07/19 -- Iraq: 60 killed, 71 wounded; Afghanistan: Kabul suicide bomb kills three civilians
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jul 19, 2010, 1:04:55 AM7/19/10
to Rational Review News Digest
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* Monday, July 19th, 2010
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In The News:
0) RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser
1) Iraq: 60 killed, 71 wounded
2) Afghanistan: Kabul suicide bomb kills three civilians
3) Afghanistan: Five occupation troops killed
4) Pakistan: Suicide bombing at mosque wounds eight
5) Oil cap holds steady as BP works on permanent plug
6) NASA appears to no longer be shooting for the stars
7) TX: Homeowner kills burglar
8) AK: Fairbanks bar owner nabs burglary suspect
9) US court OKs second Gitmo prisoner's move to Algeria
10) Ahmadinejad: US behind Iran suicide bombings
11) Clinton seeks more Pakistan-Afghan cooperation
12) Pot growers warn of "McDonald's-ization"
13) Poll: Approval of Afghan war slips
14) VA: New immigrant abductee warehouse will be mid-Atlantic's
largest
15) Boeing, EADS clash again as war for "defense" welfare dollars
resumes
16) Tea Party federation expels California GOP astroturf op over
racial writing
17) Puerto Rico: American drug thugs re-abduct alleged businessman
18) MA: Firms cancel health coverage
19) Iroquois passport dispute raises sovereignty issue
20) SC: Alvin Greene action doll "creates jobs"
21) Would Kagan bow out of a healthcare reform case?
22) With overhaul done, Frank to push for bank tax
23) TX: Daycare took six-year-olds to R film
24) US wanted to "swap Iranian scientist for hikers"
25) CA: Judge's order means two more months of full pay for state
employees
Everybody Has An Opinion:
26) "Free market capitalism" is an oxymoron
27) John Stagliano For President!
28) Deficit hawks or war hawks?
29) Bibi unmasked
30) Party scooper
31) Anarchism and nonviolence: Time for a "complementarity of tactics"
32) The culture of resistance
33) Electric cars and the "clean energy" myth
34) Mises's vision of the free society
35) The GOP chairman was right about Afghanistan
36) Time to permanently kill the death tax
37) Attacks on freedom
38) Blowout prevention act -- will Rs get buyer's remorse?
39) American war vs. real war
40) Ridiculous pornography trial violates Constitution
41) The revolution will be plagiarized
42) Albuquerque firefighters have an opportunity now
43) Calling all cowards
44) Critiques of libertarians
45) Assessing over-assessment
46) Dance, Mr. Kohn -- but on the grave of government itself
47) Tea Party protest history
48) Stating the bleeding obvious, part 3
49) Why we shouldn't be using biofuels
50) The Las Vegas police beat: Officer-involved
51) America's ruling class -- and the perils of revolution
52) Who's defending states' rights?
53) Stop me before I regulate again!
54) Tax Dodgers, Inc.
55) There's still no free lunch
56) Deficits of mass destruction
57) Why corporate tax cuts won't put people to work
58) Recycling a beauty
59) Atheists and something from nothing
60) Coyotes in the state of nature
61) The NYT's nationalistic double standard
62) Review of Huebert's Libertarianism Today
63) Technologies of control and liberation
64) The coming Obamacare deficits
65) The best introduction to libertarianism ever
66) It's time to shift spending to states
67) Another stimulus boondoggle
68) A drug raid goes viral
69) Karl Rove strikes back
70) America: Hooked on war and getting poorer
See No Evil, Hear No Evil:
71) Dea Myer on Freedom Rings Radio, 07/19/10
72) Free Talk Live, 07/17/10
73) Chase Madar on Antiwar Radio
74) All Charges Dismissed! John Stagliano Reacts Outside the
Courthouse
75) Cato Daily Podcast, 07/16/10
What's Up In The Freedom Movement:
76) Today's events
***************
* In The News
***************
0) RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser
Update, 07/19/10: Thanks to NL, our latest subscribing contributor!
His "Buck Starts Here" contribution of $1 a month, billed quarterly,
comes to $3 toward our goal. There's another $5 contribution that I'm
having trouble finding the source of ... so thanks to the yet
unidentified donor, and we are now at $838 against our goal of $2,083.
Keep it coming, folks ... let's get this one wrapped up and put away!
- TLK
http://www.rationalreview.com/content/83890
-----
1) Iraq: 60 killed, 71 wounded
AntiWar.Com
"One or two suicide bombers killed at least 45 people and more than 50
others in Radwaniya during an attack on Sahwa members who had been
waiting several days for their paychecks. The bombers may have
suffered from Down syndrome. ... In Baghdad, one person was killed and
three more were wounded during a blast in the Ur district. ... Gunmen
killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded a policeman in Kirkuk. ... A
suicide attack on a Sahwa headquarters in the border town of Qaim left
seven dead and 11 wounded. Four people were killed, including three
Sahwa members, when bombs planted outside a home in Abu Ghraib
exploded. Another blast killed a Sahwa member." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27utw5p
-----
2) Afghanistan: Kabul suicide bomb kills three civilians
USA Today
"A suicide bombing near a market in the Afghan capital killed three
civilians and wounded dozens Sunday, two days before an international
conference hosting representatives from about 60 nations, government
officials said. Eleven other people were killed in insurgent attacks
elsewhere across the nation, according to reports Sunday, as the
Taliban meet the arrival of thousands more American troops this year
with a rising tide of violence." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/29eg3tp
-----
3) Afghanistan: Five occupation troops killed
USA Today
"Five NATO troops died in roadside bombs in Afghanistan, the alliance
said Saturday, as international forces announced that they had foiled
a terrorist attack on an upcoming conference in Kabul to be attended
by leaders from more than 60 nations. Security is being tightened
across the capital for Tuesday's conference, which is attracting the
heads of NATO, the United Nations and top diplomats, including
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton." (07/17/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27whplq
-----
4) Pakistan: Suicide bombing at mosque wounds eight
Myrtle Beach Sun News
"A suicide bomber ran past guards at a minority Shiite mosque in
eastern Pakistan then blew himself up Sunday, wounding eight
worshippers, officials said. The attack appeared to be the latest in a
string by Sunni extremists against other Muslims they consider
infidels. It took place in Sargodha city, which is in Punjab,
Pakistan's most populous province and its political
heartland." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2cahe65
-----
5) Oil cap holds steady as BP works on permanent plug
KMOV 4 News
"The custom-built cap that finally cut off the oil flowing from BP's
broken well held steady Sunday, and the company hopes to leave it that
way until crews can permanently kill the leak. That differs from the
plan the federal government laid out a day earlier, in which millions
more gallons of oil could be released before the cap is connected to
tankers at the surface and oil is sent to be collected through a mile
of pipes." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2gy7krp
-----
6) NASA appears to no longer be shooting for the stars
Los Angeles Times
"In a cavernous structure at NASA's Plum Brook Station near Lake Erie,
a concrete chamber five stories high rises from the ground. Its walls
are 2 feet thick to withstand the blast of powerful gas-operated horns
strong enough to destroy human organs. The $150-million facility was
built to contain the next-generation manned spacecraft for the
Constellation program, NASA's project to send humans back to the moon.
It is the largest acoustic test chamber in the world, created to
buffet the spacecraft with intense sound waves, simulating the
stresses of launch. The only problem is that the Constellation program
almost certainly will be dead within months. President Obama in
January proposed cancelling the troubled moon program, and a key
Senate committee voted this week to kill Constellation." (07/17/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3yce8o4
-----
7) TX: Homeowner kills burglar
KXAN News
"The Travis County Sheriff's Office says a burglary turned deadly on
Friday after a homeowner fought an intruder in northwest Travis
County. Sheriff's Deputies received a report shortly after 5 p.m. in
reference to a burglary in progress in the 13700 block of Cedar Ridge.
The caller told officials that a man, later identified as Ryan Glen
Bradford, 34, had broken into her home and was fighting her husband.
According to Roger Wade with the Sheriff's office, at one during the
assault the suspected burglar was shot. Deputies, along with North
Lake Travis Fire Department, Austin/Travis County EMS, StarFlight, and
the Jonestown Police Department responded to the scene. When they
arrived they found the suspected burglar with a gunshot
wound." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2chce72
-----
8) AK: Fairbanks bar owner nabs burglary suspect
Anchorage Daily News
"A Fairbanks bar owner helped nab a suspected burglar on a night last
week in what he called a 'textbook sting' right out of a TV show or
movie. On Wednesday morning, John Jackovich, who has owned the Big I
bar for the past four years, discovered someone had pried the plywood
covering off a hole on the south side of the bar. The hole, which
leads to the basement, was the result of previous construction at the
bar. But rather than call police and report the break-in, Jackovich
decided he was going to find out who was responsible. ... Jackovich
put his jacket on the back of a chair, set down his gun and a cup of
coffee, and waited beside an open window to see if the burglar would
strike two nights in a row. He didn't have to wait long." (07/17/10)
http://tinyurl.com/285hw9p
-----
9) US court OKs second Gitmo prisoner's move to Algeria
Pasadena Star-News
"The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the U.S. to send two
Guantanamo Bay prisoners back to Algeria even though they want to
remain at the prison camp because of fear they might be tortured at
home. Justices on Saturday declined to hear the appeal of Aziz Abdul
Naji, held at Guantanamo since 2002 after being captured in Pakistan.
