Even after CBS gave him 89 seconds in an hour long debate Paul is still a gentleman. One CBS cameraman was so determined to get a shot of the GOP candidate that he shoved Daily Caller videographer Direna Cousins. Paul stopped his interview to tell the CBS reporter to stop behaving so aggressively.
... (more)
A destructive myth has wrapped itself around laissez-faire capitalism. It is the erroneous notion that the free market harms the "vulnerable" within society; specifically, it is said to harm women and children by cruelly exploiting their labor. The opposite is true. Laissez-faire capitalism offers the one element that the vulnerable need most to survive and to advance: choice. The most liberating choice individuals can have is the ability to support themselves and not be dependent upon anyone el... (more)
If you read this article in full ("Pizza is a vegetable? Congress says yes"), it'll read like a comedy skit. The USDA, Congress, food companies (including huge players like ConAgra Foods and Schwan Food Company), and industry lobbyists (for frozen foods, potatoes, and salt) have been fighting over what non-food foods will be available for subsidized school lu... (more)
Ellen Brown, who is an attorney, has written an article about what she calls "An Economic Bill of Rights". I will argue that her case is totally wrong. It is totally permeated with factual and conceptual errors.
Even without my showing precisely how her financial analysis is in error, we can understand that she is propounding nonsense by looking at her pie-in-the-sky conclusion: ... (more)
In a move we predicted the moment the words left his mouth, TSA head John Pistole has reneged on a promise to the Senate to instigate further studies into the safety of radiation firing body scanners.
A fortnight ago, Pistole told a Senate homeland security committee hearing that the agency will commission further independent research into the safety risks associated with full body scanners currently in use in almost all major airports in the U.S.
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided medical marijuana collectives in Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Puyallup, Rochester, and Lacey, Washington, as a coordinated raid swept across the Puget Sound region on Tuesday.
Patient advocates and legal defense groups report that at least nine dispensaries have been raided, according to The Seattle Times. Ben Livingston of the patient advocacy group Cannabis Defense Coalition said he's spoken with several dispensary o... (more)
The Demopublicans are the real occupy movement. With a military presence already in over 100 countries, Premier Obama has sent troops to Central Africa and Australia in the past two months to supposedly "defend OUR interests." Of course, the neocons who have taken over the Republican Party approve of this; their only dispute is that they wish Obama would have sent MORE troops. Yesterday the Mouth of the GOP, Rush Limbaugh, was lambasting Obama for sending "only" 2,500 Marines t... (more)
The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!
If this is true, it is a serious fact, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it. ~ Frédé... (more)
Many voluntaryists have looked longingly toward Somalia for evidence of our ideas in practice. But it's a little tough when that real-world example also happens to be the quintessential image of extreme poverty and feuding warlords for most people.
Nonetheless, sometimes an article appears that rightly points out that comparing Somalia to developed nations is a little intellectually dishonest. In fact, Somalia has improved by virtually every measure of standard of living witho... (more)
The Treasury Department dramatically boosted its estimate of losses from its $85 billion auto industry bailout by more than $9 billion in the face of General Motors Co.'s steep stock decline.
In its monthly report to Congress, the Treasury Department now says it expects to lose $23.6 billion, up from its previous estimate of $14.33 billion.
The Treasury now pegs the cost of the bailout of GM, Chrysler Group LLC and the auto finance companies at $79.6 billion. It no ... (more)
No, you didn’t hear them actually say it. In fact, Bernanke says quite clearly “no” – gold is not money. But their actions speak much louder than words. The Financial Times reports that central bank gold buying is at a 40-year high. In other words, whereas central banks have primarily been net sellers of gold since the crash of the Bretton Woods sys... (more)
MANDURAH, Australia—One of the fastest-growing costs in the global mining industry are workers like James Dinnison: the 25-year-old high-school dropout from Western Australia makes $200,000 a year running drills in underground mines to extract gold and other minerals.
The heavily tattooed Mr. Dinnison, who started in the mines seven years ago earning $100,000, owns a sky-blue 2009 Chevy Ute, which cost $55,000 before a $16,000 engine enhancement, and a $44,000 custom motorcy... (more)
WASHINGTON (CN) - Motorists ensnared for drunken driving may have a civil rights case against the D.C. cop who allegedly knowingly calibrated breath-testing devices to produce higher alcohol-content readings, a federal judge ruled.
District officials announced in February 2010 that its Intoxilyzer machines were improperly calibrated to generate higher readings, leading to a swath of dismissed or vacated drunken-driving charges.
It appears that more and more members of the House are realizing just how bad SOPA is. Joining Reps. Issa and Bachmann, who had previously spoken out about SOPA, a group of ten House members have signed a letter opposing SOPA. The letter wa... (more)
There are so many scary parts to SOPA, it's taking some time to pull out all the pieces. One of the scarier parts of SOPA that isn't found in PROTECT IP, is the addition of a form of an "anti-circumvention" rule, which makes it illegal to try to get around any blockade on the US government's blacklist. Like the DMCA's dreadful anti-circumvention clause, this one is also vague and overly broad -- and would create problems for all sorts of legal services. The EFF is listing out some perfectly l... (more)
One of the talking points we've been hearing about SOPA from the lobbyists pushing to get it approved is that the majority of Americans are in favor of the bill, because they want to "protect" intellectual property or jobs. This has never made much sense, since SOPA doesn't protect jobs at all. It destroys them, by hindering one of the few parts of our economy that has been creating jobs -- new and small businesses, particularly in the tech community. Now, the same folks who brought you that ... (more)
This is a good example of government in theory vs government in practice. The woman is waving a piece of paper (a "court order") at some heavily armed state goons, they respond by allegedly punching her in the face. (Here's another angle, it's not entirely clear.)
Regardless, all the laws in the world (like the constitution, for example) are comple... (more)
In the past, I have blogged about state laws that prohibit or make difficult the purchase of wine from out-of-state retailers because the states are under pressure to preserve profits and non-competition for in-state wine sellers. Tons of bucks are thrown at the issue by special interests that lobby to take away your right to freely transact with sellers of your choice. I am writing about this issue because the wine protection ra... (more)
Occupy Wall Street after spreading across the country over the last 60 days, in protest of inequality and bank bailouts, to name a few issues, has seen a crackdown. Zuccotti Park, home of Occupy Wall Street was cleared out early this morning by riot police. Yesterday, hundreds of police in riot gear dismantled Occupy Oakland camp, arresting protesters. As for the movem... (more)
The recent bankruptcy of financial stalwart and Wall Street casino failure MF Global in the US, has claimed a new and unlikely victim. Following the company’s glorious collapse, Trends Research founder Gerald Celente had his own six figure gold investment account completely looted by chapter 11 trustees, and he is fighting to get it back.
Oil in New York climbed above $100 a barrel to a five-month high as Enbridge Inc. said it will reverse the direction of the Seaway pipeline, adding an outlet for crude from the central U.S. and Canada.
Futures rose as much as 3.1 percent after Enbridge agreed to acquire ConocoPhillips (COP)’s share of the pipeline that runs between Cushing, Oklahoma, and the Gulf Coast and announced the reversal. The change may alleviate a bottleneck at the Cushing storage hub that has lower... (more)
The European Union on Monday prohibited the use of X-ray body scanners [1] in European airports, parting ways with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, which has deployed hundreds of the scanners as a way to screen millions of airline passengers for explosives hidden under clothing.
