October 25, 2017

Britain says no the term "pregnant woman" as it excludes transgender people

from FoxNews: For those suffering from gender dysphoria, it is apparently considered unkind to suggest a womb is necessary
in order to be pregnant.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

California's six-figure pension club has 62,000 members

from Reason: And seven retirees in Los Angeles pulled down more than $1 million each in retirement benefits last year. "Public service" has its privileges.
Economic Policy: Statism vs. The Free Market

Lies and manipulation: The sorry state of global climate alarmism

from WattsUpWithThat?: While practitioners of environmental religion fret about one-tenth of one degree, India has real concerns: food and water.
Politics and Other Official Acts of Corruption

Europe: journalists against free speech

from GatestoneInstitute: Gone is all pretense that journalism is about reporting the facts.
Media Bias on Parade

Sens. Rand Paul and Ron Wyden unveil privacy-protecting surveillance reform bill

from Reason: Two senators fight back against the surveillance society and the police state to protect individual from their government.
Government is Watching Every Move You Make

Don’t call the cops if you’re autistic, deaf, mentally ill, disabled or old

from Rutherford Institute: Sometimes it’s dangerous enough calling the cops when you’re not contending with a disability. Unfortunately, the risks just skyrocket when a disability is involved.
Police State America

September 14, 2017

📹  Our Amazing Debt (Cosmos Parody) 

from ReasonTV: The national debt just skipped past $20 trillion, which puts America's indebtedness at "unfathomably staggering." (And the chunk you owe personally at "a lot.") The math is so complex that Reason TV decided to lean on "Cosmos" to explain it.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

Maine is nullifying federal regulations that cripple local farmers 

from Mises Institute: This is one path for the future of freedom. State nullification is the remedy for federal overreach and tyrannical anti-liberty regs.
Economic Policy: Statism vs The Free Market

Has the NYT Gone Collectively Mad? 

from Consortiumnews: "For those of us who have taught journalism or worked as editors, a sign that an article is the product of sloppy or dishonest journalism is that a key point will be declared as flat fact when it is unproven or a point in serious dispute – and it then becomes the foundation for other claims, building a story like a high-rise constructed on sand."
Media Bias on Parade

Calls to imprison "climate change deniers" grow in the wake of Hurricane Irma 

from Mises Institute: Environmental fanatics continue to grow more radical and intolerant. The movement seems to be dropping the guise of science, developing into a full-fledged religion.
Indoctrination and Censorship

In surprise vote, House passes amendment to restrict asset forfeiture 

from The Intercept: Could pass the Senate on anti-Sessions, anti-Trump sentiment, but if Trump is the tyrannical authoritarian some suspect, he will veto it.
Police State America

This new database is tracking how many cops are charged with crimes 

from Reason: A new database tries to answer one of the most vexing questions in the national debate over policing. The truly amazing thing is this hasn't been done before.
Police State America

Doug Casey: Why Debt Is Not Money

How you should think about gold. Gold’s main use, contrary to the belief of some, isn’t in jewelry or dentistry—although those uses are important. Its main use has almost always been as money. But gold’s ancillary uses are growing in importance because, given its physical characteristics, it’s a high-tech metal. It’s one of the most resistant to chemical reaction, one of the most ductile, the most malleable  ... MORE

Walter E Williams: Trade Deficit Angst

Donald Trump's primary bluster.   Let's look at the political angst over trade deficits. A trade deficit is when people in one country buy more from another country than the other country's people buy from them. There cannot be a trade deficit in a true economic sense. Let's examine this. I buy more from my grocer than he buys from me. That   ... MORE

VIDEO: Rand Paul - The Folly Of Foreign Aid

Congress Pisses Down Our Backs And Tells Us It's Raining

by Daniel J. Mitchell.    Another budget deal good for Washington and bad for America. Advocates of smaller government are justifiably upset by the pork-filled spending bill enacted in December. With goodies for countless special interests, it was more "ominous" than "omnibus." But that wasn't the biggest fiscal hit Congress inflicted on America in   ... MORE

