Category: Aggregated

A huge fault in the Earth’s crust near Los Angeles is leaking helium, researchers have found. They say the unexpected find sheds new light on the Newport-Inglewood Fault Zone in the Los Angeles Basin. It reveals the fault is far deeper than previously thought, and a quake would be far more devastating. It follows a report from the U.S. Geological Survey has warned the risk of ‘the big one’ hitting California has increased dramatically. UC Santa Barbara geologist Jim Boles found evidence of helium leakage from the Earth’s mantle along a 30-mile stretch of the Newport-Inglewood Fault Zone in the … Continue reading →

Many people are looking at the recent Supreme Court decisions about ObamaCare and same-sex marriage in terms of whether they think these are good or bad policies. That is certainly a legitimate concern, for both those who favor those policies and those who oppose them. But there is a deeper and more long-lasting impact of these decisions that raise the question whether we are still living in America, where “we the people” are supposed to decide what kind of society we want, not have our betters impose their notions on us. The Constitution of the United States says that the … Continue reading →

Austrians have launched a petition to quit the EU, arguing that the nation will be better off economically if it leaves the union. To force the national parliament to consider the initiative activists need to have gathered 100,000 signatures by July 1. The petition was started by a retired 66-year-old translator, Inge Rauscher, who has collected enough signatures to launch an official campaign. The plea seeks to request that the national parliament debate the idea of a referendum on quitting the EU. However, to get that issue even discussed, the petition must gather 100,000 signatures. “We want to go back … Continue reading →

Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.” — Lord Acton Since being inaugurated in 2009, President Barack Obama has issued 30 Presidential Policy Directives (PPD), 19 of which he has ordered to be kept secret from Congres and the American people. Barack Obama campaigned for president promising to usher in an era of transparency in government. That promise stands next to “if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor” in the Barack Obama Presidential Hall of Shame. No less than USA Today called … Continue reading →

Ever wonder why the biggest market for pick-up trucks (that’s us, the U.S.) has so few trucks available? Yes, yes, there are the big ones – mostly made by the Big Three. But how come the others – smaller brands, smaller trucks – have been so reticent about cashing in on this most lucrative (highest profit margin per vehicle) segment? Could it be the “chicken tax”? Never heard of it? It’s the tax – the tariff – that makes it much more expensive to bring a truck to market in the U.S. that was not made in the U.S. It … Continue reading →

From the Slope of Hope: I wanted to do a post that had nothing to do with Greece or charts, just for a change of pace. Because I don’t know about you, but after the past 72 hours, I’m exhausted! One of my favorite “fun” books is a 1995 offering called Hey Skinny!, which is a collection of full-page color ads that were published in comic books in the 1940s and 1950s. I’ve thumbed through the book many times, but it dawned on me that even though we live in an age where a product released a month ago is “ancient history”, these artifacts from … Continue reading →

Late Friday night a solid blow was struck for sound money, free markets and limited government by a most unlikely force. Namely, the hard core statist and crypto-Marxist prime minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras. He has now set in motion a cascade of disruption that will shake the corrupt status quo to its very foundations. And just in the nick of time, too. After 15 years of rampant money printing, falsification of financial market prices and usurpation of democratic rule, his antagonists—–the ECB, the EU superstate and the IMF—-have become a terminal threat to the very survival of the kind of liberal society of which these values are part and parcel. In fact, the … Continue reading →