Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

I have no doubt the Koch's run their foundations for the benefit of the Koch's, and they want to get a piece of the privatization of Social Security. But Social Security really is broke. The finances are worse than most think because the economy is worse than they think, and that means future revenues are going to be worse than currently projected. The Koch's aren't exaggerating the financial problems of Social Security.

If the Greek government defaults, it will be bad for all kinds of European banks, but it will be good for Greece. Think of the precedent that will set for other indebted governments. Think how this will expose the Keynesians.

"Greece is now the test case. Iceland stiffed the European bankers by defaulting on its external debt. This has led to a revived economy, something that the media do not discuss in detail. Iceland has done better than Ireland, which capitulated to the EU and the European Central Bank."

That's how it's going to harm them. The media won't be able to continue to hide the recovery.

"Iceland had this enormous advantage: it never joined the European Monetary Union. It now enjoys low rates on its bonds. This indicates that Greece can escape from the trap by pulling out of the EMU and defaulting on its external debt. This would send a message to Portugal and Spain: deliverance is available. Stiff the foreign creditors and abandon the euro."

The Greek government knows this. They also know they'll suffer massive inflation if they set up their own central bank to buy government bonds.

"The big banks of Northern Europe have put the politicians in a trap. The politicians face the wrath of the voters, who are sick of the bailouts. But the politicians are afraid of crippling the biggest banks, since these banks are the source of funding for the domestic governments. If the banks stop buying domestic government debt, the politicians will have to raise taxes or else suffer the ultimate indignity: austerity. They want to avoid both."

The politicians put themselves in this trap with prolific spending and debt. Banks who buy government debt are enablers, but the politicians spend the money. Of course ultimately voters are responsible.

"So, senior politicians and their finance ministers are going through the motions of driving a hard bargain. If they were serious, they would tell the Greek government that there will be no further bailouts, no mater what. They would quit deferring the event that most analysts think is likely: Greek default. The only questions are: (1) the timing of the default, (2) the amount owed when it happens, and (3) the language that the Greek government uses to disguise default."

The politicians don't want that because Europeans would see Greece bounce back and thrive. It would expose them as liars and crooks. It would expose Keynesianism as the fraud it is. So they will offer a bailout. Hopefully the Greeks follow the Iceland model. I didn't realize euro was introduced in 1999. I remember it, but it seems longer ago. It'll be an object lesson in how fast a fiat currency union can be destroyed.

REGULATION:

I have no confidence in Congress's overhaul of the patent system. I expect the result will be more looting, not less.

"The legislation, supported by the Obama administration and a broad range of business groups and high tech companies, aims to ease the lengthy backlog in patent applications, clean up some of the procedures that can lead to costly litigation and put the United States under the same filing system as the rest of the industrialized world."

It's supported by the most oppressive administration in our lifetimes and by big corporations. It can't be good.

"The Senate passed a similar bill last March on a 95-5 vote."

It sounds worse and worse.

"The second pillar of the legislation is a provision that would switch the United States from the "first-to-invent" system now in effect to the "first-inventor-to-file" system for patent applications used by all other industrialized countries."

This is a significant step in the wrong direction. The big companies have the resources to file, but filing is hard for little guys. This is another big advantage to corporations and it emphasizes the government, through filing, while deemphasizing the creative process, inventing.

"Alexander Poltorak, head of the American Innovators for Patent Reform, representing independent inventors, university researchers and small companies, said the bill gives big corporations an advantage by weakening the one-year grace period under which an inventor can develop his product before filing for a patent and giving corporations more post-grant challenging rights.

He said the first-to-file system will lead to a rush to file where "large companies with in-house attorneys will always be able to beat small inventors and universities in the race to the patent office.""

That's right.

"But supporters say the current system, in addition to being out of sync with the rest of the world, invites costly litigation over patent ownership that deters the raising of capital. The PTO says it costs $400,000-$500,000 to pursue an interference proceeding, claiming the right to a patent based on an earlier invention."

Those pesky inventors clogging up the legal system stopping the big corporations from getting bigger. Nothing about making the patent term shorter. Just reading about the arguments for reform makes it clear that the right thing to do is abolish patents.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

The Fed lowers growth forecast, but signals no new quantitative easing beyond holding interest rates at zero as QEII ends.

All government statistics are corrupted to benefit the ruling class at our expense, so Congress wants to change how the CPI is calculated again to hide inflation. Government agents aren't dumb. They often seem dumb and they often play dumb, but they're not. They know darn good and well the Fed's money creation has set up the most explosive inflation time bomb the US has ever experienced, they know that inflation is on the rise, so they're moving to hide it from the public in the only way they know how before it gets so bad they can't deny it. Government is not dumb. It's evil.

Bernanke says Greek default would have very little impact on US banks. I bet we get to test his accuracy again soon. He's been wrong about pretty much everything else he's claimed.

HEALTH CARE:

Film about a cancer doctor attacked by the US government. Why?

"When Antineoplastons are approved, it will mark the first time in history a single scientist, not a pharmaceutical company, will hold the exclusive patent and distribution rights on a paradigm-shifting medical breakthrough."

Taking business from the ruling class.

"This documentary takes the audience through the treacherous, yet victorious, 14-year journey both Dr. Burzynski and his patients have had to endure in order to obtain FDA-approved clinical trials of Antineoplastons. 
Dr. Burzynski resides and practices medicine in Houston, Texas. He was able to initially produce and administer his discovery without FDA-approval from 1977-1995 because the state of Texas at this time did not require that Texas physicians be required to adhere to Federal law in this situation. This law has since been changed."

