Free kibbles

REGULATION:

How diamond companies work with governments and the UN to cartelize diamond production.

TAX AND SPEND:

Republicans are going to show their true colors in no time when they vote to raise the debt ceiling. They'll negotiate some meaningless cuts and pretend they made great strides toward fixing our fiscal problems. I'm laughing already.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

US Senators claim they will crack down on China's currency exchange. In other words, they think only the US should be allowed to devalue its currency. China should not be allowed. They're too stupid to realize that the US benefits when China devalues its currency. It means we can buy products cheaper than we otherwise could, making us richer. This isn't just a crock. This is dangerous. The last thing we need is a trade war with China that will expose how poor we are. On the other hand, the sooner we admit it, the sooner we can deal with it.

While some conservatives are figuring out that Bernanke and the Fed are central planners, prompting them to become converts to Austrian economics, many still promote Keynesian principles and mistake Bernanke's manipulation of the money supply as a market phenomenon.

Jim Rogers recognizes that inflation is here now and getting worse.

"When asked whether all this quantitative easing and money printing would cause inflation, Rogers responded by pointing out there already has been quite a bit of inflation in the United States and criticized the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates its numbers. “It should be criminal. Prices are going up except in the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is here and it is going to get worse.”"

Since the government steals the money it uses to fund the calculation of those statistics from us at the point of its gun, it is criminal.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Several decades of gasoline price history.

New EPA CO2 regulations will force the closing of many coal power plants.

POLICE STATE:

Now school buses are carrying surveillance cameras, not just for the kids and driver, but to watch outside the bus. Everything around you is spying on you.

Drivers licenses have very little to do with driving and very much to do with ID. Think about it. Liability is a far more effective incentive to make people learn to drive than the license test.

Women complain that undercover police spies have sex with them to get information.

"It is not clear how much Kennedy's police handlers knew about his activities. However, strict protocol for undercover spies requires them to give detailed feedback about their activities and discuss moral obstacles as they emerge.

"Did the Met know that this was going on, or even encouraged it?" Anna asked. "If he was keeping it a secret from the police then that is different. But I think he had so many friends and relationships with people in the movement that I'm questioning whether this was a tactic – or part of his task – to become more trusted or respected within the scene.""

I don't understand this complaint at all. Why would sex be a moral obstacle? It must have been fun or she wouldn't have gone back 20 times. If he didn't want to have sex with her and he was trying to force it to do his job, it would have been obvious. But more than that, what's wrong with having sex as a tactic to gain trust and get information from a person in a criminal organization under surveillance? I understand having a problem with the surveillance in general, it sounds like there was nothing criminal about this organization, but if you accept that the surveillance is valid, what's the problem with the tactic? It's called under cover for a reason. It's duplicitous by definition. It's a lie. This sounds like sour grapes from a girl who fell for the wrong guy.

WAR:

You can think of the war in Iraq as twenty year war that started with US forces and allies dying to expel Saddam Hussein from Kuwait.

"Tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers were also killed [in the first phase of the war], plus several thousand Iraqi and Kuwaiti civilians. The current war in Iraq is but a delayed campaign in the war against Iraq. During the intermission there were tensions, threats, missile strikes, enforcement of no-fly zones, bombing raids, brutal sanctions that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, infamously said to be "worth it" by U.S. ambassador to the UN (and later Secretary of State) Madeleine Albright, and a continued presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, which inflamed the Muslim world, created terrorists, and led to the attacks of 9/11."

We gained nothing but pain for all the blood and treasure we threw away there.

"The world is full of evil, and conflicts between peoples have existed since the beginning of time. The United States has neither the responsibility nor the resources to resolve every conflict and stamp out all the evil in the world. Any American concerned about oppression, human rights violations, sectarian violence, ill treatment of women, forced labor, child labor, persecution, genocide, famine, natural disasters, or injustice anywhere in the world is perfectly free to contribute his own money to or go and fight on behalf of some particular cause. Just don’t expect U.S. taxpayers to foot the bill for and U.S. soldiers to die for your cause."

I couldn't agree more.

War as a jobs program. Remember these wars started a decade ago. I'm sure this consideration goes into the evil excuses to not end the wars, but the wars aren't about employment. They're about looting.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION:

The government is making it harder and more expensive to leave the US, turning the country into a prison. We won't have to worry about illegal immigration for long. We'll have to worry about trying to escape.

MISC:

Study claims ten percent of children are video game addicts, all of whom have mental problems. I don't doubt that kids who play video games all the time become socially cripple, but don't blame the games. Blame the parents.

Discovery of wine production in 4,100 BC. That's old.

In defense of discrimination.

"In the days of yore, to say that a man was discriminating was to pay him a compliment. It meant that he had taste; he could distinguish between the poor, the mediocre, the good and the excellent. His ability to make fine distinctions enabled him to live a better life than otherwise."

It's a shame this term has been so degraded. We discriminate between restaurants, wines, beers, cars, etc. Discrimination enables all the varieties of production that make life enjoyable. We also discriminate between whom we call friends and whom we date and marry. Discrimination is no prejudice. Prejudice means to pre-judge.

On clear thinking:

"The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools."

That was prophetic.

"Nearly four decades ago, I wrote an article – titled Violence As a Product of Imposed Order – that was published, in 1975, in the University of Miami Law Review. At the core of this article was a discussion of what is known as the "frustration-aggression" hypothesis. Briefly stated, the idea is premised on a recognition that each of us is motivated by the pursuit of what we consider to be our self-interest. Without any need for forcible direction from others, we will organize our energies and other resources in an effort to maximize our well-being.

When our self-directed, self-serving undertakings are forcibly interfered with by others [e.g., the state], our purposes become frustrated, a consequence of which is often a resort to aggression."

This is why the more oppressive - violent - government becomes, the more people on the lunatic fringe will respond in kind.