dmarek suggested this article about government functions regarding the FDA. “The FDA doesn’t disagree with the scientific information about cherries, but it does say that cherries have not been recognized as safe and effective when used as labeled. Do we need a double-blind placebo-controlled study to prove cherries promote health? Jeffrey May, editor of CCH […]

The Foreign Policy In Focus a think tank, reports increases in the role of the US Air Force in Iraq. These assaults are part of what may be the best kept secret of the Iraq-Afghanistan conflicts: an enormous intensification of US bombardments in these and other countries in the region, the increasing number of civilian […]

Jester’s Court update e-mail from Fool.com. The JC this week focuses on another acronym: PE. According to Slate.com, private equity firms have started buying up their own debt at significantly reduced prices. As the author explained, it works a little like this: You pay your friend a few dollars so that you can host a […]

The Cato Institute’s James Bovard in 1995 had thoughts on private versus public monies. ADM’s finagling in Washington may have cost taxpayers and consumers more than $40 billion since 1980, counting the cost of the sugar program ($3 billion in higher prices each year), the ethanol program, and federal food giveaways and export subsidies. Some […]

In looking at the question of whether business or government is more wasteful it might actually be possible to use the pro-business argument to demonstrate that business is actually more wasteful. The argument is that government does not have competition to force it to quit doing something so it continues to do things when they […]

It seems there are a few rules that emerged from yesterday’s discussion about private versus public functions and efficiencies. 1. Government functions are inefficient all on their own. There are not enough feedback mechanisms to make government efficient at any point in time, and its functions serve ‘minimal’ or no purpose. With the taxing ability, […]

The headlines read Valentine flowers boost US economy Wilting flowers When researchers at Bar-Ilan University in Israel put cut flowers in a weak solution of Viagra — one-fiftieth the amount taken by men for impotence — the flowers survived for two weeks instead of one. They suspect the Viagra works through its effects on nitric […]

Alternet reports the following: The Op-Ed by seven active duty U.S. soldiers in Iraq questioning the war drew international attention just three weeks ago. Now two of the seven are dead. Sgt. Omar Mora and Sgt. Yance Gray died Monday in a vehicle accident in western Baghdad, two of seven U.S. troops killed in the […]

John Robb on his website states one of his thoughts on the current state of the overall strategy towards terrorisms. A radical improvement in marketing war. The US military learned from Vietnam that it needed to be much better at marketing wars to domestic audiences in order to prevent moral collapse. It has gotten better […]

Ray McGovern at Consortium News had an opinion that got him booted out of the hearings with General Patraeus. If memory serves, the aforementioned generals and Westmoreland were required to testify under oath. And this was one of the main sticking points when CBS aired a program showing that Westmoreland had deliberately dissembled on the […]