VA Viper: 2010-10-31

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Keeping Uncle Sam Out of Your Amazon Account

Time: The war over sales taxes has North Carolina (I'm sure others will follow) seeking data from Amazon on the specific items delivered to any NC address. A federal court has ruled against NC, for now.

Hayek vs. Keynes-- The Sequel

via Newsalert.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Must read: Barb Boxer’s Indian tribe

Boxer Resurrects Indian Tribe Deemed Defunct in the '50's, Son Profits $8 Million Off It.

For the past 10 years Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has been playing a game that would make Jack Abramoff blush.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

'Walking corpse syndrome': mental disorder when people think they're zombies

"But some zombies won't take their disguises off at the end of the weekend: they're victims of an uncommon neuropsychiatric disorder known as Cotard delusion, or walking corpse syndrome.

Sufferers think they have died, that their flesh is rotting, or even that they have lost a vital organ."

Socialism and Reality

Must read (the whole thing) at American Thinker.

"Despite the history of failure, every new generation of adherents to socialist ideology believe that they can make this arrangement work and maintain their unwritten agreement with the citizenry.

But the reality is that they cannot, as the economic engine of capitalism will not continue to produce wealth if it is increasingly put under the thumb of bureaucrats and central planners inevitably attempting not only to institute governmental management of the economy, but also to regulate the day-to-day activities of all citizens. The motivation of the producer class will be stifled, and they will either drop out, join the dependent class, or simply move on to other, more hospitable countries -- a reality more in play than ever in today's global economy.

In due course, centralized governments will, as history has shown, turn to excessive and unsustainable borrowing, as well as inflation, to finance their societal obligations. The contract between the statists and the citizens who were promised cradle-to-grave security cannot be maintained, as the economic underpinning of this arrangement will quickly erode."

A Coming Government Shutdown?

Pajamas Media:

"...the presumed GOP congressional majority and the party’s somewhat likely Senate majority will be spending much of the next two years in a knock-down, drag-out fiscal fight with President Obama, his party, and his press apparatchiks. With the battle lines already being drawn, it becomes difficult to imagine how this gets resolved without a repeat of the federal government shutdown the country experienced in 1995. This wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, but if it happens, the outcome needs to be different from 15 years ago."