When the ATF made alleged gun trafficker Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta its primary target in the ill-fated Fast and Furious investigation, it hoped he would lead the agency to two associates who were Mexican drug cartel members. The ATF even questioned and released him knowing that he was wanted by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
But those two drug lords were secretly serving as informants for the FBI along the Southwest border, newly obtained internal emails show. Had Celis-Aco... (more)
A Michigan court ordered the removal of a 2-year-old boy from his father because the father had allegedly smoked marijuana in the boy's presence. As marijuana is not a drug approved by the government, unlike the most deadly drugs tobacco and alcohol which are A-OK, police were ordered to take the boy from the man through force.
Unfortunately, the police killed the man in the process because he allegedly engaged in an act of self-defense with a pocket knife. The highest skeptic... (more)
The people in my community love their public schools. So too it is in most of the country. If only they knew the costs, and I don't mean just the financial costs, which are two and three times those of private schools. I also mean the opportunity costs: If only people knew what they were missing!
Imagine education wholly managed by the market economy. The variety! The choice! The innovation! All the features we've come to expect in so many areas of life -- groceries, software, cl... (more)
No one has yet been charged for the recent night time murder of 16 Afghan villagers. A suspect, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, is in custody in the U.S., after having been removed from Afghanistan. The news coverage of this event has been extremely sketchy. The authorities are not releasing much information yet. We do not know who gave the orders to remove Bales or how that came about. We do not know how he is to be tried, that is, who the prosecution will be and what the trial rules will be. We... (more)
An International Man lives and does business wherever he finds conditions most advantageous, regardless of arbitrary borders. He's diversified globally, with passports from multiple countries, assets in several jurisdictions and his residence in yet another. He doesn't depend absolutely on any country and regards all of them as competitors for his capital and expertise.
Living as an international man used to be just an interesting possibility. But few Americans opted... (more)
If you’re not up to speed with what’s been going on behind closed doors in New York… well.. you should be. The video you are about to watch is the last recording made by New York Police Officer Adrian Schoolcraft before police (at the time) Chief Marino (Brooklyn North), Deputy Inspector Mauriello (81 CO), Captain Lauterborn (81 XO) and various other officers in plainclothes forcibly entered his house, arrested, and committed him to a psychiatric ward. Adrian had spent the bet... (more)
How much does the Internet contribute to our economic life? A lot, yes. But what if we tried to put a number on it?
We love numbers, right? We imagine that we can slice and dice the world and look at everything on a spreadsheet, click a button and make it a pie chart, and click another button and put the results in colorful bars.
Well, that works for a single sector of the economy, like butter or shoes. We can add that up and compare it to other sectors. But what ab... (more)
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke went back to the classroom to educate young minds at George Washington University about the history and role of central banks and the Federal Reserve in particular.
On the topic of financial panics, Bernanke asks the students if they’ve seen the movie “A Wonderful Life.” Not as many students had seen the movie as he had hoped. Bank panics are a serious problem Bernanke explains. Banks... (more)
Republican presidential candidate and staunch libertarian Ron Paul says he has rejected protection from the Secret Service because he believes charging taxpayers for his personal security is a “form of welfare.”
“You know, you’re having the taxpayers pay to take care of somebody,” Paul told late night talk show host Jay Leno on Tuesday. “And I’m an ordinary citizen and I would think I should pay for my own protection, and it costs, I think... (more)
This song from rappers LowKey, Lupe Fiasco, Black the Ripper, & Dead Prez's M1, named "Obama Nation Part 2" is quite simply f***ing awesome. It is hardcore anti-establishment, anti-government radicalism with an incredible beat.
All too often I hear that the copyright industry doesn’t understand the Internet, doesn’t understand the net generation, doesn’t understand how technology has changed. This is not only wrong; it is dangerously wrong. In order to defeat an adversary; you must first come to understand their state of mind, rather than painting them as evil. The copyright industry understands exactly what the Internet is, and that it needs to be destroyed for that industry to stay even the slightes... (more)
Shahed Hussain, a long-time FBI terrorism informant Mother Jones profiled last year, has surfaced again—but this time, Google appears to have foiled his effort to identify a new target. Khalifah al-Akili, a 34-year-old Pittsburgh man, says he was approached by Hussain and another informant in January. Al Akili told the Albany Times-Union that after Hussain "repeatedly made attempts to get close" to h... (more)
Sgt. Bales claims to have lost his memory of his alleged killings of 16 Afghans. I don't believe that, not unless he was drunk out of his mind or under the influence of some drug that causes blackouts. But there is now evidence that U.S. soldiers threatened the villagers with retaliation a few days earlier. The AP story reports statements by the villagers. (See here and here.) For those who do not click through, here are a few quotes:
The old adage that we don’t learn from history is true enough, but it needs amendment. Governments, in particular, don’t learn from history. That’s the conclusion I reach after a wild weekend ride with Forty Centuries of Wage and Price Controls, a delightful book by Robert Schuettinger and Eamonn Butler. They s... (more)
In light of Obama’s “National Defense Resources Preparedness” Order, I’d like to comment on a troubling trend I’ve seen in American discourse about war since 9/11. From left to right, it was often said that the U.S. government’s interventions abroad as well as its activities at home did not rise to the level of drama and seriousness that ... (more)
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), the candidate-in-waiting of the center-left Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), said last week that he would end the US-backed war on drugs in Mexico if he is elected president. He said his government would instead concentrate on creating jobs and fighting corruption.
His comments come as the region is awash in criticism of US-style drug wars and calls for a discussion of alternatives, including decriminalization and legalization. Regional heads... (more)
The Supreme Court is going to consider the constitutionality of ObamaCare in the coming weeks, but the government takeover of healthcare didn’t start with the current president, but with Harry Truman decades ago.
We’re told the nation’s health care needs fixed: That the free market isn’t providing for this vital service adequately. However, America’s healthcare hasn’t been left to the free market since World War II. The president has promised... (more)
Earlier this month the Labor Department reported that 227,000 new jobs were added to the economy in February, marking the third consecutive month of positive jobs growth. Many observers took the news as evidence that the recovery has taken hold in earnest, helping send the S&P 500 index to the highest level in nearly five years. However the very same day the Commerce Department reported that, after surging for much of the last year, the U.S. trade deficit increased to $52.6 billion for January, ... (more)