That ruling follows the high court's decision late Friday that allowed
the U.S. government to proceed in transferring another Algerian
detainee back home." (07/17/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2cd7qx6
-----
10) Ahmadinejad: US behind Iran suicide bombings
CNN
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that only U.S.
troops in Afghanistan and Iraq could be behind such bombings as the
ones that struck the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan last week,
state-run media reported. 'No grouping other than U.S.-backed
terrorist groups which are devoid of human feelings can commit such
acts,' the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as
saying." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/29fcsjd
-----
11) Clinton seeks more Pakistan-Afghan cooperation
Baton Rouge Advocate
"Pakistan and Afghanistan sealed a landmark trade deal Sunday as U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pushed the two neighbors to
step up civilian cooperation and work together against al-Qaida and
the Taliban. Shortly after kicking off a South Asia trip aimed at
refining the goals of the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan,
Clinton looked on as the Afghan and Pakistani commerce ministers
signed the trade agreement. It was reached only after years of
negotiation with recent and very active U.S.
encouragement." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2womssq
-----
12) Pot growers warn of "McDonald's-ization"
Athens Banner-Herald
"After weathering the fear of federal prosecution and competition from
drug cartels, California's medical marijuana growers see a new threat
to their tenuous existence: the 'Walmarting' of weed. The Oakland City
Council will look Tuesday at licensing four production plants where
pot would be grown, packaged and processed into items ranging from
baked goods to body oil. Winning applicants would have to pay $211,000
in annual permit fees, carry $2 million worth of liability insurance
and be prepared to devote up to 8 percent of gross sales to
taxes." (07/19/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3662zjc
-----
13) Poll: Approval of Afghan war slips
ABC News
"Support for the war in Afghanistan has hit a new low and President
Obama's approval rating for handling it has declined sharply since
spring -- results that portend trouble for the administration as the
violence there grows. With Obama's surge under way -- and casualties
rising -- the number of Americans who say the war in Afghanistan has
been worth fighting has declined from 52 percent in December to 43
percent now. And his approval rating for handling it, 56 percent in
April, is down to 45 percent." (07/16/10)
http://tinyurl.com/23dbvkz
-----
14) VA: New immigrant abductee warehouse will be mid-Atlantic's
largest
Washington Post
"The largest immigrant detention center in the mid-Atlantic will soon
open in Prince Edward County, an effort to accommodate Virginia's
unprecedented surge in detentions of illegal [sic] immigrants picked
up on criminal charges. The $21 million, privately run center will
house up to 584 immigrant detainees when it opens its doors. Over the
next year, it might grow to hold 1,000 prisoners, most of them snagged
by the federal government's growing Secure Communities program, which
aims to find and deport criminal illegal [sic] immigrants." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25pmxdv
-----
15) Boeing, EADS clash again as war for "defense" welfare dollars
resumes
Aviation International News
"Boeing will reveal more details here today about the NewGen Tanker,
its entry for the third round of the U.S. Air Force KC-X competition.
In the war of words accompanying the long-running and ill-starred
contest, Boeing has not previously specified exactly how it will add a
digital 787-style cockpit and a new fly-by-wire boom to the 767
airframe. Rival contender EADS North America (EADS NA) has again bid
the A330MRTT, as the KC-45. In a pointed reference to the Boeing
NewGen Tanker, EADS CEO Louis Gallois said in London on Saturday that
'a large part of our development cost and risk are behind us ...
compared to our competitor.' The bids were delivered on July 8 and
9." (07/19/10)
http://tinyurl.com/369zzby
-----
16) Tea Party federation expels California GOP astroturf op over
racial writing
MSNBC
"The Tea Party political movement saw a major split over the weekend,
with the National Tea Party Federation expelling a member group after
its spokesman wrote an online post satirizing a fictional letter from
what he called 'Colored People' to President Abraham Lincoln. On its
website, the federation stated it had given the Tea Party Express,
through direct contact with one of its leaders, a deadline to rebuke
and remove spokesman Mark Williams. 'That leader's response was clear:
they have no intention of taking the action we required for their
group to continue as a member of the National Tea Party Federation,'
the federation stated." [editor's note: A good move that should have
come a long time ago -- TPE has never been anything but a Republican
PAC gravy-training on the "Tea Party" movement - TLK] (07/18/10)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38299783/ns/politics/
-----
17) Puerto Rico: American drug thugs re-abduct alleged businessman
CNN
"Jose David Figueroa Agosto's salt-and-pepper hair was covered with a
similarly colored long wig. He hadn't been in the sun much and
appeared younger and slimmer than the man in the old mugshots. Still,
the high-living alleged drug kingpin and prison escapee wasn't coy
when he was caught Saturday after a high-speed chase in Santurce, a
neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico." (07/18/10)
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/17/puerto.rico.drug.arrest/
-----
18) MA: Firms cancel health coverage
Boston Globe
"The relentlessly rising cost of health insurance is prompting some
small Massachusetts companies to drop coverage for their workers and
encourage them to sign up for state-subsidized care instead, a trend
that, some analysts say, could eventually weigh heavily on the state's
already-stressed budget. Since April 1, the date many insurance
contracts are renewed for small businesses, the owners of about 90
small companies terminated their insurance plans with Braintree-based
broker Jeff Rich and indicated in a follow-up survey that they were
relying on publicly funded insurance for their employees." [editor's
note: Just a reminder, Mass. is one of the prototypes on which the
national scam is based - SAT] (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2a9645u
-----
19) Iroquois passport dispute raises sovereignty issue
Associated Press
"An American Indian lacrosse team's refusal to travel on passports not
issued by the Iroquois confederacy goes to the heart of one of the
most sensitive issues in Indian Country: sovereignty. The rights of
Native nations to govern themselves independently has long been
recognized by federal treaties, but the extent of that recognition
beyond U.S borders is under challenge in a post-Sept. 11 world. After
initially refusing to accept Iroquois-issued passports because the
documents lack security features, the State Department gave the team a
one-time waiver. But leaders of the Iroquois Nationals squad announced
Saturday that a last ditch attempt to persuade British officials to
recognize their passports had failed, meaning the team wouldn't play
in its last scheduled game." [Hat tip -- Joey King] (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2cjcoo5
-----
20) SC: Alvin Greene action doll "creates jobs"
Charleston Post & Courier
"The RiverDogs are going green: Alvin Greene that is. With all the
talk earlier this year of a 'Mr. Liberty' statue at nearby Patriots
Point, the RiverDogs already planned to give away miniature 'Mr.
Liberty' statues to the first 1,000 fans in attendance Saturday for
their minor league baseball game against the Augusta GreenJackets. In
January, an Atlanta-based group proposed a male counterpart of the
Statue of Liberty to stand guard over Charleston Harbor. The proposal
was rejected by Patriots Point officials, and later by North
Charleston officials. Reacting to Greene's plans for economic
development, the Charleston ballclub has decided to place Mr. Greene's
face on these figurines." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/29rd753
-----
21) Would Kagan bow out of a healthcare reform case?
Christian Science Monitor
"Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are requesting more
information about Solicitor General Elena Kagan's suspected
involvement in setting the legal strategy to defend President Obama's
health-care reform law from constitutional challenges in the courts.
The effort appears aimed at forcing Ms. Kagan, who is now a Supreme
Court nominee, to pledge to step aside and not participate in what
could become a landmark case should it reach the high court. The
extent of her involvement, if any, in the case is unclear. During the
confirmation hearings, Sen. Tom Coburn (R) of Oklahoma asked Kagan if
there was any time as solicitor general that she'd been asked to
express an opinion on the legal merits of the health-care
bill." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25zfju9
-----
22) With overhaul done, Frank to push for bank tax
Bloomberg News
"Representative Barney Frank, an architect of the financial overhaul
bill lawmakers sent to President Obama on Thursday, said he wants
Congress this year to take up the White House plan for a $90 billion
bank tax to recoup government bailout funds. Frank said Treasury
Secretary Timothy F. Geithner had urged him not to push bank fees,
which Frank had sought to help pay for the overhaul legislation,
because the administration plans a major push for a broader tax. 'I
don't understand how members can say they're for reducing the deficit
and then let Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase off the hook entirely.
They were the major beneficiaries of the intervention,' Frank,
chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said
yesterday." (07/17/10)
http://tinyurl.com/33xp3n9
-----
23) TX: Daycare took six-year-olds to R film
Fox News
"A Texas day care center is facing a state probe over allegations that
it took a group of 6-year-olds to see a raunchy R-rated movie in Waco
in July. Young Expressions Childcare in the Waco suburb of Bellmead,
Tex., is under investigation by the Texas Department of Family and
Protective Services, a spokesman for the agency confirmed to Fox News
Radio. ... The children were allegedly taken by daycare workers to
Waco's Starplex Cinema last week to see 'Death at a Funeral,' a bawdy
2010 comedy that was far too gross even for most movie critics. The
Motion Picture Association of America gave the film an R rating for
foul language and foul humor -- and that barely scratches the surface
of a movie that features corpse wrestling, psychedelic drug use,
explosive diarrhea and a man's homosexual affair with a
midget." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/22m48l7
-----
24) US wanted to "swap Iranian scientist for hikers"
Agence France-Presse
"An Iranian scientist, who returned home last week charging he had
been held by US agents for more than a year, has said that they had
pressed him to agree to be exchanged in a 'spy' swap for three US
hikers in custody in Tehran. In a lengthy interview aired by state
television late on Saturday, Shahram Amiri claimed that the US agents
had acknowledged that the three Americans, detained on the Iran-Iraq
border in July last year, were indeed 'spies.'" (07/18/10)
http://bit.ly/a0Kk3I
-----
25) CA: Judge's order means two more months of full pay for state
employees
Sacramento Bee
"State workers will receive their full paychecks for at least the next
two months after a Sacramento judge on Friday denied Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger's request to immediately force State Controller John
Chiang to pay them minimum wage until a budget is approved. The
administration downplayed Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette's
decision that technical issues raised by Chiang need a full hearing.
Still, the ruling was a boost for at least 200,000 state workers who
were facing paychecks for $7.25 an hour for the July pay
period." (07/17/10)
http://bit.ly/csej1n
*******************************************************************
* HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 07/19/10
*
* Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 97,081 ... Max - 105,854
* (source: www.iraqbodycount.org)
*
* American Military Deaths in Iraq: 4,412
* (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/)
*******************************************************************
****************************
* Everybody Has An Opinion
****************************
26) "Free market capitalism" is an oxymoron
Center for a Stateless Society
by Kevin Carson
"It's pretty much standard for the chattering classes -- both liberal
and conservative -- to refer to something called 'our free market
system,' also known as 'free market capitalism.' To the extent that
the right-wingers at Fox and CNBC or on the editorial page of the Wall
Street Journal advocate some purer form of 'free markets' in contrast
to the existing economy, what they mean is essentially the present
model of corporate capitalism without the regulatory or welfare state.
But the form taken by the existing capitalist system that we live
under owes precious little to free markets. From its beginnings in the
late Middle Ages, it has been shaped by massive and ceaseless
intervention and enforcement of privilege -- much of it breathtakingly
brutal -- by the state." (07/17/10)
http://c4ss.org/content/3202
-----
27) John Stagliano For President!
Independent Country
by James Leroy Wilson
"Nominating Mr. Stagliano for President would send a message to
America. It would say that libertarians reject, completely, the
federal war on consensual behavior, and that, whatever we think of
pornography, we'd rather have a porn producer who respects individual
rights, as Mr. Stagliano does, as President than anyone who believes
porn producers should be in jail. John Stagliano is not just a victim
of the federal government, he's also a symbol of the federal
government's march toward absolute tyranny and
lawlessness." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2ela2wh
-----
28) Deficit hawks or war hawks?
