Regulation

US internet gambling ban and offshore trading.

Politics

Vote counts for all US presidents. According to these counts, Obama lost 4.6 million votes from 2008. This is unprecedented. The last president to lose votes in a succeeding election was FDR in his fourth election. He also lost votes in his third election.

Tax and Spend

When Democrats talk about taxing the rich, intelligent people reply by quoting statistics to show how much the rich already pay. This misses the point of Democrats. From the Democrat point of view, as long as they are rich, they're not paying enough, so Democrats keep wanting to steal more.

Boortz provides a perfect example of what I mean:

"Fair?  In 1980, the top 1% paid 19% of federal income taxes.  In 2009, they paid 36.7%.  The bottom 50% paid 7% of all income taxes in 1980.  Now they pay just 2.25%."

He thinks this refutes the Democrats' argument, but it only strengthens it. What this says to Democrats and their supporters is the rich still pay too little and the poor still pay too much, and it will be that way until everybody is equally poor.

Reason believes that Obama will not veto a continue of the current tax rates. They may very well be right, but Boehner has already surrendered on new revenues.

Stop the presses: Obama wants more income redistribution. I'm shocked.

After decades of selling out to unions, LA mayor overrun by unions when he tries to introduce pension reform to save them from going bankrupt. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. If this wasn't going to cause so much pain, it would be funny.

Here's a great example of the phony accounting that goes in Washington.

"The last farm bill, which was enacted in 2008, authorized $604 billion in spending.  The current House bill proposed by Lucas (HR 6083) authorizes $957 billion in spending extrapolated over 10 years.  Yet, this 58% increase is considered a cut in ‘Washington speak’ because the phony CBO baseline, which locks in Obama’s food stamp spending, projects $992 billion in spending.  Hence, passage of the farm bill, which locks in the record food stamp spending and creates new farm welfare programs, will be scored as a spending cut – to the extent that it can be used for the spending cut side of the ‘grand bargain.’"

We're the stupidest people in the world, and our rulers know it.

Foreign Policy

Obama isn't concerned whether Susan Rice mislead the people or not. Either Rice was lying or ignorant. Either way, she shouldn't become Secretary of State, but in the Empire of Lies, I'm sure she will. This is just another political charade.

Police State

The TSA isn't just about teaching the serfs their place. It's also about enriching government cronies.

Local

Update on eyesore hotel property.

Local Congressman Turner is separating from his wife, most likely because he's having an affair. If you make a living by creating wealth and trading it with others, your affairs are private business. If you make a living by stealing money from others and pretending to promote the common good as a government employee, your affairs, because they are funded with money stolen from others, are everybody's business. If you spend your life invading the privacy of 310 million Americans, you don't get to hide behind privacy when your wife leaves you over an affair.

"Turner’s office said the congressman will move to the Schuster Center in downtown Dayton."

So we're going to be paying Turner to live in the most expensive building in Dayton. Isn't that nice of us. Here's how Turner stole our money and porked it out to his wife.

"http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/08/honey-i-got-earmark"

Apparently she doesn't need his pork any more, if you know what I mean.

Global Warming and Energy

The average gas price set a record high in 2012.

Another green company takes our tax dollars and goes bankrupt.

GM to introduce electric go-cart to kill people on government's highways while making no difference in CO2 emissions.

Health Care

Government's health care system has created another deadly super-bug. This happens because government control of our health care system has halted creative destruction. Old hospitals grow and create super-bugs instead of being replaced by newer hospitals. Don't go to old hospitals.

British doctors, because they work for the state, are euthanizing sick and disabled babies, except they're actually depriving them of food and water and allowing them to die of thirst and hunger.

"Medical critics of the LCP insist it is impossible to say when a patient will die and as a result the LCP death becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They say it is a form of euthanasia, used to clear hospital beds and save the NHS money."

This is what the state has in store for all of us.

Obamacare already over budget.

War

Syria disappears from the internet.

The US wants to stick chips in troops, then us.

Economy

Thanks to the oppressive US tax code, IBM now has more employees in India than the US.

Companies are paying special dividends to avoid the new taxes coming on January 1, some of them taking on debt to do so. Remember how we kept hearing companies were sitting on money instead of investing it? Now they're paying that money in dividends. Since that money was real savings, it helped boost economic growth. After being distributed as dividends, some of those savings will probably be spent or sent overseas, hurting economic growth.

New study shows that some US states are less economically free than Canadian provinces. I think these studies grossly overestimate economic freedom in the US. Canada dramatically cut its federal spending more than a decade ago. The US has expanded its. I doubt the US is close to Canada on economic freedom. Let's try a litmus test. Open a lemonade stand in the US and Canada, and I'll bet you the US stand is shut down by stormtroopers while the Canadian stand operates without interference. I also wonder if they take into account how much money the Fed is printing.

"Topping the list of the most economically free subdivisions of North American countries is the Canadian province of Alberta, followed by Delaware, Saskatchewan, Texas and Nevada.On average, American states lose to Canadian provinces in a number of categories, including regulation of credit, regulation of business, and legal system and property rights. While the average of economically free regions is higher in Canada, it is worth noting they have both the most free state, Alberta, and the least free state, Prince Edward Island, which is located off the coast of Nova Scotia."

Delaware makes no sense to me. I question how these numbers are determined.
"The number one issue affecting U.S. states’ freedom is the amount of government spending.“Part of this is cyclical and has to do with the recession,” Benjamin Powell,  associate professor at Suffolk University and senior fellow with the Independent Institute, explained."

Again, this makes no sense to me. It seems to me that the amount government spends should be independent from per capita income. If the government steals $3.6 trillion, it's doing $3.6 trillion of damage regardless of how much money people make.

xxx

Misc

Every time I see a commercial with a car advertising some built in electronic gadgets, I can't help but laugh knowing they will be obsolete in two to three years. Why would anybody pay for that? I'll buy a car that doesn't spy on me, and I'll mount whatever electronic gadgets I want.

