06/30 -- Dow closes below 10,000, Nasdaq -3.9% on global fears; Boehner proposes raising retirement age to pay for Afghanistan occupation
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jun 30, 2010, 1:08:30 AM6/30/10
to Rational Review News Digest
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In The News:
1) Dow closes below 10,000, Nasdaq -3.9% on global fears
2) Boehner proposes raising retirement age to pay for Afghanistan
occupation
3) Iraq: 21 killed, 36 wounded
4) Fighting erupts at airport in eastern Afghan city
5) Pakistan: Suspected US missile strike kills ten
6) Report: Nearly one in three Q1 US home sales a foreclosure
7) US courts see "border security" landslide
8) Congo: 80 Ugandan, Rwandan rebels killed
9) US slams accusations it was behind Honduras coup
10) Benigno Aquino III takes office as president of Philippines
11) Spy suspects had interests in science, finance
12) Amnesty International calls on Petraeus to focus on protecting
civilians
13) Afghanistan: Karzai steps up talks with insurgents
14) Flood of gun rights law suits anticipated
15) TN: DA's office to review killings in South Knox mobile home
16) SC: Gun-toting homeowner: "Shut up -- no crying"
17) Afghanistan: One killed in attack on UN vehicle
18) Turkey: Flotilla victims had multiple gunshot wounds
19) US House rejects extension of unemployment benefits
20) Iranian nuclear scientist "flees US captors"
Everybody Has An Opinion:
21) Let about 2,339 nations bloom
22) The rising cost of evil in a hyperconnected world
23) US out of South Korea
24) Hope in the age of darkness
25) Textbook controversy
26) Are the Russians really coming?
27) On the Justice Department
28) Endless occupation
29) Another defeat for Democratic racists and tyrants
30) A critical first step
31) Handguns at home: Supreme Court correct to rule for right to self-
defense
32) C + I + G = Baloney
33) Health care reform may kill HSAs
34) A victory for gun rights and freedom
35) Gun control laws
36) BP, the Gulf spill, and classical liberal theory
37) Lowering teacher wages and requirements to increase teaching
38) Is the decline of newspapers a market failure?
39) Is Scott Brown a game-changer on the financial bill?
40) The state will always self-justify
41) G20 meddlers at it again
42) Immigrating towards isolation
43) The Second Amendment, Incorporated
44) Roads and money
45) Risk and liberty
46) No method to patent madness: The Supreme Court's Bilski decision
47) Surrey Police Authority owns up to confidence trick (almost) ...
48) Yes, Rush, I just can't imagine why
49) My plan to restore and preserve the federal system of government
50) The world's great evangelist for debt
51) Sensible liberalism in the age of Obama
52) Obama's crusade against profits
53) David Weigel and the limits of newspaper political culture
54) Counting foreigners in the US
55) Seeking heaven
56) The governor's revealed preference
57) Spy vs. ... lawyer?
58) Abandon the "Ginsburg Rule" for Supreme Court candidates
59) Don't nationalize BP
60) The warrior and the drone
61) The town the torturers came from
62) A nation under post-traumatic stress
63) Why Friedrich Hayek is making a comeback
64) A guide to the Kagan smears
65) Chicago, guns, and pretending not to have lost
See No Evil, Hear No Evil:
66) Emma Goldman (1869-1940)
67) History of anarchism
68) Pension Tsunami's Jack Dean on the growing wave of public pension
debt
69) Cato Daily Podcast, 06/29/10
70) Free Talk Live, 06/28/10
What's Up In The Freedom Movement:
71) Today's events
***************
* In The News
***************
1) Dow closes below 10,000, Nasdaq -3.9% on global fears
The Street
"Stocks plunged Tuesday after a sharp downward revision to China's
leading economic indicators and a dismal U.S. consumer confidence
reading heightened concerns about the economic recovery. Also weighing
on investors' minds were the [euro]442 billion in European bank debt
obligations coming due this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
lost 268 points, or 2.7%, to finish at its second lowest close of the
year at 9,870. The S&P 500 fell 33 points, or 3.1%, to 1041. The mark
is the index's most depressed close of 2010, though the index managed
to finish just above the technically key 1040 level. The Nasdaq
tumbled 85 points, or 3.9%, to 2135." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2chebmu
-----
2) Boehner proposes raising retirement age to pay for Afghanistan
occupation
USA Today
"House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told the Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review today that he would support raising the Social Security
retirement age to 70 to help pay for the war in Afghanistan. 'If you
have substantial non-Social Security income while you're retired, why
are we paying you at a time when we're broke?' he said to the paper in
an interview." [editor's note: Hmmm ... maybe because you stole the
money you're "paying us" FROM us in the first place, ASSHOLE? - TLK]
(06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/374watn
-----
3) Iraq: 21 killed, 36 wounded
AntiWar.Com
"At least 21 Iraqis were killed and 36 more were wounded in a string
of attacks that targeted police and other officials. Meanwhile, Prime
Minister Maliki met with his rival in talks that could break the
political impasse that is fueling some of the violence." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/24bmyjh
-----
4) Fighting erupts at airport in eastern Afghan city
Salt Lake Tribune
"Fighting has erupted in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad where
police say they heard explosions at the airport. Ghafor Khan, a
spokesman for the provincial police chief in Nangarhar province, said
Wednesday that police heard blasts and gunshots from inside the
airport. He says international forces have blocked access to the
area." (06/30/10)
http://tinyurl.com/288omqz
-----
5) Pakistan: Suspected US missile strike kills ten
Voice of America
"Pakistani security officials say a suspected U.S. missile strike has
killed at least 10 militants, including a suspected al-Qaida
operative, in the country's northwest. Officials say a drone fired two
missiles at a compound near Wana, the main town in the South
Waziristan tribal region on Tuesday. Foreign fighters were said to be
among those killed. It was the first reported missile strike in South
Waziristan, where Pakistani troops have been battling Taliban and and
al-Qaida-linked militants." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25qkb48
-----
6) Report: Nearly one in three Q1 US home sales a foreclosure
Reuters
"Nearly one out of every three U.S. home sales in the first quarter
was a foreclosure property as steep price discounts boosted demand for
distressed real estate, RealtyTrac said in a new report on Wednesday.
Foreclosure homes accounted for 31 percent of all residential sales in
the first quarter of 2010, with the average sales price of properties
that sold while in some stage of foreclosure nearly 27 percent below
homes that were not in the process, Irvine, California-based
RealtyTrac said." (06/30/10)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65T0TY20100630
-----
7) US courts see "border security" landslide
MSNBC
"President Barack Obama's $600 million border security plan seems to
have it all: More than 1,000 agents, seven gunrunner teams, five FBI
task forces and more prosecutors and immigration judges. But it
doesn't include $40 million to help the already overwhelmed federal
courts along the U.S.-Mexico border that will likely be inundated with
additional drug and other criminal cases, a judiciary official tells
The Associated Press." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2a9m3p5
-----
8) Congo: 80 Ugandan, Rwandan rebels killed
MSNBC
"A Congolese general says the army has killed 80 rebels from
neighboring Rwanda and Uganda who crossed into volatile eastern Congo.
Gen. Amuli Bahigwa said Tuesday the army killed the rebels in an
operation that started June 1. He said four soldiers were killed and
that Ugandan rebels killed eight civilians." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fn5f3d
-----
9) US slams accusations it was behind Honduras coup
Miami Herald
"The U.S. Ambassador to Honduras says accusations by former President
Manuel Zelaya that the United States was behind the coup that ousted
him are 'absurd.' Ambassador Hugo Llorens says the United States had
nothing to do with the coup on June 28, 2009, when the Honduran army
hustled Zelaya out of the country for allegedly violating the
constitution." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2d8shv9
-----
10) Benigno Aquino III takes office as president of Philippines
CNN
"A new era is beginning in the Philippines -- or you could call it the
continuation of a political dynasty. Benigno Aquino III has been sworn
in as president, the country's 15th, after winning election in May by
a landslide. He secured more than 15 million votes, about 5.7 million
more than his closest competitor, one-time president Joseph Estrada,
in a vote viewed as a litmus test for the country's democracy. There
were nine candidates in all." (06/30/10)
http://tinyurl.com/275r55p
-----
11) Spy suspects had interests in science, finance
Culpeper Star-Exponent
"One hobnobbed with academics and entrepreneurs who shared his
interest in cutting-edge science. Another spoke five languages, went
to embassy parties and was fascinated by global politics. A third held
herself out to be a venture capitalist and hit the networking circuit,
looking for investment opportunities. The 11 people arrested and
accused of being members of a Russian spy ring operating under deep
cover in America's suburbs appear to have been part of a slow and
patient plan by Moscow to cultivate contacts in the U.S. who could
yield vital competitive information -- not necessarily on weapons or
U.S. strategic planning, but on finance, business and technology,
intelligence experts say." (06/30/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2bm2w25
-----
12) Amnesty International calls on Petraeus to focus on protecting
civilians
Baltimore Sun
"Human rights group Amnesty International has called on Gen. David
Petraeus to redouble the military's effort to minimize civilian
casualties in Afghanistan. Petraeus is due to take over from disgraced
Gen. Stanley McChrystal as top NATO commander in the country following
confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27awmx3
-----
13) Afghanistan: Karzai steps up talks with insurgents
ABC News
"Afghanistan's government and Pakistan's military and intelligence
services are moving forward toward cutting deals with senior Afghan
insurgents, filling a vacuum created by American skepticism. In the
last few weeks senior Afghan officials have met with the head of
Pakistan's army and the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, to talk
about the Haqqani network and the Quetta Shura, two leading Afghan
insurgent groups whose leadership are believed to be hiding inside
Pakistan." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/253nhbf
-----
14) Flood of gun rights law suits anticipated
Wall Street Journal
"Monday's high-court decision expanding gun rights will likely trigger
a flood of litigation in states and cities with restrictive laws, so
it could take years before the practical impact of the ruling is
clear. ... Gun-rights groups are preparing to file suits in states
with restrictive laws ... while groups favoring gun control said they
were confident most rules would pass constitutional muster. ... Alan
M. Gottlieb, founder of the [SAF] ... said the group filed a lawsuit
Monday in federal court challenging a North Carolina statute that bars
possession of firearms off of one's property in areas where there is a
declared state of emergency. 'We wouldn't have been able to challenge'
the law 'without this decision,' Mr. Gottlieb said. 'We had this ready
to go.'" (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fuhwxc
-----
15) TN: DA's office to review killings in South Knox mobile home
Knox News
"The shootings that killed two men identified as burglars in a South
Knox County mobile home will be referred to the Knox County District
Attorney General's Office, according to the Knox County Sheriff's
Office. ... No charges have been filed against Douglas Jordan III, who
shot both of the black-clad intruders as he returned to his Love Lane
mobile home off the 8000 block of Chapman Highway at 11:18 p.m.
