Ted Stevens indicted for seven felony counts:
Sen. Ted Stevens, the nation’s longest-serving Republican senator and a major figure in Alaska politics since before statehood, was indicted Tuesday on seven felony counts of concealing more than a quarter of a million dollars in house renovations and gifts from a powerful oil contractor that lobbied him for [...]

When I heard that a comedian, Doug Stanhope, had been considering running for President as a Libertarian, I thought it was about time. Who better to highlight just how hopelessly ridiculous the system has become than a comic. Then I heard his material: some of the more depraved comedy I’ve come across– not [...]

Just over a month after the United States Supreme Court struck down the District of Columbia’s handgun ban, the man who brought that case is suing the District again over it’s response to the Supreme Court’s ruling:
The man who successfully challenged the D.C. handgun ban before the U.S. Supreme Court filed a second federal lawsuit [...]

One of the key ideas that I find myself discussing in any election cycle is the desire of Americans to elect a savior. Not gonna happen. The system is bigger than the players, and the system is flawed.
But that doesn’t stop the average voter from trying to elect someone who will “run the [...]

I’m not overly sentimental for relics from the past. When it comes to the history of a place, my view is less sentimental and more “what have you done for me lately?”
But the last thing I want to do is use the force of government to stop other people from enjoying such [...]

Fellow Californians, say goodbye to trans fats:
California, a national trendsetter in all matters edible, became the first state to ban trans fats in restaurants when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Friday to phase out their use.
Under the new law, trans fats, long linked to health problems, must be excised from restaurant products beginning [...]

When you read this:
Bill Gates and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced on Wednesday that they would spend $500 million to stop people around the world from smoking.
…
The $500 million would be spent on a multipronged campaign — nicknamed Mpower — that Mr. Bloomberg and Dr. Margaret Chan, director of the health organization, outlined in February. [...]

Time has an ongoing series which advocates the need for “voluntary” national service. In the magazine’s latest article by Managing Editor Richard Stengel, the author praises both John McCain and Barack Obama for their urging of Americans to “serve interests greater than self.”
It is a unique moment for the idea of national service. You [...]

California, in an attempt to fix the housing mess* by making houses less affordable by making you buy features you wouldn’t otherwise**, has announced new statewide building restrictions to go “green”.
From the Governator on down, nanny statists in California are more than willing to use force to make your life more expensive, and are quite [...]

John McCain must hate little girls. It is one of many inescapable conclusions that arise from reading his National Security position paper, which promises all things to everyone – well almost everyone. His foreign policy plans promise more submarines, more ships, more aircraft, more divisions, more security, more military assistance for allies, more [...]

A credit-default swap is best described as insurance against a debtor defaulting on their debt. If you’re holding someone’s paper, and you are concerned of a risk of default, you hedge that risk using a CDS with someone to ensure that you don’t encounter overwhelming losses.
So what does it mean when the chart of [...]

No, I didn’t ask you about your net worth but what dollar value would you say that your life is worth to you. Most of us would not be able to come up with a figure or might say that putting an exact dollar amount on one individual’s life (especially one’s own) is impossible to [...]

DC City Council Chairman Vincent Gray, on the District’s new gun legislation:
We’re trying to figure out how close we can get to where we were before.
Judging from the “emergency” law, which continues to ban semiautomatic weapons and requires trigger locks or the firearm to be disassembled at all times (except when used against an intruder), [...]

American Presidential politics has long been derided as little more than a popularity contest. It’s said that it fails because the person Americans would “most like to have a beer with” is not necessarily the person who should be sitting in the most powerful political office in the world. But President Bush’s approval [...]

Over in the Science Based Medicine blog, Wallace Sampson is expresses outrage that the National Institutes of Health has announced an initiative to fund “research” into Traditional Chinese Medicine …

While insightful, Dr Sampson fails to dig down to the real sources of the problem:

If the NIH wastes money on quackery, its officers do not suffer a loss. They don’t have to justify their spending to donors or shareholders. The money extracted at gunpoint from the citizenry will continue to flow in regardless of the junk science the NIH produces.

“When it comes to picking our next president, I can’t decide if I prefer the smooth-talking, inspirational candidate who promises to give my money to people who don’t work as hard as I do, or the old, short, ugly, angry guy with one good arm who graduated at the bottom of his class and somehow [...]

From Ezra Klein, regarding reducing costs in the Massachusetts health care system:
The mandate presumes residents can afford coverage, and it’ll spark a political revolt if voters find themselves penalized for not buying a product they can’t afford. In other words, one of two things can happen: Either Massachusetts can figure out how to control costs, [...]

Looks like the “reveal” may be a few short years away. Maybe it will finally be understood just how deeply the rottenness and fraud has gone:
to imagine the IMF investigating the US financial system is unthinkable, or was. But, at the weekend, Der Spiegel reported that the IMF would conduct a full investigation into [...]