IF BERNIE MADOFF IS IN JAIL, WHY ISNT THE IRS AND CONGRESS?
Do you know who is perpetuating the biggest tax scam ever and who the victims are? It is an organization that claims to be a "service" to the people but whose actual behavior can be summed up in its unwritten motto, "Might means right." As tax day approaches, millions of Americans are finding they are victims of this scam. It is called the capital gains tax, and it is run by the Internal Revenue "Service." Capital gains come from sales of stocks and bonds, businesses, real estate, art objects and anything else of value. The IRS capital-gains tax scam consists of two parts. First, it does not just tax real gains, but also imaginary gains resulting solely from government-caused inflation. The U.S. Constitution - i.e., the 16th Amendment - only gives Congress the power to "lay and collect taxes on incomes." Many legal scholars think taxing the portion of a capital gain caused by inflation is unconstitutional because it is not income.
THE BURSTING OF MR. OBAMA’S GREEN ENERGY BUBBLE
With the selling of Mr. Obama's economic agenda now reported in full gear, it is an opportune moment to take another look at what he has told us he would do and, more importantly, what he hasn't told us about the economic cost of his energy plans. The answer to the former question is straight forward. In his address to Congress, he pledged to double the production of renewable energy in the next three years, lay down thousands of miles of new transmission lines and introduce a "market-based cap on carbon pollution" to promote clean energy, fight global warming and "put Americans to work making homes and buildings more efficient." Perhaps the best place to start seeking answers as to how costly and realistic this agenda is likely to turn out is to look at the record of the three countries Mr. Obama specifically mentioned as leading the United States in the renewable energy revolution: China, Japan and Germany. That record shows that such a revolution is a fantasy and that the green energy bubble has burst.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/03/09
Well, that settles that - he's a Moslem. No one, much less a President of the United States, who is not a Moslem would deeply bow to a Saudi Wahhabi tyrant in an act of utter submission. 
This is the most disgraceful act of any president in American history. Wahhabism is the most evil religion on earth, a religion of hate which the Saudi king spends billions promoting around the world. To bow to its principal proponent is submission to evil, an announcement of one's true beliefs. No patriotic American can ever again, upon seeing this picture and understanding its meaning, consider this man to be the legitimate president of his country.
WHEN MONEY DIES
Inflation is a way that governments can pay off their debts (albeit with depreciated currency) without outright default or overt tax increases. In the U.S., government debt has grown to impossible-to-pay levels. Yet the spending is rapidly accelerating. The immensely costly new programs being created on an almost daily basis by the Obama Administration and the Democrats (mostly) in Congress come at a huge price, most of which (along with the continuing burden of Medicare and Social Security, etc.) can only be paid for by continually increasing the money supply into hyperinflationary territory. It is thus highly instructive to read the best account of what actually happened during Germany's hyperinflation of the early 1920s. Until now, this was difficult and very expensive to do. Amazon, for example, has only one single copy of When Money Dies: The Nightmare of the Weimar Collapse by Scottish writer and Conservative politician Adam Dugdale Fergusson. The price is $2,500! Now there is a way to read it for free.
THE LUNACY OF LIBERAL DIALOGUE
All of us are brothers under the skin. We humans (except, of course, for Republicans and AIG executives) all have good hearts, and we all want basically the same things. Disputes between nations and cultures are chiefly the result of miscommunication, and can be resolved by compromise, concession, and "dialogue." That's a pleasant thing to believe, and many Americans - mostly wealthy liberals who've led sheltered lives - believe it. But to sustain the belief requires a stupendous ignorance of history, whose blood-soaked pages reveal more disputes between nations and cultures have been driven by greed, envy, and religious zealotry than by miscommunication. "War started from Adam when Cain he killed Abel until now," said Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, once al Qaeda's number three, as he confessed proudly last month his role in planning the 9/11 attacks and 30 others. "It's never going stop killing of people. This is life." It's uncomfortable to realize there are people in the world who want to kill you just because you are different from them, and will do so unless you kill them first. But then, what characterizes a liberal is being uncomfortable with reality.
