Why Do Libertarians Support Putin Given His Catastrophic Corruption?

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Photo Credit: American Conservative Over 100,000 entrepreneurs and small business owners are in prison in Russia for not paying bribes to assorted inspectors or because parties to business disputes bribe police to arrest them on trumped-up charges. Russia’s private sector has very little security in law for its property rights. Almost everybody dragged before any court is found guilty. The consequences are minimal re-investment, low productivity growth, and owners who seek security by taking out maximum cash and, if able, stashing it abroad.

Consequently, Russia depends upon imports for 90 percent of its consumer goods. Its agriculture is still a shambles, with no secure property rights, lousy roads to get products to markets, and younger farm workers fleeing the boredom and poverty of the countryside. Just fly over any Russian city, as I have done, and see how little of the land is cultivated compared to cities in the rest of Europe.

Yet many leading libertarians have been very soft on Putin’s elimination of political freedoms and ruination of his country, excusing Russia because of NATO expansion and Western support for the overthrow of Ukraine’s Moscow-backed Yanukovych government. Some conservatives have even argued that Putin is an ally in supporting traditional “family values” because of his public opposition to homosexuality and gay marriage.

Ron Paul defends Putin, writing that there was no proof that Russian missiles shot down Malaysia’s Flight 17 over Ukraine. His allies argue that criticism or exposure of Putin’s regime merely strengthens the War Party in Washington, helping it to gain more spending and bring about more wars against more nations. They argue that it was NATO expansion and NATO’s attack on Serbia launched by Bill Clinton that ultimately led to the reactions and new aggressiveness of Russia. This is an argument I once appreciated, but it’s not a reason to whitewash today’s Russian dictatorship and incredible corruption. (Read more about why this author believes Libertarians support Putin HERE)

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Obama May Get Congress to Cooperate After All, When They Vote to Override His Keystone XL Veto

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Photo Credit: TownHallSenator John Hoeven (R-ND) told Fox News’ Chris Wallace on Sunday that only 4 more votes are needed in order to override the veto on the Keystone XL pipeline that the Obama administration has promised.

He said this about the current vote count and what they’re doing about it:

“Right now we’ve got about 63, but we’re going to the floor with an open amendment process trying to foster more bipartisanship, getting the Senate to work the way it’s supposed to work so that we can pass this measure and other measures and either override the veto or attach the bill to other legislation either that will get 67 votes.”

Obviously, there is no question that it will pass, just as it did in the House — with 28 Democrat votes in support of the measure — on Friday.

Joe Manchin (D-WV) is a the co-sponsor of the bill and would be the frontman on any Democrat-corraling efforts. New Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said that it’s passage will be the first order of business for the Senate. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Nearly 70 Poisoned by Crocodile Fluids in Africa

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Nearly 70 people died from drinking beer tainted with crocodile bile at a funeral in Mozambique, health officials said.

The toxic brew — dubbed “Pombe” — has claimed the lives of 69 people and left another 196 suffering from the poison.

“We are waiting for the results of the tests of the samples being done at Maputo Central Hospital so that we can identify the type of the product put into the drink,” provincial health director Carle Mosse told NBC News.

The Mozambique government called for a three-day mourning period to start Monday following the deaths.

As officials worked around the clock to determine the cause of death, doctors began seeing rapid rates of incoming patients who had similar symptoms. (Read more from “Dozens Poisoned by Crocodile” HERE)

Insane Case for Attacking North Korea

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[Editor’s Note: Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry argues in an opinion piece in The Week entitled “The Case for Invading North Korea” that the US should attack North Korea now. Daniel Larison argues in response that this would be “insane.” His comments follow].

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry outdoes himself with this blithe argument in favor of attacking North Korea:

U.S. forces should be able to destroy all of North Korea’s artillery in one strike. After all, if there’s one thing that the U.S. military is very good at, it’s launching enormous amounts of rockets and bombs with great precision. With satellite, any significant artillery positions are known. Given the U.S.’s overwhelming technological advantage and total dominance of the sky, and the effect of surprise, it should not be impossible to pull off . . .

