07/20 -- UK: Cameron to meet with US senators about bomber's release; Obama regime launches policy "to protect oceans"

[Thomas L. Knapp]

**************************************************
* RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST
* The Freedom Movement's Daily Newspaper
*
* Volume VIII, Issue #1,965
* Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
* Email Circulation 1,897
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* Published every non-holiday weekday
* by the staff of Rational Review
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* On the Web: http://www.rationalreview.com/news
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In The News:

0) RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser
1) UK: Cameron to meet with US senators about bomber's release
2) Obama regime launches policy "to protect oceans"
3) Iraq: 21 killed, 55 wounded
4) Afghanistan: Two killed as blast rocks Kabul ahead of talks
5) Pakistan: Government claims 42 militants killed in attacks
6) Afghanistan: Two US troops killed
7) North Korea reportedly executes former official
8) Iraqi cleric meets with PM candidate in Syria
9) US sends carrier to South Korea
10) Growing number of prosecutions for videotaping police
11) Al Qaeda cleric: Yemen to be Obama's Afghanistan
12) 2014 deadline possible for security handover in Afghanistan
13) MD: Judge fines man for factory installed tail lights
14) Moonshine "tempts new generation"
15) IN: Gun toting more rife in rural areas
16) FL: Elderly woman fends off robber
17) Wanted by the CIA: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
18) Report: FBI warnings led to blog site shutdown
19) Pakistan: Clinton announces new aid projects
20) TN: Nashville lacks volunteer bragging rights
21) MA: Towns turn to school mergers
22) ID: Minnick rejects token Dem endorsement from fake "Tea Party"
GOP PAC
23) SAF sues in New York to void "good cause" carry permit requirement
24) 94 arrested in Medicare scams worth $251 million
25) Palin: Property rights are an "unnecessary provocation"

Everybody Has An Opinion:

26) A radical proposal for airline security
27) Obama's war on the Internet
28) Little criminals: The context of consent
29) The L. Neil Smith -- Free Talk Live copyright dispute
30) Coercion is death
31) Post-9/11 militarism helps BP, hurts America
32) Reds under our beds!
33) The Stagliano victory party
34) Reflections on Arnhart's Darwinian liberalism
35) Obama admin: Mandate is a tax
36) Iranian scientist would not play curveball
37) Top secret America
38) Banning the burqa is an assault on secular values
39) ACLU comes around
40) Leaving Iraq
41) Massachusetts: A preview of Obamacare
42) The right wing's perversion of patriotism
43) Why Democrats can't govern, part 1
44) Bad air in "green" buildings
45) Huge fly-swatter, no flies
46) Unlock common sense in public spending
47) DeLong on deficits
48) Bag taxes are bad tax policy
49) Will the US Congress succeed in institutionalizing racism where a
monarchy failed?
50) Opening the borders to peace, prosperity, harmony, and liberty
51) Washington elites face reality gap on economy
52) Bezos Dell vs Reid Pelosi
53) The misguided park bench theory of libertarianism
54) GOP fairy tales
55) Hacking virtual sovereignty through Indian sovereignty
56) Famous last words?
57) The Twitter primary
58) Consequences, chapter 14
59) Feds -- or local gov? -- shut down 73,000 blogs
60) Government vs. Google
61) Quit calling the Tea Party populist!
62) Gingrich presidential run might make more sense than some pundits
think
63) Tactical radicalism and the end of the GOP establishment
64) When there is no rule of law
65) Myth making about Haiti
66) Discretionary defense
67) Welfare & warfare
68) Death tax musings
69) An experiment: Give your reps a task to complete
70) A new weapon in the war on liberty

See No Evil, Hear No Evil:

71) From priest to scientist -- an interview with Dr. Francisco J.
Ayala
72) Free Talk Live, 07/18/10
73) Leslie Lefkow on Antiwar Radio
74) Freedomain Radio #1698
75) QandO Podcast, 07/18/10

What's Up In The Freedom Movement:

76) Today's events

***************
* In The News
***************

0) RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser

Update, 07/20/10: Hmmm ... another "zero dollar day." Bad juju.

I was surprised by how quickly this fundraiser got rolling compared to
past efforts -- we looked set to easily finish the thing off in July
and go for two full months with no fundraising appeals. And I've been
going with the soft sell instead of pulling out all the charts and
graphs and 8 x 10 black and white/color photographs.

As I mentioned to NL, who became one of our "Buck Starts Here"
subscribing contributors yesterday, if there were 999 more RRND/FND
readers like him -- readers who returned one dollar a month in value
for value to the freedom movement's daily newspaper -- we'd switch to
something like a once-a-year "top-off/extra" fundraiser instead of
coming at you all the time.

But, there aren't ... which means I have to do this song and dance
routine every few months by way of attempting to keep the continued
publication of RRND/FND at least nominally renumerative.

Don't make me drag out the charts and graphs and 8 x 10 black and
white/color photographs, folks! - TLK

http://www.rationalreview.com/content/83890

-----

1) UK: Cameron to meet with US senators about bomber's release
MSNBC

"British Prime Minister David Cameron plans to meet with four U.S.
senators during his visit to the United States to discuss their
concerns about the release of the only man convicted in the 1988
airline bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. The four senators -- from
New York and New Jersey -- have been invited to the British
ambassador's residence to speak with Cameron on Tuesday
evening." (07/19/10)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38313409/ns/politics/

-----

2) Obama regime launches policy "to protect oceans"
MSNBC

"The Obama administration on Monday announced a new national policy
for strengthening the way the U.S. manages its oceans and coasts, and
the Great Lakes. Officials said the framework is needed now more than
ever following the massive Gulf oil spill. The policy calls for the
creation of a new National Ocean Council that will coordinate the work
of the many federal agencies involved in conservation and marine
planning." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/27pzrsn

-----

3) Iraq: 21 killed, 55 wounded
AntiWar.Com

"An attack in northern Iraq killed one Briton and as many as three
other foreign nationals. At least 17 Iraqis were killed and 55 more
were wounded in that attack and in other violence across the
country." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/25fcym9

-----

4) Afghanistan: Two killed as blast rocks Kabul ahead of talks
RIA Novosti [Russia]

"Two people were killed and five others were injured on Tuesday when a
bomb went of in the Afgnah capital, Kabul, just ahead of the
International Conference on Afghanistan, witnesses said. The blast
reportedly occurred in Kabul's Khair Khana area at about 6:10am Moscow
time (2:10am GMT) despite enhanced security measures." (07/20/10)

