When you’re a bazillionaire, your April Fools jokes may be lame, but they can be pretty elaborate. (H/T MJR) Let me see if I understand this. It’s okay for the government to blackmail, extort, threaten violence, and steal all the assets from Silk Road. But it’s wrong if individual government agents do it. No, no matter how I try, I can’t wrap my head around whatever principle they’re going by. Showering with the fedgov. I always love these articles on how being a grumpy curmudgeonly doom-bearing sky-is-falling worrywort can actually be good for your work. While I disagree with some…
Category: Money
Posts about being frugal, getting out of debt, staying out of debt, spending practically and splurging joyfully. This category may also contain posts about hard money and what the government is doing to all that “soft money” it creates.
Deadlining this week as well as doing my small bit to get The Zelman Partisans ready for its next big step (look for it mid-April, Lord willing and the crick don’t rise). So blogging is a bit slow. But got some links for ya … Missed an important anniversary in the history of government on Monday: passage of the Enabling Act. March 23, 1933. Personally, I think if they can’t afford to pay for their own first-class travel, the whole scurvy bunch of ’em ought to just hitchhike and stay in hostels. And what the heck is a “first lady,”…
Seems most of the commentors on this piece don’t understand the concept of the straw that broke the camel’s back. A reminder of how fragile the infrastructure of modern communications can be. (And here’s some analysis with links to some conspiracy theorizing.) The sad irony in Boris Nemtsov’s murder. “Dark Leviathan.” A darkly cynical look at Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road, the Darknet, and what the author believes is the inevitable fate of libertarian ideals. Someone needs to give this article a great fisking. F*c*b**k blocks a fundraiser to help a father reunite with his son. (Hint: the reason is G-U-N-S.)…
The Lt. Gov. of Texas asked the Chancellor of the Texas A&M University System to weigh in on campus carry of firearms. Pretty good response (pdf) for a bureaucrat. He nails the central issue: trust. (H/T LarryA) The legalization of pot and “drugged” drivers who aren’t. The rich and the poor. Which in this case also seems to extend to the powerful and the powerless. They both cheat but from very different motives. Bovard on Obama’s rosy belief that the U.S. can squander its way to prosperity. The Freedom Feens say that effective libertarians (blush) study Claire Wolfe. (That one…
In Washington state and in Colorado, banks (caught between state opportunity and federal terror tactics) struggle to deal with new cannabis businesses. Well, now those who won’t comply with the outrages of I-594 are not just “extremists” (per Gottlieb) but “a clique of gadflies” (per a Gottlieb henchman). Remember people: if you want a seat at the table so you can help Our Masters arrange the terms of our extermination, always comply-comply-comply with the law. Any law. We don’t care what law. It’s the LAW! Where oh where is Germany’s gold? Jim Bovard looks back on redneck ethnic cleansing that…
My apologies, all you people there on the upper east coast. I hear that the ghastly weather you’re having is our fault. Something to do with this monstrous ridge of high pressure plunging down on us; creates a monster low for you.
Believe me, I was thinking of you this afternoon while I contemplated whether or not I should wear the tee-shirt with a turtleneck or skip the turtleneck for a dog walk. I felt soooooo guilty.
I agree with Brian Keith’s fine analysis of the “carrots” and the “sticks” in the gun-rights movement. Except, of course, when one of the “carrots” actually goes over to the other side, pretends he can prevent what the enemy really wants, and collaborates by helping write tyrannical legislation. “The Oyster Shell Game.” The fedgov uses pseudoscience, lies, etc. to destroy a small business. From Ellendra in comments: have a “go to zero” month. (Kinda what I’ve been doing this month, except this family went much farther than I would. Maybe another month this summer …) “My Old Dead Drunk Self.”…
“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…
What is time? It rules our lives, but who can define it? Here are 10 mind-blowing attempts at explaining time. (H/T ML) Dear Boston: Please say hell no to hosting the Olympics. Oh my. Such a problem to have! Washington state pot growers and retailers face a glut of legal product. (Tip o’ hat to jed.) Albuquerque cops finally facing murder charges for one of their most horrible caught-on-camera moments. In the rage over Islamist attacks on the west and western values, let us not forget that the worst and most helpless victims are Muslims and those who live in…