Interdictor

Typical Plutocratic Behavior

2010-07-23T18:50:48Z

Career tax-raiser Senator Kerry docks his new yacht in Rhode Island to avoid paying taxes in Massachusetts.

Must watch -- Hilarious!

2010-07-01T07:05:21Z

AMF

2010-06-28T12:16:05Z

Wherein I choose not to engage in Robert Byrd Hero-Worship Week

Americans' Tax dollars fund Taliban

2010-06-22T11:10:50Z

I'm sure this is both necessary and good as part of the larger picture:

79-page report, entitled "Warlord Inc," faults the US military for making trucking companies who deliver goods to US military bases in Afghanistan responsible for their own security. It details how eight trucking companies that share a $2.1 billion contract are forced to pay warlords and Afghan officials to pass unhindered with their convoys. In some cases, the companies pay as much as $150,000 a month for protection, or as much as $1,500 per truck, according to internal memos and other documents reproduced in the report. The report accuses the military of turning a blind eye to the problem.

For the last 25 or so years, the US government has operated like it's part of a Peter Sellers movie.

Make it stop

2010-06-18T10:23:54Z

Soccer: Performance Art not Sport

LOL

2010-06-18T07:32:35Z

World Cup Fever: there’s medicine for that

2010-06-11T21:33:32Z

I discuss the sport of queens.

Sad.

2010-05-23T08:32:12Z

Don't libertarians get tired of wasting so much time and money just to get their brains bashed in when the elections roll around?

“The plan’s perfect… it will work this time”

2010-05-12T19:37:12Z

Wherein I go to town on McCain's recent illegal immigration ad.

Parsing Political Language

2010-04-22T08:02:26Z

Wherein I explain that Obama is not a liar; you simply misinterpreted what he said.

Immigration

2010-04-16T16:23:30Z

Conservatives and Libertarians who think that as long as the US has a massive welfare state, it needs to regulate the borders heavily are missing the point: the government is incapable of doing this efficiently and effectively.

That Vaunted Liberal Tolerance

2010-04-15T16:14:30Z

No wonder the Tea Parties appear to be a bunch of racist, bigoted homophobes: the liberals have infiltrated them.

I Do Not Support Peter Schiff for Senate

2010-04-13T00:17:12Z

http://www.libertarianstandard.com/2010/04/12/i-do-not-support-peter-schiff-for-senate/

The Recession has Ended!

2010-04-07T00:31:17Z

My latest post about the incredible upswing in the job market: http://www.libertarianstandard.com/2010/04/06/the-job-market-is-picking-up-poop/

The Libertarian Standard

2010-04-01T01:06:40Z

A new libertarian blog which I have been invited to write for. If you favor justice, individual liberty, civilization, prosperity, and property rights, and if you oppose war, mercantilism, fascism, protectionism, and militarism, you might enjoy reading it. Some high quality writers there, and also me. Enjoy!

http://www.libertarianstandard.com/

Which Horseman of the Apocalypse is this?

2010-02-08T11:06:47Z

Who Dat?

Greetings

2009-08-24T15:59:10Z

I have a new blog that I use for more "polished" commentary. If you're interested in following me, you can read me here: http://ikilled007.wordpress.com

Also, if you have a "serious" blog for discussing politics, economics, finance, culture, science, specific fields of interest -- not so much a personal blog if you know what I mean -- go ahead and link to it in the comments and I'll check it out and add it to my blogroll if I like it.

Greetings for our Villa in Palermo overlooking Mondello Beach

2009-07-06T11:43:54Z

I'm holding my 1-year-old daughter in our pool and showing her, the future Empress of Sicily, some of the lands she'll rule over one day.

And here is the future Empress of Sicily herself.

Facebook

2009-06-24T21:39:57Z

If anyone wants to connect, my Facebook is: http://www.facebook.com/ikilled007

Lots of photos of my new life here in Sicily and frequent blog-like updates and stuff.

Iran

2009-06-16T12:40:58Z

Apparently, it's civil war in Iran. Follow this guy: http://twitter.com/persiankiwi

Looks like there's a fight for control of Iranian internet going on too. Good luck to the Iranian people as they fight their government.

Twitter

2009-03-17T09:49:08Z

I have a Twitter account but don't really use it. If you have a Twitter account, you should add Lew Rockwell: http://twitter.com/lewrockwell

Infant, 5 others shot near Mardi Gras parade route

2009-02-24T23:18:48Z

"I'm off to Afghanistan this summer. Damn, this is more dangerous than Afghanistan," Parry said.

