06/22 -- NYC car bomb suspect pleads guilty, calls it "war;" SCOTUS upholds government power to outlaw dissent
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jun 22, 2010, 12:52:19 AM6/22/10
to Rational Review News Digest
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In The News:
1) NYC car bomb suspect pleads guilty, calls it "war"
2) SCOTUS upholds government power to outlaw dissent
3) Iraq: One killed, 27 wounded
4) Afghanistan: Nine occupation troops killed
5) Pakistan: Three troops killed in ambush
6) Pols reach tentative deal to limit debit card fees
7) 17 nations barred from whaling vote
8) South Korea: Radiation detected after fusion test in North
9) White House bills BP $51.4 million for Gulf clean-up work
10) NE: Fremont voters say no to jobs, property rights, freedom
11) Israel: Plan to raze Arab homes approved
12) Wikileaks to release files about deadly US airstrike on Afghan
civilians
13) Open-carry gun activists laud NC
14) TN: Assembly overrides Bredesen on gun law
15) Jamaican Diaspora and US to have victim disarmament talks
16) South Africa: Store owner shoots robbers
17) SC: Haley withstands whispering campaign
18) Study foretold a consequence of oil leak
19) McClintock: Drug cartel threatens Texas water supplies
20) Monsanto GM seed ban overturned by SCOTUS
Everybody Has An Opinion:
21) Facebook generation
22) Supreme Court creates new class: Unpersons
23) Police misconduct and public accountability
24) Republican healthcare
25) History repeats itself
26) Obama is no Superman
27) Why won't you die, damn it!
28) The mundane must submit
29) The case for human extinction
30) Free guns?
31) On the verge of collapse
32) Soft defense: How to help a kid beat a bully
33) The end of capitalism
34) Corporate con game
35) Congress confirms: US Military funds Afghan warlords
36) That 30's mistake
37) Did Bush and Co. do medical research on detainees?
38) The writing on the wall
39) Too much government in the Gulf
40) No excuse for coercion
41) There's no level playing field nor equal opportunity
42) Reflections on the 2010 Conference of the Property and Freedom
Society
43) Can more regulations solve the problem of failed regulations?
44) Consequences, chapter 10
45) The Obama administration and its pundit-defenders
46) Running on empty
47) Bring on the Coalition of the Digging
48) BP, the White House, and Congress are all dirty
49) BP and the unmitigated disaster
50) "Whine" wholesalers don't CARE about consumers
51) Aspirations and reality
52) Who's afraid of subliminal advertising?
53) Am I a libertarian? Is Glenn Beck? Nick Gillespie? Was Ayn Rand or
Robert Heinlein? Are you?
54) Anti-statists today, torturers tomorrow?
55) Why BP is not very slick in an emergency
See No Evil, Hear No Evil:
56) Ed Rutledge on Freedom Rings Radio, 06/28/10
57) Freedomain Radio #1684
58) Free Talk Live, 06/20/10
59) QandO Podcast, 06/20/10
60) John Dennis on Antiwar Radio
What's Up In The Freedom Movement:
61) Today's events
***************
* In The News
***************
1) NYC car bomb suspect pleads guilty, calls it "war"
San Francisco Chronicle
"Calling himself a Muslim soldier, a defiant Pakistan-born U.S.
citizen pleaded guilty Monday to carrying out the failed Times Square
car bombing and left a sinister warning that unless the U.S. leaves
Muslim lands alone, 'we will be attacking U.S.' Faisal Shahzad entered
the plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan just days after a federal
grand jury indicted him on 10 terrorism and weapons counts, some of
which carry mandatory life sentences. He pleaded guilty to them
all." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25blzut
-----
2) SCOTUS upholds government power to outlaw dissent
Christian Science Monitor
"The US Supreme Court on Monday upheld the constitutionality of a
federal law that makes it illegal to teach members of a foreign
terrorist group how to use peaceful means to pursue political goals.
The statute, outlawing the provision of 'material support' to
designated terrorist organizations, does not violate free-speech and
free-association protections of the First Amendment, and it is not
unconstitutionally vague, the majority justices declared. In a 6-to-3
decision, the high court said the law -- part of the USA Patriot Act
-- is specific enough to provide would-be violators fair notice of
when their conduct crosses the line into illegality. The majority
opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, says that Congress
intentionally wrote the statute with a broad sweep to outlaw material
support to terror groups in any form, including assistance or
expertise that might help nudge the group toward
nonviolence." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/262j6d4
-----
3) Iraq: One killed, 27 wounded
AntiWar.Com
"At least one Iraqi was killed and 39 more were wounded in the latest
violence. Rioting over power cuts spread to Nasariya were residents
attacked police guarding the province's government compound.
Electricity Minister Karim Waheed was forced to resign. Also, Turkish
troops are amassing at the border during operations against the
PKK." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3a5xxcm
-----
4) Afghanistan: Nine occupation troops killed
Washington Post
"Nine NATO troops were killed Monday in a helicopter crash and a spate
of attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan, putting June on pace
to become the deadliest month for the U.S.-led international force in
the nearly nine-year war. At least 62 NATO service members, including
41 Americans, have been killed this month in Afghanistan -- an average
of nearly three a day. Also on Monday, Afghan officials said a deputy
district governor was slain in Wardak province, the latest blow for
the U.S. effort to boost local governance in Taliban
strongholds." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/33429r4
-----
5) Pakistan: Three troops killed in ambush
Agence France-Presse
"A dozen militants ambushed a Pakistani military patrol in the
northwestern tribal badlands Monday, killing three soldiers and
sparking deadly clashes, officials said. The incident took place in
Kasha village in Orakzai, the district where the military said on June
1 that major combat operations as part of an anti-Taliban offensive
were over. 'Three soldiers of the Frontier Corps were killed and five
others wounded in the attack,' an official from the paramilitary told
AFP." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2bydv7j
-----
6) Pols reach tentative deal to limit debit card fees
New York Times
"House and Senate Democrats announced a tentative agreement Monday to
impose new limits on debit card fees, which would resolve a main
difference between the two chambers as they race to complete financial
legislation before the Fourth of July. The agreement largely preserves
the Senate's language, telling the Federal Reserve to limit the fees
that banks collect from merchants when customers swipe debit cards.
That is expected to save merchants billions of dollars, some of which
could be passed on to customers in the form of lower
prices." (06/21/10)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/business/22regulate.html
-----
7) 17 nations barred from whaling vote
ABC Online [Australia]
"Seventeen mostly pro-whaling nations have had their voting rights
suspended at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in
Morocco, in what could be a blow to Japan's hopes of resuming
commercial whaling. Delegates at the Agadir meeting are currently
engaged in secret talks in a bid to break the deadlock over proposals
to allow Japan to resume a limited commercial whale hunt in exchange
for a reduction in its so-called scientific whaling program in the
Southern Ocean. This morning meeting deputy chairman Anthony Liverpool
said about one fifth of the meeting's 88 member states would not be
allowed to vote. The countries include Palau, the Marshall Islands,
Ghana and Gambia and are mostly drawn from the pro-whaling bloc which
has been expected to back Japan's move. They have been suspended for
reasons including failing to pay their annual fees." (06/22/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2enl3xl
-----
8) South Korea: Radiation detected after fusion test in North
All Headline News
"A radiation detection station of South Korea measured increased
levels of radioactive xenon in the air two days after North Korea
announced a nuclear fusion test on May 12. The Korea Institute of
Nuclear Safety in Geojin, Gangwon Province, said xenon level in the
air was eight times higher than normal after the nuclear
test." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/22v5cq6
-----
9) White House bills BP $51.4 million for Gulf clean-up work
Wall Street Journal
"President Barack Obama's administration sent BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) its
biggest invoice yet -- $51.4 million -- for oil clean-up efforts in
the Gulf of Mexico. The oil giant already has agreed to a $20 billion
escrow fund for clean-up and other expenses related to the massive oil
spill flowing out of its deepwater Macondo well. Late last week, BP's
minority partner in the well, Anadarko Corp. (APC), refused to pay its
share of the $20 billion fund, as it accused BP of gross negligence.
Monday, the administration said it has billed BP and other, unnamed
responsible parties $51.4 million, raising the total to $70.9
million." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/23v5pqo
-----
10) NE: Fremont voters say no to jobs, property rights, freedom
Associated Press
"Voters in the eastern Nebraska city of Fremont have approved a ban on
hiring or renting property to illegal immigrants. The special election
in Fremont on Monday was the latest proposal in a series of
immigration regulations taken up by communities around the country.
