Free kibbles

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

Every day freedom loses 100, conservatively battled, but sometimes we win one. In this case, a judge in Florida ruled that flashing one's lights to another as a signal that a trap was upcoming was an exercise of freedom of speech. Of course it is. The founding fathers couldn't anticipate cars or all these things,  so they protected communication. They didn't have any better words for it, and flashing lights is an obvious form of communication.

ECONOMY:

The skyscraper index warns of a global economic crisis.

The Dow is down 74. Big deal. It's like we're in a reverse chicken little situation. The sky is falling, and it's getting worse every day, but the markets refuse to believe it. It's like they think God is going to intervene on their behalf or something. In 2008, when a smaller financial problem hit, the stock market list nearly half its value. You would think people would still remember that and not get burned again.

Mark Cuban blames mobile for Facebook's IPO failure as if he's the only smart guy in the room and none of the smart people around Facebook noticed that mobile devices have rapidly gained marketshare. How convenient. I blame the bursting of the latest internet bubble. This is a harbinger of the collapse of many sectors of our economy, much more so than the bursting of the original dot.com bubble which I was too ignorant to understand at the time. At least Cuban, to his credit, mentions the bursting of this bubble.

TAX AND SPEND:

If you look at the government spending using normal accounting practices, the deficit is four times worse than the government reports.

"The big difference between the official deficit and standard accounting: Congress exempts itself from including the cost of promised retirement benefits. Yet companies, states and local governments must include retirement commitments in financial statements, as required by federal law and private boards that set accounting rules.

The deficit was $5 trillion last year under those rules. The official number was $1.3 trillion. Liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other retirement programs rose by $3.7 trillion in 2011, according to government actuaries, but the amount was not registered on the government's books."

It's good to be the king.

Politicians like to talk about failed states overseas, but what about California and Illinois? Compare to Wisconsin which is enjoying the benefits of reforming public union benefits.

Harry Reid and his Senate Democrats refuse to deal with huge tax increases that are scheduled to occur on Jan 1 after the election. They're holding Americans hostage, and we're so stupid, we gave them the power to do so.

Boortz tries to take credit for Ron Paul's declaration that fences will be used to keep Americans inside, not keep other out.

I saw this the other day, and I yawned.

"Your tax dollars at work: A $1 million conference for judges in Hawaii, which includes a schedule of sport fishing, yoga, surfing lessons and Zumba dancing lessons."

Hello. This has gone on for every appeals court in the country for years or decades. There's nothing new about this. This is the norm. It' the rule. Boortz is a lawyer and a media guy. He knows it's the norm. The only reason he would bring this up now is because he's in the bag for the Republican crooks. You're losing the last vestiges of credibility on this crap. Maybe I'm giving you too much credit. In libertarians circles, you don't have any credibility. Be honest. You're a shill for big government Republicans like Rush Limbaugh.

REGULATION:

A reminder about the handicap crane for all pools regulation.

FEDERAL RESERVE:

It's not only Greeks who are taking their money out banks.

"It is not only Greeks who are worried about their savings. Data shows depositors have also taken flight from banks in Belgium, France and Italy. And on Thursday, Spain's Bankia was reported to have seen more than 1 billion euros drained by its customers in the past week."

The end of euro is nearing quickly. Standard & Poors downgrades five Spanish banks.

"It’s not looking good for the Spanish banking system. Standard & Poor’s just slashed the credit ratings of five banks and said the country is headed into a double-dip recession. One of them, Bankia, just asked the government for 19 billion euros in aid - a roughly $23.8 billion boost.

That makes it the largest bank bailout in Spain’s history. Combined with escalating concerns that Greece is about to execute its so-called Grexit from the euro currency, the news is doing nothing to alleviate the heightened anxiety in the euro zone."

If there's so much anxiety, how come nobody is selling? Is the Fed printing money, giving it to Goldman Sachs and its other too big  to fail agents and instructing them to keep the stock market up? I hope regular people are getting out of the market.

