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Mike Gogulski: We Need Freedom of Speech in our Financial Commerce

“Financial privacy has almost completely disappeared, except for the very wealthiest. Cash transactions larger than $10,000, €5,000, €2,500,€1,500, €1,000 and now even €500 are being or have been outlawed in some places. And on and on. The suppression of financial speech is being used as a weapon of war against the people of this planet just as surely as drone strikes, pervasive surveillance and land mines are and have been. The time has come to begin separating money and currency from state, irrevocably and irretrievably. Free people and a free world deserve currencies that they control directly.” Continue reading →

Snapchat market value hits $800 million

“The startup behind a Snapchat application for sharing self-destructing smartphone photos and messages got a dizzying valuation on Monday in a new funding round. Reports that the company launched in late 2011 had raised $60 million from investors hit the Internet along with word that people are sharing more than 200 million ‘snaps’ daily. The startup said that it has been operating on a tight budget and will use the infusion of cash from investors to beef up its engineering team and server capacity. Snapchat has stirred controversy for its potential to be used to share risque pictures that are automatically deleted, like any ‘snaps,’ within ten seconds of receipt.” Continue reading →

NY’s SAFE Act Imperils Yet Another Victim

“David Lewis is a librarian who lives in Amherst, New York, and owns several pistols. He once swallowed some anti-anxiety medication — allowing cops to grab his guns pursuant to the SAFE Act’s cruel discrimination against people with ‘mental-health issues.’ Turns out cops had the wrong ‘David Lewis.’ ”I was extremely shocked and saddened and immediately just felt embarrassed knowing that someone had thought negatively of me and wrongly. I had absolutely no idea how this could have happened,’ said Lewis…’ He also ‘hoped his health record would be confidential. ‘It’s not right. i always thought people could expect more privacy than that,’ said Lewis.'” Continue reading →

Papers Please: TSA-Style Checkpoints at UK Bus & Train Stations

“‘Airport-style’ security checkpoints are being rolled out at local bus and train stations up and down the UK after local pilot schemes conducted over the last two years were deemed a success by police. The checkpoints comprise metal detector arches, drug-sniffing dogs, police pat-downs and bag searches. The reason? To ‘help people who use public transport feel safer.’ Over the last couple of years more and more of these ‘security’ checkpoints have been quietly introduced at local bus and train stations across the UK under a number of pretexts that simply don’t bear scrutiny.” Continue reading →

UK’s former top drug official: Coke-head bankers caused financial crisis

“The former top drugs adviser to Britain’s parliament told UK newspaper The Telegraph on Sunday that risk-taking behaviors behind the financial crisis of 2008 were driven by excessive cocaine consumption by the world’s banking elite. Nutt was fired from his post as Britain’s top drugs adviser in 2009, after he criticized the government’s drug policies for inhibiting research into Schedule I substances like psilocybin, which Nutt has studies for its potential to alleviate symptoms of depression. At the time he’d said that consuming the unadulterated, pure form of the drug ecstasy is safer than riding a horse. Nutt was ordered to apologize for his statement on ecstasy.” Continue reading →

Gel used for buttocks enhancements blamed for 15 deaths in Venezuela

“A gel used in a popular form of plastic surgery in Venezuela has been blamed for at least 15 deaths in the past two years, Agence France-Presse reported on Monday. The procedure, which involves injecting the synthetic polymer beneath the skin, is intended to enhance the buttocks region by allowing the gel to spread through the tissue. Support groups said to AFP that more than 40,000 women have undergone the surgery, seemingly owing to what it called devotion to ‘the cult of the body.’ But, AFP reported, removing the gel is an experimental treatment that costs $6,000, compared to the $800 cost to get 500 milligrams of having it put in, despite the apparent health risks.” Continue reading →

Don’t Be Fooled, ObamaCare Will Drive Up Unemployment and Healthcare Costs

“To the extent that prices are prevented from rising, it will create enhanced rationing by waiting. And almost anything patients and doctors to do circumvent the cost of waiting will also add to the money cost of care. For example, an increasing number of primary care doctors are becoming concierge doctors. For a fee of about $2,000 a year, patients get same day or next day appointments, more time with the physician and someone who acts as their agent in dealing with other parts of a complex heath care system. Yet physicians who become concierge doctors typically replace a practice that sees about 2,500 patients with one that sees only about 500.” Continue reading →

Disturbing report finds U.S. hospitals profit more when surgery goes wrong

“US hospitals face a disincentive to improve care because they make drastically more money when surgery goes wrong than when a patient is discharged with no complications, a study published Tuesday found. An estimated $400 billion is spent on surgery in the United States every year. Privately insured patients with complications provide hospitals with a 330 percent higher profit margin than those whose surgeries went smoothly. Patients whose bills are paid by Medicare — a government insurance plan for the elderly and disabled — produced a 190 percent higher profit margin when complications arose following surgery.” Continue reading →