Obama BlinksPresident Obama has pulled back on imposing new "air quality" regulations. The regulations would have hobbled many industries and created many spillover effects. The Republicans have estimated costs as high as $90 billion, but they are just saying that to provide a sound bite. They supported such things under Nixon and Bush.
There is no real way to know the costs of such egregious legislation, especially given that the highest costs of regulation are hidden. They consi... (more)
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The Persecution of Jeremy HillJeremy Hill of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, shot and killed a grizzly bear that threatened his children. The federal government is seeking to imprison him for violating the Endangered Species Act. Idaho Governor Butch Otter wrote a nauseatingly sycophantic letter to someone he insisted on addressing as “The Honorable” Ken Salazar, the federal Secretary of Interior, pleading tha... (more)
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In America the Rule of Law Is Vacated With bank fraudsters, torturers, and war criminals running free, the US Department of Justice (sic) has nothing better to do than to harass the famous Tennessee guitar manufacturer, Gibson, arrest organic food producers in California and send 12 abusive FBI agents armed with assault rifles to bust down yet another wrong door of yet another innocent family, lea... (more)
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Workers Comp For Babysitters And 20 Other Reasons Why California Is StupidIs there any other state that is as stupid as California? Unemployment in California has been sitting at about 12 percent for an extended period of time, and yet they continue to push businesses out of the state by imposing thousands of ridiculous regulations on them and by taxing them into oblivion. Now California is even requiring workers comp for babysitters and paid vacation for nannies. How insane is that? The state government in Sacramento is flat broke and drow... (more)
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"First they came for the lemonade stands..."I thought this was quite an apropos comment on the Gibson Guitar raid.
First they came for the lemonade stand, and I didn't say anything, because I didn't have a lemonade stand.
Then they came for the organic foods and raw milk, and I didn't say anything, because I didn't have organic foods and raw milk.
Then they came for the vitamins, and I didn't say anything, bec ... (more)
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Suddenly, It's Back to the Stone AgeLife is ticking along normally and then suddenly, out of nowhere and without warning, you find yourself plunged back in time, reduced to the level of a hunter-gatherer, unable to enjoy the conveniences of civilization that you otherwise take for granted. Anyway, that's how it felt when the refrigerator suddenly stopped working.
Here we have a thing that wasn't even a common household item as we know it until the 1950s, a thing that used to be called an "ice box" in the early years... (more)
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Hurricanes Don't Scare Me, But Our Rulers Sure Do As Hurricane Irene threatened the East Coast, Merriam-Webster announced the addition of 150 new words to its dictionary. Among them was "helicopter parent" to describe anyone "overly involved" in his child’s life.
If the definition doesn’t already include a notation, "See also Big Daddy Government," it should. Busybodies and ... (more)
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Leave the Hurricane Price-Gougers AloneWell, if it’s hurricane season, it must be anti-price-gouging season. It’s bad enough for people to be hit by a hurricane. You’d think that statists would show some mercy and spare people some economic idiocy during difficult times.
Alas, it is not to be. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper announced that he would prosecute anybody engaging in price-gouging during Hurricane Irene. Cooper declared, “We’re warning price gougers that you can&rsqu... (more)
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Perfect Storm of Hype: Politicians, the media and the Hurricane Irene apocalypse that never wasFor the television reporter, clad in his red cagoule emblazoned with the CNN logo, it was a dramatic on-air moment, broadcasting live from Long Island, New York during a hurricane that also threatened Manhattan.
"We are in, right, now... the right eye wall, no doubt about that... there you see the surf," he said breathlessly. "That tells a story right there."
Stumbling and apparently buffeted by ferocious gusts, he took shelter next to a building. "This is our prote... (more) A friend was commenting how on TV the reporters always wear these parkas which go crazy in the wind, on CNN one of these reporters was taking a wide stance with his parka going crazy, meanwhile some people walked right past behind him in shorts etc. like it was no big deal. It was probably a moment like the video below, hopefully it will be posted to YouTube. - Chris, InfoLib
UPDATE: FOUND IT!! |
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The Arrogance of AuthorityA DEA officer stopped at a ranch in Texas, and talked with an old rancher. He told the rancher, “I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs.” The rancher said, “Okay , but don’t go in that field over there…”, as he pointed out the location.
