Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

Since Obama took office, the government has amassed more debt that every president from Washington to Bush the Elder. Obama didn't control a lot of that, but as soon as he took office, he piled onto it with this stimulus boondoggle.

REGULATION:

So let's get this straight. First the government attacks banks by fixing the price of credit card transactions much lower than the market. As a result, the banks stand to lose millions or even billions. Since the banks can't afford to lose that kind of money, they implement new fees to make up the difference, attempting to solve the problem government created. So now Obama is planning more attacks on the banks for the new fees. I thought the Fed was trying to get banks to lend to jump-start our economy. Attacking bank profits is counterproductive. As always, the people are big losers.

At least two movie CEOs recognize that piracy isn't a normal thing, people want to work within the system. But if the system doesn't supply what the people want, then they pirate. What they fail to acknowledge is government creates this seeming market failure.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

You don't see this very often: the head of the Energy Department's loan program that loaned Solyndra half a billion dollars resigns. He's falling on his sword to protect Obama.

WAR ON DRUGS:

Remember when Obama promised he wouldn't raid medical marijuana dispensaries in states where it was legal? He lied about that too.

POLICE STATE:

Obama creates a death panel that can order the assassination of Americans based solely on accusation.

"Current and former officials said that to the best of their knowledge, Awlaki, who the White House said was a key figure in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate, had been the only American put on a government list targeting people for capture or death due to their alleged involvement with militants."

Is that supposed to make me feel better?

"Conservatives criticized Obama for refusing to release a Justice Department legal opinion that reportedly justified killing Awlaki. They accuse Obama of hypocrisy, noting his administration insisted on publishing Bush-era administration legal memos justifying the use of interrogation techniques many equate with torture, but refused to make public its rationale for killing a citizen without due process."

Thats a pretty valid criticism.

"Two principal legal theories were advanced, an official said: first, that the actions were permitted by Congress when it authorized the use of military forces against militants in the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001; and they are permitted under international law if a country is defending itself."

I understand how the first argument could be used to target foreign terrorists, but war doesn't allow the government to assassinate American citizens. And the second argument is immaterial because treaties aren't higher law than the Constitution.

"Several officials said that when Awlaki became the first American put on the target list, Obama was not required personally to approve the targeting of a person. But one official said Obama would be notified of the principals' decision. If he objected, the decision would be nullified, the official said.A former official said one of the reasons for making senior officials principally responsible for nominating Americans for the target list was to "protect" the president."

The president created this panel and gave it this authority. How can he be protected from its actions? Do you think for a second a monster like Obama would hesitate to create a lawless health care death panel?

Recent exonerations illustrate how corrupt our misnamed justice system - it should be called a conviction system - is.

POLITICS:

Claim that the Occupy Wall Street movement is a result of tea party envy.

"Organizers of this week's "Take Back the American Dream" conference in Washington have studied the origins of the tea party as they try to build a countermovement to support liberal causes. The effort is a response to Republicans' takeover of the House in 2010 and disenchantment over Obama's attempts at compromise."

Once again they show they don't understand America. Nobody centrally planned the tea party. It was a true grass roots movement. As for the Occupy Wall Street movement:

"There's a core of people--the media and press team--who are doing a lot of the organising and shaping the public image. . . . We tried to talk to one of the media folks about the problem of there not being people of colour, and the problem of people of colour not necessarily feeling comfortable participating, and there was resistance on their part to acknowledge that. They deflect criticisms by saying, "if anybody want's [sic] to get involved they can get involved. If they want to be represented, they just come and they can do it too.""

Centrally planned protests go flat. And if you remember the big tea party rallies, despite all the baiting done by leftists, there was never any racism to be found. But in the Occupy Wall Street movement:

"Meanwhile, at National Review Online Charles Cooke has video of an Occupier berating a Jewish man with anti-Semitic slurs. Cooke reports that "shortly after my video camera was switched off, [the Occupier] (inexplicably) shouted the N-word at the same man.""

There's your intolerance.

The Washington Post says the "social justice" protests have hit Washington.

LOCAL:

Occupy Dayton protest draws 50 people. The first tea party in Dayton, also organized very rapidly, drew about 3,000.

This is a bizarre case involving the unspoken understanding of a contract. A home builder used magnetically tainted materials in the building of a home that wiped a family's electronics. They had no warranty guaranteeing the materials wouldn't be magnetic, but who would have thought they would be? Suppose the materials had been radioactive and giving the family cancer. Who would have thought to put that in a contract? The materials are assumed to be normal and therefore safe. I think this is one of those things that would never happen in a free society. The law would unambiguously carry the assumption the materials must be normal and therefore not magnetic enough to mess up electronics. But since government controls our legal system, there's no telling how this will come out.

MISC:

General relativity may explain supposed faster-than-light neutrinos.

This discovery that water on earth and in a comet contain similar amounts of deuterium doesn't mean water on earth came from comets. It's no surprise that the water around the sun is all the same. The water on earth could have come from accretion the same as everything else on earth.

Nobody really fears Apple won't create similarly good products without Jobs. This is just more fear-mongering. Every product Apple produced was of average performance and overpriced except they generally had one huge feature the competition never did: ergonomics. Technology was supposed to make our lives simpler. Pretty much every manufacturer out there failed to deliver on that promise. Apple did not. Apple products are nearly always easier to use than the competition, and that's is a powerful, profit-worthy feature. Plus they were generally more stylish and that matters too. It is wonderful to see people celebrating the life of an innovator instead of a politician or activist for once.

Mourners say Jobs changed the way people live. Fortunately Jobs was smarter than that and realized family was important. He realized tech is just a tool.

The Onion doesn't think it's too soon to make fun of iZombies mourning the death of Jobs. They're lampooning stuff like this. I've been making fun of iZombies for so long that it's never too soon or too late for me.