If any part of Gobry’s “plan” were to go less than perfectly, Seoul would be reduced to a ruin in a matter of hours and it is more than likely that millions of people would be killed in the ensuing war. In order for this so-called “plan” to “work,” the regime would have to collapse almost instantly, but that is the least likely thing to happen in a country that has known no other government for more than half a century. And no matter how widely hated the regime is, the first instinct of people everywhere when they come under attack is to rally against the foreign attacker. If the regime did collapse in fairly short order, that would produce an unparalleled humanitarian disaster for which no neighboring country could possibly be prepared. (Read more about the case for attacking North Korea HERE)

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Men Who Post Selfies Show Psychopathic Tendencies (Really)

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Photo Credit: Medical News Today If you are a guy and follow in the selfie-fanatic footsteps of Justin Bieber, posting regular snaps of yourself on social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, the picture is not pretty – you could be on the line to antisocial trait central.

A new study conducted by Jesse Fox, assistant professor of Communication at The Ohio State University, with Margaret Rooney a graduate student at Ohio State, shows that men in the study who posted more photos of themselves online than the rest of the group, scored higher on measures of narcissism and psychopathy.

Additionally, men, who tended to edit their selfies before posting, scored higher up the scale in narcissism and self-objectification, which measures the extent to which they prioritize their appearance.

“It’s not surprising that men who post a lot of selfies and spend more time editing them are more narcissistic, but this is the first time it has actually been confirmed in a study,” says Jesse Fox, lead author of the study.

Narcissism is demonstrated by a belief that you are more intelligent, more attractive and generally better than others, although with some level of underlying insecurity. Psychopathy involves a lack of empathy and regard for others and a tendency toward impulsive behavior. (Read more about the psychopathic tendencies of men who post selfies HERE)

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Man Awakes from Coma After 12 Years

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Martin Pistorious fell into a mysterious coma when he was a vibrant 12-year-old boy in the 1980s. He found himself locked inside his own body – unable to speak, make eye contact or even move his own limbs.

Martin’s doctors told his parents, Rodney and Joan Pistorious, that the boy had cryptococci meningitis. They said Martin should be taken home to die in peace. But Martin would live 12 years in that vegetative state.

“ . . . I was there, not from the very beginning, but about two years into my vegetative state, I began to wake up,” Martin recalls. “I was aware of everything, just like any normal person. Everyone was so used to me not being there that they didn’t notice when I began to be present again. The stark reality hit me that I was going to spend the rest of my life like that – totally alone” . . .

Now Martin, 39, is in full control of his body. He’s married and lives a normal life in Harlow, England. (Read more about “Man Awakes from Coma” HERE)

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Texas Earthquakes Rattling Nerves

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Photo Credit: BreitbartWhen you think “earthquake,” you don’t exactly think of Texas but it continues to be seismic central in Dallas. On Sunday, January 11 at 7:46pm, the Richter scale hit magnitude 2.5. This newest shaker was centered in the City of Irving near the former site of the Texas Stadium, the site of much of the rumbling in North Texas. Although there has been no damage, it has rattled nerves, caused schools to run earthquake drills, and gotten some folks to ask about earthquake insurance policies.

The Dallas Morning News reported that the latest tiny temblor marked the 16th occurance. The most notable of the shakers came on Tuesday, January 6. It was a magnitude 3.5 and it was felt citywide across Dallas. The Sunday night quake was felt from East Dallas to Irving to Northwest Dallas, based on emails and tweets.

Previously, on Thursday, January 8, two mild shockwaves each measuring 1.9 magnitude rolled through the Dallas suburb of Irving at 4:08am and 7:24am, according to NBC-5. Both were centered near the same former site of Texas Stadium where 12 earthquakes already rocked the area to varying degrees. Later that day, a 2.7 magnitude shaker occurred at 2:12, approximately four miles west-northwest of Midlothian in Ellis County.

These are not big quakes by California standards but, relatively speaking, Texans are not used to feeling like they are living on top of the San Andreas Fault, which runs across so much of the state of California. The frequency of the shakers has not calmed any nerves in Dallas either.

In response to all the ground movement, on Friday, January 9, the Dallas Independent School District (ISD) Department of Emergency Management issued an earthquake preparedness information memo outlining procedures. It noted that before 2008, North Texas had no real discernible seismic activity. The memo stated that since that time, over 120 earthquakes have occurred in North Texas, mainly centered in Irving. (Read more about the Texas earthquakes HERE)

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Alaska Air and Jet Blue Among Safest Airlines in the World; JetBlue adds Portland-Alaska Route

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By Paul Ausick. Given the number of lives lost in 2014 due to airplane crashes, it may seem a bit cynical to review a report on airline safety. However, an airline safety rating website recently announced its list of the world’s safest airlines for 2015, and we noted that two U.S. carriers are among the safest carriers in the world.