About 57 percent of voters supported the measure, which is expected to
be challenged in court." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/235qcu6
-----
11) Israel: Plan to raze Arab homes approved
Financial Times [UK]
"The Jerusalem city council on Monday waved through a controversial
plan to demolish 22 Palestinian homes in the occupied eastern part of
the city, setting the stage for fresh tensions between Israel and the
international community. ... The plan aims to convert land currently
occupied by 88 Palestinian homes into a tourist attraction with shops,
restaurants and a boutique hotel." (06/22/10)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1d1caa86-7d50-11df-a0f5-00144feabdc0.html
-----
12) Wikileaks to release files about deadly US airstrike on Afghan
civilians
Washington Post
"Wikileaks.org plans to release as soon as this week documents related
to a U.S. airstrike that killed Afghan civilians last year and plans
to release combat footage of the incident this summer, the founder of
the whistleblower site said in an interview Monday. Julian Assange
said the documents pertain to an attack near the Afghan village of
Garani, which killed scores of civilians in May 2009. In April,
Wikileaks released video footage of a U.S. Apache helicopter attack in
Iraq that killed several civilians, including two employees of the
Reuters news service." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25cn7bo
-----
13) Open-carry gun activists laud NC
Sun News
"Randy Dye will sometimes carry a gun on his hip, right out in the
open, no jacket pulled over it, no inside-the-belt holster. It draws
funny looks, and Dye doesn't much care. One time, Dye explains, he was
standing in line for a money order when the guy behind him asked, 'Are
you a police officer?' Dye said no, and the guy kept staring, so Dye
stared back. 'We good?' Dye asked, and the conversation stopped. 'I
wasn't trying to intimidate,' says Dye, a retired trauma nurse in
Chatham County. 'He approached me. If you don't understand your
constitutional rights, you need to go read them.'" (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2erptf4
-----
14) TN: Assembly overrides Bredesen on gun law
the Leaf Chronicle
"The Tennessee General Assembly adjourned on June 10 and one of their
last acts before going home for the summer was to override Gov. Phil
Bredesen's veto of Senate Bill 3012.The bill will allow a person who
has a valid Right-to-Carry permit to carry a firearm for self defense
in restaurants where alcohol may be served, as long as the permit
holder is not consuming alcohol or is not otherwise prohibited by
posting provisions." (06/20/10)
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20100620/COLUMNISTS11/100619007
-----
15) Jamaican Diaspora and US to have victim disarmament talks
Jamaica Observer
"But member of the Diaspora advisory board, David Mullings, while
admitting that the US' second amendment legislation contributes to the
prevalence of illegal firearms in Jamaica, said it is not the
prerogative of that country to curb the problem. 'We of the Diaspora
will not be able to lobby the US to change their laws. What we need to
focus on is what laws we can change in Jamaica,' he said. 'We need to
figure out why people want guns, and how do we prevent them from
getting the guns, and how do we make them afraid to even use the
guns,' he said, adding that even if guns were prevented from entering
Jamaica from the US, criminals would find alternative means of supply
through Haiti and other countries." (06/20/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28p56y5
-----
16) South Africa: Store owner shoots robbers
Newstime [South Africa]
"A Bloemfontein store owner shot and killed a suspected robber in the
Bayswater's Emily Hobhouse Square yesterday. Police spokesperson Col
Sam Makhele said four robbers entered the store and started firing at
the man inside his store. The man fired back from his office and hit
one of the robbers in the chest, upon seeing their accomplice taking
fire the other robbers ran from the store. The injured man managed to
get outside the store before collapsing and dying. ... Makhele said as
the man was acting within his rights to defend himself, he will not
face any charges." (06/22/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2f8mhnt
-----
17) SC: Haley withstands whispering campaign
Associated Press
"There's a whisper campaign going on in South Carolina this month, but
it's not what you might think. The whisper is that the political smear
tactics that this state made famous don't seem to be working this time
around. It started a couple of weeks ago, when two separate
allegations of adultery were directed at Nikki Haley, a Republican
candidate for governor. Voters either didn't believe the
unsubstantiated claims or didn't care; Haley won 49.5 percent of the
vote in the GOP primary. She and the runner-up, Rep. Gresham Barrett,
will face each other Tuesday in a runoff." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2a46zjp
-----
18) Study foretold a consequence of oil leak
Boston Globe
"It wasn't until seven weeks after the BP oil well began gushing that
the company acknowledged oil remained hidden under the surface of the
Gulf of Mexico, and it continues to dispute the extent of miles-long
submerged plumes. But an unusual experiment conducted in 2000 off the
coast of Norway, a trial run of a deep-water oil and gas spill that BP
helped pay for, showed that oil could remain underwater for some time.
The North Atlantic exercise was designed to understand how a spill
would behave as the drilling industry plumbed new depths to extract
oil and gas. The federal Minerals Management Service and 22 companies
took part in the test, at about half the depth of the gulf
disaster." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/39xtnum
-----
19) McClintock: Drug cartel threatens Texas water supplies
Fox News
"Drug cartel activity along the Mexican border presents serious
security threats to the area's water supply system, particularly on
federally-owned lands in southern Texas, a U.S. lawmaker says. Members
of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power held a
hearing Thursday on H.R. 4719, a bill that would create a Southwest
Border Region Water Task Force to monitor and assess the water supply
needs of the area. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., ranking member of
the House subcommittee, told FoxNews.com that the situation needs
immediate attention, particularly in light of reports that a Mexican
drug cartel -- the Los Zetas -- unsuccessfully plotted to blow up the
Falcon Dam along the Rio Grande last month." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/32f8dpz
-----
20) Monsanto GM seed ban overturned by SCOTUS
BBC News [UK]
"The bio-tech company Monsanto can sell genetically modified seeds
before safety tests on them are completed, the US Supreme Court has
ruled. A lower court had barred the sale of the modified alfalfa seeds
until an environmental impact study could be carried out. But seven of
the nine Supreme Court Justices decided that ruling was
unconstitutional. The seed is modified to be resistant to Monsanto's
brand of weedkiller. The US is the world's largest producer of
alfalfa, a grass-like plant used as animal feed. It is the fourth most
valuable crop grown in the country. Environmentalists had argued that
there might be a risk of cross-pollination between genetically
modified plants and neighboring crops." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27rdbbd
*******************************************************************
* HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 06/22/10
*
* Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 96,803 ... Max - 105,553
* (source: www.iraqbodycount.org)
*
* American Military Deaths in Iraq: 4,407
* (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/)
*******************************************************************
****************************
* Everybody Has An Opinion
****************************
21) Facebook generation
Adam Smith Institute
by Anton Howes
"It used to be that all politicians had an unknown past. Once they
approached power, the embarrassing photos would emerge, school friends
and university acquaintances would be interviewed and we would all
judge. Remember the party leader interviews, or even the channel 4
docu-drama on Cameron and Boris Johnson? In [the] future, however,
there will be too much to trawl through. The norm is that everyone
bares their life to their friends, acquaintances, and occasionally
everyone. Whilst the privacy is controllable and photos may be
untagged, the fact remains that they're still there and are likely to
emerge at some stage into the public gaze." (06/21/10)
http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/media-and-culture/facebook-generation/
-----
22) Supreme Court creates new class: Unpersons
Nolan Chart
by Walt Thiessen
"The 6-3 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Holder v.
Humanitarian Law Project, No. 08-1498 effectively creates a new class
of people: Unpersons. These are people who have the temerity to
disagree with U.S. government's designations of certain persons and
groups as terrorists. The ruling effectively makes it a crime to
attempt to make peace with such people. It eliminates, from a legal
perspective, the basic human rights of anyone who disagrees with the
U.S. government." (06/21/10)
http://www.nolanchart.com/article7805.html
-----
23) Police misconduct and public accountability
WendyMcElroy.Com
by Wendy McElroy
"Note the omission. The news report names the alleged victim, the
witness and (elsewhere) the lawyer but not the accused deputies. Nor
do their names appear in subsequent stories about an official
investigation into allegations that the deputies used excessive force.
Few people outside law enforcement are familiar with Police Disclosure
Laws (PDLs), which in most states, including Florida, block the
release of information about an officer's alleged misconduct until
internal investigations are completed. Even then, the laws are often
broadly interpreted to block such release. Some states do not make
information public unless criminal charges are filed or the officer is
dismissed. Other states leave the issue entirely to the police
department's discretion." (06/21/10)
http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.3350
-----
24) Republican healthcare
John Stossel's Take
by John Stossel
"James P. Pinkerton makes good points about how Republicans might
present a more optimistic healthcare policy. ... But prevention isn't
free. It's valuable and enhances life, but I don't see how it saves
money. As I've written on before, preventative health care does not
necessarily lower costs. Often prevention lets people live long enough
to get even more expensive diseases. Pinkerton points out that there
are exceptions: a cure for Alzheimer's, for instance, would save
billions. Taking care of the elderly would cost less, and some elderly
people would be productive longer. ... Thanks to these victories for
medical progress, which are distinct from 'healthcare reform,' our
lives are not only better, but longer. The life expectancy of the
average American has soared from less than 50 years in 1900 to nearly
80 years today. ... Woe betide the American politician who lets
himself be associated with anything close to a death panel. But I get
nervous when advocates use the word 'we.' But who is 'we?'" (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28ob5ke
-----
25) History repeats itself
Strike the Root
by Lawrence M. Ludlow
"There is nothing like travel to remind us that 'this happened before'
-- especially when it comes to examples of government running amok. I
recently spent a few weeks in Germany, and I was reminded that
individuals from that region are responsible for a staggering number
of cultural contributions -- in music, art, philosophy, theology,
architecture, science and technology, literature, cuisine, and history
writing. Even more, to a voluntaryist." (06/21/10)
http://www.strike-the-root.com/history-repeats-itself-trip-to-germany
-----
26) Obama is no Superman
AntiWar.Com
by Kelley B. Vlahos
"As the ecology in the Gulf circles the sticky tar drain of evolution,
and countless livelihoods spanning at least four states going down
with it, Americans are wondering where their Superman is. The
disappointment that President Barack Obama seems stuck in the phone
booth, still deciding whether to get his suit on, is nothing new.
Those of us hoping for similar action in Afghanistan have been waiting
for more than a year. Turns out that Obama doesn't really do bold and
heroic -- it's not his style -- and he certainly doesn't come off as
decisive, unless he's pushed. Where George Bush was 'the decider,'
Obama seems to lead by committee, and not the kind of committee that
gets things done." (06/22/10)
http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2010/06/21/obama-is-no-superman/
-----
27) Why won't you die, damn it!
LewRockwell.Com
by David Galland
"Back when I had more time, I would occasionally play Oblivion, a
video game. A game so addictive, it's been known to contribute to
flunking out of colleges and the failure of marriages. When
persevering in a sword fight, your computerized opponents were prone
to angrily muttering the phrase 'Why won't you die, damn it!' That
phrase pops to mind as I watch the global stock market continue to get
hammered, as gold continues to battle the headwinds with impressive
tenacity. So why won't the damn crisis just die -- and with it,
gold?" (06/22/10)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/galland9.1.1.html
-----
28) The mundane must submit
Pro Libertate
by Will Grigg
"Marilyn Levias, a 19-year-old Seattle girl involved in a jaywalking
incident during which a police officer assaulted another 17-year-old
girl, displayed 'a dangerous refusal to observe a cardinal rule that
civilians simply must comply with instructions from police officers,'
insists Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes. For this, Miss Levias faces
a gross misdemeanor charge of 'Obstructing a Police Officer.' During
the confrontation, Levias's 17-year-old friend, Angel L. Rosenthal,
intervened on her behalf and was punched in the face by officer Ian P.
Walsh. As is typically the case when a Mundane's face obstructs the
trajectory of a police officer's fist, the victim is the one facing
criminal charges." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2ecvavg
-----
29) The case for human extinction
Fred on Everything
by Fred Reed
"The wind has always enchanted me. I hear in it ... I hear in it ...
what? Something larger, older, apart, something that does not care
about us, pro or con. How does one say this to a thoughtless rabble
twiddling video games? To them the beach is prime real estate for
development into tee-shirt emporia, boardwalks, and jet-ski rentals
for ill-mannered adolescents." (06/21/10)
http://www.fredoneverything.net/Extinction.shtml
-----
30) Free guns?
