"It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money."
P.J. O'Rourke
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Government Planning
"It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money."
Friday, December 10, 2010
In-Depth Political Analysis
"Iran began holding talks with the six world powers. Participants were the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France, and Oprah."Conan O'Brien
Natural Laws
by Tim Case
"It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts...For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it."
~ Patrick Henry
It was a 3 AM wakeup in late September. The threat of an early frost had necessitated that the last 1000 acres of corn be harvested quickly to avoid the potential loss of what remained of the 2010 harvest.
Cresting the Cascade Mountain range of central Washington, beginning my decent into the Yakima valley, I noticed that it was just minutes before sunrise. The crystal clear dark blue sky promised a warm day, but was also the cause of nights that were getting colder. The truck thermometer read 28 degrees however, that was to be expected at 4000 feet on top of a mountain. I remember wondering if it had gotten cold enough to frost further east. In almost the same instant, I noticed what seemed to be small drops of my engine oil on the door window.
Having driven the road literally thousands of times, over the years, I knew there was a turn-out less then a quarter mile ahead where the truck with its dual trailers could safely be pulled off the road and a search for the cause of the oil droplets could be made.
Exiting the cab I was greeted with the unmistakable smell of engine oil which had unceremoniously left its assigned place in the engine, made obvious by the myriad of miniature puddles of oil forming under the truck. The rogue oil now coated the driver side fender well; the underside of the hood, the driver side running boards, and in a final act of rebellion was flowing off the left fuel tank quickly threatening to combine into a rather larger extended puddle on the side of the road.
Lifting the hood to expose the 475 horsepower, Caterpillar C15 engine, I noticed that my partner, who had stopped a short distance from me, was approaching the driver side door. "Wow, it looks terminal to me."
"Yeah, something is really wrong," I answered.
Gerald with his usual dry wit didn’t understate the obvious: "Well, at least that CAT® engine decided to bleed out on a nice day. It won’t be too bad a wait for the shop mechanics. Only two and a half; maybe five hours and you should be on the road again. Sure looks like it’s been raining oil, doesn’t it?"
I wasn’t amused and my expression must have shown my annoyance because Gerald then turned serious. "Let’s see what we got here before we call the shop."
As we both approached the driver side steering tire Gerald started looking at the oil filter and rear of the engine while I began inspecting the lines and the front of the engine. It was only a matter of seconds when I realized that the whole problem was due to the oil filler cap which was no longer in the filler tube but hanging from its retaining chain.
When that filler cap had left its assigned position the laws of pressure (expansion) had instantly come into play. High pressure always flows to a low pressure. The high pressures that are generated in an engine of this size (or any engine for that matter) are useful as long as the system remains closed.
In my case that meant the release of pressure took one gallon of engine oil with it; all in a matter of a few minutes.
I mention this not because it is anything extraordinary but because it is how prudent people respond countless times a day to a potentially serious crisis. When something doesn’t look, feel, or sound correct we judiciously stop and find out where the problem resides. We do this to avoid loss of production, to evade suffering a financial catastrophe or for countless other reasons.
Read the rest at Lew Rockwell
"It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts...For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it."
~ Patrick Henry
It was a 3 AM wakeup in late September. The threat of an early frost had necessitated that the last 1000 acres of corn be harvested quickly to avoid the potential loss of what remained of the 2010 harvest.
Cresting the Cascade Mountain range of central Washington, beginning my decent into the Yakima valley, I noticed that it was just minutes before sunrise. The crystal clear dark blue sky promised a warm day, but was also the cause of nights that were getting colder. The truck thermometer read 28 degrees however, that was to be expected at 4000 feet on top of a mountain. I remember wondering if it had gotten cold enough to frost further east. In almost the same instant, I noticed what seemed to be small drops of my engine oil on the door window.
Having driven the road literally thousands of times, over the years, I knew there was a turn-out less then a quarter mile ahead where the truck with its dual trailers could safely be pulled off the road and a search for the cause of the oil droplets could be made.
