Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

Whenever Anne Hathaway is in the news, automatic trading programs bump up the price of Berkshire-Hathaway. I hope Warren Buffet pays her a lot. You'd think the programs would include Berkshire or at least exclude Anne.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

It looks like the new BEST temperature record will also be run by self-promoting frauds. There's a lot of money to be made by promoting this fraud. I expected this from the start because it's being developed out of Berkeley.

POLICE STATE:

Story of  an FBI agent provacateur corrupted a Muslim man over months then finally promised him $250,000 to commit a phony terrorist attack, entrapping him.

"The problem here was that neither Cromitie nor any of his friends had any useful skills in carrying out a terrorist plot – no training, no weapons, not even a driver's license. But they were four living, breathing, black American Muslims; all they had to do was show up at the right time and place to be arrested and photographed as living trophies symbolizing another triumph of the Homeland Security State.In its reply to Cromitie's brief, the Regime stipulates to all of the facts while saying – almost in so many words – that it's perfectly acceptable to manufacture a crime in order to justify prosecuting someone who harbors unacceptable attitudes toward the State.Hussain insists that prior to his recorded conversations with Cromitie, the target had expressed a desire to travel to Afghanistan to fight against U.S. personnel occupying that country. Those comments were never recorded; in fact, Cromitie was captured on tape saying exactly the opposite."

Once again it looks like the US government is the most effective force at radicalizing Muslims.

"In signaling her willingness to hear the Newburgh 4's appeal, Federal District Judge McMahon candidly described the supposed terrorist conspiracy as a pure Federal fabrication: "The plot was created before our very eyes in this courtroom," she stated."The law allows that to happen," lied Assistant U.S. Attorney David Raskin in reply.This is actually quite a stunning admission, coming as it does from someone of exalted rank within the "Justice" Department: He acknowledged that the Feds consider it to be legal and proper to manufacture terrorist plots in order to justify what can only be described as show trials."

Our government has turned our world upside-down.

WAR:

Obama raises hypocrisy to new level.

"Gadhafi has been a black hat for as long as I can remember. If we believe the adage that "where there is smoke there is fire," Gadhafi is probably not a nice fellow. However, there is no doubt whatsoever that the current US president and the predecessor Bush/Cheney regime have murdered many times more people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia than Gadhafi has murdered in Libya.Moreover, Gadhafi is putting down a rebellion against state authority as presently constituted, but Obama and Bush/Cheney initiated wars of aggression based entirely on lies and deception.
Yet

Gadhafi is being demonized, and Bush/Cheney/Obama are sitting on their high horse draped in cloaks of morality. Obama described himself as saving Libyans from violence while Obama himself murders Afghans, Pakistanis, and whomever else.Indeed, the Obama regime has been torturing a US soldier, Bradley Manning, for having a moral conscience. America has degenerated to the point where having a moral conscience is evidence of anti-Americanism and "terrorist activity.""

Government has turned the world upside-down.

"In his war against Libya, Obama has taken America one step further into Caesarism. Obama did Bush one step better and did not even bother to get congressional authorization for his attack on Libya. Obama claimed that his moral authority trumped the US Constitution. The hypocrisy reeks."

Yes it does. He's earned the nickname Pharaoh Obama. CIA operatives in Libya. On the president's private military. This Libyan war just keeps getting more bizarre as NATO now warns rebels not to kill civilians. It's like the west has no dog in this fight despite constantly saying Qaddafi must go. Again rhetoric is masking reality. They're just killing to make sure this war continues and kills people as long as possible. This is a distraction to keep people from noticing what they're doing to our country. It's probably designed to gin up patriotic support to keep bond rates low.

POLITICS:

Ron Paul has a lot of money for a campaign.

LOCAL:

Local sheriff fires deputy for sexting a picture of his genitals. Good for him for not ignoring this. Why am I not surprised this same officer had shot and killed a man previously.

MISC:

Miscrosoft's legal onslaught against Google continues. Poor little Microsoft can't compete, so it's trying to use the government's gun to cripple a far more productive company.

Walter Williams highlights the injustice of the DOJ ordering the Dayton Police Department to lower test scores to more blacks could pass. Even the NAACP condemned the action. Where does the DOJ get this power anyway? It must have threatened to withhold money.

The Japanese consider entombing Fukushima reactors. Workers expect to die from radiation exposure. These workers are true heroes.

Economic fallacies of the women's class action suit against Walmart. If women have no other job opportunities, Walmart could pay them less. Walmart is being very generous by paying them more than they could earn elsewhere.

When will US forces leave Libya?

First it was Germany. Then it was Japan. Then Korea. Nobody can count how many foreign countries US forces now inhabit. But according to President Obama, the US government is not in charge in Libya. Our forces are killing people based on the orders of others, like that makes it OK. Now we read that US forces, not necessarily military forces, are on the ground. So...

When will US forces leave Libya?

Free kibbles

SOCIALISM:

Since GM can't sell any of the crappy electric cars Obama forced it to make, it wants the government to give anybody who buys one a $7,500, taxpayer funded, rebate. Stop the looting.

ECONOMY:

One of the most visible effects of government's looting of the people is housing prices. They're down everywhere in the country but Washington D.C. and San Diego. If you've been to San Diego, you know why they haven't dropped there. They haven't dropped in D.C. because government is stealing money from us and enriching the aristocrats and bureaucrats.