The Libertarian Enterprise
by Neale Osborn
"Since the HCR supporters make no bones that they want 'Single
Payer' (free healthcare), because they claim it is a Constitutional
right, and it isn't in the Constitution, I want the government to pass
out military weapons to all voters. After all, the right to keep and
bear arms IS mentioned specifically in the Constitution. I get a free
lawyer if I can't get one to protect my 5th Amendment rights. Why not
a gun? If I have to pay taxes to give others freebies, why can't I get
a freebie once in a while?" (06/21/10)
http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2010/tle575-20100620-05.html
-----
31) On the verge of collapse
Boston Globe
by James Carroll
"'It wasn't Sen. McCain's question,' General David Petraeus said. 'I
just got dehydrated.' The head of US Central Command was accounting
for the fact that, moments before, while testifying before the Senate
Armed Services Committee, he had briefly passed out. Senator McCain's
undisguised skepticism about what he was hearing of the American war
in Afghanistan was not the problem. It was explained that Petraeus had
not had breakfast. ... On the same day, the heads of five oil
companies appeared before a House committee looking into the Gulf of
Mexico oil catastrophe. The business executives were subject to angry
interrogation by members of Congress. That all five companies depended
on the same 'cookie cutter' emergency back-up plan for deep water
drilling showed that the notorious incompetence of BP is the industry
standard. Not embarrassment here, but anger. About the most that could
be said for the oil company chiefs was that no one
fainted." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28dgoba
-----
32) Soft defense: How to help a kid beat a bully
Christian Science Monitor
by Lisa Suhay
"If you stand up to a bully, he, or she, will back down. But what
happens when you don't know how to do that or, when you do, the bully
doesn't back down? Recent news reports have provided evidence ranging
from a boy firing a gun in school to a little girl begging her parents
not to send her back to her tormentors because she'd rather die than
go to school one more day. ... The immediate disclaimer here is that
teachers and parents can do only so much to help a child combat
bullying. Telling an authority figure and bringing in the bully's
parents often result in the bully getting more cunning and vicious. At
some point, we all have to learn that the victim (at any age or stage
of life) is the one with the true power to stop a bully -- or any
abuser." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28l5457
-----
33) The end of capitalism
The American Prospect
by Tim Fernholz
"On May 6, the Senate was locked in a heated debate over whether the
government should impose size limits on the largest banks in the
country, in effect breaking up the reviled giants of American finance.
But the journalists in the press gallery above the chamber weren't
paying attention: They were riveted to CNBC, which was reporting an
enormous, unexpected, and simultaneous plunge in several different
global markets. On TV, the Money Honeys were losing it. The Dow slid
1,000 points in less than an hour. 'What the heck is going on?' one
reporter wondered aloud. The Senate could break up the banks, and the
markets are crashing? It's the end of capitalism! But capitalism won't
go down so easily. Predictably, breaking up the banks was a bridge too
far for the stodgy Senate, and the provision only garnered the support
of a third of the body." (06/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/37sgozk
-----
34) Corporate con game
In These Times
by Beau Hodai
"'Beside my brothers and my sisters, I'll proudly take a stand. When
liberty's in jeopardy, I'll always do what's right. I'm out here on
the frontline, sleep in peace tonight. American soldier, I'm an
American soldier.' So goes the ringtone of Arizona State Sen. Russell
Pearce's (R-Mesa) phone -- as performed by Toby 'we put a boot up your
ass, it's the American way' Keith. Seconds into any conversation with
Pearce about illegal immigration, you'll discover that the song fits.
In his mind, Pearce is an 'American soldier' fighting a war that he
believes threatens the very fiber of the nation." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2bl75t9
-----
35) Congress confirms: US Military funds Afghan warlords
The Nation
by Aram Roston
"Security for key US military supply routes in Afghanistan is in the
hands of a small group of powerful Afghan warlords who run a massive
protection racket and may be paying off the Taliban, according to a
Congressional report being released Tuesday. The report, an advance
copy of which was obtained by The Nation, discloses that the Army has
opened a criminal investigation into the payoffs, as an Army Criminal
Investigation Command spokesman confirmed this evening to the
Associated Press. The jarring report, called 'Warlord, Inc,' is the
result of a six-month investigation prompted by a Nation cover story
last November, 'How the US Funds the Taliban,' about the largest US
logistics contract in Afghanistan." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28qlp5t
-----
36) That 30's mistake
Campaign for Liberty
by William L. Anderson
"Continuing with his theme of 'spend, spend, spend,' Paul Krugman is
determined to claim that the free-spending governments of the West
really are engaging in 'austerity.' Of course, not only does he get
the New Deal wrong (and he really gets it wrong), but also is wrong
about what happened in 1937." (06/21/10)
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=954
-----
37) Did Bush and Co. do medical research on detainees?
Future of Freedom Foundation
by Sheldon Richman
"As time goes by, the record of the Bush administration gets worse and
worse. It could turn out that the most egregious offense of the Bush-
esque Obama administration will be that its Justice Department let
Bush-Cheney & Co. off scot-free. It's not enough that the last gang to
occupy the Executive Branch got us into two illegal wars, accumulated
autocratic powers, violated our civil liberties, and tortured
suspects. Now it appears that it kicked things up a notch." (06/21/10)
http://www.fff.org/comment/com1006f.asp
-----
38) The writing on the wall
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Bryan Caplan
"From the outset, many questioned the practicality of the socialists'
solution. After you equalize incomes, who will take out the garbage?
Yet almost no one questioned the socialists' idealism. By 1961,
however, the descendants of the radical wing of the Social Democratic
Party had built the Berlin Wall -- and were shooting anyone who tried
to flee their 'Workers' Paradise.' A movement founded to liberate the
worker turned its guns on the very people it vowed to save. Who could
have foreseen such a mythic transformation? Out of all the critics of
socialism, one stands out as uniquely prescient: Eugen Richter
(1838-1906). During the last decades of the 19th century, he was the
leading libertarian in the German Reichstag, as well as the chief
editor of the Freisinnige Zeitung. Seventy years before the Wall,
Richter's dystopian novel, Pictures of the Socialistic Future, boldly
predicted that victorious German socialism would inspire a mass exodus
-- and that the socialists would respond by banning emigration, and
punishing violators with deadly force." (06/21/10)
http://mises.org/daily/4504
-----
39) Too much government in the Gulf
Freedom's Phoenix
by US Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
"[A]s usually happens after disasters, countless people -- even
officials in local and state government -- have come forward who know
what needs to be done and are willing to help, but have been stymied
by federal bureaucratic red tape as the oil continues to gush. The
real problem is not so much a lack of government assistance, but
government getting in the way of those who have solutions. We
witnessed the same phenomenon during hurricanes Katrina and Ike. It
seems government's main role in these situations is to find excuses to
stall relief, hold meetings and press conferences, waste money, punish
the wrong people, and over-regulate. Yet even after many examples of
past incompetence, people still look to government to solve problems
in the wake of disasters." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/38a2xsy
-----
40) No excuse for coercion
Tibor's Space
by Tibor R. Machan
"For my money coercive force is not only when someone threatens to
beat up or kill another unless that other does as told. I start much
earlier, when someone presumes to have the authority to entice or
nudge his or her fellow human beings to do as told (hoped for)! I
don't see that the importance of the project that's to be served by
such coercive force has anything to do with it -- people aren't
supposed to be other people's tools, unwilling devices for the sake of
achieving even the most magnificent objectives. Certainly no one is
made a morally better individual by way of being beaten or threatened
to be beaten into being such, to do what is morally right. How could
they, since moral goodness, if it amounts to anything intelligible at
all, must involve the agent's free choice. Without the chance to
choose to do the right or wrong thing any kind of worthwhile conduct
amounts at most to good behavior, like what we want from dogs or
horses." (06/19/10)
http://tibikem.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B2FD693F4B9A5746!2242.entry
-----
41) There's no level playing field nor equal opportunity
A Passion for Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
"Yet another excuse for some people to gain power over others is this
idea of the level playing field. It's a metaphor, of course, but used
often to mean starting in a race with no advantages for any of the
participants. Another term by which to indicate this is equal
opportunity. Even those who see through the ruse of peddling equality
for all people tend to cave in to this one, agreeing that at least
everyone has the right to an equal opportunity. The opportunity for
what is not often spelled out but it may include obtaining a job,
entering a school, embarking on travel, winning a contest or whatnot.
The image that's called to mind is that when people start out to
achieve some goal, none may be favored or disfavored, none may have
special advantages or disadvantages, etc. But the the idea is
hopeless. In no actual or even imaginable endeavor do people enjoy the
level playing field or an equal opportunity." (06/20/10)
http://tinyurl.com/33z8xf5
-----
42) Reflections on the 2010 Conference of the Property and Freedom
Society
Free Life Commentary
by Sean Gabb
"It was on account of his disappointment with even the least useless
of the other policy institutes he had known that Professor [Hans-
Hermann] Hoppe decided to set up the Property and Freedom Society. Its
purpose was not to engage with the ruling class or its various
clients, but to have nothing whatever to do with them. It would
exclude politicians and economic illiterates. It would reject the
State and all its works. It would instead seek to foster a counter-
culture that was opposed both to the State and to the legitimising
ideologies of the State that many libertarians have not been able to
recognise for what they are. The Property and Freedom Society would
provide a space within which representatives from a range of
traditions would be able to discuss the principles of a free market
natural order, and to see the State more clearly than is normally
possible as nothing more than a gang of bandits surrounded by various
applause societies and useful idiots." (06/17/10)
http://www.seangabb.co.uk/flcomm/flc195.htm
-----
43) Can more regulations solve the problem of failed regulations?
Classically Liberal
by CLS
"A private company, used to its cozy relationship with Big Government
failed. Laws that limit liability subsidized its failure. It failed
because it took short cuts that were approved by regulators.