Global Warming and Energy

Debunking five alarmist claims.

Local

In a naked act of corporate welfare, the city is giving away a prime piece of property to an out of state developer. Must be nice. More info.

Regulation

The state isn't against gambling. It just wants a monopoly on the profits from gambling.

War

Doctors are treating soldiers returning from war with PTSD with ecstasy. So first the government screws them up by sending them halfway around the world and ordering them to kill people who never did any harm to the US, then it gives them drugs that would be criminal for anybody else to take. We're the stupidest people in the world.

Military to prosecute troops who try to commit suicide. That'll help.

The Syrian rebels aligned with al Qaeda and armed and funded by the US set off bombs in Damascus killing 58 and wounding 150. And Americans wonder why Middle Eastern Muslims hate us.

Only two female marines volunteer for infantry training both quickly wash out.

Education

Another example of why I call government schools prison schools.

"Warrantless “drug sweeps” in government-run schools have become routine in recent years. So have “lock-down” drills in which SWAT teams conduct training exercises involving hostage or terrorism scenarios. In some lock-down drills, students inmates have been kept in the dark about the fact that the incident is a training exercise, rather than a genuine crisis.Vista Grande High School in Casa Grande, Arizona, held a lock-down drug sweep on October 31. StudentsInmates were confined to their classrooms, then led in small groups to another room where they were forced to line up against a wall and be searched with the help of drug-sniffing dogs. This exercise introduced a new element: Among the four law enforcement agencies involved in the search was a group of prison guards employed by the Corrections Corporation of America, the nation’s largest for-profit prison contractor."
"Isaacs obviously isn't familiar with Mint Elementary School in Longview, Washington, which has a solitary confinement facility called the “Isolation Box.” This is a closet-sized padded cell that is all but indistinguishable from “sweatboxes” used in many prisons."

We're the stupidest people in the world.

Politics

Two peas in a pod: Mitt Romney goes to the White House for lunch with Obama.

War

More skepticism over claims that SEALs assassinated Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011. Includes an interview with Osama bin Laden shortly after 9/11 in which he denies any involvement in 9/11.

"Obviously, if bin Laden had outwitted not only the National Security Agency, the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the FBI, but also all 16 US intelligence agencies, all intelligence agencies of Washington’s NATO puppet states, Israel’s Mossad, and in addition the National Security Council, NORAD, US air traffic control, and airport security four times on the same morning, it would be the greatest feat in world history, a movement building feat that would have made al Qaeda the most successful anti-imperialist organization in human history, an extraordinary victory over “the great satan” that would have brought millions of new recruits into al Qaeda’s ranks. Yet the alleged “mastermind” denied all responsibility."

I think this greatly underestimates the incompetence of government security. This is why many call it the greatest government failure in US history.

"Although only a few Americans are aware of the September 28, 2001 interview in which bin Laden states his non-involvement with the 9/11 attacks, many Americans have seen post-2001 videos in which a person alleged to be bin Laden takes credit for the attacks. There are two problems with these videos. Experts have examined them and found them to be fakes, and all of the videos appeared after bin Laden was reported by the Pakistan Observer, the Egyptian press, and Fox News to have died in mid-December, 2001, from lung disease."

Of course this could have been misinformation leaked by al Qaeda.

Foreign Policy

Documents leaked by a country that doesn't want Iran to develop a nuclear bomb claim Iran is investigating making a nuclear bomb.

"The diagram was leaked by officials from a country critical of Iran's atomic program to bolster their arguments that Iran's nuclear program must be halted before it produces a weapon."

Coming from that source, it must be true.

Police State

Study shows red light cameras increase crashes and the cost of crashes.

Global Warming and Energy

The last five years have been seen the lowest hurricane intensity hitting the US in any five year period since 1900.

Right to Keep and Bear Arms

As gun ownership rises in Virginia, gun crimes fall, just as a rational person would expect.

Tax and Spend

I always love seeing this quote from Obama:

"Here’s President Obama in August 2009 discussing the link between tax increases, recessions and business growth: “The last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of a recession because that would just suck up, take more demand out of the economy and put business in a further hole.”"

But now Obama is pushing tax hikes like crazy. I didn't one ad from Romney using that quote. I would have pounded that quote along with his current position.

Obama wants tax hikes and reduced deductions, not one or the other. I bet Republicans give him both.

Canadians know how to fix their government debt problem: cut spending.

"In Canada, federal spending has been trending downward since 1993, according to Cato’s Chris Edwards. Canadians have cut spending in virtually every area except health care. The federal government now accounts for only 38 percent of total government spending. In the U.S., by contrast, the federal government accounts for 71 percent of total government spending."

Our government is too evil to do this.

Get ready for the pension bailout. Stealing more money to pay people to not work.

Obama rewards his welfare voters by increasing the amount of money on food stamp cards.

Economy

Points in favor of right to work in Ohio.

Politics

The people who voted in 2012 were significantly less educated than the people who voted in 2010. This tells me that educated people are dropping out of the electorate because they see voting is futile.

Forty states have one party rule, 25 Republican and 15 Democrat. Guess which states will improve and which will decline. There are some real differences between Republicans and Democrats at the state level.

Jamie Foxx calls Obama "lord and savior".

Even Mises.org gets the main point of the 2012 presidential election wrong.

"With the re-election of President Barack Obama, it is increasingly evident that the tax eaters outnumber the taxpayers in America. From food stamps to free cell phones, President Obama has achieved significant political success by putting more and more Americans on the government dole."

Of course Obama paid off special interest groups, but that isn't why he won. If it was, he would have received more votes than in 2008. Instead he received 9 million fewer votes, showing that his policies are turning more people off than bringing them in.