Sunday. ... Both men were dressed in black. One man wore a ski mask
while the second wore a bandana over his face .... the men 'tried to
overpower him,' Dooley said, but he was armed and shot the men. 'Both
were dead when officers arrived,' Dooley said." (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25xcphf
-----
16) SC: Gun-toting homeowner: "Shut up -- no crying"
WYFF News
"Ken Easler, 73, said he went into his home on Jones Road before
heading to the farmer's market on Saturday morning when he heard
someone inside the house. ... he heard someone upstairs. He grabbed
his gun and waited for the person to come downstairs. 'I put the clip
in and jacked one in the chamber, and when I did, he had already
started down the steps. He sat down. He sat down and held onto the
rail.' ... Easler called 911. 'I said, 'We'll, I've got an intruder in
my house and I've got him at gunpoint.'' He said the man then tried to
get sympathy from him. 'He started like hyper-ventilating. He said,
'I've got to have water -- my heart -- I've got to have water.'' At
one point, he started faking a cry like a baby would cry. I said,
'Shut up, that don't work either.' I said, 'You became a man when you
came in my house.' and I said, 'I don't want to hear no
crying.''" (06/28/10)
http://www.wyff4.com/news/24068226/detail.html
-----
17) Afghanistan: One killed in attack on UN vehicle
Los Angeles Times
"Assailants riddled a United Nations vehicle with bullets at a busy
traffic circle in the heart of Kabul on Tuesday, killing an Afghan
staffer and raising new safety concerns about humanitarian operations
in the country. The daylight attack, which occurred close to the
heavily guarded U.S. Embassy and the sprawling headquarters of NATO's
International Security Assistance Force, also rattled residents of the
capital." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2bgrwe6
-----
18) Turkey: Flotilla victims had multiple gunshot wounds
ABC Online [Australia]
"Forensic tests on nine Turks killed in May's Israeli raid on the Gaza
aid flotilla have found most were shot several times. The tests were
done in Turkey by the government's forensic institute. They found five
of the Turks killed died from bullet wounds to the head and all but
two were shot more than once. In total, the nine victims were shot 31
times." (06/30/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2arvdwp
-----
19) US House rejects extension of unemployment benefits
Associated Press
"With Republicans citing concerns about the growing national debt, the
House rejected a bill Tuesday to extend unemployment benefits for
people who have been out of work for long stretches. The House,
however, is expected to vote on the bill again as early as
Wednesday." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/289zo5a
-----
20) Iranian nuclear scientist "flees US captors"
BBC News [UK]
"A man who says he is an Iranian nuclear scientist claims to have
escaped after being abducted by US agents. In a video shown on Iranian
state TV, he says he has escaped in the US state of Virginia and is
now on the run. Mr Amiri disappeared a year ago while undertaking the
Hajj in Saudi Arabia. Two videos purportedly showing him surfaced
three weeks ago. One said he had been kidnapped, the other that he was
living freely in Arizona. The US has strenuously denied abducting him,
but ABC News reported in March that Mr Amiri had defected and was
helping the CIA compile intelligence on Iran's controversial nuclear
weapons programme." (06/29/10)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/10456502.stm
*******************************************************************
* HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 06/30/10
*
* Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 96,813 ... Max - 105,563
* (source: www.iraqbodycount.org)
*
* American Military Deaths in Iraq: 4,409
* (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/)
*******************************************************************
****************************
* Everybody Has An Opinion
****************************
21) Let about 2,339 nations bloom
Let A Thousand Nations Bloom
by Tony Dreher
"The size of nations in the future will ultimately be determined by
how effing crazy technology gets. It will be somewhere between 1
nation with a population of 'the world' in the event of a hive mind
(fingers crossed) and 0 nations with a population of 'gray goo' or
'gamma radiated people ash.' But neither of those will happen for some
time(or will they?). Until then let's start with what we know. A good
lower bound for the population of a nation would be 150. For those
familiar with Dunbar's Number, this is it. Essentially, the idea is
that humans are just too stupid to be friends with more than 150
people. But, this number assumes everyone is geared for maximum social
grooming and devotion to survival. BOOOORRRRIIIINGG." (06/29/10)
http://athousandnations.com/2010/06/29/let-about-2339-nations-bloom/
-----
22) The rising cost of evil in a hyperconnected world
Center for a Stateless Society
by Kevin Carson
"We're barely in the beginning stages of a fundamental transformation
in which corporate executives live with the reality constantly in the
back of their mind that any particular cutting of corners on safety or
customer service, any particular downsizing or speedup, any grinding
of the boot into the faces of labor, will show up on WikiLeaks. And
then become the focus of a campaign of boycotts, picketing and letter-
writing organized by some advocacy group like the Wal-Mart Workers'
Association or EmployerNameSucks.com. What's more, they're only
beginning to learn that every attempt to suppress such campaigns with
SLAPP lawsuits and punitive firing will come back to bite them in the
tuchus in the form of the Streisand Efffect." (06/29/10)
http://c4ss.org/content/3057
-----
23) US out of South Korea
Cato Institute
by Gene Healy
"It's odd that a conflict as pivotal as the Korean War could ever be
'forgotten.' U.S. involvement saved millions of South Koreans from
being swallowed up by a militarized slave-state. That came at no small
price: Truman's unilateral decision crossed a constitutional Rubicon,
eroding Congress's power to declare war and leading to the deaths of
more than 36,000 American soldiers -- most of them conscripts --
without the courtesy of an up-or-down vote on the war. Americans can
be proud of what their sacrifices helped achieve. But the Korean War's
anniversary ought to prompt rethinking a Cold War-era alliance well
past its sell-by date." (06/29/10)
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11938
-----
24) Hope in the age of darkness
Strike the Root
by Per Bylund
"These are troublesome times: the police state is literally only
months away (if not here already), Big Brother already has full
control of what everybody's up to, and governments wage numerous wars
while taxing their poor populations to ridiculous degrees. Yet in the
midst of all this darkness, after a century of endarkening, there are
signs of hope for a much, much better world. I was surprised to see
that a recent such sign was in the G20 meeting in Canada, where
political oppressors of the 20 richest nations got together to
coordinate their oppressing activities and ensure that their serfs can
go on producing prosperity to expropriate." (06/29/10)
http://www.strike-the-root.com/hope-in-age-of-darkness
-----
25) Textbook controversy
Liberty For All
by Sean Gangol
"Recently, the conservative members of the Texas Board of Education
passed revisions to the textbooks used by public schools. There are
many states who are concerned that these revisions may spread into
their domains, since Texas is the largest purchaser of textbooks. I am
not certain what has been written in the new textbooks. All I know is
what the media has claimed and we all know how reliable the mainstream
media can be. Even the local media has proven itself to be
worthless." (06/29/10)
http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=4499
-----
26) Are the Russians really coming?
AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo
"Something doesn't smell right about this whole affair: my BS-ometer
is clanging pretty loudly, and yours should be, too. The indictments
read like a very bad movie scenario, complete with machinations
involving invisible ink, hi-tech hijinks, and secret messages -- but
what, one wonders, was the point? What did they steal? What damage did
they cause? The indictments mention nothing of the sort, and it's
apparently not at all clear what these 'deep cover' 'spies'
accomplished, if anything." (06/30/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26jmvcg
-----
27) On the Justice Department
LewRockwell.Com
by US Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
"It is the Justice Department that leads the ongoing violations of the
Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments in the name of the 'war on
drugs.' It is Justice Department agents who perform warrantless
wiretap, and 'sneak-and-peak' searches under the misnamed PATRIOT Act.
It is the Justice Department that prosecutes American citizens for
violating unconstitutional federal regulations even in cases where no
reasonable person could have known their actions violated federal law.
Some like to pretend that the Justice Department's assault on
liberties is a modern phenomenon, or that abuses of liberties are only
carried out by one political party. However, history shows that the
unconstitutional usurpations of power and abuse of rights goes back at
least almost a hundred years to the 'Progressive' era and that Justice
Departments of both parties have disregard the Constitution and
violated individual liberties." (06/30/10)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul678.html
-----
28) Endless occupation
CounterPunch
by Sheldon Richman
"So Gen. Stanley McChrystal is out and Gen. David Petraeus is back at
the helm in Afghanistan. I don't like hackneyed phrases, but if this
isn't rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, what is it?
America's occupation of Afghanistan has no end in sight. The July 2011
date for the beginning of withdrawal is something that even President
Obama doesn't want to talk about. It is clearer than ever that the
date was a crumb thrown to the American people so they wouldn't
grumble when Obama announced the troop buildup last year." (06/29/10)
http://counterpunch.org/richman06292010.html
-----
29) Another defeat for Democratic racists and tyrants
Lubbock Online
by "May"
"Otis McDonald is a black man living in Chicago who simply wanted to
be able to legally own a gun so he could protect himself. On Monday,
our Supreme Court opened the door allowing him and millions of others
living under Democratic oppression to move a major step closer to
Second Amendment protection. At the heart of gun control in the United
States are Democratic tyranny and ... oppression of black people.
'Slave Codes' were enacted to prevent freed slaves from owning guns
and protecting themselves in Southern States before the end of the
Civil War. After the Civil War, 'Black Codes' blocked freed slaves and
black freemen returning to the South ... from owning guns. Without
guns, they had no protection from the [KKK]." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2duckhe
-----
30) A critical first step
Buckeye Firearms Association
by staff
"Buckeye Firearms Association is thrilled that the United States
Supreme Court has ruled to strike down the ban on private ownership of
firearms in Chicago. Today ... the United States Supreme Court ruled
that the Second Amendment applies to states and cities. ... Leaving no
room for doubt, the court made clear that the Second Amendment applies
to Mayor Daley and Chicago. 'While there is much work to be done, this
decision is the first critical step towards universal self-defense
rights,' said Jim Irvine, President of [BFA]. [BFA] teamed up with the
[USCCA] to file an amicus brief in support of Mr.
