statism

Airlines made windfall profits after EU freeze on carbon taxes

"Airlines made up to half a billion euros in windfall profits last year by passing on a carbon surcharge to travellers despite an EU decision to freeze its controversial carbon tax, environmentalists said on Tuesday. Green group Transport and Environment said airlines chalked up extra revenues estimated at 486 million euros ($650 million) even though EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard in November decided to 'stop the clock' on an EU carbon tax angering the global aviation industry." Continue reading →

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Airlines Merger: Competition vs. the Great Trusts

"The new American Airlines resulting from the deal would boast revenues of close to $40 billion and offer nearly 7,000 flights per day. Interested observers should ask what makes such mergers possible and whether they are the results of legitimate, free market competition, or something else entirely. Airlines epitomize a system of big business cartelization that grows up out of huge cost barriers to potential market challengers created by legal and regulatory requirements. Contrary to the rhetoric of 'unbridled' markets, airlines are among the corporations most entangled in federal regulatory structures — and that’s just the way they like it." Continue reading →

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Ron Paul: When they came for the Raw Milk drinkers…

"All Americans, even if they do not believe it is a wise choice to drink raw milk or use gold coins, should be concerned about the use of force to limit our choices. This is because there is no limiting principle to the idea that the government force is justified if used 'for our own good.' Today it is those who sell raw milk who are being victimized by government force; tomorrow it could be those who sell soda pop or Styrofoam cups. Therefore, all Americans should speak out against these injustices." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRon Paul: When they came for the Raw Milk drinkers…

No Exit: China Uses Passports as Political Cudgel

"Legions of Chinese have been barred from traveling abroad by a government that is increasingly using decisions on passports as a cudgel against perceived enemies — or as a carrot to encourage academics whose writings have at times strayed from the party line to return to the fold. The seemingly arbitrary restrictions, not unlike those of the former Soviet Union, also affect overseas Chinese who had grown accustomed to frequent visits home. Scores of Chinese expatriates have been denied new passports by Chinese Embassies when their old ones expire, while others say they are simply turned away after landing in Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNo Exit: China Uses Passports as Political Cudgel

The Shearing of the Sheeple

"If we use Sir Arthur's logic, when we have eliminated the impossible in this case, what we are left with, however improbable, is that the State's objective is indeed to achieve what it is achieving – denying the depositor his liberty, whilst implying that there is something inherently wrong with the purchase or sale of precious metals. But what is the benefit to the authorities in doing so? By treating those who buy and sell precious metals in the same way as drug lords are treated, it becomes easy to convince the general public that it was a good thing the metals investors were stopped from doing what they were doing. And that's the whole point." Continue reading →

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Canadian citizenship-stripping plan good politics but dodgy policy

"Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s plan to strip Canadian terrorists of their citizenship is clever Conservative politics. There’s a feeling out there that just too many people are using Canada as a country of convenience — that they obtain citizenship to take advantage of programs like medicare but that their real loyalties are elsewhere. Now he’s taken advantage of a 2012 terrorist outrage in Bulgaria to advance the far more controversial idea of giving Ottawa the right to strip dual nationals of their Canadian citizenship. Native-born Canadians who also happen to be dual nationals could have their Canadian citizenship revoked by fiat." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCanadian citizenship-stripping plan good politics but dodgy policy

Should Americans Emigrate Or Defect?

"America still allows emigration; the door has not yet slammed. But America punishes the act and it is proposing legislation to punish it more. For example, a bill called the Ex-PATRIOT Act would ban anyone who expatriates from ever setting foot again on American soil. As the law stands today, the 'exit tax' for those who emigrate without renouncing citizenship is to be saddled with a US tax liability in perpetuity; in short, double taxation. The 'exit tax' for those who renounce citizenship is the complexity of the process and a confiscation of wealth from those who have it. This is a fiscal Berlin Wall." Continue reading →

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U.S. renunciant wins FOIA case over Trusted Traveler Program card denial

"Via Courthouse News, we learn of the story of Robert Darnbrough, a Canadian who renounced U.S. citizenship in 2003, and was later denied a Nexus border crossing card by U.S. Customs & Border Protection. Darnbrough filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the State Department in February 2011, which then released some documents to him in November that year. However, they did not deliver information contained in the Consular Lookout and Support System (CLASS), claiming that 8 USC 1202(f)(confidential nature of records) allowed them to withhold it under FOIA Exemption #3." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. renunciant wins FOIA case over Trusted Traveler Program card denial

Belarus jails border guard over ‘teddy bear invasion’

"Belarus has convicted and jailed for two years a border guard for failing to report that a foreign plane full of teddy bears had crossed into national airspace from Lithuania last July, the Belarus Supreme Court said Tuesday. The decision by a military tribunal is the first jailing in connection with the stunt by a group of Swedish activists who flew illegally into Belarussian territory to release hundreds of teddy bears carrying protest signs in support of freedom of speech. A border guard who was on duty on July 2, 2012 received his conviction on January 4 in a closed trial for not reporting the teddy-bear fly-by." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBelarus jails border guard over ‘teddy bear invasion’

Senators in Immigration Talks Mull Federal IDs for All Workers

"Key senators are exploring an immigration bill that would force every U.S. worker—citizen or not—to carry a high-tech identity card that could use fingerprints or other personal markers to prove a person's legal eligibility to work. The idea, signaled only in vaguely worded language from senators crafting a bipartisan immigration bill, has privacy advocates and others concerned that the law would create a national identity card that, in time, could track Americans at airports, hospitals and through other facets of their lives." Continue reading →

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