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100720/159874705.html

-----

5) Pakistan: Government claims 42 militants killed in attacks
United Press International

"Forty-two Pakistani militants were killed Monday in attacks by
government aircraft in the Kurram and Orakzai regions, authorities
said. Aircraft bombed militant strongholds in Upper Orakzai, leaving
20 dead and 15 injured, Dawn News reported. Four of the strongholds
were destroyed. Military forces also targeted militant hideouts in the
Kurram Agency where 22 were killed and 11 injured." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/25tf2zr

-----

6) Afghanistan: Two US troops killed
USA Today

"Six Afghan policemen and two U.S. troops were killed Monday by
roadside bombs in southern Afghanistan where the Taliban are pushing
back against Afghan and international forces efforts to move into the
insurgents' stronghold. Abdul Qayum Khan, the chief of Khakrez
district in northern Kandahar province, said the police were killed
and four others were wounded while traveling south by vehicle to
Kandahar." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/25wh9zf

-----

7) North Korea reportedly executes former official
Palm Beach Post

"North Korea executed a former Cabinet official who was in charge of
talks with South Korea, a news report said Tuesday, the latest
reported death sentence for a North Korean official over policy
failures. Kwon Ho Ung -- Pyongyang's chief delegate from 2004 to 2007
for ministerial talks with the South's then liberal government -- was
executed by firing squad, Seoul's mass-circulation Dong-a Ilbo
newspaper said, citing an unidentified source in Beijing knowledgeable
about the North." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2fsgf7f

-----

8) Iraqi cleric meets with PM candidate in Syria
Denver Post

"Anti-American Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took a rare, public step
into the political arena Monday, meeting in neighboring Syria with the
man directly challenging Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for his
office. The talks between al-Sadr, who is nominally allied with al-
Maliki, and former premier Ayad Allawi, who heads the heavily Sunni-
backed Iraqiya coalition, appeared to be as much about showing al-
Maliki that al-Sadr is keeping his options open as it was about any
firm political agreement between the two men in the
offing." (07/19/10)

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_15550607

-----

9) US sends carrier to South Korea
CNN

"The United States is sending the aircraft carrier USS George
Washington to South Korea this week in a display of 'the strength of
our alliance and our constant readiness to defend the Republic of
Korea,' the ship's commander said Monday. The visit comes after months
of heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula after the sinking of a
South Korean warship in a torpedo attack in March. A multinational
inquiry found North Korea responsible for the attack on the corvette
Cheonan, in which 46 South Korean sailors were killed." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2b6dmeu

-----

10) Growing number of prosecutions for videotaping police
ABC News

"That Anthony Graber broke the law in early March is indisputable. He
raced his Honda motorcycle down Interstate 95 in Maryland at 80 mph,
popping a wheelie, roaring past cars and swerving across traffic
lanes. But it wasn't his daredevil stunt that has the 25-year-old
staff sergeant for the Maryland Air National Guard facing the
possibility of 16 years in prison. For that, he was issued a speeding
ticket. It was the video that Graber posted on YouTube one week later
-- taken with his helmet camera -- of a plainclothes state trooper
cutting him off and drawing a gun during the traffic stop near
Baltimore." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/37mzchj

-----

11) Al Qaeda cleric: Yemen to be Obama's Afghanistan
Casper Star-Tribune

"A U.S.-born, al-Qaida-linked cleric warned the American people that
President Barack Obama will mire U.S. forces in Yemen just as
Afghanistan, in a message appearing Monday on militant websites. The
13-minute audio message, in English, comes just days after the U.S.
Treasury department put Anwar al-Awlaki on its list of Specially
Designated Global Terrorists." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/28n7b2d

-----

12) 2014 deadline possible for security handover in Afghanistan
Bennington Banner

"The strategy sits for now on a table in a locked-down Afghan capital:
Hand over security in all 34 provinces to the government by the end of
2014 -- more than three years after President Barack Obama's date for
the start of an American troop drawdown. By Tuesday, it will be
adopted at a one-day international conference, giving war-weary
Americans and Europeans a date for when their involvement in
Afghanistan may begin to come to an end. It will also give President
Hamid Karzai a chance to show whether his struggling government is
making progress toward running the country." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/369mmqa

-----

13) MD: Judge fines man for factory installed tail lights
Jalopnik

"A Maryland judge issued an $85 fine to the owner of a Pontiac G8 GT
for illegal tail lights, despite being factory-installed and approved
by the US Department of Transportation. She's promised to keep fining
him. Judicial activism, FTL!Forum member 'jackalope' at G8Board.com
was ticketed by a Maryland officer who claimed he was sporting illegal
tail lights. After amassing a healthy amount of evidence proving he
hadn't modified his car and it was approved for sale by the Department
of Transportation, he went to court confident the ticket would be
dismissed, only to find the contrary." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/27gxo4d

-----

14) Moonshine "tempts new generation"
BBC News [UK]

"A growing number of Americans are thought to be getting involved in
moonshining -- distilling illegal liquor. Traditionally hidden in the
backwoods, stills are now going into production in cities across the
nation, as Claire Prentice reports from New York. Against the backdrop
of the recession and the current craze for artisan produce, illegal
distilling clubs and 'kitchen-sink' operations are popping up all over
the US, from California to New York and Pennsylvania." (07/18/10)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10556048

-----

15) IN: Gun toting more rife in rural areas
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

"Carol and Mark Roemke readily acknowledge there's little crime
happening around their farm near Harlan. Several times people have
tried to break into their tank of anhydrous ammonia, which is used as
fertilizer and in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine. And for
that reason, the husband and wife as well as their sons have personal
protection permits to carry handguns. 'I tell you what, we got it for
protection,' Mark Roemke said. 'We have our Second Amendment rights,
and we take advantage of them.'" (07/18/10)

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20100718/LOCAL/307189923

-----

16) FL: Elderly woman fends off robber
WESH News

"Carol Costello, 69, had thousands of dollars in cash on her after
unsuccessfully trying to get money orders at a Walmart in South
Daytona, according to police. Police said that Shepard and another man
followed Costello's car to Pineapple Street in South Daytona where
they boxed her in and Shepard jumped out of the 2006 black Chevy
Impala brandishing a silver semi-automatic handgun. According to
police, that's when Shepard began banging on Costello's car windows.
After a few unsuccessful attempts to break the driver's side window
with the .380 caliber Cobra handgun, Shepard jumped on the hood of
Costello's car and used the butt of his gun to break the windshield,
according to police. Shepard created a large hole in the windshield
and accidentally dropped the gun onto Costello's lap, according to the
report. Police said Costello pointed the gun at the suspect as he ran
back to the black Chevy that dropped him off. She tried to drive away
but ran into the suspect's getaway car where she was able to take down
the license plate number before the car fled the scene." (07/17/10)

http://www.wesh.com/news/24244515/detail.html

-----

17) Wanted by the CIA: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange
Belfast Telegraph [Ireland]

