How I Would Not Lead the World Bank
Do NOT, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, pick me.
BY WILLIAM EASTERLY
‘This Is How You Elect a Fucking President?’
Putin cracks down on Moscow's protesters before the victory tears are dry on his face.
BY JULIA IOFFE
The Petrostates of America
Yes, the U.S. economy is addicted to oil -- selling it.
BY STEVEN R. KOPITS |
Suicide attack on Afghan NATO base where Korans burned
Suicide attack on Afghan NATO base where Korans burned
KABUL |
(Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed at
least two civilians Monday after detonating explosives at the gates of
the NATO base where copies of the Koran were burned, Afghan officials
said.Tell the Truth Already!
“Dismounted complex blast injuries” caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan are felling our soldiers and Marines so frequently today that men are routinely banking their sperm as another item on the checklist before they deploy for the war.
They’re doing that because a dismounted complex blast injury — now being called the “new signature wound” of the Afghan conflict — can not only cause the amputation of multiple limbs, but often results in irreversible genital and pelvic injuries, meaning urinary tracts, genitals and bowels are being destroyed even as the victim stays alive.
(Reuters/Umit Bektas)
Obama’s Red Line
War with Iran has just gotten more likely
“We’ve got Israel’s back” – that is the message President Obama sent out ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US for a crucial summit at the White House, and he did it in an interview granted to one of the leading pro-Israel voices in the media, Jeffrey Goldberg, former Israeli prison guard and IDF soldier, now a columnist for The Atlantic. In that interview, Obama basically telegraphed his capitulation to the Israelis, who are demanding the establishment of “red lines” Iran may not cross without provoking an attack:
“[O]ur assessment, which is shared by the Israelis, is that Iran does not yet have a nuclear weapon and is not yet in a position to obtain a nuclear weapon without us having a pretty long lead time in which we will know that they are making that attempt.”
In Russia, thousands protest presidential election results
At least 20,000 gather in Moscow to accuse Russian leader Vladimir Putin of stealing the vote. Hundreds of protesters are arrested in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Reporting from Moscow—
With police helicopters hovering low over central Moscow and security forces blanketing the streets, at least 20,000 protesters gathered Monday to accuse Vladimir Putin of stealingRussia's presidential election and demand his immediate resignation.
Rush Limbaugh: Still has the biggest sponsor on his side
File photo: Rush Limbaugh.
(Associated Press)
Rush Limbaugh
is probably not sweating this one, folks. The critics keep piling on.
But the immensely popular talk radio host has the biggest "sponsor" of
all on his side: Clear Channel radio network.Drug allegations may hamper former Mexico ruling party's return. The PRI candidate for president is the front-runner. But allegations of drug payoffs involving a former PRI governor could remind voters of the party's past.
Mexico's former ruling
party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, hopes to ride back
to power behind Enrique Pena Nieto, its handsome young presidential
candidate, and a rejuvenated image.
(Alexandre Meneghini, Associated Press )
Reporting from Mexico City—
Reagan Was A Sure Loser Too. Conventional wisdom about Republican presidential prospects sounds mighty familiar.
Not since Herbert Hoover has a party out of power
had such an opportunity to run against everything that troubles the
American family—prices, interest rates, unemployment, taxes, or the fear
for the future of their old age or the future of their children—than is
now presented to the Republican Party.
The Republicans, however, haven't figured this out. This is their basic problem. They have no strategy for defeating an Obama administration that is highly vulnerable on both domestic and foreign policy.
That's the conventional wisdom in a nutshell, isn't it?
It will come as no surprise that these words appeared in a Feb. 29 column in the New York Times. They are reproduced here exactly as written, save for one small adjustment.
The president whose failings they describe is Jimmy Carter, not Barack Obama. The lines were written in 1980, not 2012. The author was the then-dean of conventional wisdom, James "Scotty" Reston. The headline was "Jimmy Carter's Luck," a reference to Reagan's victory in the New Hampshire primary three days earlier.
It appears the conventional wisdom hasn't changed much. Today's narrative holds that however weak President Obama's hand, Republicans find themselves in no position to capitalize on it. A glance back to where we were at this exact point in the 1980 primaries suggests otherwise.
Bettmann/Corbis
The Republicans, however, haven't figured this out. This is their basic problem. They have no strategy for defeating an Obama administration that is highly vulnerable on both domestic and foreign policy.
That's the conventional wisdom in a nutshell, isn't it?
It will come as no surprise that these words appeared in a Feb. 29 column in the New York Times. They are reproduced here exactly as written, save for one small adjustment.
The president whose failings they describe is Jimmy Carter, not Barack Obama. The lines were written in 1980, not 2012. The author was the then-dean of conventional wisdom, James "Scotty" Reston. The headline was "Jimmy Carter's Luck," a reference to Reagan's victory in the New Hampshire primary three days earlier.
It appears the conventional wisdom hasn't changed much. Today's narrative holds that however weak President Obama's hand, Republicans find themselves in no position to capitalize on it. A glance back to where we were at this exact point in the 1980 primaries suggests otherwise.
Bettmann/Corbis
The Republican candidates in
early 1980 (from left): Philip Crane, John Connally, John Anderson,
Howard Baker, Bob Dole, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush
Limbaugh and Our Phony Contraception Debate A student demands that a Catholic school give up its religion to pay for her birth-control pills.
By CATHY CLEAVER RUSE
Last week Sandra Fluke, a student at Georgetown University Law Center, went to Congress looking for a handout. She wants free birth-control pills, and she wants the federal government to make her Catholic school give them to her.I'm a graduate of Georgetown Law and former chief counsel of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution. Based on her testimony, I wonder how much Ms. Fluke really knows about the university or the Constitution.
Obama's Blueprint for National Decline
By Rich Lowry
President
Barack Obama loves to talk about how he was open to painful changes in
entitlement programs in last year’s private budget talks with
Republicans. Oddly enough, his bragged-about courage behind closed doors
disappears every time he has to put his vision to paper in the light of
day.
His latest budget is built on gimmicks and cheery assumptions that support a massive superstructure of new taxes and new debt. It is a blueprint for national decline, a budget worthy of the Élysée Palace in its fiscal indiscipline, its squeeze on defense, and its assumption of ever-increasing centralized bureaucratic power.
His latest budget is built on gimmicks and cheery assumptions that support a massive superstructure of new taxes and new debt. It is a blueprint for national decline, a budget worthy of the Élysée Palace in its fiscal indiscipline, its squeeze on defense, and its assumption of ever-increasing centralized bureaucratic power.
Blocking the Paths Out of Poverty
by John Stossel
Have you noticed how often government takes sides against the little guy?
Street vending has been a path out of poverty for Americans. And like other such paths (say, driving a taxi), this one is increasingly difficult to navigate. Why? Because entrenched interests don't like competition. So they lobby their powerful friends to erect high hurdles to upstarts. It's an old story.
Street vending has been a path out of poverty for Americans. And like other such paths (say, driving a taxi), this one is increasingly difficult to navigate. Why? Because entrenched interests don't like competition. So they lobby their powerful friends to erect high hurdles to upstarts. It's an old story.
Government can't make us happy
by John Stossel
Then came the liberal revolution based on the idea of individual freedom. Only then did they start thinking that happiness might be possible on earth.
Politicians fiddle while fiscal crisis looms
by John Stossel
Last year, you earned $24,700. But you spent $37,900, incurring $13,300 in debt, and you were already $153,500 in debt.
So you say, "I promise I'll spend $300 less this year!"
Anyone can see that your cutback is pathetic and that you need to spend much less.
Yet if you add eight zeroes, that's America's budget.
So you say, "I promise I'll spend $300 less this year!"
Anyone can see that your cutback is pathetic and that you need to spend much less.
Yet if you add eight zeroes, that's America's budget.
The Sinful State
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr.
Now, libertarians don't often talk about virtues and vices, mainly because we agree with Lysander Spooner that vices are not crimes, and that the law ought only to address the latter. At the same time, we do need to observe that vices and virtues — and our conception of what constitutes proper behavior and culture generally — have a strong bearing on the rise and decline of freedom.
[Speaking of Liberty (2003)]
Hardly anyone talks of the table of virtues and vices anymore — which
includes the Seven Deadly Sins — but in reviewing them, we find that
they nicely sum up the foundation of bourgeois ethics, and provide a
solid moral critique of the modern state.Now, libertarians don't often talk about virtues and vices, mainly because we agree with Lysander Spooner that vices are not crimes, and that the law ought only to address the latter. At the same time, we do need to observe that vices and virtues — and our conception of what constitutes proper behavior and culture generally — have a strong bearing on the rise and decline of freedom.
Libertarian Political Realism
by David S. D'Amato
Philosopher Alexander Moseley offers a straightforward definition of
political realism as "tak[ing] as its assumption that power is (or ought
to be) the primary end of political action, whether in the domestic or
international arena." Realism thus provides a prism through which to
observe and to appraise political phenomena, dispensing with the
illusions that have built up around the modern state. A consistently realistic
view of the state does not impute to it godlike, extramundane
characteristics or motivations, or detach it from all of the analyses
that mark common discussions of incentives and "human nature." Political
realism — as both an experiential or historical matter and a
methodological one — must be at the center of a thoroughgoing
libertarian project, informing our criticisms and proposed solutions. In
a time when attitudes toward political power are marked by awe and
adoration rather than a deliberate suspicion, a new, rehabilitated
realism can furnish the fresh approach to social questions that people
around the world are crying out for.
The Rise of the Neoconservatives
by David Gordon
President Obama is without question a warmonger, but except for Ron
Paul, his conservative Republican opponents attack him for not being
enough of a warmonger. We need to start a new war now, they say. We must
immediately destroy the Iranian "nuclear program," though exactly why
Iran poses a threat to the United States they don't bother to explain.
Iran is just one example: we also have to wage a worldwide crusade
against "militant Islam." In the Republican debates, Gingrich and
Santorum told off Ron Paul. He doesn't want to kill people on useless
crusades. To them, this makes Dr. Paul unpatriotic.
[David Gordon will teach The Betrayal of the American Right and the Rise of the Neoconservatives, a 6-week online course at the Mises Academy, March 21 – April 30.]
The State Is a Harsh Mistress
by David Masten
When I mention that I believe that it is not the proper role of
government to subsidize research in space technology, the looks I
receive from my fellow aerospace engineering classmates seem to suggest
that they want to send me to the dark side of the moon (on the
taxpayers' dime).
If there's one libertarian position that is exceedingly difficult to argue, it is the notion that scientific research should not be the concern of the state. This essay will focus on outlining two possible approaches that may allow my dear reader to explain free-market space technology to an outsider without sounding like a green-eyed Martian. These are as follows:
If there's one libertarian position that is exceedingly difficult to argue, it is the notion that scientific research should not be the concern of the state. This essay will focus on outlining two possible approaches that may allow my dear reader to explain free-market space technology to an outsider without sounding like a green-eyed Martian. These are as follows:
Koch Brothers, Worth $50 Billion, Sue Widow Over $16.00 of Nonprofit’s Stock
Secret Owners of Cato Institute Surface as Oil Billionaires Move to Take Control
With the Koch brothers, it’s all about control. They reign over
the largest private oil company in the U.S. with estimated revenues of
$100 billion. They wield power over a sprawling network of nonprofit
front groups with unbridled influence over everything from the Tea Party
to economics professors at publicly funded universities. Forbes lists
their personal wealth as $25 billion each. They own mansions in the
toniest towns in America. And last week, in a decidedly Scrooge-esque
maneuver, they filed a lawsuit against a widow who lost her husband to a
stroke a mere four months ago over stock she inherited in the Cato
Institute worth a measly $16.00.Save Cato from the Koch brothers. . .on Facebook?
