07/13 -- BP says well replacement cap in place by Tuesday; Polanski freed as Switzerland rejects US extradition plea
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jul 13, 2010, 12:46:27 AM7/13/10
to Rational Review News Digest
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* RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST
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* Volume VIII, Issue #1,960
* Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
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In The News:
0) RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser
1) BP says well replacement cap in place by Tuesday
2) Polanski freed as Switzerland rejects US extradition plea
3) Iraq: Six wounded
4) Report: 2010 worst year of Afghan war
5) Pakistan: Roadside bomb kills soldier
6) CA: Feinstein sides with jackboots, crooks on marijuana referendum
7) IL: New Chicago victim disarmament scheme takes effect
8) CO: Elderly burglary victim faces four counts of attempted murder
9) MO: Armed robber shot by would-be victim
10) Officials: Fed has no plans for further "monetary easing"
11) TX: Doctors threaten to drop Medicaid out of fear of more fee cuts
12) Ireland: Catholics attack Orange parade in occupied north
13) NAACP to vote on controversial resolution condemning "tea party"
supporters
14) Brown backs financial "reform" bill in US Senate
15) Loy LeFevre, RIP
16) Napolitano: Bush should have been indicted
17) MN: Felons may have put Franken into Senate
18) For some, job loss leads to fulfillment
19) YMCA downsizing to a single letter: Y
20) Food Nazis push Senate to pass "food safety" bill
Everybody Has An Opinion:
21) The 24 types of authoritarian
22) Right is wrong
23) A modest solution
24) The economics of libertarianism, confused
25) The Free Yourself First Movement
26) Afghanistan is a catastrophe
27) Saving face in an unwinnable war
28) Education witchhunt
29) Not in my name
30) The dark legacy of General McChrystal
31) Government's treason against liberty
32) The pollution solution, part 2
33) Justice for Johannes Mehserle
34) Inflating war
35) Federal revenue and the economy
36) Meet the real death panels
37) Your tax dollars at work -- in West Bank settlements
38) Consequences, chapter 13
39) Media moral standards
40) What irritates the statists
41) Is personal privacy a thing of the past?
42) First, do no harm
43) Funding corruption and waste in Afghanistan
44) Gay marriage, rights and privatization
45) Blundering into a culture war
46) The Iranian threat
47) Crossed hierarchies: WoW, SCA, age, expertise ...
48) Is it time to leave America?
49) "Right and wrong" are universal
50) In this corner
51) When nation-building becomes cowardly escape
52) The choice: Profit-oriented business or tax-reliant government?
53) What Michael Steele can learn from Howard Dean
54) Deficits: Get the money from where the money went
55) Are low taxes exacerbating the recession?
See No Evil, Hear No Evil:
56) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 07/12/10
57) Robert K. Elder on The Last Words of the Executed
58) Cato Daily Podcast, 07/12/10
59) Cynthia McKinney on Antiwar Radio
60) Pongracic on Public Choice Economics
What's Up In The Freedom Movement:
61) Today's events
***************
* In The News
***************
0) RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser
Update, 07/13/10: Oops ... a "zero dollar day," and after such a
strong start to boot!
The ChipIn meter says that we're at $615, but the real number is $715
-- more than a third of a way through a three-month fundraiser, less
than halfway through the first month. That's momentum ... let's get
across the finish line and have two-plus months of "no-fundraising
RRND/FND!" - TLK
http://www.rationalreview.com/content/83890
-----
1) BP says well replacement cap in place by Tuesday
MarketWatch
"BP PLC said Monday it has positioned its wellhead replacement cap
within 40 feet of its gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well and hopes to
have it locked in place by Tuesday. ... BP hopes the new cap will
fully contain the estimated 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil flowing
daily from the well, which ruptured April 20. The well has been
spewing crude unhindered into the sea since operations to replace the
cap began over the weekend." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25rv4ja
-----
2) Polanski freed as Switzerland rejects US extradition plea
Independent [UK]
"Switzerland released Roman Polanski from more than seven months of
house arrest in his Alpine chalet yesterday after rejecting an
American extradition request which would have returned him to the US
to face charges of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in
1977. ... US authorities have spent 33 years trying to have the
fugitive director returned to America stand trial for having unlawful
sex with Samantha Geimer. There have been at least six failed attempts
to extradite him since 1978." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2wfyvxh
-----
3) Iraq: Six wounded
AntiWar.Com
"In Mosul, soldiers stormed Mosul University, where they searched
students and personnel, after shots were heard outside the campus.
Three Iraqi soldiers were wounded in a blast in Abu Ghraib. Saboteurs
destroyed two electrical transmission towers. In Baghdad, a civilian
was wounded during a sticky bomb blast in Waziriya last night, and
another was wounded in a similar attack today. A bomb left no
casualties in Zaafaraniya. A sticky bomb destroyed a vehicle in
Kadhimiya. A civilian was wounded as he was leaving a Tuz Khormato
mosque. Police in Fallujah arrested two men suspected of robbing a
gold shop on a day of deadly attacks against jewelers and gold
merchants. No casualties were reported after a bomb blasted a U.S.
military convoy near the Iran border in Shalamjah." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/33x2phg
-----
4) Report: 2010 worst year of Afghan war
Daily Times [Pakistan]
"As the US troop-surge fails to quell the Taliban-led insurgency, this
year has been the most violent since the Afghan war began in 2001 and
civilian deaths have risen slightly with the increased insecurity, a
local rights group said Monday. The Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM)
said that the 30,000-strong troop lift was also clouding US foreign
policy objectives, with regional powers such as Pakistan, India and
Iran flexing their muscles in the country ahead of an expected US and
NATO pullout, starting next year." (07/13/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28hb8h3
-----
5) Pakistan: Roadside bomb kills soldier
Pakistan Observer [Pakistan]
"A government official says a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying
paramilitary troops in northwestern Pakistan, killing one soldier.
Local administrator Jehanzeb Khan says Monday's attack in Sanghar
village in the Orakzai tribal area also wounded four other troops in
the vehicle. The military declared victory in Orakzai in June after
pounding Taliban militants in the area for months with airstrikes and
artillery. But militant attacks and military operations in the area
have continued." (07/13/10)
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=41133
-----
6) CA: Feinstein sides with jackboots, crooks on marijuana referendum
San Francisco Chronicle
"California's senior U.S. senator has agreed to participate in the
campaign opposing a ballot initiative that would legalize the
recreational use of marijuana and tax commercial pot sales. Public
Safety First, the committee working to defeat Proposition 19 on the
November ballot, said Monday that Senator Dianne Feinstein would be
listed among the measure's official opponents in the election
information guide the state mails to registered voters." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2b6snsx
-----
7) IL: New Chicago victim disarmament scheme takes effect
11 Alive News
"An ordinance that Chicago officials say is the strictest handgun
regulation in the country takes effect Monday. The restrictions were
approved by the City Council July 2 in response to a Supreme Court
ruling that local lawmakers say will put more guns in people's hands.
The new ordinance bans gun shops in Chicago and prohibits gun owners
from stepping outside their homes, even onto their porches or in their
garages, with a handgun. Suits have already been filed by a man who
wants to open a gun shop in the city and four residents along with a
gun sellers group. They claim the ordinance is
unconstitutional." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26ggvp2
-----
8) CO: Elderly burglary victim faces four counts of attempted murder
Jefferson County Conservative Examiner
"The Jefferson County District Attorney is pursuing charges against an
82 year old man who protected his property, and his life, with a
firearm back in February of 2010. Two suspected illegal immigrants
[sic], who attempted to steal a trailer from Robert Wallace and run
him over with a pickup truck, were finally arrested Friday in
connection with the case. Robert Wallace, the 82 year old homeowner,
still faces 12 felony charges, including four counts of attempted
first degree murder. Furthermore, the two suspected illegal immigrants
[sic] went months without being charged at all." (07/11/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28ffa97
-----
9) MO: Armed robber shot by would-be victim
Self Defense Examiner
"Police say that a man was in a parked car, on the 5400 block of
Riverview Blvd in St. Louis, MO just after 10 PM when a robber drove
up, got out of his own vehicle, approached the parked car on foot, and
brandished a handgun. The victim reportedly drew his own gun and fired
in self defense, striking the robber in the arms and chest, and ending
the attack. The robber is said to have fled a short distance through
an alley, before collapsing in front of a home." (07/11/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27nwjvg
