StopTheLie.com News update 02-17-2014
The Man Behind the Hong Kong Miracle
Source: Fee.org
To say that an economy is "the freest" is to say that it's "the most capitalist." Capitalism is what happens when you leave peaceful people alone. It doesn't require some elaborate and artificial, Rube Goldberg contrivance cooked up by tenured central planners in their insular ivory towers. But if we are to believe the critics of capitalism, HK must also be a veritable Hell's Kitchen of greed, poverty, exploitation and despair.
Not so. Not even close.
Maybe this is why socialists don't like to talk about Hong Kong: It's not only the freest economy, it's also one of the richest. Its per capita income, at 264 percent of the world's average, has more than doubled in the past 15 years. People don't flee from HK; they flock to it. At the close of World War II, the population numbered 750,000. Today it's nearly ten times that, at 7.1 million.
--"Over a wide field of our economy it is still the better course to rely on the nineteenth century's 'hidden hand' than to thrust clumsy bureaucratic fingers into its sensitive mechanism," Cowperthwaite declared in 1962. "In particular, we cannot afford to damage its mainspring, freedom of competitive enterprise." He didn't like protectionism or subsidies even for new, so-called "infant" industries: "An infant industry, if coddled, tends to remain an infant industry and never grows up or expands." He believed firmly that "in the long run, the aggregate of the decisions of individual businessmen, exercising individual judgment in a free economy, even if often mistaken, is likely to do less harm than the centralized decisions of a Government; and certainly the harm is likely to be counteracted faster."
Read full article at:http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/the-man-behind-the-hong-kong-miracle#axzz2tR7A79Mc
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Roger Ver on Blockchain's Past, Present and Future
Source: CoinDesk.com
The man, who many have started to refer to as "Bitcoin Jesus", emailed me with some objections and let me know that Blockchain had tripled the size of its team in just over a month while continuing to lead the industry in web traffic, wallet users and bitcoins stored. "By just about any metric, we are the #1 Bitcoin website in the world," he wrote.
Read full article at:http://www.coindesk.com/roger-ver-blockchain-past-present-future/
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Ron Paul Launches Clemency Petition for Snowden
Source: Infowars.com
Former Texas Congressman Ron Paul has launched an effort to secure clemency for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The "Demand Clemency for Edward Snowden" petition is posted on the Ron Paul channel.
"Edward Snowden shocked the world when he exposed the NSA's illegal and abusive spying program. Instead of applauding him for his bravery and patriotism, the U.S. government labels Snowden a traitor," the page states. "Join Ron Paul in demanding that Edward Snowden is granted clemency. Sign the Petition. Let's bring Edward home before his amnesty in Russia expires on July 31, 2014."
Read full article at:http://www.infowars.com/ron-paul-launches-clemency-petition-for-snowden/
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U.S. Slides 13 Spots on Press Freedom Index
Source: Reason.com
If it wasn't enough to see the United States slide in four rankings of economic freedom, Internet liberty, and government transparency last year, the Land of the Brave and Home of the Free (except where prohibited by law) is off to a swell start in 2014 by slipping 13 places on the World Press Freedom Index. Compiled by Reporters Without Borders, the Index keeps a running tally of governments' respect for journalistic freedomson matters ranging from legislative restrictions to outright whacking of reporters. The U.S. has taken a hit largely from the post-9/11 insistence on fetishizing claims of "national security" (Rep. Mike Rogers now wants to criminalize the publication of sensitive information like that released by Edward Snowden) and from the Obama administration's crusade against whistleblowers.
Read full article at:http://reason.com/blog/2014/02/12/us-slides-13-spots-on-press-freedom-inde
COMMENT: They always come after these guys for "leaking classified information." May I propose the "You Cannot 'Classify' Illegal Activity Act." Simply stated: men in government are not granted the authority to violate the law, or "classify" their crimes in order to evade punishment.
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The NSA's Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program
Source: The Intercept
The National Security Agency is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes – an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people.
According to a former drone operator for the military's Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) who also worked with the NSA, the agency often identifies targets based on controversial metadata analysis and cell-phone tracking technologies. Rather than confirming a target's identity with operatives or informants on the ground, the CIA or the U.S. military then orders a strike based on the activity and location of the mobile phone a person is believed to be using.
Read full article at:https://firstlook.org/theintercept/article/2014/02/10/the-nsas-secret-role/
COMMENT: Glenn Greenwald's new investigative journalism site.
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Children taught at home learn more
Source: TheGuardian.com
Children taught at home significantly outperform their contemporaries who go to school, the first comparative study has found.
It discovered that home-educated children of working-class parents achieved considerably higher marks in tests than the children of professional, middle-class parents and that gender differences in exam results disappear among home-taught children.
The study, to be published by the University of Durham in the autumn, will support a call for the Government to introduce legislation to help the growing army of parents who are choosing to remove their children from schools.
The numbers of home-educated children in Britain has grown from practically none 20 years ago to about 150,000 today - around 1 per cent of the school age population. By the end of the decade, the figure is expected to have tripled. Home education has won so much support in Scotland that more than 200 campaigners from across Britain are to march to the Scottish Parliament next month to demand a relaxation in legislation which makes it harder for parents to educate their children at home in Scotland than in England and Wales.
Read full article at:http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/aug/13/education.educationnews1
COMMENT: And here is some information on "self-directed learning"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodidacticism
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http://www.PrisonPlanet.com/
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http://www.FreedomsPhoenix.com/Front-Page.htm
http://libertycrier.com/
Previous Week's News 02-10-2014
Texas Deputy Dies Performing No-Knock, No-Announce SWAT Raid For Marijuana
Source: LibertyCrier.com
BURLESON COUNTY, TX — Tragedy struck when police pursued an aggressive no-knock, no-announce SWAT raid on a marijuana user with no history of violence in his record. One deputy was shot when the homeowner picked up a rifle to protect his family from what he thought were home invaders. The officer's life is over and the homeowner will now face trial that could put him in prison for a long time because of a confrontation that never needed to happen.
--The paramilitary team was on a mission to find illegal weeds, and were prepared to kill — or die — to prevent them from growing. They found some: two 6-inch sprouts and some seedlings. Apparently getting those plants off the streets means that the mission was a success.
Read full article at:http://libertycrier.com/texas-deputy-dies-performing-knock-announce-swat-raid-marijuana/?utm_source=The+Liberty+Crier&utm_campai
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Iowa family 'terrorized' in SWAT Raid (Video)
Source: youtube.com
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Watch video at:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNztrA1bwZM#t=85
COMMENT: How completely ridiculous is it that this military-style raid was conducted to capture somebody suspected of using a stolen credit card...seriously?
If I can say one positive thing about this: At least they didn't kill the dog.
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