Another example of the benefits of states rights.

"Likewise, the Food and Drug Administration engaged in four Federal Grand Juries spanning over a decade attempting to indict Dr. Burzynski, all of which ended in no finding of fault on his behalf. Finally, Dr. Burzynski was indicted in their 5th Grand Jury in 1995, resulting in two federal trials and two sets of jurors finding him not guilty of any wrongdoing. If convicted, Dr. Burzynski would have faced a maximum of 290 years in a federal prison and $18.5 million in fines."

That's what happens when you threaten the profits of the ruling class. Government exists to protect them from unfettered competition with us.

WAR ON DRUGS:

Ron Paul teams with Barney Frank for marijuana legalization bill.

POLICE STATE:

TSA agent with an octogenarian foot fetish. She should have whacked her with a cane.

Aspiring presidential candidate Rick Perry revives anti-groping bill in extended session of Texas legislature, and it has a good chance of passing. This would be awesome. For a person who plans to be a major candidate to revive this shows you how unpopular the TSA tactics are.

WAR:

I thought the NATO bombing and special forces campaign in Libya was supposed to be about humanitarian aid. Apparently Italians don't think so.

"Possible cracks emerged in NATO's Libya air campaign Wednesday as Italy expressed concern about the accidental killing of civilians and called for a suspension in hostilities to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid."

It's kind of hard to deliver humanitarian aid while planes are bombing people. So much for the humanitarian bombing mission.

Obama intends to keep at least 70,000 US troops in Afghanistan through next summer. The New York Times spins this as a faster pullout, even though that's tens of thousands of more troops than when he took office.

POLITICS:

I wouldn't say Ron Paul has won the battle of ideas, but it's obvious he's currently winning that battle, and I think as the primary goes on, the government grows and the economy shrinks, he'll win the battle of ideas even more.

LOCAL:

New bill would allow Ohioans to carry guns in churches, on college campuses and in government buildings.

MISC:

Protein found in all in animals including the human eye senses magnetism. But there's no evidence the human brain senses that it senses magnetism.

How people took care of the needy better and less expensively before the welfare state. This safety net also encourage productive behavior and discouraged unproductive behavior. What happened?

"Of course, with so many services being supplied by mutual aid, many groups had reason to lobby government for its destruction."

Government exists to protect the ruling class from competition with the people.

Laws against discrimination are illegitimate, they violate the natural rights of property and free associate, and free market effectively punishes bigoted actors. Viewing the Walmart class action suit through this lens. This article also highlights the arbitrariness of attacks on discrimination.

"In light of the above examples of what most people would not include when they demand that government crack down on "discrimination," we can define the objectionable practice this way: business engages in unfair discrimination when it treats employees differently even though this differential treatment has no basis in profitability.Even though the typical American might not think of the issue according to the principle I've just stated, I think it adequately captures most of their intuitive judgments regarding acceptable versus "bad" discrimination. To repeat, most Americans object if a woman (say) is treated differently by her bosses even though her being female "has nothing to do with the job." The only clarification my principle adds is to precisely define what we mean by "having something to do with the job" — namely, contributing to the business's profitability.
For example, the principle explains the intuition most Americans have that it is acceptable for Outback to exhibit a strong preference for young, pretty women as hostesses, while it is notacceptable for a corporate manager to only hire young, pretty women as executive assistants. The first seems like standard business practice to most people, while the second seems like "unfair discrimination."
If analyzed, the reason for this different intuition would boil down to the fact that hiring pretty women as hostesses actually is a "business decision" catering to customer preferences, whereas hiring pretty women as midlevel executive assistants is a "personal decision" catering to themanager's preferences. The first practice makes the company more money, while the second squanders it."

That's a great explanation. Lew Rockwell comments.

"The news of the Supreme Court decision on Wal-Mart – declining to approve a massive lawsuit against an amazing company – was reported as if it amounted to some devastating blow to American life. Nonsense: the decision actually permits normalcy in economic development to proceed without a new round of destruction of wealth. Some lawyers might be sad, but it is great for the rest of us."

Absolutely. As for class action suits in general:

"The second definition [of class] is the relevant one and it is mostly drawn from academia and the Marxist tradition in particular. The Marxist theory is that all of society is constantly seething in conflicting and exploitative social relationships that pit group against group."

That makes a lot of sense.

"First, there is no such thing as the interests of women – or of men, or blacks, or disabled people or the environment. Interests are always radically heterogeneous because the world is filled with unique individuals with subjective perspectives, ideas, and experiences.Second, there was no class "acting" in this case. It was a bunch of lawyers using some former Wal-Mart employees – let’s just say that these people were being exploited by attorneys – in the attempt to pick the deepest pockets around. Had the lawsuit been won, the women would have received settlements that would pay a day of parking meter fees. The lawyers would have looted it all."

That was the real goal.

"If we had strict property rights, freedom of association and exchange, and freedom of contract, there would be no such thing as a class-action suit. If we had a real free market, we would be spared that massive social waste that was involved in this preposterous lawsuit."

"As for the Marxist idea of class, yes, its appearance can be created but only by legislation and lawsuits that pit one group against another group. It is wholly artificial and a good example of how the state creates the very problem it purports to solve."

Absolutely.