Guest Editor

Brian Anderson is the guest editor today.

I'm looking for a new guest editor.  If you're interested, please email me.

photo courtesy of 1D110
So You Work as an Elections Clerk?
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR [Author's Note: Readers who know someone who helps operate elections might usefully refer him or her to this article. Should it become widely read before November, it could have an interesting effect. It's adapted from one of a series at the new web site TinyURL.com/QuitGov, which aims to help government employees lead honest lives. ] Probably you also hold another job in your state or city government, but at election time, you...
President O’s Hollywood Cult
Original article "Hollywood’s making a funny new documentary featuring a handful of half-asleep champagne socialists who worship a charismatic government leader and then empty their wallets for his reelection campaign. You can watch the documentary as it’s being made on your nearest television screen."
Obama's New Free Speech Threat
Original article "As it does with most U.S.-compliant dictators in the region, the Obama administration has since been propping up [Yemen's] Hadi with large amounts of money and military assistance, but it is now taking a much more extreme step to ensure he remains entrenched in power — a step that threatens not only basic liberties in Yemen but in the U.S. as well."
JPMorgan Lesson: End Government Bank Guarantees
Original article "It’s widely believed that JPMorgan Chase’s recent $2 billion–plus loss proves we need the comprehensive banking regulation called for by the 2010 Dodd-Frank law. That belief is wrong."
DHS Considers Collecting DNA From Kids; DEA and US Marshals Already Do
Original article "Documents just released by US Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) in response to one of EFF’s Freedom of Information Act requests show that DHS is considering collecting DNA from kids ages 14 and up—and is exploring expanding its regulations to allow collection from kids younger than that."
‘Dead Man Walking’ Tricks Airport Into Giving Him Top Security Job
Original article "The TSA may have its eagle sights set on your underwear and water bottle, but it failed to miss the real security threat under its nose, it was revealed Monday, after a supervisor holding a top security job in a New Jersey airport was arrested for using the stolen identity of a dead man."
Bubbles, Malinvestment, and Higher Education
Original article "Many commentators are asking whether the next big bubble to burst will be the debt associated with the rising cost of higher education. College costs have strongly outpaced the inflation rate, and the debt students are racking up is crippling. So what is driving this process and what consequences does it have for students? I have some thoughts below, informed by Austrian economics."
WikiLeaks: No, Media "Morons," We Didn't Help Iran Execute An Israeli Spy
Original article "In a story Wednesday morning, The Daily Mail headlined a story “WikiLeaks cable ‘led Iran to hang kick-boxer it claims was Israeli spy who assassinated nuclear scientist,’” a story that was soon picked up by other sites in Israel and around the world, finally ending up on the Drudge Report with the headline “REPORT: ‘Mossad spy’ hanged by Iran was doomed by WIKILEAKS…” linking to a story at the Times of Israel."
Krugman’s Mythology of U.S. Banking History
Original article "Do the banking panics of the late 19th century prove that a safe and sound financial system requires government oversight of banks? Paul Krugman (and most every pundit) seems to think so. In his New York Times column of May 13, he writes: “Current right-wing mythology has it that bad banking is always the result of government intervention, whether from the Federal Reserve or meddling liberals in Congress. In fact, however, Gilded Age America—a land with minimal government and...
The Good and the Bad
Original article "Scott Sumner has an excellent post about Krugman and about fiscal policy in Britain and Sweden. To refute the idea that the Swedish economy is doing well (Krugman admits it's doing well) even though the Swedish government has cut spending, Krugman singles out one component of government spending--government purchases--and points out that that has risen."
Research Shows Little Relationship Between Stricter IP Laws And Innovation Or Economic Growth
Original article "Mike Palmedo recently put together a presentation highlighting some of the research which demonstrates the lack of a connection between such policies and economic growth or innovation."
Who Needs War for Oil?
Original article "For decades Americans have endured a steady drumbeat urging the need to wean the U.S. from its “addiction” to oil. The specific reasons differ, depending on the critic: leftists stress the environment and the social joys of a European-style mass transit system, while right-wingers worry about oil from a national-security standpoint."
How Bad Is Peanut Butter, Really?
Original article "I get at least one email a week from a devoted reader of the blog who just can’t shake the desire (that feels like a need) to eat peanut butter on a regular basis. They’re on board with everything else."
Greens to Michelle Obama: Ignore Science, Please (Anti-Shale Movement Getting Desperate)
Original article "In the latest attempt by anti-shale activists to obscure the facts and disregard evidence, a group called “The Mother’s Project” recently sponsored an ad in the New York Times calling on First Lady Michelle Obama to do whatever she can to “hit the pause button” on hydraulic fracturing."
What Nordhaus Gets Wrong About Climate Change
Original article "William Nordhaus is a professor at Yale University and one of the pioneers in the economics of climate change. Earlier this year Nordhaus wrote a piece in the New York Review of Books entitled, “Why the Global Warming Skeptics Are Wrong.” Because of Nordhaus’ stature in the profession, and because of his supposedly definitive claims, the article was an instant hit in certain circles, even being assigned by economics professors as an excellent introduction to the case for...
Revolution
Original article An upcoming TV series that will be of interest to preppers.  (Editor's pick)
Battle of the Steve Jobs Movies
Original article "Right now, if you want to watch a fictionalized version of the story of Steve Jobs, you have one option: the so-so 1999 teleflick Pirates of Silicon Valley, with Noah Wyle as Apple’s cofounder. Before too long, though, there will be two fresh new choices: an independent biopic from Five Star Features and one from Sony that’s based on Walter Isaacson’s bestselling authorized biography."
Do Humans Dream of Android Prostitutes?
Original article "In the next five years or so it will be possible to build lifelike robots. These robots will look, move, and feel like fellow humans — but, unless the technological singularity comes early, these robots won’t be excellent conversationalists. According some recent research, though, they will make fantastic prostitutes."
Ask James: Greatest fear, Sex every day, Mitt Romney, Bounce Back from Failure, the Supernatural, and More!
Original article Great weekly Q&A session at James Altucher's website.