"While it is true that a wage gap between the sexes does exist, common sense and empirical evidence demonstrate that this difference is due to the various individual choices that men and women make with regard to compensation and labor-force participation. It is not caused by sexist employer discrimination."

"Instead of correcting an alleged injustice, additional equal-pay-for-equal-work legislation will only institutionalize wage controls, which neuter the market allocation of resources. Tragically, women, the targeted beneficiary of this supposed government beneficence, will become the primary casualty in the resulting chaos."

This is right.

Education

Boortz makes a great comparison between religious and government schools: religious schools will teach children to conform to the religion sponsoring the school and government schools will teach children to conform to the government.

Local

Another wreck in I-75 construction.

Regulation

InTrade bans US residents because of US predatory regulations.

Obama held up a bunch of regulations before the election, now they're coming in a wave.

Foreign Policy

Mark Steyn puts the Jill Kelley, and that's the name we should use to identify it, scandal in perspective:

"The FBI was initially reported to have printed out 20,000 to 30,000 pages of emails and other communications between Gen. John Allen, U.S. commander in Afghanistan, and Jill Kelley of Tampa, one-half of a pair of identical twins dressed like understudies for the CENTCOM mess hall production of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians." Thirty thousand pages! The complete works of Shakespeare come to about three-and-a-half-thousand pages, but American officials can't even have a sex scandal without getting bogged down in the paperwork."

OMG, give me a respirator. That's too funny because it's true.

"For the cost of running those FBI documents off the photocopier, you could fly some broad to the Bahamas and have a real sex scandal. Instead, we'll "investigate" it for a year or three, as we're doing with Benghazi itself. At her press conference the other day, soon-to-be Secretary of State Susan Rice explained that she would be misspeaking if she were to explain why she misspoke about Benghazi until something called the Accountability Review Board has finished "conducting investigations" into "all aspects" of the investigations being conducted, which should be completed by roughly midway through Joe Biden's second term."

OMG, he's killing me.

"Pending that "definitive accounting," one or two aspects stand out. Paula Broadwell had access to Gen. Petraeus because she was supposedly writing his biography. As it turns out, she can't write, so her publisher was obliged to hire a ghostwriter from The Washington Post. Some years ago, at a low point in my career, I was asked to ghostwrite a book for a supermodel. That's usually the type of "writer" who requires a ghost: models, singers, athletes, celebrities. When a first-time biographer requires a ghostwriter, that person is not a biographer but something else. Yet she had classified documents at her home – and yes, as the president suggested, they're probably not that classified, not the real top-secret stuff. But in a speech at the University of Denver, Mrs. Broadwell appeared to reveal accidentally that she is privy to operational knowledge of illegal CIA interrogation chambers in Benghazi."

OMG, stop. I can't breath from laughing so hard. As many great essays as Mark Steyn has written, none expose the coercive US government for the laughing stock it is like this one.

Media

Pravda calls Obama a communist and the US an illiterate society.

"Recently, Obama has been re-elected for a 2nd term by an illiterate society and he is ready to continue his lies of less taxes while he raises them. He gives speeches of peace and love in the world while he promotes wars as he did in Egypt, Libya and Syria. He plans his next war is with Iran as he fires or demotes his generals who get in the way."

The truth hurts.

Regulation

Examples of war on Christmas.

Global Warming and Energy

US wind energy suffering.

The real skivvy on the supposedly acidic Antarctic Ocean.

"From the British Antarctic Survey  and the University of East Anglia comes one of those press releases where I just have to wonder if this won’t eventually go the way of the “global warming causes mutated frogs” claim that turned out to be a parasite and not global warming. After all, it is well known that ships ballast can transport invasive species to places they normally would not migrate to, so with eco-tourism in Antarctica being all the rage now, I wonder if the issue isn’t somehow related to the snails being more susceptible due to some such influence? After all, how did they survive climate shifts (with changes to ocean pH) for millions of years if nature so poorly equipped them? I’m just not convinced that a slight shift (-0.11) to the ocean pH being more neutral than basic is the cause of this. The oceans are still basic at ~8.069, not acidic. To be acidic they’d have to be less than 7.0 See table."

Let's all freak out about snails.

Politcs

The New York Times's phony conservatives laments today's lack of noble politics seen in the Lincoln film. I think I'm going to throw up.

Harry Reid threatens to restrict filibusters and the change the rules allowing him to do so. This usually happens when a party wins a big victory. Democrats didn't win a big victory in 2012. They barely won the presidency by popular vote, and they were roundly defeated in the House. I doubt Reid will really try this. Nothing good will come of it. I'm all for making Senators actually filibuster like they used to, but I don't think it will happen.

It's easy to put bumper stickers on cars. Put your money where your mouth is, Texans. Secede. I'll move back.

History proves secession is legal.

I've long predicted the US as we know it will not survive the coming economic collapse. Secession fever, unfortunately, supports my prediction. It makes me sad.

War on Drugs

Governments are harassing roll your own cigarette shops because Big Government and Big Tobacco don't make any money off self-rolled cigarettes. I bet regulators declare cigarette rollers are drug paraphernalia soon.

Federal Reserve

Lew Rockwell is concerned this guy worked for Goldman-Sachs, and I'm sure he'll funnel money to enrich his cronies like everybody else, but it sounds like he has a better policy for dealing with the never-ending recession.

"Considered to be more “hawkish” than Sir Mervyn after raising interest rates in Canada to offset a housing bubble, Mr Carney could move the Bank more quickly towards rate rises and unwinding quantitative easing."

Obviously no Austrian economist wants a centrally planned money supply, but they universally agree that higher interest rates are necessary to wash away the malinvestment and get the economy growing again. Too bad our government isn't this smart.

"A willingness to try radical solutions – such as his unusual commitment to keep interest rates at rock bottom for a year in the depths of the crisis in 2009 – was widely welcomed after two years of predictable policy and economic stagnation in the UK."

This seems to directly contradict the paragraph quoted above.

