Monthly Archives: July 2013

Former air accident investigator alleges cover-up in 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800

"A former air accident investigator campaigning for a new probe into the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800 said Monday that US authorities appear to be taking his request seriously. 'TWA 800' cites radar data from the instant of the disaster as the “smoking gun” that suggests the flight might have been the victim of surface-launched proximity fuse missiles. The film also quotes some of the hundreds of witnesses interviewed by FBI agents, but never summoned before the NTSB, who say they saw what appeared to be a missile soaring into the evening sky, followed by an explosion." Continue reading →

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New studies: ‘Conspiracy theorists’ sane; government dupes crazy, hostile

"Perhaps because their supposedly mainstream views no longer represent the majority, the anti-conspiracy commenters often displayed anger and hostility: 'The research… showed that people who favoured the official account of 9/11 were generally more hostile when trying to persuade their rivals.' In short, the new study by Wood and Douglas suggests that the negative stereotype of the conspiracy theorist - a hostile fanatic wedded to the truth of his own fringe theory - accurately describes the people who defend the official account of 9/11, not those who dispute it." Continue reading →

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Eric Margolis: Spying Run Amok

"Europe’s politicians are loudly denouncing the US. But Britain, Germany, Italy, Holland, Spain and Belgium signed secret pacts with the US decades ago allowing NSA and CIA to spy on their citizens, and to share intelligence with Washington. The Soviet-run Warsaw Pact had a similar structure: the East bloc’s security agencies became 'little brothers' of KGB. No other nation mounts such an intensive worldwide electronic spying operation. Spying on EU trade negotiators discussing banana quotas has nothing to do with so-called terrorism. The real 'national security' issue involved here is the security of hypocritical politicians and career bureaucrats." Continue reading →

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FATCA, fluctuating exchange rates, and the Expatriation Game

"It’s like the old British Fox Hunt. Instead of hunting foxes, the world is now hunting U.S. persons. Your objective is to NOT be captured. The consensus is that, over the long term, the U.S. dollar will depreciate relative to other currencies. This means that it will be worth less relative to other currencies. As the U.S. dollar depreciates, fewer Canadian dollars are required to purchase (what don’t we say $2,000,000) U.S. dollars. This means that the faster the U.S. dollar depreciates, the faster U.S. citizens abroad will become 'covered expatriates'. Notice that you are NOT doing anything yourself. It’s just that the the U.S. dollar is depreciating." Continue reading →

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Bill Gates Foundation is Warren Buffett’s Tax Laundromat

"Well, this helps explain Buffett's huge donations to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. According to Francine McKenna, a CPA, the Gates Foundation is Warren Buffet's personal tax laundromat. The donations for tax deductions reduce his future estate taxes. At the same time, the Foundation gets the donations on full market value basis. Thus, it can sell immediately with no tax, while Buffett gets the deductions. It should be noted that this maneuver is coming from a guy who regularly calls for 'shared sacrifice' and higher taxes on people earning more than $1 million." Continue reading →

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Farm Bill: Are Republicans the “Stupid Party” or the “Big-Government Party”…or Both?

"It should go without saying that America’s agriculture policy has always been a terrible, stupid, counterproductive exercise in self-dealing cronyism. But when House Republicans severed the traditional connection, arbitrary but politically effective, between farm subsidies and food stamps, it briefly seemed like they were looking for an opportunity to put libertarian populist principle into practice, by separating both outlays in order to trim or reform both separately. But no — instead they were just making it easier for the party’s congressmen to vote for a bloated, awful big government program that benefits mostly-Republican states and interest groups." Continue reading →

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D.C.’s Walmart ‘Super Minimum Wage’ Is a Super Bad Idea

"Wal-Mart swiftly announced the abandonment of plans to open at least three stores in the District of Columbia following a vote by the city council to pass the Large Retailer Accountability Act, which effectively mandated a super minimum wage of $12.50 an hour that applied only to Wal-Mart. As a result, the residents of D.C.'s Ward 7– with a poverty rate of 34 percent and an unemployment rate of 17 percent – will now be denied a source of new jobs and inexpensive groceries and goods. Increasing the minimum wage beyond the productivity of the worker inflicts damage on the poor and the unskilled – the very people it is ostensibly designed to help." Continue reading →

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How to Lose Friends, Citizens and Influence

"Imagine this: You were born in California, moved to New York for education or work, fell in love, married and had children. Even though you have faithfully paid taxes in New York and haven't lived in California for 25 years, suppose California law required that you also file your taxes there because you were born there. Though you may never have held a bank account in California, you must report all of your financial holdings to the State of California. Are you a signatory on your spouse's account? Then you must declare his bank accounts too. Your children must file their taxes in both California and New York and report any bank accounts they or their spouses may have." Continue reading →

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Read more about the article Sovereignty and Responsibility

Sovereignty and Responsibility

On Tuesday, June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down section 4 of the Voter Rights Act of 1965. This new ruling rightly restores the responsibility for protecting the right to vote on several states that were previously required to have federal oversight of their election laws. This ruling is a victory for state sovereignty, but with sovereignty comes responsibility. Which begs the question, is Texas ready and willing to accept that responsibility? Every ten … Continue reading →

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Most Expensive Colleges In America

"It's common knowledge that college costs are on the rise. But you may be surprised to know that some schools currently charge over $60,000 to educate a student for just one year. A list recently released by the Department of Education charts the highest tuition in the country. Unfortunately, the tuition numbers used in the rankings are two years old, and fail to show the contemporary college landscape." Continue reading →

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