The Lerner IRS scandal, the NSA using Google to spy on you, and the failure of voluntourism

From Rational Review:

• The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to hold former IRS official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify about the agency’s targeting of conservative groups. The banana republicanization of America proceeds. If we're going to have a dictator I'd rather he'd be a Franco. Sincere Catholic faith and spiffy uniforms.
• Emails reveal close Google relationship with NSA.
• Wall Street “self-regulatory agency” fines Morgan Stanley $5 million over retail sales of 83 IPOs.
• The ugly side of voluntourism. White-savior complex, or showing off to impress people at home. As Cracked observed, if you really want to help people that way, better to spend time in a boring, unphotogenic classroom teaching local teachers, doctors, or nurses. And: It seems a solution to all of this is to simply take the volunteer out of voluntourism. Just visit these places and have a good time. Some of the most impoverished countries in the world are home to phenomenal environmental and cultural experiences that can come at relatively low-cost. For half the price of being of mild benefit — and potential detriment — to a foreign community, you could immerse yourself in an entirely new world, and have a hell of a time doing so. You will be playing an integral role in eliminating the notion of underdeveloped regions of the world as inferior and “unvisitable.” Money spent will go directly to the local economy, promoting a sustainable source of homegrown economic and societal development over the long haul.