TAX AND SPEND:

Eric Cantor splits with Boehner over budget compromises. Democrats love this, but the Boehner's the problem, not Cantor. Democrats think they'll win the political battle if Congress shuts down the government, but I don't think so. This isn't 1995. Though so far, no Republican has made the case that cutting spending will be good for the economy.

If you accept the idea of government looting people then handing the money out to others to buy votes, then making them work for it instead of looting the people more to pay workers makes sense. Better to stop the looting.

The cost of the devastation in Japan is inconceivable, but here's an attempt to compare it to the cost of the US federal government, which is far greater.

"Japan's Cabinet Office on Wednesday estimated the catastrophe...could cause losses between 16 trillion yen ($198 billion) and 25 trillion yen ($309 billion). That figure compares with estimates from the World Bank and Goldman Sachs for losses of $235 billion and $200 billion, respectively."
"CBO estimates that the deficit in February 2011 was $223 billion, which is very similar to the deficit recorded in February 2010."

So the tsunami in Japan about as much damage than one month of the federal deficit. That doesn't count the much greater damage that was done by federal spending that was paid for.

REGULATION:

Government regulation, especially by the FTC which nobody seems to know about, is so sick that Google agrees to 20 years of privacy monitoring.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

The establishment is hiding food inflation by pretending that smaller products are the result of environmentalism, portability or health concerns. Bulls***.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Charts show that the US would have been reducing CO2 emissions since the 1970s if we had built the nuclear power plants we had planned. Once again the environmentalists are shown to be frauds because they blocked so many plants that CO2 emissions rose.

Government blocks America's untapped energy resources.

"An Interior Department report to be released Tuesday says more than two-thirds of offshore oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico are sitting idle.According to the report, obtained by The Associated Press, those inactive swaths of the Gulf could potentially hold more than 11 billion barrels of oil and 50 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The report also shows that 45 percent of all onshore oil and gas leases are inactive.
President Barack Obama ordered the Interior Department review earlier this month amid pressure to curb rising gas prices. The White House says Obama will address his plans for the country's energy security during a speech in Washington Wednesday."

The solution to our energy problems is easy: take away government's unconstitutional control over them. The idea that government leases sites for oil and natural gas drilling is an abomination.

WAR ON DRUGS:

Lew Rockwell get it exactly right on the Barry Bonds witch-hunt.

"Government operatives–with the help of journalistic snitches for the regime–are still persecuting baseball great Barry Bonds for allegedly improving his performance via steroids. How many millions have they spent? Not that they care, since it is not their money, and they can use it to enhance their careers of oppression. It is the typical case of social parasites using the government gun to attack a man who has actually benefited society. Was Barry fooled? Did he knowingly improve his already great baseball skills in this way? What decent person thinks he should be caged like an animal if he did? And if he violated his contract with the San Francisco Giants, let them sue him."

Absolutely.

WAR:

The American Thinker is scared that Obama is scared of projecting American power. Maybe the author missed the escalation of the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and the launch of the new war in Libya. If that's being scared of American power, I'm scared of anybody who isn't. I wonder if this is part of a huge conspiracy to deluding the American people or if this guy really believes that rhetoric, not actions, are reality.

"Despite his amazing rise to power, Barack Obama clings to beliefs that are rare and, frankly, shocking for an American president to hold: namely, that America is a deeply flawed nation that lacks the moral authority to wield disproportionate global influence."

What a joke. First he confuses America's criminal government with the American people. Second he pretends that Obama isn't comfortable with wielding power himself, which is absurd given the two years of destruction he brought down on us and foreigners.

Confirmation that American forces are working with rebels in Libya. I don't consent.

Obama calls on Bill Krystal and other neocons to build support for his war on Libya.

POLITICS:

I always enjoy it when some politician is accidentally honest. In this case, somebody left Chuck Schumer's microphone on:

"Label the GOP spending cuts as extreme. I always use extreme. That is what the caucus instructed me to use."

As entertaining as the political gamesmanship is, what I find more interesting is that Schumer takes his marching orders from "the caucus". That might mean the Democrat caucus, but not necessarily.

MEDIA:

I can't help but laugh at this headline:

"Obama Adds New Luster to Old Calls for Energy Independence"

With that kind of praise for Obama, you might be surprised to find this paragraph at the beginning of the article:

"President Obama's speech at Georgetown University on Wednesday echoed four decades of U.S. energy policy-making, which--since the 1973 Arab oil embargo--has been unable to avert periodic oil shocks. This isn't the first time that Obama has banged the energy drum, either. The issue was a staple of his election campaign, which coincided with record oil prices above $145 a barrel."

Of course. Repeating the false and absurd rhetoric of the past and combining that with the destructive policies of the past "adds new luster" to the failure of government to allow people to develop efficient energy sources. Remember how we keep hearing the WSJ is a conservative organ? Not so much.

LOCAL:

Beavercreek city council demands new studies from RTA.

"Watched by a group of protesters with signs saying, “Let the People Ride,” council members brought up a host of concerns for city staff to study, including police cost, security, surveillance cameras, trash pickup, graffiti cleanup, pedestrian crosswalks, the size of the buses, fencing, lighting and whether the stops needed heating and cooling systems."

This sounds like a cover for discrimination to me. Council rejects bus stops. Claim that Greene's existing mass transit is insufficient to meet demand.