Regulations that were put in place, in order to prevent such problems,
were not enforced by the regulators. And the regulations that are in
place were only put in place after the safety mechanism had become the
typical standard in oil rigs and after many rigs had already imposed a
secondary safety mechanism. So regulations followed private safety
measures, they didn't create them. Even now the double mechanisms are
becoming common prior to any regulation requiring them. The regulatory
system, which is in place already, failed. And no one is explaining
why more such regulations will make a difference when the enforcers
ignored current regulations." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26vchmq
-----
44) Consequences, chapter 10
The Price of Liberty
by Susan Callaway
Fiction. (06/21/10)
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/2010/05/24/consequences-10.html
-----
45) The Obama administration and its pundit-defenders
Salon
by Glenn Greenwald
"It really is hard to imagine many things worse, more criminal, than
imprisoning people for years whom you know are innocent, while
fighting in court to keep them imprisoned. But that's exactly what the
Obama administration is doing. ... Of course, none of this is new for
the Obama administration; it's consistent with their course of conduct
from the start. I highlight this today only because there is an
obvious, concerted effort by a slew of Democratic Beltway pundits over
the last month or so to attack the so-called 'Left' for daring to
express displeasure with the Obama administration, and to demonize
those objections as unserious, shrill, irrational, purist and all the
other cliches long used by this same cadre of party apparatchiks for
the same purpose." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2dewxz5
-----
46) Running on empty
The Weekly Standard
by Fred Barnes
"The Obama presidency is nearly out of gas. So are the Democratic
majorities in the Senate and House. Yet the White House and
congressional Democrats aren't surrendering. They're still intoxicated
with their 'historic majorities' and bent on enacting more landmark
liberal legislation this year, including cap and trade, a value-added
tax (VAT), and who knows what else. Are they fantasizing? Not
entirely. The odds -- and the political climate -- are against them.
But their ideological ambitions are undiminished and they have a sense
of urgency. They know their majorities will be crippled (if not
eliminated) in the midterm elections on November 2, which means they
must enact the remaining parts of the agenda in 2010 or put them back
in the cupboard of liberal dreams, maybe for decades. So it's now or
never." (for publication 06/28/10)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/running-empty
-----
47) Bring on the Coalition of the Digging
Slate
by Christopher Hitchens
"The story of countries that are poor because they are rich is an old
one: The Congo has been a scandalous example since the time of its
private ownership by the Belgian royal family in the 19th century, and
to the list of nations subject to depredation by resource exploitation
one could also add Haiti, Angola, India, and (to be fair) China.
Afghanistan has no infrastructure or professional civil service, no
tradition of extractive industry, and no mechanism for sharing
resources among its wildly discrepant provinces and regions. A
Klondike beyond the Khyber could be the last thing it needs. Still.
This is at least a trillion-dollar national-resource treasure in a
country that so far has had a GDP with scarcely any pulse. The
governments of NATO -- which include countries with vast experience in
mining, from Germany to Canada and from Britain to the United States
-- have had almost no real work to do on the economic front except to
distribute aid, itself often a cause of resentment, and waste time
trying to "interdict" Afghanistan's only other existing resource,
which is opium. Is it conceivable that such an alliance of earth-
moving and digging powers could not at last find something genuinely
constructive to do in a country where they already have a U.N. mandate
for rebuilding and reconstruction?"
(06/21/10)
http://www.slate.com/id/2257659/
-----
48) BP, the White House, and Congress are all dirty
TCS Daily
by Larry Kudlow
"Amidst all the political jockeying over the BP catastrophe, the main
players are missing what is really uppermost on America's mind: It's
the spill rate, stupid. It's jobs, stupid. It's the economy, stupid.
And none of it is happening. All eyes in Washington, Wall Street, and
Main Street were turned this week to the congressional show trial
featuring beleaguered BP CEO Tony Hayward. Hayward was a disaster. He
played dumb. He stonewalled. And he never got honest about the
colossal failure of human judgment at BP that caused this catastrophe.
But folks, seriously, what did you expect?" (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/23hys9o
-----
49) BP and the unmitigated disaster
Intellectual Conservative
by Alan Caruba
"The Gulf of Mexico could turn into a giant dead zone if some means
cannot be found to staunch the flow of oil and toxic gases emerging
from the damaged well beneath the Deepwater Horizon. Industry insiders
who understand the engineering of wells are beginning to speak openly
among themselves of an unmitigated disaster. ... The event and
previous explosions at its refineries were the result of years of an
internal BP philosophy that focused on profits before safety. Whether
it was accident-prone refineries or corrosion in the Alaska pipeline,
BP cut corners." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/242p577
-----
50) "Whine" wholesalers don't CARE about consumers
Cato Institute
by Brandon Arnold
"Wine aficionados celebrated the fifth anniversary in May of a
landmark Supreme Court ruling that helped to open up direct-to-
consumer wine shipping for many Americans. But if a special-interest
group gets its way, these liberties will soon be in jeopardy. The
instrument is the Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness Act,
an innocuous-sounding bill with a positively heartwarming acronym, the
CARE Act. Really, who could oppose such warm and fuzzy legislation? In
reality, the CARE Act would shut down and probably reverse the growing
trend of legalizing direct wine shipping. Even worse, it would
essentially eviscerate an important part of the Constitution as it
pertains to alcohol." (06/20/10)
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11910
-----
51) Aspirations and reality
Independent Institute
by Randall Holcombe
"I was talking with a new college graduate recently who told me of his
plan to buy a BMW. He doesn't have the money to do it now, but said
that after he had a job for a few years and had some income saved up,
getting a BMW was something he aspired to. Am I stretching too much to
see a parallel between this and the support for President Obama's
'hope and change' agenda? Like the new college graduate who aspires to
own a BMW, President Obama hoped for the day when people could be
secure in the idea that future health care costs wouldn't bankrupt
them, and the day when our economy could run on high-tech non-
polluting domestically-produced energy. The recent graduate who was
talking with me about his aspirations for a BMW had the good sense to
see that at the moment the car was unaffordable to him. He would wait
to buy it until he had the financial means to do so. Indeed, if he'd
concocted plans to get a dozen credit cards and max them out so he
could get the car now, we would frown upon his behavior rather than
admiring the fact that he has dreams and aspirations." (06/18/10)
http://www.independent.org/blog/?p=6641
-----
52) Who's afraid of subliminal advertising?
Reason
by Greg Beato
"The concept of subliminal advertising has long terrified America.
When the 1950s adman James Vicary claimed to have boosted concession
sales at a New Jersey theater by briefly flashing phrases like 'drink
Coca-Cola' on the screen as the main feature played, pundits and
politicians worried that we were now just one double feature away from
turning into brainwashed, popcorn-gobbling Stalinists. In the 1970s,
the Canadian academic Wilson Bryan Key convinced millions that
magazine ads for booze, cigarettes, and even Ritz Crackers featured
more sexual debauchery than a busy night at Plato's Retreat, inducing
feelings of panic and shame in those who viewed them. Today, even the
trashiest Ritz Cracker can't compete with the explicit sexual imagery
that pervades pop culture, so we channel our angst about advertising
into new realms." (for publication 07/10)
http://reason.com/archives/2010/06/21/whos-afraid-of-subliminal-adve
-----
53) Am I a libertarian? Is Glenn Beck? Nick Gillespie? Was Ayn Rand or
Robert Heinlein? Are you?
J. Neil Schulman @ Rational Review
by J. Neil Schulman
"A lifetime of devotion to liberty isn't even close to being enough
for many libertarians to think as you as being a member of their
little clique. And I do mean little. If being a lifetime worker for
liberty isn't enough for some people, evolving towards liberty from a
mainstream state-approving belief system is likely to have you looked
at the way a life-saving transplanted organ is regarded by blindly
hostile white corpuscles -- with results just as fatal to the body. It
just doesn't take much for libertarians to treat you like a Jew trying
to join the Episcopalian-run country club." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2wxqd38
-----
54) Anti-statists today, torturers tomorrow?
The American Conservative
by Daniel McCarthy
"What Dionne and other conventional commentators present as a right-
wing coalition that comes together under 'successful conservative
politicians such as Ronald Reagan (and George W. Bush in his first
term)' but threatens to fracture into extremism when out of power is
actually something else: a fairly stable party elite that employs a
rhetorical strategy to sell Americans on liberty when the GOP needs to
assemble enough votes to reclaim power, but that once in command again
doles out privileges to favored interests and conceals the growth of
government behind moralistic and nationalistic bombast." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26xj9fy
-----
55) Why BP is not very slick in an emergency
Spiked
by Frank Furedi
"The most important lesson of the tragic Gulf of Mexico oil spill is
that the tendency today to dramatise risk creates a climate in which
risk management becomes a kind of performance." (06/21/10)
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/9028/
*****************************
* See No Evil, Hear No Evil
*****************************
56) Ed Rutledge on Freedom Rings Radio, 06/28/10
Freedom Rings Radio
Ed Rutledge, Libertarian Party candidate, for Lieutenant Governor of
Illinois, joins host Kenneth John. 9-10am Central on WRMN 1410 AM,
Elgin, IL or live on the web. [live radio or stream] (06/28/10)
http://freedomrings.net/
-----
57) Freedomain Radio #1684
Freedomain Radio
"Dealing with a violent girlfriend, how to overcome a master/slave
relationship with your kids, the perils of immortality, the sadness of
dying, and three questions for fundamentalists ..." [MP3] (06/20/10)
http://tinyurl.com/fdr1684
-----
58) Free Talk Live, 06/20/10
Free Talk Live
"**NOT FOR BROADCAST! INTERNET ONLY** Co-host Edition with Dale, Puke,
and Luthor :: Bizarre Sexual Fetishes :: BDSM :: Kill switch for the
Internet :: Porcfest 2010 :: Burlesque :: People "Forced" to Listen ::
Censored by Pirate Station." [MP3] (06/20/10)
http://media.libsyn.com/media/ftl/FTL2010-06-20.mp3
-----
59) QandO Podcast, 06/20/10
QandO
"Bruce and Dale discuss the dissatisfaction about President Obama's
competence, the oil spill, and the American stranded in
Egypt." [various formats] (06/20/10)
http://www.qando.net/?p=8809
-----
60) John Dennis on Antiwar Radio
AntiWar.Com
"John Dennis, 2010 Republican candidate for the House of
Representatives in California's 8th Congressional District (Nancy
Pelosi's seat), discusses his chances for success in an overwhelmingly
Democratic district, NSA warrantless wiretapping at AT&T in San
Francisco that Pelosi was likely aware of, how Ron Paul's liberty
movement can coexist with the Palin wing of the Tea Party and why
Pelosi hasn't had to run a real campaign since the Reagan
administration." [Flash audio or MP3] (06/19/10)
http://antiwar.com/radio/2010/06/19/john-dennis/
*************************************
* What's Up In The Freedom Movement
*************************************
61) 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
*
* Volume VIII, Issue #1,945
* Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
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* by the staff of Rational Review
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In The News:
1) NYC car bomb suspect pleads guilty, calls it "war"
2) SCOTUS upholds government power to outlaw dissent
3) Iraq: One killed, 27 wounded
4) Afghanistan: Nine occupation troops killed
5) Pakistan: Three troops killed in ambush
6) Pols reach tentative deal to limit debit card fees
7) 17 nations barred from whaling vote
8) South Korea: Radiation detected after fusion test in North
9) White House bills BP $51.4 million for Gulf clean-up work
10) NE: Fremont voters say no to jobs, property rights, freedom
11) Israel: Plan to raze Arab homes approved
12) Wikileaks to release files about deadly US airstrike on Afghan
civilians
13) Open-carry gun activists laud NC
14) TN: Assembly overrides Bredesen on gun law
15) Jamaican Diaspora and US to have victim disarmament talks
16) South Africa: Store owner shoots robbers
17) SC: Haley withstands whispering campaign
18) Study foretold a consequence of oil leak
19) McClintock: Drug cartel threatens Texas water supplies
20) Monsanto GM seed ban overturned by SCOTUS
Everybody Has An Opinion:
21) Facebook generation
22) Supreme Court creates new class: Unpersons
23) Police misconduct and public accountability
24) Republican healthcare
25) History repeats itself
26) Obama is no Superman
27) Why won't you die, damn it!