EDUCATION:

I'm surprised that a government school teacher has been suspended for telling a student he or she could be arrested for criticizing Obama. This is a true statement. I realize the Constitution says otherwise, but there's no doubt that people are being arrested for criticizing Obama just like they were arrested for criticizing Bush. This is the country we live in. I'm thankful this teacher was suspended, but this is one instance. The general rule is, if you criticize the president, you can be arrested and imprisoned indefinitely.

HEALTH CARE:

Rand Paul thinks the FDA doesn't need armed agents, and I agree.

More doctors refuse Medicaid customers because of low payments. This may seem smart now, but when the government nationalizes doctors, they won't think it was so smart.

Americans are slowly waking up to dangers of GM food, and they want labels. Naturally, government's GM producing corporations don't want those labels. I don't believe the two sides will kiss.

GLOBAL WARMING AND ENERGY:

More on how the hockey stick was created by cherry-picking tree ring data from Yamal.

The EPA tells Arizona it has too much sand in the air. Maybe Minnesota, land of 1,000 lakes, has too much water on the ground too. Note to EPA, much of Arizona is desert. You can't make this stuff up.

Obama's war on coal has severely cut coal power production, leading to higher electric prices.

"The market-clearing price for new 2015 capacity – almost all natural gas – was $136 per megawatt. That’s eight times higher than the price for 2012, which was just $16 per megawatt. In the mid-Atlantic area covering New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and DC the new price is $167 per megawatt. For the northern Ohio territory served by FirstEnergy, the price is a shocking $357 per megawatt."

Holy crap.

"Why the massive price increases? Andy Ott from PJM stated the obvious: “Capacity prices were higher than last year's because of retirements of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015.” Northern Ohio is suffering from more forced coal-plant retirements than the rest of the region, hence the even higher price."

Here's one of the few promises Obama kept. He's doing a fine job of collapsing the US economy just like he planned.

Obama pressured companies to change their numbers to hide job losses his polices have created in the coal power plant industry. Why would they do this? It's like I've written elsewhere: they have nothing to gain. It's like kneeling down so Obama can cut off their heads. On the one hand I'm skeptical. On the other, I'm sure Obama promised them a long tortuous death if they refused the clean assassination.

Government exists for the purpose of looting the people, so nobody should be surprised that a company which received $1.2 billion in stolen taxpayer dollars from Obama turned around and bundled millions in gifts, I mean campaign contributions, for him.

WAR:

Iranian President Ahmadinejad claims Islam forbids nuclear weapons. Pakistan's rulers obviously disagree.

FOREIGN POLICY:

It looks like Iran has some minor technical issues with radiation higher than 20 percent, but hawks will use this as evidence the US must attack.

"Analysts as well as diplomats who had told the AP of the existence of the traces before publication of the confidential report also said the higher-enriched material could have been a mishap involving centrifuges over-performing as technicians adjusted their output rather than a dangerous step toward building a bomb."

If it says that in the article, it's likely true. Articles generally exaggerate threats to sell and to boost the establishment, not downplay them.

Eric Margolis presents the truth about consequences of the Afghan war:

"The western forces that occupied Afghanistan in 2001 have failed to achieve their military or political objectives and are now sounding the retreat.

All the empty oratory in Chicago about "transition," Afghan self-reliance, and growing security could not conceal the truth that the mighty US and its dragooned western allies have been bested in Afghanistan by a bunch of mountain warriors from the 12th Century."

Oops. I bet western ruler are very disappointed.

"All Afghans know the western powers have been defeated. Those with sense are already making deals with Taliban. Vengeance being a cherished Afghan custom, those who collaborated closely with the foreign forces can expect little mercy."

I bet the US government refuses to accept Karzai. This is a brutally honest assessment of our government's excesses.

