Let me call this one right now: Ron Paul won't get the GOP nomination and the broad swath of Republicans who support him will be furious with Fox News' desperate 24/7 marginalization of the most popular candidate in the race.  What Fox News does is disgraceful to begin with, but it is even more clear when trying to shape a particular ideology within its own party allegiances.

The rapture claimed victims

There are real faces behind the tragedy of belief without evidence.  The fraudulent claim that the world was coming to an end of May 21st, 2011 is the most recent example. YouTuber Askegg shows us just a few people whose lives have been deeply compromised by uncritical religious beliefs:

America: One Nation Imprisoned?

QUESTION: is a disproportionate number of American citizens in jail because they are inherently more criminal or because the American government has invented more crimes?

I saw this on the Metro at National Airport in DC.

Evolution: it's not a controversy.

Having interviewed Eugenie Scott (source) earlier this year, I know about Project Steve and think it to be a brilliant rhetorical campaign to demonstrate how foundational evolutionary biology is to modern science.

Ron Paul's first 2012 Republican Presidential Primary

Amidst all the silliness of Gingrich, Palin, Bachmann, Santorum, and Trump, Ron Paul will single-handedly make the 2012 Republican Presidential Primary an exciting and engaging process for me... and maybe you, too!

If the GOP is smart - and they usually aren't, they will realize that far more progressives will vote for Ron Paul than anyone else their party could run. Meanwhile, it is highly unlikely that any Republicans will vote for Obama because Paul's positions are too extreme. Then again, many Republicans seem to want to continue wars, keep Guantanamo open, and endorse the Fed's fiscal policies - in which case Obama could earn their vote!

Lego Man to run Britain?

(This is the only thing I'm going to post about the embarrassingly excessive fanfare surrounding the Royal Wedding).

Johann Hari: Frenzy around Britain’s Royal Wedding "Should Embarrass Us All" (source)

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the movement against royalty in Britain.

JOHANN HARI: Well, we have to deal with some really weird arguments... So, for example, the monarchists always say, "Oh, it’s really good for tourism." Actually, of the top 20 tourist attractions in Britain, only one of them, number 17, is related to the royal family: Windsor Castle. Ten points ahead of it is Windsor Legoland. So using that logic, we should have a Lego man as our head of state instead of these people.

Ben's Funny Money

Despite higher commodity prices over the past 18 months (source), Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke continues to maintain that the current monetary policy is not causing excessive inflation and that the $600 billion in additional "Quantitative Easing" (printing additional Federal Reserve Notes and using them to buy Treasury Bonds), has been effective in stabilizing the U.S. economy (source).  Most Americans are unlikely to take Bernanke's word over their own grocery bills and stagnant job searches.

As one financial blog reports:

Since last August when it became clear that the Fed would initiate QE2, we have witnessed the following results: Home prices have continued to decline, the 30 year mortgage rate has increased from 4.2% to 4.8%, new housing starts declined to all time lows, the 10 year treasury note rate has increased from 2.6% to 3.4%.  (source)

With one in six Americans on some form of government assistance (source), the purchasing power of the dollar on the decline since the creation of the Fed in 1913 (source), and the U.S. Government's debt soaring (source), it's time to call this horror show by its true name:

Meanwhile, gold and silver prices continue to rise at record rates - not because they are becoming more valuable but because they retain value while the dollar loses purchasing power as more of them are printed.  Between the creation of the Fed in 1913 and the removal of the dollar from the gold standard in 1971, the dollar has continued to plummet in value and inflation continues to rise while employment stagnates - failures on both of the Federal Reserve's government mandates.

"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value: zero." -Voltaire

Also, the new Keynes vs. Hayek rap battle by EconStories is fantastic: