Free kibbles

TAX AND SPEND:

Do you think our environment influences the decisions we make? Thanks to your tax dollars, scientists have discovered that's true. Sometime's it's impossible to illustrate the stupidity of tax dollars spent on so-called science.

REGULATION:

Ebert offers some insight into why the movie industry is declining:

""According to Ebert movie piracy isn't the problem. He contends that the industry needs to lower prices on tickets and popcorn, keep people off their cell phones, show a wider variety of films, and understand that movie streaming is here to stay. From the article: 'The message I get is that Americans love the movies as much as ever. It's the theaters that are losing their charm. Proof: theaters thrive that police their audiences, show a variety of titles and emphasize value-added features. The rest of the industry can't depend forever on blockbusters to bail it out.'""

In other words: end copyright, and the movie industry will boom.

Every now and then the news just gives you gift you couldn't imagine. In this case, LA city government is considering requiring male porn stars to wear condoms.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

The euro problems are affecting oil prices. This probably explains the volatility we've seen in gas prices since before Thanksgiving.

HEALTH CARE:

I'm skeptical that the Swiss health care system works because of socialism.

"Politics is the art of the possible [thorught force]"

What behavior modification isn't possible through force? I kind of threw up in my mouth reading this article. Must research more.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Let's see if the global warming frauds who always correctly say, "Weather is not climate" when it's unseasonably cold make a big deal out of this record high temperature at the south pole. Weather is not climate whether it's unseasonably hot or cold.

POLICE STATE:

I don't remember for how many years, or more accurately decades, I've explained to people that cops are uniformed tax collectors, but I'm always happy when somebody else realizes it.

"Many of us have come to view traffic cops as little better than armed tax collectors deployed to fleece motorists for the benefit of state/local government."

Welcome to the bandwagon.

POLITICS:

No national politician other than Ron Paul talks about such powerful principles of freedom, and none other than Ron Paul back up that talk with their actions. Apparently the Ron Paul PAC put out an add focusing on a black guy whose wife was having problems birthing a baby in the 1970s. At that time, because his wife was white, he couldn't get anybody to help him. As the story goes, Ron Paul came and aided his wife. His child was stillborn, and Dr. Paul picked up the bill. How many times have we heard that we should be skeptical of anything that sounds too good to be true. Ron Paul reacts. I'm skeptical. I hope with all my brain that this story is true and Ron Paul had nothing to do with it. But I'm skeptical.

I don't believe that Ron Paul's breakfast of champions is in the least bit lonely. There's nothing more important than alone time. I love this line:

"Asked if he's concerned that if he doesn't win his followers will not rally behind the GOP nominee, he looks up from his plate of cantaloupe, honeydew, eggs, sausage and biscuit and says brusquely, "Right now, the only thing that bothers me is people who don't respect my privacy enough to leave me alone for five minutes when I'm eating breakfast." And then he goes back to reading his USA Today.
Charming. (By the way, if this were to happen to Romney, which it wouldn't, a SWAT team would immediately surround the reporter to oversee damage control.)"

I'm always amazed that conservatives even consider somebody other than Paul for the nomination. I must have a different definition of conservative than most conservatives have for themselves.

Gary Johnson endorses Ron Paul. That might win him a handful of votes, and handful of votes in Iowa might matter.

Iowa Republican bigwigs to move the caucus counting operation to an "undisclosed location" to hide the vote totaling from the people. Ostensibly they're afraid somebody (Paul supporters) will corrupt the vote count. In fact, this must be done to enable them to corrupt the vote count in favor of the establishment. Come on. How could anybody corrupt an individual caucus vote count when every participant can see the count? The only way to corrupt it is to hide the totaling of the counts. Paul supporters can't do that. Only the establishment can. This is a plan by the Republican establishment to steal the Iowa caucuses from Ron Paul.

Every now and then I stumble across the most simple yet poignant things on the internet. Like this:

MISC:

This Calvin and Hobbes cartoon shows so much of what is wrong with modern journalism and academia, it isn't funny.

Rethinking the Articles of Confederation by Mises scholar.