Exiting the cab I was greeted with the unmistakable smell of engine oil which had unceremoniously left its assigned place in the engine, made obvious by the myriad of miniature puddles of oil forming under the truck. The rogue oil now coated the driver side fender well; the underside of the hood, the driver side running boards, and in a final act of rebellion was flowing off the left fuel tank quickly threatening to combine into a rather larger extended puddle on the side of the road.
Lifting the hood to expose the 475 horsepower, Caterpillar C15 engine, I noticed that my partner, who had stopped a short distance from me, was approaching the driver side door. "Wow, it looks terminal to me."
"Yeah, something is really wrong," I answered.
Gerald with his usual dry wit didn’t understate the obvious: "Well, at least that CAT® engine decided to bleed out on a nice day. It won’t be too bad a wait for the shop mechanics. Only two and a half; maybe five hours and you should be on the road again. Sure looks like it’s been raining oil, doesn’t it?"
I wasn’t amused and my expression must have shown my annoyance because Gerald then turned serious. "Let’s see what we got here before we call the shop."
As we both approached the driver side steering tire Gerald started looking at the oil filter and rear of the engine while I began inspecting the lines and the front of the engine. It was only a matter of seconds when I realized that the whole problem was due to the oil filler cap which was no longer in the filler tube but hanging from its retaining chain.
When that filler cap had left its assigned position the laws of pressure (expansion) had instantly come into play. High pressure always flows to a low pressure. The high pressures that are generated in an engine of this size (or any engine for that matter) are useful as long as the system remains closed.
In my case that meant the release of pressure took one gallon of engine oil with it; all in a matter of a few minutes.
I mention this not because it is anything extraordinary but because it is how prudent people respond countless times a day to a potentially serious crisis. When something doesn’t look, feel, or sound correct we judiciously stop and find out where the problem resides. We do this to avoid loss of production, to evade suffering a financial catastrophe or for countless other reasons.
Read the rest at Lew Rockwell
Good Intentions
"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
Daniel Webster (1782-1852)
Headlines.... Just in Time
Explains his good health and sunny disposition.
Poll: Ellen DeGeneris Would Be Best Holiday Party HostGOP Senators Pledge to Block All Democratic Bills
Andy Rooney the worst.
Result of election mandate to do nothing at all to help economy ever.
Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley Doing His Best for the Economy
To destroy it with higher taxes and more regulation.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
In-Depth Political Analysis
"President Obama has set aside over 180 million acres of land for polar bears. When Sarah Palin heard about it, she said, 'Todd, get my gun.'"
Conan O'Brien
In-Depth Political Analysis
"President Obama's pledge to have the most transparent administration in history has come true. Thanks to WikiLeaks."
Jay Leno
Don't Shoot Messenger for Revealing Uncomfortable Truths
by Julian Assange
In 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win."
His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch's exposé that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch would not be silenced and his efforts led to the termination of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.
Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public.
I grew up in a Queensland country town where people spoke their minds bluntly. They distrusted big government as something that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth.
These things have stayed with me. WikiLeaks was created around these core values. The idea, conceived in Australia, was to use internet technologies in new ways to report the truth.
WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?
Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest. WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption.
Read the Rest @ Lew Rockwell
In 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win."
His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch's exposé that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch would not be silenced and his efforts led to the termination of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign.
Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public.
I grew up in a Queensland country town where people spoke their minds bluntly. They distrusted big government as something that could be corrupted if not watched carefully. The dark days of corruption in the Queensland government before the Fitzgerald inquiry are testimony to what happens when the politicians gag the media from reporting the truth.
These things have stayed with me. WikiLeaks was created around these core values. The idea, conceived in Australia, was to use internet technologies in new ways to report the truth.
WikiLeaks coined a new type of journalism: scientific journalism. We work with other media outlets to bring people the news, but also to prove it is true. Scientific journalism allows you to read a news story, then to click online to see the original document it is based on. That way you can judge for yourself: Is the story true? Did the journalist report it accurately?
Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest. WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption.
Read the Rest @ Lew Rockwell
Innovation and Regulation
Joseph Sobran May 13, 1998 (commenting on US vs Microsoft)
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
In-Depth Political Analysis
"Obama was going to have a meeting with Afghan President Karzai about the country's corruption, incompetence, and the wasting of American tax dollars. And that's just what Karzai was going to lecture Obama about."
