Mad Statists

NYC’s Plan To Round Up Mentally Ill People Who Are Not Taking Court-Ordered Medication

"The NYPD is taking a more proactive approach to trying to prevent future crimes by people who are not receiving court-ordered mental health treatment. The city has come up with a list of 25 such individuals and, if found, they will be forced to receive treatment. Judge Andrew Napolitano weighed in on the city’s plan this morning on Fox and Friends, arguing that it is not the job of police to try to predict who might commit a crime based on how they are acting." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNYC’s Plan To Round Up Mentally Ill People Who Are Not Taking Court-Ordered Medication

The World Goes to Monetary War

"What does it all mean? Essentially that, just as in the 1930s during the Great Depression, everybody is in open protectionist confrontation against everybody else. Back then the 'beggar-thy-neighbor' policies started with the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. This time responsibility for triggering the devaluation race in the developed world is more widespread but the objective is similar to that of tariff policy in the 1930s." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe World Goes to Monetary War

British pound strikes seven-month lows amid calls for further weakness

"Sterling's slide came as Martin Weale, a senior Bank of England policymaker, said on Saturday that the pound may need to weaken further, which would help to make exports cheaper and spur growth. 'It may be that high levels of uncertainty and a reluctance to take on new risks have stood in the way of exporters seeking new markets and domestic producers doing what is needed to displace imports,' Mr Weale said in a speech. 'Provided the calmer atmosphere we have seen since the summer is sustained, we may see further benefits of the depreciation.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBritish pound strikes seven-month lows amid calls for further weakness

FDA Going After Raw Milk Cheese Despite Absence of a Single Documented Case in 23 Years

"A newly released 189-page report from the FDA and Health Canada concludes that there is 'a 50- to 160-fold increase in the risk of listeriosis from a serving of soft-ripened raw-milk cheese, compared with cheese made from pasteurized milk.' As a result, they want to see raw milk cheeses like camembert and brie either subject to unprecedented testing, processing similar to pasteurization, or else banned completely. But the actual real-life data presented in the report of illnesses worldwide from listeriosis in soft cheese over a 23-year period between 1986 and 2008 show not a single documented illness in the U.S. from listeriosis due to tainted brie or camembert." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFDA Going After Raw Milk Cheese Despite Absence of a Single Documented Case in 23 Years

Thirty-five Percent of Major U.S. Regulations Were Issued Without Public Notice

"Federal law generally requires that regulations, both major and minor, be opened for public comment, allowing interested parties to read the rules and remark on them, potentially enacting changes to the proposed rules. The GAO report notes that the majority of the regulations published without a notice-and-comment period were done so because the government claimed to have 'good cause' to do so. The federal government invokes 'good cause' when it believes a comment period or comments are contrary to the public interest or if public notice may be deemed unnecessary or impractical." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThirty-five Percent of Major U.S. Regulations Were Issued Without Public Notice

New UK wealth tax plan to target ALL assets – including jewelry and buy-to-let homes

"Families will be forced to pay tax on jewellery and other heirlooms under controversial new plans drawn up by the Liberal Democrats. Under the scheme, tax inspectors would get unprecedented new powers to go into homes and value rings, necklaces, paintings, furniture and other family treasures. Householders would be forced to pay a new ‘wealth’ levy on the assets – with the threat of fines for those who refused to let snoops value their possessions. A policy document seen by The Mail on Sunday spells out how the taxman ‘may have to visit homes to test values of jewellery, paintings, etc’." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNew UK wealth tax plan to target ALL assets – including jewelry and buy-to-let homes

Former San Diego mayor blames brain tumor for stealing $2 million from charity

"A former California mayor admitted in federal court on Thursday to stealing more than $2 million from her dead husband’s charity to fuel a $1 billion gambling binge. The former mayor of San Diego pleaded not guilty to money-laundering charges, and now has two years to repay the charity. O’Connor’s attorney said the former mayor suffered from a gambling addiction that caused her to lose $13 million, mostly playing video poker at casinos both locally and in Nevada and New Jersey. O’Connor, who served as mayor from 1986 to 1992, blamed her gambling largess on a brain tumor that was not diagnosed until 2011." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFormer San Diego mayor blames brain tumor for stealing $2 million from charity

Redress for Aaron Swartz Is Not on the Way Despite White House Petition

"There is some idea, apparently, that a government petition focused on firing the chief prosecutor of the Aaron Swartz case will begin to redress injustice. We doubt it, however. If ever the US government needed to explain a prosecution, it is this one. However, the petition process in which people seem to place some trust is probably not going to deliver a satisfactory result. The administration of Barack Obama is under no obligation than to do more than respond, whatever that means. The response can take the form of an explanation but presumably it doesn't have to. In this case, we doubt an explanation will be forthcoming." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRedress for Aaron Swartz Is Not on the Way Despite White House Petition

Obama’s Drones – Coming to a Window Near You

"The Constitution of the Unites States guarantees that we shall not be 'deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,' that we have a right to trial and to be charged with a crime. But if the president of the United States, as a Columbia Law School professor described President Obama’s actions a few days ago, 'is acting as judge, jury and executioner,' how are we to defend ourselves? We can at least start by demanding that Capitol Hill outlaw the use of surveillance drones against the 315,279,355 presumed innocent Americans now living in the United States." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama’s Drones – Coming to a Window Near You

FATCA Overreach Will Sabotage American Global Competitiveness

"If Congress set out right now to craft a law to sabotage the global competitiveness of the US economy, they’d have trouble coming up with better than the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The law is ostensibly aimed at combating tax evasion and requires every foreign institution in the world to act at their own tremendous expense as deputy US tax collectors. FATCA will instead turn the US into an economic pariah and Americans citizens into toxic assets. It will divert untold billions of dollars per year to pay lawyers to comply with a law optimistically expected to raise less than $800 million in tax revenues per year." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFATCA Overreach Will Sabotage American Global Competitiveness