Free kibbles

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

This headline speaks for itself:

"Pub singer arrested for racism after Chinese passers-by hear him perform Kung Fu Fighting"

This happened in Britain, but it'll happen here too.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

Summary of Bernanke's press conference. The Fed staff look at computer models to determine policy. A reporter should ask Bernanke to release the before and after models of any given policy so the people can see how accurate they are. He'll never do it because they're never right, but I'd love to see him come up with an excuse to keep them secret from everybody but himself and his cronies.

GLOBAL WARMING:

UN tries to delete record of another bogus climate change prediction.

Of all the places polled by Gallup, only the US has a majority of people who realize global warming is cause by natural processes. Good for us. Bad for everybody else.

"In Sub-Saharan Africa, where 54% are not aware that their climate is alleged to be warming, a mere 22% have heard of the global warming issue and predominantly blame humans for the warming. In undeveloped Asia, 48% are unaware that the climate is warming and 27% predominantly blame humans."

The poorest people who live off the land know that changing climate is normal.

WAR ON DRUGS:

FDA to regulate e-cigarettes.

"Jason Healy, president of e-cigarette maker Blu Cigs, called the news a good first step, but said the pending rule changes will be more beneficial for "weeding out the shady companies."Right now, "you can potentially sell snake oil," Healy said."

As always, the big manufacturer looks to government to wipe out its competition so it can raise prices.

"But unlike nicotine patches or gums, e-smokes have operated in a legal gray area."

Apparently any unregulated produce operates in a very scary legal gray area.

POLICE STATE:

Miss USA claims she was molested by TSA. Funny how Miss USA is singled out for groping. I'm sure all the male agents got a big kick out of this groping by the female agent.

Photo taken by a next-generation body scanner currently being implemented in prisons, soon to be in airport near you. This a powerful reminder that when government thinks of America, they think if all of us in a prison and threatening our jailers. This thing sees your full body all the way to your bones. And you thought the radiation in Japan was dangerous.

WAR:

Afghan military officer being trained by Americans kills eight US trainers.

FOREIGN POLICY:

I'm skeptical of the negative connotations in this article about reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas. It seems to me that this is likely to change Hamas for the better. It's likely to allow both groups to better police their territory. I think this improves the chances for peace, and the Israeli government doesn't want that. It gains from perpetual war, and this takes away its major excuse for not reaching peace deal. Plus, US officials are undoubtedly embarrassed that the Palestinians made a peace deal without them involved which shows they shouldn't be involved in anything over there.

POLITICS:

Obama finally releases his real birth certificate.

"He added that the big issues would not be resolved until the birther row was put to bed."

That was true three years ago. Why wait so long? I don't see anything on it that would cause him trouble, but because he waited so long, birthers will probably attack it as a forgery. If he'd have just released it during 2008, this would never have been an issue. Did he hide it to distract from the consequences of his policies? Is Trump really working as an agent provocateur for Obama to keep the people distracted from real issues? Or does the Messiah think he's above all this and shouldn't have to be bothered?

"We do not have time for this kind of silliness. We have better stuff to do. I’ve got better stuff to do."

Like playing golf, basketball and watching ESPN.

"Shortly after the release today, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer' said: 'This whole birther debate has been really bad for the Republican Party.'He added the whole debate over the President's birth was, 'crowding out the debate' on more important issues.

His high-profile allegations about the president's origins appear to have gained traction with voters, with 38 per cent saying they are not convinced he was born in America, according to a recent USA Today-commissioned poll."

Bad for Republicans? So he released it to do the Republicans a favor? How funny. So maybe they calculated as long as Obama was popular, it was in their interest to withhold the document. After Republicans wiped Democrats out in 2010 and Obama's numbers tanked even faster, that was proven disastrously wrong.

"Despite the birthers' claims, the short-form version, issued immediately for $7 to anyone born in Hawaii, is the only one recognised for legal and official purposes by authorities.
Long-form, signed 'certificates of live birth' are held in a Department of Health vault, and under state law they can be examined by public officials, but only if there is a 'direct and tangible interest'.For individuals to get hold of their own birth certificate, they have to go through a lengthy Freedom of Information procedure - one reason why Mr Obama may have delayed publishing his."

I never heard that before. Why wasn't that publicized? I'd never seen a computerized short form before. Every time I lose mine, I always get a new copy of the original, never a computerized version. Arrogance had to play a huge role in his decision not to release it for so long. Maybe this shows he's becoming more humble and responsive to the people. But it seems more likely this has just been a terrible political miscalculation driven by arrogance. I'm glad Obama finally put this to rest. He should have done so three years ago.

Prediction that the timely release of this info will keep Trump in the spotlight, distracting Republicans. I disagree. Trump had already climbed to the top of the heap by championing this issue. This takes away some of his thunder. But the other aspect of this post might be right. It might have been timed to steal thunder from Ron Paul's announcement yesterday. Obama has to fear Ron Paul because his principled anti-war stance will draw a lot of support from Obama's base. Unlike Obama, Ron Paul will also get the government out of marriage so gays can get married if they want and straights can teach their children it's not the same. This is another conflict that could not exist in a free society. These people aren't arguing over the definition of marriage because each individual can have his or her own definition. They're arguing over the government's definition of marriage.


Good for Lew Rockwell for pointing out Ron Paul's new book is a campaign book. Of course its scope is much larger than most, but it's still a campaign book.


MISC:

I'm a little confused by this contention which I read all the time:

"The price-specie-flow mechanism is the quantity theory extrapolated into the case of many countries. The rise in the supply of money in country A will cause its prices to rise; but then the goods of country A are no longer as competitive compared to other countries. Exports will therefore decline, and imports from other countries with cheaper goods will rise."

This is only true if exchange rates remain fixed, but they don't remain fixed. Exchange rates are a price like any other. If the money supply in a country doubles, prices of local goods will double, and the price of foreign currencies in the local currency will double. For a simplistic example, if one dollar equals one euro and a candy bar costs one dollar, it also costs one euro. If the Fed doubles the money supply, the cost of the candy bar rises to two dollars, the cost of the euro rises to two dollars, so a candy bar still costs one euro. No change. Granted this inflation doesn't happen instantly, some prices will go up sooner than others, so there will be temporary fluctuations in the import/export flows based on when inflated prices hit specific products and foreign currencies. Maybe local prices generally rise more quickly because local money is used to by local products much more frequently than to buy foreign currencies.