"There are not many journalists who, when you ask them if they are
being followed by the CIA, say 'We have surveillance events from time
to time.' Actually it's not a question I've ever asked before, and
Julian Assange does not call himself a journalist. But the answer is
typical of this 41-year-old former computer-hacker: cryptic,
dispassionate, and faintly self-important. As the founder of
Wikileaks, Assange has become the pin-up of web-age investigative
journalists. The US has wanted him for questioning since March, after
he posed a video showing an American helicopter attack that left
several Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists dead.
Understandably, he now avoids the US, and keeps his movements secret,
though it's thought he operates out of Sweden and is spending time in
Iceland, where a change in the law is creating a libel-free haven for
journalists. But if the CIA spooks wanted him that badly, couldn't
they have turned up, as a hundred adoring student journalists did, to
hear him talk at the Centre for Investigative Journalism 10 days
ago?" (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/27nx8ag

-----

18) Report: FBI warnings led to blog site shutdown
Fox News

"A popular website that hosted more than 70,000 bloggers was shut down
suddenly last week after the FBI informed its chief technology officer
that the site contained hit lists, bomb-making documents and links to
Al Qaeda materials, it was reported on Monday. When the WordPress
platform Blogetery.com went dead, the initial explanation from the
site's host, Burst.net, was that 'a law-enforcement agency' had
ordered it to shut down, citing a 'history of abuse.' The explanation
caused a wave of conspiracy theories in the blogosphere. But according
to a report on CNET Monday, Burst.net shut down Blogetery.com when it
became spooked by a letter from the FBI, in which the bureau detailed
the presence of terrorist materials among the blog posts." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2u2qgk2

-----

19) Pakistan: Clinton announces new aid projects
Christian Science Monitor

"US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Monday unveiled a series
of development projects for Pakistan on the second day of her visit to
the country, as part of what she termed an effort to 'expand the
dialogue beyond security.' Speaking at a town-hall-style meeting in
the capital on Monday, Mrs. Clinton announced the construction of two
hydroelectric dam projects that will supply power to more than 300,000
people near the Afghan border, an overhaul of the municipal water
supply of Peshawar and southern Punjab, and the renovation or
construction of three new hospitals in Pakistan's metropolitan cities
of Lahore and Karachi. The projects are to be funded under US
legislation passed last year that increased civilian aid to Pakistan
to $7.5 billion over five years. They are part of a broader move to
quell anti-Americanism by convincing Pakistanis that the US has a
deeper commitment to the country, a key ally in the war in
Afghanistan." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2asfgyq

-----

20) TN: Nashville lacks volunteer bragging rights
Tennessean

"It's the capital of the Volunteer State, but Nashville may not be
living up to the nickname. Nashville ranks 37th among 51 large cities
in the percentage of residents who volunteer, according to 2009
numbers from the Corporation for National and Community Service's
Volunteering in America report. Although the number of volunteers rose
from 2008 to 2009, the city dropped two spots in the annual rankings
as numbers increased heavily across the nation." [editor's note: This
study was clearly done before the recent Nashville flood, or else it's
just us spurious as most of its kind - SAT] (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/297aam6

-----

21) MA: Towns turn to school mergers
Boston Globe

"Under growing pressure from state officials, small public school
systems across Massachusetts are discussing potential mergers, defying
the state's staunch tradition of local schools and hometown identity
in a quest for greater financial stability. For the first time in
nearly a decade, several towns recently joined ranks to create new
regional districts, linking Ayer and Shirley, Berkley and Somerset,
and three vocational schools north of Boston. From a host of small
Berkshire towns to Chatham and Harwich on Cape Cod, another three
dozen districts are considering teaming up with their neighbors or
expanding existing unions. Even Hull and Cohasset, Thanksgiving Day
rivals with a decided class divide, are courting. 'It can work,' said
Marianne Harte, a school board member in Hull, which has also made
overtures to Hingham about merging schools amid financial troubles.
'And this is where things are headed.'" (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/28tbmfb

-----

22) ID: Minnick rejects token Dem endorsement from fake "Tea Party"
GOP PAC
New York Daily News

"Thanks, but no thanks. Three weeks after being endorsed by the Tea
Party Express, a Democratic Congressman from Idaho is saying no thanks
amid the racial controversy surrounding the group. A fiscal
conservative from Boise, Rep. Walt Minnick is the only Democrat
endorsed by the right-leaning group. He grudgingly accepted the
endorsement in April. But the latest firestorm over Mark Williams has
made Minnick go sour on the Tea Party." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/29juzos

-----

23) SAF sues in New York to void "good cause" carry permit requirement
Liberty For All

"The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit against
Westchester County, New York and its handgun permit licensing
officers, seeking a permanent injunction against enforcement of a
state law that allows carry licenses to be denied because applicants
cannot show 'good cause.' SAF is joined in the lawsuit by Alan
Kachalsky and Christina Nikolov, both Westchester County residents
whose permit applications were denied. Kachalsky's denial was because
he could not 'demonstrate a need for self protection distinguishable
from that of the general public.'" (07/19/10)

http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=4576

-----

24) 94 arrested in Medicare scams worth $251 million
CBS News

"Federal authorities arrested 94 people in five states Friday for
allegedly taking part in various scams to defraud Medicare. The
arrests have been touted as 'the largest Medicare fraud bust in
history.' Authorities took down suspects in Miami, New York City,
Detroit, Houston and Baton Rouge, who are accused of billing Medicare
for unwarranted equipment, and for physical therapy and other
treatments that patients never received." (07/19/10)

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20010968-504083.html

-----

25) Palin: Property rights are an "unnecessary provocation"
International Business Times

"Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin opposes the
construction of a Muslim-led facility that includes a 'prayer space'
two blocks from Ground Zero in New York City, calling it an
'unnecessary provocation.' Palin asked 'peace-seeking Muslims' and
'Peaceful New Yorkers' to reject the plan, saying the 'catastrophic
pain' caused at the Twin Towers site 'is too raw, too real,' according
to a post to her Twitter blog on Sunday. While the project received a
nearly unanimous advisory vote in support from local community board
representatives, the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission must
rule on the status of the building before demolition or construction
can take place." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2avlhyg

*******************************************************************
* HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 07/20/10
*
* Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 97,082 ... Max - 105,855
* (source: www.iraqbodycount.org)
*
* American Military Deaths in Iraq: 4,412
* (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/)
*******************************************************************

****************************
* Everybody Has An Opinion
****************************

26) A radical proposal for airline security
Reason
by Steve Chapman

"If a job not worth doing is going to be done anyway, better for it to
be done well than badly. So the Transportation Security Administration
deserves credit for its Secure Flight program, aimed at curbing
mistakes on its no-fly list. The American Civil Liberties Union,
likewise, warrants praise for suing on behalf of travelers who were
wrongly snared. But there is a better option that would eliminate this
problem, as well as others: Get rid of the no-fly list entirely. For
that matter, get rid of the requirement that passengers provide
government-approved identification just to go from one place to
another." (07/19/10)

http://reason.com/archives/2010/07/19/a-radical-proposal-for-airline

-----

27) Obama's war on the Internet
Campaign For Liberty
by Philip Giraldi

"The Ministry of Truth was how George Orwell described the mechanism
used by government to control information in his seminal novel 1984. A
recent trip to Europe has convinced me that the governments of the
world have been rocked by the power of the internet and are seeking to
gain control of it so that they will have a virtual monopoly on
information that the public is able to access. In Italy, Germany, and
Britain the anonymous internet that most Americans are still familiar
with is slowly being modified. If one goes into an internet cafe it is
now legally required in most countries in the European Union to
present a government issued form of identification." (07/19/10)

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1020

-----

28) Little criminals: The context of consent
The Libertarian Enterprise
by L. Neil Smith

"Lately, we have witnessed the rise of a movement -- a thuggish
crusade wrapped in the tattered robes of academic 'respectability'
against 'Intellectual Property Rights' -- dedicated to stripping
creative individuals of whatever they create, to expropriate it for
some imagined 'greater good,' and to attack the creators viciously and
defame them if they should be so gauche as to object to being stolen
from. Their principal 'argument' seems to be, now that almost
everything is digitized and can be duplicated, manipulated, and
transported by means of electronics, that this somehow removes the
moral obligation of civilized beings to respect the rights of others
and honor their propriety. It's fundamentally the same argument that
victim disbarment advocates make when they claim -- ignoring the
principle involved -- that the authors of the Second Amendment
couldn't possibly anticipate machineguns." (07/18/10)

http://ncc-1776.org/tle2010/tle579-20100718-02.html

-----

29) The L. Neil Smith -- Free Talk Live copyright dispute
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Stephan Kinsella

"The Shire Society Declaration was based on Smith's New Covenant, but
was altered-improved, in the minds of the advocates of the Shire
Society. Smith got wind of this and was upset, since he viewed it as
plagiarism, theft, and unauthorized modification of his 'property.'
This led to an escalating exchange of emails between him and Ian
Freeman, and others .... I'm a huge admirer of Smith and what he's
done for liberty. And I can understand him being angry if someone
stole from him. But that's the issue, for libertarians: was he stolen
from? Asserting he was stolen from presupposes he has a legitimate
property right in a pattern of words; i.e., it presupposes IP is
valid. For the libertarian, that is the question itself: is IP
legitimate?" (07/14/10)

http://tinyurl.com/36x8ct8

-----

30) Coercion is death
Strike the Root
by B.R. Merrick

"All governments exist upon the initiation of coercion. Each
government that is or ever was has basically said, 'We are here to
protect you, to watch over you, to provide for you, to coordinate you,
to rule over you. You have no choice in the matter. This is for our
collective posterity. You are free to disagree and to do so as loudly
as you wish, but you will obey.' Name a single earthly government that
does not, in essence, say this. You may find greater financial freedom
in Singapore, but you can be whacked with a cane if you cross
them." (07/19/10)

http://www.strike-the-root.com/coercion-is-death

-----

31) Post-9/11 militarism helps BP, hurts America
AntiWar.Com
by Kelley B. Vlahos

"Down on the bayou, reporters and activists have been pulled over and
questioned by British Petroleum security guards and local police
because they might be 'terrorists.' Journalists have been kicked off
public property, detained, harassed, and forced to hand over their
photographs -- and their Social Security numbers. They've been
prevented from renting boats or flying below 3,000 feet over the
coast. They've been threatened with arrest. It all sounds pretty In
the Heat of the Night, but this goes way beyond the press butting up
against powerful interests in the Gulf, or even the government and BP
engaging in elaborate CYA message control. Look closer and witness the
future. See how they get away with militarizing every law enforcement
operation, every domestic emergency response situation, because for
years Americans have allowed this creeping militarization to happen.
In a post-9/11 world, every problem requires a military solution, and
too often in these crises, the people are the problem." (07/20/10)

http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2010/07/19/militarization-bp-spill/

-----

32) Reds under our beds!
LewRockwell.Com
by Eric Margolis

"During the 1930's, a Soviet agent of NKVD foreign intelligence (the
predecessor to KGB) was given a message from his controller at Moscow
Center written on thin rice paper. He read the message, crumpled it up
into a tiny ball, and dropped it into the Paris sewer. Days after, the
agent was recalled to Moscow -- and promptly shot. Another NKVD agent
assigned to shadow him had reported improper message disposal. Moscow
Center's standard operating procedures were clear and pitiless: all
messages were to be burned. No violations were tolerated. Consider
this grim episode in light of the recent case of ten or perhaps eleven
undercover Russian 'illegals' in the United States rolled up and
deported by the FBI." (07/20/10)

http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis196.html

-----

33) The Stagliano victory party
Reason
by Richard Abowitz

"At the victory party Friday night after having had all charges
against him dropped in federal court, pornographer John Stagliano, his
lawyers, his family, and colleagues from the adult industry raised a
toast to his freedom. But because his wife is pregnant and his
daughter is underage, and because one of the films under indictment
was called Milk Nymphos, the champagne flutes were filled with an
unusual fluid: milk." (07/19/10)

http://reason.com/archives/2010/07/19/the-stagliano-victory-party

-----

34) Reflections on Arnhart's Darwinian liberalism
Cato Unbound
by Herbert Gintis

"Of course the existence of human universals does not suggest a unique
form of social organization. Indeed, there have been many distinct
types of human society, and many of these have been widely embraced
and broadly defended by their members. Therefore, Arnhart's assertion
that Darwinian evolution is favorable to 'classical liberalism,' which
he characterizes as 'a libertarian concern for liberty and a
traditionalist concern for virtue,' leading to a situation in which
'the political order of the state [protects] individual liberty' and
'the moral order of society [shapes] virtuous character,' must depend
on additional arguments." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/252wrp5