-----
10) Officials: Fed has no plans for further "monetary easing"
Business Week
"Two Federal Reserve officials said the central bank has no plans to
deploy additional tools for stimulating the economy and that the
recovery is intact. Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke, asked about possible
additional steps that could be taken to bolster growth, said in an
interview in Washington that 'there are no plans to do that at this
point.' Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said 'Consideration of
additional easing steps is very far away.' Their comments echoed
remarks last week by the Dallas Fed's Richard Fisher and Kansas City's
Thomas Hoenig, who said more stimulus isn't needed even after reports
that private payrolls in June grew less than anticipated and
manufacturing cooled." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2v3up9u
-----
11) TX: Doctors threaten to drop Medicaid out of fear of more fee cuts
Dallas Morning News
"Doctors in the Dallas area and across Texas are threatening to opt
out of Medicaid because of payment cuts, which would further damage
the state's already uneven delivery of health care to the poor. The 1
percent trim to provider fees that starts Sept. 1 sounds modest. But
doctors, insurance industry officials and health care experts widely
see it as the first of many hits coming to doctors' wallets as Texas'
fiscal woes deepen." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2wejr9r
-----
12) Ireland: Catholics attack Orange parade in occupied north
The Raw Story
"Catholic rioters in Northern Ireland hurled petrol bombs, rocks and
other missiles at a Protestant parade and their police escort Monday,
seriously injuring a female officer. Police responded by firing rubber
bullets and a water cannon in a bid to subdue the demonstrators, in
the latest outbreak of violence on the biggest day of the British
[sic] province's marching season. The demonstrators were attempting to
block the annual march of Protestant Orangemen passing the Ardoyne
shops in the north of the city, a notorious flashpoint in the Northern
Irish capital." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/257aueu
-----
13) NAACP to vote on controversial resolution condemning "tea party"
supporters
Washington Post
"Members of the NAACP will vote Tuesday on a resolution that condemns
what the group calls 'explicitly racist behavior' by supporters of the
'tea party.' The resolution, which is expected to pass, pits the civil
rights group against the conservative grass-roots movement, which has
repeatedly denied allegations of racism." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/35rt3la
-----
14) Brown backs financial "reform" bill in US Senate
Chicago Tribune
"A key senator's support Monday for the sweeping overhaul of financial
regulations most likely assured its enactment .... Sen. Scott Brown of
Massachusetts, one of a handful of Republicans who voted for the
Senate's version of the legislation, said he would vote for the bill.
He had balked last month at revisions made by a House-Senate
conference committee to fund the bill's $19 billion cost over the next
10 years. But the joint committee reconvened late last month to make
changes to satisfy him. Brown's backing should give supporters the 60
votes needed to avoid a Republican-led filibuster." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2wta8qn
-----
15) Loy LeFevre, RIP
LewRockwell.Com
Loy LeFevre, widow of Freedom School/Rampart College founder Robert
LeFevre, has died. Few details available at this time. Link is to a
brief remembrance blog entry. Hat tip -- Wendy McElroy. (07/12/10)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/61366.html
-----
16) Napolitano: Bush should have been indicted
Raw Story
"Fox News' senior judicial analyst made some surprising remarks
Saturday that may go against the grain at his conservative network. In
a interview with Ralph Nader on C-SPAN's 'Book TV' to promote his book
Lies the Government Told You, Judge Andrew Napolitano said that
President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should have
been indicted for 'torturing, for spying, for arresting without
warrant.' The judge believes that it is a fallacy to say that the US
treats suspects as innocent until proven guilty. 'The government acts
as if a defendant is guilty merely on the basis of an accusation,'
said Napolitano." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fa9vp6
-----
17) MN: Felons may have put Franken into Senate
Fox News
"The six-month election recount that turned former Saturday Night Live
comedian Al Franken into a U.S. senator may have been decided by
convicted felons who voted illegally in Minnesota's Twin Cities.
That's the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota
Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341
convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted
illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his
Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. The final
recount vote in the race, determined six months after Election Day,
showed Franken beat Coleman by 312 votes -- fewer votes than the
number of felons whose illegal ballots were counted, according to
Minnesota Majority's newly released study, which matched publicly
available conviction lists with voting records." [editor's note: Given
similar chicanery by GOP as well as Dems (dating much further back
than Chicago's graveyards of 1960), this is "dog bites man" news -
SAT] (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2dkm9wx
-----
18) For some, job loss leads to fulfillment
Boston Globe
"Jim Deramo says his former company's bankruptcy was a blessing. Tom
Hurwitch is glad he is no longer a cog in the wheel at a huge
management consulting firm. And former portfolio manager James Wiess
feels liberated from the shackles of the stock market. Like about
104,000 others in Massachusetts who have lost jobs in the past three
years, none of the three changed occupation by choice. But unlike
their counterparts, they have found work they like even better --
whether it is because they are pursuing a new passion, have a saner
schedule, or enjoy running their own business. 'Sometimes getting
fired is the best thing that can ever happen to you,' said Wendie
Howland, a former insurance case manager and consultant who is now a
certified nurse life care planner." [editor's note: Seeing obstacles
as opportunities is a fundamental part of what American
entrepreneurship was built upon - SAT] (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2eq89dq
-----
19) YMCA downsizing to a single letter: Y
New York Times
"The YMCA, the nonprofit organization founded 166 years ago in England
as the Young Men's Christian Association, is undergoing a major
rebranding. It is adopting as its name the nickname everyone has used
for generations: 'the Y.' ... 'It's a way of being warmer, more
genuine, more welcoming, when you call yourself what everyone else
calls you,' said Kate Coleman, the organization's senior vice
president and chief marketing officer. The Y's new name coincides with
its efforts to promote programs on youth, healthy living and
communities." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2ftplw6
-----
20) Food Nazis push Senate to pass "food safety" bill
Washington Post
"A year after House Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly approved
legislation to improve food safety, public health advocates [sic] are
growing frustrated that the Senate has yet to take up the bill. A
coalition of food safety groups tried to turn up the pressure last
week on Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, and
minority leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, running
newspaper ads in the lawmakers' two states featuring constituents who
fell seriously ill from food poisoning. The ads urged Reid and
McConnell to move the bill to the Senate floor and pass
it." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/289erpd
*******************************************************************
* HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 07/13/10
*
* Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 97,057 ... Max - 105,858
* (source: www.iraqbodycount.org)
*
* American Military Deaths in Iraq: 4,412
* (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/)
*******************************************************************
****************************
* Everybody Has An Opinion
****************************
21) The 24 types of authoritarian
Fr33 Agents
by Davi Barker
Cartoon. (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3xtpgoy
-----
22) Right is wrong
Cato Institute
by Brink Lindsey
"Without a doubt, libertarians should be happy that the Democrats'
power grabs have met with such vociferous opposition. Anything that
can stop this dash toward dirigisme, or at least slow it down, is a
good thing. Seldom has there been a better time to stand athwart
history and yell 'Stop!' So we should rejoice that at least some
conservatives haven't forgotten their signature move. That, however,
is about all the contemporary right is good for. It is capable of
checking at least some of the left's excesses, and thank goodness for
that. But a clear-eyed look at conservatism as a whole reveals a
political movement with no realistic potential for advancing
individual freedom. The contemporary right is so deeply under the sway
of its most illiberal impulses that they now define what it means to
be a conservative." (07/12/10)
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11971
-----
23) A modest solution
LewRockwell.Com
by Butler Shaffer
"We need to step outside the circle of our conditioned thinking and
consider alternatives to our dilemmas. I have a modest proposal to
