Free kibbles

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

Business thrives on the internet because it's largely unregulated and untaxed. That's changing.

"Many confuse a desire for law enforcement with a desire for the government to find a way to take control of an information medium because some people use it for illegal purposes. This is analogous to the state controlling roads on the grounds that they are sometimes used by bank robbers: no one would take this seriously, but nonetheless the same idea is proposed for the web."

That's a good analogy.

SOCIALISM:

More details on how Obama robbed non-union workers at Delphi to bail out his union pals during the GM pseudo-bankruptcy.

Obama tried to change union voting rules in secret, violating standard procedures, but not the law, in order to keep it secret.

TAX AND SPEND:

In an important reminder that Obama's goal is to collapse our economy under the burden of government, Lord Geithner calls for increased taxes on small businesses. He also says that cutting spending to balance the budget would put a burden on the economy as if government spending is a boon, not a burden.

Conservative explains that the Republicans pulled out of Biden's budget talks to put Obama on the hot seat.

"Eric Cantor walked on the talks today. He says he wants the president to step in and “resolve” the question of tax increases. There are two ways to read that word “resolve”: One is: Obama should step in and hand the Republicans a victory by taking tax increases off the table. The other is: Obama should step in and hand Democrats a defeat by volunteering to take all the flak from the tax increases that almost certainly are going to be part of any bipartisan deficit deal."

In other words, the Republican action was politically motivated, not principled. No surprise there. The surprise is a conservative is pointing it out. Republicans get to say, "We tried, but the president forced us to accept tax increases." They're trying to shift the blame for new taxes they've already accepted to Obama instead of refusing to raise taxes and the debt ceiling. I really like the way this guy exposes the Ryan plan too, even though he claims to like it.

"Which is to say, the most aggressive deficit-reduction plan yet produced by Republicans by design holds tax revenues below projected spending. For decades to come, the deficit-reduction plan is a plan for deficits. The turnaround year of 2037 is a long way’s away. That means that even if the Roadmap were enacted, further deficit-reduction measures would be needed, and needed sorely."

The Ryan plan is a fraud and Ryan is a fraud.

The truth about Sweden's recovery.

"Sweden’s economy has been in relatively good shape after the depression the country experience in the early 1990s, after which politicians started cleaning up their own mess. Since the mid-1990′s Sweden has had only balanced budgets and even reduced the national debt from just over 80% to under 40% of GDP. The welfare system has also, slowly and step by step so that people would not notice the change, been restructured through adding incentives for people to choose productive labor instead of welfare checks. Many welfare programs have also been changed from the previous never-ending subsidization of laziness to provide limited time only support while adjusting to changes in the market."

That'll increase productivity. The US economy continues its downward spiral because our government is doing the opposite.

REGULATION:

Every time an individual becomes aware of the nature of government, it is to our advantage.

"It was inevitable that Google, one of the world’s largest technology companies, would find itself in the crosshairs of the Washington antitrust establishment. But what is, or should be, a little surprising is how enthusiastic the establishment became about pulling the trigger.Take an event I moderated last week in the U.S. Capitol building … In theory, members of Congress and their staff carefully craft public policies that encourage the development of new technologies and benefit the entire nation.
But the reality of the questions asked was less Schoolhouse Rock and more jockeying over who gets to be on the firing squad at a corporate execution. One staffer on the Senate antitrust committee offered this complaint, which I’m not making up: “Nobody on the panel talked about innovation and that being a potential harm to consumers.”"

Government hates voluntary exchange.

POLICE STATE:

TSA makes a meaningless policy change regarding groping young children. They did this a few months ago, and nothing changed. Nothing will change this time either. This is just for propaganda purposes. And how come they aren't changing the policy for adults?

WAR:

The House overwhelming rejected a resolution supporting Obama's war in Libya.

"Democrats accused House Republican leaders, who forced the votes, of trying to embarrass Obama."

Probably true, but any pressure to end the illegal war is a good thing. The House fails to cut off funding for the war in Libya. That's too bad. I'm not sure they can cut off funding without the Senate agreeing anyway, but it would have been a serious rebuke. Instead, this shows the first vote was just grandstanding.

More evidence that Pakistani intelligence services knew where bin Laden was. I bet CIA agents did too.

Parody of neoconservative foreign policy.

POLITICS:

Many reason Obama will likely lose in 2012.

Americans dislike Paul Ryan for the wrong reason.

In a good reminder that government creates chaos, not law and order, groups are trying to get the state government to overrule local government bans on transfats. This is like asking the 800 pound gorilla to kill the rats eating our food. It's ridiculous. We'd be far better off abolishing the gorilla and the rats.

LOCAL:

Local article kills the war on drugs.

"Synthetic drugs widely available despite bansAuthorities say producers are able to stay ahead of the law."

Who's surprised? Anybody? Of course not. There is no magic genie who can stop the market for drugs nor the production of drugs to satisfy that market.

MISC:

As if ripped from the pages of William Gibson's Idoru, Japan's lastest pop sensation is actually a CGI construct, a combination of six girls.

"In fact, she was not human at all - but a clever computer-generated composite of six other members of the popular girl band AKB 48."

That's cool.

Whites are now a minority of births in the US. Ted Kennedy's vision of socially engineering whites into a minority in the US to boost Democrat votes is about to be achieved.

Another article exposing the economic fallacy behind the class action suit against Walmart.

"Walmart is constantly depicted as the most heartless company in the world. People say that nothing matters to Walmart except profits. The company is accused of not having any loyalty, even to its own country. Now if this company is so ruthless, and they can hire women to do thesame work for 75 cents on the dollar, why wouldn't they jump on that golden opportunity?In answer to that, the claimants say that, even though only profits matter, when it comes to hiring, male managers only want to hire other males. For some reason the company deliberately tosses aside all economic matters and takes a 25 percent loss just so that the guys can be with their buddies."

Oops.

Imagine you have met the girl of your dreams. Because you want to make sure this is the girl for you, you date her for years. Finally, you and she together decide you want to get married. But you can't because you have to bow down to your government masters first. In what world does this make sense? Now we learn that your government masters in New York have deigned to allow gays to marry. Our government masters are so benevolent. Bow down to them and pay them tribute. Why in the world do we allow government thugs to determine whether we can get married or not?