-----

35) Obama admin: Mandate is a tax
Liberale et Libertaire
by dL

"Obama, in the Democratic primary, argued against the individual
mandate. It was one of the key distinctions between himself and
Clinton(It should be recalled that Obama, in the primary, ran 'Harry
and Louise' ads against the Clinton Health Care plan). After he was
elected, he immediately delegated the crafting of Health Care
legislation to the congress, which immediately began fashioning
something that resembled the Clinton plan, with mandates and all. When
Obama was propagandizing the merits of the Health Care Reform Bill to
the press, he bristled at suggestions that the mandate was a
'tax.' ... Now that the individual mandate is being challenged in
federal court by the attorney generals of various States, the Obama
Admin has dispensed with the propaganda." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/25kdogz

-----

36) Iranian scientist would not play curveball
Information Clearinghouse
by Ray McGovern

"Useful insights often must be seen through a glass darkly. But some
can be pulled through the smoke and mirrors shrouding the wanderings
of Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri, who is now back home in Iran after
14 months in the U.S. as guest of the CIA." (07/19/10)

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25958.htm

-----

37) Top secret America
Washington Post
by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin

"The top-secret world the government created in response to the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy
and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many
people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how
many agencies do the same work." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/35a8xqe

-----

38) Banning the burqa is an assault on secular values
Spiked
by Tim Black

"Following the Belgian parliament's decision in May to vote through a
law banning the niqab and burqa, now France's National Assembly has
shown itself equally determined to rid public spaces of extravagant
face-veiling clothing. Last week, a 'bill to forbid concealing one's
face in public' was approved by 335 votes to one. While there's still
a chance that France's highest legal body, the Constitutional Council,
will rule the bill unconstitutional, a French ban on the face-covering
niqab and the accompanying outer garment, the burqa, could be in force
by early next year." (07/19/10)

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/9272/

-----

39) ACLU comes around
Go Upstate
by staff

"For the first time in its history, the American Civil Liberties Union
is standing up for one of our most essential liberties: the right to
keep and bear arms. ... Weinstein, a retired bar and restaurant owner,
had his weapons seized in February after his wife of 61 years died. He
had complained to the Broward Medical Examiner's Office that his
wife's ashes had been missing for three weeks and he had not been able
to bury them, and, while filing that complaint, said he 'wanted to
blow his head off.' A sheriff's deputy then visited Weinstein's house,
asked for his semiautomatic pistol and his revolver, which Weinstein
gave him, and took him to the hospital for an evaluation. It turned
out he was just angry, not crazy, but he still hasn't gotten his guns
back. ... 'Under the Second Amendment, he has a right to have his guns
in his house,' said Butin. 'He's not a convicted felon. It is unusual
for the ACLU. But the ACLU supports all constitutional rights. We
don't pick and choose.' It will be great if that becomes the case, but
it hasn't been in the past." (07/18/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2elhzus

-----

40) Leaving Iraq
CounterPunch
by Patrick Cockburn

"American troops leave behind a country that is a barely floating
wreck. Baghdad feels like a city under military occupation, with
horrendous traffic jams caused by the 1,500 checkpoints and streets
blocked off by miles of concrete blast walls that strangle
communications within the city. The situation in Iraq is in many ways
'better' than it was, but it could hardly be anything else, given that
killings at their peak in 2006-2007 were running at about 3,000 a
month. That said, Baghdad remains one of the most dangerous cities in
the world, riskier to walk around than Kabul or Kandahar." (07/19/10)

http://counterpunch.org/patrick07192010.html

-----

41) Massachusetts: A preview of Obamacare
Washington Post
by Robert J. Samuelson

"If you want a preview of President Barack Obama's health care
'reform,' take a look at Massachusetts. In 2006, it enacted a 'reform'
that became a model for Obama. What's happened since isn't
encouraging. The state did the easy part: expanding state-subsidized
insurance coverage. It evaded the hard part: controlling costs and
ensuring that spending improves people's health. Unfortunately, Obama
has done the same. Like Obama, Massachusetts requires most individuals
to have health insurance (the 'individual mandate'). To aid middle-
class families too well-off to qualify for Medicaid -- government
insurance for the poor -- the state subsidizes insurance for people
earning up to three times the federal poverty line (about $66,000 in
2008 for a family of four). Together, the mandate and subsidies have
raised insurance coverage from 87.5 percent of the non-elderly
population in 2006 to 95.2 percent in the fall of 2009." (07/19/10)

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/percent-258371-health-care.html

-----

42) The right wing's perversion of patriotism
Christian Science Monitor
by Walter Rodgers

"It once was a given that you did not discuss religion or politics in
polite company. To this list, I would add 'patriotism.' It has become
the new secular American religion, so mercurial that we cannot even
agree about what it is. It is regrettable that a once healthy American
patriotism has morphed into intolerant jingoism. Love of country has
been hijacked. It was not always thus. As a boy in New England, just
after World War II, I was schooled in patriotism quite unlike what's
out there today. The week before Thanksgiving, public schools taught
us the Pilgrims' vision of religious liberty. On Memorial Day, Cub
Scouts marched up to Pine Hill Cemetery and laid flowers on the graves
of Civil War veterans, who we learned had fought and died to preserve
the Union. In Massachusetts, patriotism had special currency because
it earned us an extra holiday that schoolchildren in most other states
didn't have, Patriots' Day." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/24odbvd

-----

43) Why Democrats can't govern, part 1
Our Future Blog
by Robert Borosage

"They'd rather switch than fight. Consider. Elizabeth Warren,
brilliant Harvard Law Professor, stalwart defender of America's
beleaguered middle class, championed the Consumer Financial Protection
Agency as essential to protecting consumers from financial fraud and
abuse. Against the odds, she managed to get the White House to make
the reform a signature of its financial reform legislation. Against
the odds, she helped galvanize the public and media support needed to
preserve the reform in final legislation. Along the way, she impressed
all with her intelligence, her political savvy, her courage and her
media presence. By all rights, she should be appointed forthwith to be
the first head of the agency that she invented. Her nomination will be
opposed by the Chamber of Commerce and the Wall Street lobby, which is
another good reason to make it." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2akycky