McDonald." (06/29/10)
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/7331
-----
31) Handguns at home: Supreme Court correct to rule for right to self-
defense
Trading Markets
by staff
"In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a ban on
handguns in the home violates the Second Amendment. ... There was
spirited and lively dissent in this split decision. That's no surprise
in a case about gun rights in the United States. The legal arguments
are substantial, not just abstract exercises in logic, history and
interpretation. But we like the court's basic conclusion as it applies
to the daily lives of U.S. citizens: The right to self-defense is
fundamental; the right to legally own a handgun for that defense and
keep it in your own home to protect yourself and your family in
extreme circumstances falls within that right." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2d9nj73
-----
32) C + I + G = Baloney
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Patrick Barron
"Wrongheaded governmental interventions are preventing the world's
largest economies from recovering from massive malinvestment. Japan,
currently the world's third-largest economy, has had zero growth for
20 years. A good case can be made that the United States has had zero
growth for ten years, because the so-called growth of the first decade
of the new millennium now appears to have been phony. All of those
houses were built at a loss, losses that we are only now
recognizing." (06/29/10)
http://mises.org/daily/4482
-----
33) Health care reform may kill HSAs
Heartland Institute
by Ben Domenech
"The question keeps coming up from concerned citizens: 'Under
President Barack Obama's new health care regime, what's going to
happen to my health savings account (HSA)?' The answer is that the
popular accounts will still exist, but in what could be a very
different form. Under Obama's law, HSAs will be dramatically regulated
by the secretary of Health and Human Services, and there are new
limits on how much money can be used and what it can be used
for." (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27ew9a2
-----
34) A victory for gun rights and freedom
Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G. Hornberger
"When it comes to gun rights and gun control, liberals are so
predictable. Condemning the Supreme Court's decision in the Chicago
gun case that applied the Second Amendment to the states, the New York
Times editorialized, 'Mayors and state lawmakers will have to use all
of that room and keep adopting the most restrictive possible gun laws
-- to protect the lives of Americans and aid the work of law
enforcement officials.'" (06/29/10)
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2010-06-29.asp
-----
35) Gun control laws
Freedom Politics
by Thomas Sowell
"Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has decided that the
Second Amendment to the Constitution means that individual Americans
have a right to bear arms, what can we expect? Those who have no
confidence in ordinary Americans may expect a bloodbath, as the
benighted masses start shooting each other, now that they can no
longer be denied guns by their betters. People who think we shouldn't
be allowed to make our own medical decisions, or decisions about which
schools our children attend, certainly are not likely to be happy with
the idea that we can make our own decisions about how to defend
ourselves." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/24rut2e
-----
36) BP, the Gulf spill, and classical liberal theory
Liberty & Power
by Gus DiZerega
"The Gulf oil spill is offering a teachable moment as to how
understanding emergent processes in the social sciences deepens and
improves classical liberal analysis. Classical liberals more than any
other branch of liberalism have emphasized the role of spontaneous
orders in society, particularly the market. In this they offered a
powerful corrective to managerial liberal ambitions of bringing
society under rational administration and egalitarian suspicion of
inequality, let alone earlier Marxist ideals of planning the economy.
But every emphasis means not looking somewhere else, and the classical
liberal emphasis on the achievements of spontaneous orders brought
with it its own blind spot. Today the Gulf of Mexico crisis is helping
to illuminate it." (06/29/10)
http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/128532.html
-----
37) Lowering teacher wages and requirements to increase teaching
Libertarian Minds
by Jeremiah Dyke
"Teachers often complain that they are underpaid and/or overworked. It
is the purpose of this article to explore this question and expose its
myth. In fact, it is the conclusion of this article that teachers are
overpaid and overly qualified. Furthermore, it is this articles'
presumption that lowered barriers of educational entry would not only
decrease teaching salaries but would also increase teaching
capability." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2eh75eh
-----
38) Is the decline of newspapers a market failure?
Foundation for Economic Education
by Edward J. Lopez
"Over the past year there has been a flurry of government-related
activity aimed at stopping the decline of the newspaper business. The
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has held three series of workshops on
the subject, drawing dozens of top academics, national politicians,
business leaders from companies like Google and News Corporation, and
the FTC commissioners themselves. On June 7 the agency released a
discussion paper titled 'Potential Policy Recommendations to Support
the Reinvention of Journalism,' and a week later it held a workshop at
the National Press Club, 'How Will Journalism Survive?' to discuss its
proposals." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2c566a3
-----
39) Is Scott Brown a game-changer on the financial bill?
Competitive Enterprise Institute
by John Berlau
"A Yogi-ism for Congress: 'It ain't over until both houses of Congress
vote for an identical bill and send it to the president's desk -- and,
barring maneuvers like reconciliation, that means it ain't over until
there are 60 votes in the Senate to bring a measure to the floor.'
These simple rules seem to have been lost on members of the press, who
are treating a conference 'agreement' of a sweeping financial-
regulation bill as almost the same thing as final passage. To use
another baseball analogy, the bill is indeed in the home stretch, but
the game is not over." (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25pjpez
-----
40) The state will always self-justify
Center for a Stateless Society
by Darian Worden
"Rioting in Toronto involving anarchists resisting the G-20 Summit has
been condemned by many. The real problem is that there aren't
currently enough anarchists to run the G-20 out of business for
good." (06/29/10)
http://c4ss.org/content/3062
-----
41) G20 meddlers at it again
Freedom's Phoenix
by Bill Bonner
"Stabilize public debts by 2016? By then, the US and other major
economies will have more government debt than GDP. It is bound to be
too late for many of them. And even this modest goal presumes that
economies are able to grow faster than their debt -- in real terms.
When you get debt equal to 100% of GDP, you're over a barrel. If
interest rates were to return to the double digit levels of the '70s,
it could cost more than 10% of GDP just to pay the interest. That's
not going to happen. Things fall apart before they get that far out of
whack. Something else will have to happen. But what? Don't know ...
But we can take a guess." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2worsxr
-----
42) Immigrating towards isolation
Adam Smith Institute
by Sara Williams
[I]immigration into a country is good for the economy. Economies are
not static but grow and diminish by sector disproportionately. One
migrant's job gained is not necessarily a local's job lost. Also,
immigration is a transaction between a foreigner and the economy. The
individual will incur the cost of not finding work, not the country.
If the worker is successful, wealth is disseminated throughout the
economy and indirectly creates jobs. The economy also flourishes
because of the added diversity." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/34h9cq5
-----
43) The Second Amendment, Incorporated
The American Spectator
by Ross Kaminsky
"With its 5-4 decision in McDonald, the Court says that the right
applies everywhere in the U.S., that the right to keep and bear arms
applies equally in cities and states as in D.C. The 5-4 decision
comprised a plurality made up of Justices Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and
Kennedy who were joined by Justice Thomas in a separate opinion
upholding the outcome of the case but not the path the plurality took
to get there. (More later on this important disagreement within the
Court's 'conservative' wing.) Although the Court's ruling is clearly
the right one, two aspects of the decision are troubling." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25wcjv7
-----
44) Roads and money
The Partial Observer
by James Leroy Wilson
"There is no reason government needs to own and maintain either roads
or railroads, and owners of what would be intersecting roads can
negotiate the terms of the intersection. There is also no reason
private roads would have to be toll roads. The automobile companies,
oil companies, and the trucking industry and its clients -- just about
every distributor and retailer -- would have an interest in having
paved, safe roads and would want to contribute to their maintenance.
Just as entertainment on television and the Internet is 'free,' so
would usage of many or most private roads." (06/29/10)
http://partialobserver.com/article.cfm?id=3483
-----
45) Risk and liberty
A Passion for Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
"Free men and women are naturally risky types! Freedom is
characterized by making it possible for people to make choices, even
bad ones, just as in the case of the liberty of the press.
Journalists, editorial writers, reporters and the lot who are free to
do as they choose can and will do what is risky, and at times what is
indeed outright malpractice. Freedom is a precondition of both good
and bad human conduct. And so long as such conduct isn't violent --
and the carrying of handguns plainly isn't, only their aggressive use
is -- it is the right of adult human beings to have and even use guns.
But The New York Times' editorial team has no principled commitment to
human liberty. It is concerned only with its own protected privileges
while government forbids other citizens to be free." (06/29/10)
http://tibormachan.rationalreview.com/2010/06/column-on-risk-liberty/
-----
46) No method to patent madness: The Supreme Court's Bilski decision
StephanKinsella.Com
by Stephan Kinsella
"Patent law is mind numbingly arcane, technical, and boring, so let me
simplify as much as possible. This case was about what the legal test
should be to determine whether certain processes can be possibly
eligible for patent protection. For typical practical technical or
industrial processes, it's not a difficult question. But for 'business-
related' methods, such as the one here -- which had to do [with] a way
for commodities buyers and sellers in the energy market to hedge
against the risk of price changes by following a certain mathematical
formula -- the question gets trickier." (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3xczr97
-----
47) Surrey Police Authority owns up to confidence trick (almost) ...
Libertarian Alliance
by Christopher Houseman
"So, let me get this straight. Surrey Police currently spends a #215.8
million annual budget (page 7), almost half of which it admits (on
page 11) is extracted from Surrey residents through Council tax. In
return for this largesse, more than 80% of Surrey residents are kept
convinced that Surrey Police is doing a fine job. But for this coming
year, the force is hoping to raise its detection rates for serious
crimes to a point where perpetrators will still have an 81.4% chance
of not getting caught. If this isn't a multi-million pound public
relations confidence trick, what is it?" (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3ymnd95
-----
48) Yes, Rush, I just can't imagine why
The Power of Narrative
by Arthur Silber
"Today, Limbaugh is Outraged! that Russians are spying on us! Why,
it's like 1952 all over again! (He was very particular about the
year.) Russia is still evil! They never changed! How incomprehensibly
malevolent that the evil Russians should be spying on the United
States, which is solely and uniquely devoted to spreading happiness
and joy all over the world. If you have a decent life at all, you can
thank the United States for it. Since the United States is inherently,
unquestionably good, all good people can only react with slack-jawed
amazement to the evil revealed by the fact that the Russians are
spying on us. Why, in all the possibilities of all the universes that
have ever existed or will ever exist, would the Russians need to spy
on us?" (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2wv2kvm
-----
49) My plan to restore and preserve the federal system of government
The Price of Liberty
by Robert Greenslade
"Other than interposition or nullification of federal usurpations of
power by the States, which is another topic for another day, my plan
will focus on what I believe are the 4 key principles of our federal
system of government. One has been ignored and perverted; one has been
nullified through a constitutional amendment; one has been weakened
through a constitutional amendment and a plan has emerged to
circumvent it through a provision in the Constitution; the last one
remains intact but will be attacked in the future." (06/28/10)
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/2010/06/28/greenslade.html
-----
50) The world's great evangelist for debt
National Review
by Rich Lowry
"To hear President Barack Obama's supporters tell it, Canadian prime
minister Stephen Harper is a one-man economic wrecking crew. He led
the charge at the G-8 summit to endorse the goal of advanced
countries' cutting their deficits in half by 2013. Obama only
reluctantly went along, warning of the ill effects of what the
intellectual architects of his stimulus package plaintively call
'premature austerity.' This dreaded austerity has treated our friendly
neighbors to the north quite well. If deficit spending is the engine
of growth, Canada should be a nation of Hoovervilles. ... In contrast
to Harper, Obama has become the world's great evangelist for debt.