HOW CONGRESS CAUSES BANK FAILURES
Why did some banks and financial institutions fail and others succeed? There are many reasons, but one common ingredient of those that have not failed is that they are organized as partnerships and/or are controlled by a family, or are closely held by a few senior officers. That is, they have "skin in the game." So why are not more banks and other financial companies organized as partnerships? Primarily because the tax code requires partners individually to pay full tax on their pro-rata share of the profits as they are earned. A properly structured tax code would encourage companies to reward their executives on the long-run profitability of the enterprise, rather than on short-run profits, which is now the case. Members of Congress rant against the short-term mentality of many in Wall Street and elsewhere, but it is precisely the tax and regulatory systems put in place by Congress that have caused much of the problem.
WHERE IS JOHN GALT?
All readers of Ayn Rand's masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged, know its central question, "Who is John Galt?" Written over half a century ago, it is clearly the greatest and most influential novel of the 20th century. Over six million copies have been sold, averaging 77,000 copies per year in the 1980s, 90,000 in the 1990s, 137,000 in the 00s - until recently. 200,000 copies were sold in 2008, and sales so far this year are at triple those of last year. This is because, according to the Ayn Rand Institute, "there are uncanny similarities between the plot-line of the book and the events of our day." We discussed these similarities last December in Atlas In America. Reading Atlas for the first time in 1966 was the single most intellectually thrilling experience of my life. And yet, there was something that bugged me. Asking who is John Galt presupposes there is a John Galt. As I witnessed the cultural destruction of America in the 1960s, I realized the terrible truth that there is no such person. He is a Platonic invention. Today, the fascist nightmare that is destroying America is hideously similar to that described by Rand over fifty years ago. But if we ask today, not who is John Galt but where is John Galt, the question echoes in the wind with no answer.
TIME TO BOOGIE
Want to take a break from the nonstop fascism emanating from Washington? Then let's boogie! The happiest, most irresistibly foot-stompin' music has got to be Boogie-Woogie. The greatest boogie-woogie piano player in the world is Silvan Zingg from Switzerland. What's more, the two greatest boogie-woogie dancers in the world are also Swiss - Maéva Truntzer and William Mauvais. For the last 8 years, Silvan Zingg has sponsored the International Boogie Woogie Festival in Lugano, Switzerland. Thousands of folks from all over Europe will be at the one this year, April 16-18. Yes, the Swiss, believe it or not, really know how to boogie. Who knew? So sit back, turn up your computer speakers, listen to Silvan Zingg, and watch Will and Maéva boogie like you've never seen. This is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, while your feet won't be able to stay still. You won't be able to watch it just once - so anytime you want to feel happy and put the Zero Blues aside, here it is:
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/27/09
The HFR raises a glass of Newcastle Brown ale to the British hero of the week, Daniel Hannan. As a Member of the European Parliament for Southeast England (Kent, Surrey, Sussex et al), he delivered a 3-minute speech on Tuesday (3/24) directed at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who was attending the session in Brussels. It is the most devastating skewering of a politician right to his face in modern memory. His accusation that Mr. Brown has "a pathological inability to accept responsibility" applies equally to Democrats in Congress and their president. As you watch the speech - only 3 minutes - you'll probably ask: Where is our Daniel Hannan? Where is an American politician with the wit, the eloquence, and the courage to similarly skewer Zero?
ZERO IS LESS THAN ZERO
On a beautiful sunny day in 2004, the villagers of Banda Aceh in Sumatra were peacefully minding their own business when out of nowhere a tsunami washed them away: 
Substitute the Before photo with America today. The After photo is what America is going to look like in the wake of Zero. If you think this is hyperbolic then you haven't come to grips with the consequences of hyper-inflation. If you did, you be like what the Banda Aceh folks would have been if they'd had any warning: in panicked flight to higher ground. And here's the kicker: with hyper-inflation comes hyper-fascism. The worse our economy becomes, the more our freedoms will be taken away. Folks - this is being done on purpose. If it were all due to sheer stupidity or incompetence on Zero's part, you would expect, as "Skye" observes on the Forum, coin-flip outcomes with at least some of them correct. But when all actions are taken to disincentivize wealth creation and expand government control, to destroy the worth of the dollar and not increase it, then the damage is malicious and purposeful. So here is what is really going on: the President of the United States is making a conscious concerted effort to replace capitalism with fascism. And not just in the United States but world-wide.