Sage Wisdom. Daily Brickbats (2011-06-17):

A Broward County, Florida, sheriff’s deputy spotted Robin Brown when she was bird watching one day. He thought that the sage she had with her was marijuana, and a field test seemed to confirm that. He didn’t arrest her then, but confiscated the sage and sent it to the crime…

Want to guess how much compensation she might be able to get from police and state prosecutors to make up for the harassment, arrest, abduction, sexual assault, torture, and confinement that they inflicted on her, a completely innocent bird-watcher, based on nothing more than belligerent ignorance, a fraudulent “field kit,” and pure, callous negligence?

Ha, ha, it’s a trick question. Even if she does win her lawsuit (which will be hard; the system overwhelmingly favors immunity for government violence), the police and prosecutors will never pay anything for the damages she’s awarded. Government police and state prosecutors never pay for what they do to innocent people; you pay for their crimes instead, when they send the tax bill on to you.

Sage Wisdom. Daily Brickbats (2011-06-17):

A Broward County, Florida, sheriff’s deputy spotted Robin Brown when she was bird watching one day. He thought that the sage she had with her was marijuana, and a field test seemed to confirm that. He didn’t arrest her then, but confiscated the sage and sent it to the crime…

Want to guess how much compensation she might be able to get from police and state prosecutors to make up for the harassment, arrest, abduction, sexual assault, torture, and confinement that they inflicted on her, a completely innocent bird-watcher, based on nothing more than belligerent ignorance, a fraudulent “field kit,” and pure, callous negligence?

Ha, ha, it’s a trick question. Even if she does win her lawsuit (which will be hard; the system overwhelmingly favors immunity for government violence), the police and prosecutors will never pay anything for the damages she’s awarded. Government police and state prosecutors never pay for what they do to innocent people; you pay for their crimes instead, when they send the tax bill on to you.

• Living Freedom » Blog Archive » Give Your Stuff Away Day. www.backwoodshome.com (2011-06-15). “And the joys of a bad neighborhood in a bad economy.” – Claire Wolfe (Linked Wednesday 2011-06-15.)

From the Wall Street Journal (16 May 2011).

Gingrich Blasts House GOP’s Medicare Plan

White House hopeful Newt Gingrich called the House Republican plan for Medicare^[1] right-wing social engineering, injecting a discordant GOP voice into the party’s efforts to reshape both entitlements and the broader budget debate.

In the same interview Sunday, on NBC’s Meet the Press, Mr. Gingrich backed a requirement that all Americans buy health insurance….

— Laura Eckler, Gingrich Blasts House GOP’s Medicare Plan in the Wall Street Journal, 16 May 2011

Just a reminder: There’s No Right Way to Manage a Subsidy. And no right way to manage a captive market, either.

1. ^[1][Phasing out Medicare over the next 10 years in favor of a government subsidy for retirees to buy special government-regulated corporate health insurance plans for old people. –R.G.]↩

A Knowledge Problem with Insider Trading Law. Brian Doherty: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2011-05-16):

Reihan Salam at The Daily is of course glad hedge fund villain Raj Rajaratnam was convicted for insider trading, blah blah, but spells out one of the perverse results of keeping those who know the most about companies (theoretically) from helping spread that knowledge and help bake it into the…

How the regulatory arm of the Money Monopoly — in order to “protect” small investors from predatory insiders, natch — ends up encouraging, nay demanding, faceless corporations with governance alienated from the enterprise and unaccountable to investors.