The answer is very simple: volume

Link:

Politicians in Washington hardly let a few minutes go by without mentioning how broke the government is. So, it’s a little surprising that they’ve created a stash of more than $1 billion that almost no one wants.

Unused dollar coins have been quietly piling up in Federal Reserve vaults in breathtaking numbers, thanks to a government program that has required their production since 2007.

And even though the neglected mountain of money recently grew past the $1 billion mark, the U.S. Mint will keep making more and more of the coins under a congressional mandate.

The pile of idle coins, which so far cost $300 million to manufacture, could double by the time the program ends in 2016, the Federal Reserve told Congress last year.

A joint inquiry by NPR’s Planet Money and Investigations teams found that the coins are the wasteful byproducts of a third, failed congressional effort to get Americans to use one-dollar coins in everyday commerce.

furthermore…

It was easier for the bill’s sponsor, then-Rep. Mike Castle (R-DE), to move the presidential coin bill forward if it didn’t displace other dollar coins honoring Sacagawea, the teenage Native American guide to Lewis and Clark.

The deal: The mint would be required to make a quota of Sacagawea coins. Currently, the law says 20 percent of dollar coins made must have Sacagawea on them.

But don’t worry, folks. They’re the government, and they know what they’re doing.

A Government Accountability Office study out this spring says that switching to a dollar coin “would provide a net benefit to the government” of about $5.5 billion over 30 years.

But it’s not because coins are cheaper. The report says the government would not recover the cost of switching from bills to coins over that period.

Instead, the benefit to the government would come only from the profit it makes by manufacturing each coin for 30 cents and selling it to the public for a dollar.

When this profit, known as seigniorage, is factored out, switching to the dollar coin would actually cost taxpayers money over three decades, according to a Federal Reserve analysis of the GAO’s figures. The cost works out to $3.4 billion.

Oh…so it’s a profit deal.

Diminished mental capacity at TSA

In Detroit, the 29-year-old son of a family on their way to Disney World for a vacation was selected for a special pat-down and had his plastic hammer, a favorite toy for over 20 years, taken away by TSA agents. The boys’ father, Dr. David Mandy, tried to explain to agents that his son has the mental capacity of a two-year-old and thus did not understand their instructions, to which they replied, “Please, sir, we know what we’re doing.”

And they also knew what they were doing when took away a 95-year-old lady’s adult diaper.

Perverts.  I hope I live to see the day when this all comes back around and bites you in your collective ass.

The Republicans have learned nothing

Nothing.

The Penultimate Solution

Link:

As a result, Cong. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), author of the original “end-of-life proposal,” stated the following in an email to supporters, urging them to keep the new regulations hidden from public view:

“While we are very happy with the result, we won’t be shouting it from the rooftops because we aren’t out of the woods yet. This regulation could be modified or reversed, especially if Republican leaders try to use this small provision to perpetuate the ‘death panel’ myth. . . . We would ask that you not broadcast this accomplishment out to any of your lists, even if they are ‘supporters’ — e-mails can too easily be forwarded. . . . Thus far, it seems that no press or blogs have discovered it, but we will be keeping a close watch and may be calling on you if we need a rapid, targeted response. The longer this goes unnoticed, the better our chances of keeping it. . . .”

Consider it outed, you unconscionable bastard.

Krugman’s Final Solution

Some years down the pike, we’re going to get the real solution, which is going to be a combination of death panels and sales taxes. It’s going to be that we’re actually going to take Medicare under control, and we’re going to have to get some additional revenue, probably from a VAT. But it’s not going to happen now.

Death panels.

The Pilgrims’ Real Thanksgiving Lesson

In 1620 Plymouth Plantation was founded with a system of communal property rights. Food and supplies were held in common and then distributed based on “equality” and “need” as determined by Plantation officials. People received the same rations whether or not they contributed to producing the food, and residents were forbidden from producing their own food. Governor William Bradford, in his 1647 history, Of Plymouth Plantation, wrote that this system “was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort.” The problem was that “young men, that were most able and fit for labour, did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense.” Because of the poor incentives, little food was produced.

Essential reading from The Independent Institute.

TSA Agent commits legally defined sexual assault

“It is acceptable and encouraged that a TSA government official can do something to an American citizen that US military personnel cannot do to a member of the Taliban.”

Read.

Just a little something…

While watching a DVD of one of my favorite anime series recently, I heard one of the characters say something that really stuck with me.

“What you believe is right depends on what it is you wish to protect.”

Just a little something I thought I’d pass along.

Let us help you…

Or we’ll kill you.

Pragmatism…

…and an utter lack of principles.

The NRA elbows its way into the McDonald Case

One wonders if NRA members should be proud of their organization’s apparent newfound fiduciary conservatism. The so-called “premier” gun rights organization has now managed to finagle its way into the spotlight after someone else’s sweat and money rented the hall, built the stage, and set up the sound system.

NRA lawyers are now second guessing pro-gun lawyer Alan Gura’s expertise. And this, after Gura masterminded and navigated the vitally crucial landmark Heller case to a victorious decision in favor of the Second Amendment.

The NRA’s leadership must have looked at each other and realized that (coming so close on the coat tails of Heller) McDonald actually had a good chance at victory. I can just hear them clinking their drinks in toast and chuckling: “Gura will likely win this one too. Let’s get on board now!”

All that might not be so bad, but look who the NRA has hired as their head counsel in this wedge into McDonald: Paul Clement, the very attorney who advocated against our gun rights in Heller!

That’s right, Clement led the federal government’s charge to protect the Washington D.C. ban on handgun ownership!

JPFO gives us the scoop.

“Morality is personal”

Morality is personal. There is no such thing as collective conscience, collective kindness, collective gentleness, collective freedom. To talk of social justice, social responsibility, a new world order, may be easy and make us feel good, but it does not absolve each of us from personal responsibility.

Excellent quote and one I agree with and believe in. Go to The Devil’s Kitchen to see who said it and read the rest of a great post.

Changing the rules

StarTribune:

That means that any stimulus money used to cover payroll will be included in the jobs credited to the program, including pay raises for existing employees and pay for people who never were in jeopardy of losing their positions.

If you had a job and kept it, you count as “job saved by stimulus money.” Same goes even if your job was never in danger of being eliminated, or even if stimulus money was used to give you a raise.

via Captain of a Crew of One and The Reluctant Paladin

The Mythical Roots of U.S. Drug Policy

Article:

Soldier’s Disease — widespread addiction following massive administration of opiates during the Civil War — is the earliest and most often repeated example of a drug problem before the narcotics laws. The story exemplifies several basic themes used in support of continued drug prohibition — addiction is easy to acquire, hard to kick, and is a publicly noticed, i.e. asocial, problem. Soldier’s Disease, though, is a myth. Not one case of addiction was reported in medical records or the literature of the time; under ten references were made in the Nineteenth Century to addiction the cause of which was the Civil War; and no perjorative nickname for addicted veterans, like Soldier’s Disease, appeared in the literature until 1915, and it did not become part of the Conventional Wisdom of drug experts until almost a century after Appomattox.

How contemporary drug policy is based on something that never existed.

Criminalizing homeschool in Britain

HSLDA | Criminal Background Checks Part of Draconian Law Proposed for Homeschoolers

It is troubling to many homeschool advocates that the British government has gotten its facts wrong. It appears the government is trying to use any means necessary to justify their actions against homeschoolers. And though the report is currently the subject of a special inquiry by a parliament committee to determine whether it was conducted properly, its implications have raised concern with homeschool leaders outside Britain as well.

Emphasis mine.  It appears that way because it is that way.  The collective can tolerate no deviation.  The hell-hole that “Great” Britain has become was predicted by both George Orwell and Anthony Burgess, and it is a pattern for what they want the United States (and Canada for that matter) to also become.

Global Warming, Shmobile Shmarming

In case you haven’t heard yet, there is something of a ruckus going on because a global warming “think tank” has been hacked and many damning documents and emails have been released into the wilds of the internet.  Or possibly an insider has intentionally leaked them.