Jay Leno
Moral or Immoral Government
by Walter E. Williams
My initial assumption is that we each own ourselves. I am my private property and you are yours. If we accept the notion that people own themselves, then it's easy to discover what forms of conduct are moral and immoral. Immoral acts are those that violate self-ownership. Murder, rape, assault and slavery are immoral because those acts violate private property. So is theft, broadly defined as taking the rightful property of one person and giving it to another.
If it is your belief that people do not belong to themselves, they are in whole or in part the property of the U.S. Congress, or people are owned by God, who has placed the U.S. Congress in charge of managing them, then all of my observations are simply nonsense.
Let's look at some congressional actions in light of self-ownership. Do farmers and businessmen have a right to congressional handouts? Does a person have a right to congressional handouts for housing, food and medical care?
Read the rest at Lew Rockwell.
Intrusion
"The privacy and dignity of our citizens [are] being whittled away by sometimes imperceptible steps. Taken individually, each step may be of little consequence. But when viewed as a whole, there begins to emerge a society quite unlike any we have seen – a society in which government may intrude into the secret regions of a [person's] life."
William O. Douglas (1898-1980), U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Osborne v. United States
In-Depth Political Analysis
"Because of a printing error, a billion new $100 bills have to be destroyed. They're going to burn $100 billion dollars — just like they did with the last stimulus program."
Jay Leno
The Promise of Human Action
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
This speech was delivered at the Mises Institute, September 14, 1999, the date on which Human Action was published 50 years earlier. The Mises Institute has just published the pocket paperback edition.
In a 1949 memo circulated within Yale University Press, the publicity department expressed astonishment at the rapid sales of Ludwig von Mises's Human Action. How could such a dense tome, expensive by the standards of the day, written by an economist without a prestigious teaching position or any notable reputation at all in the United States, published against the advice of many on Yale's academic advisory board, sell so quickly that a second and third printing would be necessary in only a matter of months?
Imagine how shocked these same people would be to find that the first edition, reissued 50 years later as the Scholar's Edition of Human Action, would sell so quickly again.
How can we account for the continuing interest in this book? It is unquestionably the single most important scientific treatise on human affairs to appear in this century. But given the state of the social sciences, and the timelessness of Mises's approach to economics, I believe it will have an even greater impact on the next century. Indeed, it is increasingly clear that this is a book for the ages.
This speech was delivered at the Mises Institute, September 14, 1999, the date on which Human Action was published 50 years earlier. The Mises Institute has just published the pocket paperback edition.
In a 1949 memo circulated within Yale University Press, the publicity department expressed astonishment at the rapid sales of Ludwig von Mises's Human Action. How could such a dense tome, expensive by the standards of the day, written by an economist without a prestigious teaching position or any notable reputation at all in the United States, published against the advice of many on Yale's academic advisory board, sell so quickly that a second and third printing would be necessary in only a matter of months?
Imagine how shocked these same people would be to find that the first edition, reissued 50 years later as the Scholar's Edition of Human Action, would sell so quickly again.
How can we account for the continuing interest in this book? It is unquestionably the single most important scientific treatise on human affairs to appear in this century. But given the state of the social sciences, and the timelessness of Mises's approach to economics, I believe it will have an even greater impact on the next century. Indeed, it is increasingly clear that this is a book for the ages.
Making Parks Decent Again
How the private sector can save public parks
John Stossel
America is filled with parks that are filthy, dangerous, and badly maintained. The governments in charge plead: We can't help it. Our budgets have been slashed. We don't have enough money!
Bryant Park, in midtown Manhattan, was once such an unsavory place. But now it's nice. What changed? Dan Biederman essentially privatized the park.
With permission from frustrated officials who'd watch government repeatedly fail to clean up the park, Biederman raised private funds from "businesses around the park, real estate owners, concessions and events sponsorships. ... (S)ince 1996, we have not asked the city government for a single dollar."
Sounds good to me. But not to Shirley Kressel, a Boston journalist.
