By Matthew Hayward Happy Bill of Rights Day! Opening the paper this morning to read retiring liquor control board chair Sharon Foster's passionate comments against the free market was wonderful. While the privatization of liquor sales was voter-approved, Sharon says it was "the dumbest thing we ever did in our state." She then went on to point out that privatization has "led to higher prices and increased shoplifting of alcohol, especially by minors. We've heard stories there may be alcohol brokers in every high school,”  Let’s start with higher prices; the State is punishing the people with sin taxes and making more money than ever. Next shoplifting; yes, there will be an increase in shoplifting of a product when you now have the product. Sharon fails to mention adjustments made in security measures without State regulations. When liquor was first opened up for sale in the general marketplace, many store owners foolishly placed their products insecurely in open...

  Two things that are truly sad about this: 1. The fact that this is new to anyone. There have been congressional hearings about this and money publicly budgeted for these types of tactics. We also have declassified documents that show the US government has been engaging in infiltrating and discrediting   political and influential groups in the US for decades. Look up COINTELPRO if you are that uninformed as to question me. 2. The FACT that most people will hear this and go on living as if they hadn't. Most people who intellectually know and understand what is happening, psychologically refuse to accept it and live as if they know none of it. Likely this defense mechanism, this denial people live in, is based on feelings of powerlessness, helplessness and a deep desire to believe   that it is all for some greater good. Many people choose to live in ignorance because they know that reality is uncomfortable. Does our government participate in unethical an...

I found this article most interesting. It was published in 2010 and calls these conspiracy theories "right wing." But in 2006 a majority of the people who touted these theories were considered to be left wingers, crying about how George Bush was going to cancel the 2008 elections and declare martial law etc. Could it be that most people who question the government and fear large scandals and an organized elite engaged in social engineering are a mix of right, left, center? Maybe the real difference is if the conspirator believes it is the government behind the conspiracy, or the banks and corporations behind the conspiracy? And if a particular theory has merit and is actually true, would it not be logical that everyone could be able to accept it? (For the record, I am not one to buy into 'all' of these sorts of things, in fact I disagree with many of these after looking into them a bit; but simply because some of these theories, and other theories, maybe in ...