28) The mundane must submit
29) The case for human extinction
30) Free guns?
31) On the verge of collapse
32) Soft defense: How to help a kid beat a bully
33) The end of capitalism
34) Corporate con game
35) Congress confirms: US Military funds Afghan warlords
36) That 30's mistake
37) Did Bush and Co. do medical research on detainees?
38) The writing on the wall
39) Too much government in the Gulf
40) No excuse for coercion
41) There's no level playing field nor equal opportunity
42) Reflections on the 2010 Conference of the Property and Freedom
Society
43) Can more regulations solve the problem of failed regulations?
44) Consequences, chapter 10
45) The Obama administration and its pundit-defenders
46) Running on empty
47) Bring on the Coalition of the Digging
48) BP, the White House, and Congress are all dirty
49) BP and the unmitigated disaster
50) "Whine" wholesalers don't CARE about consumers
51) Aspirations and reality
52) Who's afraid of subliminal advertising?
53) Am I a libertarian? Is Glenn Beck? Nick Gillespie? Was Ayn Rand or
Robert Heinlein? Are you?
54) Anti-statists today, torturers tomorrow?
55) Why BP is not very slick in an emergency
See No Evil, Hear No Evil:
56) Ed Rutledge on Freedom Rings Radio, 06/28/10
57) Freedomain Radio #1684
58) Free Talk Live, 06/20/10
59) QandO Podcast, 06/20/10
60) John Dennis on Antiwar Radio
What's Up In The Freedom Movement:
61) Today's events
***************
* In The News
***************
1) NYC car bomb suspect pleads guilty, calls it "war"
San Francisco Chronicle
"Calling himself a Muslim soldier, a defiant Pakistan-born U.S.
citizen pleaded guilty Monday to carrying out the failed Times Square
car bombing and left a sinister warning that unless the U.S. leaves
Muslim lands alone, 'we will be attacking U.S.' Faisal Shahzad entered
the plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan just days after a federal
grand jury indicted him on 10 terrorism and weapons counts, some of
which carry mandatory life sentences. He pleaded guilty to them
all." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25blzut
-----
2) SCOTUS upholds government power to outlaw dissent
Christian Science Monitor
"The US Supreme Court on Monday upheld the constitutionality of a
federal law that makes it illegal to teach members of a foreign
terrorist group how to use peaceful means to pursue political goals.
The statute, outlawing the provision of 'material support' to
designated terrorist organizations, does not violate free-speech and
free-association protections of the First Amendment, and it is not
unconstitutionally vague, the majority justices declared. In a 6-to-3
decision, the high court said the law -- part of the USA Patriot Act
-- is specific enough to provide would-be violators fair notice of
when their conduct crosses the line into illegality. The majority
opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, says that Congress
intentionally wrote the statute with a broad sweep to outlaw material
support to terror groups in any form, including assistance or
expertise that might help nudge the group toward
nonviolence." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/262j6d4
-----
3) Iraq: One killed, 27 wounded
AntiWar.Com
"At least one Iraqi was killed and 39 more were wounded in the latest
violence. Rioting over power cuts spread to Nasariya were residents
attacked police guarding the province's government compound.
Electricity Minister Karim Waheed was forced to resign. Also, Turkish
troops are amassing at the border during operations against the
PKK." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3a5xxcm
-----
4) Afghanistan: Nine occupation troops killed
Washington Post
"Nine NATO troops were killed Monday in a helicopter crash and a spate
of attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan, putting June on pace
to become the deadliest month for the U.S.-led international force in
the nearly nine-year war. At least 62 NATO service members, including
41 Americans, have been killed this month in Afghanistan -- an average
of nearly three a day. Also on Monday, Afghan officials said a deputy
district governor was slain in Wardak province, the latest blow for
the U.S. effort to boost local governance in Taliban
strongholds." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/33429r4
-----
5) Pakistan: Three troops killed in ambush
Agence France-Presse
"A dozen militants ambushed a Pakistani military patrol in the
northwestern tribal badlands Monday, killing three soldiers and
sparking deadly clashes, officials said. The incident took place in
Kasha village in Orakzai, the district where the military said on June
1 that major combat operations as part of an anti-Taliban offensive
were over. 'Three soldiers of the Frontier Corps were killed and five
others wounded in the attack,' an official from the paramilitary told
AFP." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2bydv7j
-----
6) Pols reach tentative deal to limit debit card fees
New York Times
"House and Senate Democrats announced a tentative agreement Monday to
impose new limits on debit card fees, which would resolve a main
difference between the two chambers as they race to complete financial
legislation before the Fourth of July. The agreement largely preserves
the Senate's language, telling the Federal Reserve to limit the fees
that banks collect from merchants when customers swipe debit cards.
That is expected to save merchants billions of dollars, some of which
could be passed on to customers in the form of lower
prices." (06/21/10)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/business/22regulate.html
-----
7) 17 nations barred from whaling vote
ABC Online [Australia]
"Seventeen mostly pro-whaling nations have had their voting rights
suspended at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in
Morocco, in what could be a blow to Japan's hopes of resuming
commercial whaling. Delegates at the Agadir meeting are currently
engaged in secret talks in a bid to break the deadlock over proposals
to allow Japan to resume a limited commercial whale hunt in exchange
for a reduction in its so-called scientific whaling program in the
Southern Ocean. This morning meeting deputy chairman Anthony Liverpool
said about one fifth of the meeting's 88 member states would not be
allowed to vote. The countries include Palau, the Marshall Islands,
Ghana and Gambia and are mostly drawn from the pro-whaling bloc which
has been expected to back Japan's move. They have been suspended for
reasons including failing to pay their annual fees." (06/22/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2enl3xl
-----
8) South Korea: Radiation detected after fusion test in North
All Headline News
"A radiation detection station of South Korea measured increased
levels of radioactive xenon in the air two days after North Korea
announced a nuclear fusion test on May 12. The Korea Institute of
Nuclear Safety in Geojin, Gangwon Province, said xenon level in the
air was eight times higher than normal after the nuclear
test." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/22v5cq6
-----
9) White House bills BP $51.4 million for Gulf clean-up work
Wall Street Journal
"President Barack Obama's administration sent BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) its
biggest invoice yet -- $51.4 million -- for oil clean-up efforts in
the Gulf of Mexico. The oil giant already has agreed to a $20 billion
escrow fund for clean-up and other expenses related to the massive oil
spill flowing out of its deepwater Macondo well. Late last week, BP's
minority partner in the well, Anadarko Corp. (APC), refused to pay its
share of the $20 billion fund, as it accused BP of gross negligence.
Monday, the administration said it has billed BP and other, unnamed
responsible parties $51.4 million, raising the total to $70.9
million." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/23v5pqo
-----
10) NE: Fremont voters say no to jobs, property rights, freedom
Associated Press
"Voters in the eastern Nebraska city of Fremont have approved a ban on
hiring or renting property to illegal immigrants. The special election
in Fremont on Monday was the latest proposal in a series of
immigration regulations taken up by communities around the country.
About 57 percent of voters supported the measure, which is expected to
be challenged in court." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/235qcu6
-----
11) Israel: Plan to raze Arab homes approved
Financial Times [UK]
"The Jerusalem city council on Monday waved through a controversial
plan to demolish 22 Palestinian homes in the occupied eastern part of
the city, setting the stage for fresh tensions between Israel and the
international community. ... The plan aims to convert land currently
occupied by 88 Palestinian homes into a tourist attraction with shops,
restaurants and a boutique hotel." (06/22/10)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1d1caa86-7d50-11df-a0f5-00144feabdc0.html
-----
12) Wikileaks to release files about deadly US airstrike on Afghan
civilians
Washington Post
"Wikileaks.org plans to release as soon as this week documents related
to a U.S. airstrike that killed Afghan civilians last year and plans
to release combat footage of the incident this summer, the founder of
the whistleblower site said in an interview Monday. Julian Assange
said the documents pertain to an attack near the Afghan village of
Garani, which killed scores of civilians in May 2009. In April,
Wikileaks released video footage of a U.S. Apache helicopter attack in
Iraq that killed several civilians, including two employees of the
Reuters news service." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25cn7bo
-----
13) Open-carry gun activists laud NC
Sun News
"Randy Dye will sometimes carry a gun on his hip, right out in the
open, no jacket pulled over it, no inside-the-belt holster. It draws
funny looks, and Dye doesn't much care. One time, Dye explains, he was
standing in line for a money order when the guy behind him asked, 'Are
you a police officer?' Dye said no, and the guy kept staring, so Dye
stared back. 'We good?' Dye asked, and the conversation stopped. 'I
wasn't trying to intimidate,' says Dye, a retired trauma nurse in
Chatham County. 'He approached me. If you don't understand your
constitutional rights, you need to go read them.'" (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2erptf4
-----
14) TN: Assembly overrides Bredesen on gun law
the Leaf Chronicle
"The Tennessee General Assembly adjourned on June 10 and one of their
last acts before going home for the summer was to override Gov. Phil
Bredesen's veto of Senate Bill 3012.The bill will allow a person who
has a valid Right-to-Carry permit to carry a firearm for self defense
in restaurants where alcohol may be served, as long as the permit
holder is not consuming alcohol or is not otherwise prohibited by
posting provisions." (06/20/10)
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/article/20100620/COLUMNISTS11/100619007
-----
15) Jamaican Diaspora and US to have victim disarmament talks
Jamaica Observer
"But member of the Diaspora advisory board, David Mullings, while
admitting that the US' second amendment legislation contributes to the
prevalence of illegal firearms in Jamaica, said it is not the
prerogative of that country to curb the problem. 'We of the Diaspora
will not be able to lobby the US to change their laws. What we need to
focus on is what laws we can change in Jamaica,' he said. 'We need to
figure out why people want guns, and how do we prevent them from
getting the guns, and how do we make them afraid to even use the
guns,' he said, adding that even if guns were prevented from entering
Jamaica from the US, criminals would find alternative means of supply
through Haiti and other countries." (06/20/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28p56y5
-----
16) South Africa: Store owner shoots robbers
Newstime [South Africa]
"A Bloemfontein store owner shot and killed a suspected robber in the
Bayswater's Emily Hobhouse Square yesterday. Police spokesperson Col
Sam Makhele said four robbers entered the store and started firing at
the man inside his store. The man fired back from his office and hit
one of the robbers in the chest, upon seeing their accomplice taking
fire the other robbers ran from the store. The injured man managed to
get outside the store before collapsing and dying. ... Makhele said as
the man was acting within his rights to defend himself, he will not
face any charges." (06/22/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2f8mhnt
-----
17) SC: Haley withstands whispering campaign
Associated Press
"There's a whisper campaign going on in South Carolina this month, but
it's not what you might think. The whisper is that the political smear
tactics that this state made famous don't seem to be working this time
around. It started a couple of weeks ago, when two separate
allegations of adultery were directed at Nikki Haley, a Republican
candidate for governor. Voters either didn't believe the
unsubstantiated claims or didn't care; Haley won 49.5 percent of the
vote in the GOP primary. She and the runner-up, Rep. Gresham Barrett,
will face each other Tuesday in a runoff." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2a46zjp
-----
18) Study foretold a consequence of oil leak
Boston Globe
"It wasn't until seven weeks after the BP oil well began gushing that
the company acknowledged oil remained hidden under the surface of the
Gulf of Mexico, and it continues to dispute the extent of miles-long
submerged plumes. But an unusual experiment conducted in 2000 off the
coast of Norway, a trial run of a deep-water oil and gas spill that BP
helped pay for, showed that oil could remain underwater for some time.
The North Atlantic exercise was designed to understand how a spill
would behave as the drilling industry plumbed new depths to extract
oil and gas. The federal Minerals Management Service and 22 companies
took part in the test, at about half the depth of the gulf
disaster." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/39xtnum
-----
19) McClintock: Drug cartel threatens Texas water supplies
Fox News
"Drug cartel activity along the Mexican border presents serious
security threats to the area's water supply system, particularly on
federally-owned lands in southern Texas, a U.S. lawmaker says. Members
of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power held a
hearing Thursday on H.R. 4719, a bill that would create a Southwest
Border Region Water Task Force to monitor and assess the water supply
needs of the area. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., ranking member of
the House subcommittee, told FoxNews.com that the situation needs
immediate attention, particularly in light of reports that a Mexican
drug cartel -- the Los Zetas -- unsuccessfully plotted to blow up the
Falcon Dam along the Rio Grande last month." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/32f8dpz
-----
20) Monsanto GM seed ban overturned by SCOTUS
BBC News [UK]
"The bio-tech company Monsanto can sell genetically modified seeds
before safety tests on them are completed, the US Supreme Court has
ruled. A lower court had barred the sale of the modified alfalfa seeds
until an environmental impact study could be carried out. But seven of
the nine Supreme Court Justices decided that ruling was
unconstitutional. The seed is modified to be resistant to Monsanto's
brand of weedkiller. The US is the world's largest producer of
alfalfa, a grass-like plant used as animal feed. It is the fourth most
valuable crop grown in the country. Environmentalists had argued that
there might be a risk of cross-pollination between genetically
modified plants and neighboring crops." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27rdbbd
*******************************************************************
* HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 06/22/10
*
* Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 96,803 ... Max - 105,553
* (source: www.iraqbodycount.org)
*
* American Military Deaths in Iraq: 4,407
* (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/)
*******************************************************************
****************************
* Everybody Has An Opinion
****************************
21) Facebook generation
Adam Smith Institute
by Anton Howes
"It used to be that all politicians had an unknown past. Once they
approached power, the embarrassing photos would emerge, school friends
and university acquaintances would be interviewed and we would all
judge. Remember the party leader interviews, or even the channel 4
docu-drama on Cameron and Boris Johnson? In [the] future, however,
there will be too much to trawl through. The norm is that everyone
bares their life to their friends, acquaintances, and occasionally
everyone. Whilst the privacy is controllable and photos may be
untagged, the fact remains that they're still there and are likely to
emerge at some stage into the public gaze." (06/21/10)
http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/media-and-culture/facebook-generation/
-----
22) Supreme Court creates new class: Unpersons
Nolan Chart
by Walt Thiessen
"The 6-3 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Holder v.
Humanitarian Law Project, No. 08-1498 effectively creates a new class
of people: Unpersons. These are people who have the temerity to
disagree with U.S. government's designations of certain persons and
groups as terrorists. The ruling effectively makes it a crime to
attempt to make peace with such people. It eliminates, from a legal
perspective, the basic human rights of anyone who disagrees with the
U.S. government." (06/21/10)
http://www.nolanchart.com/article7805.html
-----
23) Police misconduct and public accountability
WendyMcElroy.Com
by Wendy McElroy
"Note the omission. The news report names the alleged victim, the
witness and (elsewhere) the lawyer but not the accused deputies. Nor
do their names appear in subsequent stories about an official
investigation into allegations that the deputies used excessive force.
Few people outside law enforcement are familiar with Police Disclosure
Laws (PDLs), which in most states, including Florida, block the
release of information about an officer's alleged misconduct until
internal investigations are completed. Even then, the laws are often
broadly interpreted to block such release. Some states do not make
information public unless criminal charges are filed or the officer is
dismissed. Other states leave the issue entirely to the police
department's discretion." (06/21/10)
http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.3350
-----
24) Republican healthcare
John Stossel's Take
by John Stossel
"James P. Pinkerton makes good points about how Republicans might
present a more optimistic healthcare policy. ... But prevention isn't
free. It's valuable and enhances life, but I don't see how it saves
money. As I've written on before, preventative health care does not
necessarily lower costs. Often prevention lets people live long enough
to get even more expensive diseases. Pinkerton points out that there
are exceptions: a cure for Alzheimer's, for instance, would save
billions. Taking care of the elderly would cost less, and some elderly
people would be productive longer. ... Thanks to these victories for
medical progress, which are distinct from 'healthcare reform,' our
lives are not only better, but longer. The life expectancy of the
average American has soared from less than 50 years in 1900 to nearly
80 years today. ... Woe betide the American politician who lets
himself be associated with anything close to a death panel. But I get
nervous when advocates use the word 'we.' But who is 'we?'" (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28ob5ke
-----
25) History repeats itself
Strike the Root
by Lawrence M. Ludlow
"There is nothing like travel to remind us that 'this happened before'
-- especially when it comes to examples of government running amok. I
recently spent a few weeks in Germany, and I was reminded that
individuals from that region are responsible for a staggering number
of cultural contributions -- in music, art, philosophy, theology,
architecture, science and technology, literature, cuisine, and history
writing. Even more, to a voluntaryist." (06/21/10)
http://www.strike-the-root.com/history-repeats-itself-trip-to-germany
-----
26) Obama is no Superman
AntiWar.Com
by Kelley B. Vlahos
"As the ecology in the Gulf circles the sticky tar drain of evolution,
and countless livelihoods spanning at least four states going down
with it, Americans are wondering where their Superman is. The
disappointment that President Barack Obama seems stuck in the phone
booth, still deciding whether to get his suit on, is nothing new.
Those of us hoping for similar action in Afghanistan have been waiting
for more than a year. Turns out that Obama doesn't really do bold and
heroic -- it's not his style -- and he certainly doesn't come off as
decisive, unless he's pushed. Where George Bush was 'the decider,'
Obama seems to lead by committee, and not the kind of committee that
gets things done." (06/22/10)
http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2010/06/21/obama-is-no-superman/
-----
27) Why won't you die, damn it!
LewRockwell.Com
by David Galland
"Back when I had more time, I would occasionally play Oblivion, a
video game. A game so addictive, it's been known to contribute to
flunking out of colleges and the failure of marriages. When
persevering in a sword fight, your computerized opponents were prone
to angrily muttering the phrase 'Why won't you die, damn it!' That
phrase pops to mind as I watch the global stock market continue to get
hammered, as gold continues to battle the headwinds with impressive
tenacity. So why won't the damn crisis just die -- and with it,
gold?" (06/22/10)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/galland9.1.1.html
-----
28) The mundane must submit
Pro Libertate
by Will Grigg
"Marilyn Levias, a 19-year-old Seattle girl involved in a jaywalking
incident during which a police officer assaulted another 17-year-old
girl, displayed 'a dangerous refusal to observe a cardinal rule that
civilians simply must comply with instructions from police officers,'
insists Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes. For this, Miss Levias faces
a gross misdemeanor charge of 'Obstructing a Police Officer.' During
the confrontation, Levias's 17-year-old friend, Angel L. Rosenthal,
intervened on her behalf and was punched in the face by officer Ian P.
Walsh. As is typically the case when a Mundane's face obstructs the
trajectory of a police officer's fist, the victim is the one facing
criminal charges." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2ecvavg
-----
29) The case for human extinction
Fred on Everything
by Fred Reed
"The wind has always enchanted me. I hear in it ... I hear in it ...
what? Something larger, older, apart, something that does not care
about us, pro or con. How does one say this to a thoughtless rabble
twiddling video games? To them the beach is prime real estate for
development into tee-shirt emporia, boardwalks, and jet-ski rentals
for ill-mannered adolescents." (06/21/10)
http://www.fredoneverything.net/Extinction.shtml
-----
30) Free guns?
