Free kibbles

RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS:

The decivilizing effects of gun control illustrated by the London riots. This is an important difference between Europe and the US. While many big cities have banned guns, the country hasn't, and those in big cities can quickly buy guns even if illegal. This is serious deterrent to widespread, long riots like we're seeing in London. It's also a major reason why Obama's attempt to spark a Marxist revolution will fail. This article is writing in condescending style. Yuck. But it's still accurate.

"In the wake of the recent violence, British property owners have had to resort to alternative means of self-defense. Amazon.co.uk reported that baton and aluminum baseball bat sales soared over 5,000 percent overnight on the third day of the riots. One customer wrote the following review:This bat is perfectly weighted and will suit any UK shop-owner looking to protect their property. Thanks to the ergonomic handle, one easy swing should be enough to shatter patellas, skulls or any other bone on your targeted looter. Personally, I would recommend also investing in some fingerless gloves for extra grip.
"

It's sad the government disarmed these people and turned them into easy victims. Same with anybody else in the world disarmed by government, like the victims of the mass murderer in Norway.

ECONOMY:

Great quote exposed the absurdity of Keynesianism:

"If people would just go to the mall and blow their paychecks already, we could get this economy back on its feet."

Do you think Paul Krugman is saving his money or blowing it all at the mall? I still believe that the smart Keynesians are lying.
"Alas, even though the Keynesians tell us that all would be fine if people would just stop saving so much, this is a free country after all. Thus far, nobody has proposed forcing people to go out and buy new plasma-screen TVs. Instead, the pundits call for governments to spend the (borrowed) money in order to maintain aggregate demand. They think this prescription is a matter of simple arithmetic: if the private sector is (on net) reducing its indebtedness, then the only way to keep total incomes from falling is for the government to step in and increase its indebtedness."
Government could order every American to buy a Chevy Volt. It could kill two birds and the biggest economy on earth with one stone.

TAX AND SPEND:

Great chart shows that the US corporate tax rate is uncompetitive.

So if 26 percent is better than 39, 13 percent is better than 26 and 0 percent is best of all.

Warren Buffet continues to call on higher taxes for the rich because he makes significantly more money in the political economy than he pays in taxes. The more government taxes, the more it spends, the richer Warren Buffet gets but the poorer the rest of us become.

Not too long ago I pointed out that the Texas government, in spite of its history that has made it the heart of job creation in America, had been significantly increasing spending. It turns out that much of that spending was funded by debt thanks to Rick Perry. Texans better turn around that trend fast, and I hope nobody votes for the Republican Slick Willie.

REGULATION:

This is how government claims to create jobs:

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been promoting the job creation and health aspects of its impending regulations on the electric industry, but in congressional testimony an agency official admitted the impending regulations would cost business $10.9 billion and create only 9,000 full time jobs."

How much is that per job?

"Mathematically, the answer is $1.21 million per job."

That's what seen. But what about what's unseen? Suppose an average private sector jobs costs $50,000 a year. That means 14 jobs will be destroyed in the private sector for each job created in the political economy.

Government corrupts everything it touches. Here's an example where Apple corrupted evidence it used in a patent claim to exclude Samsung from the EU market.

Google to buy Motorola Mobility, getting into cell phone hardware. I wouldn't be surprised if this blows up in their faces partly because hardware is new to Google, partly because the more parts of a process a company owns, the more it loses the price information necessary to make intelligent decisions and partly because it will put Google in competition with many of its partners. Steven Kinsella theorizes that Google is buying Motorola Mobility to obtain its patents to protect Android. $12.5 billion is a little steep since it wouldn't bid over $3 for Nortel's. Maybe Motorola's patent portfolio is four times more valuable. I'm sure patents played into the decision. The Washington Post agrees that patent strategy was a big factor in this decision. PC magazine suggests the Windows phone may benefit from Google alienating its partners. This deal has raised a lot of questions. It looks like the iPhone may have been copied from Android.

"Google is actively positioning the deal not as a means to buy its way into the handset market, but as an opportunity to buy Motorola’s portfolio of patents — some 17,000 of them."

So maybe that is worth four times the Nortel portfolio, but I don't believe that's all there is to this deal. Google will compete with its partners. That's just how these things work. If I'm wrong, Google will turn around and sell the business minus the patents. It may be forced to do that in the long run, but don't hold your breath. The New York Times also sees through the patent explanation.