offer to resolve the national debt: repudiate it! The reality is that,
even after more extended wars and the formalization of slave-state
efforts to avoid it, defaulting on this debt will become the ultimate
solution. Leviathan, and its institutional keepers, will not curb its
appetites, particularly when all that stands in its way are the always-
expendable people." (07/13/10)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer220.html
-----
24) The economics of libertarianism, confused
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Robert P. Murphy
"The radical libertarian critique of the federal government isn't
simply that it's inefficient, or that, gee whiz, we really ought to
redeploy 3 percent of our troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. No, the
radical libertarian critique is that the people in DC are quite
literally a bunch of thieves and killers. I hate to be so frank, but
that's what the situation is. It's not a 'gaffe' or a mere 'error'
when the CIA sets up a foreign network of secret prisons, or when the
president of the United States claims the authority to assassinate US
citizens without any procedural challenge." (07/12/10)
http://mises.org/daily/4535
-----
25) The Free Yourself First Movement
WendyMcElroy.Com
by Wendy McElroy
"There has always been a strong streak of (for want of another word)
'survivalism' within the libertarian movement: gun advocates, gold
owners, those who retreat to form communities, doom sayers, etc. But,
again, this is different ... although guns, gold and community
networking certainly have an honored place in the life of anyone who
values independence and freedom. One difference: although the Free
Yourself First Movement may be largely in response to negative
conditions, it is overwhelmingly positive in its message and sometimes
joyous in its attitude. In stead of fretting about the state of the
world, these people try to marginalize the negatives so that the
quality of their lives is not deeply impacted by what a politician
does." (07/12/10)
http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.3383
-----
26) Afghanistan is a catastrophe
The Guardian [UK]
by Simon Jenkins
"There is simply no good news out of Afghanistan. Iraq was always easy
in comparison. It would eventually exhaust itself and consent to some
form of brutal authority, allowing the west to 'declare victory and
retreat.' Afghanistan is quite different. Its innate xenophobia
should, in 2001, have been exploited to drive a wedge between the
Taliban and al-Qaida. Instead, invasion and occupation have thrown
them together, while the nation-building ambition of liberal
interventionism has gone potty. Everyone involved in this wretched war
knows it has failed, yet leaders must tell us the contrary. In London
last month the hero of the hour, General David Petraeus, declared
'progress is being made,' that 'Marjah is in reasonably good shape'
and that Afghanistan was 'enjoying a rising tide of
security.'" (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3x6sppb
-----
27) Saving face in an unwinnable war
Toronto Sun
by Eric Margolis
"Sinking in debt and no closer to victory, heads may roll as the U.S.
and NATO wrap up their pointless Afghan adventure." (07/11/10)
http://tinyurl.com/24ntutd
-----
28) Education witchhunt
CounterPunch
by Jonathan Cook
"Hundreds of Israeli college professors have signed a petition
accusing the education minister of endangering academic freedoms after
he threatened to 'punish' any lecturer or institution that supports a
boycott of Israel. The backlash against Gideon Saar, a member of the
prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, comes after a series
of moves suggesting he is trying to stamp a more stridently right-wing
agenda on the Israeli education system." (07/12/10)
http://counterpunch.org/cook07122010.html
-----
29) Not in my name
The Libertarian Enterprise
by Matthew Sims
"Dustin, that is exactly what you are saying. If those people over
there are acting in your behalf as your proxies you are exactly saying
that you want to kill innocent people to effect some kind of outcome.
You won't define the outcome as anything other than 'win the war and
come home.'" [This was a blog post in reference to "Letter from Matt
Simms" in the previous issue of TLE - MLS] (07/11/10)
http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2010/tle578-20100711-03.html
-----
30) The dark legacy of General McChrystal
AntiWar.Com
by Kelley B. Vlahos
"Gen. Stanley McChrystal might have left town through the back door
with his four stars barely intact, his 35-year career in the Army
humiliatingly cut short by a lack of judgment with a counterculture
magazine. But in reality, he got off easy." (07/13/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fnpyp7
-----
31) Government's treason against liberty
Campaign for Liberty
by David McKalip, MD
"It was King George who was committing treason by rejecting the
natural rights of individual men. The treason is on the side of any
government that would oppress the naturally granted liberties of men.
They do treason to us and our natural right to life; to our own
individual liberty and to our own happiness. To our ability to work in
our environment as individuals and through our own labor create a
property that has value. To trade it with others through contract in
ways that benefit us both. Governments of any form that would
interfere with our natural individual rights are a TREASON to nature
and the natural rights of man and these governments must be reminded
of their rightful place." (07/12/10)
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1006
-----
32) The pollution solution, part 2
Liberty For All
by Mary J. Ruwart
"Environmental restoration is costly and difficult. Restitution
therefore becomes an incredibly onerous punishment and the most
effective deterrent known. Let's examine a real-life example of how
restitution, coupled with privatization, can protect our waterways. In
Britain, individuals have property rights in the rivers that run
through their land. If someone upstream pollutes the water and harms
the fish, the downstream owners don't have to wait for a bureaucratic
commission to study the issue. Instead, they immediately sue the
polluters to protect their valuable property and claim restitution for
damages. As a result, would-be polluters are effectively deterred from
damaging the environment." (07/12/10)
http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=4554
-----
33) Justice for Johannes Mehserle
Reason
by Radley Balko
"Early in the morning of January 1, 2009, in a now infamous incident
captured on video by dozens of cell phones and replayed across the
globe, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Officer Johannes Mehserle shot
and killed 23-year-old Oscar Grant as Grant lay on his stomach on an
Oakland BART platform. Last week, a Los Angeles jury found Mehserle
guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Because the jury had the option to
convict Mehserle of second-degree murder, and perhaps because the jury
contained no blacks (Mehserle is white, Grant was black), the verdict
has enraged civil rights groups and sparked protests and rioting in
Oakland. The Department of Justice is now looking into the possibility
of trying Mehserle a second time under federal civil rights law. The
jury got it right." (07/12/10)
http://reason.com/archives/2010/07/12/justice-for-johannes-mehserle
-----
34) Inflating war
The American Conservative
by Thomas DiLorenzo
"Government can finance war (and everything else) by only three
methods: taxes, debt, and the printing of money. Taxes are the most
visible and painful, followed by debt finance, which crowds out
private borrowing, drives up interest rates, and imposes the double
burden of principal and interest. Money creation, on the other hand,
makes war seem costless to the average citizen. But of course there is
no such thing as a free lunch. As a general rule, the longer a war
lasts, the more centrally planned and government-controlled the entire
economy becomes. And it remains so to some degree after the war has
ended. War is the health of the state, as Randolph Bourne famously
declared, and the growth of the state means a decline in liberty and
prosperity." (for publication 08/01/10)
http://amconmag.com/article/2010/aug/01/00016/
-----
35) Federal revenue and the economy
TCS Daily
by Jon N. Hall
"The shortfall in federal revenue isn't that the feds can't suck
enough money out of the economy due to low tax rates; the problem is
the economy itself. The economy is ailing. And it's not a cyclical
disease; it's chronic, structural. The current problems with the
economy have been festering for decades and have finally come to a
head. Evidence that the economy has taken a turn for the worse can be
seen in the response to the ever-increasing doses of stimulus. The
patient lies comatose on its gurney, we apply the electrodes, turn on
the juice, and still it just lies there unresponsive. By contrast,
after the 9-11 attacks (which occurred during a recession) GDP started
expanding again the very next quarter. But now we seem headed for a
double-dip in the recession, and experts say it will take years for
employment to return to pre-recession levels. There's even talk of a
lost decade ahead, such as Japan suffered in the Nineties. We mustn't
delude ourselves that we can go back to the halcyon days of healthy
federal revenue by merely hiking tax rates." [editor's note: "Healthy"
federal revenue? The closer to zero the "healthier" for most of us! -
TLK] (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2brhjwm
-----
36) Meet the real death panels
Mother Jones
by James Ridgeway
"While politicians of all stripes shun the idea of health care
rationing as the political third rail that it is, most of them accept
a premise that leads, one way or another, to that end. Here's what I
mean: Nearly every other industrialized country recognizes health care
as a human right, whose costs and benefits are shared among all
citizens. But in the United States, the leaders of both political
parties along with most of the 'experts' persist in treating health
care as a commodity that is purchased, in one way or another, by those
who can afford it. Conservatives embrace this notion as the perfect
expression of the all-powerful market; though they make a great show
of recoiling from the term, in practice they are endorsing rationing
on the basis of wealth. Liberals, including supporters of President
Obama's health care reform, advocate subsidies, regulation, and other
modest measures to give the less fortunate a little more buying power.