"Several Council members cited a study that found 82 percent of Beavercreek’s residents were against RTA stops.Tuesday morning, the Dayton Daily News asked city officials to provide that information. The city had not done so by Tuesday evening.
According to a 2008 Fallon Research study for Beavercreek, 49 percent favored a public transit system and 43 opposed it.
The same survey indicated that 68 percent favored expansion of Greene CATS service and that residents were against RTA service 57 percent to 38 percent."

One of the council members said Montgomery County was wasting taxpayer money. No doubt, but what does she care?

MISC:

Jeffrey Tucker explains the difference between scarce and non-scarce goods and how religion, because it often deals with non-scarce goods, sometimes makes its followers economically ignorant. I notice more economic ignorance from the left than the right.

Great letter from man who left Illinois for Texas. I wouldn't call any government honest, but Illinois, especially around Chicago is arguably the worst in the country.

Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

Democrats blame tea party for budget standoff as if they aren't one of the parties involved. This is going to backfire on them.

The collapse of the US bond market may have begun.

"Total US societal debt may well have reached a tipping point and many investors are wondering when US government bonds will be abandoned. In fact, this process might already be underway. Reuters' Jennifer Ablan reported on March 9 that Bill Gross's $237 billion Pimco Total Return Fund, the largest bond fund in the world, had sold all its US government bonds over the past few months."

But as long as the Fed keeps buying, the pain will be put off. But once the government collapses, we'll have an opportunity to start fresh. But will we?

"In such circumstances, facing a stark new reality, Americans will be forced to look within themselves for guidance. As they do, I believe they will regain their 'can do' attitude and surprise the world with a regenerated spirit and incredible enterprise and entrepreneurship. Gerald Celente, probably the most accurate trends forecaster of our time, predicts an 'American Renaissance.'"

I'm confident this will be the case in the marketplace, but I still don't see a scenario where we abandon our exploding police state, and it's impossible to sustain economic freedom in a police state.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

The consequences of Bernanke's insane money printing:

"In other words, the speculative markets are moving one way. The economy is moving the other. The markets are going up. The economy is going down.Oh…and you can imagine what this does to the poor householder. He’s caught in the middle. The real economy pushes the value of his main asset down…while the feds push up the cost of his most important supplies – food and energy."

This can only end one way:

"It’s going to turn out very, very badly."

Yes it is.

EDUCATION:

School boards fire principles of failing schools only to rehire them at the same salary in positions with different names.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

EU plans to ban all cars from cities by 2050. This might seem like an early April Fool's joke, but I don't think so. I think it's based on this new UN program to target cities for CO2 emissions. Here's an important quote at the bottom of this post:

"An exclusive poll conducted on the first day of our crusade showed an astonishing 99 per cent of people agree [Britain] should quit the European Union."

As one commenter says, it's more likely the people of Europe will ban the EU before the EU bans cars. Surely these fruit loops don't think they'll get away with this.

WAR ON DRUGS:

Great Dilbert.


POLICE STATE:

Australian government attacks man for towing his son behind a helicopter instead of behind a boat while water-skiing.

The government's program of smuggling guns to Mexican drug dealers is a perfect example that government doesn't fight crime. Government creates crime.

WAR:

My goodness, the US government knows how to manipulate puppets. The Libyan rebels have already created a new national, i.e. government owned, i.e. socialist, oil company and central bank. How's that humanitarian mission working out in Libya?

"The day after Gadhafi's regime tried to convince journalists that it was in control of Misrata by taking them on a trip to part of the city -- but not allowing them into the city center -- his troops were killing and wounding civilians and evicting thousands of people from their homes, the witness told CNN."The carnage and the destruction and the human suffering from both the evictions and ... terrorizing the city -- it's beyond imagination," said the witness, an opposition councilman in Misrata, in western Libya. "It's incredible."
Gadhafi forces did not even allow people to take belongings with them from their homes, he added. "They tell them, 'Run for your lives,' and fire bullets just above them.""

Wait. I thought Qaddafi was killing his own people in cold blood. It sounds like they're shooting above their heads, not killing them. Yet the carnage and human suffering continues. It would have been over had western governments not intervened. In a good reminder there's not a dime's worth of difference between the two parties, McCain supports killing Libyans too. On the other hand:

"Laurence, of course one thing would be different: The currently-silent anti-war Democrats would be out in the thousands protesting the Republican McCain’s “right”-wing war on Libya—as they correctly did when Bush started his criminal attacks on the civilians of Iraq and Afghanistan."

Good point. This question exposes at the real purpose of government:

"The war in Libya has cost the Pentagon $550 million so far. And as of Monday, the U.S. had launched 192 long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles at a cost of $1 to $1.5 million each. Although I advocate nonintervention, wouldn’t it have been cheaper and easier to bribe a Libyan to take out his leader with a single bullet?"

The ruling class doesn't get any loot that way. All government actions are designed to loot the people and enrich the ruling class. That's why Congress doesn't issue Letters of Marque any more.

FOREIGN POLICY:

Analysis of the unrest in Syria.

POLITICS:

According to Boortz:

"Michelle Bachmann wants a tax code that encourages "family formation" and gives less incentive to being a single parent."

So much for smaller government.

MEDIA:

Media Matters war on Foxnews may violate it's 501(C)(3) status. It seems to me it's always been in violation of that status, but these public statements make it obvious.

MISC:

On race discrimination in the modeling industry. There's also beauty discrimination. It's like they're trying to sell their products by pleasing their customers instead of the agents of political correctness or something. Good looking people tend to be wealthier and happier. Discrimination!

If the Japanese government seizes the stricken nuclear power plant, that will guarantee the worst possible outcome.

