Reason Morning Links

- April was record-setting month for foreclosures.

- FDA takes aim at Cheerios.

- Obama administration to strengthen antitrust rules.

- Get ready for Sarah Palin's memoirs, due out next year.

- House Dems, Obama announce plans to pass health care bill by end of July.

- Just give up. Study: Vitamins may curb benefits of exercise.

Comments

[Vines & Cattle]

Let's see, the National Animal Identification System will force me to catalog and register ever animal I own. Even my daughter's goats.

The Mountain Dew I drink is about to be treated like cigarettes.

The Cheerios my daughter is eating in the other room are suddenly under federal scrutiny. (I thought I was doing good not buying Sugar Frosted Marshmallow Krusty O's)

Nope, the federal government has no effect on my life....

[FrBunny]

Since Cheerios will be forced to change their marketing, may I humbly suggest:

Cheerios; like wood pulp, but round!?

[something in Latin]

Ugh. Ugh, I say, to the health care bill. From the article:

"It's hard to talk about socialized medicine when the hospitals, doctors, insurers, the private sector players are working with us at the White House," a top White House official said.

It would be pretty dumb not to cozy up. It's Mandate Musical Chairs. If you're at the right place when they write the bill, you win a monopoly.

[Abdul]

This may not be a popular opinion on a Libertarina site, but it's about time someone cracked down on smoking Cheerios.

[Dr. Coyote]

hmmmmmmmmm woody.

"It's hard to talk about socialized medicine when the hospitals, doctors, insurers, the private sector players are working with us at the White House," a top White House official said.
Now Corporatism - that's a whole different story.

[hmm]

I always get a chuckle out of any antitrust push post FDIC. The FDIC has cajoled, pushed, shoehorned, and forced damn near as many mergers and buyouts as the private market has.

[Cabeza de Vaca]

"Libertarina"

I like this name. This is going to be the name of my daughter.

[FrBunny]

This is going to be the name of my daughter.

I'm going with Valtrex. Just to keep the boys away until she's old enough to change it.

[Xeones]

This is going to be the name of my daughter.

I've always thought Uvula sounded nice.

[Heterosexist Every Body]

I think Ann Persand (or Persaud) has a nice ring to it, with a unique abbrevation.

[Heterosexist Every Body]

I've always thought Uvula sounded nice.

But her real name is Delores!

[Nick]

Regulators say that only FDA-approved drugs are allowed to make such claims.

In other words, Cheerios didn't pay the government for their right to make such claims, science be damned.

[Heterosexist Every Body]

Just a hunch, if Cheerios only existed in hippie-dippie health food stores this would not be an issue.

[Affirmative Justice]

"Regulators say that only FDA-approved drugs are allowed to make such claims."

Well fuck my ass!

[Stretch]

"restore an aggressive enforcement policy against corporations that use their market dominance to elbow out competitors or to keep them from gaining market share"

If only the democrats and republicans were subject to anti-trust rules. I think it's safe to say they use their market dominance to elbow out competitors and keep them from gaining market share.

[Sarah Palin]

My memoirs, ya know, because even liberals agree, a lot has happened in my life, which young people also too can learn something from listening to a strong female figure, and public service which I fully stand for.

[Sarah Palin\'s Ghost Writer]

My memoirs, ya know, because even liberals agree, a lot has happened in my life, which young people also too can learn something from listening to a strong female figure, and public service which I fully stand for.

Myriad experiences -- experiences to which people from both ends of the political spectrum can relate -- shaped me into the woman I am today: a strong female role model and advocate for public service.

[wipes brow, drinks, begs god for forgiveness, dives back in]

[Pain]

So Obama's plan is to form a Health Care cartel? Well I'm sure that will drive down prices.

Just like OPEC.

[Xeones]

Pain, keep in mind that the means are not as important as the results, and the results are not as important as the intentions. Just jam an icepick through your eye socket and into your frontal lobe and wiggle it around some. You'll be fine.

[Mike Laursen]

Get ready for Sarah Palin's memoirs, due out next year.

Who?

[James Ard]

I just poured Daddy a bowl of Cheerios. I didn't rtfa but if they've run afoul of the feds they're ok by me.

[Nikola T]

I wonder if Palin's memoirs will be heavily illustrated, if ya catch ma drift. I may have to get a copy of that!

[PC]

"Get ready for Sarah Palin's memoirs, due out next year."