But as long as health care is viewed as a product to be bought and
sold, even the most well-intentioned reformers will someday soon have
to come to grips with health care rationing, if not by wealth then by
some other criteria." (07/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28kwf7e
-----
37) Your tax dollars at work -- in West Bank settlements
Slate
by Christopher Hitchens
"So here you have it in plain words: The U.S. Treasury Department
passively allows tax breaks to vicious and fanatical groups whose
activity, if conducted by Israelis, would be illegal under Israeli
law! (It's more than a decade since Israel banned tax deductions for
groups that devote themselves to the creation of unrecognized
'outposts' on the West Bank.) This, in effect, constitutes an official
American subsidy to outlaw zealot groups whose aim is to destroy any
chance of accomplishing what is this country's declared foreign-policy
objective. Nor is that the most objectionable part of the sordid
story. Take a glance at the rhetoric of the groups that are flouting
local and international law. According to a Tennessee-based charity
named HaYovel, which aims to fuse the efforts of Christian and Jewish
fundamentalists in a settlement on disputed land in Samaria, the aim
of its tax-exempt donations is to prepare for 'the soon coming jubilee
in Yeshua, messiah.' I don't know about you, but I would prefer them
to be using their own money, not mine, if they insist on rehearsing
for the apocalypse on other people's property." (07/12/10)
http://www.slate.com/id/2260231/
-----
38) Consequences, chapter 13
The Price of Liberty
by Susan Callaway
Fiction. (07/12/10)
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/2010/06/07/consequences-13.html
-----
39) Media moral standards
Salon
by Glenn Greenwald
"When CNN recently announced that it had hired Eliot Spitzer to host a
prime-time news show, I noticed that the word 'disgraced' was applied
to him so reflexively that one had the impression it was a formal part
of his title. ... So common is this appellation that a NEXIS media
search reveals that the word 'disgraced' appears extremely close to
the phrase 'Eliot Spitzer' (within two words) a total of 394
times .... By blindingly stark contrast, ever since he got caught
hiring prostitutes to wrap him in diapers while campaigning on the
basis of Family Values, the word 'disgraced' appeared within two words
of the name 'David Vitter' a grand total of 4 times -- all from small
blogs .... in the 3 years since he confessed to James Dobson that he
was cheating on his second wife with his then-mistress-and-
congressional-aide/now-third-wife, at the same time as he was leading
the Clinton impeachment hearings, [Newt] Gingrich was so described a
grand total of 5 times, none from major news outlets ..." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3yntpd4
-----
40) What irritates the statists
A Passion for Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
"Marx called it commodity fetishism and Galbraith, also a socialist of
sorts, lamented the phenomenon in light of how it distracts most of us
from our far more important 'public' goals, the ones that get
neglected because we spend so much money on private goods. For
Galbraith it was one of the major failures of the free market, namely,
that we are at liberty to focus on satisfying our private desires and
thus 'deprive' the public treasuries of our resources that would, by
Galbraith's and his cohorts' account be much better spent on public
goods like schools, roads, forests, monuments, welfare payments,
subsidies, or whatever publicly minded folks would spend our resources
on. Now all this is very irritating to those who have in mind taking
the resources from those of us who have ideas of our own concerning
what they ought to be spent on and using it for what they deem to be
of far greater public significance." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2wleajx
-----
41) Is personal privacy a thing of the past?
Human Events
by Doug Patton
"The government knows more about my property than I do. They have all
the information on my home, including its value, in order to charge me
a fee for the privilege of living there. They know my race, gender,
age, health problems, where I was born, where I live now -- and
probably where I intend to be buried. They know which church I attend,
how much I donate to it and other charities, and how many credit cards
I carry. Several years ago, when Bill Clinton was President and I was
a state leader in a pro-family organization considered to be a part of
the vast right-wing conspiracy by the felon-in-chief and his bride, I
suspect that an FBI file with my name on it was among those illegally
stored on White House computers." (07/10/10)
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38001
-----
42) First, do no harm
The New Republic
by David Rieff
"How can anti-interventionists pay so little heed to the views of the
victims? It is a fair question. I would respond first as an American:
I do not want my country to be the world's policeman, even in the most
humane sense of that word. It seems to me that assuming this role has
been a disaster for the United States. As W. H. Seward said in his
eulogy to John Quincy Adams, 'democracies are prone to war, and war
consumes them.' For make no mistake, these military interventions on
humanitarian or human rights grounds are wars, not armed philanthropy.
Sorry, the military-industrial complex is no myth." (07/12/10)
http://www.tnr.com/blog/foreign-policy/76197/first-do-no-harm
-----
43) Funding corruption and waste in Afghanistan
Freedom's Phoenix
by US Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
"Last week, GOP chairman Michael Steele came under fire for daring to
say what a lot of Americans already know -- that our involvement in
Afghanistan is an ill-advised quagmire with no end in sight. After
nearly 10 years and approaching $1 trillion spent, the conflict is
going nowhere because there is nowhere for it to go. After all, if
victory is never really defined, defeat is inevitable. With our
economy at home in serious trouble, this wasteful occupation is
something we clearly cannot afford. Each soldier costs us $1 million
per year, and yet most in Washington are only considering how many
more soldiers to send." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/36td9cq
-----
44) Gay marriage, rights and privatization
Adam Smith Institute
by Karthik Reddy
"Under a system of marriage licensed by the state, the government
offers only one type of contract into which people may enter. This
contract is inflexible, and, as it is written, debated, and passed by
Parliament, it is not the ideal contract for every couple. The
privatization of marriage, an idea raised more than a decade ago by
libertarian David Boaz, is not only a viable alternative; it permits a
much broader range of options available to individuals, whether
heterosexual or homosexual. Marriage licensing is merely a form of
regulation, and is identical to any other form of state licensing.