Observers recognize that big companies cannot be as nimble as small companies. It's an economic fact of life that bigger organizations are less efficient.

Thomas Sowell summarizes the results of the census: Americans are fleeing liberal states for greater economic freedom elsewhere. Michael Barone notices the same trend. Here's another part of the picture: Caterpillar considers moving out of Illinois to lower the burden of government on the company so it can be more competitive.

It turns out the claim that Chinese will soon overtake the US in science is really a claim that the Chinese will overtake the US in science papers. It's still significant, but it doesn't have any qualitative measure.

Environmentalists Melt Down; Nuclear Reactors Don’t.

Environmentalists Melt Down; Nuclear Reactors Don’t.
by Mark Luedtke

On Friday, March 11, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan. The quake was the strongest ever recorded in Japan and the fifth strongest recorded in modern history. It’s estimated the tsunami killed over 25,000 people in Japan. The quake was so powerful it shifted the earth’s axis and changed the length of a day. This quake was literally an earth-shattering event, and the Japanese people desperately need our support and honest reporting of their plight.

But the same environmentalist ghouls who always root for disasters to kill more people and their mainstream media allies who grossly exaggerated the Gulf oil spill damage spent more time after the tsunami grossly exaggerating the threat from the Fukushima nuclear plant than reporting on the tsunami. This is another unscientific witch hunt by radicals who despise human advancement.

The story from the Fukushima plant is one of the transcendence of man: the men who designed these reactors, the men who built them and the heroes who manned them during the crisis. When the 33 foot tsunami crashed into the Japanese coast flooding up to six miles inland, it turned cars, boats, houses and more into wrecking balls which wiped out entire villages.

The Fukushima plant was built forty years ago in 1971. It was designed to withstand a magnitude 8.2 earthquake and a tsunami of 30 feet, but when rocked by an earthquake eight times more powerful (the Richter scale is a logarithmic scale, not linear) and tsunami three feet higher than it was designed for, the plant survived.

Those nuclear reactors were designed in the ‘60s, which might as well have been the dark ages of design. The designers had no computers to aid them. They designed with slide-rules. They had no modern materials to use in their construction. The science of earthquakes was in its infancy. Americans used the term tidal wave instead of tsunami, which illustrated our ignorance of the phenomenon at the time.

But nothing created by man is perfect. The tsunami knocked out the main power and the backup generators. A team of engineers and technicians worked night and day for over a week to minimize any radiation leaks into the environment. Five workers at the plant were killed and two are missing. The heroic efforts of the Fukushima staff, sometimes working in dangerous levels of radiation, averted a worst case scenario.

But even a worst case scenario couldn’t warrant the fear-mongering the mainstream media fed us 24 hours a day all week. Because of the design of the Fukushima plant, an accident on the scale of Chernobyl was never possible. That went unreported. And as bad as Chernobyl was, context is crucial. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA):

“The initial explosion resulted in the death of two workers. Twenty-eight of the firemen and emergency clean-up workers died in the first three months after the explosion from Acute Radiation Sickness and one of cardiac arrest.""There have been at least 1800 documented cases of thyroid cancer in children who were between 0 and 14 years of age when the accident occurred., which is far higher than normal.”

That’s twenty-nine deaths from nuclear power in 25 years. The never-ending construction on I-75 kills more people than that every couple of months. Many more die in plane crashes every year. A 2000 study found that 225,000 Americans died from medical mistakes the previous year. Even if a worst case scenario had occurred at Fukushima, the consequences would have been minuscule by comparison.

Yet the witch hunters scared people so badly, they fled Japan in droves. In the alarmist frenzy several foreign governments called for all their citizens to leave Japan. Panicked Americans made a run on iodine. The fear-mongering did far more damage to Japan than leaked radiation. While the Japanese people were reeling from the tsunami, the environmentalists and their media allies were stabbing them in the back.

Now that more people realize that people all over Japan will not be glowing as environmentalists hoped, a BBC expert reports, “As for people outside the plant - I can't see any chance of picking out the effect of the Fukushima releases against the general background of cancers.” In other words, it’s effect on the environment will be immeasurably small. That should have been the central theme of coverage all along. Dealing with the local radiation damage will be nothing compared to dealing with the tsunami damage.

The Fukushima crisis will go down in history as a triumph of heroes and human ingenuity over earth-shattering elements. Those reactors are a credit to their designers, builders and the power plant staff. In a sane world, the witch hunters pushing their political agenda at the expense of the Japanese people would be hounded into the wilderness as the enemies of humanity they are, never to be heard from again. But I’m not holding my breath. They’ll go back to killing Africans by blocking electric power and DDT use there. Regardless, engineers and plant managers will study Fukushima to make nuclear plants even more safe than they already are.

Free kibbles

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

Organization ignores FTC orders to censor its speech, so the FTC takes it to a federal court. Wow. I'm surprised they didn't send a SWAT team. Most likely the federal court will side with the federal FTC, but I love seeing these guys stand up to the bullies. I wish them the best.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

The consequences of QE2:

"In short, the monetary base is way, way up, price inflation is up, long-term interest rates are up, and bank lending is down. QE2 has thus begun to deliver on all the dangers of which the critics warned, but not the alleged benefits."

Imagine that.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

New study determines that warming in last century has not accelerated the long-term rate of ocean level rise.

Another global warming fraud busted for creating phony data. So many have been busted by now, it would be easier to count those who didn't lie, but I'm not sure any exist.

