Thursday, March 13

Jeremy Horpedahl is the guest editor today. 

 

The Speech That Eliot Never Gave

"After that, I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest of my life, but I'm certain of this: I'll no longer earn a living by making anyone offers they cannot refuse."  Column by Jim Davies.

 

Plumbing the Depths

"When people sense this and decline to vote, we cluck like disturbed hens and speak of apathy. Nope. Just common sense."  Column by Fred Reed.

 

NSA Shifts to E-mail, Web, Data-Mining Dragnet

“If the reports are correct, what this transactional-data-dragnet amounts to is a rebuilding of the Defense Department's Total Information Awareness program, which promised to do extensive warrantless data-mining to identify 'information signatures' that could identify criminals.”

 

How Government Makes Things Worse

“What do ethanol and the subprime mortgage meltdown have in common? Each is a good reminder of that most powerful of unwritten decrees, the Law of Unintended Consequences - and of the all-too-frequent tendency of solutions imposed by the state to exacerbate the harms they were meant to solve.”

 

How Do You Define Success in Drug Enforcement?

“According to the head of the HIDTA (High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) task force in Atlanta , you know you're doing the job right when you see an increase in burglaries, armed robberies and murders!”

 

Damn, There Goes My Meth Supply

“This grand and insidious 'war' must be one of our greatest national embarrassments, an enormous, unspoken failure, far worse in its way than the lost and disgusting war in Iraq, given how it's caused more misery and more pain and more destruction across multiple decades and nations and governments and continues to cost countless billions of dollars and yet has, as all stats and studies reveal, almost zero effect on the overall drug culture of the nation.”

 

They Call This Intellectual Property?

The mainstream business press starts asking questions.

 

Feds Might Be Studying Your Finances

“Banks and credit unions as well as currency dealers and stores that cash checks reported a record 17.6 million transactions to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in 2006, according to a report from the network, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department.”

 

From Jack Johnson to Eliot Spitzer

“When a self-righteous crusader like Eliot Spitzer is caught with his pants down, a lot of onlookers might feel a tinge of glee to see such hypocrisy revealed.  But the law under which he may be prosecuted, the Mann Act, is a relic that should give pause to anyone looking to hold Spitzer accountable in court on counts of prostitution.” The century-old federalization of vice crimes.

 

Better Living Through Chemical Warfare

"Keen-eyed observers of the Mad Scientist wing of the American military research complex have noted that the Pentagon is at it again."

 

Minn. Rep Wants Scent-Free Schools

 

Shocking Death Camps for Cats Result of Beijing Olympics Clean-Up

Another reason to boycott the statist sports spectacular.

 

Recycling Eliminated More Than 50 Million Tons of Guilt

Satire.

 

Recycle or Go to Hell, Warns Vatican

Not satire.

 

Treeswing

A photo blog.  (3 pages)