Mad Statists

French government minister urges public e-cigarette ban

"French Health Minister Marisol Touraine has called for electronic cigarettes to be banned from public places and their sale to be restricted to over-16s only. In an interview with French radio station France Info on Friday morning, Touraine urged that electronic cigarettes be treated in the same way as normal cigarettes. 'We want the same laws that apply to normal cigarettes to apply to electronic cigarettes,' she said, adding that advertisements for e-cigarettes should also be banned. The pen-sized instruments have grown increasingly popular among the smoking community, especially young bar-goers. 'I want us to rally against smoking,' she said." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFrench government minister urges public e-cigarette ban

Ron Paul: Iraq Collapse Shows Bankruptcy of Interventionism

"May was Iraq's deadliest month in nearly five years, with more than 1,000 dead – both civilians and security personnel – in a rash of bombings, shootings and other violence. Millions live in constant fear, refugees do not return home, and the economy is destroyed. The Christian community, some 1.2 million persons before 2003, has been nearly wiped off the Iraqi map. Other minorities have likewise disappeared. US support for the Syrian rebels next door has drawn the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government into the spreading regional unrest and breathed new life into extremist elements. The invasion of Iraq opened the door to Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which did not exist beforehand..." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRon Paul: Iraq Collapse Shows Bankruptcy of Interventionism

Judge Napolitano On NSA Spying: Most Extraordinarily Broad Search Warrant Ever Issued In US History

"Judge Andrew Napolitano called the situation 'a fishing expedition on the grandest scale we've ever seen in American history.' The government is looking for a select group of people, and instead of obeying the Constitution and simply getting a search warrant for their phones, the judge says, 'They got a search warrant for a 113 million phones!'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJudge Napolitano On NSA Spying: Most Extraordinarily Broad Search Warrant Ever Issued In US History

What Don’t We Understand at This Point About Economics and Unemployment?

"The employment-population ratio has barely changed in three years, showing that 58.6% of U.S. adults over age 16 had a job as of April. Forget the unemployment rate. The employment rate – the percentage of adult Americans who hold a job – has barely budged in the past three years. It's hovering near its lowest level in three decades, and it's unlikely to improve when the Labor Department releases its May jobs report on Friday." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat Don’t We Understand at This Point About Economics and Unemployment?

Georgian president accused of using state funds for botox treatments

"Georgian prosecutors said Friday they were probing the alleged misuse of state funds, as accusations surfaced that President Mikheil Saakashvili had spent thousands of dollars of government money on botox treatments in the United States. According to alleged expense documents aired by anti-Saakashvili broadcaster Imedi on Friday, the president splashed out more than $11,000 (8500 euro) in government money on cosmetic procedures while visiting New York in 2009 and 2011. The documents also purported to show that Saakashvili spent around $9,000 of state money in the United Kingdom on a naked portrait of an unspecified US actress." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGeorgian president accused of using state funds for botox treatments

Bill Bonner: Fed’s policies are bringing poverty

"The Panic of 1907, before all these 'protections' were put in place, was over in 3 months...followed by full employment. The Crash of 1921 took longer - about 18 months - but when it was over anyone who wanted a job could find one. But now, we've been in the Great Correction for 5 years. Millions of people have given up; they're no longer even looking for work. And suicide has replaced car accidents as the number one threat to working-age Americans. You want to reduce the rate of suicide? Eliminate the barriers to saving, capital formation and employment." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Fed’s policies are bringing poverty

Schoolboys told to imagine themselves as future prime minister justifying martial law

"A question on a paper sat by 12-year-old pupils in 2011 gives a telling glimpse into how Eton fosters ambition in its students from an early age, by asking them to imagine they are running the country. It appeared on the 2011 King's Scholarship Examination paper, which can be viewed on the school's website, and asked students to consider whether 'it is better to be loved than feared'. 'You are the Prime Minister,' the paper says, before instructing the young Etonians to draft the script for a speech to be broadcast to the nation explaining why deploying the Army was 'both necessary and moral'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSchoolboys told to imagine themselves as future prime minister justifying martial law

Senator Menendez Calls for More Dead Bodies

"There are no vital national interests at stake in Syria. None. Not Iran, not Israel and not oil. Yes, we can watch from the sidelines and let the Iranians and Syrians form their own politics. This is what the U.S. did with Mexico and Canada. Did the U.S. relish interference from Spain, France, Great Britain and Russia into its affairs? How brainless is it to act as if the refugee crisis is an independent reason for intervening, when it is an outcome of the war itself, encouraged every step of the way by the U.S.? And why must the U.S. rectify this tragedy? What good is a 'freedom' that marches us off to wars willy-nilly or grabs our wealth to do what it wills?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSenator Menendez Calls for More Dead Bodies

Why John McCain Wants to Aid Lung-Eating Syrian Terrorists

"He told us the invasion and occupation of Iraq would be 'fairly easy.' He pontificated that the anthrax attacks were delivered by the Iraqis. His preferred policy for Afghanistan: we should 'muddle through,' rather than withdraw. When the North Koreans started acting out, he averred we ought to threaten them with 'extinction.' And when Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia got into an armed conflict over the breakaway province of South Ossetia, McCain announced 'Today, We Are All Georgians' and demanded we go to war with Moscow. He thinks Iran is training Al Qaeda: he also thinks Iraq shares a border with Pakistan." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhy John McCain Wants to Aid Lung-Eating Syrian Terrorists

Family Concerned After John McCain Wanders Into Syria

"Members of Sen. John McCain’s family expressed deep concern Tuesday after receiving word that the aging legislator had wandered off into Syria. 'Unfortunately, this has been happening a lot lately; he’ll walk out of the Capitol building, get disoriented, and then we get a call late at night saying that John is in Syria,' McCain’s wife Cindy said upon learning that her 76-year-old husband turned up in the war-torn country after ambling across the Turkey-Syria border and delivering a rambling, incoherent speech to a group of rebels." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFamily Concerned After John McCain Wanders Into Syria