The Libertarian Enterprise
by Neale Osborn
"Since the HCR supporters make no bones that they want 'Single
Payer' (free healthcare), because they claim it is a Constitutional
right, and it isn't in the Constitution, I want the government to pass
out military weapons to all voters. After all, the right to keep and
bear arms IS mentioned specifically in the Constitution. I get a free
lawyer if I can't get one to protect my 5th Amendment rights. Why not
a gun? If I have to pay taxes to give others freebies, why can't I get
a freebie once in a while?" (06/21/10)
http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2010/tle575-20100620-05.html
-----
31) On the verge of collapse
Boston Globe
by James Carroll
"'It wasn't Sen. McCain's question,' General David Petraeus said. 'I
just got dehydrated.' The head of US Central Command was accounting
for the fact that, moments before, while testifying before the Senate
Armed Services Committee, he had briefly passed out. Senator McCain's
undisguised skepticism about what he was hearing of the American war
in Afghanistan was not the problem. It was explained that Petraeus had
not had breakfast. ... On the same day, the heads of five oil
companies appeared before a House committee looking into the Gulf of
Mexico oil catastrophe. The business executives were subject to angry
interrogation by members of Congress. That all five companies depended
on the same 'cookie cutter' emergency back-up plan for deep water
drilling showed that the notorious incompetence of BP is the industry
standard. Not embarrassment here, but anger. About the most that could
be said for the oil company chiefs was that no one
fainted." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28dgoba
-----
32) Soft defense: How to help a kid beat a bully
Christian Science Monitor
by Lisa Suhay
"If you stand up to a bully, he, or she, will back down. But what
happens when you don't know how to do that or, when you do, the bully
doesn't back down? Recent news reports have provided evidence ranging
from a boy firing a gun in school to a little girl begging her parents
not to send her back to her tormentors because she'd rather die than
go to school one more day. ... The immediate disclaimer here is that
teachers and parents can do only so much to help a child combat
bullying. Telling an authority figure and bringing in the bully's
parents often result in the bully getting more cunning and vicious. At
some point, we all have to learn that the victim (at any age or stage
of life) is the one with the true power to stop a bully -- or any
abuser." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28l5457
-----
33) The end of capitalism
The American Prospect
by Tim Fernholz
"On May 6, the Senate was locked in a heated debate over whether the
government should impose size limits on the largest banks in the
country, in effect breaking up the reviled giants of American finance.
But the journalists in the press gallery above the chamber weren't
paying attention: They were riveted to CNBC, which was reporting an
enormous, unexpected, and simultaneous plunge in several different
global markets. On TV, the Money Honeys were losing it. The Dow slid
1,000 points in less than an hour. 'What the heck is going on?' one
reporter wondered aloud. The Senate could break up the banks, and the
markets are crashing? It's the end of capitalism! But capitalism won't
go down so easily. Predictably, breaking up the banks was a bridge too
far for the stodgy Senate, and the provision only garnered the support
of a third of the body." (06/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/37sgozk
-----
34) Corporate con game
In These Times
by Beau Hodai
"'Beside my brothers and my sisters, I'll proudly take a stand. When
liberty's in jeopardy, I'll always do what's right. I'm out here on
the frontline, sleep in peace tonight. American soldier, I'm an
American soldier.' So goes the ringtone of Arizona State Sen. Russell
Pearce's (R-Mesa) phone -- as performed by Toby 'we put a boot up your
ass, it's the American way' Keith. Seconds into any conversation with
Pearce about illegal immigration, you'll discover that the song fits.
In his mind, Pearce is an 'American soldier' fighting a war that he
believes threatens the very fiber of the nation." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2bl75t9
-----
35) Congress confirms: US Military funds Afghan warlords
The Nation
by Aram Roston
"Security for key US military supply routes in Afghanistan is in the
hands of a small group of powerful Afghan warlords who run a massive
protection racket and may be paying off the Taliban, according to a
Congressional report being released Tuesday. The report, an advance
copy of which was obtained by The Nation, discloses that the Army has
opened a criminal investigation into the payoffs, as an Army Criminal
Investigation Command spokesman confirmed this evening to the
Associated Press. The jarring report, called 'Warlord, Inc,' is the
result of a six-month investigation prompted by a Nation cover story
last November, 'How the US Funds the Taliban,' about the largest US
logistics contract in Afghanistan." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28qlp5t
-----
36) That 30's mistake
Campaign for Liberty
by William L. Anderson
"Continuing with his theme of 'spend, spend, spend,' Paul Krugman is
determined to claim that the free-spending governments of the West
really are engaging in 'austerity.' Of course, not only does he get
the New Deal wrong (and he really gets it wrong), but also is wrong
about what happened in 1937." (06/21/10)
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=954
-----
37) Did Bush and Co. do medical research on detainees?
Future of Freedom Foundation
by Sheldon Richman
"As time goes by, the record of the Bush administration gets worse and
worse. It could turn out that the most egregious offense of the Bush-
esque Obama administration will be that its Justice Department let
Bush-Cheney & Co. off scot-free. It's not enough that the last gang to
occupy the Executive Branch got us into two illegal wars, accumulated
autocratic powers, violated our civil liberties, and tortured
suspects. Now it appears that it kicked things up a notch." (06/21/10)
http://www.fff.org/comment/com1006f.asp
-----
38) The writing on the wall
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Bryan Caplan
"From the outset, many questioned the practicality of the socialists'
solution. After you equalize incomes, who will take out the garbage?
Yet almost no one questioned the socialists' idealism. By 1961,
however, the descendants of the radical wing of the Social Democratic
Party had built the Berlin Wall -- and were shooting anyone who tried
to flee their 'Workers' Paradise.' A movement founded to liberate the
worker turned its guns on the very people it vowed to save. Who could
have foreseen such a mythic transformation? Out of all the critics of
socialism, one stands out as uniquely prescient: Eugen Richter
(1838-1906). During the last decades of the 19th century, he was the
leading libertarian in the German Reichstag, as well as the chief
editor of the Freisinnige Zeitung. Seventy years before the Wall,
Richter's dystopian novel, Pictures of the Socialistic Future, boldly
predicted that victorious German socialism would inspire a mass exodus
-- and that the socialists would respond by banning emigration, and
punishing violators with deadly force." (06/21/10)
http://mises.org/daily/4504
-----
39) Too much government in the Gulf
Freedom's Phoenix
by US Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
"[A]s usually happens after disasters, countless people -- even
officials in local and state government -- have come forward who know
what needs to be done and are willing to help, but have been stymied
by federal bureaucratic red tape as the oil continues to gush. The
real problem is not so much a lack of government assistance, but
government getting in the way of those who have solutions. We
witnessed the same phenomenon during hurricanes Katrina and Ike. It
seems government's main role in these situations is to find excuses to
stall relief, hold meetings and press conferences, waste money, punish
the wrong people, and over-regulate. Yet even after many examples of
past incompetence, people still look to government to solve problems
in the wake of disasters." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/38a2xsy
-----
40) No excuse for coercion
Tibor's Space
by Tibor R. Machan
"For my money coercive force is not only when someone threatens to
beat up or kill another unless that other does as told. I start much
earlier, when someone presumes to have the authority to entice or
nudge his or her fellow human beings to do as told (hoped for)! I
don't see that the importance of the project that's to be served by
such coercive force has anything to do with it -- people aren't
supposed to be other people's tools, unwilling devices for the sake of
achieving even the most magnificent objectives. Certainly no one is
made a morally better individual by way of being beaten or threatened
to be beaten into being such, to do what is morally right. How could
they, since moral goodness, if it amounts to anything intelligible at
all, must involve the agent's free choice. Without the chance to
choose to do the right or wrong thing any kind of worthwhile conduct
amounts at most to good behavior, like what we want from dogs or
horses." (06/19/10)
http://tibikem.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B2FD693F4B9A5746!2242.entry
-----
41) There's no level playing field nor equal opportunity
A Passion for Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
"Yet another excuse for some people to gain power over others is this
idea of the level playing field. It's a metaphor, of course, but used
often to mean starting in a race with no advantages for any of the
participants. Another term by which to indicate this is equal
opportunity. Even those who see through the ruse of peddling equality
for all people tend to cave in to this one, agreeing that at least
everyone has the right to an equal opportunity. The opportunity for
what is not often spelled out but it may include obtaining a job,
entering a school, embarking on travel, winning a contest or whatnot.
The image that's called to mind is that when people start out to
achieve some goal, none may be favored or disfavored, none may have
special advantages or disadvantages, etc. But the the idea is
hopeless. In no actual or even imaginable endeavor do people enjoy the
level playing field or an equal opportunity." (06/20/10)
http://tinyurl.com/33z8xf5
-----
42) Reflections on the 2010 Conference of the Property and Freedom
Society
Free Life Commentary
by Sean Gabb
"It was on account of his disappointment with even the least useless
of the other policy institutes he had known that Professor [Hans-
Hermann] Hoppe decided to set up the Property and Freedom Society. Its
purpose was not to engage with the ruling class or its various
clients, but to have nothing whatever to do with them. It would
exclude politicians and economic illiterates. It would reject the
State and all its works. It would instead seek to foster a counter-
culture that was opposed both to the State and to the legitimising
ideologies of the State that many libertarians have not been able to
recognise for what they are. The Property and Freedom Society would
provide a space within which representatives from a range of
traditions would be able to discuss the principles of a free market
natural order, and to see the State more clearly than is normally
possible as nothing more than a gang of bandits surrounded by various
applause societies and useful idiots." (06/17/10)
http://www.seangabb.co.uk/flcomm/flc195.htm
-----
43) Can more regulations solve the problem of failed regulations?
Classically Liberal
by CLS
"A private company, used to its cozy relationship with Big Government
failed. Laws that limit liability subsidized its failure. It failed
because it took short cuts that were approved by regulators.
