Tag Archives: Sudden Outbreak of Common Sense

Portugal’s Experiment in Drug Decriminalization Has Been a Success

Posted on by

“This month, Portugal celebrates fourteen years of drug decriminalization. The grand experiment is now considered a happy success considering it was adopted out of desperation and in the face of dire warnings from proponents of the global drug war.  One picture that sums up the Portuguese success story shows that Portugal has the second lowest death rate from illegal drugs in all of Europe after experiencing one of the worst rates with prohibition. It is a happy anniversary for the Portuguese, but a scary one for all the drug warriors around the world whose incomes and power depend on continued ignorance about the effects of prohibition.”

http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/36406/Mark-Thornton-Portugals-Experiment-in-Drug-Decriminalization-Has-Been-a-Success/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

China and Russia Lay Foundation for Massive Economic Cooperation

Posted on by

“Russian and Chinese leaders are considering combining their two countries’ regional economic projects — the Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road Economic Belt, respectively.  While meeting at a two-day summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Ufa, Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are reportedly discussing a framework that would merge China’s multi-billion dollar network of roads, railways, and pipelines through Central Asia with the Eurasian Union, the post-Soviet economic bloc that includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.”

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/07/10/china-russia-sco-ufa-summit-putin-xi-jinping-eurasian-union-silk-road/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Will Freedom to Remove Eyebrow Hair Make Texas a “Dangerous” Place?

Posted on by

“It’s a tremendous victory for individual rights and for the politically powerless. And progressives are terrified of it.  The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation issued $2,000 penalties to threaders across the state and ordered them to quit their jobs until they completed 750 hours of coursework (not a second of which is devoted to eyebrow threading) in private beauty schools, costing between $7,000 and $22,000, and pass two examinations (neither of which tests eyebrow threading).  Would-be threaders have to pay for the training and lose the opportunity to make money threading eyebrows. The court concluded that the regulations imposed an unconstitutionally oppressive burden.”

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/slate-writer-freedom-to-thread-eyebrows-will-make-texas-a-dangerous-place

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Western Companies Look to Iran Opening for New Business

Posted on by

“The end to Iran’s international isolation is attracting more than just energy firms. Carmakers, aircraft and tobacco producers also make the list of companies that analysts from Natixis Securities to Jefferies say may invest in the nation if the April 2 agreement with world powers results in an end to penalties over its nuclear program. While Total, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil all have assets and expertise that could be of use to Iran, holder of the world’s largest gas reserves and fourth- biggest oil reserves, there’s more to the $370 billion economy than hydrocarbons. The country’s 77 million consumers have been starved of most Western products for more than 10 years.”

http://www.businessweekme.com/Bloomberg/newsmid/190/newsid/586/Western-Companies-Look-to-Iran-Opening-for-New-Business

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Silicon Valley meets Bob Marley

Posted on by

“Men in suits swarmed everywhere, but not one spliff or bong could be seen.  PhDs and Harvard MBAs networked with investment bankers and hedge-fund managers to raise money for businesses covering every aspect of marijuana commerce, from consumer guides to insurance. Some eager punters discussed the secrets of emerging brands, such as those associated with those two legendary singers and weed experts, Willie Nelson (who announced he is launching his own brand) and Bob Marley. Others debated how to make use of hemp, a crop closely related to weed but, unlike it, indisputably legal to buy and sell, and marvelled at all the jobs being created by the new industry.”

http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21656726-rise-cannabis-capitalism-silicon-valley-meets-bob-marley

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Millions in Brazil Follow a Teen Leader to Freedom

Posted on by

“The catalyzing events behind Brazil’s freedom movement are high taxes, massive corruption and cronyism, rising price inflation amid a sluggish economy, and the widely perceived incompetence of President Dilma Rousseff and her socialist-leaning Workers’ Party.  It gained significant attention on June 1 when it organized a campaign against taxes that make up 60 percent of the price of beer. And though no political party in Brazil has been committed to liberty since the 19th century, one is now in the making. The Novo (‘New’) Party has gathered the signatures necessary for the next step: certification by the government so it can field candidates in elections.”

http://fee.org/freeman/detail/millions-in-brazil-follow-a-teen-leader-to-freedom

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Jacob Hornberger, Rand Paul: A Profile in Courage

Posted on by

hornberger1

“The U.S. Freedom Act is the reform of the Patriot Act that Obama, Clapper, and other warfare statists wanted. But Rand Paul would have no part of it. Let the Patriot Act expire — without reform — was his position.  The Patriot Act and the U.S. Freedom Act are two of the most anti-American schemes in U.S. history. Both schemes would fit in perfectly in any totalitarian regime. Moreover, employing fearmongering is a time-honored strategy of totalitarian regimes to scare people into trading away their freedom for the pretense of security.  Fear has been the coin of the realm of the U.S. national-security state apparatus since the day it was grafted onto America’s governmental system after World War II.”

http://fff.org/2015/06/01/rand-paul-profile-courage/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Victory Against Patriot Act; URGENT action still needed

Posted on by

ddc-header1

“The USA Freedom Act failed to achieve enough votes in the Senate on Friday night. This was okay with McConnell, because it meant he could push for a two-month extension of section 215, and then resume the effort for a better pro-spying bill after Congress returned from recess.  But Rand Paul filibustered and blocked McConnell’s attempts at an extension for 215!  McConnell is left with only one card left to play. Bring the Senate back into session on a SUNDAY, May 31 to try yet again for an extension before 215 expires that midnight. Or…  Observers wonder if he’ll flip-flop on the flawed USA Freedom Act, and endorse it as a replacement?  This is the tactic we must now work to block.”

https://downsizedc.org/blog/patriot-act-victory-urgent-action-still-needed

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Obama Bans Certain Military Gear From Local Police

Posted on by

“In a surprise move aimed at tamping down the backlash against military tactics by local police forces, President Obama today announced he is banning the transfer of certain military gear considered ‘not appropriate’ for local policing. The ban will include tracked armored vehicles, grenade launchers and bayonets. Obama said his working group had concluded there was a ‘substantial risk of misusing’ such gear.  ‘We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people the feeling like there’s an occupying force as opposed to a force that’s part of the community,’ Obama added in comments later in the day.”

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/05/18/obama-bans-certain-military-gear-from-local-police/

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet

Seoul to let women activists march from North to South Korea

Posted on by

“The WomenCrossDMZ group, headed by activist and feminist Gloria Steinem, says it plans to embark on the May 24 march from the North Korean capital Pyongyang to the DMZ separating the two Koreas to ‘call for an end to the Korean War’.  ‘There are some procedural steps left but we are headed in the direction of giving a green light,’ a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.  North and South Korea are technically still at war after the 1950-53 Korea War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Despite its name, the DMZ is one of the most heavily militarized and fortified borders in the world.”

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-seoul-to-allow-women-activists-to-march-from-north-to-south-korea-2015-5

Scan to Donate Bitcoin to Freedomwat.ch Staff
Did you like this?
Tip Freedomwat.ch Staff with Bitcoin
Donate via Installed Wallet