- “The Doughty Swiss” and their fabulous franc.
- If you thought the Obama administration and fed ‘crats had backed off on using banks to try to shut down gun stores, think again.
- In one California city citizens take direct action to try to get justice against brutal cops.
- The emergency room: a microcosm for misplaced priorities. We see this in animal rescue/welfare work, too, in the form people who can afford pricey tattoos, cigarettes, and weekly lotto tickets and scratch cards — but “can’t” come up with $25 to keep their pets from producing endless, unhealthy litters year after year.
- In legalizing recreational cannabis, Alaska faces some unique hurdles. Well, one unique hurdle, mainly: that hurdle we all know and love so well, the fedgov.
- Fresh guacamole! Delightful video via A.G. in comments.
Priorities brought on by the entitlement mentality so carefully nurtured over the last two centuries or so – the idea that “compassion” for the poor can best be expressed by theft, fraud and force. This article, and few others mention the rather obvious solution of eliminating the theft and that discourages individual responsibility and voluntary charity.
The amount of the theft and force, or the relative wealth of the entitlement brigade is not the real problem, obviously.
Once you have swallowed theft for “worthy causes”, all the rest is certain to follow – although I do think socialism is even less viable in America than in Europe (there seems to be a bit more restraint there about gaming the system).
Whenever entitlements come up, I always ask, “Assume there is no safety net. If my mother needed an operation, would it be OK for me to get my gun, go over to the neighbor’s house, stick the gun in his face and demand some money for it?” It’s always amusing – and sad – to see the contortions people would go through to justify theft and violence.
Here is a warning about framing the argument correctly:
http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2011/tle620-20110522-07.html
Panarchy solves the ER problem too.
http://strike-the-root.com/everyone-gets-what-he-wants
My brain is tripping over the guacamole video. Woh, Dude!
I love the idea of a bounty on cops. If you call it a bounty (I would).
I guess I’m too old, old fashioned or dense… or something. I don’t get the guacamole video thing. I looked at some of the others there too… and I simply have no idea what any of that is about… Is there a simply explanation that might enlighten an old lady? LOL Just curious.
I don’t think it’s supposed to make any sense, ML. Just meant to evoke the kind of reaction Kent gave it: cool, trippy, wow, how’d they do that?
Oh, ok Claire. LOL I’m just too literal and old foggy to appreciate such things, I guess. I try hard to “make sense” of everthing, and I know it is a losing battle.
The whole time I was looking at it I was thinking it was a terrible waste of an avocado. 🙂 But maybe that part was an electronic mirage too?
You have no idea how healthcare has collapsed under the burden of electronic charting for the gov.Ive gone from RN to gov data collection agent in last 6 months,no joke. Care is out the window,my job is gathering information for the gov.
Lets hear it for 1984,its here,in spades.
“The ball is in the state’s court to set up their own regulatory scheme and see how it operates,” U.S. Attorney for Alaska Karen Loeffler said. “If we end up with a marked public safety problem, like we have with heroin these days, obviously we will work jointly with our partners to deal with it.”
====================
Yeah that pot is a killer for sure.How about this???
http://lastresistance.com/9452/states-legal-marijuana-far-lower-painkiller-drug-fatalities/
The fact that something might cause harm is not the reason for the prohibition. The only reason for prohibition is control.
Most people who die from any drug overdose have taken that drug voluntarily for whatever reason, and usually in combination with other drugs/alcohol. Almost anything can be harmful or even deadly in the right dose or combination and circumstances. Individuals have control of the substance, the dose and the circumstances.
Cannabis is a plant… not a “public safety problem.” Neither is heroin.
The Swiss de-coupling of its franc from the euro is huge (and anything which so upsets the Financial Times is presumptively a Good Thing). But it’s not the major change that FT and others would have you believe; in fact, it was the original decision a few years back to peg the franc to the euro which was the real change. Last week’s action was simply abandoning a very bad idea (which, admittedly, is a rarity in international finance and politics). The Swiss have always had a solid grasp on money; allowing international bankers and major Swiss exporters to hijack their currency was folly of the first order. Allowing the franc to float to market-clearing levels will harm exporters (at least in the short run), but it will benefit importers, intra-country businesses and most consumers. And it will quickly result in a major influx of capital into the country (we’re already starting to see that happen). The Swiss will quickly benefit from this.
The Swiss franc doesn’t have enough float to supplant the dollar as the world’s reserve currency, but this action will contribute to the ongoing diminution of the dollar’s status. We’re already seeing more and more international transactions being denominated in renminbi, rubles, various pesos, even rupees. It will spell real trouble for the US in the long run, but the Swiss action could mark the beginning of a movement back toward real money (rather than politically manipulated fiat currencies). And if it causes us some temporary suffering, we can take comfort in the knowledge that it will benefit our descendants.
Oh, and I second Kent’s approval of the “bounty” on predatory cops. I hope this idea gains traction nationally.
Something I found interesting: http://www.stretcher.com/stories/15/15jan19c.cfm?FPThu
Not sure how it would work for those of us who make our living on computers, but it’s a good skill to have. Or set of skills, rather.
“The only reason for prohibition is control.”
Well, I wouldn’t say that is the only reason. There is a lot of money to be made from payoffs to judges, paying cops to look the other way, etc. The whole thing is also a gigantic jobs program, doubling the need for the prison-industrial complex. Finally it gives the participants a great mental boost to be “taking care” of us.
The problem with prohibition is that it confers so many benefits on selected individuals. That’s why it is so difficult to root it out.
The money and so forth is a big part of the control, Paul, and of course a big reason for it. 🙂
The problem with prohibition is that people have assumed that someone else has a legitimate authority to control them… Prohibition won’t be rooted out until that dangerous superstition is gone. That’s why I spend so much time trying to point out the bogus “authority” as the primary cause of most of our problems with controllers and non-voluntary government.