Jul 17

Public Universities Continue their War on Freedom of Speech and Thought

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There is no reason that taxpayers should be forced to OWN a university. The two justifications that are routinely offered for the existence of government universities do not stand up to scrutiny.

The first claim–that public schools somehow meet the needs of the poor in ways that private institutions do not–is shattered by measurable data. See here.

The second claim–that public universities somehow provide more freedom of inquiry than private (often religious-affiliated) universities–is likewise baseless.

Here is a story of how Portland State University–a public institution that supposedly is subject to the Bill of Rights–now drastically censors political speech that any person might find “triggering” or unsettling. Most of the views that are censored in this manner are views that question the state.

Modern government schools (like many private schools) have become dens of censorship and thought control. In practice, these institutions practice widespread discrimination against libertarians and those who disagree with socialism.

Also see this satirical piece in THE ONION. The mock newspaper printed a mock news story not long ago that now mirrors life on many college campuses.

Jul 17

Report: Student Loan Program has Drastically Increased Tuition Costs while LOWERING the Proportion of Poor People in College.

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Imagine a government program that achieves THE VERY OPPOSITE result of its intentions.

This is the truth about every large government program.

Social Security has impoverished seniors (and America) and transferred vast sums from poor people to rich people. See here, here, and here.

Minimum wage laws increase unemployment and greatly harm poor people. See here.

The “Americans With Disabilities” Act LOWERED the percentage of disabled people with jobs. See here.

Industrial regulations supposedly put in place to keep wealthy businesspeople under control end up ENRICHING the wealthiest, while keeping common people from competing. See here.

Welfare spending and wealth redistribution harms the poor. See here.

“National Security” efforts make any nation that adopts them LESS SECURE because one’s own government, not any foreign government or any criminal or terrorist, is always THE GREATEST DANGER facing the average person. This has been empirically measured. See links here.

And the federal student loan program–enacted to help poor people achieve the dream of a college education, ACHIEVES THE VERY OPPOSITE RESULT. See here. Recently, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report showing that the program has greatly increased tuition costs but done nothing to increase the representation of the poor in colleges.

A link is found here.

Jul 17

Judges are increasingly dismissing civil cases.

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As many legal commentators have noted, jury trials are virtually vanishing.

Prosecutors file complicated multi-count indictments, expecting that every defendant will be forced to plead guilty to something. Increasingly, only a fool would risk his life by taking such cases to a jury. Almost every error is a crime and almost every crime is a felony. Sentences have gradually increased so that no one can afford to demand a jury trial.

Most modern criminal cases are resolved not by judges or juries but by plea negotiations with prosecutors.

In the civil arena, judges rather than prosecutors play the key role. They increasingly proclaim that issues are “LEGAL” questions for them (judges) to decide, not “FACT” questions for juries to decide.

Here is an interesting law review article about the increasing use of “summary judgment” in civil cases. Attorney Richard L. Steagall authored the article in 2009. The title is “The Recent Explosion in Summary Judgments Entered by the Federal Courts Has Eliminated the Jury From the Judicial Power.” You can find a link to the article here.

Jul 15

Stossel: Greece has submitted to little or no true “austerity.”

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The occasionally brilliant John Stossel is out with a good column. Stossel attended Freedomfest in Las Vegas recently and learned about countries such as New Zealand and Canada, which saw their economies greatly improve after cutting government spending.

Greece, however, has been in the news for years, unable to stay afloat financially. Greece recently defaulted on an IMF loan and has gotten another (its third) big bailout. Greece has agreed to cut government spending by only 3 percent.

One in four Greek workers still works for government (vs. one in seven in the U.S.). Greek politicians run government “businesses” that employ politicians’ cronies. In other words, Greece has barely begun what I would call austerity.

Stossel also described the worsening economic conditions in Puerto Rico.

A recent island governor tried to cut Puerto Rico’s bloated government. Luiz Fortuno fired thousands of workers and made it easier to open a business. The economy improved. But firing workers isn’t popular. Fortuno lost the next election and his successor increased spending and raised taxes. Of course that didn’t work. Now Puerto Rico can’t pay its $70 billion debt.

Jul 15

Government continues to seek total access to every microprocessor

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Jacob Sullum is one of America’s most gifted writers on civil liberties. His most recent column points out that federal police-state control freaks are (once again) seeking to ensure that all future federal laws governing computer technology be written so that the surveillance freaks in the federal government (the NSA, FBI, etc.) will always be able to monitor and surveil the American people’s computer use by way of “back doors.”

In the government’s sick, twisted vision of the future, all computer and communication technology will be manufactured with “back doors” programmed into it, allowing the omnipotent control freaks of government to secretly enter and conduct surveillance on virtually everything. The government must be all-knowing. The king’s keys must be able to unlock every door.

Jul 14

New hoax “report” claims to have uncovered “internal documents” from the oil industry which “acknowledged” manmade global warming “as early as 1981.”

