Blogs Not Legitimate News Source?

Do blogs deserve journalism shield laws to protect a source. Not according to the Judge deciding this slander case. This lawsuit raises some important questions about blogging. Read the article and the comments, which are very interesting.

"the judge has now ruled that Hale is not protected by shield laws because she has "no connection to any legitimate news publication." This is troubling for a variety of reasons. First, it leaves open entirely to interpretation what exactly is a "legitimate news publication." "

Robot in Your Veins

So it's finally here. The much predicted robot has been developed at Israel's Technion University and it derives its power from external magnetic fields. The Virob will float in your circulatory system performing microsurgery.

[via Popular Science]

Leonard Peikoff Podcast

Leonard Peikoff Podcast #69 — ARCTV:
"In Leonard Peikoff’s latest podcast of philosophical Q&As, topics include: gays in the military; the role of values in romance; and the difference between Howard Roark and Peter Keating."
[via ARCTV]

Obama and Bernard Madoff

Most Americans have still not grasped the magnitude and the far-reaching effects of the national debt. Edward Cline makes an excellent attempt.

To grasp the magnitude of the national debt Obama (and his Republican predecessor) has been ringing up, a comparison should help illustrate the task. Bernard Madoff’s robbery and defrauding investors of some $50 billion can be represented by the diameter of the solar system. The federal government, using the same scamming tactics, is amassing a debt about the diameter of the Milky Way galaxy. Madoff’s scheme can be measured in millions of miles. The federal government's, in almost limitless parsecs. That measurement ought to suffice to dramatize the scale of the hole he is deliberately digging for the country in his role as Community-Organizer-in-Chief.

Where is all the money going to come from? From the productive Americans, who are going to work for Obama whether they like it or not. He has short-sold the American future.

That growing, astronomical debt, however, will serve to shrink the productive sector and make it less productive in exponential leaps and bounds -- off a cliff. It must inexorably reach a point that the productive sector can no longer sustain the debt it is expected to pay. Then we will have reached the economic status of, say, Zimbabwe.

Ed talks about the outraged cry of indignation by the media over Madoff's scam and yet they refuse to apply the same standards to the Obama administration. Why should they? They have become willing accomplices in this scam of horrendous proportions. It will deal a crushing blow to the American way of life - which is - you work hard, be honest, and you will make it big. Now people will work hard to pay-off Obama's debts.

What clashes with the news media coverage of Madoff’s trial, conviction and sentencing for his crime is the studied obtuseness of the news media for the same crime being committed by the government. Madoff, you see, was “greedy” or “avaricious,” and that, according to the morality of altruism and selflessness, is immoral and antisocial. The government, however, is committing the same crime, but that is in order to “do good.” So its orgy of debt-creation, its extortionate policies of roping all Americans into a “dog-eat-dog” welfare state, and its targeting the most productive and the wealthiest in society for special punishment, are all acceptable and laudable.

Even though the news media has knowledge of this multi-trillion dollar scam, that knowledge elicits not an iota of outrage among the photogenic news anchors and highly paid print pundits. No respectable TV or print journalist even thinks of the scam in terms of a continuing and expanding bilking of Americans from their wealth, investments and taxes.

Ed goes on to examine and explain the meaning of Obama's greeting on 4th of July. It is a revealing commentary on the thought process and ideology of a man who will go down in history as the most anti-American president ever. Recent polls have put Obama's popularity at 50%. So half of all Americans are in a state of denial and it's not clear whether the other half fully realises the gravity of the situation. There are some positive signs - the tea parties being organized across America and I take solace in knowing what Samuel Adams said:

"It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."

Low-carbohydrate diets increase LDL: debunking the myth

I recently finished read "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes. It was quite an eye opener and I have tried to make a lot of changes to my diet. Even before reading the book I had already made a conscious effort to reduce the carbohydrates (mostly complex ones.) One concern for most people including myself, has been the elevated LDL cholesterol. This article by Dr. Michael R. Eades does an excellent job of addressing these concerns. I suggest reading the book for a more detailed explanation.

BTW, I have lost weight, reduced my triglycerides from 139 to 103 within a few months of casual control. I am going to get the test done for the result of more rigorous control (stopped sugar completely.)
[via Free the Animal ]

Mindblowing Tumbling Skills

Extreme Human Performance blog (source of this video) is carrying an interview with this guy (Damien Walters)


[via Conditioning Research ]

Jihad Watch: 140 slain as Muslims riot in China:
"Remember those cuddly Uighurs whom the Obama Administration wanted to release into the American civilian population?"