Foundation for Economic Education
by Sheldon Richman
"Last week's TGIF asked if the American people can afford a world-
girdling foreign policy more befitting an empire than a republic. Look
at it this way: War hawks make poor deficit hawks. Facing a $13
trillion national debt and trillion-dollar-plus annual budget
deficits, we can't afford to be complacent about foreign interventions
costing $12 billion a month. It's not just that the budget numbers are
daunting: The very institutions of small-government republicanism are
suffocated by the quest for global hegemony." (07/16/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2vnz9on
-----
29) Bibi unmasked
AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo
"What's interesting -- and embarrassing -- about this leak isn't the
'revelation' that Israel's amen corner in America exerts a decisive
influence on US policymakers: who didn't know that? The Israel lobby
constantly boasts of it, while critics of US subservience to Tel Aviv
consistently decry it. What we didn't know, however, is how much the
Israelis disdain us for it: 'It's absurd,' avers Bibi, and the settler
lady, laughing, agrees with him. She, being an ardent nationalist,
cannot conceive of a government that puts the interests of another
nation over and above its own. Perhaps Bibi has a better idea of how
the Israelis pulled that particular rabbit out of Uncle Sam's hat, but
emotionally it's clear that he, too, finds the weakness of the
Americans incomprehensible." (07/19/10)
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/07/18/bibi-unmasked/
-----
30) Party scooper
LewRockwell.Com
by Brian Wilson
"Thanks to the ego-plumping effects of Media Exposure and Reporter
Fawning, many of the Tea Party Spokesmen-Who-Are-Not-Spokesmen-Because-
We-Don't-Have-Spokesmen have become as thin-skinned and self-centered
as just about any politician running for re-election. After humble,
emotional beginnings fueled by a resuscitated love of Country and the
liberating effects of a little factual awareness of how government is
eroding Rights, they have suffered the inflation of the ego that
causes Blimp Envy, inevitably the predictable result of overexposure
to media exposure and the subsequent public recognition it spawns.
After 45 years in radio and/or TV in back of a mic or in front of a
camera, I have yet to noodle out what it is about those electronic
marvels that turn your average Joe or Jane into a Certified Political
Pundit after just one or two interviews. Call it the 'Joe the Plumber'
Syndrome." (07/19/10)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/wilson-brian/wilson-brian19.1.html
-----
31) Anarchism and nonviolence: Time for a "complementarity of tactics"
Truth Out
by Randall Amster
"Critical voices regularly chastise anarchists without indicating that
they fully understand what anarchism actually is. But anarchists as
well oftentimes seem to act in contravention of both historical and
political senses of what anarchism represents." (07/14/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fvu794
-----
32) The culture of resistance
CounterPunch
by Eamzy Baroud
"Resistance is not a band of armed men hell-bent on wreaking havoc. It
is not a cell of terrorists scheming ways to detonate buildings. True
resistance is a culture. It is a collective retort to oppression.
Understanding the real nature of resistance, however, is not easy. No
newsbyte could be thorough enough to explain why people, as a people,
resist. Even if such an arduous task was possible, the news might not
want to convey it, as it would directly clash with mainstream
interpretations of violence and non-violent resistance." (07/18/10)
http://counterpunch.org/baroud07152010.html
-----
33) Electric cars and the "clean energy" myth
Las Vegas Review-Journal
by Vin Surpynowicz
"Just yesterday, I took a tour of Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas
City, Missouri ... a company that just hired its 50th worker and is on
its way to hiring 50 more, and that's aiming to produce 500 electric
vehicles at that plant alone. 'The government 'invested' $32 million
from the Department of Energy to cover 30 percent of the cost of
creating those jobs, the president explained. No, don't bother
watching your mailbox for your stock certificate, guaranteeing you a
return on your 'investment' should the U.S. affiliate of Smith
Electric Vehicles ever turn a profit. When politicians use the word
'investment,' it's more like a holdup man thanking you for 'investing'
in his next pipe full of crack. But if there's money to be made
manufacturing and fielding electric vehicles, why is government
needed?" (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/33l4x4v
-----
34) Mises's vision of the free society
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
"Any political philosophy must address itself to a central question:
under what conditions is the initiation of violence to be considered
legitimate? One philosophy may endorse such violence on behalf of the
interests of a majority racial group, as with the National Socialists
of Germany. Another may endorse it on behalf of a particular economic
class, as with the Bolsheviks of Soviet Russia. Still another may
prefer to avoid a doctrinaire position one way or another, leaving it
to the good judgment of those who administer the state to decide when
the common good demands the initiation of violence and when it does
not. This is the stance of the social democracies." (07/16/10)
http://mises.org/daily/4500
-----
35) The GOP chairman was right about Afghanistan
Future of Freedom Foundation
by Sheldon Richman
"They used to say the truth shall set you free. These days it might
get you fired. Apparently, stumbling onto the truth is a grave offense
in the Republican Party. Ask Michael Steele, its chairman. Steele
provoked the wrath of Republican neoconservatives William Kristol, Liz
Cheney (the former vice president's daughter), and Sen. John McCain by
saying that 'the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in
Afghanistan ... because everyone who has tried over a thousand years
of history has failed, and there are reasons for that.'" (07/14/10)
http://www.fff.org/comment/com1007e.asp
-----
36) Time to permanently kill the death tax
FreedomWorks
by Julie Borowski
"Currently, the motion to permanently repeal the death tax is gaining
momentum in the halls of Congress. In fact, Rep. Neugebauer (R-TX) has
introduced H.R. 4746 that would prevent a series of pending tax
increases while allowing the death tax to finally expire.
Unfortunately, the death tax -- which temporarily expired in 2010 --
is currently set to come roaring back in 2011. Unless we take action
to fight this atrocious tax increase, individuals will be visited by
the IRS and the undertaker on the same day. At first, the death tax or
'estate tax' may sound like it will only affect the extremely wealthy.
However, the death tax also significantly hurts families that make
less than $250,000 annually." (07/16/10)
http://tinyurl.com/34yefja
-----
37) Attacks on freedom
Freedom Politics
by John Stossel
"Something's happened to America, and it isn't good. It's become
easier to get into trouble. We've become a nation of a million rules.
Not the kind of bottom-up rules that people generate through voluntary
associations. Those are fine. I mean imposed, top-down rules formed in
the brains of meddling bureaucrats who think they know better than we
how to manage our lives. Cross them, and we are in
trouble." (07/16/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2vlatgl
-----
38) Blowout prevention act -- will Rs get buyer's remorse?
OpenMarket.org
by Marlo Lewis
"Yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously
approved H.R. 5626, Chairman Henry Waxman's Blowout Prevention Act.
Here's the version of the bill as marked up and approved by the
Committee. Here's the earlier discussion draft on which the Energy and
Environment Subcommittee held a hearing on June 30. Like the
discussion draft, the marked-up version of the bill is a Trojan Horse
for restricting and, ultimately, shutting down offshore oil
production." (07/16/10)
http://tinyurl.com/325nujg
-----
39) American war vs. real war
Campaign For Liberty
by Nick Turse and Tom Engelhardt
"One striking aspect of the Vietnam years -- and the antiwar movement
of that era -- was the degree to which you could see images of
Vietnamese civilian suffering here in the United States. Among the
iconic images of that war, for instance, was Nick Ut's photo of a
young girl, burned by napalm from an air strike, running down a road
screaming. And among war images, it was by no means alone." (07/16/10)
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1015
-----
40) Ridiculous pornography trial violates Constitution
Liberty For All
by LP staff
"The Obama Administration's prosecution of John Stagliano is a
travesty. As Reason magazine's Richard Abowitz wrote, 'The case
against Stagliano concerns the selling of movies performed by
consenting adults to entertain adult DVD viewers who have chosen to
watch these films. In a free and open society this is exactly the kind
of prosecution that should not happen.'" (07/17/10)
http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=4571
-----
41) The revolution will be plagiarized
Fr33 Agents
by Davi Barker
Cartoon. (07/15/10)
http://www.fr33agents.com/3139/the-revolution-will-be-plagiarised/
-----
42) Albuquerque firefighters have an opportunity now
Albuquerque Libertarian Examiner
by Kent McManigal
"Due to the recent pay cutbacks, some Albuquerque firefighters are
choosing to retire early. That's their decision to make, but I wonder
if they have considered getting together to form their own, private,
fire fighting organization. I realize the 'law' probably prevents it
in some way. Just imagine if it didn't, though." (07/17/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27kbp6r
-----
43) Calling all cowards
LewRockwell.Com
by Becky Akers
"Like me, you've probably wondered where the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) rustles up the gutless baboons it sics on
passengers at its security theaters. Or perhaps you've speculated
about just how low the IQ and morals must sink for a wannabe baboon to
grunt, 'Hmmm, think I'll git me a job where I can stand around on the
taxpayers' dime, except for when I'm busy feeling 'em up and rummagin'
their bags for money and drugs to 'confiscate,' heh-heh.' Here's our
answer: pizza boxes." (07/17/10)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers129.html
-----
44) Critiques of libertarians
Nolan Chart
by Simplulo
"There are two types of statists, based on how they want to use the
state: those who want to employ it to help others, or at least for the
common good, and those who want to exploit it to for their own selfish
interests (dominators, predators, and parasites). Call them good
statists and bad statists (actually misguided statists and evil
statists). Libertarians overwhelmingly assume that the opposition
consists of bad statists. In my experience, there are many more good
statists, and it is they who have to be convinced. For example, white
NPR listeners overwhelmingly believe that government schools are a
positive thing, especially for minorities and disadvantaged children.