What he won't do for human rights, he'll do for red ink." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2elmcu7
-----
51) Sensible liberalism in the age of Obama
Salon
by Tom Tomorrow
Cartoon. (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/23bgoxk
-----
52) Obama's crusade against profits
The Weekly Standard
by Andrew Ferguson
"You can never be sure when or why one industry or another will draw
the attention of the Mr. Fixits of our federal government. Just
imagine: There you are, Mr. or Ms. Businessperson, walking along,
making money, minding your own business, and then wham: They pop up
out of nowhere, wheeling around like a gun turret and fixing their
gaze on you and your company, insisting that they're going to make you
fairer and more rational and fix problems you didn't know you had. It
must be terrifying." (for publication 07/05/10)
http://tinyurl.com/342wfb9
-----
53) David Weigel and the limits of newspaper political culture
Disloyal Opposition
by JD Tuccille
"I've been out of circulation, newsroom-wise, for many years now, but
I doubt the nice folks at the Washington Post are much more
comfortable with libertarians or conservatives than were the people at
the New York Daily News. They needed somebody to cover 'the right,'
but I'm sure they also wanted that person to be ... well ... not
'scary.' Weigel has worked for Reason and interned at the Center for
Individual Rights, so he had credible credentials for the job (at
least from a libertarian perspective). But even in his most recent
assertions of right-of-center bona fides, he consistently talks about
affiliations rather than ideas." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/32q7wt9
-----
54) Counting foreigners in the US
TCS Daily
by Jon N. Hall
"Since citizens (and legal aliens) are all on file with the feds and
their numbers are already know[n], it would seem that the $14 billion
we're spending on the 2010 census is entirely to enumerate illegal
aliens. The feds are spending money they don't have to ascertain
information they already do have -- except for illegal aliens. So the
feds dispatch armies of unarmed census takers into the slums, barrios
and seamy underworld of America to gather data from folks loath to
divulge it, having a reasonable fear of deportation. The 2010 census
aggravates because it asks a bunch of new questions the feds shouldn't
ask. The reason the central government still does the census the 'old
fashioned' way is because it serves the ends of career
politicians ..." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2udbnhc
-----
55) Seeking heaven
The Libertarian Standard
by Anita Acavalos
Fiction. (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/35hvgaq
-----
56) The governor's revealed preference
Show-Me Institute
by Christine Harbin
"According to his biography: 'Governor [Jay] Nixon has put forward an
agenda to make government more efficient, effective and responsive to
the needs of Missouri families. He is committed to [...] placing a
college education within reach for middle-class students.' The
governor's budget decisions, however, send the message that his
priority is big businesses that have lobbying power -- not students,
not low-income or middle-class families, and not people who have
mental illnesses or disabilities." (06/29/10)
http://www.showmedaily.org/2010/06/the-governors-revealed.html
-----
57) Spy vs. ... lawyer?
Mother Jones
by Nick Baumann and Daniel Schulman
"The CIA probably doesn't want you to know this, but unmasking its
covert operatives isn't as hard as you'd think. Just ask John Sifton.
During a six-year stint at Human Rights Watch, the attorney and
investigator was hot on the trail of the CIA and some of its most
sensitive Bush-era counterterrorism programs, including extraordinary
rendition, secret Eastern European detention sites, and the legally
dubious and brutal methods used to extract information from detainees.
'Even deep-cover CIA officers are real people, with mortgages and
credit reports,' Sifton once told CQ Politics. For researchers with a
trained eye for the hallmarks of a CIA alias, there are obvious
giveaways: 'A brand new Social Security number, a single P.O. box in
Reston, Virginia. You disregard those and focus on the real persons
who lie behind, and you can find them.' Sifton's talent for uncovering
the CIA's secrets may have served him well -- but now, it also has set
off a firestorm in the human rights community, prompted a backlash
from congressional Republicans, and helped trigger a federal
investigation headed by none other than Patrick Fitzgerald, the
special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame affair." (for publication
07/10)
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/john-sifton-guantanamo-aclu
-----
58) Abandon the "Ginsburg Rule" for Supreme Court candidates
Independent Institute
by William J. Watkins, Jr.
"The Ginsburg Rule is closely tied to judicial independence. The
argument runs something like this: It is unseemly for a person
nominated to be a neutral arbiter to condition his or her appointment
on a promise to rule a certain way. While elected policymakers should
declare their views and predilections before asking the people to cast
a ballot, judges are in a different category. Thus, the senators
should never ask a nominee to divulge his or her views of matters that
could be heard by the court. Before the judicial activism of the past
half century, this might have passed the smell test. Today, the
Supreme Court makes the ultimate decision on diverse matters such as
affirmative action in awarding contracts or in school admissions,
restrictions on abortion, the medicinal use of marijuana and capital
punishment. The court has no claim to being an independent tribunal
above the fray of politics and policymaking." (06/26/10)
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2818
-----
59) Don't nationalize BP
Reason
by Shikha Dalmia
"Life is complicated. But not for the statist leftarati watching the
BP oil disaster. For them, it offers yet another opportunity to
reaffirm a binary lesson in an old morality play: 'government good;
private corporations bad.' Soon after the Gulf gusher started spewing
its toxic muck, an activist group named 'Seize BP' sprang into action,
holding rallies all across the country in outfits depicting injured
pelicans demanding -- you guessed it! -- seizure of BP's assets. Nor
is this call limited to a fringe group." (06/29/10)
http://reason.com/archives/2010/06/29/dont-nationalize-bp
-----
60) The warrior and the drone
The American Conservative
by Sean Scallon
"Do you remember the line near the end of the movie Patton when he
remarked that he would glad not to be alive in world of push-button
war 'no sacrifice, no honor, no glory and no meaning to it all, just
the living and the dead?' One can sense Gen. McChrystal and his
staff's contempt for Vice President 'Bite Me' may have to do with the
sense these 'warriors' do not wish to be replaced by machines when it
comes to doing their jobs. It wouldn't be surprising if they felt a
sense of dishonor at what they would see as a cowardly approach to
warfare by their county from 15,000 feet, one in which the human life
of one of the combatants is not at all at risk. After all they joined
the military did they not? I'm sure they knew beforehand it could be
hazardous." (06/28/10)
http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/06/28/the-warrior-and-the-drone/
-----
61) The town the torturers came from
AlterNet
by Justine Sharrock
Excerpt from Tortured: When Good Soldiers Do Bad Things, by Justine
Sharrock: "In early 2004, soldiers from the 372nd National Guard unit
began to make vague telephone calls to their families back home in
Western Maryland's Appalachia. 'Something bad is going on,' they
warned. 'I can't tell you more. But there's going to be trouble.'
There were rumors that Lynndie England, home on temporary leave in
November, had told her mother about 'strange stuff' going on in
Iraq." (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/39cxqk6
-----
62) A nation under post-traumatic stress
Boston Globe
by James Carroll
"A psycho-medical diagnosis -- post-traumatic stress syndrome -- has
gained legitimacy for individuals, but what about whole societies? Can
war's dire and lingering effects on war-waging nations be measured?
Can the stories of war be told, that is, to include aftermath wounds
to society that, while undiagnosed, are as related to civic
responsibility for state violence as one veteran's recurring nightmare
is to a morally ambiguous firefight? The battle zones of Fallujah and
Kandahar are far away, but how do their traumas stamp Philadelphia and
Kansas City -- this year and a decade from now?" (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/239qdl2
-----
63) Why Friedrich Hayek is making a comeback
Wall Street Journal
by Russ Roberts
"Hayek understood that the ... free modern society is all about
cooperation. We join with others to produce the goods and services we
enjoy, all without top-down direction. The same is true in every
sphere of activity that makes life meaningful -- when we sing and when
we dance, when we play and when we pray. Leaving us free to join with
others as we see fit -- in our work and in our play -- is the road to
true and lasting prosperity. Hayek gave us that map. ... I don't know
if we're on the road to serfdom, but wherever we're headed, Hayek
would certainly counsel us to turn around." [hat tip -- John Stossel's
Take] (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2bc6cr6
-----
64) A guide to the Kagan smears
The American Prospect
by Adam Serwer
"Solicitor General Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court has
drawn glum shrugs from the left and yawns from the right, and that's
probably just how the White House wants it -- they are looking for as
quiet a confirmation process as possible. Because Kagan has no
judicial record or large volume of academic work to speak of,
Republicans have been forced to draw on even more specious arguments
than usual to gin up opposition to her nomination. Following is a
brief guide to the Republican case against Kagan, and the Democrats'
likely responses." [editor's note: While I admit I have not paid close
attention to this issue, I'm still waiting to see a good reason for
libertarians to oppose this lady's nomination; this analysis goes a
long way to refuting any such attempt! - SAT] (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2a9d8jf
-----
65) Chicago, guns, and pretending not to have lost
Ideas
by David Friedman
"I was amused by a recent article quoting Mara Georges, a top attorney
for the city of Chicago, on how the city could continue to achieve the
objectives of the gun ban that the Supreme Court just declared to be
unconstitutional. The policy which she proposed and claimed -- for all
I know correctly -- was still constitutional, would be to limit
handgun ownership to one handgun per resident and ban gun shops within
the city." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/262glbz
*****************************
* See No Evil, Hear No Evil
*****************************
66) Emma Goldman (1869-1940)
Ludwig von Mises Institute
Mises Institute podcast featuring Jeff Riggenbach. [Silverlight or
MP3] (06/29/10)
http://mises.org/media/5146
-----
67) History of anarchism
Revolution and Sarcasm
"At this year's Porcfest, I did a presentation at the AltExpo on the
history of anarchism. I was overly ambitious with what I could fit
into an hour, and really ran through some things that I would have
liked to explain more. Particularly a lot of the post-WWII history was
not given the depth it could have used. But it was a good introduction
to a lot of the concepts and names that have shaped the history of
anarchism." [Flash video] (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2ao259o
-----
68) Pension Tsunami's Jack Dean on the growing wave of public pension
debt
Hit & Run
"Reason.tv's Ted Balaker spoke with Dean about a fiscal mess so large
that even prominent liberals like former California Assembly Speaker
Willie Brown are sounding the alarm." [Flash video] (06/29/10)
http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/29/reasontv-pension-tsunamis-jack
-----
69) Cato Daily Podcast, 06/29/10
Cato Institute
"Second Amendment extended," featuring Ilya Shapiro. [MP3] (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/cato062910
-----
70) Free Talk Live, 06/28/10
Free Talk Live
"Alleged Federal Agent at Porcfest? :: Part-Alien? :: Debt and the
Economy :: Selfishness :: Formerly Coily :: Candi Cooper Arrested -
Warrant Out For Barry :: Sense of Urgency :: Cannabis and Driving ::
Cops Taze Octogenarian." [MP3] (06/28/10)
http://media.libsyn.com/media/ftl/FTL2010-06-28.mp3
*************************************
* What's Up In The Freedom Movement
*************************************
71) Today's events
Check our sidebar calendar for this week's freedom movement events.
Don't see your event? Drop us a line at in...@rationalreview.com ... or
see:
www.rationalreview.com/add-your-event-to-our-calendar
... for instructions on adding your events directly!