-----

44) Bad air in "green" buildings
In These Times
by Melinda Tuhus

"As the 'green design' economy grows, consumers tend to equate energy-
efficient construction with environmentalism. We assume green
buildings are in the interest of both the planet and public health.
But a recent dust-up between a nonprofit that certifies energy-
efficient buildings and a nonprofit concerned about human health has
challenged this easy association, raising questions about the costs of
going 'green.' A May report from Connecticut-based Environment and
Human Health, Inc., titled 'LEED Certification: Where Energy
Efficiency Collides with Human Health,' raises concerns about indoor
air quality in LEED-certified buildings." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2848d7o

-----

45) Huge fly-swatter, no flies
The Nation
by Robert Dreyfuss

"Not surprisingly, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
is complaining about the Washington Post's blockbuster series, Top
Secret America, whose first installment appeared today. Laughably, the
ODNI says: 'The reporting does not reflect the Intelligence Community
we know. ... We have reformed the [intelligence community] in ways
that have improved the quality, quantity, regularity, and speed of our
support to policymakers, warfighters and homeland defenders, and we
will continue our reform efforts. We provide oversight, while also
encouraging initiative. We work constantly to reduce inefficiencies
and redundancies, while preserving a degree of intentional overlap
among agencies to strengthen analysis, challenge conventional
thinking, and eliminate single points of failure.' But as the Post
makes clear, the world of Top Secret America has grown like
Topsy." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2cerz7z

-----

46) Unlock common sense in public spending
Boston Globe
by Robert L. Bixby

"Can we handle the truth? More specifically, can we handle the truth
when it is ambiguous? That is a question policymakers and the public
face as they grapple with the best way forward on fiscal policy. In
troubling times, the desire for certainty is understandable, but it
can also lead to hasty and ill-considered decisions. The truth is that
policymakers are operating in a world of uncertainty and risk.There is
danger in applying too much fiscal stimulus: rising interest costs,
dependence on foreign lenders, and the prospect of future inflationary
bubbles. But there is also danger in withdrawing fiscal stimulus too
fast: double-dip recession, rising unemployment, and deflation. No one
really knows the correct calculation but that is no reason to insist
on a one-size-fits-all fiscal policy. We have two distinct problems.
The economy remains shaky in the near-term, and fiscal policy remains
unsustainable in the long-term. These problems can, and should, be
treated with different remedies." (07/18/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2772mvr

-----

47) DeLong on deficits
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Robert P. Murphy

"In a recent blog post, UC Berkeley economist Brad DeLong made an
arithmetic case that, 'We need bigger deficits now!' As an Austrian
economist I naturally find his conclusion horribly mistaken, but it
will still be useful to go through DeLong's argument and identify
exactly where he goes astray. To his credit, DeLong has always been
careful to restrict the case for deficit 'stimulus' to cases of
economic depression. In other words, DeLong agrees with non-Keynesians
that under normal circumstances, government budget deficits per se do
not boost economic growth and in fact are generally counterproductive
unless the specific items being purchased are socially
valuable." (07/19/10)

http://mises.org/daily/4539

-----

48) Bag taxes are bad tax policy
Heartland Institute
by Natasha Altamirano

"At least 13 states are considering enacting taxes on plastic and
paper bags used at grocery stores and carryout restaurants, but a Tax
Foundation report shows the environmental benefits of the tax are
often exaggerated and the tax becomes another general revenue grab by
public officials. 'Bag Taxes Disappoint in Debut' gives as an example
the 5-cent bag tax in Washington, DC, which went into effect January
1. The tax has resulted in much less bag usage by customers and lower
revenues than projected. The report also notes there are plans to
transfer bag tax revenue from a river cleanup fund to the city's
general fund." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/23lvyeq

-----

49) Will the US Congress succeed in institutionalizing racism where a
monarchy failed?
Hawaii Reporter
by James W. Cox

"For a second time in history, the government in power over Hawaii is
trying to divide the people living on these small islands by race. The
last time was in January 1893 when Queen Liliuokalani permanently
adjourned the legislature and tried to implement a new constitution
reserving suffrage solely to persons with Hawaiian blood. The result
of that attempt was civil action by citizens born in Hawaii who would
have been disenfranchised by the revised constitution." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2g6swjr

-----

50) Opening the borders to peace, prosperity, harmony, and liberty
Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G. Hornberger

"In my recent posts calling for open borders, I have talked about how
Americans are free to travel across state lines without encountering
immigration officials at state borders. We all take this freedom for
granted. But that's only because we've grown up with it. If we had
been born and raised under a regime in which each state could erect
immigration controls, the thought of opening the state borders would
be as shocking as the thought of opening international
borders." (07/16/10)

http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2010-07-16.asp

-----

51) Washington elites face reality gap on economy
FreedomWorks
by Julie Borowski

"While private sector workers across the country are struggling with
abnormally high unemployment rates, federal government employees in
Washington are likely to be bewildered by the current economic
downturn. In fact, a Politico article released today confirmed that
about half of 'Washington elites' who live in the D.C. metro area and
work in politics or policy fields claim that the country and the
economy are headed in the right direction -- compared to less than 25
percent of the general population." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2enl47r

-----

52) Bezos Dell vs Reid Pelosi
Freedom Politics
by Star Parker

"Suppose you had a choice to invest in one of two competing business
plans. Behind one plan are billionaires Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell,
who are investing their own money in it. Bezos and Dell are two of the
country's most successful entrepreneurs. Both got rich founding and
building bold, innovative companies - Amazon.com and Dell Computer.
The second plan is supported by Senate majority leader Harry Reid and
House speaker Nancy Pelosi and they are financing it with other
people's money - taxpayers' money." (07/17/10)

http://tinyurl.com/24talwx

-----

53) The misguided park bench theory of libertarianism
Libertarian News Examiner
by Garry Reed

"It's as though Brunsing heard somewhere that libertarians advocate
laissez-faire free market capitalism and concluded that the absolute
sum total definition of libertarianism is 'the commodification of
everything.' What he doesn't seem to get is that libertarians embrace
freedom in all areas of life, including but not limited to the
voluntary free exchange of goods and services amongst free
people." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/37ut2k7