The DEA officer verbally exploded saying, ” Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me !” Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removed his badge and proudly dis... (more)
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The War on Drugs Is SenselessThe war on drugs is a failure. It has failed to prevent drug abuse. It has failed to keep drugs out of the hands of addicts. It has failed to keep drugs away from teenagers. It has failed to reduce the demand for drugs. It has failed to stop the violence associated with drug trafficking. It has failed to help drug addicts get treatment.
But the war on drugs has also succeeded. It has succeeded in clogging the judicial system. It has succeeded in swelling prison populations. It ha... (more)
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On War, Obama Has Been Worse Than BushThe real critique of the wars certainly goes beyond the numbers. It is good, however, to look at the figures. Most people in the country know that Obama hasn't exactly ended the wars. I'm sure people say, Yeah, but Obama is ending the wars.
This claim is not obviously 100 percent false in every respect, perhaps. And so we need to be careful when we get into the details.
So, during the run-up to the ascension of Obama to the throne, he was critical of the Iraq war. H... (more)
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Anarchy in the UK?All political labels are limited in their usefulness, and confusion abounds regarding most of them. When a certain political persuasion is being criminalized, it is particularly important to examine the principles involved.
If anarchy means chaos, disorder, lawlessness, reckless disregard for person and property, then the London vandals who set private buildings on fire and the hooligans who jumped on police misconduct as an excuse to loot in the service of their worldly desires w... (more)
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"Fair" TaxationPretend you're at church for Morning Worship, or attending a crowded lecture, or watching Hollywood's latest with a few hundred other fans. Suddenly, a SWAT team breaks down the door, submachine guns at the ready. Amid screams, their commander shouts, "Listen up! We're gonna kill 10% of you -- but the mayor was very clear that we gotta be fair about it. So, how ya wanna do this? Should we draw names out of a hat? Go through and shoot every tenth person? Maybe we oughta just work our way down fro... (more)
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Forsaking Society for the State?The wall separating state and society is crumbling. Or, rather, the state is taking a jackhammer to it in an aggressive attempt to control every aspect of productive and cooperative life.
Consider one small example. A few days ago, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano launched the latest in a series of so-called public-service announcements that are slated to play at Walmarts across the nation. While you are standing in line to buy a carton of milk, th... (more)
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10 Things Citizen Spies Should Report to DHSThe Department of Homeland Security wants the public to be on the prowl for suspicious and criminal behavior. They've gone to great lengths to recruit business owners in this effort to report unusual activity. They've struck deals with Google, Facebook, and Twitter to monitor Internet activities. DHS has also set up fusion centers nationwide to coordinate with local authorities and private ... (more)
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Theory of Crime and PunishmentThose who believe in the beneficence of force have never yet agreed upon the crimes that should be forbidden, the method and extent of punishment, the purpose of punishment, or even its result. They simply agree that without force and violence social life cannot be maintained. All conceivable human actions have fallen under the disfavor of the law and found their place in penal codes: blasphemy, witchcraft, heresy, insanity, idiocy, methods of eating and drinking, the manner of worshiping the su... (more)
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What I Learned in Public SchoolAlthough you may have been taught to believe differently, public schools tend to have very negative impacts on the development of a child's creativity, sense of ethics and autonomy. From the first day in kindergarten until the last day of senior year, 'kids' are told to "treat others as [they] want to be treated." Actions speak louder than words. Unfortunately, the staff members at public education facilities treat students as if they have "authority" over them, ingraining the message that it is... (more)
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Conservatives "hate government"? Then why do they support endless wars, CIA prisons, the military industrial complex, the war on drugs & more?Sometimes I wonder whether the mainstream pundits listen to themselves. It’s hard to believe they would say the silly things they say if they did.
For example, the talking heads on MSNBC, which works 24/7 for President Obama’s reelection, like to say that conservative Republicans “hate government.” “If you hate government,” Chris Matthews, host of Hardball, asks, “why would you want to be the government?”