"Google’s focus on the patents rather than the handset business makes almost too much sense: Google’s Android operating system has long been “open” and is used by a large ecosystem of handset makers including Samsung and HTC.These companies have invested billions of dollars in its Android-based operations and helped make Android more popular than Apple’s mobile operating system. Those handset makers will now have to compete against Google.
“Google can’t admit in public that what they intend to do is eventually make Android proprietary,” said Tavis McCourt, an analyst at Morgan Keegan Equity Research. Despite Google’s protestations, Mr. McCourt believes that in two to three years — after Motorola increases its distribution channels in Europe, where it is weak compared to Samsung and others — Google will seek to start closing Android’s platform or begin building special features on its own phones that are not available to its “partners.”"

That's what I'm talking about.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

Its the 40th anniversary since Nixon abolished the last vestiges of the gold standard. In the big scheme of things, it's amazing how fast central banks destroy fiat money. 40 years for us. A little over a decade for Europe. It's not like the process is so slow that people can't remember.

Great cartoon contrasts the small-time crooks stealing stuff in the London riots with the big-time crooks stealing all of America at the Federal Reserve:

Great.

GLOBAL WARMING AND MEDIA:

Remember how deforestation supposedly increases global warming? Now growing forests supposedly increases global warming too. In other words, all activity on the planet increases global warming. Soon they'll claim that carbon scrubbing and sequestration schemes increases global warming. Be very afraid. These frauds will say anything in hopes of scaring people into giving them power to control the very air we breath.

POLICE STATE:

These flash mobs scare me not so much because of the mobs themselves but because the government will use them as an excuse to escalate violence against all of us.

A British paper is reporting that Australian authorities have arrested a man in the US for a fake collar bomb. Regardless of whether this arrest is justified, maybe this section should be called police world.

Yet another case of a cop trying to have somebody who videoed him brutally beating a civilian arrested. Note the cop was suspended for 45 days, not prosecuted for assault. It would be nice to think that centralized power in the Supreme Court would put a stop to this abuse, but it won't.

WAR:

Synchronized bombs in 13 Iraqi cities kill 74 and wound 250. The sooner we get US troops out of there, the better.

FOREIGN POLICY:

It looks like Obama is using Turkey and Saudi Arabia as proxies to threaten Syria. Here our government goes again, meddling in affairs that our none of its business. This is the kind of meddling that causes blowback which hurts Americans.

Our government's war in Afghanistan and aggression in Pakistan are driving the Pakistanis into the arms of the Chinese.

POLITICS:

Description of how Michelle Bachmann campaigns.

"But Bachmann campaigned like a celebrity. And the event highlighted the brittle, presidential-style cocoon that has become her campaign’s signature: a routine of late entries, unexplained absences, quick exits, sharp-elbowed handlers with matching lapel pins, and pre-selected questioners.She camped out in her bus, parked on the street in front of a nearby Ramada Hotel, until it was time to take the stage. Even after a local official’s introduction, Bachmann was nowhere to be found. It was not until a second staffer assured her that the lighting had been changed and a second introduction piped over the loudspeakers that she entered the former dance hall here. By the time she made her big entrance to bright lights and blaring music, the crowd seemed puzzled.
Bachmann’s stump speech drew mostly polite applause until she closed by giving a large apple pie to “the oldest mother in the room” — a local centenarian.
Then she stayed on stage, signing T-shirts from above, which her staff then distributed to a steady but not overwhelming crowd.
Finally, she swept through what was by then an empty ballroom behind a phalanx of six aides who shielded her from reporters and the handful of Iowans who remained.
“She kept us waiting, she was not here mixing — then she was talking about what a great evening it was. How do you know? You just got here,” said Karen Vanderkrol, of Hudson, Iowa, who said she agreed with the substance of Bachmann’s speech, but that one line in particular"

That's not going to work.

This is pretty good.

I don't think Ron Paul is a genius, but all those other guys are certainly dunces by comparison. But as government brings our economy down, Paul looks more and more like a genius. That's why

"Since 2008, the issues and the electorate have moved in his direction."

And that's why he could win in Iowa and possibly win the nomination.

