Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

Greek government has already failed to keep up with its bailout obligations. Greek government debt yields jumped ten points in April, and default seems certain. This is the next step in the collapse of the euro-zone.

If a debt ceiling is always going to be raised, then it's not a debt ceiling.

REGULATION:

Government's attack on the washing machine and clean clothes.

"Demographic researcher Hans Rosling has called the washing machine the greatest invention in the history of the Industrial Revolution. It liberated homemakers from boiling water and washing clothes. For women around the world, it makes the difference between poverty and prosperity.Only two generations ago, nearly every mother in the world slaved at washing clothes. Today, no one in the developed world does this. Instead, they can read, do professional work, teach children, hold parties, and generally apply their time to building civilization. As Rosling says, "even the hard core of the green movement use the washing machine.""

This is also a health care issue.

"In 1996, Consumer Reports tested 18 models of washing machines. It rated 13 models as excellent and 5 models as very good. They found that with enough hot water and any decent laundry detergent, any machine would get your clothes clean.In 2007, Consumer Reports tested 21 models and rated none of them as excellent and 7 models as poor; the rest of the models were rated mediocre. The old top-loading machines were mediocre or worse."

Government is the enemy of civilization.

"The invisible hand of the marketplace is the foundation of a free society and the source of prosperity. The invisible fist of government is the foundation of plunder and the source of social problems."

Nice, pithy statement.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

It's nice of Thomas Sowell to finally criticize the Fed.

"When people in Washington start creating fancy new phrases, instead of using plain English, you know they are doing something they don't want us to understand.It was an act of war when we started bombing Libya. But the administration chose to call it "kinetic military action." When the Federal Reserve System started creating hundreds of billions of dollars out of thin air, they called it "quantitative easing" of the money supply."

That's a good observation. They think we're stupid.

HEALTH CARE:

The CDC is trying to scare old people against eating cold cuts and hot dogs.

Low salt recommendations are dangerous. Government doesn't care.

GLOBAL WARMING:

Australians oppose carbon tax by large margin. Good for them.

Walter Williams praises speculators.

"Here's a non-rocket science question: If you expect a reduced harvest of wheat, corn, rice or any other commodity some time in the future, what would be the wise thing to do about your consumption today? I bet that the average person would answer: Consume less now so that more will be available in the future.But how in the world can people be encouraged to consume less now? Enter the futures market, which consists of a worldwide group of millions upon millions of traders, often called speculators. Speculators, betting on a future shortage, buy up wheat, corn and rice today in the hopes of making money selling it for a higher price when the bad harvest hits. As speculators buy more and more wheat, corn and rice, they drive up today's prices. As today's price gets higher, people consume less, but more importantly, people do the intelligent thing without bureaucratic edicts. The vital role of the futures trader, or speculator, is to allocate goods over different time periods. And, it's not just wheat, corn and rice that must be allocated over time but all commodities including oil."

Great description of the role of speculators. It's important to note that the higher prices of commodities will prompt more producers to produce them to meet future demand. Speculators perform a crucial regulating service for the economy.

WAR ON DRUGS:

The drug cartel controlling Nuevo Laredo has set itself up as a defacto government.

"The omnipresent cartel spotters are one aspect of what experts describe as the emergence of virtual parallel governments in places like Nuevo Laredo and Ciudad Juarez - criminal groups that levy taxes, gather intelligence, muzzle the media, run businesses and impose a version of order that serves their criminal goals"

That's exactly the same as every government in the world.

POLICE STATE:

This is my kind of airline security.

Reasons why the US government will not confiscate gold like Roosevelt did in the 1930s.

The justice system protects corrupt prosecutors and judges.

Already there's plans to put TSA checkpoints at malls and other soft targets. Come on, America. Draw the line.

WAR:

Theory that the SEALs captured bin Laden then executed him. I think we're splitting hairs here. We'll never know if they laid hands on him before executing him, but it's obvious they're orders were to execute him, not capture him alive, which they could have done. White House admits bin Laden was unarmed and did not use a human shield. In other words, the SEALs could have easily captured him, but they instead carried out Obama's order to execute him. Since we're not legally at war, that's an illegal order, but the executive branch doesn't admit we're not at war. Still, military personnel take an oath to the Constitution, not the president.

"The CIA director, Leon Panetta, said they had been only “60 to 80 per cent sure” that bin Laden was living at the compound."

More fuel for skepticism.

"He then read out a new account of the assault, in which he said bin Laden was found on the top floor of a three-storey building, and as a US Navy Seal team entered: “His wife rushed the US assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed. Bin Laden was then shot and killed. He was not armed.”"