Regulations that were put in place, in order to prevent such problems,
were not enforced by the regulators. And the regulations that are in
place were only put in place after the safety mechanism had become the
typical standard in oil rigs and after many rigs had already imposed a
secondary safety mechanism. So regulations followed private safety
measures, they didn't create them. Even now the double mechanisms are
becoming common prior to any regulation requiring them. The regulatory
system, which is in place already, failed. And no one is explaining
why more such regulations will make a difference when the enforcers
ignored current regulations." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26vchmq
-----
44) Consequences, chapter 10
The Price of Liberty
by Susan Callaway
Fiction. (06/21/10)
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/2010/05/24/consequences-10.html
-----
45) The Obama administration and its pundit-defenders
Salon
by Glenn Greenwald
"It really is hard to imagine many things worse, more criminal, than
imprisoning people for years whom you know are innocent, while
fighting in court to keep them imprisoned. But that's exactly what the
Obama administration is doing. ... Of course, none of this is new for
the Obama administration; it's consistent with their course of conduct
from the start. I highlight this today only because there is an
obvious, concerted effort by a slew of Democratic Beltway pundits over
the last month or so to attack the so-called 'Left' for daring to
express displeasure with the Obama administration, and to demonize
those objections as unserious, shrill, irrational, purist and all the
other cliches long used by this same cadre of party apparatchiks for
the same purpose." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2dewxz5
-----
46) Running on empty
The Weekly Standard
by Fred Barnes
"The Obama presidency is nearly out of gas. So are the Democratic
majorities in the Senate and House. Yet the White House and
congressional Democrats aren't surrendering. They're still intoxicated
with their 'historic majorities' and bent on enacting more landmark
liberal legislation this year, including cap and trade, a value-added
tax (VAT), and who knows what else. Are they fantasizing? Not
entirely. The odds -- and the political climate -- are against them.
But their ideological ambitions are undiminished and they have a sense
of urgency. They know their majorities will be crippled (if not
eliminated) in the midterm elections on November 2, which means they
must enact the remaining parts of the agenda in 2010 or put them back
in the cupboard of liberal dreams, maybe for decades. So it's now or
never." (for publication 06/28/10)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/running-empty
-----
47) Bring on the Coalition of the Digging
Slate
by Christopher Hitchens
"The story of countries that are poor because they are rich is an old
one: The Congo has been a scandalous example since the time of its
private ownership by the Belgian royal family in the 19th century, and
to the list of nations subject to depredation by resource exploitation
one could also add Haiti, Angola, India, and (to be fair) China.
Afghanistan has no infrastructure or professional civil service, no
tradition of extractive industry, and no mechanism for sharing
resources among its wildly discrepant provinces and regions. A
Klondike beyond the Khyber could be the last thing it needs. Still.
This is at least a trillion-dollar national-resource treasure in a
country that so far has had a GDP with scarcely any pulse. The
governments of NATO -- which include countries with vast experience in
mining, from Germany to Canada and from Britain to the United States
-- have had almost no real work to do on the economic front except to
distribute aid, itself often a cause of resentment, and waste time
trying to "interdict" Afghanistan's only other existing resource,
which is opium. Is it conceivable that such an alliance of earth-
moving and digging powers could not at last find something genuinely
constructive to do in a country where they already have a U.N. mandate
for rebuilding and reconstruction?"
(06/21/10)
http://www.slate.com/id/2257659/
-----
48) BP, the White House, and Congress are all dirty
TCS Daily
by Larry Kudlow
"Amidst all the political jockeying over the BP catastrophe, the main
players are missing what is really uppermost on America's mind: It's
the spill rate, stupid. It's jobs, stupid. It's the economy, stupid.
And none of it is happening. All eyes in Washington, Wall Street, and
Main Street were turned this week to the congressional show trial
featuring beleaguered BP CEO Tony Hayward. Hayward was a disaster. He
played dumb. He stonewalled. And he never got honest about the
colossal failure of human judgment at BP that caused this catastrophe.
But folks, seriously, what did you expect?" (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/23hys9o
-----
49) BP and the unmitigated disaster
Intellectual Conservative
by Alan Caruba
"The Gulf of Mexico could turn into a giant dead zone if some means
cannot be found to staunch the flow of oil and toxic gases emerging
from the damaged well beneath the Deepwater Horizon. Industry insiders
who understand the engineering of wells are beginning to speak openly
among themselves of an unmitigated disaster. ... The event and
previous explosions at its refineries were the result of years of an
internal BP philosophy that focused on profits before safety. Whether
it was accident-prone refineries or corrosion in the Alaska pipeline,
BP cut corners." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/242p577
-----
50) "Whine" wholesalers don't CARE about consumers
Cato Institute
by Brandon Arnold
"Wine aficionados celebrated the fifth anniversary in May of a
landmark Supreme Court ruling that helped to open up direct-to-
consumer wine shipping for many Americans. But if a special-interest
group gets its way, these liberties will soon be in jeopardy. The
instrument is the Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness Act,
an innocuous-sounding bill with a positively heartwarming acronym, the
CARE Act. Really, who could oppose such warm and fuzzy legislation? In
reality, the CARE Act would shut down and probably reverse the growing
trend of legalizing direct wine shipping. Even worse, it would
essentially eviscerate an important part of the Constitution as it
pertains to alcohol." (06/20/10)
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11910
-----
51) Aspirations and reality
Independent Institute
by Randall Holcombe
"I was talking with a new college graduate recently who told me of his
plan to buy a BMW. He doesn't have the money to do it now, but said
that after he had a job for a few years and had some income saved up,
getting a BMW was something he aspired to. Am I stretching too much to
see a parallel between this and the support for President Obama's
'hope and change' agenda? Like the new college graduate who aspires to
own a BMW, President Obama hoped for the day when people could be
secure in the idea that future health care costs wouldn't bankrupt
them, and the day when our economy could run on high-tech non-
polluting domestically-produced energy. The recent graduate who was
talking with me about his aspirations for a BMW had the good sense to
see that at the moment the car was unaffordable to him. He would wait
to buy it until he had the financial means to do so. Indeed, if he'd
concocted plans to get a dozen credit cards and max them out so he
could get the car now, we would frown upon his behavior rather than
admiring the fact that he has dreams and aspirations." (06/18/10)
http://www.independent.org/blog/?p=6641
-----
52) Who's afraid of subliminal advertising?
Reason
by Greg Beato
"The concept of subliminal advertising has long terrified America.
When the 1950s adman James Vicary claimed to have boosted concession
sales at a New Jersey theater by briefly flashing phrases like 'drink
Coca-Cola' on the screen as the main feature played, pundits and
politicians worried that we were now just one double feature away from
turning into brainwashed, popcorn-gobbling Stalinists. In the 1970s,
the Canadian academic Wilson Bryan Key convinced millions that
magazine ads for booze, cigarettes, and even Ritz Crackers featured
more sexual debauchery than a busy night at Plato's Retreat, inducing
feelings of panic and shame in those who viewed them. Today, even the
trashiest Ritz Cracker can't compete with the explicit sexual imagery
that pervades pop culture, so we channel our angst about advertising
into new realms." (for publication 07/10)
http://reason.com/archives/2010/06/21/whos-afraid-of-subliminal-adve
-----
53) Am I a libertarian? Is Glenn Beck? Nick Gillespie? Was Ayn Rand or
Robert Heinlein? Are you?
J. Neil Schulman @ Rational Review
by J. Neil Schulman
"A lifetime of devotion to liberty isn't even close to being enough
for many libertarians to think as you as being a member of their
little clique. And I do mean little. If being a lifetime worker for
liberty isn't enough for some people, evolving towards liberty from a
mainstream state-approving belief system is likely to have you looked
at the way a life-saving transplanted organ is regarded by blindly
hostile white corpuscles -- with results just as fatal to the body. It
just doesn't take much for libertarians to treat you like a Jew trying
to join the Episcopalian-run country club." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2wxqd38
-----
54) Anti-statists today, torturers tomorrow?
The American Conservative
by Daniel McCarthy
"What Dionne and other conventional commentators present as a right-
wing coalition that comes together under 'successful conservative
politicians such as Ronald Reagan (and George W. Bush in his first
term)' but threatens to fracture into extremism when out of power is
actually something else: a fairly stable party elite that employs a
rhetorical strategy to sell Americans on liberty when the GOP needs to
assemble enough votes to reclaim power, but that once in command again
doles out privileges to favored interests and conceals the growth of
government behind moralistic and nationalistic bombast." (06/21/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26xj9fy
-----
55) Why BP is not very slick in an emergency
Spiked
by Frank Furedi
"The most important lesson of the tragic Gulf of Mexico oil spill is
that the tendency today to dramatise risk creates a climate in which
risk management becomes a kind of performance." (06/21/10)
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/9028/
*****************************
* See No Evil, Hear No Evil
*****************************
56) Ed Rutledge on Freedom Rings Radio, 06/28/10
Freedom Rings Radio
Ed Rutledge, Libertarian Party candidate, for Lieutenant Governor of
Illinois, joins host Kenneth John. 9-10am Central on WRMN 1410 AM,
Elgin, IL or live on the web. [live radio or stream] (06/28/10)
http://freedomrings.net/
-----
57) Freedomain Radio #1684
Freedomain Radio
"Dealing with a violent girlfriend, how to overcome a master/slave
relationship with your kids, the perils of immortality, the sadness of
dying, and three questions for fundamentalists ..." [MP3] (06/20/10)
http://tinyurl.com/fdr1684
-----
58) Free Talk Live, 06/20/10
Free Talk Live
"**NOT FOR BROADCAST! INTERNET ONLY** Co-host Edition with Dale, Puke,
and Luthor :: Bizarre Sexual Fetishes :: BDSM :: Kill switch for the
Internet :: Porcfest 2010 :: Burlesque :: People "Forced" to Listen ::
Censored by Pirate Station." [MP3] (06/20/10)
http://media.libsyn.com/media/ftl/FTL2010-06-20.mp3
-----
59) QandO Podcast, 06/20/10
QandO
"Bruce and Dale discuss the dissatisfaction about President Obama's
competence, the oil spill, and the American stranded in
Egypt." [various formats] (06/20/10)
http://www.qando.net/?p=8809
-----
60) John Dennis on Antiwar Radio
AntiWar.Com
"John Dennis, 2010 Republican candidate for the House of
Representatives in California's 8th Congressional District (Nancy
Pelosi's seat), discusses his chances for success in an overwhelmingly
Democratic district, NSA warrantless wiretapping at AT&T in San
Francisco that Pelosi was likely aware of, how Ron Paul's liberty
movement can coexist with the Palin wing of the Tea Party and why
Pelosi hasn't had to run a real campaign since the Reagan
administration." [Flash audio or MP3] (06/19/10)
http://antiwar.com/radio/2010/06/19/john-dennis/
*************************************
* What's Up In The Freedom Movement
*************************************
61) 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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