Videos: Revolution OS (recommended), House of Cards (highly recommended), Goldman Sachs: Power and Peril (recommended), Waiting for Armageddon (recommended), CNBC: The Scam of the Century (recommended), The War (by Ken Burns; recommended), Red, White, Black and Blue (interesting), Big River (interesting), Inside the Mind of Google (recommended), Dogs Decoded (recommended), The Facebook Obsession (interesting), Ground War (interesting), An Inconvenient Tax (disappointing), Limitless (pretty good), Battlefield Detectives (recommended), Flying Wild Alaska (recommended), Nightmare in Jamestown (recommended), Gold Rush: Alaska (recommended), Erasing David (recommended), Brad Meltzer's Decoded (recommended), Pawn Stars (recommended), Nova: The Spy Factory (recommended), Sherman's March (recommended), Client 9 (recommended), Surfwise (recommended), Moving Midway (recommended), Fat Head (highly recommended), The Trials of Henry Kissinger (recommended), Under Our Skin (recommended), Beer Wars (recommended), The Street Stops Here (recommended), The Cartel (MUST SEE), Freakonomics (recommended), A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (recommended), The Tillman Story (highly recommended), Inside Job (a leftish perspective of the financial crisis), Robin Hood (strongly recommended), Gasland (recommended), Friday Night Lights, Seasons 1-5 (highly recommended), The Power of Nightmares (3 parts, MUST SEE), Frontline: The Wounded Platoon (MUST SEE), Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (highly recommended), Sons of Anarchy, Seasons 1-3 (MUST SEE), Hacking Democracy (MUST SEE), For the Bible Tells Me So (recommended), Green Zone (recommended), Generation Kill (MUST SEE), Shut Up and Sing (recommended), Collapse (recommended), The Singing Revolution (recommended), Jericho, Seasons 1 & 2 (MUST SEE), Frontline: Black Money (recommended), Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa (strongly recommended), Frontline: The Madoff Affair (MUST SEE), Taxi to the Dark Side (MUST-MUST SEE), Frontline: Hand of God (MUST SEE), Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (MUST SEE), Defiance (strongly recommended), Frontline: Ghosts of Rwanda (MUST SEE), The Heart of the Game (highly recommended), Downfall (highly recommended), Frontline: Inside the Meltdown (recommended), White Light, Black Rain (strongly recommended), Rendition (highly recommended), The Ground Truth (highly recommended); see recommended movies 

