News Commentary

California’s New Democratic Supermajority is the Path to a Smaller America

"California, where I once lived for several years, simply makes no sense in its current configuration. Northern California has little in common with Southern California, and the rural, ag-heavy Central Valley has nothing in common with the glitzy, pricey coast. Lawmakers – who make a mockery of leadership in California – have proven time and again through the years that they’re incapable of effectively or prudently managing the diverse needs of such a diverse state. In short, California makes far more sense as three separate states … and the supermajority is quite likely the accidental path to that future." Continue reading →

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‘Ag-Gag’ Bills, Property Rights, and Common Sense

"Opposition to Ag-Gag legislation is steadfast across demographic, geographic and partisan lines. A majority of Republicans, Democrats and Independents agree that banning undercover investigations is wrong. Likewise, a majority of respondents in all regions (Northeast, Midwest, South and West) oppose the criminalization of undercover investigations at farms. Over the years I have witnessed that fact that the more people are exposed to the realities of the cruel and deplorable slop served up by the industrial CAFO system, the more they will demand quality food where animals are raised humanely and within their natural environment." Continue reading →

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Bahrain, a Brutal U.S. Ally

"The United States speaks about supporting human rights and democracy, but while the Saudis send troops to aid the Khalifa government, America is sending arms. The United States is doing itself a huge disservice by displaying such an obvious double standard toward human rights violations in the Middle East. Washington condemns the violence of the Syrian government but turns a blind eye to blatant human rights abuses committed by its ally Bahrain. This double standard is costing America its credibility across the region; and the message being understood is that if you are an ally of America, then you can get away with abusing human rights." Continue reading →

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Prohibitionists Respond to Repeal: Bootlegging, Racketeering, and Kidnapping Will Go Up Now!

"Seventy-nine years ago today, Utah, of all states, delivered the killing blow that brought the national prohibition of alcohol to an end. In honor of Repeal Day -- and with an eye on what may be the early stages of an end to the war on marijuana -- here's a flashback to December 1933, as prohibitionists watched their achievement crumble." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingProhibitionists Respond to Repeal: Bootlegging, Racketeering, and Kidnapping Will Go Up Now!

The Really Scary Thing about the TSA

"TSA employees literally traded in their blue security uniforms, black TSA inspector jackets and TSA badges for a FEMA badge to help residents recover from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. This is a relatively benign use of the body grabbers. But it makes my point, the body grabbers can be taken off their body grab duties for other government activities. What if price inflation heats up and price controls are instituted? Will the body grabbers be sent out into the land to monitor against price increases and black markets developing? I fear we have not seen the end of the interventionist roles to be played by these characters. They are rested and ready." Continue reading →

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An American Stasi

"America is building its American Stasi openly. Some parts of its operations will be open, and critical parts will be secret. Many Americans will support it. No matter whether the American Stasi is open or secret, each isolated American will face a powerful foe, even more powerful than the Stasi, in a one-sided contest whose outcome is predetermined. The captured Stasi files on East Germans are 65 miles long, excluding 16,000 sacks of shredded documents that are being reconstructed. The American Stasi's files will be, for all practical purposes, infinite, because of the advances in technology and information storage." Continue reading →

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Paula Was Not the Only One in Bed With Petraeus

"Petraeus got what he wanted from the relationship with the Kagans as well. Each time Petraeus descended on Capitol Hill he was treated like a god by lawmakers. That was the Kagans' doing. They rushed home from their extended stints 'running' the war in Afghanistan to pen saccharine pieces on the glories of Patraeus, just the kind of hero the pro-war faction in Congress (as in the entire Congress minus a handful) needed. This, in a nutshell, is why the desperate race to solve the 'fiscal cliff' is in reality a desperate race by Congress and the president to avoid any cuts in the military budget. Otherwise the Fred Kagans of the world will sic their think tank brigades on you." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaula Was Not the Only One in Bed With Petraeus

Drones Are Like Structured Finance

"What happened with structured finance and what's happening with drones is that the adoption and increased use of the technologies come to have an independent effect on the underlying phenomena, the housing bubble and the war on terror's killing bubble. Being effective and low-cost technologies, they heighten the bubbles as people use them intensively. The indiscriminate use or broad use or overuse of these technologies cause problems all their own and, in the hands of their users, who were investment bankers and now U.S. government officials, they become contributory causes of new problems." Continue reading →

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Glenn Greenwald: Newtown kids v Yemenis and Pakistanis: what explains the disparate reactions?

"It's easy to express rage over the Newtown shooting because so few of us bear any responsibility for it and there is ultimately little we can do to stop psychotic individuals from snapping. Fury is easy because it's easy to tell ourselves that the perpetrator has so little to do with us and our actions. Exactly the opposite is true for the violence that continuously kills children and other innocent people in the Muslim world. Many of us empowered and cheer for the person responsible for that. US citizens pay for it, enable it, and now under Obama, most at the very least acquiesce to it if not support it." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: Newtown kids v Yemenis and Pakistanis: what explains the disparate reactions?

UN Takes on Al Qaeda in Mali

"War and more war. There are plenty of questions about the legitimacy of what is about to occur. It all begins with the Tuaregs, a blue-daubed fierce tribe of warriors who are part of the larger Berber peoples that were recognized by the UN in the 1990s as legitimate claimants of the northern African Maghreb that spans Tunisia, Libya, Niger and Algeria. After the destabilization of Libya, a Tuareg rebellion took place throughout the African Maghreb and also destabilized parts of Mali. What is evident is that the fighting between secularist Tuaregs and Islamic Tuaregs has now resolved itself in favor the Islamic factions. And this is supposedly the reason for the UN involvement." Continue reading →

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