I asked her what's wrong with getting the money from private businesses, as Dan does.
"Because it goes into private pockets," she said.
So what?
"Because it's very good (for Dan) to use the public land for running a private business, a rent-a-park, where all year 'round there's commercial revenue from renting it out to businesses. He keeps all that money. People don't realize that."
So what? I don't care if they think the money is going to Mars. The park is nice, and people don't have to pay taxes to support it.
The park is certainly more "commercial" now. The day I videotaped, there were booths selling food and holiday gifts. The public seemed fine with that.
Transportation
P.J. O'Rourke
"We're told cars are wasteful. Wasteful of what? Oil did a lot of good sitting in the ground for millions of years. We're told cars should be replaced with mass transportation. But it's hard to reach the drive through window at McDonald's from a speeding train. And we're told cars cause pollution. A hundred years ago city streets were ankle deep in horse excrement. What kind of pollution do you want? Would you rather die of cancer at eighty or typhoid fever at nine?"
Headlines.... Just in Time
Pallbearers Carry Leslie Nielsen’s Coffin Without Incident
Excitement Growing Among Beatles Fans For Paul McCartney's Funeral
PRESIDENT MAKES SURPRISE VISIT TO AFGHANISTAN
Delivers Purple Hearts to U.S. servicemen, bags of cash to Afghani officials.
Senate Passes Food Safety Bill
After 51 senators get diarrhea from eating at Senate cafeteria.
Conservatives: Death Sentence For Those Who Leaked Classified Material
Except Scooter Libby.
Excitement Growing Among Beatles Fans For Paul McCartney's Funeral
PRESIDENT MAKES SURPRISE VISIT TO AFGHANISTAN
Delivers Purple Hearts to U.S. servicemen, bags of cash to Afghani officials.
Senate Passes Food Safety Bill
After 51 senators get diarrhea from eating at Senate cafeteria.
Conservatives: Death Sentence For Those Who Leaked Classified Material
Except Scooter Libby.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
David Letterman's "Top Ten Signs Your Neighbor Is The WikiLeaks Guy"
10. Name on mailbox reads 'WikiLeaks Guy'
9. Spends most of his free time burying stuff in the yard
8. He insists you speak directly into his necktie
7. More than once, you've caught him crawling in your ventilation ducts
6. He told you about Jeter's new contract at Thanksgiving
5. He insists you speak directly into his necktie — that joke was already in the Top Ten. We really need someone checking these things
4. On recycling day, he puts out cans, bottles, and classified documents
3. His idea of small talk is 'Good morning' and 'Want the coordinates of our secret military base in the Strait of Hormuz?'
2. Any time you talk to him, all he says is, 'I know. I know. I know . . . '
1. Gets drunk and takes a 'WikiLeak' on your porch — Hayo!
Libertarians, Power, and the Message of Freedom
by William L. Anderson
People who believe in liberty are in a minority, and it is a minority that few of us really can comprehend, as for the most part, libertarians cannot grasp the real costs that they will be facing in the coming years. Those of us who have spoken out against the abuses committed by those in power no longer will be ignored by those who control the police and "justice" apparatus, and we will be on the radar screens of those who believe they have the power to silence us.
In response to the call for a boycott of Amazon because it gave in to pressure from Sen. Joe Lieberman, I had this post on Lew Rockwell’s blog. The post was a brief compilation of some of my thoughts, but as I read it again, I realized that we are dealing with a much, much bigger issue than the debate about whether or not we should try to punish Amazon because of its actions.
The economics department where I teach, Frostburg State University, shares office space with the political science department, and like so many other Poli Sci departments across the country, it is a repository for Democratic Party activists. These are the Progressives who believe that every regulatory agency and every government department is forever protecting us from those evil corporations that seek to impoverish all of us, make us eat poison, foul our waters and air, and turn our temperate climate into something akin to what is experienced in summer in the Mojave Desert.