"Kevin Daly, UK economist at Goldman Sachs, said: “He has a reputation for being a policy pragmatist and innovator. Relative to the conservative approach the Bank has adopted under King’s stewardship, it is also possible that Carney may be prepared to engage in more unconventional forms of QE.”"

This sounds like a promise of a giveaway to Goldman-Sachs. This article is worthless.

Paul Krugman calls for more money printing, apparently admitting that QEInfinite is not enough. If infinite is not enough, nothing is enough. Krugman has exposed himself. In a related post, Warren Buffet claims tax rates have no bearing on investment. What both these posts tell us is these people are liars. We know Krugman bought a generator to ride out not-hurricane Sandy. He didn't leave his life in the hands of the government. Don't trust what these frauds say. Trust what they do. I guarantee both Krugman and Buffet own lots of gold.

This comment about the Fed reminds me why it's often good to go back to the basics.

"The arguments by American critics of a gold standard all rest on this unstated presumption: The economic outcomes of policy decisions made by a committee of 12 salaried bureaucrats, 7 of whom were appointed by the president of the United States, and 5 of whom were appointed by the largest regional banks that own a majority of shares of the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks, are better for the nation than the decisions of millions of owners of gold coins, who seek their own interests."

This is the fatal flaw of central planning.

"When the public had access to gold coins prior to 1914, individuals controlled banking policy. They also controlled government fiscal policy. They could take their coins out of commercial banks if they did not approve of government policy. This is why national governments annul or restrict gold-coin redeemability whenever a major war breaks out. They do not want to face the citizens' veto."

There you have it.

War

Obama considered restraints on his power to assassinate anybody in the world on his own authority not because it was right, but because he feared he may lose the election.

"Facing the possibility that President Obama might not win a second term, his administration accelerated work in the weeks before the election to develop explicit rules for the targeted killing of terrorists by unmanned drones, so that a new president would inherit clear standards and procedures, according to two administration officials. . . ."

I'd call Obama a slime ball, but that would be an insult to slime.

Article claims the US considered nuking the moon in 1959 to intimidate the Soviets. In 1959? You can't make this stuff up.

The establishment wants us to be very afraid of China, but they just landed their first jet on an aircraft carrier ever. The US has been doing this for 60 years. It's not easy. Being afraid of China militarily is like being afraid of the Tutus.

By the way, India, which is a counter power to China, also just landed a jet on an aircraft carrier. We are lucky we have two great oceans dividing us from the earth's traditional empires, and we should use that to our advantage by playing defense, not squandering our wealth going across those oceans turning people into enemies.

Local

Another I-75 crash, but this one appears to be south of Dayton construction.

When government owns roadways, people debate speed limits from irrational points of view. If a private owner owned the road, he would set the speed limit to maximize benefit to his customers, and he would know exactly what the speed limit should be by measuring profits.

Health Care

You couldn't pay me to trust a government funded vaccine against the flu that changed my RNA.

Union workers reportedly messed up labeling for patients, endangering their lives, before going on strike.

Freedom of Speech

Cyber police take down websites on cyber Monday.

"A team of world-wide law enforcement agencies took out 132 domain names today that were illegally selling counterfeit merchandise online. The group, made up of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and law enforcement agencies from Belgium, Denmark, France, Romania, United Kingdom and the European Police Office, targeted alleged counterfeiters selling everything from professional sports jerseys, DVD sets, and a variety of clothing to jewelry and luxury goods."

Nobody stole anything. This is about copying, not stealing. Maybe we can grant looks to high schools girls, and they can use the police power of government to brutalize other girls who copy their looks.

Misc

Intel isn't stupid. It will not produce chips requiring soldering because it knows this would send people, especially young people, to other chips.

Sports

The sad reality underlying the NFL's channel-changing replay system.

"The problem with instant replay is that it functions as negative quality control. As referee-tracking website Football Zebras explained regarding the Detroit game, “the officials were doing what they were taught – when in doubt, let the play go and have replay sort it out if need be.” This would be like a restaurant chef rushing food out without tasting it, but instead telling the waiters to let him know if there are any customer complaints. It’s not the ideal way to run a business.Replay infamously stops games for long intervals while the referee completes the process. This detracts from the customers’ viewing experience, not to mention the quality of play on the field. The NFL doesn’t seem to care. Or at least they care more about maintaining an inordinately complex rulebook. To continue the restaurant analogy, you have a chef who would rather offer 20 dishes with lax quality control than simply offer six dishes where he can personally oversee the quality of each order."

Yes. Channel-changing replay is one of the reasons the NFL is in decline. I know the NFL would disagree that it's in decline, but they're wrong. Their decline will become clear to the NFL soon.

The NFL did not suspend Suh for a kick that accidentally hit the opposing quarterback in the groin. Good for them. They got one right. Since people have wrestled some power away from Napoleon Goodell, things are getting less bad.

Tax and Spend

Article after article claims the two parties are still far apart on resolving the fiscal cliff issue. I don't believe it. I think the deal is largely done, but Republicans are working the press to minimize the political damage they will suffer from caving. They want it to appear they are resisting, but they're not. They'll spring the already done deal and pass it in the eleventh hour.

It looks like the Republicans have found their message of betrayal:

"Pledge to country first in fiscal cliff crisis"

This is the catch phrase Republicans are going to use to justify stealing more of our money to enrich themselves, Democrats and their cronies. What a great, lying sound bite.

Like piranhas smelling blood in the water, the press is targeting Grover Norquist to end his no tax hike coalition. If Republicans fall for it, the Republican party will split.

The myth of the Clinton surplus.

European countries agree to steal more money from their citizens and use it to buy Greek debt at below market rates. Needless to say, this will make the debt and currency problems in Europe worse.

Regulation

This guy wants a real watchdog for the SEC, but the SEC is the watchdog. Who watches the watchers? I prefer real competition in the markets.