"To wage and sustain the Afghan War, the US has been forced to virtually occupy Pakistan, bribe its high officials, and force Islamabad to follow policies hated by 95% of its people, generating virulent anti-Americanism. The Afghan War must be ended before it tears apart Pakistan and plunges South Asia into crisis into which nuclear-armed India and Pakistan confront one another."

Did I mention excesses?

POLITICS:

Another piece of documentation showing Obama's socialist outlook.

Leftist like the cool capitalists like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah and others. While cool certainly matters, so does being self-made. Romney was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and that's about the highest sin for leftists. That's why they love the estate tax. They hate that some people are born wealthy while others are not. And then there's their politics. Even if your born rich and are a rich capitalist, it's OK as long as you support leftist politics. Think Warren Buffet.

Obama has a ton of accomplishments, but they're all bad.

Mayor dictator, I mean Bloomberg, wants the federal government to "deliberately force" cities to accept immigrants. Maybe he wants them to threaten nuclear annihilation. What fun for the sociopaths.

I hope Rand Paul holds a limited government sword of Damocles over Romney if he wins, but I have no confidence this will happen. Did I mention the euro is imploding?

Obama blames the tea party. Have you seen a tea party lately? Yawn. I haven't seen one in a year at least, and our local, supposedly energetic young tea party coordinator won election to a council in a suburb of Dayton. Then he became head of the county Montgomery party. I bet he's profited well. It's almost like he was using the tea party for his own gain like every other human who ever existed.

Democrat backtracks after being honest, comparing equity companies to rapists. He's a democrat, so he gets a pass.

Obama gets a big kick out of demonizing Romney and his equity company Bain Capital, but Obama raised more money from equity capital firms than anybody in 2008. That's because they were scared. Obama, with his reins on government power, scares me too. If you're not scared of Obama, he's using government power to funnel other people's money to you.

MEDIA:

British paper examines SAT scores for Obama's class at Columbia and finds them lower than George Bush's, then they dare to wonder of Obama is dumber than Bush. Obama is hiding his scores for a reason, but you won't see any media outlet in the US publicly examine this.

Obama's media allies refuse to cover the biggest religious lawsuit in American history: Catholics filing suit against Obama's order to provide contraception. I'm not a big fan of churches, and I resent that the Catholic church has been such a tool for totalitarianism in America for so long, but I love this lawsuit. It's like they cheered government on for a century while it stole our rights, but suddenly government tried to steal one of their rights, so they're fighting back. They should have done so long ago.

LOCAL:

For hundreds of millions of years, our ancestors survived the water without life vests. The swam. So I don't want to hear how the guy who drowned this morning didn't have a life vest. This is just a gratuitous call for more government intervention in our lives. The lack of life vest wasn't his problem. Something else was his problem, otherwise he would have just swam back and climbed in his boat.

"That’s when he heard the man yelling for help. He said the water wasn’t that deep, and he didn’t understand why the man couldn’t get back into the boat."

Exactly. Something else was wrong.

"Jeff Boester from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said everyone close to water needs to “be responsible” by wearing a life jacket."

God forbid people have fun and swim without lifevests, much like they should never take a step outside their homes without full body bubble wrap. We're the stupidest people in the world. Why don't we make sure anybody who says something that stupid loses their job?

"A few hours after the incident, another fisherman pulled his boat into the dock. He fishes the lake about every day, but said he doesn’t wear a life jacket because they’re “a hassle.”"

And maybe he can swim. I bet you the guy who died, died of a heart attack, and this article is nothing but a gross advertisement for government to steal more of our money and power. The man who died was 68, so every young or middle aged person who is health and can swim must put on a life preserver since an old man drowned. It's like if a meteor stuck your roof and killed somebody in your family, the government would use that incident as an excuse to require everybody to have meteor-proof roofs, and steal bunches of money from them for an inspector, the brother or best friend of some politician, to inspect the roofs every now and then while making millions for doing so.