a blatant attempt to get media coverage. And the media fools are giving him what he wants. Now the government is intimidating people from showing up to the event. Using government's gun to intimidate people is not a proper response to this idiot.

RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS:

This Reason author is apparently unaware of reality and worshipful of government. The Supreme Court ruling overturning DC's gun ban, while important, wasn't this important.

"Our cover story this month describes the historic and stunningly rapid restoration of the Second Amendment as a guarantee of an individual right that must be respected throughout the United States."

Our rights don't come from government. They are natural, and we must force government to respect them.

ECONOMY:

The effect of small businesses on our economy.

There's nothing dangerous about economic elites embracing defeat on the economy. The only way our economy will ever recover is if the central planners admit defeat and allow the America people to fix it without government interference.

One criticism of Obama's economic plan that makes no sense is too little, too late. Obama has intentionally killed more jobs than any president in history. How can you call the first $800+ billion stimulus in Feb. of 2009 too little or too late? How can you call his banning of Gulf oil drilling too little or too late? How can you call Obamacare too little or too late? How can you call financial oppression too little or too late? No. Criticism of Obama on our economy should be the exact opposite: way too much way too often.

Contrary to what we hear in the media all the time, consumption spending isn't what drives the economy even though it is 70 percent of GDP. Investment spending drives the economy, and it's dropped by two-thirds since its peak in 2006 when it was 17 percent of GDP. You have to produce before you can consume, and production is a product of investment. This is cause and effect.

TAX AND SPEND:

Government workers are America's fastest growing class of millionaires.

It's always valuable to have an article remind us that the aristocrats stole all our Social Security money to buy votes, after they first stole it from us at the point of a gun, and there's nothing in the vault but IOUs.

In 120 days, the largest tax hikes in American history will hit.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

What hyperinflation will look like with a description of what happened in Chile in the early 70s.

"One of the effects of Chile’s hyperinflation was the collapse in asset prices. 

This would seem counterintuitive. After all, if the prices of consumer goods and basic staples are rising in a hyperinflationary environment, then asset prices should rise as well—right? Equities should rise in price—since more money is chasing after the same number of stock. Real estate prices should rise also—and for the same reason. Right?

Actually, wrong—and for a simple reason: Once basic necessities are unmet, and remain unmet for a sustained period of time, any asset will be willingly and instantly sacrificed, in order to meet that basic need."

Doesn't this sound like fun?

"If Treasuries tank and commodities shoot up so high that they essentially break the dollar, civilization will not come crashing down into anarchy. At worst, there’ll be a three-four years of hell—economic hell. Financial hell. But then things will settle down into a new normal. 

This new normal might well have unsavory characteristics. I tend to be a pessimist, and just glancing through history, I can see that just about every period of hyperinflation has been stabilized by some subsequent form of autocratic or totalitarian government. The United States currently has all the legal decisions and practical devices to quickly transition into an authoritarianor totalitarian regime, should a crisis befall the nation: The so-called PATRIOT Acts, the Department of Homeland Security Agency, the practical suspension of habeas corpus, etc., etc. 

But as I said in my previous post, and reiterate here: Speculations about the new normal are pointless at this time. The future will happen soon enough. 

What I do know is, One, a hyperinflationary event will happen, following the crash in Treasuries. Two, commodities will be the go-to medium for value storage. Three, all asset classes will collapse in short order. And Four—and most importantly—civil society will not collapse along with the dollar. Civil society will stumble about like a drunken sailor, but eventually right itself and carry on with a new normal. 

During that stumble, opportunities will present themselves. I hope I have explained why."

That's why people should buy gold now.

EDUCATION:

Government school security guard tells student to remove American flags from his pickup truck. You can't have too many reminders of what government's real goal is by controlling education.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Some moron proposes introducing a bunch of microscopic silicon pollution into the atmosphere to stop non-existent global warming.

WAR:

Nine years after we invaded Afghanistan, troops get armored trucks to fight IEDs. Only government could be this ineffective.

US soldiers still in combat in Iraq.

FOREIGN POLICY:

American Empire Before the Fall sounds like a great book. I especially love this line from the description:

"The Republic can be regained if a President emerges who renounces executive usurpations and secrecy, terminates all U.S. military bases abroad and revokes all defense treaties or executive agreements, immediately ends the Afghan, Iraq, international terrorism wars, and makes the rule of law the nation's civic religion."

I keep saying we're one election away from transforming America back to the great nation, but it would take a president who is willing to nullify every unconstitutional law on the books and bring all our troops home. I think that would cut our budget by about 2/3s, and the goodwill won after we recover from the temporary recession to wipe out all those political economy investments would enable the next freedom-loving president to fix entitlements so that seniors can continue receiving their checks but young people wouldn't have their money stolen from them any more. From the review:

"As Fein sees matters, our country began well. Washington and Jefferson rejected empire and instead sought to limit military action to the defense of the United States. Unfortunately, the lesser lights who assumed control of American foreign policy in the nineteenth century proved unequal to the task of upholding the wisdom of the Founding Fathers. Fein sees an early portent of trouble in the Monroe Doctrine, which exceeds the bounds of strict self-defense. Matters really got out of hand with the Mexican War, clearly an imperialist venture; and since then our policy has abandoned restraint, culminating in the twentieth century with the pursuit of world mastery."

I always thought of the Monroe Doctrine as driven by self-defense. Monroe didn't want European powers on the US border because if that happened, we would continually be drawn into European wars. I'd like to read this guy's view.

POLITICS:

Tea Party candidates leading Democrats in race after race and threaten the big-government Republican establishment.

Five part series, all in this one article, documents in detail Obama's CIA connections.

Because the government continues to grab more power, meaning there's more loot for everybody to try and grab a piece of, candidates have spent record amounts on midterm elections.

""We may be on track for the most expensive cycle ever, even more than '08, which is really hard to believe," said Michael Toner, a campaign finance lawyer at Bryan Cave and a former Federal Election Commission chairman."

More than a presidential election? That tells you how much Obama has looted the American people.