It’s always the state vs society.

Last night the House of Commons voted for secret courts. It would mean that when it’s convenient for the state, the accused will not even know what he has been charged with or what the evidence is against him. Not so long ago we criticised banana republics which operated this way.

“Ah, but only terrorists and threats to national security will be accused in secret courts”, I hear the drones say. Which of course is what the drones are supposed to think. It doesn’t matter who the accused are. It’s unBritish and unmanly. More than that, the only possible justification for the Secret Intelligence Service is to protect our liberties. Closed courts are an affront to those liberties.

For those who want to know the full horror of this idea, I strongly urge them to read Henry Porter’s recent piece.

Internal State Security, still in some kind of build up frenzy, has just loaded up with 2717 of these Mine Resistant Armor Protected Vehicles (MRAP) for use in the United States -

According to the manufacturer: “The MaxxPro MRAP is built to withstand ballistic arms fire, mine blasts, IEDs, and other emerging threats. Its V-shaped hull helps deflect blasts out and away from the crew and its armoring can be customized to meet any mission requirement.”

Whatever are they expecting?

Fred Deluca, the founder of the Subway chain of restaurants, has given a short but revealing interview on CNBC (video here).

First, he’s no economist. At one point he says that while the minimum wage should rise, what Subway pays “depends on the market”. What he was doing, albeit unknowingly, is identify that markets set wages, not regulations, and that those whose market clearing wage is below the minimum wage are effectively declared unemployable. It’s illegal to employ them at their market wage. As Murray Rothbard explained, the result is compulsory unemployment.

It’s after this that he says that increasing regulations hamper his business and says that Subway would not exist, if he tried to start out now, given all the new regulations. Here he helps explain why it is so difficult for many to get nothing but menial jobs. It’s the seen and unseen. Most people don’t realise that many firms are not being started, that entrepreneurs are being incentivised to not take a risk, because of laws and regulations. They don’t realise it simply because no-one ever saw those firms with their own eyes. Government regulations are severely curtailing the number of start-ups, which would otherwise exist, and that’s where a lot of new quality jobs come from.

Take your meds …

According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 38,329 drug overdose deaths in 2010, an increase for the 11th straight year. Prescription drugs accounted for 60% of deaths with OxyContin, Vicodin, and Valium chief among them.

The billions paid by Big Pharma to Washington buys alot of silence.

(h/t Laurence Vance)

The Department for Homeland Security has purchased two billion rounds of ammunition. Reports are that they’re required for “mandatory quarterly firearms qualifications and other training sessions.” But many of the rounds are hollow points, which (as far as I know) are not used in training and are specifically for killing. Two billion is seven rounds for each man, woman and child in the US, and that’s for civilian, not military arms.

To get an idea of how many rounds that is, Mark Levin reports that: “at the peak of the Iraq war American troops were firing around 5.5 million rounds per month. At that rate, the DHS is armed now for a 24-year Iraq war. A 24-year Iraq war!”

I have no idea what they’re playing at. If they were two billion bog standard 9mm rounds I’d have guessed that internal state security has simply decided to buy up ammunition to keep it out of the hands of Americans – grabbing the ammo instead of the guns. As it is though, something very fishy is going on.

George Osborne has granted a tax amnesty to overseas athletes competing in this summer’s London Grand Prix in the Olympic Stadium to ensure that Usain Bolt takes centre stage on the anniversary of the Olympic opening ceremony.

Who knew that people changed their behaviour in response to incentives? Congratulations to the athletes, who will perform the real public service of giving fans what they want without the savage beast confiscating the usual enormous chunk of their income.

How large? The Treasury is in the habit of not just taxing income made from tournaments in this country, but also a percentage of worldwide earnings too. Usain Bolt and others said “up yours” to that and haven’t been here outside of the Olympics for a few years.

Of course the real incentive is for politicians and bureaucrats to avoid the embarrassment of famous athletes boycotting their games at the Olympic Stadium because their looting is so out of control. The State cannot bear to be mocked.

After cutting jobs when the last inflationary boom went bust, Home Depot has announced that it will be hiring more than 80,000 people this spring. Some jobs are temporary, but many will become permament.

The Bernanke-manipulated housing boom is on big time. Mind how you go.

The details are shocking even for those of us who regard our communist “hospitals” as little more than human abattoirs.

Examples included patients being so thirsty that they had to drink water from vases and receptionists left to decide which patients to treat in A&E.

Nurses were not trained properly to use vital equipment, while inexperienced doctors were put in charge of critically ill patients.

Some patients needing pain relief either got it late or not at all, leaving them crying out for help, and there were cases where food and drinks were left out of reach.

What about prosecutions of those NHS butchers who killed hundreds of innocents? Forget about it. In true regime style not a single negligent, corrupt, heartless bastard has even been disciplined for this incredible barbarity. What we’ve learned is that in order to meet targets handed down by the central state, costs were cut, staff levels were cut and hundreds left to die. No doubt many thousands suffered horrendously, This to advance the lucrative careers of state apparatchiks. Nothing can possibly change that incentive while health rationing is collectivised.

Tonight we learn that five more of these inhumane organisations are under investigation. It’s been said in these here parts before, and the killing wards of Staffordshire prove it more necessary than ever: do everything you possibly can to avoid “treatment” in the state system.

The Emperor Obama “justifies” his murder of American citizens.

NBC reports that it has obtained a secret 16-page Department of Justice memo containing, among other details, the justification the Obama Administration uses to kill American citizens by drone strikes. Michael Isikoff, NBC News, writes (my emphasis):

A confidential Justice Department memo concludes that the U.S. government can order the killing of American citizens if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders” of al-Qaida or “an associated force” — even if there is no intelligence indicating they are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S.

The 16-page memo, a copy of which was obtained by NBC News, provides new details about the legal reasoning behind one of the Obama administration’s most secretive and controversial polices: its dramatically increased use of drone strikes against al-Qaida suspects, including those aimed at American citizens, such as the September 2011 strike in Yemen that killed alleged al-Qaida operatives Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Both were U.S. citizens who had never been indicted by the U.S. government nor charged with any crimes.[...]

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Good morning, dear reader.

Having spent a year denying that he asked his ex-wife to cop points for speeding on his behalf, the former minister for windlmills has finally ‘fessed. So the former minister for windmills was guilty all along. Who’d have imagined that?! Perverting the court of justice is a very serious offence, one compounded by his stonewalling, which should see him using D Block showers for a while. Dust off the black cap, M’lud, hang him from an eco-crucifix.

We might still get all the juicy details since the ex has pleaded not guilty and will go to trial.

BREAKING: Outside the court Huhne has just said he’s off to the Chiltern Hundreds. A good day indeed. One down, 649 to go.