Matthews&rs... (more)
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It’s 1989 All Over AgainIn six months or six years, the nation known as the United States is going to dissolve roughly along the same lines that the other Soviet republic, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), died with a whimper in 1989-1991. Like the ersatz Russian experiment in economic stupidity and incompetence, the American variant of the collectivist experiment shares some parallels. The main structural difference was the fascistic approach to wealth expropriation the Americans adopted vers... (more)
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Are You Authorized to Defend Yourself?What will you do if rioting sweeps US cities as it did British ones last week?
Vigilantism is defined as "Taking the law into one's own hands and attempting to effect justice according to one's own understanding of right and wrong." Typically, it occurs when traditional law enforcement is absent, ineffective, or corrupt. When exercised in defense of person and property, vigilantism is the ... (more)
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News 'Journalists' Shill for the State It’s bad enough the possibility that there might have been some hanky-panky going on regarding the vote count at the Iowa Straw Poll this week, in which Ron Paul received 4,671 votes to Michele Bachmann’s 4,823, a difference of just 152 votes. But to see one national media outlet after another completely ignoring<... (more)
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Planet of the TaxpayersThe remake of The Planet of the Apes — the apes look real this time — purports to give the backstory of how it is that the world came to be governed by primates while the handful of humans are caged and abused.
The story line is so conventional that you could make it up just sitting there. A private-sector biochemical corporation rushes to test a drug that is supposed to reverse Alzheimer's. It is tested on apes... (more)
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Half a League, Half a League, Half a League OnwardIt takes a lot to shut me up. I tend to be first past the post with an opinion, right or wrong, and not much brings me up short in that area.
I must confess, however to falling speechless and slack-jawed for a moment at the sheer gall of a CBS News Internet poll accompanying the story of two men sentenced Tuesday in the United Kingdom (“Brits get 4 years prison for Facebook riot posts,” August 17): “Is four years prison too harsh for a Facebook post?”... (more)
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When Do We Arrest the Tea Party?Murray Rothbard once spoke fondly of the 19th-century New York politician William M. (“Boss”) Tweed who was notoriously corrupt. Why? Because Tweed operated before the days of Public Relations, in the days when a crook was a crook and he didn’t pretend to pick your pocket “for your own good”; he did it for the money or the power. Tweed, as Murray said of him in chortling admiration, was a real crook — “a crook’s crook.”
The la... (more)
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Who Says Liberals Want Government Out of the Bedroom?Nothing is off limits anymore. Nothing. Not as far as politicians are concerned. Democratic State Senator Kevin De Leon wants California to mandate fitted sheets in the state’s hotels, and forbid flat sheets.
According to the bill’s opponent Lynn Mohrfeld, president and CEO, California Hotel & Lodging Association, “SB 432 would cost the hotel and lodging indus... (more)
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What Can You Do When You Don't Approve of Police Actions?Let’s assume you’re the owner of a business and you employ five people. One day you find out that one of your employees is threatening people to make sales. You didn’t approve of this tactic and quickly move on this information. You call in the employee and address the situation. You explain to them that threatening people is not how you conduct business and even though it might produce larger sales in the short term, it will ultimately destroy the company – ending bo... (more)
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How Statism Is a Sickness, and Not Just a Destructive Political SystemFrom the recent debt ceiling hysterics, we have seen just how dysfunctional America is now, as the Establishment satisfies its short-term, immediate-gratification needs at the expense of the people and future generations. Every subsequent day is increasingly depressing and discouraging, with one news item after another how the controlling rulers in Washington are just rearranging the... (more)
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In Defense of Internet AnonymityAccording to the great Internet-jerk theory,
normal person + anonymity + audience = total jerk The actual theory and conclusion use far more obscene language, but the message remains intact: anonymity breeds bad behavior.
I disagree. Or, rather, I believe the benefits of online anonymity substantially outweigh its peripheral disadvantages. This disagreement could make for an interesting debate were it not for the fact that anything our society... (more)
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