Police State

British police bust out the window of a car then tow it because of smelly dead bait. The owner can't afford to get it back, but the police won't fix it or return it.

Court allows - there's that allows word again - people to video police in Illinois.

Education

They're indoctrinating children into using hand scans to pay for lunches. These children will grow up to be compliant drones for the surveillance state.

War

Skepticism over bin Laden's reported assassination grows with release of emails under FOIA.

Tax and Spend

Republicans are reminding voters why they're no different than Democrats as they rally to break their "no tax" pledges. This article explains there's a consensus on raising revenues, but Republicans are trying to figure out a way to fool us into believing they didn't vote to raise our taxes. This picture shows that Boehner is Obama's best ally.

Health Care

Demand for grass fed beef is on the rise.

Cincinnati health care company fires 150 workers for refusing flu vaccine.

Global Warming and Energy

Punctured pipe led to gas explosion in Massachusetts.

The IPCC explains the weaknesses of their models, but nobody reads the full report, and they know it.

Briffa criticizes Mann. This is the second time we've seen Briffa dissent from the frauds recently.

Tax and Spend

President Obama really is trying to trap people into taking food stamps.

"The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed last year widened eligibility for Supplemental Nutritional Assistance so that more adults without dependents could qualify. The Recovery Act also increased benefits, providing additional relief to some of the country’s poor individuals and families..."

Thanks, stimulus boondoggle.

War

Here's a new means of Israeli oppression of Palestinians that hadn't heard of:

"In a January 2008 secret Israeli document released in a recent court case, Israel decided to allow Gazans to eat 2,279 calories worth of food each day, as if they were dogs in a cage. They estimated therefore that they would allow 1,836 grams of food per person, per day. The policy was summed up by Dov Weisglass, an adviser to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, years before the document was written. “The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger,” Weisglass said, claiming the hunger pangs are supposed to coerce Palestinians to force Hamas out of government."

Just amazing. I don't think we should just measure body counts. What matters identifying the aggressor.

Economy

Apparently more reporters covered the Walmart walkout than employees participated in it.

"According to the Bentonville-based company, roughly 50 people who are actually on Walmart's payroll joined today's "walkout" nationwide. The protest organizers say "hundreds" participated. Even if 1,000 took part, that's still less than 1/10 of 1% of Walmart's 1.4 million associates."

No effect on black Friday.

Claim that the Teamsters was the union doing most of the damage to Hostess. It that was true, why did Hostess try to liquidate after the Teamsters had renegotiated? It's look like there's some division in the union ranks. This is another tragedy of the commons situation. These two unions were fighting to maximize their exploitation of  a common resource - Hostess - and that resulted in Hostess going bankrupt.

Foreign Policy

Iran is trading oil and natural gas for gold, which give the US another reason to invade. The thing is, the US won't stop at air strikes. It'll try to steal the gold.

Jill Kelley flew on military flights with top brass at taxpayer expense.

Health Care

Beef is back in style because of its health benefits.

Local

Rollover crash on southbound I-75 most likely caused by West Carrolton construction.

If Sinclair is adding to the local economy, why are we subsidizing it? If it provides such a wonderful product, why are we subsidizing it?

Politics

Egyptians riot in protest of the power grab by their new dictator. This is why replacing one government with another doesn't work. The problem is the government itself.

Global Warming and Energy

More coal is being used for energy production around the world.

Anthony Watts debunks the claims that extreme weather is getting more common.

Graphs of CO2 output by nation or groups of nations.

Talking head compares skeptics to pedophiles.

Tax and Spend

FEMA failed during Sandy too.

"But if you think FEMA's inability to provide rapid relief subverts the core reason for its existence, think again. A few days after the Times' valentine, FEMA head W. Craig Fugate told the newspaper that the agency's rapid response role is really a fallacy. "The general public assumes we are part of the response team that will be there the first couple of days," he said. But it is really designed to deal with disasters several days after the fact.How does FEMA do that? By indiscriminately writing checks -- a task at which it evidently excels."

Post-disaster welfare.

Foreign Policy

The Pentagon awarded Jill Kelley the second highest civilian medal last year. What a farce.

Misc

I'm skeptical that the difference between humans and apes is a single gene.

"Humans share 96 percent of their genes with other primates. Of the 4 percent that humans alone have, a significant portion of it has been widely labeled "junk DNA". Researchers have since that "junk DNA" is functional, even though it does not code. This is the first time that a gene that humans and other primates do not share has been shown to actually have a specific function within the body."

This is an admission that researchers don't understand that "junk DNA".

Saudi Arabia electronically monitors women because they are effectively slaves of men.

Politics

Egypt's new dictator declares the courts cannot challenge his decisions.

Sports

Lance Armstrong survived cancer. He's saved untold numbers of people from cancer. Lance Armstrong is a hero. Bad publicity can't hurt him.

"After months of bad press, the greatest competitive cyclist of all time has officially hit rock bottom: The Lance Armstrong Foundation has dropped the name of its eponymous creator and will now be known as the Livestrong Foundation. Rest easy, Lance, it can’t get much – or is that any? – worse."

What a joke. The worst part of this bad publicity is it may hinder Lance from saving more people from cancer, but the sociopaths in government sports organizations and in government's media don't care. All they want is to take down their prey so they can get together and high five each other while more people die. And if Lance Armstrong proved that government's bans on performance enhancing drugs are counter-productive, more power to him.

Regulation

During the presidential primary Ron Paul declared that the wall between the US and Mexico would be used to keep Americans in, not keep Mexicans out. Our government is rapidly trying to imprison us in our own country, much more rapidly than even Paul probably thought.

Tax and Spend

States are taxing companies which have no property in their territory.

Homeland Security advertises to immigrants how to obtain welfare.

Peter Schiff refutes those who claim that capital gains and dividend taxes are too low.