Oil magnates funding critiques of nuclear power.

POLICE STATE:

Government has scared everybody so badly that witnesses reported a man for carrying an umbrella, they thought it was a gun, in a mall. Naturally police accosted the poor man.

"Police believe Monday night's response was appropriate."

Of course government agents think it's appropriate to shut down a mall and drag a man into the police station for carrying an umbrella. Government has made our world insane.

Congress kowtows to the TSA.

We like to think we own our bodies, our children belong to us and we own our property. But every day a story comes along to shatter that delusion. This is one. But somehow the delusion remains. Nobody has any rights in America. The government just allows that illusion, until it doesn't.

WAR:

Defense Secretary Gates and General Petraeus believe the US military will never leave Afghanistan.

"General David Petraeus: “You have to recognize that I don’t think you win this war. I think you keep fighting. . . . You have to stay after it. This is the kind of fight we’re in for the rest of our lives and probably our kids’ lives.”Defense Secretary Robert Gates: “We’re not leaving Afghanistan prematurely. In fact, we’re not ever leaving at all.”"

I have news for both of them. The US military will leave Afghanistan whether they like it or not when the government goes broke. I can imagine the heads of the Roman legions in Germany saying something similar a couple thousand years ago.

MEDIA:

George Soros and Media Matters publicly declare war on Foxnews.

"The liberal group Media Matters has quietly transformed itself in preparation for what its founder, David Brock, described in an interview as an all-out campaign of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage” aimed at the Fox News Channel."

There is nothing they could do to boost Foxnews's ratings and standing more than this. Murdoch is laughing all the way to the bank.

MISC:

I'm skeptical of this research showing wearing mobile phones may cause bone deterioration.

Radioactive plutonium found in soil near Fukushima power plant. This is confirmation that containment has been breached in at least one reactor.

Hans Herman Hoppe exposes the nature of government.

"Dr. Hans-Hermann Hoppe: Indeed. The state does not defend us; rather, the state aggresses against us and it uses our confiscated property to defend itself. The standard definition of the state is this: the state is an agency characterized by two unique, logically connected features. First, the state is an agency that exercises a territorial monopoly of ultimate decision-making. That is, the state is the ultimate arbiter and judge in every case of conflict, including conflicts involving itself and its agents. There is no appeal above and beyond the state. Second, the state is an agency that exercises a territorial monopoly of taxation. That is, it is an agency that can unilaterally fix the price that its subjects must pay for the state's service as ultimate judge. Based on this institutional set-up you can safely predict the consequences. First, instead of preventing and resolving conflict, a monopolist of ultimate decision-making will cause and provoke conflict in order to settle it to its own advantage. That is, the state does not recognize and protect existing law, but it perverts law through legislation. Contradiction number one: the state is a law-breaking law protector. Second, instead of defending and protecting anyone or anything, a monopolist of taxation will invariably strive to maximize his expenditures on protection and at the same time minimize the actual production of protection. The more money the state can spend and the less it must work for this money, the better off it is. Contradiction number two: the state is an expropriating property protector."

Government exists to loot us on behalf of the ruling class.

"Daily Bell: It has been our contention that just as the Gutenberg press blew up existing social structures in its day, so the Internet is doing that today. We believe the Internet may be ushering in a new Renaissance after the Dark Age of the 20th century. Agree? Disagree?Dr. Hans-Hermann Hoppe: It is certainly true that both inventions revolutionized society and greatly improved our lives. It is difficult to imagine what it would be to go back to the pre-internet age or the pre-Gutenberg era. I am skeptical, however, if technological revolutions in and of themselves also bring about moral progress and an advance toward greater freedom. I am more inclined to think that technology and technological advances are "neutral" in this regard. The Internet can be used to unearth and spread the truth as much as to spread lies and confusion. It has given us unheard of possibilities to evade and undermine our enemy the state, but it has also given the state unheard of possibilities of spying on us and ruining us. We are richer today, with the Internet, than we were, let's say, in 1900, without it (and we are richer not because of the state but in spite of it). But I would emphatically deny that we are freer today than we were in 1900. Quite to the contrary."

This is absolutely true. That's why I don't share the optimism of so many others. I can't imagine how any future society could exist that isn't controlled by surveillance, police state. Modern technology, the internet, cameras, instant communication, etc., enables the ruling class to divide and conquer to an extent never before possible. Don't get me wrong. Our government is going to collapse. But what comes after, while it may be temporarily smaller, will almost certainly be more invasive and violent to the individuals it targets.

Study concludes that China will overtake the US in science in two years. This is the result of government oppression.

Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

Using technology to convince people to save.

TAX AND SPEND:

Cato blasts Ohio Governor Kasich for his big spending budget.

"He promises to tackle a historic deficit by slashing spending in his first budget and then...tries to jack up spending by 11 percent during his first two years in office?"

I warned everybody I could this is what Kasich would do.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

One the difference in rhetoric but the similar policies regarding China and Japan:

"Think about this. The G-7 nations' central banks intervened to keep down the value of the yen. But they gripe because China's central bank keeps down the value of the yuan. What's going on here?Whenever we see the central banks of the West coordinate their policies in an unannounced move, three words usually suffice to explain it: big bank bailout."

It's all about stealing our money and enriching the ruling class.