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BUT THE ‘INTERNAL DOCUMENTS’ ARE A 2014 EMAIL BY A RETIRED EXXON EMPLOYEE REFLECTING ON PAST DISCUSSIONS OF THE IDEA

People in an office environment often engage in email discussions about political ideas, facebook postings, upcoming concerts, and restaurants. Now a powerful pro-government climate hysteria organization called the “Union of Concerned Scientists” is pointing to a 2014 email chain involving various “liberal” (in the government-trusting sense) college professors as the “smoking gun” that proves ExxonMobil’s knowing deception regarding manmade global warming.

In the email chain, the professors chime in with typical grievances regarding such things as the Supreme Court’s 2010 CITIZENS UNITED V. F.E.C. decision, and the profit motive of U.S. corporations. One professor attached an email by a long-former Exxon and Mobil employee named Lenny Bernstein as evidence that those corporations “knew” that carbon dioxide caused global warming during the 1980s.

Hardly shocking or startling, Bernstein’s discussion claimed that “Exxon first got interested in climate change in 1981” as it sought to develop certain natural-gas reserves in Indonesia. “In the 1980s,” writes Bernstein, “Exxon needed to understand the potential for concerns about climate change to lead to regulation that would affect [the Indonesia] and other potential projects.”

“Whatever their public stance, internally they [Exxon execs] make very careful assessments of the potential for regulation, including the scientific basis for those regulations. Exxon NEVER denied the potential for humans to impact the climate system. It did question – legitimately, in my opinion – the validity of some of the science.”

There you have it. This bit of hearsay by a former Exxon employee–who later went on to be a contributor to IPCC documents–is the “smoking gun” in the Union of Concerned Scientists’ “report.” Read the Union’s claims here (with links to the “report”).

And by the way, even the retired Exxon-Mobil employee admits in his email that the science behind the government’s CO2-driven-climate-change theory is riddled with flaws.

Jul 14

Climate-change billionaire Tom Steyer, the largest political donor in history, spends millions to “fight the influence of billionaires in politics.”

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Climate-change socialists–those who push for more government power to control (other) people’s “carbon footprints”–sometimes spin a tale about the influence of oil billionaires, or the fossil fuel industry, in politics.

They claim that wealthy political donors spend millions to push free-market economics, and thwart the supposedly sensible policies promoted by government supremacists.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Polling overwhelmingly supports free markets, and shows American voters hold socialism and climate-change-cap-and-trade proposals in disdain.

While free-market donors have spent a few hundred thousand dollars to inform people about flaws in the government’s climate agenda, the government and its supporters have spent billions to promote that agenda.

The single biggest political donor in a political cycle in history is Tom Steyer, a billionaire who spent an all-time-record $75 million in 2014 to promote climate-change-alarmist candidates. Now we read that Steyer has already spent $5 million on a climate-change-socialist super PAC as the 2016 election cycle gets underway.

Steyer also spends millions to promote the perception that free-market-oriented billionaires are spending too much on politics. See here.

Jul 13

The U.S. is now among the highest-taxing nations.

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The United States, once the world’s flagship of capitalism, low regulation and free markets, has entered the category of a high-taxing society.

Here is a website that generally provides the average tax rates of the world’s countries.

Notice that the U.S. is now taxing its citizens at rates above the North American average, the Western Hemisphere average, and above the world average.

Only Europe reports average tax rates higher than those in the U.S.

Jul 13

Evidence surfaces showing that ISIS beheadings may be faked or staged

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Infowars.com has obtained a video–purportedly from Russian hackers or “hacktivists”–showing a movie set where “ISIS”-type “beheadings” are (or can be) staged.

Reportedly the hacktivists claim to have obtained the footage from a cell phone linked to U.S. Senator John McCain.

It has been widely reported that the entirety of the “ISIS” threat has been a creation and production of western intelligence agencies such as the CIA. Just as “Al-Qaeda” was apparently created and funded by the CIA and other western intelligence agencies two decades ago, ISIS appears to be mostly a creation of the U.S. government.

U.S. Senator John McCain–a longtime military “hawk” who has benefited from millions of dollars of defense-contractor funding–has traveled to the middle east in clandestine operations on several occasions. McCain has even been photographed with groups of middle-eastern-commando units who, supposedly, went bad and “joined” ISIS not long after. In the Senate, McCain is a constant voice for ever-more war and military spending.

Jul 11

Pope Spews Satanic Lies

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Somebody’s gotta say it. The current Pope of the Catholic Church is spewing utter falsehoods that have been so repeatedly disproven that only a knowing deceiver could spread them.

Socialism has impoverished, starved and killed millions. For centuries, those who have trusted their governments to dispense food, shelter, clothing or medical care have watched as their trust was betrayed, and every ounce of their dignity was taken until even those who survived were subjected to lives of slavery and abject poverty.

During the Soviet period, those who suffered most were those who trusted government most. Wave after wave of communist party members were sent to their deaths, as jealousy and suspicion circulated among trusters of the state.

Professor Rummel has documented that the average person is four times more likely to be murdered by his own government than by any foreign government or any criminal. And one’s chances of being killed by one’s own government increase greatly if one lives in a socialist society.

Famines have only occurred in socialist societies. Famines never occur in capitalist countries, because prices quickly adjust to solve problems of scarcity wherever markets are free.

Here is a New York Times article about the current Pope’s satanic gospel of trust in redistribution and omnipotent government.

No falser god was ever worshipped.