"He revealed to me that it wasn't so much his own taxes that concerned him but other millionaires that he is convinced unfairly pay a lower rate than he does. As a lawyer, his income comes in the form of fees. Therefore he pays most of his federal taxes at the 35% rate (plus Medicare). However he seemed disturbed that other millionaires, who may rely on dividends and capital gains for much of their income, pay only 15%. When I explained that corporate stockholders have already paid a 35% tax on their share of corporate income before they received any personal dividends or capital gains, he claimed that corporate income taxes have no impact on either dividends or share prices."

In other words, capital gains taxes are double taxation. First, you pay taxes as an owner of a corporation in the form of corporate taxes. Then, you pay an additional capital gains or dividend tax when you realize those gains personally.

Government will tax your pension and 401K.

Tax codes.

"For example, politicians like to talk about technology, efficiency and transparency. But just take a look at the tax code to see where they really stand. Estonia’s Taxation Act of 2002, which form the preponderance of that country’s tax code, is 43,370 words.
In Canada, the tax code is close to 1 million words. And in the US, the tax code is so daunting that simply the INSTRUCTIONS for form 1040 shatter the record books at 178,096 words… over four times the entirety of Estonia’s tax code.
US tax code is so massive, in fact, that the Government Printing Office charges $1,028 just to print a copy of it!"

It takes that many words for all the plutocrats to cut out their specific deductions.

Politics

Four years ago, 20 percent of Americans said the country would be worse off today than then. They were right. What in the world made those other 80 percent think otherwise? Anyway, today, 41 percent think the country will be worse off in four years. And they're right. What's wrong with the other 59 percent? Seriously. Why are they so wrong?

After the election Mitt Romney pointed out Obama bought a ton of votes.

"What the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote, and that strategy worked."

I pointed that out during the election. Why didn't Romney? Why does Romney call it gifts from government, not other people's money? This is why Romney lost. Even after the election, he won't differentiate himself from Obama. His loss.

Economy

Conservative can't stop the US from becoming California because this is not a political question. It's an economic question, and it's a non-sequitur. In a year or two, every American will think that the California of today is a paradise. The coming economic collapse will be catastrophic. Certainly low tax, low regulation states will not suffer as much as the rest, but even they will suffer worse than California today.

Health Care

Admitting that government creates health care problems, Massachusetts regulators allow - there's that allow word again - hospitals to share drugs to alleviate shortages. Government is admitting it created shortages, so it's getting out of the way so the market can fix that problem. Too bad our federal government isn't that smart.

This story about a hospital in Orlando laying off 400 people is supposed to indict Obamacare. My question is why does a hospital non-essential people to begin with.

"The elimination of jobs will occur in two phases and represents a 2 percent to 3 percent reduction in the system's 16,000-person work force, said Orlando Health spokeswoman Kena Lewis. The cuts affect all departments and all eight of the system's hospitals, including Orlando Regional Medical Center and Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, two of the system's better-known facilities."

They have 16,000 employees? That's absurd. It's a hospital. It should have doctors, nurses and techs. Nobody else. What this shows us is how our health care system is grossly burdened with waste.

Foreign Policy

In hopes of becoming Secretary of State, Susan Rice took one for Obama when she made the Sunday TV rounds blaming a video for the terrorist attack in Benghazi. Now she's taking a second bullet for Obama by blaming the intelligence community. She has now made herself the focal point of honesty. Will Americans punish the obvious liar or will the surrender further and allow her to become Secretary of State. Let's use our brains. Why did Obama bring in the ambassador to the US instead of Hillary, Petraeus, that political tool in charge of the Defense Department, the DCI or anybody else? Because she was willing to lie to get ahead and they weren't because Obama wasn't dangling a promoting in front of them.

Nearly 100 Repubicans call on Obama not to nominate Rice. This is shaping up to be the first big battle of Obama's second term.

War

Israel targets Hamas media members so it can control the message about the war on Gaza. Of course the media is part of the government.

Israel delays a cease fire with Gaze for 24 hours until Hillary Clinton finishes putting on her make-up. I wonder how many people died while Israel waited around the Empress to show up.

Global Warming and Energy

Researchers use equipment to find thousands of natural gas leaks in Boston.

From the department of captain obvious: Arctic currents have an effect on Arctic ice.

Be very very afraid because global warming may impact Maple syrup production. What part of everything effects everything else don't people understand?

Global warming myths versus fact.

CIA shuts down it's Global Warming cover office.

EPA secret emails.

Police State

Court demands email and Facebook passwords from plaintiffs in a sexual harassment case.

Because TSA pressures people to drive instead of flying, and because driving is more dangerous than flying, TSA is killing people.

"According to data compiled by Cornell University researchers, the ugsomeness of dealing with the TSA has pushed a goodly number of former air travelers into their cars – and back onto the roads. This, in turn has led to a measurable increase in monthly traffic fatalities – about 242 per month that would otherwise not have occurred. Some quick addition is in order. Let’s be easy on our calculators – and generous to the Blue Goons – and assume the figure is off by more than half. Let’s say it’s only 100 additional deaths per month attributable to TSA Avoidance Syndrome. That’s 1,200 deaths annually. Times four equals 4,800. In less than four years, then, TSA has managed to get more Americans killed than Osama bin Laden."

I bet the government has already cut off funding to Cornell.

Freedom of Speech

South Korean man prosecuted for retweeting North Korean propaganda.

Tax and Spend

Businesses do not pass taxes on to their customers.