"Let me review. Big, nice Japan is the Japan of the carry trade, the friend of Western currency speculators and the large banks that lend them money to engage in the carry trade. Big, nice Japan has made Western speculators rich. But they started to get less rich as a result of a steadily rising yen. The earthquake and repatriation caused them to start getting poorer, fast.In contrast is big, bad China. China's yuan in not an openly traded currency. So, it could not become a part of the carry trade. Western speculators could not borrow money at near zero percent from the People's Bank of China to buy Western bonds. The PBOC lent its money directly to Western governments, not Western private speculators. It cut out the middlemen.So, Western central bankers are on the side of big, nice Japan."

So China isn't allowing the western ruling class to profit from its currency, and that's why our government hates it.

HEALTH CARE:

Just as healthy meat is essential to the health of a person, grazing animals are essential to the health of grassland.

"Desertification is occurring on 25% of the land area of Earth, degrading 73% of the world's rangelands and causing widespread poverty. By reversing desertification, we could create innumerable positive consequences: mitigating climate change, droughts and floods, and reducing poverty, social breakdown, violence and genocide. Yet most attempts to date have not only been ineffective, but have been band-aid solutions that do not address its real "root" causes. Enter Semi-Finalist Allan Savory and his surprising trimtab approach to reversing desertification that he calls "holistic rangeland management."Nearly the exact opposite of prevailing theories that blame desertification on overgrazing, Savory's solution centers on dramatically increased livestock numbers to reverse desertification. The tremendous success of Savory's counter-intuitive solution is evidenced through his work with Operation Hope at the Africa Center for Holistic Management (ACHM) in Zimbabwe. For hundreds of years the 6,500 acres of the ACHM were barren, dry fields until 1992 when Savory increased the livestock by 400% and managed them through holistic, planned grazing. Over time, the barren fields were transformed into green grass and open water, full of water lilies and fish."

There's no surprise here. That's how the earth's ecosystem evolved. But the axis of environmentalists, food lobby and health care providers don't want us to be healthy. I love the meat is medicine T-shirt.

GLOBAL WARMNG AND ENERGY:

Greens routed in Australia possibly worse than Democrats here, but elections won't solve anything. In order to take back control of our lives and environment, we have to take power away from government, not change the party which wields the power.

Government begins issuing deep water drilling permits again.

WAR ON DRUGS:

The feds reluctantly acknowledge the medical value of marijuana.

The immorality of laws corrupts cops. Of course it does. Article lists eight stories of cops corrupted by the war on drugs in the last two weeks.

"Morally, it is not much of a leap from legal asset forfeiture—in which cops take property from people who have never been charged with a crime, sell it, and use the proceeds for their department's budget—to simply pocketing money from suspected drug dealers. Consider what was happening in Tenaha, Texas, until recently. Cops would pull over motorists, accuse them of drug activity with little or no evidence, and give them a choice: They could sign the cash, jewelry, and other property in their possession over to the police department and be on their way. Or they could fight the charges, risk a felony conviction, spend one or more nights in a jail cell, and possibly pay more in legal fees than their property was worth."

Government is a criminal gang.

POLICE STATE:

Sheriff uses tank to make arrest.

WAR:

We finally have some hard evidence that the US is fighting with Osama bin Laden against Qaddafi.

"Mr al-Hasidi admitted he had earlier fought against "the foreign invasion" in Afghanistan, before being "captured in 2002 in Peshwar, in Pakistan". He was later handed over to the US, and then held in Libya before being released in 2008."

We have the most destructive government in the world. Libya is a curse.

"The finest strategic thinker of the 20th century, Britain’s Maj. Gen. J.F.C. Fuller, wrote the object of war is achieving political goals, not military victory."

Of course it is. Political goals is a euphemism for looting the people.

"US foreign policy is becoming permanently militarized. The Secretary of State and senior diplomats jet around the globe making speeches, but real state business is increasingly done by the defense secretary and the Pentagon’s senior generals."

This is the natural result of perpetual war. Qaddafi's forces abandon weapons and flee to avoid air strikes, and the rebels follow, picking up the weapons along the way. This war would have been over a week ago if not for the west. Now it will continue indefinitely, and the casualties will mount. So much for the humanitarian rationale.

""These airplanes are like God's air force!'' shouted Jabala Basil, a merchant-turned-rebel in Ras Lanuf, acknowledging the pivotal role of allied air power in clearing the path for the swift rebel charge westward."

I'm sure the god wannabes in government love that quote.

FOREIGN POLICY:

Jeffrey Tucker explains the difference between the protesters in the Middle East and those in the west:

"In Syria, they march to protest government. In London (and the U.S.) they pathetically march to protest cuts in government."

It's that simple, and it shows how badly our government has corrupted us. It's ironic that the Middle Eastern protesters have so much in common with the tea partiers, but conservatives are the stronger advocates of war against Middle Eastern Muslims.

The consequences of the US policy of controlling oil resources in the Middle East:

"These commitments are large, continuing, and widespread. They raise the likelihood of wars and multiple concurrent wars. In every land that has oil and that forms connections with the U.S. on economic, political, and military grounds, the U.S. becomes the de facto supporter of the existing regime and rulers. There are always groups in any lands that have problems with their governments. They then object to the presence of U.S. forces, U.S. economic connections, and U.S. political influence. These groups may have many other reasons for seeing the U.S. as an enemy. They may adopt terror tactics. The U.S. then gets drawn into a worldwide attempt to stamp out organizations using terror."