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/4042/
* RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST
* The Freedom Movement's Daily Newspaper
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* Volume VIII, Issue #1,951
* Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
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In The News:
1) Dow closes below 10,000, Nasdaq -3.9% on global fears
2) Boehner proposes raising retirement age to pay for Afghanistan
occupation
3) Iraq: 21 killed, 36 wounded
4) Fighting erupts at airport in eastern Afghan city
5) Pakistan: Suspected US missile strike kills ten
6) Report: Nearly one in three Q1 US home sales a foreclosure
7) US courts see "border security" landslide
8) Congo: 80 Ugandan, Rwandan rebels killed
9) US slams accusations it was behind Honduras coup
10) Benigno Aquino III takes office as president of Philippines
11) Spy suspects had interests in science, finance
12) Amnesty International calls on Petraeus to focus on protecting
civilians
13) Afghanistan: Karzai steps up talks with insurgents
14) Flood of gun rights law suits anticipated
15) TN: DA's office to review killings in South Knox mobile home
16) SC: Gun-toting homeowner: "Shut up -- no crying"
17) Afghanistan: One killed in attack on UN vehicle
18) Turkey: Flotilla victims had multiple gunshot wounds
19) US House rejects extension of unemployment benefits
20) Iranian nuclear scientist "flees US captors"
Everybody Has An Opinion:
21) Let about 2,339 nations bloom
22) The rising cost of evil in a hyperconnected world
23) US out of South Korea
24) Hope in the age of darkness
25) Textbook controversy
26) Are the Russians really coming?
27) On the Justice Department
28) Endless occupation
29) Another defeat for Democratic racists and tyrants
30) A critical first step
31) Handguns at home: Supreme Court correct to rule for right to self-
defense
32) C + I + G = Baloney
33) Health care reform may kill HSAs
34) A victory for gun rights and freedom
35) Gun control laws
36) BP, the Gulf spill, and classical liberal theory
37) Lowering teacher wages and requirements to increase teaching
38) Is the decline of newspapers a market failure?
39) Is Scott Brown a game-changer on the financial bill?
40) The state will always self-justify
41) G20 meddlers at it again
42) Immigrating towards isolation
43) The Second Amendment, Incorporated
44) Roads and money
45) Risk and liberty
46) No method to patent madness: The Supreme Court's Bilski decision
47) Surrey Police Authority owns up to confidence trick (almost) ...
48) Yes, Rush, I just can't imagine why
49) My plan to restore and preserve the federal system of government
50) The world's great evangelist for debt
51) Sensible liberalism in the age of Obama
52) Obama's crusade against profits
53) David Weigel and the limits of newspaper political culture
54) Counting foreigners in the US
55) Seeking heaven
56) The governor's revealed preference
57) Spy vs. ... lawyer?
58) Abandon the "Ginsburg Rule" for Supreme Court candidates
59) Don't nationalize BP
60) The warrior and the drone
61) The town the torturers came from
62) A nation under post-traumatic stress
63) Why Friedrich Hayek is making a comeback
64) A guide to the Kagan smears
65) Chicago, guns, and pretending not to have lost
See No Evil, Hear No Evil:
66) Emma Goldman (1869-1940)
67) History of anarchism
68) Pension Tsunami's Jack Dean on the growing wave of public pension
debt
69) Cato Daily Podcast, 06/29/10
70) Free Talk Live, 06/28/10
What's Up In The Freedom Movement:
71) Today's events
***************
* In The News
***************
1) Dow closes below 10,000, Nasdaq -3.9% on global fears
The Street
"Stocks plunged Tuesday after a sharp downward revision to China's
leading economic indicators and a dismal U.S. consumer confidence
reading heightened concerns about the economic recovery. Also weighing
on investors' minds were the [euro]442 billion in European bank debt
obligations coming due this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average
lost 268 points, or 2.7%, to finish at its second lowest close of the
year at 9,870. The S&P 500 fell 33 points, or 3.1%, to 1041. The mark
is the index's most depressed close of 2010, though the index managed
to finish just above the technically key 1040 level. The Nasdaq
tumbled 85 points, or 3.9%, to 2135." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2chebmu
-----
2) Boehner proposes raising retirement age to pay for Afghanistan
occupation
USA Today
"House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told the Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review today that he would support raising the Social Security
retirement age to 70 to help pay for the war in Afghanistan. 'If you
have substantial non-Social Security income while you're retired, why
are we paying you at a time when we're broke?' he said to the paper in
an interview." [editor's note: Hmmm ... maybe because you stole the
money you're "paying us" FROM us in the first place, ASSHOLE? - TLK]
(06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/374watn
-----
3) Iraq: 21 killed, 36 wounded
AntiWar.Com
"At least 21 Iraqis were killed and 36 more were wounded in a string
of attacks that targeted police and other officials. Meanwhile, Prime
Minister Maliki met with his rival in talks that could break the
political impasse that is fueling some of the violence." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/24bmyjh
-----
4) Fighting erupts at airport in eastern Afghan city
Salt Lake Tribune
"Fighting has erupted in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad where
police say they heard explosions at the airport. Ghafor Khan, a
spokesman for the provincial police chief in Nangarhar province, said
Wednesday that police heard blasts and gunshots from inside the
airport. He says international forces have blocked access to the
area." (06/30/10)
http://tinyurl.com/288omqz
-----
5) Pakistan: Suspected US missile strike kills ten
Voice of America
"Pakistani security officials say a suspected U.S. missile strike has
killed at least 10 militants, including a suspected al-Qaida
operative, in the country's northwest. Officials say a drone fired two
missiles at a compound near Wana, the main town in the South
Waziristan tribal region on Tuesday. Foreign fighters were said to be
among those killed. It was the first reported missile strike in South
Waziristan, where Pakistani troops have been battling Taliban and and
al-Qaida-linked militants." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25qkb48
-----
6) Report: Nearly one in three Q1 US home sales a foreclosure
Reuters
"Nearly one out of every three U.S. home sales in the first quarter
was a foreclosure property as steep price discounts boosted demand for
distressed real estate, RealtyTrac said in a new report on Wednesday.
Foreclosure homes accounted for 31 percent of all residential sales in
the first quarter of 2010, with the average sales price of properties
that sold while in some stage of foreclosure nearly 27 percent below
homes that were not in the process, Irvine, California-based
RealtyTrac said." (06/30/10)
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65T0TY20100630
-----
7) US courts see "border security" landslide
MSNBC
"President Barack Obama's $600 million border security plan seems to
have it all: More than 1,000 agents, seven gunrunner teams, five FBI
task forces and more prosecutors and immigration judges. But it
doesn't include $40 million to help the already overwhelmed federal
courts along the U.S.-Mexico border that will likely be inundated with
additional drug and other criminal cases, a judiciary official tells
The Associated Press." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2a9m3p5
-----
8) Congo: 80 Ugandan, Rwandan rebels killed
MSNBC
"A Congolese general says the army has killed 80 rebels from
neighboring Rwanda and Uganda who crossed into volatile eastern Congo.
Gen. Amuli Bahigwa said Tuesday the army killed the rebels in an
operation that started June 1. He said four soldiers were killed and
that Ugandan rebels killed eight civilians." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fn5f3d
-----
9) US slams accusations it was behind Honduras coup
Miami Herald
"The U.S. Ambassador to Honduras says accusations by former President
Manuel Zelaya that the United States was behind the coup that ousted
him are 'absurd.' Ambassador Hugo Llorens says the United States had
nothing to do with the coup on June 28, 2009, when the Honduran army
hustled Zelaya out of the country for allegedly violating the
constitution." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2d8shv9
-----
10) Benigno Aquino III takes office as president of Philippines
CNN
"A new era is beginning in the Philippines -- or you could call it the
continuation of a political dynasty. Benigno Aquino III has been sworn
in as president, the country's 15th, after winning election in May by
a landslide. He secured more than 15 million votes, about 5.7 million
more than his closest competitor, one-time president Joseph Estrada,
in a vote viewed as a litmus test for the country's democracy. There
were nine candidates in all." (06/30/10)
http://tinyurl.com/275r55p
-----
11) Spy suspects had interests in science, finance
Culpeper Star-Exponent
"One hobnobbed with academics and entrepreneurs who shared his
interest in cutting-edge science. Another spoke five languages, went
to embassy parties and was fascinated by global politics. A third held
herself out to be a venture capitalist and hit the networking circuit,
looking for investment opportunities. The 11 people arrested and
accused of being members of a Russian spy ring operating under deep
cover in America's suburbs appear to have been part of a slow and
patient plan by Moscow to cultivate contacts in the U.S. who could
yield vital competitive information -- not necessarily on weapons or
U.S. strategic planning, but on finance, business and technology,
intelligence experts say." (06/30/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2bm2w25
-----
12) Amnesty International calls on Petraeus to focus on protecting
civilians
Baltimore Sun
"Human rights group Amnesty International has called on Gen. David
Petraeus to redouble the military's effort to minimize civilian
casualties in Afghanistan. Petraeus is due to take over from disgraced
Gen. Stanley McChrystal as top NATO commander in the country following
confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27awmx3
-----
13) Afghanistan: Karzai steps up talks with insurgents
ABC News
"Afghanistan's government and Pakistan's military and intelligence
services are moving forward toward cutting deals with senior Afghan
insurgents, filling a vacuum created by American skepticism. In the
last few weeks senior Afghan officials have met with the head of
Pakistan's army and the Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, to talk
about the Haqqani network and the Quetta Shura, two leading Afghan
insurgent groups whose leadership are believed to be hiding inside
Pakistan." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/253nhbf
-----
14) Flood of gun rights law suits anticipated
Wall Street Journal
"Monday's high-court decision expanding gun rights will likely trigger
a flood of litigation in states and cities with restrictive laws, so
it could take years before the practical impact of the ruling is
clear. ... Gun-rights groups are preparing to file suits in states
with restrictive laws ... while groups favoring gun control said they
were confident most rules would pass constitutional muster. ... Alan
M. Gottlieb, founder of the [SAF] ... said the group filed a lawsuit
Monday in federal court challenging a North Carolina statute that bars
possession of firearms off of one's property in areas where there is a
declared state of emergency. 'We wouldn't have been able to challenge'
the law 'without this decision,' Mr. Gottlieb said. 'We had this ready
to go.'" (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fuhwxc
-----
15) TN: DA's office to review killings in South Knox mobile home
Knox News
"The shootings that killed two men identified as burglars in a South
Knox County mobile home will be referred to the Knox County District
Attorney General's Office, according to the Knox County Sheriff's
Office. ... No charges have been filed against Douglas Jordan III, who
shot both of the black-clad intruders as he returned to his Love Lane
mobile home off the 8000 block of Chapman Highway at 11:18 p.m.