-----

54) GOP fairy tales
Mother Jones
by Kevin Drum

"Back in the day, one of the key Republican arguments against the
estate tax was that it forced hardworking, salt-of-the-earth children
of small farmers to sell the family plot in order to pay their taxes
after dad died. It was a sad story, but with one problem: no one could
find even a single small farmer who had been forced to liquidate in
order to satisfy Uncle Sam's voracious maw. Even the American Farm
Bureau Federation was eventually forced to admit that it couldn't come
up with a single example, and a few years later the Congressional
Budget Office estimated that under the now-current exemption level,
only a tiny handful of small farms were likely to owe any estate tax
to begin with -- and of those, only about a dozen lacked the assets to
pay their taxes. And even those dozen had 14 years to pay the bill as
long as the kids kept running the farm. In other words, the story was
a fraud from beginning to end. Good times. Today, though, we're
getting a rerun." (07/16/10)

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/07/small-business-dodge

-----

55) Hacking virtual sovereignty through Indian sovereignty
Let A Thousand Nations Bloom
by patrissimo

"Sean Tevis, Congressional Candidate and website designer, suggests a
clever hack: using the precedent of American Indian sovereignty -- a
unique category between states and federal government -- to attempt to
create virtual sovereignty in the US, and the first target would be
health care ..." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/39c92fg

-----

56) Famous last words?
The Weekly Standard
by Matthew Continetti

"In his statement celebrating the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial
reform bill last week, President Obama said: 'There will be no more
taxpayer-funded bailouts -- period.' Really?" (07/19/10)

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/famous-last-words

-----

57) The Twitter primary
Slate
by John Dickerson

"The next Republican presidential campaign will happen in lots of new
places. There will be all the familiar locations we love so much --
Iowa, New Hampshire, diners, and Lincoln Day dinners -- but this week
offered another reminder, as if we needed one, that the race for the
2012 nomination will play out in the virtual world and at hyperspeed.
For the next 18 months, there will be stories and controversies and
entire news cycles (or mini-cycles) in which the candidates deliver
their messages but in which no one is actually seen speaking. The most
successful adopter is Sarah Palin on Facebook." (07/16/10)

http://www.slate.com/id/2260828/

-----

58) Consequences, chapter 14
The Price of Liberty
by Susan Callaway

Fiction. (07/19/10)

http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/2010/06/07/consequences-14.html

-----

59) Feds -- or local gov? -- shut down 73,000 blogs
WendyMcElroy.Com
by Wendy McElroy

"All we know is that an unknown government agency has shut down 73,000
blogs, without notice, for an unspecified reason. (An update to the
CNet story reports that the reason was not copyright violations.) As
TechDirt says: '... what could be so serious that the specific
problems couldn't be pinpointed? Taking down 73,000 blogs with no
notice seems like overkill, no matter what the actual issue turns out
to be.' It's times like this that I'm glad we host our own independent
blog on our own independent (rented) webserver with our own domain
name. If someone wants to take down our blog, only we are affected,
and they have to talk to us. If someone else's blog gets taken down,
we're not affected. And, we have backups. If you are using
wordpress.com or blogger.com or some other shared blogging platform,
be damned sure that you keep current backups of your site! Because the
Feds can wipe you out with no notice." (07/19/10)

http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.3397

-----

60) Government vs. Google
National Review
by Berin Szoka and Adam Thierer

"Believers in limited government must stand united for high-tech
property rights and digital speech freedoms for all players and
platforms. Although not traditionally a strong defender of property
rights, Google is now at the center of what will become the most
important media-freedom battle of our lifetimes. Hopefully, this push
to expropriate their core intellectual property -- their algorithm --
will teach them the importance of respecting the property rights of
others, and to be careful about allying with groups that promote
Internet regulation. " (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2emfa9q

-----

61) Quit calling the Tea Party populist!
Salon
by Joan Walsh

"Too many reporters have described the Tea Party movement as some kind
of populist uprising at 'elites' channeling economic anxiety about the
recession. Sadly (because he should know better), the New York Times'
Matt Bai is typical, writing just last month: 'The only potent grass-
roots movement to emerge from this moment of dissatisfaction with
America's economic elite exists ... in the form of the so-called Tea
Party rebellions that are injecting new energy into the Republican
cause.' The latest Democracy Corps poll and report might make Bai and
his editors think about a correction -- or at least a follow-
up." (07/19/10)

http://salon.com/a/svwcfAA==

-----

62) Gingrich presidential run might make more sense than some pundits
think
Human Events
by Matt Towery

"I have seen Newt Gingrich reinvent -- or perhaps better to say,
'evolve' -- many times in his career. First, he was the bright new
Republican conservative thinker in an overwhelmingly majority
Democratic House in the late 1970s and the 1980s. By the early 1990s,
he was the bomb-throwing, take-no-prisoners fighter who helped oust
Speaker Jim Wright from power. By the mid-1990s, he was still a
'revolutionary,' but one with a detailed plan of action and a band of
Republican 'brothers and sisters' in the House willing to follow his
lead to a huge 1994 electoral takeover of that chamber. Then there
were the years in the 'wilderness,' a term once used to describe
Winston Churchill after his having led his nation through World War
II, only to be later tossed out of power, at least for a while.
Gingrich resigned after much internal GOP fighting. Yes, there is
always the 'he has baggage' argument. But years have passed, and
Americans have short memories and forgiving hearts." (07/15/10)

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38077

-----

63) Tactical radicalism and the end of the GOP establishment
The New Republic
by Jonathan Chait

"Obviously the conservative movement is intoxicated with hubris right
now. Part of this hubris is their belief that the American people are
truly and deeply on their side and that the last two elections were
either a fluke or the product of a GOP that was too centrist. It's a
tactical radicalism, a belief that ideological purity carries no
electoral cost whatsoever. Right-wing tactical radicalism has an old
pedigree, and of course there is an equivalent (though less
influential) tactical radicalism on the left-wing of the Democratic
Party. Tactical radicalism is not the same thing as ideological
radicalism. Tactical radicals are a subset of ideological radicals;
some ideological radicals have clear-eyed of the pragmatic steps
needed to advance their goals incrementally." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/29utsbl

-----

64) When there is no rule of law
Freedom's Phoenix
by US Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)