"The U.S. expenditures run up to fantastic figures along with its debts. The U.S. blunders into regions and upsets the political and religious equilibria. Consequently, it strengthens Iran and increases the threats to Saudi Arabia and the oil it wants to protect. Consequently, it increases the chance of a larger war. It also stimulates Iran to develop nuclear weapons against the threats that it feels coming from the U.S. Meanwhile the U.S. imports terrorism and raises the chances of direct attacks against Americans. It curtails the freedoms of its citizens and subjects them to many indignities, assaults, and unconstitutional measures."

An escalating cycle of terrorism and war.

"Oil-users all over this earth who do not have such a policy are buying and consuming vast quantities of oil every day without interruption. They don’t need to use force to get the oil they want. All they need is to produce some goods that are in demand that they can exchange for that oil. And that is exactly what people in hundreds of countries that do not have much oil of their own do. They produce goods and they exchange them for other goods they want, including oil."

Funny how voluntary exchange makes that happen. But the US doesn't really fight these wars for oil. That's just the excuse. It fights them to loot the people and enrich the ruling class.

Tyrants are still in charge in Egypt.

"The Egyptian cabinet [on Wednesday] approved a decree-law that criminalizes protests, demonstrations and sit-ins that interrupt private or state owned businesses or affect the economy in any way.
The decree-law also assigns severe punishment to those who call for or incite sit-ins, with the maximum sentence one year in prison and fines of up to half a million pounds."

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

POLITICS:

Politicians demand emails of critics who use services funded by the government as a tool to silence critics. I love this. This will lead people to stop using government funded services and use private services instead.

How come so-called limited government Republicans are always pushing for bigger, more powerful government?

MEDIA:

Nice article on the irresponsible exaggeration of the danger from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. My essay on this subject will go up here tomorrow.

Free kibbles

WAR:

Allies consider arming Libyan rebels. It seems no mistake ever made was so bad that it can't be repeated ad infinitum.

POLITICS:

The Canadian government collapses after no confidence vote. This is interesting:

"The past three elections (2004, 2006, and 2008) failed to produce a majority in the House for any political party. Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper formed the last two minority governments, and early polling data suggests he has a chance to win a majority this time around."

The Canadians aren't so dumb as to blame the executive for everything because they understand the legislature is the source of government power. The executive is just the executor. We're not that smart in America. We keep blaming the executive who distracts us while Congress passes the laws that do all the damage. Unfortunately, this may end up giving the executive more power in the end.

"“Transparency” is a buzzword associated with all sorts of good-government movements. But it’s something of a libertarian Trojan horse. No government can ever be transparent, for that would rob of it of its very substance. All monopoly government is predicated on the ability to actively mislead and misdirect the majority — the public — away from the truth, whether it’s political truth, economic truth, or personal truth. Even government attempts at transparency are themselves usually little more than misdirection by another name."

Like the new Bernanke press conferences, this desire for transparency is misplaced for the reasons Oliva list. The desire should be for freedom, not propaganda under the guise of transparency.

Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

Praise for the global division of labor that is overcoming states.

TAX AND SPEND:

Portugal, which barely escaped needing a bailout months ago thanks to China and Japan, sees its bonds pass the 7 percent danger mark. Look for a bailout to follow.

REGULATION:

Child labor laws suffer from the fatal flaw of central planners like all other regulations: central planners have no idea what's best for individuals and families, and therefore any central plan they come up with does more harm than good.

EDUCATION:

The failure of vouchers to produce quality education in Sweden.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

True believer crushes the fraud's arguments:

"If we cut emissions today, global temperatures are not likely to drop for about a thousand years."

Think of where technology will be in 1000 years.

POLICE STATE:

I've said this many times and in many ways:

"Whether they realize it or not Americans live in a constant state of fear every day. I’m not referring to the fears of everyday life like losing a job or having an accident of some kind, but rather a more sinister and devious fear; a fear that Americans only dare talk about around the water cooler or at cocktail parties so as not to be taken seriously; a fear they try to mask with a with a whimsical tone of sarcasm or indifference. Whether Americans want to admit it or not, it’s the single greatest fear in their lives: fear of the government."

This is cause of most of the stress in our lives. Think Three Felonies a Day. Or just traffic tickets. Or the IRS. The traffic ticket example is so obvious:

"One need only ask: when you see a cop in your rearview mirror with his lights on, do you feel a sense of safety and comfort or do you get a shot of adrenaline from your body’s "fight or flight" reflex?"

"As you search for your proof of government permission to drive (i.e., your license), and your government permission to own the car ( i.e., your registration ), and your proof of government mandated insurance, do you do so calmly and with a smile on your face and with gleeful anticipation of speaking with someone who gives of himself to serve and protect you, or do you do so nervously, fumbling through your papers hoping everything’s up to date and acceptable to him for fear of being detained for whatever reason and having it affect your job, your family, and every aspect of your life?"

Those who aren't nervous are naive. The IRS example is equally obvious:

"My favorite delusional argument from those still attached to the matrix is that they pay their taxes voluntarily."

Of course not.

"They’re afraid of what the government will do."

But the same threat of violence dogs every action we take.

Seventy cops steal grandmother's home. This is and example of why everybody fears government every second of their lives.

MISC:

Concise summary of the status of the six Fukushima reactors.

Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

Graph shows the futility of Republican stimulus of tax credits for new home buyers.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

David Stockman is at it again, explaining how the Fed is funding speculators in a fit of crony capitalism that is inflating the biggest bubble ever.