NEW ORLEANS – An infant and at least five other people were shot Tuesday along a parade route packed with Mardi Gras revelers, police said. Two suspects were in custody and the victims were recovering. The shootings happened near the Garden District about 1:40 p.m. after the last major parade of the celebration, Rex, had ended. Hundreds of truck floats that follow the parade were passing when gunfire broke out.

"It sounded like a string of fireworks, so I knew it was more than one shooter," said Toni Labat, 29, a window company manager. She was with her two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl. "Everybody was petrified. They hit the ground, the floats stopped, everybody on the floats ducked," Labat said. Labat said one man dragged himself on the ground screaming for help after being wounded and another man was gasping for air and bleeding from his mouth. Police spokesman Bob Young said the victims were taken to local hospitals. The infant was grazed by a bullet and not seriously hurt, Young said.

Dr. Jim Parry, 41, a surgeon who was with a gathering of doctors near the shooting site, ran over to tend to one man who he said had been shot in the abdomen. "He kept asking me, 'Was I shot? Was I shot?'" Paramedics arrived and took over for the Air Force reservist.

"I'm off to Afghanistan this summer. Damn, this is more dangerous than Afghanistan," Parry said.

Two male suspects, ages 18 and 20, were in custody and three weapons believed used in the shooting had been recovered, Young said. The violence along the oak-lined Uptown streetcar line marred what had been a generally peaceful day of revelry in which hundreds of thousands of people partied in the streets on the final day of Carnival. Another shooting was reported on Friday night after an argument, but otherwise, the event was generally problem-free. Beau Beals, 45, said he was outside a house party on St. Charles Avenue when the shooting erupted. He said he and other revelers tossed children over a metal fence to get them to safety, but others kept waiting for beads and other trinkets being tossed from the floats as if nothing had happened.

"They had an ambulance out here picking the guy up off the street and people didn't stop vying for throws," Beals said.

New Orleans is still a war zone.

Mumbai News Coverage

2008-11-30T16:07:15Z

Twitter and Flickr replace "official" news outlets in Mumbai

Posted by Ryan W. McMaken at 12:23 AM

Alexander Wolfe of Information Week notes that the largest and most timely source of information coming out of Mumbai was from amateurs using social media like Twitter:

I'd add that Mumbai is likely to be viewed in hindsight as the first instance of the paradigmatic shift in crisis coverage: namely, journalists will henceforth no longer be the first to bring us information. Rather, they will be a conduit for the stream of images and video shot by a mix of amateurs and professionals on scene.

36 hours ago, a look at Twitter postings about Mumbai revealed some of the best on-the-ground information about what was going on. The news channels offered nothing but the usual endless chit-chat about President Bush and other irrelevant topics.

The Wired blog also has an interesting entry on the role of social media in the crises.

The first instance? Sure, if Hurricane Katrina and this blog don't count...

It Matters Whom You Listen To

2008-11-25T05:57:24Z

In 2007, pundits scoffing accurate predictions about the economy

via Boing Boing by Mark Frauenfelder on 11/24/08

I wonder what the other blowhard pundits seen here have to say about making fun of Euro Pacific Capital president Peter Schiff's accurate predictions in 2006 and 2007 about the economic meltdown and its causes? (Ben Stein should probably stick to his subject of expertise, which is claiming that "science leads you to killing people")

This video sequence offers a compendium of appearances (covering the 2006-2007 period) by Euro Pacific Capital president Peter Schiff, who is a frequent -- and frequently disrespected -- talking head on cable news shows. What astonishes is not just the accuracy of his dour predictions about the economy but the sheer arrogance of every other person appearing on these programs.
I don't know who comes off as worse -- the supremely snotty Ben Stein, or the well-named Arthur Laffer. I just wonder how Ben Stein feels about the financial markets as an investment now.
This is an astonishing compilation of clips. It just keeps getting more outrageous as it goes along. Every time Schiff says something sensible, the pundits surrounding him snort and howl. They treat him with undisguised contempt and hatred, as though he had just called for ending the laws against homicide or reducing the age of consent to three.

Peter Schiff was right

New Orleans has highest crime rate in country

2008-11-24T21:41:39Z

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/new_orleans_has_highest_crime.html

A national study released today has named New Orleans the most violent city in the country.
The annual crime ranking, compiled by researchers and published by CQ Press, examined statistics for six major types of crime in nearly 400 cities.

With more than 19,000 incidents of crime last year, New Orleans ranked number one, ahead of Camden, New Jersey, and Detroit, Mich.

The rankings are calculated using crime statistics and population data. The editors of the ranking included a special note about New Orleans, highlighting the city's dramatic changes in population over the last few years.

Ramapo, N.Y., garnered the lowest ranking of all cities.

Police and civic leaders across the country have previously criticized the rankings for their methodology and use of federally reported crime statistics.