It's interesting the SEAL sharpshooters shot the unarmed woman in the leg and the unarmed bin Laden in the head. That's an execution. They could have shot bin Laden in the leg too if necessary.

"The Taliban issued a statement in which it said the US “lacks strong evidence to prove its claim” that bin Laden was dead."

That's a fact. Obama is creating doubt at home an in the Muslim world.

"In Islamabad, the authorities said they had co-operated with the US and had kept the building under surveillance since 2009, contradicting Mr Obama’s account of a four-year CIA operation to identify bin Laden’s hiding place. They also suggested that their soldiers had raided the building in 2003 — two years before the building was even built, according to the US — looking for another senior al-Qaeda operative."

This thing gets murkier and murkier every day.

"As well as amending the condition of Bin Laden's wife, US officials have also changed the name of which of his sons was killed during the raid. The dead son was initially named in press reports as Hamza, described in one article as Bin Laden's "presumed heir" to the leadership of al-Qaida, apparently based on the official White House transcript of a Brennan briefing. However, Brennan said during the briefing that it was another son, Khalid, who was killed."

I'm reminded that the government can screw up a train wreck. I'll tell you who didn't screw up: the SEALs. They did exactly what they were ordered to do: execute the man they thought was bin Laden. Obama refuses to release bin Laden death photos.

"White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday the president decided there is no purpose in releasing any of the photographs.  He said the graphic images would create a national security risk and could incite violence."

No purpose? How about proving you killed the right guy? Who made this guy king? It's like he forgot he works for us. This is the same arrogance that kept him from releasing his birth certificate for over two years and got him trouble. This will get him in trouble too. He's going to squander his bin Laden bounce on arrogance. From another article:

""We discussed this internally," he said. "Keep in mind, we are absolutely certain that this was him. We've done DNA sampling and testing. And so there is no doubt that we killed Osama bin Laden.""

Note to Great Pharaoh: I have doubt. Many others have doubt. You work for us. Prove it. Release the photos. The arrogance that drips from his comments is disgusting. Like we're not worthy of seeing the same evidence he saw.

Reports from Pakistan are quite different.

"Osama Bin Laden's daughter has claimed he was captured alive in his Pakistani hideout and then shot by U.S. special forces, it was reported today.
Arabic news network Al-Arabiya quoted 'senior Pakistani security officials' who said the 12-year-old saw her father executed and his body dragged to a helicopter.A Pakistani official rejected U.S. accounts of a bloody firefight, saying: 'Not a single bullet was fired from the compound at the U.S. forces and their choppers. Their chopper developed some technical fault and crashed and the wreckage was left on the spot.'"

Everybody has reason to lie about what happened. The only thing we know for sure is that the SEAL team was ordered to execute bin Laden, not capture him.

"Security officials said they did not recover any arms and explosives during their detailed search of the compound and the 13-roomed house, during which they removed two buffalos, a cow and around 150 chickens."

No weapons and no explosives. In other words, no reason to execute him except for orders.

"He added: ‘Bin Laden’s wife rushed the U.S. assaulter and was shot in the leg but not killed. Bin Laden was then shot and killed. He was not armed.
'The U.S. personnel on the ground handled themselves with the utmost professionalism. He was killed in an operation because of the resistance that they met.’"

Then how come his wife was not killed for resisting? The sharpshooters shot her in the leg, and they could have done the same to bin Laden if necessary. More US government incompetence:

"Bin Laden had sent [his youngest wife] home to Yemen for her own safety but somehow she returned despite being under surveillance."

So they had her under surveillance, but she came back to bin Laden's house, and the CIA missed it. Only a socialist organization could be that incompetent.

"The wife is now said to be at the centre of a diplomatic custody battle because the US wants to interrogate her but has been rejected by Pakistan."

We were told that bin Laden didn't have any intelligence value. That's why they didn't bother trying to take him alive. But now they want to question his wife as if she has more intelligence value than him. I don't buy it.

"Pentagon sources confirmed the Navy Seals had planned to take Bin Laden’s family with them as they left, but were forced to abandon the plan when one of the helicopters crash-landed.
It had apparently clipped a tail rotor on the wall of the compound and the pilot was forced to set down. No one was injured."

There's another change of story. At first we were told the helicopter crashed because of mechanical failure. Now we discover it was really pilot error. Assuming they really got bin Laden, the government would have been so much better off just telling the truth up front, showing the body to independent observers, then burying it at sea. This shows you that the aristocrats are not like us. Given an opportunity to tell the truth and do the right thing and benefit from it, they instinctively lie and cover-up instead and damage themselves in the process. The sickos who run the government couldn't tell the truth to the public if they tried. These are not normal human beings like the rest of us.