"The idea that the increased cost will be passed on to the consumer by the employer is an illustration of perhaps the single most widespread fallacy on taxation: that businessmen can simply shift their higher costs forward onto the consumers in the form of higher prices. All the economic theory expounded in this book shows the error of this doctrine. For the price of a given product is set by the demand schedules of the consumers. There is nothing in higher costs or higher taxes which, per se, increases these sched­ules; hence, any change in selling prices, whether higher or lower, will decrease the revenues of the business involved. For each business, on the market, tends to be, at all times, at its “maximum profit point” in relation to the consumers. Prices are already at their point of maximum return for the business; therefore, higher taxes or other costs imposed on the firm will reduce their net incomes rather than be smoothly and easily passed on to con­sumers. We thus arrive at this significant conclusion: no tax (not just an income tax) can ever be shifted forward. Suppose that a particularly heavy tax—of whatever type—has been laid on a specific industry: say the liquor industry. What will be the effects? As we have noted, the tax will not simply be “passed on” to the consumers. Instead, the price of liquor will remain the same; the net income of the firms will decline. This will mean that returns will be lower to capital and enterprise in liquor than in other industries of the economy; marginal liquor firms will suffer losses and go out of business; and, in general, productive resources of all types will flow out of liquor and into other indus­tries. The long-run effect, therefore, is to decrease the supply of liquor produced, and therefore, by the law of supply and demand, to raise the price of liquor on the market. However, as we have said above, this process—this diffusion of suffering over the econ­omy—is hardly “shifting.” For the tax is not simply “passed on”; it only permeates to the consumers through hurting the industry taxed. The final result will be a distortion of the factors of pro­duction; fewer goods are now being produced than the consumers would prefer in the liquor industry; and too many goods, relatively to liquor, are being produced in the other industry."

Interesting.

Economy

George Soros is buying lots of gold. Here's another example that the elites know exactly what they're doing to us.

War on Drugs

UN urges AG Holder to continue enforcing marijuana laws in Colorado and Washington.

Global Warming and Energy

Gas prices to set record for Thanksgiving.

Politics

Walter Williams very kindly and rationally destroys the premise of democracy.

"How many decisions in our day-to-day lives would we like to be made through majority rule or the democratic process? How about the decision to watch a football game or "Law and Order"? What about whether to purchase a Chevrolet Volt or a Toyota Prius? Would you like the decision of whether to have turkey or ham for Thanksgiving dinner to be made through the democratic process? Were such decisions made in the political arena, most of us would deem it tyranny.
Democracy and majority rule give an aura of legitimacy and decency to acts that would otherwise be deemed tyranny."

If I had the money, I would pay Morgan Freeman to read this and turn it into a commercial.

Ron Paul states the often overlooked obvious: If you are not free to secede, you are not free.

Misc

Scientists confirm arrow of time by blah blah blah. I confirm arrow of time by looking at the clock. What is this baloney? The universe is as we observe it, and physicists should be trying to explain what we observe, not creating straw men to knock down.

Ron Paul recommends these books. I have a lot more reading to do.

Regulation

The war on Christmas just got real for non-believers as LA community bans nativity scenes. What's so funny about this is Latinos are mostly Catholic, so on the on hand, California and LA are inviting illegal immigrants into the city, but on other hand, they're slapping them in the face by banning nativity scenes.

Socialism

Bankruptcy judge convinces Hostess and baker's union to mediate instead of liquidate. At least he did this in private because he has no way to stop Hostess from liquidating if it wants.

Health Care

Because onerous Obamacare regulations kick in when a company reaches 50 employees, many companies will stop growing at 49.

Oklahoma doctors opt out of government's third party payer system and open a for profit surgery offering low prices to patients.

"Sigmon, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, regularly performs procedures at both the Surgery Center and at Oklahoma City's Integris Baptist Medical Center, which is the epitome of a traditional hospital. It's run by a not-for-profit called Integris Health, which is the largest health care provider in Oklahoma serving over 700,000 patients a year.
Sigmon says he can perform twice as many surgeries in a single day at the Surgery Center than at Integris. At the latter institution, he spends half his time waiting around while the staff struggles with the basic logistics of moving patients from preoperative care into the operating room. When the patient arrives, Sigmon will sometimes wait even longer for the equipment he needs.
Except for the clerical staff, every employee at the Surgery Center is directly involved in patient care. For example, both human resources and building maintenance are the responsibility of the head nurse. "One reason our prices are so low," says Smith, "is that we don't have administrators running around in their four or five thousand dollar suits."
In 2010, the top 18 administrative employees at Integris Health received an average of $413,000 in compensation, according to the not-for-profit's 990 tax form. There are no administrative employees at the Surgery Center."

These people are heroes. They'll probably be persecuted for their service to their fellow men.

"Because bills charged by Integris are paid primarily by insurance companies or the government, the hospital gets away with gouging for its services. Reason obtained a bill for a procedure that Dr. Sigmon performed at Integris in October 2010 called a “complex bilateral sinus procedure,” which helps patients with chronic nasal infections. The bill, which is strictly for the hospital itself and doesn't include Sigmon's or the anesthesiologist's fees, totaled $33,505. When Sigmon performs the same procedure at the Surgery Center, the all-inclusive price is $5,885."

Just wow.

"Is Kempton's model replicable in other places? There are obstacles. Oklahoma has an unusually entrepreneurial health care sector, which stems from a 1989 decision to roll back the state's Certificate of Need (CON) laws. CON laws, which are still on the books in 35 states, require all medical facilities to get permission from a planning board before opening, which in practice provides a way for traditional hospitals to use political influence to keep new entrants out of the market."

That's why government licenses exist.

"A new provision buried in Obamacare effectively prohibits doctors from starting their own hospitals or expanding the hospitals they already own, which has been widely interpreted as a give-away to the American Hospital Association.
The Surgery Center is exempt from this statue, since it's technically not a hospital and it doesn't accept Medicaid or Medicare. So Smith and Lantier are considering expanding to accommodate their growing clientele. "

I wonder what the difference is.

"Smith believes that despite the obstacles, market-driven facilities like his will thrive and proliferate as consumers catch on to costly collusion between big government and big health care.
Says Smith: "Everyone can see what the prices are at the Surgery Center, and that affordable health care is possible. So the jig is up.”"

