Brazilian police say a suspected drug trafficker is giving crack cocaine addicts free drugs in exchange for tattooing his name on their bodies.

Police in the northeastern state of Bahia said Monday that upward of 70 people in the small town of Itapetinga have tattooed the surname “Freudenthal” on their bodies.

Police have also found corpses of suspected drug addicts with the same tattoo.

Lt. Jose Mello says the name is unique in the town – so they’ve got one suspect, Mario Freudenthal.

Mello says the suspect must be an “egotistical psychotic” for getting mostly young addicts to tattoo his name on their bodies.

Mello says Freudenthal is wanted for drug trafficking charges, but has not been located.

Source: AP.

A Los Angeles woman was arrested after she offered sexual favors in exchange for chicken McNuggets, Burbank police said.

Khadijah Baseer of Los Angeles reportedly opened customers’ car doors in the drive-thru of McDonald’s on the 1700 block of Olive Avenue about 11 p.m. Wednesday, asking for free chicken McNuggets in exchange for sexual favors, Officer Joshua Kendrick said.

A man told police Baseer approached him but he refused the offer.

Baseer was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of prostitution.

Source: The Burbank Leader.

*Taken from Town Hall. Written by John Stossel.

One sign of economic ignorance is the faith that “Buy American” is the path to prosperity. My former employer, ABC News, did a week’s worth of stories claiming that “buying American” would put Americans back to work.

I’m glad I don’t work there anymore.

“Buy American” is a dumb idea. It would not only not create prosperity, it would cost jobs and make us all poorer. David R. Henderson, an economist at the Hoover Institution, explained why.

“Almost all economists say it’s nonsense,” he said. “And the reason is: We should buy things where they’re cheapest. That frees up more of our resources to buy other things, and other Americans get jobs producing those things.”

This is what people always forget. Anytime we can use fewer resources and less labor to produce one thing, that leaves more for other things we can’t afford. If we save money buying abroad, we can make and buy other products.

The nonsense of “Buy American” can be seen if you trace out the logic.

CONTINUED..

My Two Cents: Why is Big Sister the D-bagger of the week? Well, because she knew of the Fast & Furious program for a few years and said nothing or did nothing but end the tyranny. Not that that should be a surprise or anything. End Two Cents.

*Taken from the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Written by Ludwig von Mises and Bettina Bien Greaves.

As a medium of exchange, the situation of money is different from that of other commodities. If there is an increase in the quantity of other commodities, this always means an improvement of conditions for people. For instance, if there is more wheat available, some people for whom there was no wheat available before can now get some, or they can get more than they would have received under the previous conditions. But with money the situation is very different.

To point this out, you have only to consider what happens if there is an increase in the quantity of money. Such an increase is considered bad because it favors those who get the new money first at the expense of others; it never happens in such a way as to leave relations among individuals unchanged. Let us take the following situation. Imagine the world as our world is, you know. Some people own money and also claims on money, claims to get money from somebody else; they are creditors. Then there are also people who are debtors, who have debts in money.

CONTINUED..

*Taken from BBC. Video at link.

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit has arrived back in Israel following his release from five years’ captivity, as part of a prisoner exchange deal.

Sgt Shalit was taken from Gaza to Egypt, and then to an airbase in Israel where he was reunited with his family.

Meanwhile the first of 477 Palestinians to be released have arrived in Gaza and the West Bank, amid jubilant scenes.

Another 550 jailed Palestinian are to be freed next month under the deal between Israel and Hamas.

CONTINUED..

*Taken from Fox News.

Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, sent a subpoena Wednesday to Attorney General Eric Holder as part of his investigation into the gun trafficking operation known as “Fast and Furious.”

“Top Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Holder, know more about Operation Fast and Furious than they have publicly acknowledged,” the California Republican said in a statement. “The documents this subpoena demands will provide answers to questions that Justice officials have tried to avoid since this investigation began eight months ago. It’s time we know the whole truth.”

The subpoena seeks, among other things, all communications regarding the operation from 16 top Justice officials, including Holder, his chief of staff, Gary Grindler, and the head of the department’s criminal division, Lanny Breuer,  as well as correspondence on specific dates to and from the former head of the ATF’s Phoenix field division, William Newell.

CONTINUED..

*Taken from Wikileaks.

North Korea will use its nuclear weapons as a final card in exchange for the normalization of ties with the United States.

This is according to US cables leaked by Wikileaks.

The leaked cables reveal remarks made during talks in 2008 by North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan who was then chief nuclear envoy for six-party talks to his South Korean counterpart Kim Suk in Beijing.

According to the cables Pyeongyang intended to keep its nuclear weapons until the final stages of the denuclearization negotiations when it would use that card in exchange for normalization of diplomatic ties between Pyeongyang and Washington.

The six-party nuclear talks which aims for denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula have not been held for three years.

The talks, which involve the US, Russia, China, Japan and the two Koreas last took place in Beijing in 2008.

CONTINUED..

*Taken from Yahoo News Canada.

The Hong Kong stock exchange was forced to suspend trading in stocks including HSBC Holdings after hackers broke into the exchange’s website on Wednesday, preventing investors from accessing company announcements made during the midday break.

“Our current assessment that this is a result of a malicious attack by outside hacking,” the chief executive of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing (HKEx) Charles Li told reporters after the company announced interim results.

In a statement released earlier, HKEx said it had adopted a half-day (one trading session) suspension policy for issuers that announce price-sensitive information during the lunch hour.

CONTINUED..