(I, a passing mulatto, have a hard time convincing a black friend that
whites really believe this, as she firmly believes that government
schools are a white plot to keep blacks down and maintain a pool of
cheap labor.)" (07/17/10)
http://www.nolanchart.com/article7857.html
-----
45) Assessing over-assessment
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by SM Oliva
"This should be obvious, but the reason governments can't stop
themselves from inflating real estate bubbles is that taxes based on
the 'assessed' value of real estate are the lifeblood of most local
governments. It's always in the government's interest to value real
property as high as possible, even if the market thinks
differently." (07/17/10)
http://blog.mises.org/13309/assessing-over-assessment/
-----
46) Dance, Mr. Kohn -- but on the grave of government itself
Center for a Stateless Society
by Alex R. Knight III
"No doubt, Mr. Kohn's dancing is at least in part on the grave of Nazi
Germany, and those who fueled its sadistic machinery in the first
place: the camp guards and kommandant, the SS, the Wermacht; Himmler,
Goering, and Hitler himself. But this is merely like pruning branches
on a dark and malignant tree, instead of cutting at its roots. It was
and is, in truth, not simply the Nazi German version of government
that allowed such atrocity to take place, but the very concept of
government itself. Never mind that the conditions imposed upon Germans
by the victorious governments of the First World War led indirectly to
the Nazis' rise -- look at the idea of government itself, what it does
in practice rather than myth and hollow theory, and it becomes readily
apparent at once that this is the real problem. It becomes apparent
that Nazi Germany was really nothing more nor less than a logical
extension of all government, all politics, and where it invariably
leads." (07/17/10)
http://c4ss.org/content/3204
-----
47) Tea Party protest history
Ayn R. Key
by Ayn R. Key
"The first of the modern Tea Party protests took place in 2007. It was
a combined event, both a protest against the excessive spending of
George W. Bush and a campaign event of presidential candidate Ron
Paul. Throughout 2008 more of these combined events occurred. This is
important to remember, because while the current state of the Tea
Party movement is such to cause many libertarians and other freedom
lovers to be a little cautious of the current Tea Party protests,
especially those that emphasize the pseudo-patriotism of the current
military misadventures in the Middle East, especially the Tea Party
Express AstroTurf movement, the history is still noble." (07/15/10)
http://aynrkey.blogspot.com/2010/07/tea-party-protests.html
-----
48) Stating the bleeding obvious, part 3
Freedom's Phoenix
by Larken Rose
"'Government' is the entity imagined to have the right (not just the
ability) to rule others. Trouble is, no one can have such a right,
because no one can delegate such a right. This is true whether someone
is claiming the absolute, unlimited right to rule, or some version of
'tyranny lite,' as the Constitution pretended to create. No one can
have a moral obligation to obey politician scribbles (their so-called
'laws') when they conflict with one's own moral conscience. There is
no right to rule, and no obligation to obey, which means there is no
'authority,' which means that 'government' does not exist." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/24sw32r
-----
49) Why we shouldn't be using biofuels
Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall
"Among the various sillinesses that have been proposed to deal with
climate change is the idea that we should start sticking corn or wheat
into cars rather than people. That there are a number of problems with
this idea hasn't stopped politicians in the EU and the US making it
mandatory. Problems like the thought that rising food prices,
inevitable under such a plan, aren't really all that good a thing for
those who cannot afford food now. Or the problem that, as David
Pimentel has been shouting for decades, just as much oil is used
raising the crops as is displaced by the use of the crops. But the
real reason we shouldn't be doing this is that it doesn't make sense
at the most basic level." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fbh9gs
-----
50) The Las Vegas police beat: Officer-involved
Rad Geek People's Daily
by Rad Geek
"Las Vegas Metro is full of heavily-armed, twitchy, terrified cops who
are easily 'startled' and ready to open fire on helpless or harmless
people at even the most furtive motion. Whether you're resting in bed
with your fiancee on Eastern and Bonanza, or going shopping with your
fiancee in Summerlin to celebrate your new life together, or just
talking a quiet walk through the neighborhood out at Desert Inn and
Sandhill, there is a heavily armed force, patrolling 24 hours a day
and 7 days a week, constantly ready to come down on you and gun you
down at even a moment's hesitation to obey their bellowed commands, or
the slightest twitch that they don't understand, or just for
'startling' them." (07/16/10)
http://radgeek.com/gt/2010/07/16/the-las-vegas-police-beat-contd/
-----
51) America's ruling class -- and the perils of revolution
The American Spectator
by Angelo M. Codevilla
"Never has there been so little diversity within America's upper
crust. Always, in America as elsewhere, some people have been
wealthier and more powerful than others. But until our own time
America's upper crust was a mixture of people who had gained
prominence in a variety of ways, who drew their money and status from
different sources and were not predictably of one mind on any given
matter. The Boston Brahmins, the New York financiers, the land barons
of California, Texas, and Florida, the industrialists of Pittsburgh,
the Southern aristocracy, and the hardscrabble politicians who made it
big in Chicago or Memphis had little contact with one another. Few had
much contact with government, and 'bureaucrat' was a dirty word for
all. So was 'social engineering.' Nor had the schools and universities
that formed yesterday's upper crust imposed a single orthodoxy about
the origins of man, about American history, and about how America
should be governed. All that has changed." (07/10)
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/americas-ruling-class-and-the
-----
52) Who's defending states' rights?
Boston Globe
by Jeff Jacoby
"One of the bigger tents in the history of American political thought,
the one flying the states' rights banner, has proved capacious enough
over the centuries to accommodate everyone from Thomas Jefferson,
James Madison and John C. Calhoun to Strom Thurmond, William Rehnquist
and the defenders of Arizona's immigration law. Now a new champion of
states' rights has appeared: US District Judge Joseph L. Tauro of
Massachusetts. In a pair of opinions earlier this month, Tauro struck
down as unconstitutional Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act,
which defines marriage for purposes of federal law to mean what it has
traditionally meant: the union of a man and a woman. In Gill v. Office
of Personnel Management, Tauro decided that the 104th Congress could
not have had a 'rational basis' for defining marriage as it did -- he
chalked up its motives to mere 'animus' and 'irrational prejudice.'
From there it was a short hop to ruling that DOMA violates the due
process clause of the Fifth Amendment. In short, Gill reflects the
familiar liberal self-righteousness on gay marriage: If you don't
agree with me, you must be a bigot." [editor's note: Ah, if only
"states' rights" were treated as a subset of "individual rights" as
intended by (most of) the Founders. All too often, though, it's the
refuge of said "bigots" seeking to strenghten local control over
peaceful subjects, rather than remove chains from them! - SAT]
(07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/37h4ojo
-----
53) Stop me before I regulate again!
John Stossel's Take
by John Stossel
"I'm told that this morning the Senate will pass the Dodd-Frank
financial regulation bill. 2,300 pages long. Nothing so complex ever
makes life better for consumers. Mostly, it guarantees that you will
not start a business without hiring specialists. ... Yet politicians
constantly create more rules. They think they know how to manage our
lives better than we do. They are ignorant and arrogant. Much of this
regulation drives entrepreneurs to say: 'I won't try. I won't open a
business. I won't hire someone because I probably can't fire him
without getting into trouble. I better play it safe. I better not try
anything new.' This kills opportunity. But the regulation never stops.
Last year the federal government added another 70,000 pages to the
Federal Register. Our 535 Congressmen think they're not doing their
job if they're not passing laws. And those are just federal lawmakers.
There are even more state legislators." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26z4nzr
-----
54) Tax Dodgers, Inc.
In These Times
by Christopher Moraff
"As the saying goes, two things in life are certain: death and taxes.
Unless you're a multinational corporation. In that case, if you're on
the brink of death -- and 'too big to fail' -- the government might
bail you out. As for taxes, the federal code is designed to help you
avoid paying your fair share to the U.S. Treasury. ... Corporate tax
avoidance is a costly problem. Last year, General Electric -- which is
divided into an industrial business, and a financial services
business, GE Capital -- paid no U.S. taxes, despite reporting
consolidated profits of $11 billion. That's because GE shifted its
profits overseas, thereby incurring a U.S. loss of $498 million. ...
In 2008, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that
nearly two-thirds of U.S.-domiciled corporations had not been paying
federal income tax." [editor's note: Inasmuch as the feds are the
force behind the "liability limits" (not to mention the "source" of
billions in corporate welfare?), the ONE sector of society that should
not evade taxes is the corporati - SAT] (07/16/10)
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6189/tax_dodgers_inc
-----
55) There's still no free lunch
Orange County Register
by Thomas Sowell
"If you could spend vast amounts of other people's money just by
saying a few magic words, wouldn't you be tempted to do it? Barack
Obama has spent hundreds of billions of dollars of the taxpayers'
money just by using the magic words 'stimulus' and 'jobs.' It doesn't
matter politically that the stimulus is not actually stimulating and
that the unemployment rate remains up near double-digit levels,
despite all the spending and all the rhetoric about jobs. ... Not only
has all the runaway spending and rapid escalation of the deficit to
record levels failed to make any real headway in reducing
unemployment, all this money pumped into the economy has also failed
to produce inflation. ... Economists have long known that it is not
just the amount of money, but also the speed with which it circulates,
that affects the price level." (07/15/10)
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/money-257529-economy-price.html
-----
56) Deficits of mass destruction
The Nation
by Christopher Hayes
"If you've been paying attention this past decade, it won't surprise
you to learn that the country's policy elites are in the midst of a
destructive, well-nigh unhinged discussion about the future of the
nation. But even by the degraded standards of the Washington
establishment, the growing panic over government debt is shocking.
First, the facts. Nearly the entire deficit for this year and those
projected into the near and medium terms are the result of three
things: the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush tax cuts
and the recession. The solution to our fiscal situation is: end the
wars, allow the tax cuts to expire and restore robust growth. Our long-
term structural deficits will require us to control healthcare
inflation the way countries with single-payer systems do." (07/15/10)
http://www.thenation.com/article/37534/deficits-mass-destruction
-----
57) Why corporate tax cuts won't put people to work
Washington Post
by Robert Borosage
"Conservatives have reverted back to calling for corporate tax cuts to
stimulate the economy and put people to work. Consider this mindless
reflex rather than policy. Corporations are sitting on $1.7 trillion
in cash, yet not hiring people. A furious argument is waged about why
they don't hire. The Chamber of Commerce, reduced under head Tom
Donahue to a right-wing propaganda arm, argues that the Obama
administration has paralyzed companies with the threat of regulation.
The Obama administration -- and most sensate economists and financial
advisors -- put more emphasis on the absence of demand in an economy
marked by mass unemployment and stagnant wages. But one thing is
clear. With corporations already awash in cash, tax cuts won't get
them to start hiring people." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2dgucur
-----
58) Recycling a beauty
A Passion for Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
"[A]nyone who would like to delve into more of such sensible points
made against the innumerable know-nothings of our age should check out
the works of the late Julian Simon as well as the recently published
book by Matt Ridley, Rational Optimist. Perhaps these will manage to
be the antidotes to the kind of baffling thinking produced by the
likes of Mr. Kelley (below) and by more prominent public philosophers
such as Jeremy Rifkin! Of course our era has its problems but these
folks are really bonkers with their pessimism. What's more, they
aren't upset with some of the real horrors of our time, such as the
tyrannies and wars and oppression that go on in parts of the globe but
with the good stuff, like our having enough to eat and efficient
transportation! Nor does one hear from them much about Nazism and
Communism, the really horrible systems of the modern age but instead
they keep advancing lamentations about modernity and the free market
system, precisely what have been the liberating features of our
time." (07/16/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25a6r2e
-----
59) Atheists and something from nothing
Classically Liberal
by CLS
"I don't see any reason to assume that 'science will tell us
eventually' why there is something as opposed to nothing. Maybe it
will, maybe it won't. I have no idea. Perhaps the best answer we will
every have to that questions is: The reason there is something instead
of nothing is because there is something. I don't happen to think that
every question we can conceive of asking will be one that humans will
eventually answer. Nor do I think we have to answer them. It's cool
when we do, but not inevitable." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/24b377x
-----
60) Coyotes in the state of nature
National Review
by Kevin Williamson
"That is the essence of 21st-century progressivism: In matters ranging
from financial derivatives to education to gun control, the Left
believes that we face a choice between a masterful state and a
Hobbesian war of all against all. For all of the smart set's vaunted
and self-congratulatory nu
* RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST
* The Freedom Movement's Daily Newspaper
*
* Volume VIII, Issue #1,964
* Monday, July 19th, 2010
* Email Circulation 1,895
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In The News:
0) RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser
1) Iraq: 60 killed, 71 wounded
2) Afghanistan: Kabul suicide bomb kills three civilians
3) Afghanistan: Five occupation troops killed
4) Pakistan: Suicide bombing at mosque wounds eight
5) Oil cap holds steady as BP works on permanent plug
6) NASA appears to no longer be shooting for the stars
7) TX: Homeowner kills burglar
8) AK: Fairbanks bar owner nabs burglary suspect
9) US court OKs second Gitmo prisoner's move to Algeria
10) Ahmadinejad: US behind Iran suicide bombings
11) Clinton seeks more Pakistan-Afghan cooperation
12) Pot growers warn of "McDonald's-ization"
13) Poll: Approval of Afghan war slips
14) VA: New immigrant abductee warehouse will be mid-Atlantic's
largest
15) Boeing, EADS clash again as war for "defense" welfare dollars
resumes
16) Tea Party federation expels California GOP astroturf op over
racial writing
17) Puerto Rico: American drug thugs re-abduct alleged businessman
18) MA: Firms cancel health coverage
19) Iroquois passport dispute raises sovereignty issue
20) SC: Alvin Greene action doll "creates jobs"
21) Would Kagan bow out of a healthcare reform case?
