Silver Selloff

Silver continues it sell off early today down to 34.80 in overnight trading, along with gold and platinum. The U.S. dollar meanwhile is trading flat.
Also on a somewhat unrelated note zero hedge just reported that 54% of young adults are not currently employed. This could of course be tied to the odd conventional wisdom that one should stay in school while the economy is bad.

Government Wants to Put Kids on Statins

This is simply unbelievable Alex Jones was talking about it today when he asked his listeners to google "Government Wants to Put Kids on Statins" he then interviewed a guest about vitamin d, the importance of cholesterol, and fluoride.
The guest points out how cholesterol is important for brain and hormone function and how dangerous statins could be for children. He also draws a link between low testosterone in men and insufficient cholesterol levels(due to statin use) and vitamin d deficiency(which is increasing with are dormant lifestyle).
Government Wants to Put Kids on Statins

Pay only 79% Interest on that Pack of Gum

So my computer has been down for about a week now, this is why I have not been posting. Anyways I hope to get it back up tomorrow I finally found a boot disk. Just a quick post tonight from another computer something I found almost comical.
So this is a relatively new (been out for a couple of years) credit card from "First Premier" with a 79% APR. Oh and the credit limit is $300 (at least for the customer mentioned). How badly do you need $300 that your will to pay such an insane rate?
My favorite quote from the story

The card proved popular with consumers, said First Premier Bankcard CEO Miles Beacom, but the performance was bad: "A lot of the people ran up the card, defaulted and went directly to charge off."

Well you don't say. You mean the type of clients that would accept such a ridiculous APR aren't responsible or good with money?

79% APR Credit Card

bling bling

Congress Pushes to Make Patriot Act Permanent.

This has to be stopped I think a lot of people have forgotten about it now that some of the post 9/11 hysteria has died down but thats what these congressmanare relying on. We can stop this now most people dont believe all the lies anymore. Their scare tactics are not working as well lets stop the Patriot Act renewal before Congress finds another justification to extend it. You can start by going here and finding out where your senator stands on the bill. After that its a matter of contacting him or her. Phone calls or letters work best. If you need help let me know.
Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Friday, February 4, 2011
Freshly emboldened by their mid-term congressional wins, establishment Republicans are set to extend the unconstitutional police state Patriot Act. It is set to expire in three weeks and Republicans are eager to make sections of the legislation permanent.

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote to continue and extend the law. “Having this debate year after year offers little certainty to agents utilizing these provisions to keep the nation safe,” said ranking member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
“Short-term reauthorizations lead to operational uncertainty and compliance and reporting problems if the reauthorization occurs too close to expiration,” Grassley continued. “If these provisions are necessary, we should provide more certainty rather than simply revisiting the law year after year given the indefinite threat we face from acts of terrorism, and that looks like decades ahead. We should permanently reauthorize the three expiring provisions.”
http://www.prisonplanet.com/republicans-move-to-make-patriot-act-permanent.html

Federal Judge: Obama Health Care Plan Unconstitutional

This just in from Reuters
(Reuters) - A federal judge in Florida on Monday struck down the landmark healthcare law backed by President Barack Obama, finding that the Congress exceeded its authority to require individuals to buy insurance.
In a challenge by 26 states, Judge Roger Vinson ruled that "because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void." End article http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/31/us-usa-healthcare-ruling-idUSTRE70U6RY20110131?WT

How could this be a surprise to anyone. There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that allows the federal government to compel a person to buy a service or good. Car insurance is different of course because you can choose not to drive. The Obama Health Care plan did not give you that choice, if you are a living U.S. citizen and the government decided you could afford health care you had to buy it.
Hopefully this will open the doors for a suit against the Massachusetts  universal health care plan which has been ineffective, and disastrous for the commonwealth's budget.
Now don't get me wrong, I am not a tea party follower but I simply believe we should follow the law and common sense. Common sense would dictate that mandated healthcare without single payer is simply a subsidy for the Health Insurance companies, whose share prices not coincidentally sky rocketed when the bill was initially passed. These insurers now had a large pool of people that not only would be forced to buy health insurance from them, but forced to buy comprehensive plans from them. Rather than allow young healthy people to buy cheap emergency plans the federal mandate would force them to buy unnecessarily expensive plans.
As for the legality of the issue, there are ways around this, that could have encouraged health care purchases, while at the same time holding individuals responsible for costs if they didn't have insurance. Rather than due this Congress created an illegal and illogical subsidy plan for Health Insurance companies that never addressed the real problems in the system; rising costs and waste.

Tales From the Street Trades

Once again my apologies for not writing some original content, just incredibly busy once again. Here is something from one of my favorite journalists Fred Reed he is the working man's Hunter S. Thompson in my opinion. Hunter was better, but Fred is damn close, and well he is alive which means new work.
This is a sample of his work. It is on the darker end. Most of his stuff is pretty funny and more political but this is very poignant. It will give those on the outside a better understanding if not appreciation for what police, fire and ems actually do. I put just the first few paragraphs if you want the rest go to this man's sight, read some more of his work and buy his books. He is simply brilliant.

Things You Probably Don't Want to Know

You probably don’t like cops. Nobody does. Ride with them. See what they see. You’ll get a little perspective. You won’t ike it, but you’ll get it.

It was August, near National Airport, and the guy lost his girlfriend and blew his brains out in the bushes. We found him by the smell. Flesh sliding off his face, sternum white through his chest, and my god the maggots. “Think CPR might help?” I asked, ever the wise guy. You get a tough-guy attitude, not because you want to be a tough guy but because otherwise you would go into a bar and never come out.
When children are burned alive in fires, which happens in shitty tenements with corrupt inspectors, they turn exactly the dark pink of a Christmas ham, except their bellies explode and things come out. There isn’t enough bourbon, not anywhere. You like children’s stories? If you hold the hands of a girl of three in a pan of boiling water, you get what are called “immersion cuffs.” She screams a lot because she doesn’t understand why Mommy is hurting her. Usually the mother does it, next the dirtbag new boyfriend, almost never the father.
CONTINUED

Egypt, Popular Uprising or Foreign Intervention?

Update: More than 100 dead...
So I am going to work on putting up some original material tonight, but in the meantime I have been very busy so here is some more info on the situation in Egypt/North Africa.

Let me just say that I am still quite a bit cynical about whether or not this is a legit populist revolution going on right now. There are a lot of countries that would love to see Egypt in turmoil, Israel being at the top of the list followed by the U.S. in a distant second. I certainly am not infering anything but just like I can't say these revolts are the works of mousad or the CIA I also can't say they are legitimate grassroots campaigns either.

With that being said there is no doubt a lot of anger about corruption, food prices, and political rights in Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia. Hosni Mubarak has been a dictator with a stranglehold on Egypt for nearly 30 years, squelching protests and torturing political dissidents.The state of Egypt currently holds as many as 30,000 political prisoners and attempts have been made on Mubarak's life multiple times.

So yes there is certainly cause to believe this could be a legit popular uprising. However we should also remember the U.S. gives Egypt around 1.5 billion each year in aid (second only to Israel), Egypt and Israel have an "interesting" relationship to say the least, and the rest of the world has huge strategic interests in Egypt because of the suez canal. Because of this we cannot rule foreign intervention in these protests.

Anger In Egypt Al Jazzerah's in depth coverage of the situation in Egypt.
Are We Witnessing the Start of a Global Revolution?
Egyptian Army Joins Police Bloomberg
38 People Have died After Clashes With MIlitary and Police CNN