The Carnival's in Town

No gigantic, chemical-pink bears to win, no half-dead goldfish listing in tiny glass globes and no funnel cake, but we can still have a good time at the Carnival of the UnCapitalists. 

The theme this week is Under the Radar.  Of course, that's often a theme shared by stories at this particular Carvnival but this week's collection may surprise even the most well-informed among you.

The Dark Wraith, good day to you, sir, wonders if the Federal Reserve hasn't been engaging in a bit of quiet expansion that's going to turn around to bite us.

Should it turn out that Fed has, indeed, again started printing money at a rate greater than that of the economy's ability to absorb it through real growth, the consequence will be further and escalating inflationary pressure that the government will have an increasingly difficult task of claiming doesn't exist.

Be sure to read the comments, which are always entertaining and informative over there.

Eugene Plawiuk, from La Reuve Gauche, challenges the idea that anyone opposed to a single-state solution in the Middle East is an anti-semite in Anti-Zionism is NOT Anti-Semitism with some interesting supporting material from people with spiritual and secular groundings.  This one stood out for me:

Ahad Ha-am worked tirelessly for an intellectual and spiritual revival of the Jewish people. His belief in Zion was of a spiritual and prophetic nature. In 1913 he attacked the Zionist labor movement's racial boycott of Arab labor:

Apart from the political danger, I can't put up with the idea that our brethren are morally capable of behaving in such a way to men of another people; and unwittingly the thought comes to my mind: if it is so now, what will be our relation to the others if in truth we shall achieve "at the end of time" power in Eretz Israel? If this be the "Messiah," I do not wish to see his coming.

The last two selections deal with abuses of power that are often and too easily ignored in our country.  First Jason Miller takes a long look at the care of mentally ill Americans.  He connects dots that range from  Kennedy's Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963(starting a flood of de-institutionalizing of the mentally ill)  to discriminatory health insurance plans to the Americans with Disabilities Act to the voting booth to what BushCo's "compassionate conservative" budget means for the 25% of Americans who suffer from mental illness.  He concludes:

As a people, Americans need to find a way to meet our fellow citizens of the Earth as equals and to channel our vast resources toward bettering humanity and the planet on which we live.  A great place to start would be to ensure the rights, dignity, and well-being of our own people, including the oft-forgotten mentally ill.

Read the whole article to get an idea of how very far we need to go.

But America isn't crawling back to the Middle Ages in all aspects of our society.  As Gretchen Moss points out at the Green Lantern, our use of technology to empower law enforcement is moving forward in leaps and bounds:

Now I'd like to draw your attention to Taser International's pathetic website. You'll notice when you go in some cheesy angelic singing and Taser's slogan "Saving Lives Everyday." This would almost be laughable hadn't so many people already died during taser incidents.

Gretchen has an extensive list of links to articles about arrests involving tasers and the sometimes tragic outcomes.  If you're like me, you'll be floored by the sheer number of accidents and deaths that are linked to taser use.  She also has links to Taser's promotional video, which may explain some of the problem:

Taser presents the whole commerical in a tired, overdone "Matrix" fashion, complete with techno-matrix sounding music, computer code in the backgroud, apparent philosophical questions about the nature of reality, right down to slick trench coats and $3000 sunglasses.

Somehow, I don't believe power trippy policemen wielding stun guns and an increasing police state is what the Wachowski Bros. had in mind when creating The Matrix Movies...

As Chekov put it, "If you show a gun on the mantel in the first act, someone better fire it by the final act."  And if the gun is super cool, well, that's just asking for trouble.

Tear down the rides.  Unplug the cotton candy machine.  The Carnival of the UnCapitalists is moving on to a blog near you.

UPDATE:  Go check out Kevin Carson's late submission: Wealth Concentrations in Free Market Anarchy, in which Kevin imagines what the results of a real free market economy would look like.  How far off the radar is that?  Ask yourself why anyone who knows even the basics of economics can still say "free market" without laughing themselves unconscious and you'll get the idea.

Comments

[Kevin Carson]

Thanks! My apologies for the late submission--I keep forgetting the deadline because of those long weekend shifts at work.

[eRobin]

No excuses, Carson! When the Carnival is in this joint, we get our submissions in on time. That's why they're called "submissions," mister.