Jan 05

In Effort to Strip Private Citizens of Guns, “Liberal” President Moves to Strip Mental Health System of Confidentiality

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Every government ultimately comes for all freedom, all property, and to kill all who resist.

For centuries, the law has recognized physician-patient confidentiality. Doctors who snitch on their clients or who disseminate private, confidential information regarding their patients have faced professional penalties.

Now, in the never-ending quest of government to strip the private sector of guns, President Obama has announced a rule that mental health practitioners may snitch on patients with “mental health issues,” thus enabling the government to bar them for life from purchasing firearms. See here.

Soon, no doubt, the practitioners may even be REQUIRED to add mental patients to the government background-check lists.

Obviously, this will have far-reaching implications to the mental health profession, and will incentivize people needing treatment to NOT SEEK such treatment.

Stay tuned!

Jan 03

It Appears that China may be Kidnapping or Killing Hong Kong Booksellers

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Shocking story from Hong Kong, one of the freest countries on earth.

For a century, Hong Kong was a British colony. It has a British style court system (complete with jury trials), protections for property rights, and relatively free markets.

Hong Kong attracted millions of ethnic Chinese who fled the mainland. Over time, the average resident of Hong Kong (who are the same race as those in China) became a hundred times wealthier than the average resident of China.

But China retook the Island a decade ago.

Now it appears that China may be cracking down on free speech and press in Hong Kong. Booksellers who sell books critical of Chinese officials–books that are banned in mainland China and popular with Chinese tourists–are apparently going missing.

See here.

Jan 01

Federal Trade Commission Issues Guidelines Purporting to Regulate Ads that Appear too much like News

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Every government ultimately comes for all freedom, all property, all money, and to kill all who resist.

The Federal Trade Commission, whose jurisdiction is supposedly limited to . . . well, ‘trade,’ has just published new “native advertising” guidelines for print and digital publishers. See here.

The guidelines purport to try to regulate the publication of ads that seem too much like news.

According to the New York Post, the FTC seems to be pushing to require “some variation of the word “advertisement” to appear near native ads that it deems could create confusion if consumers cannot discern quickly and simply that what they are viewing is a paid ad.

But the First Amendment poses something of a problem to the FTC.

Stay tuned!

Jan 01

Puerto Rico’s Economic Collapse Followed its Tax Hikes on Corporations

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The U.S. has the world’s highest corporate tax rates, driving many corporations overseas and preventing others from ever starting.

Yet “progressive” politicians continue to demand that corporations be taxed even higher.

Puerto Rico’s economy provides a vivid illustration of what happens when a government hikes corporate tax rates.

Puerto Rico is in default on its debts, the result in part of the elimination in 2006 of a favorable tax break for U.S. companies that sent many of them packing. Since then, a long-running recession has sparked an exodus of companies and skilled workers.

See here.

Dec 31

False Flag “Attacks” Are as Common as Dirt

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Looking back through the pages of history, one must admit that false flag attacks are as common as dirt. Here is a partial list of false flag attacks that have been ADMITTED.

Many more, of course, are openly known but not admitted by government officials who staged and benefitted from them.

Dec 30

Post-recession banking regulations have made things worse

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It is a myth that “deregulation” caused the housing bubble (and later, the crash) of 2008. And a bigger myth that post-recession laws have improved banking.

As John C. Goodman writes, almost everything said by government and pro-government economists about the 2008 recession is a myth. See here.

And the “cure” hatched by Congress in 2009–the Dodd-Frank law, which imposed thousands of pages of new regulations on the banking industry–has made things worse.

[After Dodd-Frank], Banks are holding more reserves; they are making fewer loans; there are more consolidations and fewer banks are forming; the industry is hiring a ton of regulatory compliance officers and very few new loan officers; and the recovery from the recession has been the slowest on record.

Dec 30

State of Oregon Seizes Bank Account of Cake Decorators Who Refused to Bake Lesbian Wedding Cake

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Ever wonder what it was like to be a Jew in Nazi Germany?

Melissa and Aaron Klein–described as “devout evangelical Christians who own a mom-and-pop bakery”–are beginning to find out; in Oregon!

In July, they were ordered to pay more than $135,000 in damages to a lesbian couple after they refused to bake their wedding cake. The Kleins objected because of their religious beliefs.

The judgment was awarded to the lesbians for “emotional suffering.”

(Of course, every person has a right to marry the person or persons or things they love. Government has no right to interfere, sanction, or unsanction such personal choices. That is not the issue).

Just a few weeks before Christmas, Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian wiped out the Klein family’s bank accounts – taking nearly $7,000. See here.

Dec 29

Peer-Reviewed, Comprehensive Study of Worldwide Glacial Melt Cannot Detect Influence of Carbon Dioxide

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Glaciers have been melting steadily for centuries. This peer-reviewed study–perhaps the most comprehensive study of global glacial melting patterns ever published–concludes that the world’s glaciers GENERALLY MELTED at the same rate in THE FIRST HALF OF the 20th Century as in the SECOND HALF of the 20th Century.

What of the influence of carbon dioxide? or the industrial revolution generally?

These scientists failed to detect any such influence. (Though they are ‘true believers’ in the AGW thesis.)

See also this overview of the false claims of modern government officials claiming global glacial melting is attributable to manmade-global-warming (with old news clippings, maps, etc.)

Title: “Feedbacks and mechanisms affecting the global sensitivity of glaciers to climate change”

Dec 29

The Police Bubble is Bursting in D.C.: Bloated Pay and Benefits Lead to Decreases in Force; “Conservatives” Continue with “War on Policing” Narrative

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The policing industry is a bubble that is about to burst. Police officers nationwide are grossly overpaid and lavished with luxurious benefits. Many cities cannot keep up with police pension obligations and are being forced to make cuts.

Washington, D.C.’s police force has been compelled to shed aging officers. And “conservative” columnist Matt Vespa complains that the “D.C. Police Force Falls Below 3,800 Officers” even as homicides in the District are supposedly “surging.” See here.

It a loathsome tradition among people who call themselves conservatives to adore and worship men in uniform (Cops, Firefighters, and Soldiers) even as these same voices pretend to extoll the original intent of the Constitution and call for “limited government.” (Note that the Constitution’s Framers knew nothing of professional policing and deliberately tried to prohibit the government from supporting a perennial soldiery.)

Since the recent police abuse controversies in Ferguson, Missouri and elsewhere, “conservatives” have been proclaiming that police nationwide are “under siege” or under cultural attack.

Vespa conveniently FAILS TO MENTION that D.C. police salaries have grown significantly faster than inflation in recent decades, and that there are hundreds and perhaps thousands of D.C. cops pulling in 6-figure salaries.

Dec 28

Bozeman Daily Chronicle prints article praising DUI snitching

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The Bozeman Daily Chronicle is, arguably, Montana’s most pro-government extremist newspaper. And that is saying something.

For years, the BDC has unleashed a relentless stream of pro-government editorials and news stories. Perhaps never has the newspaper published a lead editorial calling for less government in any dimension.

Now the BDC is blatantly praising citizens who snitch on their neighbors who are seen driving unusually. See here.