The AirlineRatings.com website listed both a top 10 and a low-cost top 10, made up from the staff’s review of the 449 airlines they monitor. The two U.S. carriers that made the top 10 list of low-cost carriers are Alaska Air Group Inc. (NYSE: ALK) and JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBLU). Other global low-cost carriers on the list, in alphabetical order, include Aer Lingus, Icelandair, Jetstar, Kulula.com, Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook, TUI Fly and Westjet.

Among the legacy carriers the top 10, in alphabetical order, were Air New Zealand, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, Etihad Airways, EVA Air, Finnair, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines. The U.S. legacy carriers American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL), Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) and United Continental Holdings Inc. (NYSE: UAL) all posted the highest possible score (7 of 7 possible stars). Four other U.S. carriers that do not fly foreign routes scored 5 of 5 possible stars: Allegiant Travel Co. (NASDAQ: ALGT), Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV), Spirit Airlines Inc. (NASDAQ: SAVE) and Frontier Airlines. (Read more about the safest airline in the world HERE)

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JetBlue Adds Anchorage Route

By Ben Mutzabaugh. JetBlue will increase its presence in Portland, adding a fourth nonstop route from the Oregon airport.

The route will be seasonal offering to Anchorage. JetBlue will begin offering daily nonstop service on the route on June 18. The 3-½ hour flights, to be operated on Airbus A320 jets, will run through Sept. 8.

JetBlue will compete head-to-head on the route with Alaska Airlines, which already flies the route. Alaska Airlines operates its second-busiest base at Portland.

Anchorage will become JetBlue’s fourth destination from Portland International (PDX). JetBlue also flies nonstop from PDX to its hubs at Boston and New York JFK as well as to Long Beach, Calif., which is a focus city for the carrier. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Paul Ryan is not Running in 2016

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By NBC News. Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee in 2012, told NBC News in an interview Monday that he will not seek the presidency in 2016.

“I have decided that I am not going to run for president in 2016,” Ryan said in a phone interview, noting that he is “at peace” with the decision he made “weeks ago” to forgo a bid for the White House.

“It is amazing the amount of encouragement I have gotten from people – from friends and supporters – but I feel like I am in a position to make a big difference where I am and I want to do that,” he said.

The nine-term congressman believes he can make that “big difference” in his new role as chairman of the influential House Ways and Means Committee rather than as a presidential contender. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Campaigns are now Courting Teenagers

By Darren Samuelsohn. Coming soon to a battleground state near you: White House campaigns combining census reports with Instagram and Twitter posts to target teenagers who aren’t yet 18 but will be by Election Day 2016.

It’s an aggressive strategy with an obvious reward. More than eight million people will become legal adults eligible to vote for the first time by the next general election. Campaigns are eager to find ways to get through to these 16- and 17-year-olds who are still minors and, in most cases, more likely to be concerned with making it to class on time than who should be elected president.

“It’s got to be the right candidate with the right message to excite and motivate that age demographic, with so many distractions in their life, to register, and then turn out,” said Vincent Harris, digital director for Rand Paul’s political operation. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Obama, Top US Officials Fail to Attend Unity March Against Islamic Extremism

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Photo Credit: Fox News By Fox News. Attorney General Eric Holder is in Paris to attend a meeting on fighting terrorism, but did not participate in a march with world leaders Sunday to honor the 17 people killed last week in France.

More than 40 world leaders marched arm in arm through Paris to rally for unity and freedom of expression and to honor the victims of the three days of terrorist attacks.

The leaders headed a demonstration of at least tens of thousands of people who converged on the capital after three gunmen last week attacked a newspaper office, kosher supermarket and police.

Among the world leaders attending the event, under extremely tight security, are French President Francois Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Holder is the top Obama administration official to attend the terrorism meeting. Secretary of State Kerry is in India attending an international investment conference and push to trade ties with the giant South Asian nation ahead of visit by President Obama later this month. (Read more about the top US official failing to attend HERE)

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Obama Fails to Attend Unity March as Well

By Newsmax. As many as 1.6 million people marched through Paris on Sunday in a massive show of unity and defiance in the face of terrorism that killed 17 people in France’s bleakest moment in half a century.

The march ended without major incident by 9 p.m. Sunday, Paris police said.

Their arms linked, more than 40 world leaders headed the somber procession, setting aside their differences for a manifestation that French President Francois Hollande said turned the city into “the capital of the world” . . .

Notable for his absence was President Barack Obama. (Read more from this story HERE)

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