Books: Getting Things Done, More Money Than God, Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan

Music: Sunshine by Schuyler Fisk

 

So You Work as an Elections Clerk?
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Jim Davies 2012-05-18 00:00
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR [Author's Note: Readers who know someone who helps operate elections might usefully refer him or her to this article. Should it become widely read before November, it could have an interesting effect. It's adapted from one of a series at the new web site TinyURL.com/QuitGov, which aims to help government employees lead honest lives....
The Comforting Lie
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livefreeretiree 2012-05-16 00:00
Column by Vahram G. Diehl.   I know you often feel alone in this life. I know at times you feel lost and overwhelmed by the seemingly insurmountable forces stacked against you. I know at times you wish you could just forget all this and fade into nothingness. The temptation can be truly unbearable. But the most important revelation you can have is that it is not the world that needs changing...
Amendment Done
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dubhub9 2012-05-14 00:00
Column by new Root Striker William Hubbard.   Exclusive to STR   I have sullied myself this day, and for no profitable reason. I have stained my soul and made a lopsided deal with the devil. I entered the voting booth this afternoon, for the last time, against my principle, in order that I may fight for other principles. I have not voted in years. This is not out of apathy but out of...
Timeline of a World-Killing Paradigm Shift MUST READ
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Glen Allport 2012-05-14 00:00
Column by Glen Allport. Exclusive to STR   Part 3 of "Could the Non-Aggression Principle Stop the Sixth Great Extinction?"   Part One of this series discussed the Non-Aggression principle, calling it "the libertarian half of the Golden Rule" (compassion being the other half) and describing the function of aggression in creating not only tyranny and war but also...
The Clothes Make the G-Man
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antiox 2012-05-11 00:00
Column by new Root Striker antiox. Exclusive to STR  Who knew that Janet Napolitano was a fashionista? What other conclusion can we come to after finding out that in addition to the war on Islamic fascism, her department is now waging another in favor of idiotic faddism? That’s right, the Department of Homeland Security has taken to setting up surreptitiously in local flea markets and...
What a Time to Be Alive!
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Jim Davies 2012-05-08 00:00
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR   For ten thousand years, governments have polluted the human race by stealing and squandering the products of our labor, repeatedly creating war and destruction, and choking off initiative and invention. Yet now, in this present era, there is serious hope that these parasites will cease to leech. The root of the problem is, at long last, being...
Hey, Hey, We're Dangerous Sociopaths!
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Leonidas 2012-05-07 00:00
Column by Leonidas. Exclusive to STR So, I was listening to the Monkees theme last week, and it suddenly struck me that behind that chirpy upbeat bubblegum rock facade were some seriously disturbing lyrics full of threats and antisocial attitudes. See if you agree:   Here we come, walkin' Down the street.   An assertive group identity proclaiming an aggressive takeover of a public venue...
Theft by Any Other Name Is Still Theft!
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Paul Hein 2012-05-04 00:00
Column by Paul Hein.   Exclusive to STR   You encounter an ominous character on the street who stops you, points his finger at you and declares that he wants your money—all of it---and he wants it now, and you’d better give it to him, or face the consequences.   You reach into your pocket, but instead of pulling forth your wallet, pull forth your .38 caliber automatic...
The Future of Not Voting
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Alex R. Knight III 2012-05-01 00:00
Column by Alex R. Knight III Exclusive to STR  Given that those in government have designated this another election year, we’re going to be hearing a lot about this biennial farcical charade for the next several months. And in truth, one could compile a small library just out of the amount of writing voluntaryists have done on the subject since at least the 19th Century. Thus...
So You Work for a Prosecutor? Recommended
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Jim Davies 2012-04-30 00:00
Column by Jim Davies. Exclusive to STR  [Author's Note: Readers who know someone working in a prosecutor's office might usefully refer him or her to this article. It's adapted from one of a series at the new web site TinyURL.com/QuitGov, which aims to help government employees lead honest lives.] Getting bad guys off the street is surely a good and noble objective, a vital task in a...

 

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