Liberals keep asking what happened to Barack Obama. Nothing. He's the same guy who wanted to collapse our economy under the burden of government that he's always been. We're experiencing the inevitable result of big government. If Barack Obama disappointed the world, it's because the world is stupid. Obama is exactly what his record showed him to be, and the consequences of his policies are exactly as expected.

I'm not usually impressed with the Christian Science Monitor, but this headline asks a great question:

"Why are taxpayers funding President Obama's Midwest bus tour?"

Some might say the majority supports Obama. Apparently only 39 percent support Obama, so no. This is just the nature of government. The looters in power use all money stolen from taxpayers to their economic advantage. This is no different than funding warfare or welfare. It's all stolen money, and it's all used to the advantage of our rulers at our expense and against the will of many. So a better question might be: why is this any different than any other government spending? And suppose for the sake of argument a majority did support Obama. Is it OK to steal money from the rest for him to use as he pleases? Of course not.

Imagine if ten guys broke down your door and said they were forming a government, and you were privileged to vote. The first order of business would be for the eleven of you to vote for a leader. Two of them argue about why they should vote for them. Regardless of who you voted for, even yourself, one of them would get voted in as leader. Suppose next the leader proposes they vote to seize all your property so the government could do good works. Needless to say, you would lose that vote too. Is this legitimate? Majority rules, right? How is this any different than the US political system?

I really don't like the religious references to politicians. I'm sure many people, including libertarians, support them when they work in their favor and criticize them when they don't, but I never like them. I think they're always manipulative. Including this religious association to Ron Paul.

Criticism of Perry is already starting. For example, he used to be a Democrat. Maybe is strong support for gun rights prompted him to switch parties. Perry now attacked because his donors have made fortunes in the political economy as if the donors of every other politicians hasn't. Do you think they would donate if they didn't get something in return? Do you think they would get a contract if they didn't donate? How do you think Obama's donors are doing? This has been the way it's been done since government was created.

MEDIA:

Yesterday US Today told us it was a three way race between Romney, Perry and Bachmann. Today Foxnews does the same, naming the same candidates. CNN is talking about Perry and Bachmann being able to challenge Romney. The supposed difference between the liberal media and Foxnews is as insignificant as the supposed difference between Democrats and Republicans. They're all on the side of our rulers against the people. Despite his performance in the straw poll, or because of it, nobody in the media asked to interview Ron Paul. They're trying to make him as invisible as possible. A liberal media person reports the media is giving Paul the shaft.

In an article criticizing Meet the Press, I like this quote:

"I'm sure if I discussed all this with the talking heads who were on the panel, I'd hear what I always hear from liberal commentators: Ron Paul is "unelectable."
Perhaps you believe that. If you do, you're either a Democratic operative or a moron.

Check this page of polling data from Real Clear politics. Of all the candidates in the field, Ron Paul lines up best against President Obama with the single exception of Mitt Romney. And Romney's going to have a tough time getting through the primaries if this straw poll is any indication."

The function of the media is to misinform Americans. It's to distract us from the ruling class hand stealing our wallet. They'll keep saying Ron Paul is unelectable right up until he wins because they're phony-baloney jobs are at risk if he wins.

MISC:

Mark Steyn has this right:

"Several readers wrote to taunt me for not having anything to say on the London riots. As it happens, Chapter Five of my book is called "The New Britannia: The Depraved City." You have to get up pretty early in the morning to beat me to Western Civilization's descent into barbarism. Anyone who's read it will fully understand what's happening on the streets of London. The downgrade and the riots are part of the same story: Big Government debauches not only a nation's finances but its human capital, too."

Government is the enemy of civilization. It's dragging us back into barbarism. Here's a great line from his book that defines the police state:

"In Britain, everything is policed except crime."

And the US is following right behind. Besides his apology for the British empire, the only thing I disagree about in this article is that Steyn blames the liberal welfare state as if Republicans didn't create Medicare Part D, welfare to churches, No Child Left Behind, and as if they didn't expand Medicare, SCHIP and dozens of other welfare programs. Also as if Republicans haven't dramatically increased the police state in the US. Blaming one party cannot solve our problems. Government is the problem.

Mussels discovered with bacterial that convert hydrogen to energy, biological hydrogen fuel cells.

In praise of flee markets.