Free kibbles

RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS:

Wyoming becomes fourth state in union to remove unconstitutional restrictions on concealed carry.

STATES RIGHTS:

Texas legislators introduce bill to halt TSA nude scans and gropes. Again, why is a new law needed? When did federal agents get immunity from existing sexual assault laws?

Representatives in the House in Utah move to protect their state from Bernanke's destruction of the dollar by passing a bill allowing Utah citizens to use gold and silver coins as legal tender and abolishing taxes on them to facilitate their use as money.

SOCIALISM:

Essay on unions explains why the south boomed and the north declined.

"Holding down retail prices was possible because the largest factor of production, labor, could be purchased at free market prices only after the government's subsidies to labor unions were reduced by law by the so-called right to work laws. These were really "right to offer to work" laws. These laws spread rapidly after 1960. The southern states had them, so labor and employment moved south. When right-to-work laws met air conditioning, the Old South was finished. So was the more heavily unionized Old North. But that process did not start in 1973."

The power of coercion forced businesses and labor out of the north and into the newly air-conditioned south.

The whole debate over collective bargaining rights of public sector unions misses the point. The problem isn't collective bargaining. The problem is coercion. The problem is the power of union workers to force others to join the union against their will. The problem is the power of government to legally steal money from citizens at the point of its gun.

ECONOMY:

Technology makes law firms more efficient. This is a good thing. Prosecutors will be the last to adopt this technology, giving defense attorneys a boost. It also will level the playing field between big law firms that previously had huge staffs and smaller firms without the same resources.

On the nature of gold and why it has value.

TAX AND SPEND:

Modern tax protesters.

Liberal thinks Kasich and Republicans are being too bold in the cuts in Ohio government. Ridiculous. It may turn off voters, but I have no doubt Kasich's cuts will be too small to turn things around here. The reason voters may get turned off is nobody in either party is explaining just how destructive government looting is to our economy and our standard of living.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

Stupid Fed attack on Ron Paul.

How Ben is driving up the price of commodities.

"According to data released by the World Bank, food prices rose a stunning 15% from October through January. The World Bank’s own food index now sits just 3% below its 2008 record. (Though a separate index maintained by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has already surpassed 2008 levels.)"

That obviously hits the poor in developing countries much harder than it hits Americans, but it affects us too. Chart makes the case. Here's one take from Nicaragua:

"The more interesting news continues to come from America’s central planners. At least, they are entertaining…in roughly the same way that TV shows such as 1000 Ways to Die or Jackass are entertaining.Maybe it’s just human nature. But it’s fun to watch people do stupid things – sometimes, even when they’re fatal."

Maybe it's time to move to Nicaragua.

"The index highlights how food prices, which throughout most of the last two decades have been stable, have taken off in alarming fashion in the past three years."

If you believe Bernanke, the demand for food didn't grow for decades, but it explodes in the last three years. He's also got some property in Florida to sell.

"But wait…hold on…is the emerging world growing faster now than it was two or three years ago? Nope. Hmmm… Is the growth a big surprise? Did something happen to make investors and traders suddenly realize that…well…hey…the world is growing!Nope.
Then, how come prices are shooting up now? Why didn’t they shoot up 4 years ago? Or 2 years ago? Or last year? What has changed?
Well… How about the $1.5 trillion of brand spanking new money that the Fed put into the world’s money supply in 2009-2010? And how about the $600 billion more it’s pumping in now?"

I love the ridicule. Why is government, which includes Bernanke, doing this?

"Why should taxpayer money be used to bail out the rich?
Well, they’re not just rich. They’re powerful. They’re the people the government was set up to protect. Give the feds a break; they’re just doing their jobs.
The private sector innovates. Government procrastinates…hesitates…and vegetates.
That’s just the way it works. That’s what government has always been for. The government of ancient Egypt protected the pharaohs. The government of the Ottoman Empire protected the Ottomans. The government of Genghis Khan looked out for Genghis.
And who does the US government look out for? Naturally, it looks out for the elite groups that control it. Who’s that? The big banks, of course."