"They were apparently helped in identifying their target when Miss Al-Sadah unwittingly screamed out his name in the melee."

If true, that supports the case they got the right guy.

"White House officials insist the Navy Seals were given orders to capture Bin Laden if he offered no resistance.
The commandos had been schooled in Arabic phrases which were to be shouted out in an attempt to get the terror leader to surrender.
But officials admitted they never expected him to do so, and it was unclear whether he was really been given the chance."

From what we know, it's obvious he wasn't given the chance. It's obvious the SEALs were ordered to execute him. All this talk of allowing him to surrender if he chose to is a smoke-screen to cover the politicians' butts.

"Secret photos of the dead bin Laden seen by U.S. officials show a precision kill shot above his left eye, according to new claims.
They came as a British bishop described bin Laden's death as an 'act of vengeance' and warned or reprisals.Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, the Bishop of Winchester, said: 'The more I consider it the more concerning I find it. The thing that troubles me most is the way some are speaking of justice being done.'What has actually happened, only too sadly understandably, is, I think, much more reasonably viewed as an act of vengence or revenge."

I wouldn't call it an act of vengeance. Nobody in Obama's family died. I'd call it a politically motivated assassination. It certainly wasn't justice. If he got the right guy, Obama stole the opportunity for justice from the families of the victims.

"He added: 'It is too early to know whether the man resisted, whether he could have been captured and possibly brought to trial."

Not true. We have plenty of information that tells us he could have been captured. The SEALs aren't a bunch of redneck home invaders. They're the best trained fighters, the most accurate shots in the world. They shot his wife in the leg, and she survived to be captured. Bin Laden was unarmed, and they could have done the same to him. And they would have done it if ordered. They would have captured him without firing if ordered. These guys don't disobey orders. They did exactly what they were ordered to do: execute him.

"Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone also attacked the killing, claiming it made Mr Obama look like a 'mobster'.
Mr Livingstone told the Evening Standard: 'We should have captured him and put him on trial. It's a simple point - are we gangsters ora Western democracy based on the rule of law?'"

That question answers itself.

"According to the U.S. account, the assault team on the compound in Abbottabad came away with hard drives, DVDs, documents and more that might tip U.S. intelligence to Al Qaeda's operational details and perhaps lead the manhunt to the presumed next-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri."

Interrogating bin Laden would have helped.

"Giving further details, Mr Brennan said the aim now was to use the information from the raid to thwart possible ongoing terrorist plots. He added: 'He seemed to be very active inside the compound. We know that he was in contact with some senior Al Qaeda officials."

So much for him being retired. Interrogating him would have helped. Executing him was politically motivated. It had nothing to do with our safety. Now we hear there are no bullet holes so there was no firefight. That's consistent with the report there were no weapons or explosives. And that house was shabby. I don't know how it was by Pakistani standards, but it was no million dollar mansion. This goes back to what I wrote earlier: these Washington weirdos couldn't tell the truth to the public if their lives depended on it. This article supports the story that the house was built in 2005. Some government stooge on Foxnews just said that the US doesn't release trophy pictures. That's not who we are. Then Foxnews put up pictures of three men killed in the raid. Apparently the irony was lost on them. The only picture they won't release is the one that would prove they killed, or didn't kill, bin Laden. They'll eventually be forced to produce that picture, but by the time they do, no skeptic will believe it. Once again the government is its own worst enemy. Apparently those other three photos were released by the Pakistani government, not the US. Here's more on Obama's kill order:

"The SEALs’ decision to fatally shoot bin Laden -- even though he didn’t have a weapon – wasn’t an accident.  The administration had made clear to the military’s clandestine Joint Special Operations Command that it wanted bin Laden dead, according to a senior U.S. official with knowledge of the discussions.  A high-ranking military officer briefed on the assault said the SEALs knew their mission was not to take him alive."

There you have it. The president ordered his assassination. The SEALs carried out that order.

"The decision to kill bin Laden outright was the clearest illustration to date of a little-noticed aspect of the Obama administration’s counterterror policy. The Bush administration captured thousands of suspected militants and sent them to detention camps in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay.  The Obama administration, by contrast, has focused on eliminating individual terrorists rather than attempting to take them alive."

It's more convenient for Obama to murder them than capture and try them. We all live at the pleasure of Great Pharaoh. He claims the power to snuff every one of us out at any time he choses.

