Free kibbles

ECONOMY:

Most of these economic indicators make sense. The Super Bowl one does not.

TAX AND SPEND:

A list of welfare programs.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

People like to talk about China buying US government debt, but the Fed is far away the biggest holder of federal debt.

Jim Grant, the man whom Ron Pauls would nominate to run the Fed says,

"“The anachronism is today’s system,” he says. We have a “command and control, top down” system whereby the Federal Reserve imposes an interest rate on society. The Fed, in other words, tells us what the price of money should be. It is, Grant says, oddly at odds with the modern age. “We live in a world of collaborative social networks” of the Internet and Facebook, of Wikipedia instead of the old World Book, and so on. And yet when it comes to the price of money, we wait for a committee that sits in private to tell us what it should be. "

But the central wouldn't have it any other way.

Now Bernanke is promising to hold the interest rate near zero until 2014. In 2014 he'll promise to hold it low until 2016. Can you see where this is going?

If you don't trust banks, you can make a peer-to-peer loan through uk.zopa.com.

HEALTH CARE:

The FDA's perverted case for controlling your stem cells.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Oil companies still suffering from Obama's Gulf drilling ban even after it was lifted. An economy is not a light switch. When government bans something, people, capital and raw materials rapidly shift to other, less productive, uses. After lifting the ban it takes time to move those resources back.

Book proclaiming how to save the world from the coming ice age written in 1977 recommends exactly the same prescriptions as modern frauds propose to prevent global warming. This illustrates that the frauds care nothing about crisis. All crises, even literal polar opposites, demand the same response. That's because these fraudulent movements are driven by politics, not climate and not the environment.

The climate frauds' weak response to 16 prominent scientists who say global warming alarmism is grossly exaggerated.

POLICE STATE:

The FBI suspects anybody who uses standard internet privacy protections of being a terrorist.

"A flyer designed by the FBI and the Department of Justice to promote suspicious activity reporting in internet cafes lists basic tools used for online privacy as potential signs of terrorist activity.  The document, part of a program called “Communities Against Terrorism”, lists the use of “anonymizers, portals, or other means to shield IP address” as a sign that a person could be engaged in or supporting terrorist activity.  The use of encryption is also listed as a suspicious activity along with steganography, the practice of using “software to hide encrypted data in digital photos” or other media.  In fact, the flyer recommends that anyone “overly concerned about privacy” or attempting to “shield the screen from view of others” should be considered suspicious and potentially engaged in terrorist activities."

We're the stupidest people the world has ever known. We had everything, but we're throwing it all away and committing social suicide by government.

FBI seizes 307 websites related to the Super Bowl.

WAR:

Yesterday headlines said NATO intended to transfer security to Afghan forces in 2013. Today headlines say NATO will be fighting in Afghanistan through 2014. The press is probably just as clueless as the military.

FOREIGN POLICY:

The many negatives of sanctions.

The duplicity of the Obama administration toward Iran makes it nearly impossible for the Iranian government to trust the US government. This is probably true of every foreign government to some extent.

POLITICS:

Isn't it illegal for Obama to have Swiss donors? Or is this just bundling American donors and not donating himself or collecting donations from Swiss donors?

Both Super Bowl owners have donated the maximum to Obama.

Rand Paul would be a fool to accept a VP spot with any candidate other than his father. That would be the fastest way to alienate himself from libertarians.

Anybody who thinks Congress is going to enact real corruption reforms on itself, the executive branch, and political insiders is a fool.

MISC:

How Bruce Springsteen enriches scalpers at his own expense then mistakenly blames the scalpers.

SpaceX successfully tests powerful new engines.