The Quiz
If you want a monopoly, you don’t have to be buddies with the king. You can just go to the patent office.
Cass Sunstein is so anxious to push his theory of government that he distorts the reality to conform to his dreams.
Wall Street, money-center banks, and government have worked together for more than a century. The worst manifestation has been the rise of imperialist foreign policy. Rothbard grasped the details of this relationship, which is more complex than simple conspiracy theory suggests.
Ironically enough, while many so-called liberals express skepticism about laissez-faire economies, they are the first to indignantly resist intrusion by bureaucrats into local farmers’ markets.
The leaked reports over the past two weeks of a series of meetings between U.S. officials and a Taliban figure close to leader Mullah Omar seemed to point to real progress toward a negotiated settlement of the war in Afghanistan. But in fact the talks are part of a Barack Obama administration strategy aimed at [...]
As libertarians know, and most of the rest of us suspect, government lies are as ubiquitous as the air we breathe, and the higher up we go the bigger the deception. Most of the time, we get the truth – if we get it – from whistleblowers, or renegade journalists, but the most recent case [...]
Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time passing Where have all the soldiers gone? Long time ago Where have all the soldiers gone? Gone to graveyards every one When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn? – Pete Seeger Most Americans think the federal government better reduce its $14 trillion debt or [...]
At the government’s current rate of spending, the U.S. will hit its debt ceiling in early August, unless Congress votes to raise the ceiling. Although House Republicans agreed to vote on a measure that would raise the debt limit, without spending cuts, the extension won’t pass – a truth President Obama has acknowledged. James Rosen [...]
Lawmakers Vote Against Raising America’s Debt Ceiling is a post from: Ron Paul, Gold, Liberty, News and more at BreakTheMatrix.com
Germany is a land of environmentalists. The first successful green party in Europe, Die Grünen, won their first seats in the Bundestag in 1983 (compared to Britain’s first Green MP in 2010). And much German environmentalism revolves around the rejection of nuclear power. This, when taking into account Germany’s history, is not altogether surprising: Germany bowed out of World War II only four months before the first nuclear weapon was dropped on Hiroshima. Afterwards, in the Cold War era, a divided Germany found herself as the potential battleground of a full-scale nuclear war between NATO and the USSR. The seeds of nuclear-rejectionism were planted. After Chernobyl, the German neurosis took another knock.
Then, a few months ago, the fifth most powerful earthquake ever recorded struck Japan, promptly followed by one of the largest tsunamis in history. In the path of these natural disasters was an antiquated, poorly-designed nuclear plant called Fukushima. Was the building reduced to rubble by the earthquake? Nope. Did the subsequent tsunami turn it into radioactive driftwood? Not that either. Were hundreds killed? No. Only one person has been recorded as dying because of the disaster – of a heart attack.
I’m no expert on nuclear power, but it strikes me that Fukushima stood up remarkably well to the worst that mother nature could throw at it. Granted, the designs were not perfect, but improvements in last 40 years must have more than solved these issues.
However, hysteria is often far more attractive than common sense. Although not under any immediate risk of neither a magnitude 9.0 earthquake nor a tsunami, Germany immediately took its nuclear power-plants offline and ordered a review. Only after a few months of stating that Germany wouldn’t abandon nuclear power ‘on her watch’, Merkel allowed exactly this to happen and committed Germany to decades of increased energy costs and the importation of (nuclear) power.
In deciding to shut down all of its nuclear power-plants by 2022, the Chancellor has finally caved in to environmentalist scaremongering. No concrete plans have been laid out about to replace the 23% of formerly-nuclear energy, although it is almost certain that the emphasis will largely be on renewables. Business leaders have criticised this, stating energy costs could rise by 30%. At a time, of growing inflationary pressures, the German electorate may live to regret such decisions, especially considering that nuclear has a lower carbon footprint than wind and hydroelectric power. (PDF)
The German abandonment of nuclear energy is a sad example of a minority of sanctimonious Luddites reversing human progress. Cheap, nuclear energy, especially for one of the world’s greatest industrial powers, is the way forward. Instead, the irrational fears of an objectionable few will result in reduced prosperity for the majority.
Ich bin enttäuscht.
(Editor’s pick)
The Jews demand a state, the Palestinians demand a state. The problem is the state! There will never be a resolution to this so long as both sides keep teaching their children hate.
The U.S. and Saudi Arabia are concerned the state of "anarchy" may enbolden Yemeni Al Qaeda. Like forcing "democracy" down their throats won’t do that.
So much for that promise of no ground troops. " You Lie! "
The Freeman discussing free lunches.
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