"In the fall of 2009, for instance, JSOC and the CIA located one of the administration’s most-wanted men, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, the leader of the al-Qaida affiliate in East Africa, as he drove though Somalia.  Nabhan was suspected of orchestrating a string of deadly attacks in Kenya in 2002 as well as being involved in the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, attacks that left 250 dead. Military commanders told Obama administration officials that commandos could try to take Nabhan alive or kill him from the air.  The White House told JSOC they wanted Nabhan dead. A short time later, U.S. helicopters carrying SEAL commandos fired missiles into Nabhan’s car, killing him instantly."

This sounds like what the Israeli government does to Hamas, not what we think the US government is supposed to do.

"Bill Roggio of Long War Journal, a Web site that tracks the attacks, estimates that missiles fired by American drones have killed nearly 1,500 people inside Pakistan, mostly in the two years that Obama has overseen the undeclared war there. Few, if any, senior militants have been arrested by CIA operatives or U.S. commandos over that same time period."

That's a lot of people. When facts like this come out, I'm always surprised at how tolerant Muslim nations are of US government aggression. The warmongers want us to believe they're violent, but our government is the violent aggressor.

"More recently, the Obama administration secretly authorized the CIA and its partners from the military’s Special Operations community to kill Anwar al-Awlaki, an influential radical cleric – and American citizen – thought to be living somewhere in Yemen.  Working with the American Civil Liberties Union, Awlaki’s parents sued the administration, challenging the legality of the U.S. government marking a citizen for death without trial. However, a federal judge dismissed the suit late last year, and the kill order remains in effect. Awlaki is still at large."

You or I could be next. Imagine what liberals would be saying if Bush had ordered somebody's assassination instead of capture.  The CIA denies the daughter's story that the SEALs first captured bin Laden then executed him. Release the video. Let's see for ourselves. I find it hard to believe the SEALs would have bothered to capture him then execute him with a shot to the chest and head. Assuming the report of the shot to the chest and head was accurate, that's a double-tap, that's how they're trained to take down targets, but it makes no sense after a person is captured. But all Obama has to do is release the video so the entire world can see what happened to refute inaccurate, conflicting statements. They also deny taking the body of bin Laden's son. Why did it take ten years to find Osama bin Laden? Socialism.

"Given the popularity of this outcome, is it possible that the contradiction of liberal empire has been resolved, and that there is no longer any tension between maintaining an open society and maintaining a permanent military wing to assassinate and suppress challengers?"

Smack! Liberals must be smarting from that blow.

Attorney General Holder pronounces from on high that the execution of bin Laden was legal.

"The killing of Osama bin Laden was legally justified, and would have been even if the al-Qaida leader had made some sign that he wished to surrender, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday."The operation in which Osama bin Laden was killed was lawful," Holder told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "He was the head of al-Qaida, an organization that had conducted the attacks of September 11th. He admitted his involvement and he indicated that he would not be taken alive. The operation against bin Laden was justified as an act of national self defense.""

An act of self-defense? Would have been legal even if he had tried to surrender, as if the SEALs gave him that chance? It's hard to surrender with a bullet in your brain. Since Holder says so, we're supposed to believe it. We're supposed to bow down to authority. But without evidence he was in the process of attacking Americans, the self-defense argument is ridiculous. Even if bin Laden was planning a new attack, that doesn't justify invading another country without a declaration of war from Congress. This whole statement is a joke. It claims that any president can assassinate anybody he wants at any time as long as he declares it was in national self-defense. Hogwash. Obama is one dangerous pharaoh.

"Holder said bin Laden was a legitimate military target and he had made no attempt to surrender to the U.S. forces that stormed his fortified compound near Islamabad on Monday. He was shot in the chest and head."

How was he a legitimate military target since Congress has not declared war? Did somebody tell him the burden of surrender was on him? I'm already getting tired of that part of the cover-up, that the SEALs killed him because he didn't try and surrender. They were ordered to execute him and they did. Surrender was never an option.

"It was lawful to target an enemy commander in the field and the mission was conducted in the way that was consistent with U.S. laws and values, Holder testified, adding that it was a "kill or capture mission.""

Baloney. They're trying to make it sound that way after the fact because they're already taking heat for assassinating him. Here's why they've changed that story:

"U.S. acknowledgment on Tuesday that bin Laden was unarmed when killed had raised accusations Washington had violated international law. Exact circumstances of his death remained unclear."

So now they're lying about the kill or capture part, but they're covering their butts by claiming that executing him "would have been" legal even if he had tried to surrender.

Apparently bin Laden released a tape shortly before the SEALs got him.