Government exists to loot the people, and it's never done such a fabulous job as the US government is doing right now.

HEALTH CARE:

Also as predicted, Republicans are failing to defund Obamacare. They don't want to defund it. They want to share in the loot.

While being approached by a policeman, a man made a call and left a message. Subsequently the policeman arrested him for illegal wiretapping.

British study shows red meat is good for you, contrary to all the myths we've heard about it.

GLOBAL WARMING:

Forty percent of US corn crop goes to ethanol instead of food. This is another way the US government is fomenting unrest in the Middle East.

POLICE STATE:

Look for increased enforcement and fines for not wearing a seat belt. They won't be happy until we're all encased in bubble wrap from cradle to grave.

WAR:

Report on how much the desire to control Libya's oil is at play in the Libyan revolution claims NATO forces have already set up bases in Libya.

"US troops have already moved ashore in Libya, joining the 'opposition ' and 'rebel' forces in 'rebel' controlled territories. The US, France and Britain have already set up Bases in Libya. The recent report noted that British and US special forces entered Libyan port cities of Benghazi and Toburk on February 23 and 24.
US covert operatives have been on the ground for weeks, in not much longer, whether they have entered by sea (SEALS) or by way of Niger, where the US has openly published information about its covert operations. (See, for example, the travelology reports by former U.S. Special Forces now 'journalist' Robert Kaplan in America's African Rifles a Pentagon massaged and approved propaganda feature in the pro-war Atlantic Monthly). Any opportunity to attack, destabilize, invade will be exploited by the Pentagon."

I don't think the US government intentionally sparked these rebellions, but there's no doubt they want to exploit them to maximum advantage for the ruling class.

War is a racket.

FOREIGN POLICY:

Libyan rebels claim they have created a republic. I wonder who voted.

Fears of a Saudi rebellion. If US troops are in Libya to secure oil for US interests, you can be sure they'll invade Saudi Arabia too. Our rulers are going to need a bigger army. Can you imagine the terrorist attacks we'll suffer if US troops really are in Libya and enter Saudi Arabia? This madness will end badly for us.

"Fatih Birol, the IEA’schief economist, warned that investments in fresh fields across the Middle East “may be deferred for years. The age of cheap oil is over.”The Libyan crisis has brought forward an oil crunch that was likely to happen within three years or so, given the relentless decline of non-OPEC output in the North Sea and Mexico.
While the world can cope with the loss of Libyan crude for now, the stakes will rise sharply if one more country succumbs, and explode off the charts if Gulf monarchies lose their grip."

Now let's imagine for the last half a century that the US had not meddled in the Middle East, that those countries had representative governments already, and that Middle Eastern Arabs didn't hate us. The oil situation would be greatly improved, and the burden of our government would be significantly less.

POLITICS:

Poll shows that frustration with government has dropped nine points since September. This is evidence that a huge portion of the tea party was really just Republican partisans, not true anti-government people, just as most libertarians predicted.

MISC:

The origins of government paper money in the west: Massachusetts.

"Finally, Massachusetts decided in December 1690 to print £7,000 in paper notes and to use them to pay the soldiers. Suspecting that the public would not accept irredeemable paper, the government made a twofold pledge when it issued the notes: that it would redeem them in gold or silver out of tax revenue in a few years and that absolutely no further paper notes would be issued. Characteristically, however, both parts of the pledge went quickly by the board: the issue limit disappeared in a few months, and all the bills continued unredeemed for nearly 40 years. As early as February 1691, the Massachusetts government proclaimed that its issue had fallen "far short" and so it proceeded to emit £40,000 of new money to repay all of its outstanding debt, again pledging falsely that this would be the absolute final note issue."

Naturally, it was a fraud.

In praise of Merida, Mexico, a 16th century colonial town. It sounds like a great city.