sound money

Italy’s Political Scandals Rattle Public Trust

"Many of the current scandals have their origins in a 2001 law meant to promote greater federalism and, theoretically, more local accountability. The measure, which handed out generous state financing without requiring that the regions raise much money on their own, backfired badly, fostering reckless spending throughout the country. With the creation of Italy’s provinces in 1970, and especially in the years after 2001, the cost of regional governments exploded. The salaries of Italy’s 1,113 regional lawmakers expanded as well, to $4,000 to $6,500 a month, and often double that with added benefits." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingItaly’s Political Scandals Rattle Public Trust

British ‘End of Life’ Panels Are Bad News for Everyone

"General practitioners are being encouraged by the Government Department of Health to make lists of people who they believe are not going to live long. But that's not all. There are other unmistakable statements in the report that make it clear the mandate to provide end-of-life care is going to be aggressively implemented throughout the British state-run health care system. Death programs are like any other government service, actually. They will be continually expanded and made more complex to ensure the expansion of the departments in question. Eventually, people could die simply to ensure that a department meets certain quotas." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBritish ‘End of Life’ Panels Are Bad News for Everyone

Detained Man Burned Alive After Being Left Unattended In Police Car for 15 Minutes

"Man arrested for a brawl suffered serious burns while sitting handcuffed inside the police car. Later he died in hospital. Andrei Slesarev was arrested during the celebration of his birthday. He got drunk and raised hell at home. His family called the police and the local police patrol detained the brawler. However, few hours later the family of Slesarev received bad news – the man died in the burn intensive care unit of the city hospital. The cause of death was absolutely incomprehensible." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDetained Man Burned Alive After Being Left Unattended In Police Car for 15 Minutes

Why Firing a Bad Cop Is Damn Near Impossible

"All of these Rhode Island cops, and many more like them across the country, were able to keep their jobs and benefits—sometimes only temporarily, but always longer than they should have—thanks to model legislation written and lobbied for by well-funded police unions. That piece of legislation is called the 'law enforcement bill of rights,' and its sole purpose is to shield cops from the laws they're paid to enforce." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhy Firing a Bad Cop Is Damn Near Impossible

Lew Rockwell explains how the Federal Reserve Enables War, Empire, and Destroys the Middle Class

"The accused Federal Reserve bomb plotter's home country wants details on his case. While this may make headlines, we ask Lew Rockwell of the Ludwig Von Mises Institute about one aspect of the Federal Reserve that has not made front page news: how the Fed, with its printing press, may be making war easier. After all, if the people of the United States were asked to write a check every year to the IRS in order to fund the exploding deficits and rising interest payments on the national debt, would they continue to support all these wars? Randolph Bourne may have famously quipped that 'war is the health of the state,' but it isn't the health of the economy, this is for certain." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLew Rockwell explains how the Federal Reserve Enables War, Empire, and Destroys the Middle Class

Wireless ‘smart meters’ tell snoopers when you are not home

"Criminals no longer need to stake out a home or a business to monitor the inhabitants' comings and goings. Now they can simply pick up wireless signals broadcast by the building's utility meters. In the US, analogue meters that measure water, gas and electricity consumption are being replaced by automated meter reading (AMR) technology. Nearly a third of the country's meters - more than 40 million - have already been changed. The new time-saving devices broadcast readings by radio every 30 seconds for utility company employees to read as they walk or drive around with a receiver. But they are not the only ones who can tune in." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWireless ‘smart meters’ tell snoopers when you are not home

Paleo Diet Blogger Loses Round One of Free Speech Case

"A federal judge has thrown out Paleo-diet blogger Steve Cooksey’s lawsuit against the North Carolina state agency he claims censored his blog and violated his freedom of speech. U.S. District Court Judge Max Coburn agreed with the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition that Cooksey has no grounds to sue because he has not been injured yet. Nearly 10 months ago, the board’s director Charla Burill told Cooksey he was under investigation for 'practicing nutrition' without a license. A week later she went through his website with a red pen telling him what he could and couldn’t say legally." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaleo Diet Blogger Loses Round One of Free Speech Case

Microsoft DMCA Notice ‘Mistakenly’ Targets BBC, Techcrunch, Wikipedia and U.S. Govt

"Over the last year Microsoft asked Google to censor nearly 5 million webpages because they allegedly link to copyright infringing content. While these automated requests are often legitimate, mistakes happen more often than one might expect. In a recent DMCA notice Microsoft asked Google to censor BBC, CNN, HuffPo, TechCrunch, Wikipedia and many more sites. In another request the software giant seeks the removal of a URL on Spotify.com. In recent months the number of DMCA takedown requests sent out by copyright holders has increased dramatically, and it’s starting to turn the Internet into a big mess." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMicrosoft DMCA Notice ‘Mistakenly’ Targets BBC, Techcrunch, Wikipedia and U.S. Govt

Free Online Education Is Illegal in Minnesota

"The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the state has decided to crack down on free education, notifying California-based startup Coursera that it is not allowed to offer its online courses to the state’s residents. Coursera, founded by Stanford computer science professors Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, partners with top-tier universities around the world to offer certain classes online for free to anyone who wants to take them. You know, unless they happen to be from Minnesota. State law prohibits degree-granting institutions from offering instruction in Minnesota without obtaining permission from the office and paying a registration fee." Continue reading →

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Pirate Bay and Mega: Treating the State as Damage and Routing Around It

"Most recently, it’s come out that The Pirate Bay has moved to the cloud, thus rendering itself invulnerable to website takedowns. TPB has already taken considerable countermeasures against government raids, backing its site up on several servers and concealing the location of some of them. Meanwhile Kim Dotcom of MegaUpload is rolling out Mega, a new service duplicated on a network of servers in countries all around the world, and therefore far less vulnerable to takedowns by any national government." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPirate Bay and Mega: Treating the State as Damage and Routing Around It