Mad Statists

The War on Asparagus

"American asparagus farms were worth just over $233 million in 1999. A decade later, those farms (or, those which still existed, as the farm sizes fell by two-thirds over that same decade) were worth just under $90 million. The drop off is stark, but it’s not because of a lack of demand from American consumers. In the 1990s, the United States started paying Peruvian farmers to grow asparagus, hoping they’d forgo growing coca (the plant used to make cocaine) and instead grow the totally legal vegetable. In 2004, the New York Times estimated that the cost of this program ran the United States around $60 million per year. The effect: a lot of cheaper-than-typical asparagus." Continue reading →

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How Prohibition Made Pot More Potent: Q&A with Auburn University’s Mark Thornton

"'The plant hasn't changed, the consumers haven't changed,' says Auburn University's Mark Thornton, 'it's prohibition and the difficulties and risks of getting it from the growing stage to the consumer.' Thornton, author of The Economics of Prohibtion, sat down with ReasonTV's Tracy Oppenheimer to discuss how prohibition distorts the market for marijuana, and why potency levels are on the rise. He says that the potency of other illegal drugs has also increased and that this even included alcohol during prohibition. 'It's a phenomenon that exists anytime government tries to prevent the consumption of something.'" Continue reading →

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Gold smuggling rampant in India

"Gold smuggling has gone up several notches in India. According to customs officials, after banks stopped selling gold coins and following the hike in import duty, there has been a spurt in demand for the metal prompting people to smuggle. Officials pointed out that smugglers and buyers of smuggled gold tend to save on import duty as well as other taxes like value added tax and income tax. Given the severe curbs on gold buying and selling, other sources are trying to pitch in and take advantage of the situation, by selling gold through illegal means, they added." Continue reading →

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Gambia to punish those who spread ‘false news’ with 15 years in prison and $100,000 fine

"Gambia’s information minister Nana Grey-Johnson, said the law had been put forward to prevent people, at home and abroad, from engaging in 'treacherous' campaigns against Gambians. 'They do this by inciting the people to engage in unpatriotic behavior, spreading false news and engaging in criminal defamation against Government officials.' Grey-Johnson added that, if unchecked, such statements were a recipe for chaos and instability in any country. Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh has ruled the tiny slither of a country surrounded by Senegal since he seized power in a 1994 military coup." Continue reading →

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“Mental Illness” Diagnoses Are the Slippery Slope to Gun Confiscation

"The definition of someone who is officially 'mentally ill' could be changed at a moment’s notice once these types of laws are in place, making them an extreme danger to rights. So far, only California and New York have implemented them, but other states may follow. As the situation stands now, the New York law mandates that all mental health professionals, psychiatrists, and psychologists must report any patient they believe may be 'dangerous' to local officials, who will then have the authority to seize all firearms that individual might own — don’t make your psychiatrist angry." Continue reading →

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Mom settles for $143,000 after infant taken away over faulty drug test

"A Pennsylvania woman whose infant daughter was taken away from her by state authorities when she was just three days old, all due to a false positive on a drug test, won a $143,500 settlement Tuesday. The lawsuit alleged that a drug test she and her child were unknowingly subjected came back positive for opiates because she ate an 'Everything' bagel hours before giving birth. That carb-heavy treat turned into a genuine nightmare for Elizabeth Mort, who had her infant daughter Isabella literally taken out of her arms at her home days after returning from the hospital, all authorized by an emergency protective custody order." Continue reading →

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‘There’s element of panic in US policy towards Edward Snowden’

"US civil rights activist Norman Solomon tells RT that hardly any government will want to challenge the US in this way. Solomon believes US attempts at grabbing Snowden and bringing him to the US are a sign of panic. No one, including Snowden, is capable of stopping further leaks, as the documents have been handed to journalists or other people who can make them public. Norman Solomon is one of the organizers of the 'Hands Off Edward Snowden!' online campaign, which calls on US citizens to individually email President Obama asking him not to interfere in Snowden’s attempts to seek asylum. 46,000 signatories have already sent emails." Continue reading →

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The Economics Behind the U.S. Government’s Unwinnable War on Drugs

"The U.S. government's policy of drug prohibition, like alcohol prohibition before it, is a failure. The economic analysis of fighting a supply-side drug war predicts that the war will enhance drug suppliers' revenues, enabling them to continuously ratchet up their efforts to supply drugs in response to greater enforcement. The result is a drug war that escalates in cost and violence. The drug war causes drugs to be more potent and their quality less predictable than if drugs were legal, leaving the remaining users at greater risk and, in the face of higher prices, more likely to commit crimes to support their habit." Continue reading →

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The Surveillance State: Its Ramifications and Opponents

"Passports and visas have made traveling from one country to another an exercise that demands the approval for the most part of one's home country. It wasn't always this way. The entire passport and visa program, worldwide, has only been generated in the past half-century or so. It corresponds as well to the rise of the global state with instrumentalities such as the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, International Criminal Court, etc. It is fairly surprising that people still insist that the globalist structure does not exist or has not expanded, for it does so on a regular basis and without formal consultations with the people it's affecting." Continue reading →

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Government’s Spirit-Crushing Hatred Of Lemonade

"Traditional civil liberties such as freedom of speech and freedom of religion ultimately rest on an individual's ability to exercise the right of economic ownership over his or her own body. To attack economic rights is to attack civil liberties. And it is not funny when police with guns close down a 4-year-old's lemonade stand. It is damned frightening." Continue reading →

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