"Last week ended with some promising news on finally stopping the oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, the administration still
seems to believe that shutting down working oil wells is a higher
priority than effectively dealing with the broken one. They are again
issuing a moratorium on off-shore drilling, while maintaining a de
facto ban on new permits even for shallow water drilling, which they
previously stated would be unaffected. The courts have twice declared
this unconstitutional, over 70 percent of the people see this as
unreasonable, yet the administration seems determined to simply end
off-shore drilling, at least for those producers that cannot afford to
sit idle for an unknown period of time until the ban is
lifted." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2blbsru

-----

65) Myth making about Haiti
Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall

"That various lefties should make myths about the world is hardly
surprising: it's all they have left of their grand ideas the poor
dears. One that has been doing the rounds just recently, 6 months
after the Haiti quake, is that the imposition of freer trade, forced
upon a reluctant country by those neo-liberal hellions at the IMF, has
led to a devastation of Haiti's home grown rice
production." (07/19/10)

http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/international/myth-making-about-haiti/

-----

66) Discretionary defense
The American Spectator
by Jed Babbin

"Two points. First, Ferguson uses the term 'discretionary spending' as
federal budgeteers do. It's the part of the federal budget that isn't
otherwise mandated spending, which is comprised of programs such as
Social Security, Medicare, and now Obamacare. Those are fixed in law
and unless Congress is suddenly repopulated with people whose DNA
includes a fiscal responsibility gene, they will keep us on the path
of an unsustainable growth in federal debt. Second, in time of war
just how much of defense spending really is 'discretionary?' The short
answer to this is that 'discretionary defense spending' is a three-
word oxymoron, especially in time of war. But that begs the question:
how much defense spending do we need?" [editor's note: A rather
irrelevant hypothetical, since the last US "time of war" in any legal
sense ended 60-odd years ago; if Congress can't be bothered to declare
war, then it can't legitimately claim war as an excuse for spending -
TLK] (07/19/10)

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/19/discretionary-defense

-----

67) Welfare & warfare
Nolan Chart
by Jim Quinn

"The real tragedy is that because of the fiscal irresponsibility of
politicians and the Boomer generation, future generations of Americans
will for the first time in U.S. history have a lower standard of
living than their parents. The wealth of the nation has been frittered
away by statists and war mongers. The current fiscal path of the
country is unsustainable." (07/19/10)

http://www.nolanchart.com/article7863.html

-----

68) Death tax musings
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by SM Oliva

"I was reading a Beltway columnist's cry this morning over the can't-
return-quickly-enough federal death tax. The tax does not apply for
deaths in 2010 -- but it will for deaths in 2011 and beyond -- which
means George Steinbrenner's sons were spared one heckuva tax bill.
This upset the columnist greatly, not because she had anything against
George, but because her beloved government was deprived of badly
needed revenue. It occurs to me, however, that it's not the loss of
death-tax revenue itself that supporters mourn; it's the idea that any
tax could simply vanish, even if it's just for a year." (07/19/10)

http://blog.mises.org/13323/death-tax-musings/

-----

69) An experiment: Give your reps a task to complete
Downsize DC
by Perry Willis

"Believe it or not, some of your elected representatives actually
realize that they work for you, at least when it comes to constituent
services. For instance ... My Representative, Gabrielle Giffords, has
said in interviews that good performance on constituent services is
crucial to her re-election. Your own representatives may have similar
feelings, and this could be a new tool for getting what you want. One
example of a constituent service is when you ask your elected
representatives to intervene with the federal bureaucracy on your
behalf. You could, for instance, ask them to intervene with the DHS
(Department of Homeland Security) to extend the time for public
comments on NSTIC to 90 days." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2asoglt

-----

70) A new weapon in the war on liberty
Albuquerque Libertarian Examiner
by Kent McManigal

"You have probably noticed the fetish LEOs have for flashlights. It is
more serious than you thought. Now that flashlight could also be
secretly recording everything you say and do. The first place in the
Albuquerque area that these privacy-invasion wands have been admitted
to being used is with the Rio Rancho Police Department. Cops are
always anxious to spy on you and me, yet, as has been seen in so many
places in so many ways, if you take video of cops, they will often
'arrest' you. Or worse." (07/19/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2ey5g8k

*****************************
* See No Evil, Hear No Evil
*****************************

71) From priest to scientist -- an interview with Dr. Francisco J.
Ayala
Hit & Run

"Ayala has the unique experience of studying both science at Columbia
University and theology at a seminary in Spain. Since leaving his
graduate studies, he has become a leader in the world of genetics and
evolution. He now teaches and conducts research in evolutionary
biology at the University of California, Irvine. Topics include
keeping science and religion separate in schools, the morality in
human cloning and whether humans have free will." [Flash video]
(07/19/10)

http://reason.com/blog/2010/07/19/reasontv-from-priest-to-scient

-----

72) Free Talk Live, 07/18/10
Free Talk Live

"*NOT FOR BROADCAST* Internet-only cohost edition featuring Sam,
Wayne, and Stephanie :: 7 Arrested in Keene Open Continer Crack
Down :: Ian is in Jail! :: Grafton, NH Court Activism :: Top US Banks
Laundring Money for Mexican Drug Gangs :: 10 Ways the Government Wants
to Track You." [MP3] (07/18/10)

http://media.libsyn.com/media/ftl/FTL2010-07-18.mp3

-----

73) Leslie Lefkow on Antiwar Radio
AntiWar.Com

"Leslie Lefkow, senior researcher and Horn of Africa team leader for
Human Rights Watch's Africa Division, discusses the recent history of
conflict in Somalia, the rise of al Shabaab, the recent bombing
attacks in Uganda, claimed by al Shabaab as retaliation against Uganda
for participating in the African Union military force in Somalia, the
humanitarian crisis, the American government's suspension of food aid,
and the blowback caused by U.S. intervention there." [Flash audio or
MP3] (07/18/10)

http://antiwar.com/radio/2010/07/18/leslie-lefkow-3/

-----

74) Freedomain Radio #1698
Freedomain Radio

"A UPB summary, the ethics of adultery, punishing evil, the four types
of parents, and a response to Aaron's criticisms of the recent
parenting convo with Stephan Kinsella." [MP3] (07/18/10)

http://tinyurl.com/fdr1698

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75) QandO Podcast, 07/18/10
QandO

"Bruce and Dale discuss the dissatisfaction about President Obama's
competence, the oil spill, and the American stranded in
Egypt." [various formats] (07/18/10)

http://www.qando.net/?p=9020

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* What's Up In The Freedom Movement
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76) 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/