By Nathan Barton

Good morning.  A few stories from the weekend and even last week, which I think you will find of interest.  Apparently, Ukraine did NOT explode over the weekend, although Mount St. Helens is showing life and there was a nasty quake in Thailand and Burma.

You may have read that our beloved massas, led by the Fuehrer himself (praise the Man!!!) have decided that security of our computer systems and our electronic mail and documents is so important that only the government can determine what is to be done to secure it all.  Well, the Murcatus Center declares that the Cybersecurity Framework is the wrong approach. Market-based standards are more effective than state-mandated plans, which run the risk of becoming “mired in unwieldy top-down complexity” AND allowing those same state mandators to themselves probe the wells of information we and others keep about ourselves.  Still bedwetting at age 6?  Only your doctor, his nurse, the IT department, and a quarter-million DHS goons know.  Two days late on your credit card bill?  Your bank, every other bank and credit card company, and that quarter-million in govgoons know.

Paternal involvement Increases college graduation rates, according to the American Enterprise Institute, which is (I add) not the only GOOD thing that increases, and NOT the only factor: private universities often (or almost always, if you don’t include the bloated and corrupt Ivy League schools) also have higher graduation rates.  Teenagers with “very involved” fathers were 105 percent more likely to graduate from college than teens who reported that their fathers were not involved.

Food and Drug Administration approval times vary widely; approval for Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis drugs takes three times as long as approval for cancer drugs…  I do not know if this is a political impact or just incompetence, but it points out that we do NOT want government involved with things we have to ingest or inject or inhale, especially not if our life, our well-being, or our sanity rest on it.

Reforming Immigration: State-based visas may be a good first step, according to some people.  They say that creating a state-based approach to immigration is consistent with federalism and would direct immigrants to the states that most want and need the additional work.  All this may be true, but it still does not resolve the real issues about the totally open borders, especially the welfare state. And you know that DC will fight dirty against any attempt to take power and return it to the states, much less to the people.

In order to qualify for benefits, welfare recipients are effectively told not to save money or retain assets.  This, of course, is going to make them MORE dependent on the state, permanent wards OF the state, and will damage society: their neighbors, communities, and institutions.  Some folks (Real Clear Markets, for instance) think it is an unintended consequence: I think it is on purpose.  Deadly purpose.  Welfare is as much the blood of the state as warfare is.  Indeed, you can argue it is worse: you can wage war against the state, but it is difficult to “wage wellness” against it.  We have seen this requirement get more and more onerous over the years, as the various agencies seek more and more power.

Texas outdid the rest of the states in terms of economic performance between 2002 and 2012, according to a report, “State Economic Performance and Outlook” by the American Legislative Exchange Council.  Despite the wishy-washy attitude in Austin towards liberty and social and economic freedom.  And despite being dragged down by the FedGov.  Imagine what Texas could do independent of DC and the Union!  imagine what Texas would be like with liberty for all!

The United Kingdom is to start exploring for shale gas.  Shale gas in Britain could create more than 64,000 jobs and inject local businesses with $55 billion in capital.  Its impact would be as big, relatively, as the development of North Sea oil and gas two generations ago.  IF the nanny-state and the environists and the Tranzis allow it, of course.  I am betting that they will try and stifle it: regulating it to death.  I know of one county in the US which is demanding that a firm, adding new wells to a set of existing gas wells, from an existing drilling pad,  put up two huge signs on the highway (almost a half-mile from the well pad and on the other side of a river) proclaiming “Fracking taking place behind these signs.  Fracking is deadly and causes environmental damage.” This is, of course, not only untruthful but highly damaging to the company, the landowner, and anyone working at the site.  AND (by the way) to the county and state because of lost tax revenue.  But the environists are so puke-green that they don’t care.

A friend sent this puff piece published by Salon for the FedGov, whinging about how the 2014 Wildfire Season will be a monster, the FedGov has no money to fight them, and it is all the fault of global warming.  Garbage in, garbage out.  Supposedly it will cost $1.8 billion but they only have $1.4 billion so they will have to “borrow” money from other programs in USDA, NPS, and BLM.  $400 million, not even half a billion.  While DoD destroys a billion dollars in ammo that could be sold, and billions are spent on worthless science in third world countries to give College welfare queens and kings a boost.

Political websites are treating Mrs. Clinton very VERY unfairly by digging up video recordings from PreCambrian times – all the way back to 2000.   The video reveals that Hillary Clinton once “Supported Traditional Marriage.” Gasp!!  MRCTV’s Dan Joseph asked students at George Mason University who said the following: “marriage has got historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time and I think a marriage is, as a marriage has always been, between a man and a woman.”   Of course, NONE thought it was the Tranzi Queen, but was sure it had to be an evil GOP or conservative type.