With the latest school shooting, all humane people are expected to jump up and do something to stop the next shooting. The most popular response among media pundits and national policymakers right now is an expansion of the various prohibitions now in place against guns. For anyone familiar with the history of prohibitions on inanimate objects, however, these appeals to prohibition as a “common sense” solution are rather less convincing. Americans and others have tried a wide variety of similar prohibitions before, and with mixed results at best. Nowadays, prohibitions on drugs are in decline as states continue to unravel … Continue reading →

Almost everyone has heard the story of King Midas, the legendary king who turned everything he touched to gold. But how much myth and how much reality is there around this character? Was there really a King Midas? If there was, what do we know about him? The Myth of the Golden Touch Midas is the protagonist of one of the best known myths of antiquity. It is a tale that has been evoked by countless writers and artists, however the Roman poet Ovid was the one who gave full shape to Midas in his play Metamorphoses. In the play, Ovid tells the story of Midas, king … Continue reading →

The plan by climate alarmists to have other scientists imprisoned for their ‘global warming’ skepticism is backfiring horribly, and the chief alarmist is now facing a House investigation into what has been called “the largest science scandal in US history.” Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Chairman of the House Committee on Space, Science and Technology, has written to Professor Jagadish Shukla of George Mason University, in Virginia, requesting that he release all relevant documents pertaining to his activities as head of a non-profit organization called the Institute of Global Environment And Society. Smith has two main areas of concern. First, the apparent engagement … Continue reading →

The US and world economies are drifting inexorably into the next recession owing to the deflationary collapse of commodities, capital spending and world trade. These are the inevitable “morning after” consequence of the 20-year global credit binge which has now reached its apogee. The apparent global boom during that period was actually a central bank driven excursion into the false economics of household borrowing to inflate consumption in the DM economies; and frenzied, uneconomic investing to inflate GDP in China and the EM. The common denominator was falsification of financial prices. By destroying honest price discovery in the financial markets, the world’s convoy of money-printing central banks led by the Fed … Continue reading →

Russia has certainly changed the storyline in the Middle East.  Not differentiating rebel forces (rebels being all forces counter to Assad); Russia fights them all – including those “moderate” forces backed by the empire. Russian cruise missiles launched from the Caspian.  The empire’s response? Four Russian cruise missiles fired at Syria from the Caspian Sea landed in Iran, unnamed US officials say. Words. Both Russia and Iran deny this.  It matters little the truth behind this minor distraction; the story on the ground has changed.  For example: The Obama administration has ended the Pentagon’s $500 million program to train and … Continue reading →

Autumn is here, so it’s time for everyone to start experiencing some seasonal pumpkin health benefits! If you haven’t spotted pumpkin-flavored products popping up in stores all over the place yet, just wait – the onslaught is coming. If you’re craving the taste of this fall-favorite, skip the pumpkin-flavored coffee creamer. Most of those products are filled with sugar and trans fats (among other questionable ingredients). Instead, reach for the real thing, because real pumpkin tastes good – and is good for you! Here are 5 pumpkin health benefits. 1. Crunch On Some Fiber Remember when you were a kid … Continue reading →

Earlier this week, we ran a two-parter on the US, Guatemala, corruption, the CIA, genocide, torture, and more. Reader interest was considerable. We now invite you to watch this video of a presentation made by Jennifer Harbury, an American whose late Guatemalan husband, a Mayan indigenous activist, was “disappeared” by the military. After hunger strikes and investigations, she learned that Efraín Bámaca Velásquez had been tortured and then killed — and that the CIA knew all about it. Her story is a powerful one. Read the Whole Article

Have you gone down a rabbit hole lately? Did you, perhaps, happen upon this very post by going down an internet rabbit hole? Thanks to Lewis Carroll’s classic tale, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, you have the exact words you need to describe your world-wide-web wanderings. As it turns out, his wildly popular story—celebrating its 150th anniversary this year—is the source of many other common cultural phrases. So common, in fact, that even if you haven’t read Alice, you probably quote it all the time. (Much like you probably quote Zoolander all the time, except with more accuracy.) Follow us on … Continue reading →

A particular liking for bitter-tasting foods and drinks such as coffee and tonic water could mean you have psychopathic tendencies. Psychologists have found that those with a preference for bitter tastes were more likely to exhibit signs of Machiavellianism, sadism, and narcissism. That is, they were more prone to being duplicitous and self-serving, cold-hearted and lacking in empathy, vain and selfish, and more likely to derive pleasure from other people’s pain. The findings of the study provide the ‘first empirical evidence that bitter taste preferences are linked to malevolent personality traits,’ said the researchers from Innsbruck University in Austria, who … Continue reading →

Modern dental hygiene would have been quite unnecessary for ancient Romans living in Pompeii, as research has revealed that they had impressively healthy teeth. Scientists appointed by the Archaeological Superintendence of Pompeii have used CAT scans to examine 30 Pompeii inhabitants who were preserved in hardened ash after Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. The group, headed by radiologist Giovanni Babino, released photos of their work on Sept. 29, and revealed in a press conference that the ancient Romans had perfect teeth and “no immediate discernible need for dentists,” according news agency Agenzia Giornalistica Italia. Though Pompeii citizens never used … Continue reading →

The sequence of events leading up the French Revolution are likely unfamiliar to most. Yet money printing and a debauched French currency played no small part in those events. As a sequel to “Shorting the Federal Reserve”, 720 Global aims to provide an historical example of excessive money printing which lead to financial crisis, and ultimately the revolution of a major sovereign nation. More than a history lesson, this article effectively illustrates the road on which the U.S. and many other nations currently travel. The story relayed in this article is not a forecast for what may happen but a … Continue reading →