That's naive. The jig isn't up. The government just hasn't shut down facilities like this yet, but I bet it will.

Tax and Spend

Of course Lord Geithner wants to eliminate the debt ceiling. It provides a check on the executive branch.

Politics

Author advises Republicans to woo Millennials, you know, the group that loved Ron Paul and the group whom the Republican alienated by abusing Paul and his supporters.

Economy

The Dow is down 541 since Obama's reelection. It looks like Obama's Dow manipulators have sprung into action because it's up 160 points at the moment.

War

Now terrorists in Egypt are firing rockets into Israel. How's that foreign policy of aggression working out for Israel now?

The new war Plutocracy, shining in Afghanistan, is marketing firms. Why not? It makes perfect sense if you're a sociopath.

If you're a declining, bankrupt empire at the top of a collapsing world economy losing a war half a world away, what do you do? Hire a marketing firm. You can't make this stuff up.

Federal Reserve

Check out this provision in the Dodd-Frank law.

"The CFPB nullifies Congress’s power to use the power of the purse to control bureaucracies because its funding — “determined by the director” — comes not from congressional appropriations but from the Federal Reserve. Untethered from all three branches of government, unlike anything created since 1789, the CFPB is uniquely sovereign: The president appoints the director for a five-year term — he can stay indefinitely, if no successor is confirmed — and the director can be removed, but not for policy reasons."

It would be nice to have a court strike this down, but I won't hold my breath.

Iran could reach Israeli PM's arbitrary red line on uranium enrichment by June.

Foreign Policy

Petraeus reportedly exposes the Obama administration's phony story about Benghazi as political expediency.

"Because we now know the truth of what happened — CIA reports were edited to remove the names of al Qaeda groups involved in the attack, Petraeus said under oath — we also know the motive. It was political self-preservation, meaning the president and his team put politics first."

I think there's more to it than that.

"If that was meant to pressure him to protect the president, it failed spectacularly. Whatever his personal failings, Petraeus reinforced his reputation for professional integrity."

The same guy who lied the same lie for the president three days after the attack and who gave away classified information to his mistress has professional integrity? That's funny.

The White House denies it made any edits. Petraeus probably made the edits himself when was being a good little political tool for Obama. I think the ruination of Petraeus has only just begun.

"The edits would have been made after the statements had left the CIA for review by the Defense and State departments, ultimately landing at the White House."

It could have been anybody.

I just want to set one thing straight: none of the Petraeus's women are beautiful. I've heard both Broadwell and Kelley described as beautiful dozens of times. Are you kidding me? Not even close. This is a bunch of crap. The press wants Americans to believe that Petraeus, Allen and the rest of their government heroes are supermen, so naturally they could only be tempted by the most beautiful women. Don't make me spit on my keyboard. These men are loser, sociopathic men who have to use the government's power coercion to make up for their lack of manliness, and they hook up with any woman, ugly or average - look at Petraeus's wife - to satisfy their animal instincts.

Here's the article that prompted that rant.

"The US has lost one war and is fast losing a second, yet what really upsets Americans seems to be a juicy sexual scandal; beautiful female general groupies; US brass in Tampa, Florida, living like potentates; the FBI investigating CIA; and the fall of America’s most important intelligence official, former top general, David Petraeus.
After America’s ugly, dreary election, it’s fun seeing the great and good caught with their pants down. Petreaus’ slinky paramour, the ambitious femme fatale, Paula Broadwell, is easy on the eyes. So are voluptuous Tampa temptresses Jill Kelley and her sister who ignited this scandal by sending catty emails to the FBI."

Voluptuous does not equal beautiful. Not even close. And Petraeus was neither great nor good. I think the same will be proven of Allen. I'm disappointed to see Margolis feeding this fantasy. But Margolis does provide an excellent review of the war record.

"Petraeus and his fellow generals used every weapon in the US arsenal against Iraq’s eleven resistance groups (deceptively misnamed “al-Qaida” by Washington), including the mass ethnic cleansing of two million Sunni Iraqis, death squads, torture, and brutal reprisals."

And the record before Petraeus.

"UN officials assert that some 500,000 Iraqis, mostly children, died due to the US-led blockade under Saddam Hussein. At least another half million died from the US 2003 invasion until 2011. Yet after all this, the US forces were forced pull out of Iraq at the end of what Saddam Hussein vowed would be the “Mother of All Battles.”
Cost of Iraq: $1.6-2.4 trillion; almost 5,000 US soldiers dead, 35,000 seriously wounded. Some triumph. America has yet to accept the painful fact that while it won all the tactical engagements in Iraq, it lost the bigger war."

That's why I respect Margolis. Here's more.

"Petraeus was then sent to work his magic in Afghanistan before returning to Washington to head CIA. There, the brainy general, who had a knack for self-promotion and public relations, tried again to crush the Pashtun resistance by massive bombardments, billions in high tech gear, reprisals that wiped out entire villages, search and destroy missions. Torture and executions were as common as during the Soviet occupation."

I've yet to hear evidence of the torture. I've read hints that Petraeus allowed Iraqis to torture people, but I've never seen hard evidence. I've never seen evidence he tortured people in Afghanistan. I read LewRockwell.com and other alternative and antiwar sites every day, but I've never seen hard evidence that Petraeus or other Americans tortured people in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's not for lack of trying. I've seen thousands of assertions. But I have never seen evidence. Show me. I'm an openminded guy. Show me, and I'll pass it on in this blog.

"Cost of Afghan War: $1 trillion and rising. Afghan dead unknown. US military, some 2,100 dead, 17,000 wounded.
The US military has clearly been fought to a standstill in Afghanistan by medieval tribesmen with AK-47’s, reconfirming its name - “graveyard of empires.”
As for the military genius of Gen. Petraeus, recall the famous cry of King Pyrrhus, “one more such victory and we are lost.”"

That is much needed sanity.