The Fantasy of Wealth Redistribution - Lorenz Kraus - Mises Daily

The Fantasy of Wealth Redistribution - Lorenz Kraus - Mises Daily: "you cannot chop to pieces and spread among the people an oven — and still have a working oven. You must respect the integrity of all capital goods for them to function. A power plant would have to be ground up into atoms and divided into baggies to get equality.

By their nature, capital goods cannot be redistributed among the people in any sense that results in equality and wealth. The redistribution of wealth, if taken seriously, necessarily means the complete and utter destruction of wealth. Socialism is nihilism, the destruction of values.

Communists never successfully distributed wealth equally. This is inherent in the nature of wealth. Because wealth cannot be subdivided (only rights to wealth can) to the masses, they seized wealth for their own clique. Everyone else starved. This is how the integrity of wealth asserts itself when seized. Socialists do not fight over air; their infighting is over this radio station, that printing press, these tanks, or this bit of rancid meat."

"hundreds of millions of people have thought that redistribution of wealth will lead to personal gain. Obama's redistribution of wealth brought economic destruction."

"Where in socialism do you, oh peasant, lay claim to your part of the public schools, the postal service, or the prisons? There is no similar mechanism to illustrate your ownership of the nationalized steel mill, auto company, coal mine, bank, or national park — and there is not much of a mine or mill left after it is nationalized or burned down.

Take out private-property rights and wealth vanishes. We revert to the ravaging of the commons and to mutually assured destitution."

Feds block workers from WikiLeaks, mirror sites | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

Feds block workers from WikiLeaks, mirror sites | Privacy Inc. - CNET News: "Mark Leininger, Fermilab's computer security manager, wrote in an internal newsletter that WikiLeaks' Web site was being blocked because workers at the Batavia, Ill.-based lab could be at risk if they view classified information without being specifically approved for it."

Reminds me of an ostrich sticking its head in the ground.

FoxNews.com - Ben Bernanke Says Congress Should Not Cut Spending or Boost Taxes

FoxNews.com - Ben Bernanke Says Congress Should Not Cut Spending or Boost Taxes: "Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrightson ICAP, said Bernanke is right that the Fed's purchases won't significantly change the amount of money circulating in the economy. That's mainly because banks aren't lending most of the money they already hold in reserve. When the Fed buys Treasurys, it increases the reserves in the banking system. For those reserves to actually 'create' money, the banks would have to lend it."

So it only sows the seeds for inflation.

Botched execution survivor stays on Ohio death row - FoxNews.com

Botched execution survivor stays on Ohio death row - FoxNews.com: "Broom has said he was stuck with needles at least 18 times, with pain so intense that he cried and screamed.

He was sentenced to die for the 1984 rape and slaying of 14-year-old Tryna Middleton"

Tryna Middleton probably cried and screamed too!

Campaign For Liberty — Waterboy

Campaign For Liberty — Waterboy: "David Axelrod argued the lie again today when he said we can't afford to spend our money on a tax cut for the rich when there are more important things to spend it on. Where to begin....a) leaving rates alone is not a cut, b) keeping your money is not spending, and c) it is not our money, it belongs to whoever earned it. But these are the liberal talking points, repeated over and over and over again, as if the quantity of repetition might improve the quality of the argument. It won't.

The no-tax-increase-is-spending argument is absurd on its face. If not raising taxes is the same as spending, then is electing not to steal money from a church the same as making a contribution? Do you think the IRS will let me deduct all the money I was going to steal from charities but then decided to let them keep?"

More Gridlock, Please | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

More Gridlock, Please | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "We know from history that during periods of divided government, which tends to lead to gridlock, government spending increases by an average of less than 2% annually. In contrast, under unified government with cooperation rather than gridlock, spending grows by an average of more than 5%."

Ben Bernanke's Impossible Dream | Alan Reynolds | Cato Institute: Commentary

Ben Bernanke's Impossible Dream | Alan Reynolds | Cato Institute: Commentary: "This whole scheme raises nagging questions. Why would domestic investors accept a lower yield on bonds if they expect higher inflation? And why would foreign investors accept a lower yield on U.S. bonds if they expect exchange rate losses on dollar-denominated securities? Why wouldn't intelligent people shift their investments toward commodities or related stocks (such as mining and related machinery) and either shun, or sell short, long-term Treasurys? And if they did that, how could it possibly help the economy?"

"There is ample evidence from commodity and foreign-exchange markets that world investors are indeed confident the Fed will raise inflation. However, the growing interest in shorting long-term Treasury bonds shows that the market does not believe higher inflation is consistent with lower long-term interest rates.

In other words, Mr. Bernanke and his FOMC allies are risking higher interest rates and inflated commodity costs in the pursuit of the contradictory objectives of higher inflation and lower bond yields, seemingly oblivious to all the evidence that they are pursuing an impossible dream."

Lost natural gas costs gov't $23M per year - FoxNews.com

Lost natural gas costs gov't $23M per year - FoxNews.com: "The government is losing tens of millions of dollars in potential royalties from energy companies that let immense volumes of natural gas escape into the atmosphere, congressional investigators said in a new report."

"The lost gas is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of more than 3 million cars."

"Rusco said technology to capture the escaping gas is available and economical. He faulted the Interior Department for lax regulations on the issue and said the agency had greatly underestimated how much gas escapes from storage tanks and leaking equipment."

Colo. postal worker sentenced for swiping packages - FoxNews.com

Colo. postal worker sentenced for swiping packages - FoxNews.com: "A former Denver-area postal worker who pleaded guilty to stealing more than 11,000 packages and then selling their contents has been sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison."

"The Postal Service estimates the losses at $283,913, but say there's no way to know how much was stolen."

That seems like a light sentence.

What Republicans Can -- And Can't -- Do about ObamaCare | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary

What Republicans Can -- And Can't -- Do about ObamaCare | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon had asked for his state to be exempted from many of the law's provisions, including the individual mandate. Republicans should push to give it to him, and encourage other states to apply as well.

Republicans should also start laying out their own positive alternatives. It's not enough to simply repeal ObamaCare. Republicans will have to show that they have their own proposals for dealing with health care costs and the uninsured. They had a number of good ideas during the debate over reform, ranging from allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines to changing the tax treatment of individually owned insurance, but those ideas couldn't get much of a hearing while the president controlled the agenda. Now they can.

Finally, Republicans in the House now control the power of the purse. They should refuse to fund implementation of the bill. For example, the IRS says it will need to hire as many as 13,500 additional IRS agents to administer the law's unpopular individual mandate. Congress should refuse to appropriate the money to do so."