Stories about plummeting stock markets, a sputtering Chinese economy, and the yuan versus the dollar have dominated financial news over the past few weeks. Lost in the din: the economic disaster continuing to unfold in Venezuela. Venezuelans face crippling shortages of basic staples as their currency, the bolivar, continues to inflate at breakneck speed. Hyperinflation has rendered the bolivar practically worthless. A photo uploaded to Reddit of a man using a 2 bolivar note as a napkin went viral last week. Business Insider reported that based on the official exchange rate, the makeshift napkin was worth about 32 cents. But … Continue reading →

Supporters of toll roads insist that the gas tax can no longer be relied upon to fund roads because hybrid and electric automobiles are improving gas mileage so much that gas tax receipts are down. A study released last week by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute shows that, contrary to this assertion, the gas mileage of the US car and truck fleet has changed very little over the past two decades. Researchers Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle pulled together data estimating the miles driven per gallon of fuel from 1923 to 2013. They divided the results into several … Continue reading →

Age is just a number – so goes the old adage. But, it may not be a very telling one, scientists investigating heart age have warned. For while millions of us may feel young at heart, the reality is likely to be quite different. A new study has found almost three in four people have a heart that is older than their chronological age. The average American man’s heart age is nearly eight years higher than his actual age, while the average U.S. woman’s heart is five-and-a-half years old, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and … Continue reading →

GUALFIN, Argentina – The Great Zombie War is proceeding as expected… Cannons to the left. Cannons to the right. And a fool on every corner. It will become more and more dangerous, we predict. Then in a fiery ball of hyperinflation and bombastic imbecility, it will all be over… If we’re lucky. Then we will return to sanity – older, wiser… and much poorer. Nuts to Lend at Zero But that won’t happen in a day. Or a week. Or even a year. Yesterday, the stock market bounce that began at the end of last week reversed course. The Dow … Continue reading →

The tone of the debate over the nation’s immigration laws has taken an ugly turn as some office-seekers offer solutions to problems that don’t exist. The natural rights of all persons consist of areas of human behavior for which we do not need and will not accept the need for a government permission slip. We all expect that the government will leave us alone when we think, speak, publish, worship, defend ourselves, enter our homes, choose our mates or travel. The list of natural rights is endless. We expect this not because we are Americans, but because we are persons … Continue reading →

When the bubble vision stock peddlers get desperate, they talk decoupling. So by the end of today’s bloodbath you would have thought China was on another planet, and that “commodities” were some trinket-like collectibles gathered by people who don’t wear long pants, drink coca cola or jabber on their cell phones. On these fine shores, of course, its all awesome from sea to shinning sea. So don’t be troubled. Buy the dip. Never mind that we are in month 74 of this so-called recovery and that after year upon year of promised “escape velocity” the reliable signs of said event are still few and far between. But the “recovery” narrative stays alive … Continue reading →

An assistant professor in the law department of the US Military Academy at West Point has argued that legal scholars critical of the war on terrorism represent a “treasonous” fifth column that should be attacked as enemy combatants. In a lengthy academic paper, the professor, William C Bradford, proposes to threaten “Islamic holy sites” as part of a war against undifferentiated Islamic radicalism. That war ought to be prosecuted vigorously, he wrote, “even if it means great destruction, innumerable enemy casualties, and civilian collateral damage”. Other “lawful targets” for the US military in its war on terrorism, Bradford argues, include … Continue reading →

The “Skyscraper Curse” describes the eerie connection between record-breaking skyscrapers and global economic crises. There are no true skyscrapers being built in Auburn, Alabama, home of Auburn University. But, there has been a great deal of building big and tall. Luxury student apartment building leads the way, followed by high-end restaurants, and retail space. Two student apartment buildings were torn down this past week to make room for yet more building. The city government is also spending truckloads of money on street improvements and a state-of-the-art high school. What are people thinking? Don’t they realize we are in one of … Continue reading →

Napping: something you either swear by, or swear against. However, a new study may put an end to the debate by suggesting that nap advocates, and Spaniards, have been right all along. According to research presented to the European Society of Cardiology annual conference in London, a midday nap is “associated with reduced blood pressure” and could reduce the risk of a heart attack. The study assessed the effect of naps on blood pressure levels in 386 hypertensive patients (those with typically higher blood pressure) who had an average age of 61.4 years. Researchers found that midday sleepers had a … Continue reading →

America’s descent into totalitarian violence is accelerating. Like the Bush regime, the Obama regime has a penchant for rewarding Justice (sic) Department officials who trample all over the US Constitution. Last year America’s First Black President nominated David Barron to be a judge on the First US Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. Barron is responsible for the Justice (sic) Department memo that gave the legal OK for Obama to murder a US citizen with a missile fired from a drone. The execution took place without charges presented to a court, trial, and conviction. The target was a religious man … Continue reading →

In my recently posted comments on the renaming of Calhoun College at Yale University, I failed to mention a glaring impropriety that the custodians of Political Correctness at Yale have not even begun to address. The university’s original benefactor, who in 1718 paid for the first building of what became a world-famous institution of learning, Elihu Yale (1649-1721), was a person of monstrous insensitivity. In 2007, the university authorities felt compelled to remove from their premises a picture of Mr. Yale, who had been a corrupt and presumably racist governor of the East India Company. The picture in question, which … Continue reading →

Since the end of World War Two the Central Intelligence Agency has been a major force in US and foreign news media, exerting considerable influence over what the public sees, hears and reads on a regular basis. CIA publicists and journalists alike will assert they have few, if any, relationships, yet the seldom acknowledged history of their intimate collaboration indicates a far different story–indeed, one that media historians are reluctant to examine. When seriously practiced, the journalistic profession involves gathering information concerning individuals, locales, events, and issues. In theory such information informs people about their world, thereby strengthening “democracy.” This is … Continue reading →