The biggest con in history — bigger even than Social Security — might well be the one in which statists have conned the poor into believing that the welfare state helps them. If those at the bottom of the economic ladder were ever to realize how badly they’ve been conned, that could spell the end of the welfare-state way of life.
The welfare state is obviously a seductive notion, one that makes the poor especially susceptible to the con. The government offers f... (more)
We are getting a sense of what life is like with the new Fed policy of openness. It means that the chairman tries to beat the world record for the longest, most-boring press conference in modern history. Ben Bernanke is getting even better at that crucial skill of repeatedly saying nothing at great length. The better he gets at this, the longer he is willing to entertain questions from reporters.
They all ask some version of the same question, in any case. It's the cocktail-hour q... (more)
With its announcement this week that it will keep interest rates near zero until at least late 2014, the Federal Reserve has put another large crack into the foundations underlying the US dollar. In a misguided attempt to provide clarity and transparency, Ben Bernanke has instead laid out a simple road map for economists and investors to follow. The signposts are easily understood: the Fed will stop at nothing in pursuing its goals of creating phantom GDP growth, holding down unemployment, propp... (more)
Speaking to Raw Story recently, an active duty police officer who asked not to be named threw down the gauntlet over the part of his job he hates most: the drug war.
“I did not get in law enforcement to destroy a person’s future because that person had marijuana or a pill in their pocket,” the officer explained. “Why would you want to destroy that person’s future and cause them great harm because of that? It’s not worth it.”
"...the officer said that the American public would be much better off if the government would 'regulate drugs and keep the control out of the hands of the black market criminals.'"
So take it out of the hands of one group of criminals and give it to another! ;) - Chris
So many are its lies, that narrowing them down to three of the most important is a demanding task. But our current crisis has been chiefly enabled by monetary policy, fiscal policy, and the global military empire. So I have chosen to focus on lies about each: the Federal Reserve, the orchestrator of monetary policy; the U.S. budget, the accounting of government fiscal policy; and a few of the Empire’s war lies. I am sharing just a ... (more)
Every year the porn industry rakes in $14 billion. A majority of porn is shot in the Los Angeles area, but now new regulations are jeopardizing the industry. Many feel this will be a blow to the profitable business and many believe the government should keep out of the industries rights to not use condoms in its films. Chanel Preston, adult film actress, joins us for m
What humors me about this law is it was supposedly initially in response to an unnamed actor testing positive for HIV a few months back, it turns out that test was wrong and the person was not HIV positive. Nonetheless, they drummed up this legislation and passed it despite the justification for it ceasing to exist. - Chris
Who hasn't seen "The Shawshank Redemption" featuring aging convicts Red Redding (Morgan Freeman) and Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore)? The movie was set in the 1940s when most prisoners were young tough guys and of course in this case the cerebral Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins). Redding and Hatlen were finally set free after spending 40 and 50 years behind bars, respectively.
If Shawshank were to be remade today, a good share of the inmate population would have gray hair and be suff... (more)
In his State of the Union speech Tuesday night President Obama played the fairness card in calling for higher taxes on upper-income people. He said:
[W]e need to change our tax code so that people like me, and an awful lot of Members of Congress, pay our fair share of taxes. Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule: If you make more than $1 million a year,
ANNAPOLIS -- Marylanders might have some extra inspiration when they download "Angry Birds" to their smartphones in coming months.
The state would charge a 6 percent sales tax on virtually every downloaded product under an obscure provision in Gov. Martin O'Malley's proposed budget.
In other words, that 99-cent downloaded song from iTunes would cost $1.06, and smartphone apps, e-books for your Kindle, ringtones, chat discussions and other digital products would get ... (more)
Yesterday the European Union, the UK and over 20 other countries signed the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). ACTA is an international treaty, disguised as a trade agreement, whose purpose is to increase and harmonise copyright and trademark enforcement. Many of the goals of ACTA are similar to SOPA and PIPA - proposed laws which the US congress recently abandoned following a huge outcry. ACTA is, if anything, even more objectionable.
This is interesting. Kader Arif, the "rapporteur" for ACTA, has quit that role in disgust over the process behind getting the EU to sign onto ACTA. A rapporteur is a person "appointed by a deliberative body to investigate an issue." However, it appears his investigation of ACTA didn't make him very pleased: ... (more)
If Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) was acting “irate” during a recent visit to Nashville International Airport, it certainly hid it very well.