FCC Should Remain Neutral on Net Neutrality
posted by Michelle on Dec 07, 2010
The Federal Communications Commission chairman, Julius Genachowski, released a statement on December 1st addressing the issue of net neutrality. The FCC has proposed several regulations that would stop internet service providers from blocking or promoting any website over another. Essentially, internet users will be able to search any website they want without discretion from broadband companies. This proposal is set for a vote on December 21st, and if passed, the FCC will be able to regulate “net neutrality.”
But this FCC action is unwarranted and unfavorable both now and in the long run.
While the idea of equal consumer access to websites and information is desired, it’s important to question whether or not the government should be involved in the first place. Consider this Cato Institute policy analysis by Adam D. Thierer. It asserts that federal regulations on internet access are truly unjustified since providers have not shown any significant signs of web discrimination. The consumer demand for these regulations is minimal, if not absent, within the internet market. This preemptive strike against internet companies is unnecessary and further expands the government’s control over our personal actions and those of American businesses.
These regulations will transform open internet service in to a government commodity with hidden long- term consequences. An article published by The Ludwig von Mises Institute, discusses how net neutrality laws essentially decide who will have the responsibility of managing networks. Should it be the internet service providers (the actual owners of the network) or the government (outside regulators) who control how the internet gets distributed? The owners of the network have an incentive to provide the most open and accessible internet in order to satisfy consumer demand; whereas, the government operates within a policy framework unaffected by market forces.
If the FCC passes these regulations, the policy- driven internet service will be incapable of reacting to market changes; the only response will be an eventual decline in the growth of and investment in the internet companies that currently support these regulations.
More information on Net Neutrality:
The Phantom Menace in the ACLU's Case for Net Neutrality
The Durable Internet: Preserving Network Neutrality without Regulation
A Libertarian Take on Net Neutrality
Does Net Neutrality Promote Competition?
Michelle is an intern for the Libertarian National Committee in Washington D.C.
Great Political Insights
"President Obama held a ceremony at the White House to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah. In response, Republicans said, 'It's even worse than we thought. He's a Jewish Muslim.'"
—Conan O'Brien
—Conan O'Brien
Gay Marriage and the Law
The battle over Proposition 8 inches closer to the Supreme Court
Towards the end of his landmark majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), where the Supreme Court struck down that state’s anti-sodomy law as a violation of individual liberty, Justice Anthony Kennedy inserted a reference to the looming legal battle over gay marriage. The present case, Kennedy wrote, “does not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter.”
“Do not believe it,” snapped Justice Antonin Scalia in an angry dissent that accused the majority of having “largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda.” In Scalia’s view, Lawrence threw the door wide open for gay marriage. “Today’s opinion dismantles the structure of constitutional law that has permitted a distinction to be made between heterosexual and homosexual unions, insofar as formal recognition in marriage is concerned.”
Was Scalia correct? We may soon find out. On December 6 a three-judge panel of the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger. At issue is California’s Proposition 8, the controversial voter initiative which added the phrase “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California” to the state constitution. In August, federal district Judge Vaughn Walker—a Ronald Reagan appointee championed by conservative legal hero Edwin Meese—prompted the appeal by striking down Prop. 8 as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which commands that no state may “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.”
Damon W. Root
Towards the end of his landmark majority opinion in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), where the Supreme Court struck down that state’s anti-sodomy law as a violation of individual liberty, Justice Anthony Kennedy inserted a reference to the looming legal battle over gay marriage. The present case, Kennedy wrote, “does not involve whether the government must give formal recognition to any relationship that homosexual persons seek to enter.”
“Do not believe it,” snapped Justice Antonin Scalia in an angry dissent that accused the majority of having “largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda.” In Scalia’s view, Lawrence threw the door wide open for gay marriage. “Today’s opinion dismantles the structure of constitutional law that has permitted a distinction to be made between heterosexual and homosexual unions, insofar as formal recognition in marriage is concerned.”
Was Scalia correct? We may soon find out. On December 6 a three-judge panel of the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger. At issue is California’s Proposition 8, the controversial voter initiative which added the phrase “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California” to the state constitution. In August, federal district Judge Vaughn Walker—a Ronald Reagan appointee championed by conservative legal hero Edwin Meese—prompted the appeal by striking down Prop. 8 as a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, which commands that no state may “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.”
