Paul and Lew: This CNN "man-who-holds-a-microphone-and-talks" guy — and most of his colleagues at the other "news" channels — is in no way mean-spirited in what he does. He has been assigned to interview a man who thinks outside the circle, and one of the job requirements in the lockstep-media is to believe that there is no circle beyond which one's thinking can extend. Like so many others trained in the establishment mindset, he reminds me of a fish who knows only the environment of water, and to whom the concept of non-water cannot be imagined.

The late Jude Wanniski, supply-sider and champion of peace, comments on Ron's last confrontation with Greenspan.

Here's an excerpt from this interesting article.

High quality audio recordings could actually help curb piracy by offering something of better quality than the pirated versions available, said Young, though he has no real problem with piracy as it exists. “I look at the Internet as the new radio,” he explained. “I look at radio as gone … Piracy is the new radio, that’s how music gets around.”

(Thanks to Daniel McAdams)

UPDATE from Greg Privette:

From my understanding of the music business it would seem to me that most of the artists should be OK with so called “piracy.” I believe the main financial beneficiaries of the old model of distribution are the big media companies. Typically the artists get very little of the money from music sales and instead make their money through live tours. There are volumes of stories over the years of artists who made it big but had contracts where the only ones to benefit financially from their success were the record companies. Under this set up it would seem that “piracy” would actually benefit the artists by getting their music wide distribution at almost no cost. This gains them a following of people who then pay to see them in live appearances. As Gary North points out in many of his articles, the cost of all types of publishing have been driven to near zero by digital formats and internet distribution which dramatically lower the bar for entry into these fields. The only ones screwed in this situation are the old, entrenched, outdated big media companies that were bypassed by technology and are turning to the government to save them through forced preservation of an outdated business model.

That is the latest war propaganda line being spewed by Faux News. Here's what was said about five minutes ago:

1.  Iran is (supposedly) developing a nuclear missile that can reach the United States; and

2. Israel is planning on attacking Iran in the Spring before Iran can send that missile to Chicago.

You can sleep soundly now. Our Big Brother, the Likud Party, is taking good care of us.

I speak of course of The Trumpster, a.k.a., Donald Trump, who yesterday endorsed Mitt Romney. What a shocker. The Trumpster has also showered Senator Harry Reid, the archenemy of Nevada conservatives, with campaign cash in the past. So it is no surprise that The Trumpster would endorse Massachusetts liberal Romney, the man who introduced socialized healthcare in that state.

When a man like The Trumpster endorses a presidential candidate publicly, it is reasonable to assume that he does so because the two men have common political views. Among Trump's positions when he himself toyed with running for president were: a preemptive nuclear strike on North Korea; a 14.25% wealth tax to supposedly pay for socialized medicine; a vast increase in defense spending; and no opposition to the welfare state.

Laurence: We know how important the killing of "savages" was to the history of the United States. The savage Indians posed a threat to the "Manifest Destiny" that made America what it is today! And we know the Indians were savages: Whenever the cavalry tried to slaughter every man, woman, and child of them, the Indians fought back!

The modern generation of American cavalrymen are still on the hunt for savages, this time in other countries where their targets are busily . . . well, you know, minding their own business. These are what George Carlin referred to as "the brown people" that Americans love to kill off! I suspect that this professional sniper had seen one-too-many John Wayne films in his youth!

[NB: The usual foul language from Carlin]

Then you might be a terrorist, says the police state. Oh, and people who pay cash are also "suspicious."

I recently mentioned here the deadliest sniper in U.S. history. Huff Post is running an excerpt from his book American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History.  Here is his absolutely warped view of the war in Iraq:

Savage, despicable evil. That's what we were fighting in Iraq. That's why a lot of people, myself included, called the enemy "savages." There really was no other way to describe what we encountered there. People ask me all the time, "How many people have you killed?" My standard response is, "Does the answer make me less, or more, of a man?" The number is not important to me. I only wish I had killed more. Not for bragging rights, but because I believe the world is a better place without savages out there taking American lives. Everyone I shot in Iraq was trying to harm Americans or Iraqis loyal to the new government.

And why were they trying to harm Americans? Could it be because Americans invaded and occupied their country?

At the National Prayer Breakfast yesterday, Obama argued that his efforts to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans, promote health insurance reform, help families with college tuition, and send troops to prevent human rights abuses in Uganda were grounded in his faith. That's funny, my opposition to raising taxes on the wealthy, socialized medicine, welfare for college students and their parents, and sending troops anywhere is grounded in my faith.

Said the president: "I think to myself, if I’m willing to give something up as somebody who’s been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that’s going to make economic sense. But for me, as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’ teaching that 'for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.'" True, but it is God that does the requiring, not the United States government. For more on Christianity and libertarianism, see my ASC lectures "The Myth of the Just Price" and "Is Libertarianism Compatible with Religion?"

Bush, of course, was not any better—talking about his Christian faith while launching two wars. See my analysis of Bush's Christian faith here.

The government's no-fly list has doubled in the past year to 21,000 "known or suspected" terrorists, including 500 Americans. In a free society, only the airlines would maintain a no-fly list. Just as the owner of any business could include or exclude anyone he decided for any reason. In a free society. You know, the kind of society that Americans think they have because they are proud to be Americans because at least they know they're free and similar BS.

Anti-immigrant conservatives cheer.

Reyes Jimenez's son and three daughters are now living in foster care in Phoenix, and are awaiting possible adoption. Reyes Jimenez is back in Mexico, her parental rights terminated by an Arizona judge, and she cries when she remembers the raid that began it all.

"My daughters were calling, 'Mommy, my Mommy,'" said Reyes Jimenez. "I felt destroyed. I felt like I would never see my girls, even worse [the baby] was so small. I had just bought her cradle and her stroller."

I can hear the advocates for despotism in the name of combating immigration already: "The woman was a lawbreaker. This is sad, but she broke the law."

I can only quote Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas: "An unjust law is no law at all." But alas, those who advocate for for such forms of despotism need not have any regard for the morality of such laws since the foundational philosophy of anti-immigration activists is nothing more sophisticated than "We must support big government or immigrants will come here and support big government."

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