"Someone has to stop the Fed before it crushes what remains of America’s main street economy. Last Friday morning alone it launched two more financial sector pumping operations which will harm the real economy, even as these actions juice Wall Street’s speculative humors.First, joining the central banking cartels’ market rigging operation in support of the yen, the Fed helped bail out carry traders from a savage short-covering squeeze. Then, green lighting the big banks for another go-round of the dividend and share-buyback scam, it handsomely rewarded options traders who had been front-running this announcement for weeks.Indeed, this sort of action is so blatant that the Fed might as well just look for a financial vein in the vicinity of 200 West St. [Goldman Sachs (GS) headquarters], and proceed straight-away to mainline the trading desks located there. In fact, such an action would amount to a POMO [Permanent Open Market Operations] – so it is already doing just that!"

That's why the Fed was created. That's shy it exists.

"In any event, the yen intervention certainly had nothing to do with the evident distress of the Japanese people. What happened is that one of the potent engines of the global carry-trade – the massive use of the yen as a zero cost funding currency – backfired violently in response to the unexpected disasters in Japan."

So this is the real reason the central bankers decided to drive down the price of the yen: to benefit their cronies at the expense of the tsunami victims.

"Is it any wonder, then, that the global economy is being pummeled by one speculative tsunami after the next? Ever since the latest surge was trigged last summer by the Jackson Hole smoke signals about QE2, the violence of the price action in the risk asset flavor of the week – cotton, met coal, sugar, oil, coffee, copper, rice, corn, heating oil and the rest – has been stunning, with moves of 10% a week or more.In the face of these ripping commodity index gains, the Fed’s argument that surging food costs are due to emerging market demand growth is just plain lame. Was there a worldwide fasting ritual going on during the months just before the August QE2 signals when food prices were much lower? And haven’t the EM economies been growing at their present pace for about the last 15 years now, not just the last seven months?"

I made this same case a month or two ago, but I love the way Stockman writes. He takes no prisoners, and he strikes with wit. Here he uses that wit to explain inflation in one great sentence:

"In the meantime, ordinary people around the world will get less food per dollar from Wal-Mart and speculators, basking in the wealth effect, will have even more dollars to spend at Tiffany & Co. (TIF)."

That's a great description of inflation.

"In truth, the Fed’s current money printing spree has no analytical foundation, and amounts to seat-of-the-pants pursuit of a will-o’-wisp – the idea of a perpetual bull market. Like the BOJ, the Fed has thus made itself hostage to the global speculative classes, and must repeatedly inject new forms of stimulus to keep the bubbles rising."

I think he was better off sticking with the crony capitalism focus. I don't think for a second Bernanke is trying to create a perpetual bull market. He's just stealing money from us and funneling it to his bankster cronies.

Cato welcomes Bernanke's new press conferences. Are you kidding me? Bernanke plans to combat the criticism against the Fed with propaganda releases.

EDUCATION:

Judge rules that New Jersey can't cut funding to schools because it's unconstitutional.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

More fraud by the Climategate crew uncovered.

Man-made CO2 continues to power the growth of plants all over the world.

POLICE STATE:

End the contradictory moral life of policemen by privatizing police.

"Specifically, the job of the police officer involves giving orders to strangers and locking them up in cages if they choose not to obey. Unless the police officer is a complete sociopath, he would never consider acting in such a way in his private life. With his blue polyester in the closet, for example, the off-duty police officer would never consider putting his grandpa in a cage if he refuses to obey orders. He would never consider electrocuting his children or his grandmother for refusing to do what he tells them. He would never consider beating up his neighbor if she refused to stop her car and show a picture of herself embossed on government plastic. But he is expected to do precisely these types of things to people he doesn’t even know in his "professional" life if they refuse to do what he and his bosses tell them."

This is an incredibly corrupting contradiction that gets to every cop, no matter how good a person he or she is when he joins the force. And of course the cops to are most corrupt rise to the top.

"The fact that many, many police officers are indeed complete psychopaths should thus not come as a particular surprise. Indeed, the job is tailor made for the psychopath and the sociopath who is comfortable with feelings of cognitive dissonance. People with normally calibrated moral compasses would shudder to think that they would be required to lock people up in cages, electrocute them, or beat them with clubs for not doing as they are told. It would confuse and trouble the normal person to think that by putting on a blue polyester suit, mustache, and riding boots it was suddenly morally acceptable to order people around at the point of a gun (not to mention the icy shudder they would feel at the thought of wearing the ridiculous kit itself). It would horrify the normal person to think that part of his job involved smashing down strange people’s doors, taking their children, shackling them, locking them in cages, stealing their drugs and guns, and shooting them if they happen to resist."

This is why we see a never-ending of police criminality which is only the fraction that manages to leak out from behind the thin, blue line.

WAR:

Another argument that the attack on Libya is designed to extend the war as long as possible: other powers seized Qaddafi's wealth and demanded he stand trial for war crimes. Qaddafi would be more likely to step down into a cushy retirement. NATO takes over war. If you thought NATO exists to defend its members, you were mistaken. Libya holds 143 tons of gold. That can finance a very long war.

There's lots of accusations that an al Qaeda affiliate is part of the rebel force in Libya, but I've seen no proof.

I thought it was obvious since before the 2008 election that Obama was a one-world-government disciple. Newt Gingrich busted for flip-flopping on Libyan intervention.

MISC:

Using violence, i.e. government, to combat racism is counterproductive. The goal of all government action is to loot the people and that includes anti-racism policies.