You know it has been a while since there was a good pop up book on the market.

[J sub D]

Obama administration to strengthen antitrust rules.

I, for one, am grateful that the feds went after Microsoft. Before that anti-trust action there was absolutely no alternative to purchasing Microsoft software. None.

It reminds me of how the DOJ saved us all from the evil A&P monopoly. You young whippersnappers may not remember the dark days when the only place to get Wheaties, ground beef, popsicles and flour was the A&P who gouged us consumers because they were the only food retailer in the whole county.

Exempt is your local cable company, electricity and gas providers and the USPS because as government sanctioned and regulated monopolies they provide premium service at rock bottom prices.

It's all really easy to understand if you have had a traumatic head injury or two.

[creepy jake]

Well fuck my ass!
a/s/l?

[The Cheerios Kid]

They'll have to pry my Go Power from my cold, dead, formerly animated fingers!

Big G, little O, y'all!

[Episiarch]

Just give up. Study: Vitamins may curb benefits of exercise.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Sleeper]

"... wheat germ, organic honey, and... Tiger's Milk."

"Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties."

"You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or... hot fudge?"

"Those were thought to be unhealthy... precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true."

"Incredible!"

[I, Kahn O\'Clast]

Will Palin's book be printed in the original crayon or will someone re-type it?

OK, that was nasty. What I really want to know is if she will come clean on who's Trig's mom?

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/politics/2008/09/the-authoritative-trig-palin-conspiracy-time-line.html

[P Brooks]

"restore an aggressive enforcement policy against corporations that use their market dominance to elbow out competitors or to keep them from gaining market share"

Corporations which, through political influence and rent-seeking, use the government to hobble their competitors, on the other hand...

[Mike Laursen]

So, let me see if I understand anti-trust. It's OK for a company to use aggressive marketing techniques until it reaches a certain level of success at which point they can be prosecuted for using those very same techniques, but they won't find out until several years later when that crossover from legal to illegal occurred. Is that about right?

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

I, for one, am grateful that the feds went after Microsoft. Before that anti-trust action there was absolutely no alternative to purchasing Microsoft software. None.

Well, Apple was doggin' it pretty bad then, but there were a couple of good commercial unixes, and Linux and BSD were getting there...

Wait. You mean, for, like working with business type people? With, like, ties?

Oh.

Then you're bang on.

But you still have to turn in your decode ring until the ethic committee can rule on your case.

[J sub D]

Wait. You mean, for, like working with business type people? With, like, ties?

Oh.

Then you're bang on.

But you still have to turn in your decode ring until the ethic committee can rule on your case.

Fail. You completely and absolutely flunk. Name me two types of business software that was unavailable from businesses other than Microsoft.

Better yet, name one.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

Name me two types of business software that was unavailable from businesses other than Microsoft.

You may have misread my intent...

...but since you ask: Oracle provided many of the RDBMs that ran (and often still run) the back end. DEC could provide you with a "paperless office" thin client system that mostly worked, and WordPerfect was still chugging along and available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux (and to my way of thinking a rather better word processor than Word).

The problem wasn't a lack of software to do the job. It was a dominance of the front-office computing ecosystem by MicroSoft's package of a "friendly" OS and a integrated office suite.

Not a great case for anti-trust, but one of the better ones I've seen during my lifetime.

[EscapedWestOfTHeBigMuddy]

...ah...em...

I'll just go and sit in the corner and shut up until I learn from my better, then. Shall I?

Yeah. That what I'll do.

[EscapedWestOfTheBigMuddy]

Note to self: turn reading comprehension mode on. On I say.

[Mike Laursen]

It was a dominance of the front-office computing ecosystem by MicroSoft's package of a "friendly" OS and a integrated office suite.

What's the difference between "dominance of" and "success of"?

[creepy jake]

cheerio!

[R C Dean]

What's the difference between "dominance of" and "success of"?

"dominance of" - I pay Microsoft money.

"success of" - Microsoft pays me money.

[corn dog]

Obama and Oprah are both cheery Os.

[Monica Hughes]

No kidding, Vines and Cattle!

Someone at Reason should definitely write about NAIS. One of my readers weighed in on the most recent NAIS listening session in PA. She describes her experience here. Almost unreal.

http://www.fa-rm.org/blog/2009/05/reader-weighs-in-on-nature-of-nais.html