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.