Marriages have hit an all-time low while pleas for food stamps have reached a record high and the gap between rich and poor has grown to its widest ever. (Read more from news.yahoo.com)

Israeli navy kills Gaza fisherman, Palestinians say

The Israeli navy fired on a Palestinian boat off the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, killing a fisherman, the territory’s Hamas administration said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that naval vessels shot at a fishing boat after it approached the limits of waters where Israel, which keeps Gaza under blockade, permits Palestinian maritime traffic. (Read more from haaretz.com)

Lieberman: Peace talks must reassess Israeli-Arabs’ right to citizenship

Recognizing Israel as uniquely Jewish is one of the key demands by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest peace talks with the Palestinians, which began earlier this month.

“We can’t continue to ignore issues like that of Hanin Zuabi, who identifies completely with the other side,” Lieberman said, , referring to an Israeli Arab member of Knesset was stripped of her parliamentary privileges after sailing aboard a pro-Palestinian aid convoy attacked by Israel en route to the Gaza Strip. (Read more from haaretz.com)

West Bank settlements can now be tracked on your iPhone

iPhone owners will now be able to install the “Facts on the Ground” application, which monitors the expansion of settlements in Judea and Samaria, created by Americans for Peace Now.

“This new app shows the unfiltered realities that settlements create on the ground of the West Bank. While people are entitled to their opinions on this divisive issue, there is only one set of facts, and our app makes these facts available in unprecedented clarity and detail,” said Debra DeLee, APN’s President and CEO. (Read more from haaretz.com)

When you throw parties with other people’s money…

The Liberals are strongly criticizing the federal government over expenses incurred during the G8/G20 summits, which, expenditure reports reveal, included $80 million for food and accommodation, $85,000 for snacks and $14,000 for glow sticks.

(Read more from cbc.ca)

Like a 600 lb. morbidly obese man deciding to start skipping breakfast every other Tuesday.

* Peter thinks dollar is bottomless bit.

* Big media calling gold/silver a bubble. Not true b/c no speculative money flowing into mining stocks.

* Larry Summers resigning. (Returning to pollute the minds of Harvard students.) New adviser should be a parrot that says “print money, print money. . . .”

* At Obama’s CNBC Townhall meeting he talked about the American revolution happening b/c there was “repression without representation,” implying that repression with representation is okay.

* Lots of economics ignorance out there.

PETER SCHIFF ON REGULATION (start @ 6:45)

From Radio Free Market:

As a follow up to this autobiographical account about a citizen exercising his right to be re-admitted into the U.S., the author posted some followup information here:

1. A U.S. Citizen Cannot Be Denied Re-Entry To Her Own Country.

A federal judge in Puerto Rico – a territory sensitive to the rights and privileges of its residents’ U.S. citizenship — said it best: “The only absolute and unqualified right of citizenship is to residence within the territorial boundaries of the United States; a citizen cannot be either deported or denied reentry.” U.S. v. Valentine, 288 F. Supp. 957, 980 (D.P.R. 1968). . . .

2. (The Right To) Silence Is Golden.

This is principally about the right to silence. CBP officers are law enforcement (pictured), who can detain you, arrest you and testify against you in criminal court. You place yourself in jeopardy every time you speak to them about anything.

CBP officers are not your friends. CBP officers treat returning U.S. citizens as potential criminal defendants. You should likewise treat them as if they were corrupt cops on a power trip, targeting you to goose their arrest statistics. The best way to protect yourself against their depredations is to refuse to speak to them or to answer their questions.

3. Any Misstatement To A Federal Officer Can Result In Your Arrest.

If a federal officer claims you lied to him, you can be arrested and charged with the crime of making false statements. You do not have to make the statements under oath (which would be the different charge of perjury).

This statute – which is referred to as Section 1001 and which can be read here in all its prolix glory — is the reason why Martha Stewart has a Bureau of Prisons number.

The only way to immunize yourself against a false statements charge is to refuse to speak to federal officers.

“Wait,” you ask, “what about telling the truth?” Doesn’t work. If, in the course of your conversation, you mis-remember something or speak inarticulately, you can now be arrested. Innocent mistake? Prove it in court after being jailed, charged, tried and paying for a lawyer. . . .

4. “Business or Pleasure?” Is A Trap.

Which brings us to the reason why, contrary to the belief of many commenters, the seemingly innocuous CBP question of whether your international trip was for business or pleasure is a trap.

You say “business” (because you were at a conference) but the stamps in your passport indicate that you’re returning from a tourist destination like Bali. Now the officer can argue that you have made a false statement, have engaged in an attempt to claim improper business deductions under the Internal Revenue Code and have broken any other federal criminal law — there are more than 10,000 — which he can mold around the circumstances. . . .

5. Politeness Would Make No Difference.

Many of the commenters took issue with my rude tone toward the CBP officers. This criticism is profoundly misguided.

To the authoritarian mind, there are only two responses to a demand: submission or defiance, and anything less than total submission is defiance. A Lutheran grandmother from Savannah with manners from an antebellum finishing school would be hassled if she refused to answer CBP’s questions.

