Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

Prediction for the sequence of dominoes that will fall when the Greek government defaults on its debt.

REGULATION:

US mandating black boxes in cars. Buy used.

HEALTH CARE:

Federal regulators partner with Monsanto to hide information about its product causing birth defects.

"Industry regulators have known for years that Roundup, the world's best-selling herbicide produced by U.S. company Monsanto, causes birth defects, according to a new reportreleased Tuesday."

This is a good reminder that government doesn't exist to make us safer. It exists to protect the ruling class while it loots and harms us. This is another example of how you can't tell where the government ends and the corporation begins.

I often talk about how corporations are agents of the government. They're partners in looting us. They sit down with the staff of legislators and write laws that benefit the government and themselves at our expense. They do the same with regulations. It's impossible to tell where the government ends and the corporations begin. Here's a good example.

"The UK Department of Health is putting the fast food companies, processed food companies, and soft drink manufacturers at the heart of writing government policy on obesity.The companies in question include McDonald's, KFC, PepsiCo, Kellogg's, Unilever, Mars and Diageo.Health secretary Andrew Lansley has set up five "responsibility deal" networks with businesses to come up with policies. Many say this is the equivalent of putting cancer policy in the hands of tobacco companies."

Note that Pepsico owns Taco Bell.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Summer snow in Wales.

Obama plans to centrally plan a new electric grid. No thanks. Government has made our current grid bad enough.

WAR:

Pat Buchanan makes the case for reducing the US military and US defense commitments.

FOREIGN POLICY:

The strong hold the Israeli government has on US policy.

"This is the great danger of having – being – an empire: foreign lobbyists, who have a vital interest in what course American foreign policy takes, have every incentive and opportunity to seize control of the policy-making apparatus. The national security and interests of the US are only of secondary concern to them, if these even come into the picture at all: first and foremost, it’s Israel all the way – in Congress, in the leadership of both parties, and in key sectors of the national security bureaucracy itself. This fifth column actively undermines distinctively American interests in the region –fighting terrorism, securing access to oil, maintaining good relations with our Arab allies – and it does so as part of a well-coordinated and well-funded campaign to ensure Israeli objectives. Tel Aviv is working the American political system for all its worth: billions in “aid,” deference to the point of servility, and a blank check to do as it pleases."

It won't last. Pat Buchanan says Netanyahu's dressing down of Obama insured his defeat in 2012. I think the crashing US economy ensured his defeat.

POLITICS:

Obama, Biden, Boehner and Kasich. Four peas in a pod carving up the loot they steal from us over a game of golf.

Romney staffer has inside connection with Drudge. Nothing new here. The press and politicians are always in bed together. This is only news because the Drudge Report has so much influence and is outside the mainstream.

Praise for Confessions of an Economic Hitman.

On the trend that political unrest us spreading to Europe. It's on the rise here too.

Brit lampoons Obama for suddenly claiming to be Irish.

"Obama is just doing now what all bullies and losers start doing when they realise how unpopular they are and that everyone is abandoning them. They suck up to anybody and everybody. They whore themselves piteously before enemies they once considered beneath their contempt."

That's a fact.

MEDIA:

The Washington Post is against publicizing Michael Mann's emails from the University of Virgina but supports publicizing all of Sarah Palin's emails as governor. It's interesting how US articles only mention the death threats against Palin in passing. The media doesn't want to go into those in detail.

MISC:

Study discovers that messing up gut flora can cause depression and anxiety. Think about all the stomach medicines that mess up your guy and all the anti-depressives out there. Is this the link?

I don't believe I've ever heard the phrase anthropology cartel before.

Several myths of WWII.

The Japanese super-quake move the sea floor 79 feet sideways and 10 feet up. Wow.

The Doors (yes, those The Doors) threaten bar owner over the use of their likeness.

"Jenny Barchfield reports for the Associated Press that the fledgling bar owner received a letter signed by The Doors intellectual property attorney  Anthony Keats warning,  “The Doors do not want to be seen as having approved of your establishment and also the consumption of alcohol.”  The letter said Maillet had three months to remove all images of the group."

If they wanted to own their likeness, they should have stayed behind closed doors.

Here's a nice economic fallacy in this article on male birth control.

"So why is this not available yet? Well, not to go all conspiracy theory on you, but drug companies aren't especially interested in RISUG because they wouldn't make any money on it. The injection lasts a decade and the syringe would likely end up costing more than what's inside, so unlike male hormonal birth control (which they've been working on for years), patients wouldn't need to keep paying for more medication every month."

But the price they could charge has nothing to do with the cost of the materials. I imagine many men would pay good money for something like this.