A SIMPLE SOLUTION to piracy.

IN THE MAIL: From Jerry Pournelle, Fires of Freedom.

WHO ARE THE RUBES? (CONT’D): Barack Obama’s rich supporters fear his tax plans show he’s a class warrior. And, apparently, their contributions didn’t buy protection, as they might have hoped.

UPDATE: Reader Jeff Brown emails:

See what being historically ignorant will get you. You must learn from the mistakes of others or you’re doomed.

I do not claim great knowledge in socialist, communist or even world history but I am aware that after the Bolshevik revolution, the French revolution, the Cuban revolution, and more I can’t think of right now, that once in power, the powerful leader(s) turned on those who didn’t fit the profile they were selling. Especially, if they ever presented themselves as having an influence on the leadership.

Once they run out of rich bank and industrial CEOs to pillory, they’ll turn on the rich Hollywood and Silicon Valley CEOs, who wanted to salve their guilt at being capitalist with a capital C.

Yeah, you can already see that coming.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Related thoughts from Dan Riehl. Not sure I agree.

MORE: Tarquin’s poppies?

MAYOR BLOOMBERG gets tax inspiration from Rush Limbaugh.

FINANCIAL CRIME AND THE MELTDOWN: “Wait, does anyone think criminality helped caused the current crisis? To paraphrase Warren Buffett: When the tide goes down you realize who isn’t wearing swimming trunks. But it’s not like the tide goes down because someone’s swimming nude.”

MURTHA UPDATE: Power and Influence Translates into Corruption and Money.

MANAGING A FLU THREAT with seasoned urgency.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: ERIC DREXLER HAS POSTED the slides from his Berkeley talk on Molecular Nanosystems.

JOHNATHAN PEARCE: Does Obama’s bullying of investors portend real problems for the US?

SRI LANKA: The Decline of the West.

UH OH: Stress Test “Adverse Scenario” Looks a Lot Like Reality.

JAMES CAPRETTA AND YUVAL LEVIN: Stop ObamaCare.

SISSY WILLIS: Mary Katharine Ham, the shining fresh face of the anti-statist party.

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

UPDATE: Some motherhood photos from Laura Lee Donoho.

DONATE TO ARLEN SPECTER, CURE CANCER: Er, or something. . . .

KEEP ON ROCKIN’ in the real world.

A “TERRIBLE” Treasury auction.

MEGAN MCARDLE: Bankruptcy: Cui Bono? “The administration’s actions weren’t debtor-friendly, they were insider friendly. This was classic collusion among creditors, and it’s why the parts of the bankruptcy law that deal with Section 363 sales spend so much time talking about the importance of avoiding sham transactions. Cutting back on that sort of abuse was at least as important an achievement as giving debtors a fresh start.”

LEFT HYPOCRISY: The Obama administration has embraced many of the same positions that liberals and Obama himself criticized during the Bush administration.

AT SEEKING ALPHA, a review of Harry S. Dent’s The Great Depression Ahead: How to Prosper in the Crash Following The Greatest Boom In History.

EDITORIAL: PELOSI’S AMNESIA: “Here’s resounding evidence that Democrats’ haughty accusations that only Republicans knew about or condoned waterboarding of the three captured al-Qaida leaders amount to political posturing, and little more.”

MORE THOUGHTS on nanofactory regulation.

IN LIGHT OF MY EARLIER POST about resistance, revolution, and the militia movement, I suppose it’s worth reminding people of this piece of mine from 1995.

PJM POLITICAL: Arlen Specter’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week.

HISTORY: Pandemics that were — and weren’t.