Wired Magazine is just out with this article about how the CIA is "investing" in online monitoring: Exclusive: U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets * By Noah Shachtman America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on [...]
Presented without comment, other than DUH! Full article here. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 75% of Likely Voters prefer free markets over a government managed economy. Just 14% think a government managed economy is better while 11% are not sure. These figures have changed little since December. Not surprisingly, America’s Political [...]
Neel Kashkari, formerly VP at Goldman Sachs, formerly director of the popular TARP bank bailout program that stole $700 Billion from taxpayers and rescued the banks and the banking class from their own stupidity, has some advice for the taxpaying middle class: stop being so selfish and get ready to sacrifice for the common good. [...]
http://imarketnews.com/node/17229 [emphasis added] ATHENS (MNI) - In a very rare move, the Greek government Wednesday invoked a national emergency provision to force striking fuel-tanker drivers go back to work. The government announced it would issue the civil mobilization order, normally used in times of war or national disaster, and send letters to each of [...]
Government employees are paid with tax money. When the economy is booming, so are tax revenues. What does government do with extra tax money? Return it to the people? Heavens no! They hire more government employees! When we're in the middle of a financial bubble, we think we can afford all sorts of things we [...]
The previous post was garbled somehow in the process of posting; apologies. ---- The White House web site now contains a link to the just-released OMB Mid Session Review (.pdf warning). It is filled with lots of facts, figures, and general good fun! Let’s jump right in! Guess what? It’s all Bush’s fault! In January [...]
From Wiki: Scylla and Charybdis are two sea monsters of Greek mythology noted by Homer...they were said to be located close enough to each other that they posed an inescapable threat to passing sailors; avoiding Charybdis meant passing too closely to Scylla and vice versa. Scylla was said to be a creature who was [...]
From Wiki: In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous bird-women, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Of course, we know that the myths are stories with a message for life; in many cases, they are warnings. The [...]
The Obama White House has released a new report that claims that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has saved or created millions of jobs. Mini-Me crows about it: “Everyone now acknowledges there would be somewhere between 2.5 (million) and 3.6 million fewer jobs available today, fewer people working today, were it not for [...]
...and so it is only fitting that the control and surveillance system he envisaged In his landmark novel "1984" should be actually implemented in England. Did he know something? The linked UK Telegraph article reports that an audio monitoring system is being test-deployed on High Street, Coventry as "pilot project". A controversial covert surveillance system [...]
I can't believe I had to teach all of this to myself. What does it mean to be a citizen? What is the purpose of government? I'd like to examine this thing we call the "social contract" with an eye towards its abuse. If a majority of dependent "citizens" can use their vote to borrow [...]
This is an hour-long video that I highly recommend. It covers a number of economic topics, all of which intertwine. Any one of them can be a study in itself. The video portrays its message without pulling any punches. The fiscal path we are on is unsustainable, and has been for many years. Hopefully viewers [...]
