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.