Answering with a tart “None of your business” underscores that I will not be pushed around and – potentially important from a criminal procedure perspective – is an unambiguous statement that I am not waiving any rights. It is a line in the linoleum.

Further, why is politeness a one-way street? Many commenters relayed stories about rude, abusive, mean and intrusive CBP officers. The entire cop ethos is based on intimidation and domination. . . .

6. There Is A Profound Difference Between A U.S. Citizen Entering a Foreign Country and a U.S. Citizen Re-Entering Her Own Country.

Multiple commenters confuse or conflate the distinction between a U.S. citizen entering a foreign country (where she can be refused entry for any reason or no reason) and a U.S. citizen returning to the U.S. (where she cannot, as noted in Item No. 1, be denied entrance). These are completely different situations with almost no overlap in terms of governing law, procedures, rights, anything.

That being said – and this is a point several commenters made – entering the U.S. is a cruder experience than entering most other countries.

7. “Just Doing My Job” Is Bunk.

Many of the commenters are obviously CBP officers or shills – the repeated references to how CBP officers are underpaid is a tell – and they chant the mantra that the officers on the desks are front-line personnel merely carrying out policy.

I will resist the temptation to pull a Godwin and will merely respond, I don’t care. When a person accepts and keeps a job which involves pressuring and tricking citizens into waiving their rights of privacy and silence (while refusing to admit that the citizens possess those rights), the person has to deal with attitude on the incredibly rare occasion when someone exercises their rights. . . .

8. The Other People In Line.

This is a bright red herring. To the extent any immigration or customs line is being slowed down by a citizen refusing to answer questions, it’s because the CBP officer refuses to accept the fact that the citizen is lawfully exercising her rights (as several commenters noted).

As a practical matter, there’s almost no hold up. When a citizen refuses to answer questions at the first CBP kiosk, she is ordered to secondary within a minute or two. The wait is less than it might be if a returning citizen submitted to questioning or had a complicated, multi-national family situation.

9. Small, Successful Battles Can Prevent Large, Losing Battles.

When it comes to rights, you don’t know in advance what battle will be important. But you do know, based on history and human nature, that a right undefended will shrivel and die. If you don’t fight for the small right, you won’t be in a position to assert the large right.

Moreover, the existence of the right of privacy is usually based on whether people have a current expectation of privacy in a certain situation. To the extent that people decline to assert their right of privacy, it slips away. Lack of vigilance by citizens begets more government power.

10. Travellers Who Have Presented Proof of U.S. Citizenship Should Not Be Detained For Refusing To Answer Questions.

That’s what this is all about. Once a traveler has provided bona fide proof of U.S. citizenship, he or she is entitled to re-enter the country. CBP should not be asking questions as a matter of course, and, if citizens assert the right to silence, CBP should not be detaining them.

Glad I found this video as I didn’t know much about O’Donnell. I’d heard her being portrayed as “anti-masturbation” which is fairly typical slander and possibly a good sign that she’s pissing off the right people.

SA expresses hesitant optimism:

Great review of warmongering in American politics.

Again and again and again, it is evident that government regulation is designed by corporations to destroy competition. My many well-intentioned socialist friends would do well to study these myriad examples and stop advocating additional laws as a means of restraining corporate power. Instead, look to create additional freedoms. Legalize competition.

‘Extra labeling only confuses the consumer,’ biotech spokesman says

That the Food and Drug Administration is opposed to labeling foods that are genetically modified is no surprise anymore, but a report in the Washington Post indicates the FDA won’t even allow food producers to label their foods as being free of genetic modification.

In reporting that the FDA will likely not require the labeling of genetically modified salmon if it approves the food product for consumption, the Post’s Lyndsey Layton notes that the federal agency “won’t let conventional food makers trumpet the fact that their products don’t contain genetically modified ingredients.” (Read more from rawstory.com)

“the ‘substitution of political for economic power’ now so often demanded means necessarily the substitution of power from which there is no escape for a power which is always limited.” ~ F.A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

Gold futures rose to a record $1,300 an ounce in New York as investors sought a protection of wealth and an alternative to a weakening dollar. Bullion traded at an all-time in London and silver reached the highest price since 1980.

The dollar headed for a weekly drop against the euro on concern the Federal Reserve is moving closer to boosting debt purchases, while European equities declined. Gold, which usually moves inversely to the greenback, advanced to a record for the fourth day this week. Silver, which is used in industrial applications, headed for a fifth weekly advance in London. (Read more from bloomberg.com)

Since metals made a big move last week, I’ve been waiting to hear Peter Schiff’s commentary. Here it is:

@ 8:30 he addresses the interview I posted a few days ago.

This is one of Peter’s most colorful videos ever:

* Peter addresses Bernanke’s Alice-in-Wonderland-like comments about inflation being too low.

* 5:00 Peter picks apart Obama’s speech.

An entrepreneur named “Ronnie” in New York City’s Lower East Side has found an intriguing way to do business: hungry customers get his number from a friend or a friend’s friend, text him for a grilled cheese sandwich, and voila — melted cheddar on Rye bread 15 minutes later. Brendan Francis Newnam gave it a try. (Read more from )

No regulation, taxes, certification.

Wish our overlords would watch / understand this.