By Allen McDuffee
(Facebook via screengrab) I suppose it was just a matter of time before the lawsuit the Koch brothers filed to gain control of the Cato Institute took on an activist element. And that’s exactly what happened when, on Friday, a Save the Cato Institute Facebook page appeared.
Battle for control of Cato Institute highlights unusual structure
The Cato Institute, one of the largest think tanks in Washington, is governed by four people, each with a 25 percent stake in the organization. That stake can be bought and sold for cash under an arrangement, only legal in a handful of states, that is frowned upon by the Internal Revenue Service.
The incomplete media debate on Iran
Ehud Barak and President Barack Obama (Credit: AP)
On January 25, the New York Times Sunday Magazine published a lengthy article by Israeli journalist Ronen Bergman that conveyed the views of multiple Israeli officials about Iran in order to conclude that an Israeli attack is likely. That the entire article was filled with quotes from Israelis meant the piece served as a justification for such an attack while masquerading as a news story about whether the attack would happen. Indeed, the very first paragraph contained this bit of manipulative melodrama: “‘This is not about some abstract concept,’ [Israeli Defense Minister Ehud] Barak said as he gazed out at the lights of Tel Aviv, ‘but a genuine concern. The Iranians are, after all, a nation whose leaders have set themselves a strategic goal of wiping Israel off the map’.” Note that we are told that Barak uttered this article-shaping blatant falsehood “as he gazed out at the lights of Tel Aviv.” So solemn, contemplative and profound.
What Goes Around Comes Around. by Skip Oliva
History may
be repeating itself in the Koch vs. Cato battle, at least if you
believe the late Murray Rothbard’s account of his 1981 “purge”
as a Cato shareholder and director. A
1981 article in Rothbard’s Libertarian Forum essentially
portrays Ed Crane in much the same light that Crane and his allies
now portray Charles Koch. Only in Rothbard’s case, Crane and
Koch worked together to oust him.
Did Obama Let You Down? There’s Still Hope! by Bretigne Shaffer
Three years
ago, I wrote an article
in which I made some very specific predictions about the incoming
Obama administration. I wrote the piece in the form of a letter
to my pro-Obama friends and said that by the end of his term, Obama’s
administration would not look very different from that of George
W. Bush. I told them that if I was wrong about my predictions, I
would re-think all of my beliefs about our political system and
about politics generally, and if I turned out to be right, I asked
them to do the same.
I don’t know
if any of my friends took me up on my challenge – I’m guessing they
didn’t, since I never heard from any of them about it. But I do
know that many of them are disappointed in what Obama has done so
far, and that many are feeling hopeless about the upcoming election,
resigned to their belief that there is "no better alternative."
Incredibly, some of them plan to vote for Obama again.
Salaries: Dim Light, Long Tunnel. by Gary North
MarketWatch
ran an
article on the lack of optimism for the American job market.
It offered no analysis of why the market is bad, but it made it
clear that it is not likely to get better anytime soon.
The article
focused on the job market since 2008. It included a chart on salaries
since 1980. It has three categories: college graduates, high school
dropouts, and total. The chart reveals that there has not been
much improvement for a decade. The flat-lining of salaries began
a decade ago, not in 2008.
Conclusion:
things are a lot worse than the article reported.This flat-lining
is not simply a result of the recession of 2008-9. It is a long-term
condition.
The salaries
of workers have not changed much. The number of laborers employed
has. There are six million fewer people employed today than in
2007.
The Elite's Military Problem
US 'turns page on a decade of war' ... The United States is "turning the page on a decade of war", President Barack Obama
said, as he unveiled a major strategic review that will cut $489
billion in defence spending over the next ten years ... As the wars of
the September 11 era pass, Mr Obama said America should abandon its
traditional capability of fighting two major wars at once and focus on
becoming a "leaner and smarter" fighting force with an emphasis on
counter terrorism, reconnaissance, cyber warfare and maintaining a
nuclear deterrent. In a rare appearance in the Pentagon press briefing
room, Mr Obama however insisted that the US military would comfortably
maintain its military supremacy, with proposed spending still larger
than that of the next 10 countries combined. – UK Telegraph
Economy Squeezed As Debt Accelerates
– by Ron Paul
Dr. Ron Paul
US Fed as Credit Card and Consumer Watch Dog! ...
