statism

Judge rules TX school district can make students wear locator chips

"A U.S. District Judge upheld a Texas school district’s rule requiring students to wear locator chips on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Judge Orlando Garcia overturned an injunction won by John Jay High School sophomore Andrea Hernandez requiring the school to let her continue her studies without wearing the tag. The Northside Independent School District mandated students wear the chips as part of a policy tracking attendance via radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJudge rules TX school district can make students wear locator chips

A new cheating scandal: Aspiring teachers hiring ringers

"Interesting story in the AJC today on a cheating scandal involving hired ringers taking the teacher qualification exam for candidates in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. The ringers used faked IDs to sit for the Praxis exam, administered by the Educational Testing Service. Praxis exams are required by 40 states and territories to measure the academic achievement and proficiency of newly minted teachers." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingA new cheating scandal: Aspiring teachers hiring ringers

Google chief Eric Schmidt urges North Korean leaders to adopt Internet freedom

"Schmidt said he told North Korean officials they should open up the country’s Internet 'or they will remain behind'. 'As the world becomes increasingly connected, their decision to be virtually isolated is very much going to affect their physical world, their economic growth and so forth, and it will make it harder for them to catch up economically,' he said. 'Once the Internet starts, citizens in a country can certainly build on top of it. The government has to do something. It has to make it possible for people to use the Internet which the government in North Korea has not yet done.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGoogle chief Eric Schmidt urges North Korean leaders to adopt Internet freedom

Full Disclosure: Lew Received a Million Dollars in Cash From Citigroup During Bailout

"Jacob J. Lew, President Obama’s presumed choice to lead the Treasury Department, has close ties to Wall Street, receiving more than $900,000 in bonus cash from a division of Citigroup just as the company was getting bailed out by U.S. taxpayers[...] Formerly chief operating officer at Citi Alternative Investments, a division of Citigroup, Mr. Lew received a bonus of $944,578 in January 2009, a payment that came days before he joined the State Department and later surfaced in a government ethics form. The bonus came on top of $1.1 million in other Citigroup compensation he reported receiving during 2008 and the first two weeks of 2009." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFull Disclosure: Lew Received a Million Dollars in Cash From Citigroup During Bailout

Doug Casey on Orwell’s Nightmare – the Darker Side of Modern Technology

"I'm an optimist on the future of technology. But the way a lot of it is going to be applied by people in government is a different question. The current developments are quite disturbing, especially the emerging capability of police to use cameras and computers to scan millions and millions of people and identify individuals in seconds. They say it's to track sex offenders or catch terrorists, but what's clearly at stake here is the universal monitoring of everyone all the time – just like in 1984. The bad news is that it's here now, and spreading around the world." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDoug Casey on Orwell’s Nightmare – the Darker Side of Modern Technology

Spain Plunders 90% Of Social Security Fund To Buy Its Own Debt

"Spain has been quietly tapping the country's richest piggy bank, the Social Security Reserve Fund, as a buyer of last resort for Spanish government bonds, raising questions about the fund's role as guarantor of future pension payouts. Now the scarcely noticed borrowing spree, carried out amid a prolonged economic crisis, is about to end, because there is little left to take. At least 90% of the €65 billion ($85.7 billion) fund has been invested in increasingly risky Spanish debt." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSpain Plunders 90% Of Social Security Fund To Buy Its Own Debt

Enhance Public Safety: Disarm the Police!

"The arrogance and irresponsibility displayed by law enforcement personnel in these cases – and thousands just like them – demonstrate beyond serious dispute that public safety would be enhanced if we were to disarm the police. Armed members of the productive class are busy earning the wealth plundered to pay the police; we shouldn’t be expected to track down the guns they allow to fall into the hands of private sector criminals." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEnhance Public Safety: Disarm the Police!