22) With overhaul done, Frank to push for bank tax
23) TX: Daycare took six-year-olds to R film
24) US wanted to "swap Iranian scientist for hikers"
25) CA: Judge's order means two more months of full pay for state
employees
Everybody Has An Opinion:
26) "Free market capitalism" is an oxymoron
27) John Stagliano For President!
28) Deficit hawks or war hawks?
29) Bibi unmasked
30) Party scooper
31) Anarchism and nonviolence: Time for a "complementarity of tactics"
32) The culture of resistance
33) Electric cars and the "clean energy" myth
34) Mises's vision of the free society
35) The GOP chairman was right about Afghanistan
36) Time to permanently kill the death tax
37) Attacks on freedom
38) Blowout prevention act -- will Rs get buyer's remorse?
39) American war vs. real war
40) Ridiculous pornography trial violates Constitution
41) The revolution will be plagiarized
42) Albuquerque firefighters have an opportunity now
43) Calling all cowards
44) Critiques of libertarians
45) Assessing over-assessment
46) Dance, Mr. Kohn -- but on the grave of government itself
47) Tea Party protest history
48) Stating the bleeding obvious, part 3
49) Why we shouldn't be using biofuels
50) The Las Vegas police beat: Officer-involved
51) America's ruling class -- and the perils of revolution
52) Who's defending states' rights?
53) Stop me before I regulate again!
54) Tax Dodgers, Inc.
55) There's still no free lunch
56) Deficits of mass destruction
57) Why corporate tax cuts won't put people to work
58) Recycling a beauty
59) Atheists and something from nothing
60) Coyotes in the state of nature
61) The NYT's nationalistic double standard
62) Review of Huebert's Libertarianism Today
63) Technologies of control and liberation
64) The coming Obamacare deficits
65) The best introduction to libertarianism ever
66) It's time to shift spending to states
67) Another stimulus boondoggle
68) A drug raid goes viral
69) Karl Rove strikes back
70) America: Hooked on war and getting poorer
See No Evil, Hear No Evil:
71) Dea Myer on Freedom Rings Radio, 07/19/10
72) Free Talk Live, 07/17/10
73) Chase Madar on Antiwar Radio
74) All Charges Dismissed! John Stagliano Reacts Outside the
Courthouse
75) Cato Daily Podcast, 07/16/10
What's Up In The Freedom Movement:
76) Today's events
***************
* In The News
***************
0) RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser
Update, 07/19/10: Thanks to NL, our latest subscribing contributor!
His "Buck Starts Here" contribution of $1 a month, billed quarterly,
comes to $3 toward our goal. There's another $5 contribution that I'm
having trouble finding the source of ... so thanks to the yet
unidentified donor, and we are now at $838 against our goal of $2,083.
Keep it coming, folks ... let's get this one wrapped up and put away!
- TLK
http://www.rationalreview.com/content/83890
-----
1) Iraq: 60 killed, 71 wounded
AntiWar.Com
"One or two suicide bombers killed at least 45 people and more than 50
others in Radwaniya during an attack on Sahwa members who had been
waiting several days for their paychecks. The bombers may have
suffered from Down syndrome. ... In Baghdad, one person was killed and
three more were wounded during a blast in the Ur district. ... Gunmen
killed an Iraqi soldier and wounded a policeman in Kirkuk. ... A
suicide attack on a Sahwa headquarters in the border town of Qaim left
seven dead and 11 wounded. Four people were killed, including three
Sahwa members, when bombs planted outside a home in Abu Ghraib
exploded. Another blast killed a Sahwa member." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27utw5p
-----
2) Afghanistan: Kabul suicide bomb kills three civilians
USA Today
"A suicide bombing near a market in the Afghan capital killed three
civilians and wounded dozens Sunday, two days before an international
conference hosting representatives from about 60 nations, government
officials said. Eleven other people were killed in insurgent attacks
elsewhere across the nation, according to reports Sunday, as the
Taliban meet the arrival of thousands more American troops this year
with a rising tide of violence." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/29eg3tp
-----
3) Afghanistan: Five occupation troops killed
USA Today
"Five NATO troops died in roadside bombs in Afghanistan, the alliance
said Saturday, as international forces announced that they had foiled
a terrorist attack on an upcoming conference in Kabul to be attended
by leaders from more than 60 nations. Security is being tightened
across the capital for Tuesday's conference, which is attracting the
heads of NATO, the United Nations and top diplomats, including
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton." (07/17/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27whplq
-----
4) Pakistan: Suicide bombing at mosque wounds eight
Myrtle Beach Sun News
"A suicide bomber ran past guards at a minority Shiite mosque in
eastern Pakistan then blew himself up Sunday, wounding eight
worshippers, officials said. The attack appeared to be the latest in a
string by Sunni extremists against other Muslims they consider
infidels. It took place in Sargodha city, which is in Punjab,
Pakistan's most populous province and its political
heartland." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2cahe65
-----
5) Oil cap holds steady as BP works on permanent plug
KMOV 4 News
"The custom-built cap that finally cut off the oil flowing from BP's
broken well held steady Sunday, and the company hopes to leave it that
way until crews can permanently kill the leak. That differs from the
plan the federal government laid out a day earlier, in which millions
more gallons of oil could be released before the cap is connected to
tankers at the surface and oil is sent to be collected through a mile
of pipes." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2gy7krp
-----
6) NASA appears to no longer be shooting for the stars
Los Angeles Times
"In a cavernous structure at NASA's Plum Brook Station near Lake Erie,
a concrete chamber five stories high rises from the ground. Its walls
are 2 feet thick to withstand the blast of powerful gas-operated horns
strong enough to destroy human organs. The $150-million facility was
built to contain the next-generation manned spacecraft for the
Constellation program, NASA's project to send humans back to the moon.
It is the largest acoustic test chamber in the world, created to
buffet the spacecraft with intense sound waves, simulating the
stresses of launch. The only problem is that the Constellation program
almost certainly will be dead within months. President Obama in
January proposed cancelling the troubled moon program, and a key
Senate committee voted this week to kill Constellation." (07/17/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3yce8o4
-----
7) TX: Homeowner kills burglar
KXAN News
"The Travis County Sheriff's Office says a burglary turned deadly on
Friday after a homeowner fought an intruder in northwest Travis
County. Sheriff's Deputies received a report shortly after 5 p.m. in
reference to a burglary in progress in the 13700 block of Cedar Ridge.
The caller told officials that a man, later identified as Ryan Glen
Bradford, 34, had broken into her home and was fighting her husband.
According to Roger Wade with the Sheriff's office, at one during the
assault the suspected burglar was shot. Deputies, along with North
Lake Travis Fire Department, Austin/Travis County EMS, StarFlight, and
the Jonestown Police Department responded to the scene. When they
arrived they found the suspected burglar with a gunshot
wound." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2chce72
-----
8) AK: Fairbanks bar owner nabs burglary suspect
Anchorage Daily News
"A Fairbanks bar owner helped nab a suspected burglar on a night last
week in what he called a 'textbook sting' right out of a TV show or
movie. On Wednesday morning, John Jackovich, who has owned the Big I
bar for the past four years, discovered someone had pried the plywood
covering off a hole on the south side of the bar. The hole, which
leads to the basement, was the result of previous construction at the
bar. But rather than call police and report the break-in, Jackovich
decided he was going to find out who was responsible. ... Jackovich
put his jacket on the back of a chair, set down his gun and a cup of
coffee, and waited beside an open window to see if the burglar would
strike two nights in a row. He didn't have to wait long." (07/17/10)
http://tinyurl.com/285hw9p
-----
9) US court OKs second Gitmo prisoner's move to Algeria
Pasadena Star-News
"The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the U.S. to send two
Guantanamo Bay prisoners back to Algeria even though they want to
remain at the prison camp because of fear they might be tortured at
home. Justices on Saturday declined to hear the appeal of Aziz Abdul
Naji, held at Guantanamo since 2002 after being captured in Pakistan.
That ruling follows the high court's decision late Friday that allowed
the U.S. government to proceed in transferring another Algerian
detainee back home." (07/17/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2cd7qx6
-----
10) Ahmadinejad: US behind Iran suicide bombings
CNN
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday that only U.S.
troops in Afghanistan and Iraq could be behind such bombings as the
ones that struck the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan last week,
state-run media reported. 'No grouping other than U.S.-backed
terrorist groups which are devoid of human feelings can commit such
acts,' the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Ahmadinejad as
saying." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/29fcsjd
-----
11) Clinton seeks more Pakistan-Afghan cooperation
Baton Rouge Advocate
"Pakistan and Afghanistan sealed a landmark trade deal Sunday as U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pushed the two neighbors to
step up civilian cooperation and work together against al-Qaida and
the Taliban. Shortly after kicking off a South Asia trip aimed at
refining the goals of the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan,
Clinton looked on as the Afghan and Pakistani commerce ministers
signed the trade agreement. It was reached only after years of
negotiation with recent and very active U.S.
encouragement." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2womssq
-----
12) Pot growers warn of "McDonald's-ization"
Athens Banner-Herald
"After weathering the fear of federal prosecution and competition from
drug cartels, California's medical marijuana growers see a new threat
to their tenuous existence: the 'Walmarting' of weed. The Oakland City
Council will look Tuesday at licensing four production plants where
pot would be grown, packaged and processed into items ranging from
baked goods to body oil. Winning applicants would have to pay $211,000
in annual permit fees, carry $2 million worth of liability insurance
and be prepared to devote up to 8 percent of gross sales to
taxes." (07/19/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3662zjc
-----
13) Poll: Approval of Afghan war slips
ABC News
"Support for the war in Afghanistan has hit a new low and President
Obama's approval rating for handling it has declined sharply since
spring -- results that portend trouble for the administration as the
violence there grows. With Obama's surge under way -- and casualties
rising -- the number of Americans who say the war in Afghanistan has
been worth fighting has declined from 52 percent in December to 43
percent now. And his approval rating for handling it, 56 percent in
April, is down to 45 percent." (07/16/10)
http://tinyurl.com/23dbvkz
-----
14) VA: New immigrant abductee warehouse will be mid-Atlantic's
largest
Washington Post
"The largest immigrant detention center in the mid-Atlantic will soon
open in Prince Edward County, an effort to accommodate Virginia's
unprecedented surge in detentions of illegal [sic] immigrants picked
up on criminal charges. The $21 million, privately run center will
house up to 584 immigrant detainees when it opens its doors. Over the
next year, it might grow to hold 1,000 prisoners, most of them snagged
by the federal government's growing Secure Communities program, which
aims to find and deport criminal illegal [sic] immigrants." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25pmxdv
-----
15) Boeing, EADS clash again as war for "defense" welfare dollars
resumes
Aviation International News
"Boeing will reveal more details here today about the NewGen Tanker,
its entry for the third round of the U.S. Air Force KC-X competition.