After being briefly detained by police officers on Monday, Paul appears to be getting some vindication in the form of a security camera’s video. Although police described him as “being irate” in an incident report, footage published Thursday shows Paul sitting calmly inside an airport checkpoint, and occasionally picking... (more)
Hawaii's legislature is weighing an unprecedented proposal to curb the privacy of Aloha State residents: requiring Internet providers to keep track of every Web site their customers visit.
The legislation appears to have been inspired by this Web site attacking Hawaii Rep. Kym Pine. It was created by her ex-Web designer after a billing dispute.
Its House of Representatives has scheduled a hearing this morning on a new bill (PDF) requiring the creation of virtual... (more)
A DeKalb County police “Officer of the Month” who was charged with stealing from people he had arrested has been fired, the department said Thursday.
Officer Ghayth Abdul-Mughnee, on the force for four years, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant charging him with theft by taking, possession of marijuana and violation of his oath of office. He was taken to DeKalb police headquarters in handcuffs.
[...]Police said Abdul-Mughnee would bring items home from w... (more)
When you eat Oreo cookies, if you do eat Oreo cookies, how many do you eat? Three sounds sort of reasonable to me. Surely, after three, you have been "served." If I were a guest at someone's house and ate more than that, I would try to do it surreptitiously.
But of course, this is all subjective. Maybe you think one Oreo constitutes a serving, especially if eaten with the proper care and technique we all perfected in third grade. Or you could be like a typical teen and think that ... (more)
Back in 1997 Gregory Bresiger penned a piece for the Free Market tearing apart the notion of "socially responsible investing" (SRI). Managers focused on social issues instead of profits will perform poorly as resources are diverted to unproductive uses. Bresiger looked to close the argument with this seemingly absurd proposition:
But SRI funds do point the way to solving a myriad of political debates in
There's a ton of debate all over the interwebs over this police shooting at a Carl's Jr. in Monterey Park, California.
The suspect was smashing the windows at the store with a crowbar before the police shot him. “I had heard that he had gotten into an argument with his teacher about a bad grade. People are saying that midterms are on right now,&... (more)
Strangers are out to get you, their forgotten baggage is probably filled with explosives, "DON'T ASSUME IT WAS LEFT BY ACCIDENT" reads an ominous sign in the NYC subway as part of Homeland Security's "If you see something, say something" fear-mongering campaign.
Last year, the New York Police Dept. was caught in an ugly scandal when the Village Voice reported it showed a 72-minute film titled The Third Jihad to police as a “terrorist training” video. Officials at the time downplayed the number of officers who saw it, and claimed it was quickly pulled when it was deemed “inappropriate.”
In the latest turn in our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit for records related to the government's use of social networking websites, the Department of Justice finally agreed to release almost 100 pages of new records. These include draft search warrants and affidavits for Facebook and MySpace and several PowerPoint presentations and articles on how to use social networking sites for investigations. (For more on what we... (more)
"The draft search warrants are particularly interesting because they show the full extent of data the government regularly requests on a person it’s investigating. This includes not just your full profile information but also who you “poke” (and presumably who “pokes” you), who rejects your friend requests, which apps you use, what music you listen to, your privacy settings, all photos you upload as well as any photos you’re tagged in (whether or not you upload them), who’s in each of your Facebook groups, and IP logs that can show if and when you viewed a specific profile and from what IP address you did so."
Earlier this month, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said:
Are they [the Iranians] trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No. But we know that they’re trying to develop a nuclear capability. And that’s what concerns us.
Unsurprisingly, President Obama’s campaign speech masquerading as the routine address to Congress, spelled out in the Constitution and known as the State of the Union, was saturated with every prevalent form of modern American statism--protectionism, corporate-liberal socialism, nationalism, and militarism. In a couple areas, however, he was particularly bold in his statist proposals.
Obama blamed “jobs and manufacturing . . . leaving our shores” for the poo... (more)
Slime time radio host Rush Limbaugh took to the air yesterday and declared that GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul “sounds like an Islamic terrorist”.
Limbaugh was commenting on the incident involving Congressman Paul’s son, Senator Rand Paul, who was detained by the TSA in Nashville after refusing to submit to an enhanced pat-down.
Limbaugh exclaimed that Rand Paul had “sent his dad a note about it and it’s become a big story out... (more)
