Weekend Update, No. 21

New, lighter edition will become the norm here at PB.  Unfortunately some weekends may even pass without update.  It's not that we don't love scouring the web to bring you the finest.  It's that we're expecting an addition to the staff, but it's one that will increase our workload.

Render Unto Caesar: A Most Misunderstood New Testament Passage, by Jeffrey F. Barr
The definitive analysis of Jesus' position on taxation.

Nothing Outside the State, by Robert Higgs
Modern US is Mussolini's wet dream.  As Goethe noted, "none are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."

Bill automatically enrolls customers in 'Cool Keeper' program, by KSL TV
Government-utility complex wants to control your thermostat, in part so it can divert electricity to others for higher profit.  The 'smart grid' in action.

Texas Textbook Troubles, by Tibor Machan
Government schooling and freedom are incompatible.

Texas Yanks Thomas Jefferson from Teaching Standard, by David Knowles
Because he's the single most important American to the cause of liberty.

Tehran aiding Al-Qaeda links, Petraeus says, by Bill Gertz
Seven years ago it was Baghdad.

Final destination Iran? by Rob Edwards
US military masses bunker busters on forward attack base Diego Garcia.

Fake Terror: The Road to War and Dictatorship, by Michael Rivero
Nice historical survey from ancient Rome to modern day USA.

Social Security: Here it Comes, by Karl Denninger
It's already broke, thirty years ahead of schedule (since the last time it was "fixed").


Walgreens: No new Medicaid patients as of April 16, by Janet I. Tu
Only in Washington.  For now.

Healthcare Is Not a Right, by Scott Shields
Even non-physicians recognize EMTALA as slavery.

Blair's fight to keep his oil cash secret: Former PM's deals are revealed as his earnings since 2007 reach £20million, by Jason Groves
Our rulers leverage state power to enrich themselves at our expense.

What a daft way to stop your spaniel eating the milkman, by Jeremy Clarkson 
No amount of ridiculous laws and regulations can ever change the fact that about 5% of any given population is "bonkers" -- but the governments keep trying.

Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says, by The Chicago Tribune
Airlines guaranteed to lose even more customers.  Government guaranteed to make ever more things mandatory.