In the war of words accompanying the long-running and ill-starred
contest, Boeing has not previously specified exactly how it will add a
digital 787-style cockpit and a new fly-by-wire boom to the 767
airframe. Rival contender EADS North America (EADS NA) has again bid
the A330MRTT, as the KC-45. In a pointed reference to the Boeing
NewGen Tanker, EADS CEO Louis Gallois said in London on Saturday that
'a large part of our development cost and risk are behind us ...
compared to our competitor.' The bids were delivered on July 8 and
9." (07/19/10)
http://tinyurl.com/369zzby
-----
16) Tea Party federation expels California GOP astroturf op over
racial writing
MSNBC
"The Tea Party political movement saw a major split over the weekend,
with the National Tea Party Federation expelling a member group after
its spokesman wrote an online post satirizing a fictional letter from
what he called 'Colored People' to President Abraham Lincoln. On its
website, the federation stated it had given the Tea Party Express,
through direct contact with one of its leaders, a deadline to rebuke
and remove spokesman Mark Williams. 'That leader's response was clear:
they have no intention of taking the action we required for their
group to continue as a member of the National Tea Party Federation,'
the federation stated." [editor's note: A good move that should have
come a long time ago -- TPE has never been anything but a Republican
PAC gravy-training on the "Tea Party" movement - TLK] (07/18/10)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38299783/ns/politics/
-----
17) Puerto Rico: American drug thugs re-abduct alleged businessman
CNN
"Jose David Figueroa Agosto's salt-and-pepper hair was covered with a
similarly colored long wig. He hadn't been in the sun much and
appeared younger and slimmer than the man in the old mugshots. Still,
the high-living alleged drug kingpin and prison escapee wasn't coy
when he was caught Saturday after a high-speed chase in Santurce, a
neighborhood in San Juan, Puerto Rico." (07/18/10)
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/17/puerto.rico.drug.arrest/
-----
18) MA: Firms cancel health coverage
Boston Globe
"The relentlessly rising cost of health insurance is prompting some
small Massachusetts companies to drop coverage for their workers and
encourage them to sign up for state-subsidized care instead, a trend
that, some analysts say, could eventually weigh heavily on the state's
already-stressed budget. Since April 1, the date many insurance
contracts are renewed for small businesses, the owners of about 90
small companies terminated their insurance plans with Braintree-based
broker Jeff Rich and indicated in a follow-up survey that they were
relying on publicly funded insurance for their employees." [editor's
note: Just a reminder, Mass. is one of the prototypes on which the
national scam is based - SAT] (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2a9645u
-----
19) Iroquois passport dispute raises sovereignty issue
Associated Press
"An American Indian lacrosse team's refusal to travel on passports not
issued by the Iroquois confederacy goes to the heart of one of the
most sensitive issues in Indian Country: sovereignty. The rights of
Native nations to govern themselves independently has long been
recognized by federal treaties, but the extent of that recognition
beyond U.S borders is under challenge in a post-Sept. 11 world. After
initially refusing to accept Iroquois-issued passports because the
documents lack security features, the State Department gave the team a
one-time waiver. But leaders of the Iroquois Nationals squad announced
Saturday that a last ditch attempt to persuade British officials to
recognize their passports had failed, meaning the team wouldn't play
in its last scheduled game." [Hat tip -- Joey King] (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2cjcoo5
-----
20) SC: Alvin Greene action doll "creates jobs"
Charleston Post & Courier
"The RiverDogs are going green: Alvin Greene that is. With all the
talk earlier this year of a 'Mr. Liberty' statue at nearby Patriots
Point, the RiverDogs already planned to give away miniature 'Mr.
Liberty' statues to the first 1,000 fans in attendance Saturday for
their minor league baseball game against the Augusta GreenJackets. In
January, an Atlanta-based group proposed a male counterpart of the
Statue of Liberty to stand guard over Charleston Harbor. The proposal
was rejected by Patriots Point officials, and later by North
Charleston officials. Reacting to Greene's plans for economic
development, the Charleston ballclub has decided to place Mr. Greene's
face on these figurines." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/29rd753
-----
21) Would Kagan bow out of a healthcare reform case?
Christian Science Monitor
"Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are requesting more
information about Solicitor General Elena Kagan's suspected
involvement in setting the legal strategy to defend President Obama's
health-care reform law from constitutional challenges in the courts.
The effort appears aimed at forcing Ms. Kagan, who is now a Supreme
Court nominee, to pledge to step aside and not participate in what
could become a landmark case should it reach the high court. The
extent of her involvement, if any, in the case is unclear. During the
confirmation hearings, Sen. Tom Coburn (R) of Oklahoma asked Kagan if
there was any time as solicitor general that she'd been asked to
express an opinion on the legal merits of the health-care
bill." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25zfju9
-----
22) With overhaul done, Frank to push for bank tax
Bloomberg News
"Representative Barney Frank, an architect of the financial overhaul
bill lawmakers sent to President Obama on Thursday, said he wants
Congress this year to take up the White House plan for a $90 billion
bank tax to recoup government bailout funds. Frank said Treasury
Secretary Timothy F. Geithner had urged him not to push bank fees,
which Frank had sought to help pay for the overhaul legislation,
because the administration plans a major push for a broader tax. 'I
don't understand how members can say they're for reducing the deficit
and then let Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase off the hook entirely.
They were the major beneficiaries of the intervention,' Frank,
chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said
yesterday." (07/17/10)
http://tinyurl.com/33xp3n9
-----
23) TX: Daycare took six-year-olds to R film
Fox News
"A Texas day care center is facing a state probe over allegations that
it took a group of 6-year-olds to see a raunchy R-rated movie in Waco
in July. Young Expressions Childcare in the Waco suburb of Bellmead,
Tex., is under investigation by the Texas Department of Family and
Protective Services, a spokesman for the agency confirmed to Fox News
Radio. ... The children were allegedly taken by daycare workers to
Waco's Starplex Cinema last week to see 'Death at a Funeral,' a bawdy
2010 comedy that was far too gross even for most movie critics. The
Motion Picture Association of America gave the film an R rating for
foul language and foul humor -- and that barely scratches the surface
of a movie that features corpse wrestling, psychedelic drug use,
explosive diarrhea and a man's homosexual affair with a
midget." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/22m48l7
-----
24) US wanted to "swap Iranian scientist for hikers"
Agence France-Presse
"An Iranian scientist, who returned home last week charging he had
been held by US agents for more than a year, has said that they had
pressed him to agree to be exchanged in a 'spy' swap for three US
hikers in custody in Tehran. In a lengthy interview aired by state
television late on Saturday, Shahram Amiri claimed that the US agents
had acknowledged that the three Americans, detained on the Iran-Iraq
border in July last year, were indeed 'spies.'" (07/18/10)
http://bit.ly/a0Kk3I
-----
25) CA: Judge's order means two more months of full pay for state
employees
Sacramento Bee
"State workers will receive their full paychecks for at least the next
two months after a Sacramento judge on Friday denied Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger's request to immediately force State Controller John
Chiang to pay them minimum wage until a budget is approved. The
administration downplayed Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette's
decision that technical issues raised by Chiang need a full hearing.
Still, the ruling was a boost for at least 200,000 state workers who
were facing paychecks for $7.25 an hour for the July pay
period." (07/17/10)
http://bit.ly/csej1n
*******************************************************************
* HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 07/19/10
*
* Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 97,081 ... Max - 105,854
* (source: www.iraqbodycount.org)
*
* American Military Deaths in Iraq: 4,412
* (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/)
*******************************************************************
****************************
* Everybody Has An Opinion
****************************
26) "Free market capitalism" is an oxymoron
Center for a Stateless Society
by Kevin Carson
"It's pretty much standard for the chattering classes -- both liberal
and conservative -- to refer to something called 'our free market
system,' also known as 'free market capitalism.' To the extent that
the right-wingers at Fox and CNBC or on the editorial page of the Wall
Street Journal advocate some purer form of 'free markets' in contrast
to the existing economy, what they mean is essentially the present
model of corporate capitalism without the regulatory or welfare state.
But the form taken by the existing capitalist system that we live
under owes precious little to free markets. From its beginnings in the
late Middle Ages, it has been shaped by massive and ceaseless
intervention and enforcement of privilege -- much of it breathtakingly
brutal -- by the state." (07/17/10)
http://c4ss.org/content/3202
-----
27) John Stagliano For President!
Independent Country
by James Leroy Wilson
"Nominating Mr. Stagliano for President would send a message to
America. It would say that libertarians reject, completely, the
federal war on consensual behavior, and that, whatever we think of
pornography, we'd rather have a porn producer who respects individual
rights, as Mr. Stagliano does, as President than anyone who believes
porn producers should be in jail. John Stagliano is not just a victim
of the federal government, he's also a symbol of the federal
government's march toward absolute tyranny and
lawlessness." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2ela2wh
-----
28) Deficit hawks or war hawks?
