Over at Red State, Pejman defends the Washington Post in a rare moment in which they give a sober assessment of Barack’s plan to tax Big Oil. He writes:

For properly calling shenanigans, the Washington Post will likely be sneered at by members of the self-annointed “reality-based community.” In this way, the newspaper will be subjected to what we can term a “windfall honesty tax” in which truth-telling itself is penalized by any means necessary. The windfall honesty tax takes no money out of your pocket directly, of course. But by robbing the political discourse of the necessary realism with which to intelligently fashion and implement policy, the windfall honesty tax, when applied against clear and logical economic thinking, is infinitely better at lightening your wallet as any pickpocket could ever hope to be.

At it’s core, capitalism is the right to do what you see fit with your property. Using the state to forbid entities from using their property (taxing Oil Profits) as they see fit violates the very essence of capitalism.

Where do I sign up.

While most infestations involved non-clinical areas, some trusts reported problems nearer to patients.

One had wasps in a neo-natal unit, and flying ants on the main wards, while another reported rats in their maternity unit, and wasps in operating theatres.

A children’s A&E was infested with flies, and main wards were also home to mice, silverfish, biting insects and beetles.

Other common problems included bedbugs, fleas and cockroaches.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: “Labour have said over and over that they will improve cleanliness in our hospitals, but these figures clearly show that they are failing.”

You see its because the state doesn’t have to waste all those resources on ‘profits’ that it can provide a better service at a cheaper price.

Apparently there were a spare 150,000 gorillas hanging out the Congo.

An estimated 125,000 Western lowland gorillas are living in a swamp in equatorial Africa, researchers reported Tuesday, double the number of the endangered primates thought to survive worldwide.

Scientist can’t get a decent count on a large land mammal, but know how damaging global warming will be in fifty years. Excuse me if I don’t vote democratic on environmental grounds in the next election. Their seems to be an 800 pound gorilla in the corner of global warming’s room.

You have to read this piece on capitalism. Its that good. Jonah writes:

Capitalism is the greatest system ever created for alleviating general human misery, and yet it breeds ingratitude.

People ask, “Why is there poverty in the world?” It’s a silly question. Poverty is the default human condition. It is the factory preset of this mortal coil. As individuals and as a species, we are born naked and penniless, bereft of skills or possessions. Likewise, in his civilizational infancy man was poor, in every sense. He lived in ignorance, filth, hunger, and pain, and he died very young, either by violence or disease.

The interesting question isn’t “Why is there poverty?” It’s “Why is there wealth?” Or: “Why is there prosperity here but not there?”

At the end of the day, the first answer is capitalism, rightly understood. That is to say: free markets, private property, the spirit
of entrepreneurialism and the conviction that the fruits of your labors are your own.

For generations, many thought prosperity was material stuff: factories and forests, gold mines and gross tons of concrete poured. But we now know that these things are merely the fringe benefits of wealth. Stalin built his factories, Mao paved over the peasants. But all that truly prospered was misery and alienation.

A recent World Bank study found that a nation’s wealth resides in its “intangible capital” — its laws, institutions, skills, smarts and cultural assumptions. “Natural capital” (minerals, croplands, etc.) and “produced capital” (factories, roads, and so on) account for less than a quarter of the planet’s wealth. In America, intangible capital — the stuff in our heads, our hearts, and our books — accounts for 82 percent of our wealth.

More:

In large measure our wealth isn’t the product of capitalism, it is capitalism.

And yet we hate it. Leaving religion out of it, no idea has given more to humanity. The average working-class person today is richer, in real terms, than the average prince or potentate of 300 years ago. His food is better, his life longer, his health better, his menu of entertainments vastly more diverse, his toilette infinitely more civilized. And yet we constantly hear how cruel capitalism is while this collectivism or that is more loving because, unlike capitalism, collectivism is about the group, not the individual.

I added the emphasis because its true. Capitalism is wealth and wealth is capitalism. To criticize capitalism is to criticize wealth.

The best part:

This is the irony of capitalism. It is not zero-sum, but it feels like it is. Capitalism coordinates humanity toward peaceful, productive cooperation, but it feels alienating. Collectivism does the opposite, at least when dreamed up on paper. The communes and collectives imploded in inefficiency, drowned in blood. The kibbutz lives on only as a tourist attraction, a baseball fantasy camp for nostalgic socialists. Meanwhile, billions have ridden capitalism out of poverty.

Capitalism is better at treating people humanely than any other system created by man. The system that emphasize self interest is more humane than all the systems that have tried to tap into man’s better self. Now thats sweet tasty delicious irony. And you know it.

The Daily Show was actually funny!