Whatever I think of bin Laden's killing, the US government should tell the UN to pound sand. That hypocrite Nancy Pelosi can go pound sand too.

Israel Defense Minister uses bin Laden execution as justification for Israel's execution policy. Liberals are going to hate this.

I'm not the only one who expects the government to set up another stooge and bust him as a terrorist.

Osama bin Laden the prophet.

""I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed," bin Laden gloated shortly after 9-11. "The U.S. government will lead the American people, and the West in general, into an unbearable hell and a choking life."Osama's fondest wish was to see a civilizational conflict between the West and the Islamic world. A subsidiary desire was to see the United States spend itself into oblivion by carrying out that demented crusade. He doubtless was delighted to see the United States become mired in an intractable war in Afghanistan, and to see Washington expand the compass of its conflict with the Muslim world to include Iraq, Pakistan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia.
Bin Laden was almost certainly gleeful to witness the collapse of the most recent Fed-engineered financial bubble in 2008, and probably emitted a chuckle or two over the dollar's rapid disintegration. Assuming that CNN or Fox is available in hell, bin Laden will probably be permitted a fleeting moment of satisfaction when the United States descends into a hyperinflationary crisis worthy of Weimar Germany or contemporary Zimbabwe – something that could occur before the end of this year."

He understands the nature of government better than Americans do.

"Assuming that the official narrative of bin Laden's death as a recent event is reliable, this development fulfills a promise made about a year ago by Attorney General Eric Holder, who told a congressional committee that bin Laden "will never appear in an American courtroom." Bin Laden was indicted for mass murder and other terrorism-related offenses (although, intriguingly, not the 9-11 atrocities), which means that it would have been entirely proper for him to be arraigned before a criminal court in an appropriate jurisdiction."

For some reason, not the reasons they state, they didn't want bin Laden to have a trial. Not even a military tribunal.

"...much of the American public will be praising the government ruling us for sending Osama to hell, oblivious to the hell that the same government has stored up for the rest of us."

No kidding. How Osama bin Laden won. Look around.

On the many reported deaths of Osama bin Laden. Let's hope one of them was accurate.

"He went to Afghanistan and from a cave full of the latest technology he launched an attack on America. But he denied he had anything to do with the attack. The Taliban offered to turn him over if the Bush Administration could prove his involvement. The Bush administration declined and then invaded. To this day the FBI does not list bin Laden as "most wanted" for the 9/11 attacks. Now presumably they will delist him entirely."

The government should release the evidence bin Laden was behind 9/11. I still want to know why the FBI's most wanted statement doesn't include 9/11. I won't hold my breath.

The US government didn't make al Qaeda irrelevant. The youth movements toppling governments in the Middle East did.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION:

Ron Paul on illegal immigration. Doesn't sound so bad to me. I think we should hold employers accountable to check IDs. Bartenders do it. Every employer I've ever had did it. It's not that hard. We shouldn't blame them for falling for fake IDs though.

MEDIA:

White House bullying newspapers that print something unflattering about Michelle Obama.

LOCAL:

The trademark police hit local flee market. This should be handled by civil court.

"The seized items will be destroyed once the case is closed, he said."

The government destroys wealth.

MISC:

I've long explained altruistic behavior as the product of our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. genes. Our parents genes want to be passed on, so they program us to be altruistic with our siblings. Same with our grandparents' genes and our cousins, aunts and uncles. Same with our great-grandparents genes and so on up the line of ancestry. This effectively confers a general altruism on everybody. Researchers have finally caught up.

"From Charles Darwin on, evolutionary biologists have struggled to explain self-sacrificing behavior. If evolution is all about the survival of the fittest, then why do animals from bees to people help others when it can hurt them or their chances to reproduce? Simulations of miniature robots that "evolve" helping behaviors have now provided a possible answer, confirming a 47-year-old theory that recently has come under attack: We help those who are most related to us because they are able to pass some of our genes to the next generation."

Good job, guys.

Praise for Philip K. Dick.

WikiLeaks documents confirm a conspiracy to try and unite the US, Canada and Mexico.

"In North America, integration has been proceeding rapidly for years. The New American magazine was among the first to report on the efforts to erect what critics have called a “North American Union,” encompassing Canada, the United States, and Mexico. But more recently, the topic has received more attention.
After the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)  — similar in many ways to the European Common Market that preceded the political union in Europe — the integration scheme has only accelerated. And the bipartisan efforts have been going on for years.
Under President George W. Bush, integration occurred through the little-known “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.” And with the Obama administration, the process,  now virtually out in the open, is only accelerating."

I haven't heard much about this since 2008.