Free kibbles

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

With all the talk about SOPA and PIPA, there's been little reported about ACTA which is a backdoor way to implement something much like SOPA through treaty instead of legislation.

Because the government has created a cartel of publishers through copyright aggression, the cartel raised ebook prices.

ECONOMY:

We finally have a believable reason why China isn't experiencing crazy inflation:

"Gordon Chang, a writer and commentator on Chinese affairs, wrote a largely overlooked article (just 3 posted comments on it) that was published online at Forbes.com in June of 2011. Chang’s report, entitled "Chinese Entrepreneurs Are Leaving China," said wealthy Chinese are leaving the country in droves and taking their money with them. How much money? (Are you sitting down?) An estimated $2.18 trillion exited China in hidden cash transfers between 2000 and 2008."

And they're still experiencing inflation and an artificial boom. It also explains why the US economy continues to limp along instead of collapse.

"The US has benefited immensely from the entry of Chinese money into its economy. According to Chang, in the last five years there has been a 73% increase in Chinese investment to the United States. Chinese people are seen on bus tours in California, visiting real estate properties and paying the full purchase price in cash money. But just exactly how do the Chinese funnel their money out of the country?"

But this can't last forever.

"Xi Jinping is expected to become the next Party general secretary at the end of 2012 and it is rumored that the hemorrhage of money from China will be put to a halt with economic reforms. That will be a game-changing event."

Game changing for us for sure.

"China knows it is holding a diminishing asset in US T-bills. So does the rest of the world. The US economy keeps getting propped by its lenders. A US default on its debt would result in an implosion of the world’s economies. At some point the US will not be able to pay interest on its debt and be forced to default and the dollar will collapse. That day may come sooner than predicted. John Williams of ShadowStats.com says the outside date for that event is 2014 (ShadowStats report #414)."

Yikes.

TAX AND SPEND:

I have no problem with Romney's tax plan. It's his statist spending plan that is going to keep this country in decline if he wins. Even the Tax Foundation doesn't seem to understand that every dollar government spends is a tax.

REGULATIONS:

The overwhelming regulations to open a lemonade stand in NYC.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

It appears the bankers have abandoned Obama in favor of Romney. The bankers are agents of the Fed. This is like the Fed buying elections the same way the Bank of the US did before Jackson abolished it.

HEALTH CARE:

Ten terrible features of Obamacare.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

Contrary to claims, climate change is having negligible impact in the US.

Study shows what rational people already knew: coerced green energy programs make energy more expensive and hurt the economy.

Another Hansen prediction that failed to come through. And taxpayers paid for it.

The Department of Defense is the world's biggest consumer of oil. The numbers are staggering. It's also the world's biggest creator of enemies who want to kill Americans. It's just crazy that the government steals our money and gives it to the misnamed Department of Defense which turns around and uses our money to deprive us of oil, dramatically driving up the price, and making enemies who keep trying to kill us.

WAR ON DRUGS:

Even Pat Robertson recognizes the destruction cause by criminalizing marijuana.

POLICE STATE:

Engineer proves TSA's nude scanners are easily defeated and worthless by carrying metal objects through the scanners undetected multiple times. This is just another tool for oppression that creates a false sense of security, leaving us more vulnerable to attack. The TSA is trying to intimidate reporters out of covering the story.

Another of those we give a license to kill to convicted of murder.

WAR:

Report claims bin Laden received a kidney transplant in 2002. The incompetence of US intelligence, which took 10 years to find bin Laden despite using harsh interrogation techniques, is astounding.

POLITICS:

Everybody is acknowledging what I said a day or two ago: we're hoping for a brokered convention.

The term crony capitalism is baloney. There's no capitalism in cronyism.

In an email, Ron Paul tells a different story from super Tuesday.

"The fact is, just like in many of the earlier contests, very few delegates to the Republican National Convention were decided on Tuesday. Most will be decided several weeks, or even months, from now at District and State conventions - conventions where our local delegates will have a big say in who goes to Tampa.

In fact, while I didn't win any state's straw polls, my team expects me to win a plurality of delegates in at least three states, as well as outright majorities in two more of the states that have already started their process."

It'll be interesting to see how the people take this. The Republican establishment has controlled the nominating process for seemingly forever. The only modern times the people overcame the establishment was with Goldwater and Reagan. It'll be interesting to see how they feel if Paul surges in delegates despite his poor showing in the popular votes. How Did Obama, Clinton and Carter - the last three Democrat presidents - overcome their establishments? Is it easier in the Democrat party?

This is a great commentary. How stupid were the Koch's that they now have to sue to gain control of their own organization? George Soros, and plenty of others, are laughing at them.

Obama's approval rating drops among nearly every demographic. The lone demographic where he went up? Republicans. Of course they rated him pretty darn low to begin with.

Mark Steyn has a great quote about the perversion of rights in the US:

"“Rights” are now gifts that a benign king graciously showers upon his subjects"

No kidding. Here's a more complete quote:

"When it comes to human rights, I go back to 1215 and Magna Carta — or, to give it its full name, Magna Carta Libertatum. My italics: I don’t think they had them back in 1215. But they understood that “libertatum” is the word that matters. Back then, “human rights” were rights of humans, of individuals — and restraints upon the king: They’re the rights that matter: limitations upon kingly power. Eight centuries later, we have entirely inverted the principle: “Rights” are now gifts that a benign king graciously showers upon his subjects — the right to “free” health care, to affordable housing, the “right of access to a free placement service” (to quote the European Constitution’s “rights” for workers)."

Well said again by Steyn. He's exactly right in how the definition of right has been perverted completely upside down.

Thomas Sowell on the progressive ideology of Wilson, Teddy Roosevelt and Obama.

MEDIA:

So HBO did a movie about how unprepared Sarah Palin was to be vice-president. Do you think they'll do one about how unprepared Barack Obama was to be president?

Solar storm is a dud. Imagine that. I guess the government and the press tried to scare everybody for no good reason. Again. But wait. There's more to come, so just because they tried to manipulate you this time shouldn't stop you from allowing them to manipulate you again.

And while we're scaring people, let's scare them about the possibility that China will knock out government's infrastructure - the power grid, air traffic control and more - by cyber-attack. Why would they do that? In response to US government aggression, but we're supposed to be scared about the response instead of the aggression. Maybe our government shouldn't be committing aggression against the Chinese. And notice how all the targets are controlled by government, meaning they're old, out-dated, decrepit and easy targets. Maybe we should take control of critical infrastructure back from government so we can make it state of the art and resistant to cyber or any other kinds of attack. There's no mention in this story that the US government is doing the exact same to China that the Chinese government is doing here. Naturally people scared by this are calling for more government. Terrorists might hack us too. How do we summon the courage to get out of bed every day? Maybe if our government quit making enemies, we wouldn't have to worry about this.

Recommended primer on expatriation - Getting Out - was updated.

If this tape is all Breitbart had, then the hype was worthless. Obama's supporters already know he's a  bigot and a Marxist and are happy about it. Obama's opponents already know he's a bigot and a Marxist and want to oust him for it. The revelation that Obama has another such connection is no revelation at all.

LOCAL:

Joint federal and county sting seizes 500 lbs of other people property. I like how these stories always try to portray these seizures as victories but what they really show is that drugs, including bulky marijuana, are flowing freely throughout the US despite government's massive program of aggression and violence.

MISC:

How government created slavery and piracy in the colonies.

How can an LED be over 100 percent efficient? This would mean infinite power.

David Cameron will dive in a submersible to the Mariana Trench.