– by Staff Report
Federal Reserve
Dominant Social Theme: The Fed cares for you!
Free-Market Analysis: A close friend of ours just received a promo advertising a "Marriot Rewards Cards." She was surprised to find, upon reading the "terms and conditions," a note suggesting a visit to a US Federal Reserve website that would educate her about credit cards generally.
Central Banks Now Operating as One Global Monopoly?
by Staff Report
Dominant Social Theme: More is better. But each bank "does its own thing."
Clues Left in Obama 'Birth Forgery' on Purpose?
– by Staff Report
Dr. Yaron Brook on Ayn Rand, Capitalism and the War on Terror
– with Anthony Wile
Dr. Yaron Brook
Introduction: Dr. Yaron Brook is executive director of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. He is a columnist at Forbes.com, and his articles have been featured in major publications such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Investor’s Business Daily. Dr. Brook is often interviewed on radio and is a frequent guest on a variety of national TV programs. He is co-author of Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea and a contributor to Winning the Unwinnable War: America’s Self-Crippled Response to Islamic Totalitarianism. Dr. Brook, a former finance professor, is an internationally sought after speaker on such topics as the causes of the financial crisis, the morality of capitalism, and U.S. foreign policy.
Dr. Brook was born and raised in Israel. He served as a first sergeant in Israeli military intelligence and earned a BSc in civil engineering from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel. In 1987 he moved to the United States, where he received his MBA and Ph.D. in finance from the University of Texas at Austin; he became an American citizen in 2003. For seven years he was an award-winning finance professor at Santa Clara University, and in 1998 he cofounded a financial advisory firm, BH Equity Research, of which he is presently managing director and chairman.
As Predicted, Electric Cars Foundering: GM Shuts Down the Volt
– by Anthony Wile
Anthony Wile
General Motors has temporarily suspended production of its Volt electric car, the company announced Friday. GM, which is based in Detroit, announced to employees at one of its facilities that it was halting production of the beleaguered electric car for five weeks and temporarily laying off 1,300 employees.
Democracy versus Liberty
by Tibor Machan
Dr. Tibor Machan
Next Neocon War? 'Free-Balochistan' to Split Pakistan in Two
– by Staff Report
Sickening Regulation. by Michael D. Tanner
Never underestimate the brilliance of our federal bureaucracy.
The Department of Health and Human Services has announced that it
must delay implementation of new reimbursement codes for Medicare. Those
new regulations would have increased the total number of reimbursement
codes from the current 18,000 to more than 140,000 separate codes. The
delay will undoubtedly come as a relief for physicians who will have
additional time to try to understand the bureaucratic complexity of
rules that, for example, apply 36 different codes for treating a snake
bite, depending on the type of snake, its geographical region, and
whether the incident was accidental, intentional self-harm, assault, or
undetermined. The new codes also thoroughly differentiate between nine
different types of hang-gliding injuries, four different types of
alligator attacks, and the important difference between injuries
sustained by walking into a wall and those resulting from walking into a
lamppost.Blind Ambition Is Not a Presidential Job Qualification. by Gene Healy
Are you depressed about the shape of the 2012 presidential race? Maybe you're not depressed enough.
Nobody who wants the presidency too badly ought to be trusted with
it. George Washington struck the right note in his first inaugural: "No
event could have filled me with greater anxieties" than learning of his
election.Yet, as the powers of the presidency have grown far beyond what Washington could have imagined, the selection process has changed in ways that make it vanishingly unlikely that a latter-day Washington will seek the job.
Unfortunately, the modern presidential campaign calls forth characters with delusions of grandeur, a flair for dissembling, and a bottomless hunger for higher office.
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