Foundation for Economic Education
by Sheldon Richman
"Last week's TGIF asked if the American people can afford a world-
girdling foreign policy more befitting an empire than a republic. Look
at it this way: War hawks make poor deficit hawks. Facing a $13
trillion national debt and trillion-dollar-plus annual budget
deficits, we can't afford to be complacent about foreign interventions
costing $12 billion a month. It's not just that the budget numbers are
daunting: The very institutions of small-government republicanism are
suffocated by the quest for global hegemony." (07/16/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2vnz9on
-----
29) Bibi unmasked
AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo
"What's interesting -- and embarrassing -- about this leak isn't the
'revelation' that Israel's amen corner in America exerts a decisive
influence on US policymakers: who didn't know that? The Israel lobby
constantly boasts of it, while critics of US subservience to Tel Aviv
consistently decry it. What we didn't know, however, is how much the
Israelis disdain us for it: 'It's absurd,' avers Bibi, and the settler
lady, laughing, agrees with him. She, being an ardent nationalist,
cannot conceive of a government that puts the interests of another
nation over and above its own. Perhaps Bibi has a better idea of how
the Israelis pulled that particular rabbit out of Uncle Sam's hat, but
emotionally it's clear that he, too, finds the weakness of the
Americans incomprehensible." (07/19/10)
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/07/18/bibi-unmasked/
-----
30) Party scooper
LewRockwell.Com
by Brian Wilson
"Thanks to the ego-plumping effects of Media Exposure and Reporter
Fawning, many of the Tea Party Spokesmen-Who-Are-Not-Spokesmen-Because-
We-Don't-Have-Spokesmen have become as thin-skinned and self-centered
as just about any politician running for re-election. After humble,
emotional beginnings fueled by a resuscitated love of Country and the
liberating effects of a little factual awareness of how government is
eroding Rights, they have suffered the inflation of the ego that
causes Blimp Envy, inevitably the predictable result of overexposure
to media exposure and the subsequent public recognition it spawns.
After 45 years in radio and/or TV in back of a mic or in front of a
camera, I have yet to noodle out what it is about those electronic
marvels that turn your average Joe or Jane into a Certified Political
Pundit after just one or two interviews. Call it the 'Joe the Plumber'
Syndrome." (07/19/10)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/wilson-brian/wilson-brian19.1.html
-----
31) Anarchism and nonviolence: Time for a "complementarity of tactics"
Truth Out
by Randall Amster
"Critical voices regularly chastise anarchists without indicating that
they fully understand what anarchism actually is. But anarchists as
well oftentimes seem to act in contravention of both historical and
political senses of what anarchism represents." (07/14/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fvu794
-----
32) The culture of resistance
CounterPunch
by Eamzy Baroud
"Resistance is not a band of armed men hell-bent on wreaking havoc. It
is not a cell of terrorists scheming ways to detonate buildings. True
resistance is a culture. It is a collective retort to oppression.
Understanding the real nature of resistance, however, is not easy. No
newsbyte could be thorough enough to explain why people, as a people,
resist. Even if such an arduous task was possible, the news might not
want to convey it, as it would directly clash with mainstream
interpretations of violence and non-violent resistance." (07/18/10)
http://counterpunch.org/baroud07152010.html
-----
33) Electric cars and the "clean energy" myth
Las Vegas Review-Journal
by Vin Surpynowicz
"Just yesterday, I took a tour of Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas
City, Missouri ... a company that just hired its 50th worker and is on
its way to hiring 50 more, and that's aiming to produce 500 electric
vehicles at that plant alone. 'The government 'invested' $32 million
from the Department of Energy to cover 30 percent of the cost of
creating those jobs, the president explained. No, don't bother
watching your mailbox for your stock certificate, guaranteeing you a
return on your 'investment' should the U.S. affiliate of Smith
Electric Vehicles ever turn a profit. When politicians use the word
'investment,' it's more like a holdup man thanking you for 'investing'
in his next pipe full of crack. But if there's money to be made
manufacturing and fielding electric vehicles, why is government
needed?" (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/33l4x4v
-----
34) Mises's vision of the free society
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
"Any political philosophy must address itself to a central question:
under what conditions is the initiation of violence to be considered
legitimate? One philosophy may endorse such violence on behalf of the
interests of a majority racial group, as with the National Socialists
of Germany. Another may endorse it on behalf of a particular economic
class, as with the Bolsheviks of Soviet Russia. Still another may
prefer to avoid a doctrinaire position one way or another, leaving it
to the good judgment of those who administer the state to decide when
the common good demands the initiation of violence and when it does
not. This is the stance of the social democracies." (07/16/10)
http://mises.org/daily/4500
-----
35) The GOP chairman was right about Afghanistan
Future of Freedom Foundation
by Sheldon Richman
"They used to say the truth shall set you free. These days it might
get you fired. Apparently, stumbling onto the truth is a grave offense
in the Republican Party. Ask Michael Steele, its chairman. Steele
provoked the wrath of Republican neoconservatives William Kristol, Liz
Cheney (the former vice president's daughter), and Sen. John McCain by
saying that 'the one thing you don't do, is engage in a land war in
Afghanistan ... because everyone who has tried over a thousand years
of history has failed, and there are reasons for that.'" (07/14/10)
http://www.fff.org/comment/com1007e.asp
-----
36) Time to permanently kill the death tax
FreedomWorks
by Julie Borowski
"Currently, the motion to permanently repeal the death tax is gaining
momentum in the halls of Congress. In fact, Rep. Neugebauer (R-TX) has
introduced H.R. 4746 that would prevent a series of pending tax
increases while allowing the death tax to finally expire.
Unfortunately, the death tax -- which temporarily expired in 2010 --
is currently set to come roaring back in 2011. Unless we take action
to fight this atrocious tax increase, individuals will be visited by
the IRS and the undertaker on the same day. At first, the death tax or
'estate tax' may sound like it will only affect the extremely wealthy.
However, the death tax also significantly hurts families that make
less than $250,000 annually." (07/16/10)
http://tinyurl.com/34yefja
-----
37) Attacks on freedom
Freedom Politics
by John Stossel
"Something's happened to America, and it isn't good. It's become
easier to get into trouble. We've become a nation of a million rules.
Not the kind of bottom-up rules that people generate through voluntary
associations. Those are fine. I mean imposed, top-down rules formed in
the brains of meddling bureaucrats who think they know better than we
how to manage our lives. Cross them, and we are in
trouble." (07/16/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2vlatgl
-----
38) Blowout prevention act -- will Rs get buyer's remorse?
OpenMarket.org
by Marlo Lewis
"Yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously
approved H.R. 5626, Chairman Henry Waxman's Blowout Prevention Act.
Here's the version of the bill as marked up and approved by the
Committee. Here's the earlier discussion draft on which the Energy and
Environment Subcommittee held a hearing on June 30. Like the
discussion draft, the marked-up version of the bill is a Trojan Horse
for restricting and, ultimately, shutting down offshore oil
production." (07/16/10)
http://tinyurl.com/325nujg
-----
39) American war vs. real war
Campaign For Liberty
by Nick Turse and Tom Engelhardt
"One striking aspect of the Vietnam years -- and the antiwar movement
of that era -- was the degree to which you could see images of
Vietnamese civilian suffering here in the United States. Among the
iconic images of that war, for instance, was Nick Ut's photo of a
young girl, burned by napalm from an air strike, running down a road
screaming. And among war images, it was by no means alone." (07/16/10)
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1015
-----
40) Ridiculous pornography trial violates Constitution
Liberty For All
by LP staff
"The Obama Administration's prosecution of John Stagliano is a
travesty. As Reason magazine's Richard Abowitz wrote, 'The case
against Stagliano concerns the selling of movies performed by
consenting adults to entertain adult DVD viewers who have chosen to
watch these films. In a free and open society this is exactly the kind
of prosecution that should not happen.'" (07/17/10)
http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=4571
-----
41) The revolution will be plagiarized
Fr33 Agents
by Davi Barker
Cartoon. (07/15/10)
http://www.fr33agents.com/3139/the-revolution-will-be-plagiarised/
-----
42) Albuquerque firefighters have an opportunity now
Albuquerque Libertarian Examiner
by Kent McManigal
"Due to the recent pay cutbacks, some Albuquerque firefighters are
choosing to retire early. That's their decision to make, but I wonder
if they have considered getting together to form their own, private,
fire fighting organization. I realize the 'law' probably prevents it
in some way. Just imagine if it didn't, though." (07/17/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27kbp6r
-----
43) Calling all cowards
LewRockwell.Com
by Becky Akers
"Like me, you've probably wondered where the Transportation Security
Administration (TSA) rustles up the gutless baboons it sics on
passengers at its security theaters. Or perhaps you've speculated
about just how low the IQ and morals must sink for a wannabe baboon to
grunt, 'Hmmm, think I'll git me a job where I can stand around on the
taxpayers' dime, except for when I'm busy feeling 'em up and rummagin'
their bags for money and drugs to 'confiscate,' heh-heh.' Here's our
answer: pizza boxes." (07/17/10)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/akers/akers129.html
-----
44) Critiques of libertarians
Nolan Chart
by Simplulo
"There are two types of statists, based on how they want to use the
state: those who want to employ it to help others, or at least for the
common good, and those who want to exploit it to for their own selfish
interests (dominators, predators, and parasites). Call them good
statists and bad statists (actually misguided statists and evil
statists). Libertarians overwhelmingly assume that the opposition
consists of bad statists. In my experience, there are many more good
statists, and it is they who have to be convinced. For example, white
NPR listeners overwhelmingly believe that government schools are a
positive thing, especially for minorities and disadvantaged children.