Russia, India Question Dollar Reliance Before Summit - Bloomberg.com
[via Instapundit.com ]

Portraits of the Kids

Some really nice pictures of kids by WKU photojournalism student Miranda Barzey.

Netanyahu 1 - Obama 0

Poll Gives Netanyahu Positive Marks Despite Rift with US

Heroic Greatness: Patrick Henry

A tribute lecture to Patrick Henry by Dr. John Ridpath, sponsered by the Ayn Rand Institute.

Republicans, Chrysler, and Obama

The New Clarion
Republicans are sniffing glue, Chrysler bites the dust, and Obama reacts to events in Iran and Honduras.

Happy Birthday America

I can say—not as a patriotic bromide, but with full knowledge of the necessary metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, political and esthetic roots—that the United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.
Ayn Rand, Philosophy: Who Needs It

America apes third-world democracies

Rigging of elections? In America?

Well! a lot of Iranians must be sympathizing with Americans.

Where is Dagny Taggart?

Robb at the Robbservations draws some interesting parallels between the reported computer glitch which grounded United Airlines planes and the scene near the end of Atlas Shrugged involving Dagny Taggart.

Al-Jazeera criticises Obama

Even Al-Jazeera is being critical of Obama. I never thought I would see the day.

Obama's strategies failing in Iran
"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, do not fear the US but rather their own people's desire to live in a country more like the US.

In fact, in poll after poll Iranians have revealed themselves to be among the most pro-American and pro-democratic people in the Muslim majority world.

The Iranian government needs little excuse to beat, jail, and otherwise punish its citizens. It is already doing a thorough enough job without US interference, and seems poised to go even further. However, if it goes too far it risks "losing legitimacy in the eyes of its own people," as Obama said at a June 25 press conference."

By Mark LeVine, Middle East Historian

[via the The Spirit of Man]

What is Objective Law?

Making Progress: What is Objective Law?: "Under Objectivist political theory, the purpose of government is to eliminate the initiation of physical force from human relationships."

USB 3.0: A Primer

USB 3.0: A Primer Popular Science: "The current 2.0 ports can transfer packets of information at speeds of 480Mbit/s, but the 3.0 spec will be able to handle 4.8 to 5Gbit/s. "

Bombers Picture Gallery - B-2 Spirit, 2018 Bomber, B-17 Flying Fortress Pictures - Popular Mechanics

2,478,040,448 FOR PROGRESS

"China has already indicated its opposition to carbon cuts. India joins in:

India said it will reject any new treaty to limit global warming that makes the country reduce greenhouse-gas emissions because that will undermine its energy consumption, transportation and food security.
“India will not accept any emission-reduction target – period,” [Environment Minister Jairam] Ramesh said. “This is a non-negotiable stand.”

Look on the bright side, envirodinks. Think of all the emissions saved by not going to Copenhagen."
Daily Telegraph
Tim Blair Blog

Capitalism Magazine Classics

1. Hatred of Western Civilization
   Why Terrorists Attacked America
   
2. In Defense of the "Barbarous Relic"
   Why The Enemies of Capitalism Smear The Gold Standard
   
3. Immigration and Individual Rights
   Does a foreigner have a moral right to move to America? And should America welcome him?
   
4. A Tale of Two Novels
   Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged Versus James Joyce's Ulysses

A Russian Immigrant's Lesson in American Patriotism

The American Individualist:
"“America is the land of the uncommon man. It is the land where man is free to develop his genius – and to get its just rewards.” ~ Ayn Rand

As Independence Day nears and debates over immigration rage on, I’m reminded of how an atheist émigré from Soviet Russia taught me what it means to be an American patriot."

Summer Issue of The Objective Standard

Principles in Practice: Summer Issue of The Objective Standard:
Some of the contents are:

An Interview with a “Capitalist Pig”: Jonathan Hoenig on Hedge Funds, the Economic Crisis, and the Future of America

Justice Holmes and the Empty Constitution by Thomas A. Bowden

Energy at the Speed of Thought: The Original Alternative Energy Market by Alex Epstein

A Brief History of U.S. Farm Policy and the Need for Free-Market Agriculture by Monica Hughes

The Is–Ought Gap: Subjectivism’s Technical Retreat by Craig Biddle

Blue Angels - Raw Cockpit Footage

United States Navy's Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels (Official Website).

[via Look at this...]

The Federal Reserve is lying

How Much Money Inflation? - Howard S. Katz - Mises Institute:
"The Federal Reserve is lying about the nation's money supply (M1). The current figure for money supply is being given as $1.6 trillion. The actual number is $2.34 trillion. The reported number is equivalent to an increase of 16% over the past year. The actual number is equivalent to an increase of 70% over the past year."