Thoughts from Robert Anton Wilson
"Taking somebody's money without permission is stealing, unless you work for the IRS; then it's taxation. Killing people en masse is homicidal mania, unless you work for the Army; then it's National Defense. Spying on your neighbors is invasion of privacy, unless you work for the FBI; then it's National Security. Running a whorehouse makes you a pimp and poisoning people makes you a murderer, unless you work for the CIA; then it's counter-intelligence."
Robert Anton Wilson
Monday, December 6, 2010
Thoughts from Ron Paul
"When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads."
Ron Paul, M.D., Republican congressman from Texas and Libertarian Party candidate for President in 1988
Sons of Liberty
"What are all the Riches, the Luxeries, and even the Conveniences of Life compared with that Liberty where with God and Nature have set us free, with that inestimable Jewel which is the Basis of all other Employments?"
Alexander McDougall
Interesting Quotes
"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."
Al Gore
Sunday, December 5, 2010
The Dog-Biscuit Miracle
by David Bond
 |
| David Bond |
Without fail, every morning, give or take 5 minutes depending on the weather, at 0530 our newspaper appears on the front porch. Not in the weeds or the snow. On the front porch, right by the door, so a be-slippered old geezer can reach out for it without embarrassing his neighbours or getting frostbite on his toes, even in the dark.
The impeccable and predictable timing would be enough to remark upon. Except that, winter or summer, tucked into the newspaper is a dog biscuit. Whoever throws the paper on our porch has never met Chase, our dog, because he is inside the house at this dark hour. But Robert has heard a grump or a woof and figures somebody inside would like a treat.
Comes out of his own pocket, this newspaper-carrier's milk bone. Now, milk bones are not the most expensive of things, unless you buy them 365 days a year for the hundreds of dogs who live along his route. And I know that our paper-guy does this, because at 3:30 a.m., throwing papers way up in Mullan, he is doing the same thing for the dog-people there. I have witnesses.
Central Bank Secrecy and Corruption
End the Fed
by Matt Stoller
“We probably know more about tribes in the Amazon jungle than we do about the real nature of power in the United States. Neither political science, nor history, nor economics do very well on this.” ~ Tom Ferguson
Something new is happening around the contours of monetary policy. It’s becoming part of our popular political landscape. We saw this a few weeks ago, when Sarah Palin injected into the 2012 presidential race the idea of fundamentally reorganizing the Federal Reserve’s mandate. Republican Mike Pence, Senator Richard Shelby, and a host of other Republicans have jumped on this concept, and there will soon be legislation introduced to make this happen.
Beyond Republican politicians, the public is beginning to rethink our monetary order. A YouTube video on quantitative easing has over 3 million views. The video slams the Fed for missing the dotcom bubble, the subprime crisis, for being fundamentally undemocratic and unaccountable, and for being engaged in collusive dealings with Goldman Sachs. Financial blogs and CNBC discuss the Fed, and its associated characters, with deep insight and passion. And Bernanke drew 30 no votes in his confirmation hearing in 2009, the most ever for such a position, just four years after drawing almost none. The market nearly crashed on the possibility that Bernanke’s nomination would fail before the White House stepped up aggressive lobbying efforts. On the left, the last few years saw a remarkable grassroots coalition of economists and activists to bring transparency to the central bank, joining a long-sought libertarian crusade. I was a staffer for Rep. Alan Grayson, who was working with that coalition to require an independent audit of the Federal Reserve. Tomorrow, because of provisions put into Dodd-Frank by Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressmen Grayson and Ron Paul, the Federal Reserve will release details of its 2007-2010 emergency loans to the web.
The Rest is at Lew Rockwell
Intervention
Joseph Sobran (1995)
Interesting Quotes
“This whole thing about not kicking someone when they are down is b.s. Not only do you kick him—you kick him until he passes out—then beat him over the head with a baseball bat—then roll him up in an old rug—and throw him off a cliff into the pounding surf below!!!!!”
Michael Scanlon, former chief of staff to Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) and business partner of convicted felon Jack Abramoff, during the Clinton impeachment proceedings.
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