Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

This headline from the Christian Science Monitor

"Resurrect the estate tax or lose $250 billion"

gets it wrong. It makes it appear that $250 billion belongs to the government, but it doesn't. It belongs to the families of the people who died. The article tries to make the case that since so few people pay the estate tax, it's OK. It tries to make the case that because more people paid the estate tax in the past, it's OK to steal from bereaved families today. Not so. All taxes are seize by government at the point of a gun. All taxes are armed robbery. It doesn't matter if government robbed families in the past or if it's only robbing a small percentage of families, robbery is still wrong.

Democrats introduce 2,000 page omnibus spending bill to fund the government for the next year. They were supposed to pass 11 or 13 separate bills during the year, failed to. Now they're trying to sneak in their entire wishlist of funding in the dark of night in the lame duck session. This politics as usual in Washington, but you can be certain that they're hiding plenty of dirty tricks in that bill.

REGULATION:

This decision upholding copyright over the first sale doctrine sounds horrible. This is another attack on property rights. But it seems like this principle has been around for a long time. For example, I remember back when videotapes carried a warning that the owner couldn't profit by broadcasting the video. But maybe that's different. That could be a contract that the buyer of the video entered into when he bought it. It seems like companies that sell products overseas more cheaply than in western countries could make sales conditional on a similar contract.

Bureaucrats ban drop side cribs ostensibly because of 32 deaths in 10 years. 3.2 deaths a year. Forget that millions of families benefit from those cribs every year. This isn't about safety. It's about power. If everything that was involved in three deaths a year was banned, we couldn't live on this planet. And I wonder how a crib kills babies. Maybe the real culprit is negligence.

HEALTH CARE:

How the federal government plans to make our children even more unhealthy...

"According to the government’s own statistics, more than 31 million children participate in the National School Lunch Program and more than 11 million in the School Breakfast Program. The next logical step, for those who are on the path to the Ten Easy Steps to Totalitarianism, is to control what makes up those meals. On that note, I took a look at a “before and after” school menu as posted on the Huffington Post. The overriding philosophy is the usual — lowfat this, lowfat that, lowfat everyting. Remember the joke about the definition of insanity (which I believe is wrongly attributed to Albert Einstein): ”Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.”The “after” school lunch menu includes lowfat cheese, lowfat ranch dressing, lowfat mayonnaise, lowfat salad dressings, skim milk, and amazingly “healthy” items such as whole wheat pizza (as opposed to just pizza). And the new menu includes soft pretzels — but they are whole wheat soft pretzels."

As if government hasn't done enough damage to kids already by insidiously seizing control of their education, school lunches, corporate subsidies for unhealthy food and bans, regulations, mandates and restrictions that make our food supply unhealthy compared to the natural, healthy food people would choose to eat in a free economy. Humans need healthy fat and protein, and grain is damaging to us. The more government seizes control over our food supply, the sicker our population becomes.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Federal government funding high-risk alternative fuel programs. In order words, the government is wasting more of our tax dollars.

WAR ON DRUGS:

Four Loko ban and salt regulation.

POLICE STATE:

Here's a great example of how government keeps the American people cowering in fear:

"Authorities shut down the subway station at the Pentagon and diverted hundreds of passengers in frigid temperatures early Wednesday while investigating a suspicious object that turned out to be a blinking Christmas ornament."

The home of the brave no more.

Claim that the British government keeps Assange in solitary confinement 23 and a half hours a day.

"According to Julian Assange's attorney, Mark Stephens, Assange is in solitary confinement for 23 1/2 hours a day, where he is unable to talk to any other prisoners. He is subjected to infared photography 24 hours per day and is not allowed to read any newspapers.

Time Magazine sent him a copy of their recent issue. Censors ripped up the magazine and gave Assange  an empty envelope."

Wow.

Even the mainstream media is beginning to question FBI seduction of patsies into committing phony terrorist attacks.

WAR:

While the media has mentioned that the North Korean attack on South Korea was a response to South Korean war games in the area, it failed to bring home the point that this violence was instigated by South Korea.

"A day after the November 23rd Yŏnpyŏngdo attack, Justin Raimondo rightly noted that "the South Koreans were conducting military 'exercises' near the disputed island, which North Korea claims as its territory, and South Korean ships had opened fire," going on to suggest that "the military exercises, code-named 'Hoguk,' involving all four branches of the South Korean armed forces and some 70,000 troops, simulated an attack on North Korea, and were meant to provoke the North Koreans, who responded as might be expected" [Korean Conundrum: Is There a Way Out?]. He continued, "US troops were supposed to have participated in the exercises, but apparently the Americans thought better of it and pulled back at the last moment – perhaps because they knew a provocation was in the making" [ibid].

Mr. Raimondo went on to argue, even more pointedly, "For the South Koreans to conduct military exercises in this explosive region, never mind firing off rounds, is nothing but a naked provocation of the sort the West routinely ascribes to Pyongyang. In the context of North Korea’s recent revelation that it is increasing its nuclear capacity, the South Korean military maneuvers were meant to elicit a violent response – and succeeded in doing so" [ibid]."

The US did something right. Think about all the exercises the US carries out with the goal of intimidating Iran. Do you think maybe that intimidation might make the government want to develop a nuclear deterrent?

"Speaking of President Lee, analyst Peter Lee has argued that "significant North Asian takeaways from the WikiLeaks cables" clearly show that "South Korea, under President Lee Myung-bak, wants the North to collapse and to dominate the reunification process" (while "North Korea is desperate to establish relations with the United States") and that "South Korean government officials are indefatigably, crudely and rather transparently 'working the refs' – selectively packaging and vociferously pushing their arguments – to persuade the United States to abandon mediation through the People's Republic of China (PRC) and/or negotiation with North Korea and instead put South Korea and its reunification agenda in the diplomatic driver's seat" [Dear Leader's designs on Uncle Sam]."

This is the first I've heard of this.

MISC:

Amazing movie of an explosion of a solar filament.

Blood transplant cures man of AIDS.