Sunday. ... Both men were dressed in black. One man wore a ski mask
while the second wore a bandana over his face .... the men 'tried to
overpower him,' Dooley said, but he was armed and shot the men. 'Both
were dead when officers arrived,' Dooley said." (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25xcphf
-----
16) SC: Gun-toting homeowner: "Shut up -- no crying"
WYFF News
"Ken Easler, 73, said he went into his home on Jones Road before
heading to the farmer's market on Saturday morning when he heard
someone inside the house. ... he heard someone upstairs. He grabbed
his gun and waited for the person to come downstairs. 'I put the clip
in and jacked one in the chamber, and when I did, he had already
started down the steps. He sat down. He sat down and held onto the
rail.' ... Easler called 911. 'I said, 'We'll, I've got an intruder in
my house and I've got him at gunpoint.'' He said the man then tried to
get sympathy from him. 'He started like hyper-ventilating. He said,
'I've got to have water -- my heart -- I've got to have water.'' At
one point, he started faking a cry like a baby would cry. I said,
'Shut up, that don't work either.' I said, 'You became a man when you
came in my house.' and I said, 'I don't want to hear no
crying.''" (06/28/10)
http://www.wyff4.com/news/24068226/detail.html
-----
17) Afghanistan: One killed in attack on UN vehicle
Los Angeles Times
"Assailants riddled a United Nations vehicle with bullets at a busy
traffic circle in the heart of Kabul on Tuesday, killing an Afghan
staffer and raising new safety concerns about humanitarian operations
in the country. The daylight attack, which occurred close to the
heavily guarded U.S. Embassy and the sprawling headquarters of NATO's
International Security Assistance Force, also rattled residents of the
capital." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2bgrwe6
-----
18) Turkey: Flotilla victims had multiple gunshot wounds
ABC Online [Australia]
"Forensic tests on nine Turks killed in May's Israeli raid on the Gaza
aid flotilla have found most were shot several times. The tests were
done in Turkey by the government's forensic institute. They found five
of the Turks killed died from bullet wounds to the head and all but
two were shot more than once. In total, the nine victims were shot 31
times." (06/30/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2arvdwp
-----
19) US House rejects extension of unemployment benefits
Associated Press
"With Republicans citing concerns about the growing national debt, the
House rejected a bill Tuesday to extend unemployment benefits for
people who have been out of work for long stretches. The House,
however, is expected to vote on the bill again as early as
Wednesday." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/289zo5a
-----
20) Iranian nuclear scientist "flees US captors"
BBC News [UK]
"A man who says he is an Iranian nuclear scientist claims to have
escaped after being abducted by US agents. In a video shown on Iranian
state TV, he says he has escaped in the US state of Virginia and is
now on the run. Mr Amiri disappeared a year ago while undertaking the
Hajj in Saudi Arabia. Two videos purportedly showing him surfaced
three weeks ago. One said he had been kidnapped, the other that he was
living freely in Arizona. The US has strenuously denied abducting him,
but ABC News reported in March that Mr Amiri had defected and was
helping the CIA compile intelligence on Iran's controversial nuclear
weapons programme." (06/29/10)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/10456502.stm
*******************************************************************
* HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 06/30/10
*
* Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 96,813 ... Max - 105,563
* (source: www.iraqbodycount.org)
*
* American Military Deaths in Iraq: 4,409
* (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/)
*******************************************************************
****************************
* Everybody Has An Opinion
****************************
21) Let about 2,339 nations bloom
Let A Thousand Nations Bloom
by Tony Dreher
"The size of nations in the future will ultimately be determined by
how effing crazy technology gets. It will be somewhere between 1
nation with a population of 'the world' in the event of a hive mind
(fingers crossed) and 0 nations with a population of 'gray goo' or
'gamma radiated people ash.' But neither of those will happen for some
time(or will they?). Until then let's start with what we know. A good
lower bound for the population of a nation would be 150. For those
familiar with Dunbar's Number, this is it. Essentially, the idea is
that humans are just too stupid to be friends with more than 150
people. But, this number assumes everyone is geared for maximum social
grooming and devotion to survival. BOOOORRRRIIIINGG." (06/29/10)
http://athousandnations.com/2010/06/29/let-about-2339-nations-bloom/
-----
22) The rising cost of evil in a hyperconnected world
Center for a Stateless Society
by Kevin Carson
"We're barely in the beginning stages of a fundamental transformation
in which corporate executives live with the reality constantly in the
back of their mind that any particular cutting of corners on safety or
customer service, any particular downsizing or speedup, any grinding
of the boot into the faces of labor, will show up on WikiLeaks. And
then become the focus of a campaign of boycotts, picketing and letter-
writing organized by some advocacy group like the Wal-Mart Workers'
Association or EmployerNameSucks.com. What's more, they're only
beginning to learn that every attempt to suppress such campaigns with
SLAPP lawsuits and punitive firing will come back to bite them in the
tuchus in the form of the Streisand Efffect." (06/29/10)
http://c4ss.org/content/3057
-----
23) US out of South Korea
Cato Institute
by Gene Healy
"It's odd that a conflict as pivotal as the Korean War could ever be
'forgotten.' U.S. involvement saved millions of South Koreans from
being swallowed up by a militarized slave-state. That came at no small
price: Truman's unilateral decision crossed a constitutional Rubicon,
eroding Congress's power to declare war and leading to the deaths of
more than 36,000 American soldiers -- most of them conscripts --
without the courtesy of an up-or-down vote on the war. Americans can
be proud of what their sacrifices helped achieve. But the Korean War's
anniversary ought to prompt rethinking a Cold War-era alliance well
past its sell-by date." (06/29/10)
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11938
-----
24) Hope in the age of darkness
Strike the Root
by Per Bylund
"These are troublesome times: the police state is literally only
months away (if not here already), Big Brother already has full
control of what everybody's up to, and governments wage numerous wars
while taxing their poor populations to ridiculous degrees. Yet in the
midst of all this darkness, after a century of endarkening, there are
signs of hope for a much, much better world. I was surprised to see
that a recent such sign was in the G20 meeting in Canada, where
political oppressors of the 20 richest nations got together to
coordinate their oppressing activities and ensure that their serfs can
go on producing prosperity to expropriate." (06/29/10)
http://www.strike-the-root.com/hope-in-age-of-darkness
-----
25) Textbook controversy
Liberty For All
by Sean Gangol
"Recently, the conservative members of the Texas Board of Education
passed revisions to the textbooks used by public schools. There are
many states who are concerned that these revisions may spread into
their domains, since Texas is the largest purchaser of textbooks. I am
not certain what has been written in the new textbooks. All I know is
what the media has claimed and we all know how reliable the mainstream
media can be. Even the local media has proven itself to be
worthless." (06/29/10)
http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=4499
-----
26) Are the Russians really coming?
AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo
"Something doesn't smell right about this whole affair: my BS-ometer
is clanging pretty loudly, and yours should be, too. The indictments
read like a very bad movie scenario, complete with machinations
involving invisible ink, hi-tech hijinks, and secret messages -- but
what, one wonders, was the point? What did they steal? What damage did
they cause? The indictments mention nothing of the sort, and it's
apparently not at all clear what these 'deep cover' 'spies'
accomplished, if anything." (06/30/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26jmvcg
-----
27) On the Justice Department
LewRockwell.Com
by US Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
"It is the Justice Department that leads the ongoing violations of the
Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendments in the name of the 'war on
drugs.' It is Justice Department agents who perform warrantless
wiretap, and 'sneak-and-peak' searches under the misnamed PATRIOT Act.
It is the Justice Department that prosecutes American citizens for
violating unconstitutional federal regulations even in cases where no
reasonable person could have known their actions violated federal law.
Some like to pretend that the Justice Department's assault on
liberties is a modern phenomenon, or that abuses of liberties are only
carried out by one political party. However, history shows that the
unconstitutional usurpations of power and abuse of rights goes back at
least almost a hundred years to the 'Progressive' era and that Justice
Departments of both parties have disregard the Constitution and
violated individual liberties." (06/30/10)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul678.html
-----
28) Endless occupation
CounterPunch
by Sheldon Richman
"So Gen. Stanley McChrystal is out and Gen. David Petraeus is back at
the helm in Afghanistan. I don't like hackneyed phrases, but if this
isn't rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, what is it?
America's occupation of Afghanistan has no end in sight. The July 2011
date for the beginning of withdrawal is something that even President
Obama doesn't want to talk about. It is clearer than ever that the
date was a crumb thrown to the American people so they wouldn't
grumble when Obama announced the troop buildup last year." (06/29/10)
http://counterpunch.org/richman06292010.html
-----
29) Another defeat for Democratic racists and tyrants
Lubbock Online
by "May"
"Otis McDonald is a black man living in Chicago who simply wanted to
be able to legally own a gun so he could protect himself. On Monday,
our Supreme Court opened the door allowing him and millions of others
living under Democratic oppression to move a major step closer to
Second Amendment protection. At the heart of gun control in the United
States are Democratic tyranny and ... oppression of black people.
'Slave Codes' were enacted to prevent freed slaves from owning guns
and protecting themselves in Southern States before the end of the
Civil War. After the Civil War, 'Black Codes' blocked freed slaves and
black freemen returning to the South ... from owning guns. Without
guns, they had no protection from the [KKK]." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2duckhe
-----
30) A critical first step
Buckeye Firearms Association
by staff
"Buckeye Firearms Association is thrilled that the United States
Supreme Court has ruled to strike down the ban on private ownership of
firearms in Chicago. Today ... the United States Supreme Court ruled
that the Second Amendment applies to states and cities. ... Leaving no
room for doubt, the court made clear that the Second Amendment applies
to Mayor Daley and Chicago. 'While there is much work to be done, this
decision is the first critical step towards universal self-defense
rights,' said Jim Irvine, President of [BFA]. [BFA] teamed up with the
[USCCA] to file an amicus brief in support of Mr.