Good comment at Samizdata:

Until now scientists have tended to be regarded by the public as white coated, rather otherworldly and impartial seekers of The Truth. Now it seems at leaset some of them are willing to be government stooges, who will to tow the government line in order to keep their jobs and pensions. This was demonstrated a few weeks ago when a scientist was sacked by the British government for contradicting their policy pronouncements on drugs. Now this.

About the only good thing to come out of this is that people might be more skeptical (pun intended) when, in future, government proposes yet another restriction on their liberties in the name of “the science”.

Follow the link to Samizdata as a starting point and spend a while following links and reading for yourself.

A searchable database of the material may be found here.

One more comment from Samizdata to boil it down:

The defence barriers are going up. Roger Harrabin (Link)talks about these being peripheral issues and it being normal in science for comments to be made. He would be right except for a three minor points in the presentation of the science.

– the claims that the science is settled.
– the claims that anyone who does not agree is a crank or has ulterior motives (e.g. in the pay of oil companies)
– the claim that the demarcation between climate science & deniers is peer reviews.

All this shows is that climatology, like other empirical sciences, is partisan. The difference is that in climatology, only one viewpoint is funded and given repsctful consideration. More importantly, this is no mere ivory-towered scandal. On the basis of such partisan opinions are governments being manouvered into embracing world government and a major reduction in global living standards.

Related and pertinent: Crazy Talk at The War On Guns.

eTrace = National Gun Registry

In regard to this JPFO alert comes this response:

Are you aware that the BATFE has for several years been aggressively offering eTrace to local law enforcement agencies? They have the agency sign a memorandum of agreement and then the agency can run traces on any firearm they wish. The catch is that the agency has to agree to run a trace on ALL CRIME GUNS. The MOU defines a CRIME GUN as:

“The parties agree that a ‘crime gun’ is defined as “any firearm that is illegally possessed, used in a crime, taken into police custody, or suspected by law enforcement officials of having been used in a crime.”

The key word in this definition is “taken into police custody.” I have been a law enforcement officer for over thirty years and held positions up to the rank of Detective Commander. Only a very small portion of firearms that are taken into custody could possibly be considered a “crime gun.” TV and movies aside, we run into very few “smoking gun” cases where we have a firearm left at the scene a crime, and it is a rare instance that knowing who was the first lawful purchaser of a firearm would serve any investigatory purpose. We take hundreds of firearms into custody as found property, safe-keeping, recovered-stolen or in possession of individuals who have been arrested. In all those cases, including arrests, it is of very little consequence who bought the gun from Acme Sporting Goods ten years ago.

Please follow the link and read the whole thing.

A reminder

Obama’s communist cronies Ayers and Dohrm dedicated their manifesto to Robert Kennedy’s assassin.

Significance via Zombietime, The Daily Telegraph and Billy Beck.

(One of) The Big Lie(s)

A good fisking by Robert Higgs, via The Independent Institute:

As soon as I saw the headline of an August 10 article by financial columnist Peter Cohan, I knew that something was terribly wrong. It reads: “How did the politics of small government lead to big government bailouts?” This is akin to asking, How did the extinction of the elephants lead to Barack Obama’s election as president? If you make a claim of the form “A caused B,” but A never happened, then you are wasting your time by delving into the historical details of this bogus relationship.

Yet we continue to see one example after another of what suspicious readers may be tempted to view as the Big Lie that deregulation or other obliging government measures caused the present economic mess. I won’t go so far as to characterize this claim as a Big Lie. Although some of its purveyors, acting out of partisan motives, surely know that they are blowing smoke, others may simply suffer from economic ignorance, analytical confusion, or loss of historical memory. In any event, the public is ill-served by commentators who purport to speak with authority about our current economic troubles and related government’s policies, yet peddle this worse-than-sophomoric tale.

The enemy of my enemy is not my friend

But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy watching one enemy destroy another.

Pass the popcorn.

via Two–Four

Reasoned Discourse breaks out at the 2A Blog Bash

Read about it at The War on Guns.