No Serf Rotating Header Image

government waste

Linkpost 10/13/2010

Yeah, I know I’m posting on the 14th, but I found these all yesterday:

  • Reason’s got an article about how the FDA is managing to stifle the growth of the personal genomics industry.
  • A safe-for-work article over at the NSFW site Vice about how to “beat” SimCity — by creating a police state akin to North Korea.
  • The U.S. has declassified some of its interviews with Tariq Aziz, and his testimony supports the idea that Saddam was in bed with terrorists. It’s not news to those who’ve been paying attention for the last twenty years, but I figured it was worth highlighting.

These voices don’t speak for the rest of us

BP Vent

I had mentioned that I was going to gripe about British Petroleum a bit more. It turns out that I did, but as a comment on another blog:

Keep in mind that BP is the proverbial Bad Example. Theirs was the refinery in Texas City that burned down in 2005. Theirs was the pipeline in Alaska that leaked because they pushed back the maintenance cycle. (Suspiciously, it’s leaking again.) They were even (believe it or not) involved with the Exxon Valdez.

They’re the company that drives us nuts. With the regulatory agencies accepting settlements where no one admits wrongdoing, there’s no legal history to ratchet up the pressure on the bad company.

In fact, their investors don’t agree with your statement of “best economic sense”, either. Not only are they suing over the current mess, they sued over some of the previous ones, too. This is a pointed example of how screwed up the investor laws are.

Really, there is no Free Market in the United States — there’s some serious crony capitalism going on, bordering on hard-core corporatism.

Weatherization Waste

Stimulus Waste: Taxpayers Foot Bill for Shoddy Weatherization Work in Texas

Which really shouldn’t be a surprise if you’ve been paying attention to Australia’s experience:

Insulation scams hit 160,000