McDonald." (06/29/10)
http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/7331
-----
31) Handguns at home: Supreme Court correct to rule for right to self-
defense
Trading Markets
by staff
"In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a ban on
handguns in the home violates the Second Amendment. ... There was
spirited and lively dissent in this split decision. That's no surprise
in a case about gun rights in the United States. The legal arguments
are substantial, not just abstract exercises in logic, history and
interpretation. But we like the court's basic conclusion as it applies
to the daily lives of U.S. citizens: The right to self-defense is
fundamental; the right to legally own a handgun for that defense and
keep it in your own home to protect yourself and your family in
extreme circumstances falls within that right." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2d9nj73
-----
32) C + I + G = Baloney
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Patrick Barron
"Wrongheaded governmental interventions are preventing the world's
largest economies from recovering from massive malinvestment. Japan,
currently the world's third-largest economy, has had zero growth for
20 years. A good case can be made that the United States has had zero
growth for ten years, because the so-called growth of the first decade
of the new millennium now appears to have been phony. All of those
houses were built at a loss, losses that we are only now
recognizing." (06/29/10)
http://mises.org/daily/4482
-----
33) Health care reform may kill HSAs
Heartland Institute
by Ben Domenech
"The question keeps coming up from concerned citizens: 'Under
President Barack Obama's new health care regime, what's going to
happen to my health savings account (HSA)?' The answer is that the
popular accounts will still exist, but in what could be a very
different form. Under Obama's law, HSAs will be dramatically regulated
by the secretary of Health and Human Services, and there are new
limits on how much money can be used and what it can be used
for." (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27ew9a2
-----
34) A victory for gun rights and freedom
Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G. Hornberger
"When it comes to gun rights and gun control, liberals are so
predictable. Condemning the Supreme Court's decision in the Chicago
gun case that applied the Second Amendment to the states, the New York
Times editorialized, 'Mayors and state lawmakers will have to use all
of that room and keep adopting the most restrictive possible gun laws
-- to protect the lives of Americans and aid the work of law
enforcement officials.'" (06/29/10)
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2010-06-29.asp
-----
35) Gun control laws
Freedom Politics
by Thomas Sowell
"Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has decided that the
Second Amendment to the Constitution means that individual Americans
have a right to bear arms, what can we expect? Those who have no
confidence in ordinary Americans may expect a bloodbath, as the
benighted masses start shooting each other, now that they can no
longer be denied guns by their betters. People who think we shouldn't
be allowed to make our own medical decisions, or decisions about which
schools our children attend, certainly are not likely to be happy with
the idea that we can make our own decisions about how to defend
ourselves." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/24rut2e
-----
36) BP, the Gulf spill, and classical liberal theory
Liberty & Power
by Gus DiZerega
"The Gulf oil spill is offering a teachable moment as to how
understanding emergent processes in the social sciences deepens and
improves classical liberal analysis. Classical liberals more than any
other branch of liberalism have emphasized the role of spontaneous
orders in society, particularly the market. In this they offered a
powerful corrective to managerial liberal ambitions of bringing
society under rational administration and egalitarian suspicion of
inequality, let alone earlier Marxist ideals of planning the economy.
But every emphasis means not looking somewhere else, and the classical
liberal emphasis on the achievements of spontaneous orders brought
with it its own blind spot. Today the Gulf of Mexico crisis is helping
to illuminate it." (06/29/10)
http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/128532.html
-----
37) Lowering teacher wages and requirements to increase teaching
Libertarian Minds
by Jeremiah Dyke
"Teachers often complain that they are underpaid and/or overworked. It
is the purpose of this article to explore this question and expose its
myth. In fact, it is the conclusion of this article that teachers are
overpaid and overly qualified. Furthermore, it is this articles'
presumption that lowered barriers of educational entry would not only
decrease teaching salaries but would also increase teaching
capability." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2eh75eh
-----
38) Is the decline of newspapers a market failure?
Foundation for Economic Education
by Edward J. Lopez
"Over the past year there has been a flurry of government-related
activity aimed at stopping the decline of the newspaper business. The
Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has held three series of workshops on
the subject, drawing dozens of top academics, national politicians,
business leaders from companies like Google and News Corporation, and
the FTC commissioners themselves. On June 7 the agency released a
discussion paper titled 'Potential Policy Recommendations to Support
the Reinvention of Journalism,' and a week later it held a workshop at
the National Press Club, 'How Will Journalism Survive?' to discuss its
proposals." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2c566a3
-----
39) Is Scott Brown a game-changer on the financial bill?
Competitive Enterprise Institute
by John Berlau
"A Yogi-ism for Congress: 'It ain't over until both houses of Congress
vote for an identical bill and send it to the president's desk -- and,
barring maneuvers like reconciliation, that means it ain't over until
there are 60 votes in the Senate to bring a measure to the floor.'
These simple rules seem to have been lost on members of the press, who
are treating a conference 'agreement' of a sweeping financial-
regulation bill as almost the same thing as final passage. To use
another baseball analogy, the bill is indeed in the home stretch, but
the game is not over." (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25pjpez
-----
40) The state will always self-justify
Center for a Stateless Society
by Darian Worden
"Rioting in Toronto involving anarchists resisting the G-20 Summit has
been condemned by many. The real problem is that there aren't
currently enough anarchists to run the G-20 out of business for
good." (06/29/10)
http://c4ss.org/content/3062
-----
41) G20 meddlers at it again
Freedom's Phoenix
by Bill Bonner
"Stabilize public debts by 2016? By then, the US and other major
economies will have more government debt than GDP. It is bound to be
too late for many of them. And even this modest goal presumes that
economies are able to grow faster than their debt -- in real terms.
When you get debt equal to 100% of GDP, you're over a barrel. If
interest rates were to return to the double digit levels of the '70s,
it could cost more than 10% of GDP just to pay the interest. That's
not going to happen. Things fall apart before they get that far out of
whack. Something else will have to happen. But what? Don't know ...
But we can take a guess." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2worsxr
-----
42) Immigrating towards isolation
Adam Smith Institute
by Sara Williams
[I]immigration into a country is good for the economy. Economies are
not static but grow and diminish by sector disproportionately. One
migrant's job gained is not necessarily a local's job lost. Also,
immigration is a transaction between a foreigner and the economy. The
individual will incur the cost of not finding work, not the country.
If the worker is successful, wealth is disseminated throughout the
economy and indirectly creates jobs. The economy also flourishes
because of the added diversity." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/34h9cq5
-----
43) The Second Amendment, Incorporated
The American Spectator
by Ross Kaminsky
"With its 5-4 decision in McDonald, the Court says that the right
applies everywhere in the U.S., that the right to keep and bear arms
applies equally in cities and states as in D.C. The 5-4 decision
comprised a plurality made up of Justices Alito, Roberts, Scalia, and
Kennedy who were joined by Justice Thomas in a separate opinion
upholding the outcome of the case but not the path the plurality took
to get there. (More later on this important disagreement within the
Court's 'conservative' wing.) Although the Court's ruling is clearly
the right one, two aspects of the decision are troubling." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25wcjv7
-----
44) Roads and money
The Partial Observer
by James Leroy Wilson
"There is no reason government needs to own and maintain either roads
or railroads, and owners of what would be intersecting roads can
negotiate the terms of the intersection. There is also no reason
private roads would have to be toll roads. The automobile companies,
oil companies, and the trucking industry and its clients -- just about
every distributor and retailer -- would have an interest in having
paved, safe roads and would want to contribute to their maintenance.
Just as entertainment on television and the Internet is 'free,' so
would usage of many or most private roads." (06/29/10)
http://partialobserver.com/article.cfm?id=3483
-----
45) Risk and liberty
A Passion for Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
"Free men and women are naturally risky types! Freedom is
characterized by making it possible for people to make choices, even
bad ones, just as in the case of the liberty of the press.
Journalists, editorial writers, reporters and the lot who are free to
do as they choose can and will do what is risky, and at times what is
indeed outright malpractice. Freedom is a precondition of both good
and bad human conduct. And so long as such conduct isn't violent --
and the carrying of handguns plainly isn't, only their aggressive use
is -- it is the right of adult human beings to have and even use guns.
But The New York Times' editorial team has no principled commitment to
human liberty. It is concerned only with its own protected privileges
while government forbids other citizens to be free." (06/29/10)
http://tibormachan.rationalreview.com/2010/06/column-on-risk-liberty/
-----
46) No method to patent madness: The Supreme Court's Bilski decision
StephanKinsella.Com
by Stephan Kinsella
"Patent law is mind numbingly arcane, technical, and boring, so let me
simplify as much as possible. This case was about what the legal test
should be to determine whether certain processes can be possibly
eligible for patent protection. For typical practical technical or
industrial processes, it's not a difficult question. But for 'business-
related' methods, such as the one here -- which had to do [with] a way
for commodities buyers and sellers in the energy market to hedge
against the risk of price changes by following a certain mathematical
formula -- the question gets trickier." (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3xczr97
-----
47) Surrey Police Authority owns up to confidence trick (almost) ...
Libertarian Alliance
by Christopher Houseman
"So, let me get this straight. Surrey Police currently spends a #215.8
million annual budget (page 7), almost half of which it admits (on
page 11) is extracted from Surrey residents through Council tax. In
return for this largesse, more than 80% of Surrey residents are kept
convinced that Surrey Police is doing a fine job. But for this coming
year, the force is hoping to raise its detection rates for serious
crimes to a point where perpetrators will still have an 81.4% chance
of not getting caught. If this isn't a multi-million pound public
relations confidence trick, what is it?" (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3ymnd95
-----
48) Yes, Rush, I just can't imagine why
The Power of Narrative
by Arthur Silber
"Today, Limbaugh is Outraged! that Russians are spying on us! Why,
it's like 1952 all over again! (He was very particular about the
year.) Russia is still evil! They never changed! How incomprehensibly
malevolent that the evil Russians should be spying on the United
States, which is solely and uniquely devoted to spreading happiness
and joy all over the world. If you have a decent life at all, you can
thank the United States for it. Since the United States is inherently,
unquestionably good, all good people can only react with slack-jawed
amazement to the evil revealed by the fact that the Russians are
spying on us. Why, in all the possibilities of all the universes that
have ever existed or will ever exist, would the Russians need to spy
on us?" (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2wv2kvm
-----
49) My plan to restore and preserve the federal system of government
The Price of Liberty
by Robert Greenslade
"Other than interposition or nullification of federal usurpations of
power by the States, which is another topic for another day, my plan
will focus on what I believe are the 4 key principles of our federal
system of government. One has been ignored and perverted; one has been
nullified through a constitutional amendment; one has been weakened
through a constitutional amendment and a plan has emerged to
circumvent it through a provision in the Constitution; the last one
remains intact but will be attacked in the future." (06/28/10)
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/2010/06/28/greenslade.html
-----
50) The world's great evangelist for debt
National Review
by Rich Lowry
"To hear President Barack Obama's supporters tell it, Canadian prime
minister Stephen Harper is a one-man economic wrecking crew. He led
the charge at the G-8 summit to endorse the goal of advanced
countries' cutting their deficits in half by 2013. Obama only
reluctantly went along, warning of the ill effects of what the
intellectual architects of his stimulus package plaintively call
'premature austerity.' This dreaded austerity has treated our friendly
neighbors to the north quite well. If deficit spending is the engine
of growth, Canada should be a nation of Hoovervilles. ... In contrast
to Harper, Obama has become the world's great evangelist for debt.
