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July 09,
2004
This commentary
is the personal opinion of the writer, and does not necessarily reflect
the views of FND, FMN, TPoL, and generally is anathema to CBS, NBC, ABC,
PRI, UPI, PBS, CBC, and probably NTV and MTV both. Read more of these
news articles by going to: http://free-market.net/news/
1-
White House reporter: 'This government lies'
Sorry, but this is news? "Dog bites man" is NOT news - but then,
the professionalism of USA journalists is at an all-time low.
2- Drug
company offers discounts to U.S. uninsured
A good public relations stunt, indeed. It really is too bad we can't have
a free market for both medicine and medical care. I'm sure this will be
followed by demands for still lower prices for the HMOs. And of course
"wholesale" is like "dealer price" for cars - really
meaningless.
3- Medicrats
withheld info, threatened others, but broke no laws
As the sage says, there are three ways of lying: tell a falsehood, tell
just part of the truth, and tell the truth but make it sound like a lie.
I would think that all of them would constitute lying to Conk-gress, but
I guess not. I don't suppose they violated anyone's rights? Ha!
4- Data
nightmare at the Pentagon
Thinking back over the years of procurement and supply nightmares, it
is not a surprise to read a report that DoD still doesn't keep enough
track of everything. But compare it to FedEx or UPS, and it probably isn't
much worse. The problem is, the more that you spend to track some things
(especially expendibles like ammo) the easier it is to intentionally lose
them.
5- Mentally
ill youths in U.S. do detention time
As much a crime as this is, the alternative is to put them in "observation
rooms" at local hospitals, where they get exactly as much care and
attention, and where the hospital can charge $1200 a night instead of
the $10 or so a night the usual County Jail does. (As I know from bitter
personal experience.) In an era where "terrorism" can include
a six-year-old with a pocketknife, is it any wonder?
6- Bush
admin to tighten off-road vehicles in national parks and forests?
This decision by a Bushie has already (today) generated tremendous heat
from an important part of Bush's electorate, some of whom are already
asking "Why not vote for Kerry if Bush is gonna do a democratic job
on us anyway?" It may be dropped, however, if enough complaints are
sent, just as similar things did during Bush-I.
7- White
House threatens veto on spending bill
The veto is a rusted weapon that grows increasingly useless with time,
but notice that Bush tends to pull out this weapon (used almost as often
as nukes) for a particular reason: to beat down a growing congress-crittur
revolt against the Patriot Act.
8- Former
Enron chief Lay surrenders to FBI
More than just a pawn sacrificed, but not much different than Martha Stewart.
9- Democratic
ticket's appeal -- good hair
No kidding. Of course, the internet is already burning with pictures of
the new ticket's close personal contacts - with various terms being bandied
around. Come to think of it, though, when was the last time a democratic
presidential candidate was even balding? Wasn't it George McGovern?
10- Nashville
airport security gets it right on drug arrests
If he'd prefer they do their jobs and not waste time on pot, do ya s'pose
it occured to him to just ignore anything not directly related to airport
security? Oh, yeah, I forgot - the airlines risk forfeiture of a multi-million
dollar aircraft for transportation of illicit drugs, just like the guy
found with a couple of ganga seeds in the floorboard.
11- Hawaii
to get E-911 'service'
Well, making $4 mill a year in overtaxation without direct costs (that
is, net, not gross, however gross it is) is a "service," right?
That much less has to be fleeced out of the taxpayers some other way,
no?
12- Tucscon
gov mulls history, safety with old rail lines
Having work with SHPOs (and doing so currently), I have a bit of familiarity
with this government shell-game. It is nice to be able to protect historical
features of the landscape, but like all other government programs, it
has turned into a nightmare of unintended consequences, and we still seem
to lose a lot of our history every year. The buro-rat written, buro-rat
interpreted, buro-rat enforced standards are so bad and so subject to
manipulation that you can tie up almost anything as long as the people
who want to do something don't have the money to fight it.
13- Los
Angeles gov passes cybercafe nannying ordinance
More control, fah da chilluns, ya betcha! Government as god and parent,
at the local level.
14- New
Hampshire city's educrats mulling food police cave-in
Next no doubt will come mandatory lunch box inspections to make sure the
vicious, teeth-eating, waist-expanding, hyper-making stuff isn't being
smuggled in.
15- Florida
county LEO offers prize to deputy with most arrests
Did someone say "quotas"? Notice he didn't specify "legitimate"
arrests, any more than the State goons really are stopping true DUIs.
(Editor's
note: What is a "true DUI" and what gives the state the right
to stop them or anyone else who is not harming another person? MamaLiberty)
16- Montana
game farm owner acquitted
This reminds me of a whole series of cases in Wyoming and South Dakota
where state game officials (a class noted, in western states, for their
overbearing arrogance and viciousness) have teamed up with the Feebs and
other feddy agencies to entrap ranchers, farmers, and game-industry folks
who have been too outspoken or too prominent. Expect this guy to run afoul
of a bunch more regs, many created just for him.
17- European
Court rejects fetal rights claim in lawsuit
In just under 60 years, we've gone from National Socialist genocide right
to... International Socialist genocide.
18- Japan's
social security program to be privatized?
As long as SS provides a very personal form of pork that can be characterized
as something other than welfare, I don't think we'll see any major nation's
SS program privatized. Bringing in outside private-industry people may
help it limp along a bit farther, or may just corrupt the business folks.
19- Kiwi
gov eases immigration rules
I don't suppose they've looked at just why so many people don't want to
migrate to NZ? Actually, with the cesspool England is turning into, the
amazing thing is that Wellington isn't having to toughen the standards.
Wonder what's wrong?
20- Russian
TV station to become more Kremlin-friendly?
As I think Sunni and others have hinted, are we just seeing the "modernization"
of Russian dictatorship? Actions like this bring back reminders of the
old Soviet days. Of course, the Russian Revolution of the 1990s is still
not part of history, and the final phase of most revolutions is still
"open" - the phase where a worse tyranny takes over.
21- Iraq
terror laws: shades of Saddam
Speaking of worse tyrannies - although "gentler" for now. Unfortunately,
given the short duration of the Army occupation, the general population
will probably not resist this reimposition of the tools of tyranny.
22- UN
official encourages African countries to default on loans
In other words, we have a UN official preaching (1) breaking the law,
(2) practicing outright theft, (3) turning business (and frequently some
degree of charity) into another form of taxation for the western (often
US) companies, countries, and individuals who loaned the money in the
first place. The problem hasn't generally been the loans, anyway, it has
been the parasites who claim to be a government in most of these places.
Ouch - that sounds familiar. Where did half YOUR income go this year?
Nathan
Barton is again late in getting this to Mama Liberty but hopes everyone
enjoys this. He is a libertarian AND a christian (call me now to ask how!)
and writing (for today, at least) from someplace in West River of South
Dakota.
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