Free kibbles

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

Senator wants Google to police terrorist blogs. This is a good reminder that giant corporations are effectively government bureaucracies. They're not businesses as we know businesses.

TAX AND SPEND:

Which global debt time bomb will explode first: the US or Europe? Peter Schiff contrasts German Chancellor Merkel's insistence that the ECB not destroy the euro through the printing press - she must still remember the Weimar Republic - with the US government policy of print, print and print some more until the dollar dies. The problem is the EU put bankers in charge of both Greece and Spain, so Merkel, while in the driver's seat because of Germany's position as the strongest economy in Europe, is being surrounded by bankers. And Greece's new banker-PM said that Greece would make no more budget cuts. So it looks like its Merkel against the bankers, and the bankers are seizing more power. Ironically,

"the prospect of sovereign default in Europe is driving "safe" haven demand for the dollar. So contrary to the political blame game, Europe's problems are actually providing a temporary boost to America's bubble economy."

That can't last, and Americans will suffer tremendous pain when the fiscal reality hits home. Italy's ten year rates climb to 7.3 percent.

"Still, Italy was not the only member of the 17-nation eurozone to have a disappointing auction this week. Even Germany — the region's strongest economy and the main funder of eurozone bailouts — failed to raise all the money it sought Wednesday, its worst auction result in decades. Spain also saw its borrowing rates ratchet sharply higher, even after a landslide victory for the conservative Popular Party, which has made getting a reduction in Spain's borrowing levels its top priority.European debt crisis contagion also hit Hungary and Belgium Friday. Moody's Investors Service downgraded Hungary's sovereign debt to junk status, a decision that the government hotly criticized. Hungary is not a member of the eurozone, but trades with many eurozone members. Meanwhile, Standard & Poor's ratings agency downgraded long-term Belgian debt a notch, citing a threat to its exports."

Let's hope Merkel holds firm against the printing press. Somebody has to be sane, and it sure isn't US politicians or bankers anywhere.

Total US debt is $52 trillion.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

Fed economists say the chance of a double-dip recession in 2012 is over 50 percent.

HEALTH CARE:

Australian government to deny benefits to families that don't vaccinate children. This is how government uses stolen money and tax policy to tyrannize.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Scientists lose massive caribou herd, blame global warming. Inuit explain caribou move. Scientists find caribou herd where Inuit said to look. The government take-over of science is making us stupider.

New study forces global warming alarmists to admit that climate is not as sensitive to CO2 as they previously claimed. But we've known is true all along because if climate was as sensitive as they claimed, the earth would have experienced runaway global warming millions or billions of years in the past.

I've long explained that the coercive nature of government empowers the worst people to rise to the top and corrupts them all. This is true with scientists, or more accurately pseudo-scientists. Climategate 2 email reveals Michael Mann criticized by alarmist.

"Edward Cook tells Phil Jones that Mike Mann is “serious enemy” and “vindictive”. Mike Mann had criticized his work. Apparently Mann went “a little crazy” over a paper showing the Medeival Warm Period exists."

Disgraced CRU head Phil Jones admits he can't plot a trend in Excel, a basic scientific skill.

Example of how the frauds stack panels against skeptics.

WAR:

Now the French are proposing a "humanitarian corridor" into Syria from Turkey. That's code for an invasion route. These guys fooled so many people with their phony claims of the humanitarian mission in Libya, it's the new go-to lie. Turkey is a NATO ally, so it's a natural supply point for NATO invasion forces.

FOREIGN POLICY:

The Egyptian military has named a former Mubarak regime member as PM and given him greater powers. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

LOCAL:

Whenever the people fail to pass a levy requested by bureaucrats, the bureaucrats punish the people by ending popular services instead of cutting bureaucrats to make ends meet.

"The West Carrollton Moraine Basketball Association has been forced to cancel its current recreational season after the West Carrollton School Districts closed its school buildings immediately after school following defeat of its Nov. 8 levy.Boy Scout troops, Taekwondo classes and other community groups left homeless by the closings are scrambling to find alternative meeting locations."

If they fired all the bureaucrats, they would save a tremendous amount of money, lose no services, and the students would get a better education. But no.

MISC:

Great description of money as power and why that's a good thing.

"Money is power. But – contrary to popular, sloppy thinking – not all power is necessarily bad. The coercive power of the state and other forms of power based on force are destructive in their essence, and the outcomes of their application tend to be negative. When you offer someone money for a service or good, you are motivating cooperation, and the transaction only closes if both sides feel they are getting more than they are giving. Win-win. That makes the power of money essentially constructive, and the outcomes of its application, absent the corrupting influence of force, tend to be creative."

Money is the power to improve people's lives because it can be traded for voluntary goods and services. The coercive power of government only destroys.