What he won't do for human rights, he'll do for red ink." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2elmcu7
-----
51) Sensible liberalism in the age of Obama
Salon
by Tom Tomorrow
Cartoon. (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/23bgoxk
-----
52) Obama's crusade against profits
The Weekly Standard
by Andrew Ferguson
"You can never be sure when or why one industry or another will draw
the attention of the Mr. Fixits of our federal government. Just
imagine: There you are, Mr. or Ms. Businessperson, walking along,
making money, minding your own business, and then wham: They pop up
out of nowhere, wheeling around like a gun turret and fixing their
gaze on you and your company, insisting that they're going to make you
fairer and more rational and fix problems you didn't know you had. It
must be terrifying." (for publication 07/05/10)
http://tinyurl.com/342wfb9
-----
53) David Weigel and the limits of newspaper political culture
Disloyal Opposition
by JD Tuccille
"I've been out of circulation, newsroom-wise, for many years now, but
I doubt the nice folks at the Washington Post are much more
comfortable with libertarians or conservatives than were the people at
the New York Daily News. They needed somebody to cover 'the right,'
but I'm sure they also wanted that person to be ... well ... not
'scary.' Weigel has worked for Reason and interned at the Center for
Individual Rights, so he had credible credentials for the job (at
least from a libertarian perspective). But even in his most recent
assertions of right-of-center bona fides, he consistently talks about
affiliations rather than ideas." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/32q7wt9
-----
54) Counting foreigners in the US
TCS Daily
by Jon N. Hall
"Since citizens (and legal aliens) are all on file with the feds and
their numbers are already know[n], it would seem that the $14 billion
we're spending on the 2010 census is entirely to enumerate illegal
aliens. The feds are spending money they don't have to ascertain
information they already do have -- except for illegal aliens. So the
feds dispatch armies of unarmed census takers into the slums, barrios
and seamy underworld of America to gather data from folks loath to
divulge it, having a reasonable fear of deportation. The 2010 census
aggravates because it asks a bunch of new questions the feds shouldn't
ask. The reason the central government still does the census the 'old
fashioned' way is because it serves the ends of career
politicians ..." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2udbnhc
-----
55) Seeking heaven
The Libertarian Standard
by Anita Acavalos
Fiction. (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/35hvgaq
-----
56) The governor's revealed preference
Show-Me Institute
by Christine Harbin
"According to his biography: 'Governor [Jay] Nixon has put forward an
agenda to make government more efficient, effective and responsive to
the needs of Missouri families. He is committed to [...] placing a
college education within reach for middle-class students.' The
governor's budget decisions, however, send the message that his
priority is big businesses that have lobbying power -- not students,
not low-income or middle-class families, and not people who have
mental illnesses or disabilities." (06/29/10)
http://www.showmedaily.org/2010/06/the-governors-revealed.html
-----
57) Spy vs. ... lawyer?
Mother Jones
by Nick Baumann and Daniel Schulman
"The CIA probably doesn't want you to know this, but unmasking its
covert operatives isn't as hard as you'd think. Just ask John Sifton.
During a six-year stint at Human Rights Watch, the attorney and
investigator was hot on the trail of the CIA and some of its most
sensitive Bush-era counterterrorism programs, including extraordinary
rendition, secret Eastern European detention sites, and the legally
dubious and brutal methods used to extract information from detainees.
'Even deep-cover CIA officers are real people, with mortgages and
credit reports,' Sifton once told CQ Politics. For researchers with a
trained eye for the hallmarks of a CIA alias, there are obvious
giveaways: 'A brand new Social Security number, a single P.O. box in
Reston, Virginia. You disregard those and focus on the real persons
who lie behind, and you can find them.' Sifton's talent for uncovering
the CIA's secrets may have served him well -- but now, it also has set
off a firestorm in the human rights community, prompted a backlash
from congressional Republicans, and helped trigger a federal
investigation headed by none other than Patrick Fitzgerald, the
special prosecutor in the Valerie Plame affair." (for publication
07/10)
http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/john-sifton-guantanamo-aclu
-----
58) Abandon the "Ginsburg Rule" for Supreme Court candidates
Independent Institute
by William J. Watkins, Jr.
"The Ginsburg Rule is closely tied to judicial independence. The
argument runs something like this: It is unseemly for a person
nominated to be a neutral arbiter to condition his or her appointment
on a promise to rule a certain way. While elected policymakers should
declare their views and predilections before asking the people to cast
a ballot, judges are in a different category. Thus, the senators
should never ask a nominee to divulge his or her views of matters that
could be heard by the court. Before the judicial activism of the past
half century, this might have passed the smell test. Today, the
Supreme Court makes the ultimate decision on diverse matters such as
affirmative action in awarding contracts or in school admissions,
restrictions on abortion, the medicinal use of marijuana and capital
punishment. The court has no claim to being an independent tribunal
above the fray of politics and policymaking." (06/26/10)
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2818
-----
59) Don't nationalize BP
Reason
by Shikha Dalmia
"Life is complicated. But not for the statist leftarati watching the
BP oil disaster. For them, it offers yet another opportunity to
reaffirm a binary lesson in an old morality play: 'government good;
private corporations bad.' Soon after the Gulf gusher started spewing
its toxic muck, an activist group named 'Seize BP' sprang into action,
holding rallies all across the country in outfits depicting injured
pelicans demanding -- you guessed it! -- seizure of BP's assets. Nor
is this call limited to a fringe group." (06/29/10)
http://reason.com/archives/2010/06/29/dont-nationalize-bp
-----
60) The warrior and the drone
The American Conservative
by Sean Scallon
"Do you remember the line near the end of the movie Patton when he
remarked that he would glad not to be alive in world of push-button
war 'no sacrifice, no honor, no glory and no meaning to it all, just
the living and the dead?' One can sense Gen. McChrystal and his
staff's contempt for Vice President 'Bite Me' may have to do with the
sense these 'warriors' do not wish to be replaced by machines when it
comes to doing their jobs. It wouldn't be surprising if they felt a
sense of dishonor at what they would see as a cowardly approach to
warfare by their county from 15,000 feet, one in which the human life
of one of the combatants is not at all at risk. After all they joined
the military did they not? I'm sure they knew beforehand it could be
hazardous." (06/28/10)
http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/06/28/the-warrior-and-the-drone/
-----
61) The town the torturers came from
AlterNet
by Justine Sharrock
Excerpt from Tortured: When Good Soldiers Do Bad Things, by Justine
Sharrock: "In early 2004, soldiers from the 372nd National Guard unit
began to make vague telephone calls to their families back home in
Western Maryland's Appalachia. 'Something bad is going on,' they
warned. 'I can't tell you more. But there's going to be trouble.'
There were rumors that Lynndie England, home on temporary leave in
November, had told her mother about 'strange stuff' going on in
Iraq." (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/39cxqk6
-----
62) A nation under post-traumatic stress
Boston Globe
by James Carroll
"A psycho-medical diagnosis -- post-traumatic stress syndrome -- has
gained legitimacy for individuals, but what about whole societies? Can
war's dire and lingering effects on war-waging nations be measured?
Can the stories of war be told, that is, to include aftermath wounds
to society that, while undiagnosed, are as related to civic
responsibility for state violence as one veteran's recurring nightmare
is to a morally ambiguous firefight? The battle zones of Fallujah and
Kandahar are far away, but how do their traumas stamp Philadelphia and
Kansas City -- this year and a decade from now?" (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/239qdl2
-----
63) Why Friedrich Hayek is making a comeback
Wall Street Journal
by Russ Roberts
"Hayek understood that the ... free modern society is all about
cooperation. We join with others to produce the goods and services we
enjoy, all without top-down direction. The same is true in every
sphere of activity that makes life meaningful -- when we sing and when
we dance, when we play and when we pray. Leaving us free to join with
others as we see fit -- in our work and in our play -- is the road to
true and lasting prosperity. Hayek gave us that map. ... I don't know
if we're on the road to serfdom, but wherever we're headed, Hayek
would certainly counsel us to turn around." [hat tip -- John Stossel's
Take] (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2bc6cr6
-----
64) A guide to the Kagan smears
The American Prospect
by Adam Serwer
"Solicitor General Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court has
drawn glum shrugs from the left and yawns from the right, and that's
probably just how the White House wants it -- they are looking for as
quiet a confirmation process as possible. Because Kagan has no
judicial record or large volume of academic work to speak of,
Republicans have been forced to draw on even more specious arguments
than usual to gin up opposition to her nomination. Following is a
brief guide to the Republican case against Kagan, and the Democrats'
likely responses." [editor's note: While I admit I have not paid close
attention to this issue, I'm still waiting to see a good reason for
libertarians to oppose this lady's nomination; this analysis goes a
long way to refuting any such attempt! - SAT] (06/28/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2a9d8jf
-----
65) Chicago, guns, and pretending not to have lost
Ideas
by David Friedman
"I was amused by a recent article quoting Mara Georges, a top attorney
for the city of Chicago, on how the city could continue to achieve the
objectives of the gun ban that the Supreme Court just declared to be
unconstitutional. The policy which she proposed and claimed -- for all
I know correctly -- was still constitutional, would be to limit
handgun ownership to one handgun per resident and ban gun shops within
the city." (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/262glbz
*****************************
* See No Evil, Hear No Evil
*****************************
66) Emma Goldman (1869-1940)
Ludwig von Mises Institute
Mises Institute podcast featuring Jeff Riggenbach. [Silverlight or
MP3] (06/29/10)
http://mises.org/media/5146
-----
67) History of anarchism
Revolution and Sarcasm
"At this year's Porcfest, I did a presentation at the AltExpo on the
history of anarchism. I was overly ambitious with what I could fit
into an hour, and really ran through some things that I would have
liked to explain more. Particularly a lot of the post-WWII history was
not given the depth it could have used. But it was a good introduction
to a lot of the concepts and names that have shaped the history of
anarchism." [Flash video] (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2ao259o
-----
68) Pension Tsunami's Jack Dean on the growing wave of public pension
debt
Hit & Run
"Reason.tv's Ted Balaker spoke with Dean about a fiscal mess so large
that even prominent liberals like former California Assembly Speaker
Willie Brown are sounding the alarm." [Flash video] (06/29/10)
http://reason.com/blog/2010/06/29/reasontv-pension-tsunamis-jack
-----
69) Cato Daily Podcast, 06/29/10
Cato Institute
"Second Amendment extended," featuring Ilya Shapiro. [MP3] (06/29/10)
http://tinyurl.com/cato062910
-----
70) Free Talk Live, 06/28/10
Free Talk Live
"Alleged Federal Agent at Porcfest? :: Part-Alien? :: Debt and the
Economy :: Selfishness :: Formerly Coily :: Candi Cooper Arrested -
Warrant Out For Barry :: Sense of Urgency :: Cannabis and Driving ::
Cops Taze Octogenarian." [MP3] (06/28/10)
http://media.libsyn.com/media/ftl/FTL2010-06-28.mp3
*************************************
* What's Up In The Freedom Movement
*************************************
71) Today's events
Check our sidebar calendar for this week's freedom movement events.
Don't see your event? Drop us a line at in...@rationalreview.com ... or
see:
www.rationalreview.com/add-your-event-to-our-calendar
... for instructions on adding your events directly!
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/4042/
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