July 2016 archive

More sightings of the word “austerity” in headlines (it exists almost nowhere else)

The word “austerity” means cuts in government payroll, welfare or other spending. Many opinion writers–and even a few “journalists”–write that there is “austerity” going on in various places. Rarely do they point to any specific events. Here is a recent example. A Huffington Post writer named Dean Baker claims in a headline that “Bill Gates …

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Yale University “environmental” center claims that Greenland ice is melting at unprecedented rates; actual data show Greenland ice is melting slower than normal

Fascinating battle of claims regarding Greenland’s ice pack. Most elite, government-supporting institutions are heavily promoting claims that 2016 is vastly hotter than any other year in history. Some critics suspect that supporters of the government’s manmade-global-warming theories are escalating their hysterics this year for political reasons. In any case, Yale University’s “Environment 360” center is …

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Newspaper editor (and his lawyer) charged with felonies for filing public records requests

Journalism which supports the state is probably the world’s safest profession. Journalism which attacks, critically investigates, or undermines the state has always been one of the world’s most dangerous professions. Now a reporter in Georgia, along with his attorney, have been arrested and charged with FELONIES for filing public records requests regarding a powerful local …

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EU regs ban the claim that water can prevent dehydration

Britons have been highly criticized for their decision last week to leave the European Union. But the EU, like all centralizing bureaucracies, churns out stupid, expensive, life-choking regulations on a weekly basis. For example, EU officials recently banned bottled water firms from claiming that drinking water can prevent dehydration! See here.

Federal regulations are choking America: We are all 75 percent poorer because of them

According to a new time-series study by economists John Dawson of Appalachian State University and John Seater of North Carolina State, U.S. regulations have prevented the American economy from being productive and inventive. Because of this, U.S. GDP is just $16 trillion instead of $54 trillion. Ronald Bailey writes that “the growth of federal regulations …

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GAO discovers that some federal employees take YEAR-LONG vacations at taxpayer expense

Federal workers are practically gods walking among us. They are so overpaid and overrewarded with benefits that they represent modern feudal overlords overseeing peasants. A new study by the GAO has found that it is not unheard of for federal employees in the Department of Homeland Security to take entire months off of work–and in …

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Secret government documents reveal 90 percent of persons killed by U.S. drones have not been the intended targets

“Secret government documents leaked to The Intercept by a whistleblower show that, according to official figures, 90 percent of people killed in U.S. drone strikes in a five-month period in provinces on Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan were not the intended targets.” See here (Salon). And here (The Intercept).