Crash of 2009
Stock Prices: The Fed Is Manipulating the Numbers
(American Enterprise Institute) Three rounds of quantitative easing by the Federal Reserve have produced record-high stock prices, but real economic growth still remains below the levels expected in an economic recovery…

Nathan: I have long suspected this, as I watch new records reached by the market almost every day.  This analysis seems to confirm part of my suspicions; I still believe that inflation is the other major factor.  We have a sick economy, and the stock market prices just hide the truth.

Mama’s Note: Trying to gauge the economic health by the stock market numbers is pretty much like trusting your future and fortune to the odds given at a race track. If small businesses can’t hire workers because of tax and regulation burdens, it doesn’t matter a bit what “Wall Street” is doing. Too many people are treating an ever increasing debt and dependency ratio as some kind of “growth.”

The Abominable Act
Will Unions Be the Death of ObamaCare?
(AP) Last month, the union representing roofers issued a statement calling for “repeal or complete reform” of the Affordable Care Act…

Nathan: Really?  I suspect that they want MORE: a full single-payer, single-provider socialist system. Not that we are all that far from such a thing now.  Nice as it would be to believe that even unions are deciding that “enough is enough,” …

Islamic wars: Afghan front
Afghanistan: Suicide bombers’ attack on Red Cross is war’s first
(Columbus Dispatch)  “In a shock to humanitarian aid workers, suicide bombers in eastern Afghanistan yesterday assaulted the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross, an organization that has worked in the country for more than 30 years without suffering a concerted attack and has received praise from all sides. Security forces managed to evacuate all seven Western employees working in the Jalalabad compound, with only one injured, the provincial police said. One guard was killed and another wounded when one of the attackers blew himself up at the entrance to the compound, which caught fire after the blast. The other two attackers also died in the assault.” (05/30/13)

Nathan: Why?  A few nutcases?  An excuse for a personal vendetta?  An escalation?  Whatever the reason, it shows that it is likely that Afghanistan is a hopeless case and nothing in the past decade-plus has resulted in any long-term improvement.  It is a beautiful land, wealthy in many ways, and those people who do not try to enslave others (partially or fully, directly or indirectly) and aggress against others, and who try to live in peace, are nice and productive:  unfortunately, most Afghanis are corrupted by their religion and tribalism.  But it seems to be impossible to drain the swamp, given the political limits on the West and the West’s refusal to offer a true alternative to Afghani religion and society.

Mama’s Note: What does “the West” have to do with whatever alternative the Afghan people might make? The only obligation anyone has to them or anyone else is to leave them alone to live as they please – only defending ourselves against aggression. If some folks want to attempt to teach the Afghans about self ownership and personal responsibility…. they can go as missionaries.

Home front – Theft by government
72,600,000: Record Number on Medicaid; Outnumbers Populations of France and UK
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Coupled with the news about disability numbers (which this dwarfs, of course), this shows that we are a “gimme nation” indeed.  300 million of us, so one out of 5 or worse are getting medical care using money stolen by the state.  Meanwhile, the hospitals and other medical care industry members have become lying parasites living off the state: padding bills and then “writing” the padded bills off so that they qualify for more direct payments and show net losses even while their administrators and providers rake in big bucks.

Mama’s Note: If you want a good understanding of the whole issue, this is an excellent source. Dr. Keith Smith truly knows what he’s talking about. He’s showing other doctors and even some hospitals how freedom, the free market and medicine make a wonderful combination.

Islamic wars: Arab street revolt
Sunni Extremists Call for Jihad Against Shi’ites Over Syria
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Forgive me if I am being cruel and judgmental by saying, “Good.”  Let them wage war on and kill each other.  This won’t be the first time, by a millennium and a half or so.  Muslims started killing each other (as well as all those around them) before their Prophet even died.  If they are killing each other, whether in Mesopotamia or Libya or Afghanistan or Pakistan or Syria, they have less time and energy to kill ferengi.

Home front – Border jumpers – Theft on government
Giving Illegals Access to Welfare ‘An Assault on the U.S. Taxpayer,’ Researcher Says
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Giving ANYONE “access to welfare” is an assault on the American taxpayer.  Theft is theft, regardless of what the money is spent for.  If we truly want to have open borders, we need to jettison the entire welfare system.

Mama’s Note: Amen to that, along with all of the things that damage or destroy the free market, and therefore our lives and property.

Islamic wars: South Asian front
Pakistan Complains About U.S. Drone Strike That Killed Terrorist It Had Targeted in 2009
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Of course, this is standard Islamic belief, as seen by the call to jihad in Syria.  “I can kill my brother, but if YOU kill my brother, then that is evil and I will kill you for killing the same person I would have killed if I weren’t so incompetent and stupid.”  Pakistan is, at best, a pretend ally of the West, including the United States. Again, let them fight each other, and stop supporting – or attacking – ANY faction of Muslims.  Enough is enough.

New religions: global warming – Arrogant government
New Energy Secretary on Climate Change: ‘I’m Not Here to Debate What’s Not Debatable’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Tactic #233 of the “Big Lie.”  “The truth was decided already, so shut up.”  This is one reason that the “scientific establishment” is nothing but another form of tyranny, trying to control what we say and write and read and hear.

Theft by government – EPA tyranny
Wal-Mart to Pay $81 Million Settlement for What EPA Calls ‘Environmental Crimes’
(CNSNews.com)

Nathan: Squeezing another golden egg out of the goose, eh?  The EPA smells like the IRS, doesn’t it?  End the IRS.  End the EPA.  End the Fed.

Mama’s Note: I read somewhere (can’t remember now) that the EPA is headed for their own scandal. Just as with the Muslim radicals, it would be nice if all of the alphabet soup gangs got into a big war and eliminated each other…