(I, a passing mulatto, have a hard time convincing a black friend that
whites really believe this, as she firmly believes that government
schools are a white plot to keep blacks down and maintain a pool of
cheap labor.)" (07/17/10)
http://www.nolanchart.com/article7857.html
-----
45) Assessing over-assessment
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by SM Oliva
"This should be obvious, but the reason governments can't stop
themselves from inflating real estate bubbles is that taxes based on
the 'assessed' value of real estate are the lifeblood of most local
governments. It's always in the government's interest to value real
property as high as possible, even if the market thinks
differently." (07/17/10)
http://blog.mises.org/13309/assessing-over-assessment/
-----
46) Dance, Mr. Kohn -- but on the grave of government itself
Center for a Stateless Society
by Alex R. Knight III
"No doubt, Mr. Kohn's dancing is at least in part on the grave of Nazi
Germany, and those who fueled its sadistic machinery in the first
place: the camp guards and kommandant, the SS, the Wermacht; Himmler,
Goering, and Hitler himself. But this is merely like pruning branches
on a dark and malignant tree, instead of cutting at its roots. It was
and is, in truth, not simply the Nazi German version of government
that allowed such atrocity to take place, but the very concept of
government itself. Never mind that the conditions imposed upon Germans
by the victorious governments of the First World War led indirectly to
the Nazis' rise -- look at the idea of government itself, what it does
in practice rather than myth and hollow theory, and it becomes readily
apparent at once that this is the real problem. It becomes apparent
that Nazi Germany was really nothing more nor less than a logical
extension of all government, all politics, and where it invariably
leads." (07/17/10)
http://c4ss.org/content/3204
-----
47) Tea Party protest history
Ayn R. Key
by Ayn R. Key
"The first of the modern Tea Party protests took place in 2007. It was
a combined event, both a protest against the excessive spending of
George W. Bush and a campaign event of presidential candidate Ron
Paul. Throughout 2008 more of these combined events occurred. This is
important to remember, because while the current state of the Tea
Party movement is such to cause many libertarians and other freedom
lovers to be a little cautious of the current Tea Party protests,
especially those that emphasize the pseudo-patriotism of the current
military misadventures in the Middle East, especially the Tea Party
Express AstroTurf movement, the history is still noble." (07/15/10)
http://aynrkey.blogspot.com/2010/07/tea-party-protests.html
-----
48) Stating the bleeding obvious, part 3
Freedom's Phoenix
by Larken Rose
"'Government' is the entity imagined to have the right (not just the
ability) to rule others. Trouble is, no one can have such a right,
because no one can delegate such a right. This is true whether someone
is claiming the absolute, unlimited right to rule, or some version of
'tyranny lite,' as the Constitution pretended to create. No one can
have a moral obligation to obey politician scribbles (their so-called
'laws') when they conflict with one's own moral conscience. There is
no right to rule, and no obligation to obey, which means there is no
'authority,' which means that 'government' does not exist." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/24sw32r
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49) Why we shouldn't be using biofuels
Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall
"Among the various sillinesses that have been proposed to deal with
climate change is the idea that we should start sticking corn or wheat
into cars rather than people. That there are a number of problems with
this idea hasn't stopped politicians in the EU and the US making it
mandatory. Problems like the thought that rising food prices,
inevitable under such a plan, aren't really all that good a thing for
those who cannot afford food now. Or the problem that, as David
Pimentel has been shouting for decades, just as much oil is used
raising the crops as is displaced by the use of the crops. But the
real reason we shouldn't be doing this is that it doesn't make sense
at the most basic level." (07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fbh9gs
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50) The Las Vegas police beat: Officer-involved
Rad Geek People's Daily
by Rad Geek
"Las Vegas Metro is full of heavily-armed, twitchy, terrified cops who
are easily 'startled' and ready to open fire on helpless or harmless
people at even the most furtive motion. Whether you're resting in bed
with your fiancee on Eastern and Bonanza, or going shopping with your
fiancee in Summerlin to celebrate your new life together, or just
talking a quiet walk through the neighborhood out at Desert Inn and
Sandhill, there is a heavily armed force, patrolling 24 hours a day
and 7 days a week, constantly ready to come down on you and gun you
down at even a moment's hesitation to obey their bellowed commands, or
the slightest twitch that they don't understand, or just for
'startling' them." (07/16/10)
http://radgeek.com/gt/2010/07/16/the-las-vegas-police-beat-contd/
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51) America's ruling class -- and the perils of revolution
The American Spectator
by Angelo M. Codevilla
"Never has there been so little diversity within America's upper
crust. Always, in America as elsewhere, some people have been
wealthier and more powerful than others. But until our own time
America's upper crust was a mixture of people who had gained
prominence in a variety of ways, who drew their money and status from
different sources and were not predictably of one mind on any given
matter. The Boston Brahmins, the New York financiers, the land barons
of California, Texas, and Florida, the industrialists of Pittsburgh,
the Southern aristocracy, and the hardscrabble politicians who made it
big in Chicago or Memphis had little contact with one another. Few had
much contact with government, and 'bureaucrat' was a dirty word for
all. So was 'social engineering.' Nor had the schools and universities
that formed yesterday's upper crust imposed a single orthodoxy about
the origins of man, about American history, and about how America
should be governed. All that has changed." (07/10)
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/16/americas-ruling-class-and-the
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52) Who's defending states' rights?
Boston Globe
by Jeff Jacoby
"One of the bigger tents in the history of American political thought,
the one flying the states' rights banner, has proved capacious enough
over the centuries to accommodate everyone from Thomas Jefferson,
James Madison and John C. Calhoun to Strom Thurmond, William Rehnquist
and the defenders of Arizona's immigration law. Now a new champion of
states' rights has appeared: US District Judge Joseph L. Tauro of
Massachusetts. In a pair of opinions earlier this month, Tauro struck
down as unconstitutional Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act,
which defines marriage for purposes of federal law to mean what it has
traditionally meant: the union of a man and a woman. In Gill v. Office
of Personnel Management, Tauro decided that the 104th Congress could
not have had a 'rational basis' for defining marriage as it did -- he
chalked up its motives to mere 'animus' and 'irrational prejudice.'
From there it was a short hop to ruling that DOMA violates the due
process clause of the Fifth Amendment. In short, Gill reflects the
familiar liberal self-righteousness on gay marriage: If you don't
agree with me, you must be a bigot." [editor's note: Ah, if only
"states' rights" were treated as a subset of "individual rights" as
intended by (most of) the Founders. All too often, though, it's the
refuge of said "bigots" seeking to strenghten local control over
peaceful subjects, rather than remove chains from them! - SAT]
(07/18/10)
http://tinyurl.com/37h4ojo
-----
53) Stop me before I regulate again!
John Stossel's Take
by John Stossel
"I'm told that this morning the Senate will pass the Dodd-Frank
financial regulation bill. 2,300 pages long. Nothing so complex ever
makes life better for consumers. Mostly, it guarantees that you will
not start a business without hiring specialists. ... Yet politicians
constantly create more rules. They think they know how to manage our
lives better than we do. They are ignorant and arrogant. Much of this
regulation drives entrepreneurs to say: 'I won't try. I won't open a
business. I won't hire someone because I probably can't fire him
without getting into trouble. I better play it safe. I better not try
anything new.' This kills opportunity. But the regulation never stops.
Last year the federal government added another 70,000 pages to the
Federal Register. Our 535 Congressmen think they're not doing their
job if they're not passing laws. And those are just federal lawmakers.
There are even more state legislators." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26z4nzr
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54) Tax Dodgers, Inc.
In These Times
by Christopher Moraff
"As the saying goes, two things in life are certain: death and taxes.
Unless you're a multinational corporation. In that case, if you're on
the brink of death -- and 'too big to fail' -- the government might
bail you out. As for taxes, the federal code is designed to help you
avoid paying your fair share to the U.S. Treasury. ... Corporate tax
avoidance is a costly problem. Last year, General Electric -- which is
divided into an industrial business, and a financial services
business, GE Capital -- paid no U.S. taxes, despite reporting
consolidated profits of $11 billion. That's because GE shifted its
profits overseas, thereby incurring a U.S. loss of $498 million. ...
In 2008, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that
nearly two-thirds of U.S.-domiciled corporations had not been paying
federal income tax." [editor's note: Inasmuch as the feds are the
force behind the "liability limits" (not to mention the "source" of
billions in corporate welfare?), the ONE sector of society that should
not evade taxes is the corporati - SAT] (07/16/10)
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6189/tax_dodgers_inc
-----
55) There's still no free lunch
Orange County Register
by Thomas Sowell
"If you could spend vast amounts of other people's money just by
saying a few magic words, wouldn't you be tempted to do it? Barack
Obama has spent hundreds of billions of dollars of the taxpayers'
money just by using the magic words 'stimulus' and 'jobs.' It doesn't
matter politically that the stimulus is not actually stimulating and
that the unemployment rate remains up near double-digit levels,
despite all the spending and all the rhetoric about jobs. ... Not only
has all the runaway spending and rapid escalation of the deficit to
record levels failed to make any real headway in reducing
unemployment, all this money pumped into the economy has also failed
to produce inflation. ... Economists have long known that it is not
just the amount of money, but also the speed with which it circulates,
that affects the price level." (07/15/10)
http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/money-257529-economy-price.html
-----
56) Deficits of mass destruction
The Nation
by Christopher Hayes
"If you've been paying attention this past decade, it won't surprise
you to learn that the country's policy elites are in the midst of a
destructive, well-nigh unhinged discussion about the future of the
nation. But even by the degraded standards of the Washington
establishment, the growing panic over government debt is shocking.
First, the facts. Nearly the entire deficit for this year and those
projected into the near and medium terms are the result of three
things: the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bush tax cuts
and the recession. The solution to our fiscal situation is: end the
wars, allow the tax cuts to expire and restore robust growth. Our long-
term structural deficits will require us to control healthcare
inflation the way countries with single-payer systems do." (07/15/10)
http://www.thenation.com/article/37534/deficits-mass-destruction
-----
57) Why corporate tax cuts won't put people to work
Washington Post
by Robert Borosage
"Conservatives have reverted back to calling for corporate tax cuts to
stimulate the economy and put people to work. Consider this mindless
reflex rather than policy. Corporations are sitting on $1.7 trillion
in cash, yet not hiring people. A furious argument is waged about why
they don't hire. The Chamber of Commerce, reduced under head Tom
Donahue to a right-wing propaganda arm, argues that the Obama
administration has paralyzed companies with the threat of regulation.
The Obama administration -- and most sensate economists and financial
advisors -- put more emphasis on the absence of demand in an economy
marked by mass unemployment and stagnant wages. But one thing is
clear. With corporations already awash in cash, tax cuts won't get
them to start hiring people." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2dgucur
-----
58) Recycling a beauty
A Passion for Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
"[A]nyone who would like to delve into more of such sensible points
made against the innumerable know-nothings of our age should check out
the works of the late Julian Simon as well as the recently published
book by Matt Ridley, Rational Optimist. Perhaps these will manage to
be the antidotes to the kind of baffling thinking produced by the
likes of Mr. Kelley (below) and by more prominent public philosophers
such as Jeremy Rifkin! Of course our era has its problems but these
folks are really bonkers with their pessimism. What's more, they
aren't upset with some of the real horrors of our time, such as the
tyrannies and wars and oppression that go on in parts of the globe but
with the good stuff, like our having enough to eat and efficient
transportation! Nor does one hear from them much about Nazism and
Communism, the really horrible systems of the modern age but instead
they keep advancing lamentations about modernity and the free market
system, precisely what have been the liberating features of our
time." (07/16/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25a6r2e
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59) Atheists and something from nothing
Classically Liberal
by CLS
"I don't see any reason to assume that 'science will tell us
eventually' why there is something as opposed to nothing. Maybe it
will, maybe it won't. I have no idea. Perhaps the best answer we will
every have to that questions is: The reason there is something instead
of nothing is because there is something. I don't happen to think that
every question we can conceive of asking will be one that humans will
eventually answer. Nor do I think we have to answer them. It's cool
when we do, but not inevitable." (07/15/10)
http://tinyurl.com/24b377x
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60) Coyotes in the state of nature
National Review
by Kevin Williamson
"That is the essence of 21st-century progressivism: In matters ranging
from financial derivatives to education to gun control, the Left
believes that we face a choice between a masterful state and a
Hobbesian war of all against all. For all of the smart set's vaunted
and self-congratulatory nu
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