Victor Davis Hansen: The Medicine Has Stopped Working

In search of fixes for a fossilized economy.     The U.S. economy grew at an anemic rate of less than 1 percent in the last quarter of 2015. While the unemployment rate has dipped below 5 percent, the all-important labor force participation rate is at a historic low of just 62.7 percent. More than 90 million able-bodied adults are either not   ... MORE

How And Why Gov't Will ‘Borrow’ Your Retirement Savings

by Simon Black.    The stage is set. According to financial research firm ICI, total retirement assets in the Land of the Free now exceed $23 trillion. $7.3 trillion of that is held in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). That’s an appetizing figure, especially for a government that just passed $19 trillion in debt and is in pressing need of new funding sources.  ... MORE

VIDEO: How Big Is The U.S. Debt?

Robert Gore: How To Defeat Your Government

This outcome does not require a plan.     In a recent article, “How to Defeat Your Enemies,” SLL maintained that governments and their people were natural enemies, and that the most powerful adversarial tactic is “getting one’s enemies to fool themselves.” The article detailed the effective use of this tactic by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. ... MORE

Steven Greenhut: California's Deep Debt Problems

The bureaucratic pension burden. For those who wonder about the practical importance of transparency, I offer as evidence the latest result of a modest rule change in California from a mind-numbingly named organization—the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, or GASB (pronounced Gaz-bee). The group's stated goal is to promote  ... MORE

The Decline Of America's Economic Freedom Under Obama

by Anthony B. Kim.  Millions of people around the world are emerging from poverty thanks to rising economic freedom. But by sharp contrast, America’s economic freedom has been on a declining path over the past decade. According to the 2016 Index of Economic Freedom, an annual publication by The Heritage Foundation, America’s economic    ... MORE

Pete Kasperowicz: National Debt Hits $19 Trillion

Only Rand Paul would halt the spending.  The national debt hit $19 trillion for the first time ever on Friday, and came in at $19.012 trillion. It took a little more than 13 months for the debt to climb by $1 trillion. The national debt hit $18 trillion on Dec. 15, 2014. That's a slightly stepped-up pace compared to the last few $1 trillion mileposts.  ... MORE

Texas Police Turning Into Mobile Debt Collectors

by John Cassidy.     Reduced to tax collectors with badges. Two new technologies and one failed state program could make highway travel perilous for Texans traveling between San Antonio, Austin and Houston. Law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction over I-10 east of San Antonio and I-35 between San Antonio and Austin have signed contracts   ... MORE

The Congressional Budget Office Foresees A $30 Trillion Debt As A Result Of Looming Tax Hikes And Obamacare

by Stephen Dinan.     The federal government will be flirting with $30 trillion in debt within a decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported Monday, blaming an aging population, new spending and tax cuts approved on Capitol Hill, and the growing burden from Obamacare for erasing the progress Washington had made over the past few years.     ... MORE

The State Of The Nation: A Dictatorship Without Tears

by John W. Whitehead. While only 1 in 5 Americans claim to trust the government to do what is right, the majority of the people are not quite ready to ditch the American experiment in liberty. Or at least they’re not quite ready to ditch the government with which they have been saddled. It doesn’t matter that the government has shown itself to be     ... MORE

John W. Whitehead: What’s In Store For Freedom In 2016?

You might want to sit down for this.       As I illustrate in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, we in the emerging American police state find ourselves reliving the same set of circumstances over and over again: egregious surveillance, strip searches, police shootings of unarmed citizens, government spying,        ... MORE

Peter Suderman: Democrats And Republicans Team Up To Bust The Budget With A $1.8 Trillion Spending Package

Politicians indulge themselves at taxpayer expense.     One way to understand the massive federal spending package is as a compromise between Republicans and Democrats to ignore the deficit. The deal is made of two different elements—a 2,009-page omnibus that folds in 12 appropriations bills and calls for $1.1 trillion in spending,     ... MORE

VIDEO: Larken Rose: How To Be A Crook

National Debt Spikes $578 Billion In Three Weeks

By Pete Kasperowicz. Spending frenzy after debt ceiling suspension. The national debt has surged more than half a trillion dollars in the last three weeks, as the suspension of the debt ceiling in late October has allowed the government to borrow as much as it wants. Before the debt ceiling was suspended, the national debt stood at $18.15     ... MORE