Daily Reading

24May/100

Here are some stories that I came across today that I found interesting. Perhaps you will too...

Vox Day at World Net Daily writes about republican government, corruption and public unions.

This goes well beyond ideology. Even the liberal media's standard bearer, the New York Times, was appalled to discover that New York is home to several ex-government employees who retired in their 30s whose pensions now pay them more than $100,000 a year. This is legal, contractual and totally unconscionable. No retired policeman can reasonably claim to have ever put his life on the line to the extent that a Marine Corps private making one-quarter as much while stationed in Afghanistan or Iraq does.
David Harsanyi at Reason.com has an interesting take on net neutrality.

I know it sounds wonderfully fair. But the reality of net neutrality makes as much sense as mandating that tricycle riders have the same rights and privileges as cars and trucks on our roads—highway neutrality.

The FCC promises it doesn't have any intention of controlling Internet content, only of making access fair. But empowered with the ability to regulate the flow of online traffic, it offers a semantic, not substantive, excuse for a power grab.
Here is an interesting little song by Tim Miller, inspired by a family that fell victim to predatory lending practices.
Karl Denninger at The Market Ticker talks about debt and the economy in Kuttner Has Been Lobotomized.

We had the inflation. Punishing, cruel, ridiculous inflation. Yeah, I know, you don't think it happened because it was "only" a doubling of gasoline and diesel prices in a five year span (well, actually, it was closer to a tripling, but who's counting, right?)

Of course this very same inflation showed up in other things, like houses and stock prices. This made people "feel rich", but in fact they were not, because their wages did not accelerate at anywhere close to the same rate, nor could they.
Mike Shedlock at Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis writes today about commercial real estate foreclosures and rental property woes.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon is a complete fool, unless of course he is pandering to voters, perpetually buying votes to get re-elected.
Radley Balko at Reason.com points out several lessons police and local governments (and even cable network A&E) might learn from the Detroit raid that resulted in the death of a little girl.

With many of these shows, the police department gets veto power over what footage makes it on the air. So you won't be seeing footage of many mistaken raids. That said, A&E should air the footage of this raid to show that the violent tactics these shows repeatedly glamorize can and do have tragic consequences. If the network has any guts at all, it will make sure the same episode looks at the possibility that the presence of its own cameras contributed to the death of a little girl.