Mad Statists

Jon Stewart to McCain: Does war with Syria interrupt video poker time?

"'Is this possible global conflagration interrupting your video poker time?' Stewart mockingly asked McCain, pointing out that the senator has been pushing for the U.S. to attack Syria for a year, only to devote the moment to picking up an imaginary winning hand. Stewart also pointed out that the U.S. has tried seemingly everything with regards to the Middle East: dialogue (every 8 years or so), sanctions, explicit and not-so-explicit rewarding of coups. 'It’s like, even though we’re a superpower, we haven’t figured out that we don’t actually have superpowers,' Stewart said. 'But we just keep jumping out of the building, thinking we’re gonna fly.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJon Stewart to McCain: Does war with Syria interrupt video poker time?

We Must Not Be the World’s Policeman

"No one appointed the United States the world’s policeman. The government’s founding document, the Constitution, does not and could not do so. Obama and Kerry have tried hard to invoke 'national security' as grounds for bombing Syria, but no one believes Assad threatens Americans. He has made no such statements and taken no threatening actions. He is engulfed in a sectarian civil war. Inexcusably, Obama has taken sides in that civil war — the same side as the Syrian al-Qaeda affiliate — but still Assad poses no danger to Americans. Bombing would make him more — not less — of a threat." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWe Must Not Be the World’s Policeman

US Senate panel approves use of force against Syria

"President Barack Obama's plan to conduct punishing military strikes on Syria passed its first congressional hurdle Wednesday, paving the way for a full Senate debate on the use of force. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved an amended resolution 10-7, with one senator, the chamber's newest member Edward Markey, voting present, that authorizes US military intervention with a 90-day deadline and bars American boots on the ground for combat purposes. 'What we've done today is a step in the right direction. I hope it makes a safer world,' said Senator Dick Durbin. The chamber's number two Democrat voted against the war in Iraq, but he insisted that 'this is different.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS Senate panel approves use of force against Syria

Boston mayor says he would ‘blow up’ Detroit, defuses situation with apology

"Boston Mayor Tom Menino apologized this week after saying that he would like to go to Detroit and 'blow up the place.' In an recent interview with The New York Times, Menino had been asked how he would handle Detroit’s bankruptcy if he were mayor. 'I’d blow up the place and start all over,' Menino said. 'No, seriously, when it takes a police officer 90 minutes to answer a call, there’s something wrong with the system. Forty percent of the streetlights are out, most of the buildings are boarded up. Why? Inaction, that’s the problem — leadership.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBoston mayor says he would ‘blow up’ Detroit, defuses situation with apology

Kerry’s Morally, Linguistically, and Historically Obscene Case for War in Syria

"Unfortunately for the politician who made famous the line 'How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?', Kerry's case in front of the committee was more a textbook example of how acting as the world's policeman for decades has warped the country's values, judgment, and even language. I counted at least seven moments that qualified in my judgment as obscene, exposing along the way the administration's empty and contradictory arguments for air-mailing death upon a regime that does not pose a direct threat in the United States." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingKerry’s Morally, Linguistically, and Historically Obscene Case for War in Syria

Jon Stewart: ‘Red line’ Syria crossed is actually a ‘d*ck-measuring ribbon’

"Returning to the familiar sight of the U.S. threatening to attack a Middle Eastern country, Jon Stewart dismissed the posturing surrounding a possible military strike against Syria on The Daily Show on Tuesday. 'Oh, right — we have to bomb Syria because we’re in seventh grade,' Stewart said. 'And the ‘red line’ that they crossed is actually a d*ck-measuring ribbon.' Instead of thinking of it as refusing to give in to aggression, he argued, real 'weakness' on the part of the U.S. would be listening to the 'parade of idiots who got the same issue wrong in Iraq — or as those people are known on cable, experts.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJon Stewart: ‘Red line’ Syria crossed is actually a ‘d*ck-measuring ribbon’

Competing currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse

"'At first covertly, then in openness, and finally with the consent of the government,' Mr. Noko writes, 'foreign currencies – the rand, the euro, the pound, the U.S. dollar, the [Zambian]kwacha – replaced Zimbabwe’s dollar.' Precisely as Mr. Hayek had imagined, Zimbabwe’s inflationary spiral ended. Within weeks, the country’s economy showed dramatic improvement. Businesses began to open. Banks began to function. Unemployment began to fall. GDP began to rise. Private credit began to increase. Foreign investment began to return. The human exodus ended. Thiers’ Law, the opposite principle of Gresham’s Law, does work: Good money, freely circulated, drives out bad." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCompeting currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse

Competing currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse

"'At first covertly, then in openness, and finally with the consent of the government,' Mr. Noko writes, 'foreign currencies – the rand, the euro, the pound, the U.S. dollar, the [Zambian]kwacha – replaced Zimbabwe’s dollar.' Precisely as Mr. Hayek had imagined, Zimbabwe’s inflationary spiral ended. Within weeks, the country’s economy showed dramatic improvement. Businesses began to open. Banks began to function. Unemployment began to fall. GDP began to rise. Private credit began to increase. Foreign investment began to return. The human exodus ended. Thiers’ Law, the opposite principle of Gresham’s Law, does work: Good money, freely circulated, drives out bad." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCompeting currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse

Competing currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse

"'At first covertly, then in openness, and finally with the consent of the government,' Mr. Noko writes, 'foreign currencies – the rand, the euro, the pound, the U.S. dollar, the [Zambian]kwacha – replaced Zimbabwe’s dollar.' Precisely as Mr. Hayek had imagined, Zimbabwe’s inflationary spiral ended. Within weeks, the country’s economy showed dramatic improvement. Businesses began to open. Banks began to function. Unemployment began to fall. GDP began to rise. Private credit began to increase. Foreign investment began to return. The human exodus ended. Thiers’ Law, the opposite principle of Gresham’s Law, does work: Good money, freely circulated, drives out bad." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCompeting currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse

Competing currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse

"'At first covertly, then in openness, and finally with the consent of the government,' Mr. Noko writes, 'foreign currencies – the rand, the euro, the pound, the U.S. dollar, the [Zambian]kwacha – replaced Zimbabwe’s dollar.' Precisely as Mr. Hayek had imagined, Zimbabwe’s inflationary spiral ended. Within weeks, the country’s economy showed dramatic improvement. Businesses began to open. Banks began to function. Unemployment began to fall. GDP began to rise. Private credit began to increase. Foreign investment began to return. The human exodus ended. Thiers’ Law, the opposite principle of Gresham’s Law, does work: Good money, freely circulated, drives out bad." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCompeting currencies saved Zimbabwe from hyperinflationary collapse