Privatization would end this regulation, and instead allow private
individuals to contract with one another to design a legal structure
most suitable for their needs." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/23e2k9g
-----
45) Blundering into a culture war
The American Spectator
by W. James Antle III
"Back when DOMA first passed, most Americans not only opposed same-sex
marriage but viewed it as an oxymoron or definitional impossibility.
Less than a third of Americans disagreed with this consensus. Fourteen
years later, a much smaller majority rejects same-sex marriage. It is
now a partisan, left-right issue, with liberals and Democrats
perfectly within the mainstream of their side of the political
spectrum believing the traditional definition of marriage is now
inadequate or even unjust. Tauro's decision reminds us that some
things haven't changed, however: same-sex marriage still fares much
better in the courts than at the ballot box." (07/12/10)
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/12/blundering-into-a-culture-war
-----
46) The Iranian threat
Z Magazine
by Noam Chomsky
"No sane person wants Iran to develop nuclear weapons; or anyone. One
obvious way to mitigate or eliminate this threat is to establish a
nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East. The issue arose
(again) at the NPT conference at United Nations headquarters in early
May 2010. Egypt, as chair of the 118 nations of the Non-Aligned
Movement, proposed that the conference back a plan calling for the
start of negotiations in 2011 on a Middle East NWFZ, as had been
agreed by the West, including the U.S., at the 1995 review conference
on the NPT. Washington still formally agrees, but insists that Israel
be exempted -- and has given no hint of allowing such provisions to
apply to itself." (07/10)
http://www.zcommunications.org/the-iranian-threat-by-noam-chomsky-1
-----
47) Crossed hierarchies: WoW, SCA, age, expertise ...
Ideas
by David Friedman
"In my Future Imperfect, I briefly discussed the problem of the
inconsistency between hierarchies of age and of expertise -- what
happens, in a rapidly changing field, when the younger and lower
ranked people correctly believe that they know more about what they
are doing than the older and more senior. The same issues arise in
other contexts." (07/11/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26j5lqj
-----
48) Is it time to leave America?
Economic Policy Journal
by Robert Wenzel
"I am asked this question more often than you would expect. Clearly,
many people are thinking things are only going to get worse and not
get better any time soon in America. The short answer is that no one
has to leave TODAY, but a lot of people should be preparing to
leave." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25n8p6t
-----
49) "Right and wrong" are universal
Albuquerque Libertarian Examiner
by Kent McManigal
"If an act is right for one person, it is right for everyone, and if
it is wrong for one person, it is wrong for everyone. That sounds
simple, right? So why is it so hard for statists to grasp? I must
conclude it indicates they don't want to understand." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/247xj8q
-----
50) In this corner
Boston Globe
by James Carroll
"The difficult gets done immediately. The impossible -- well, so far
it has taken almost a century. How long before the Israelis and the
Palestinians reach the true peace agreement that has eluded Jews and
Arabs since the breakup of the Ottoman Empire after World War I? In
separate meetings in the Oval Office recently, President Obama pressed
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to shift from the 'proximity' talks enabled by ever-
shuttling US special envoy George Mitchell, with support from former
British leader Tony Blair, to the direct negotiations which alone can
lead toward resolution. Mitchell and Blair have made valiant efforts.
But as great-power diplomats, they represent more than they know. The
American and the Englishman, while putting themselves forward as the
solution, embody the oldest problem." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fztfsn
-----
51) When nation-building becomes cowardly escape
The American Prospect
by Courtney E. Martin
"If you walk down Falluja's busiest streets, you are likely to travel
parallel with open trenches that smell of putrid waste. These
trenches, vestiges of a planned but unfinished sewage treatment
system, are more than an eyesore and an assault on the olfactory
senses. They are a reminder of America's broken promises in the
ongoing nation-building effort in Iraq. The New York Times reported
last week that many of the most fundamental needs of the Iraqi people,
the most vital infrastructure projects, have been
abandoned." [editor's note: Since "nation-builidng" was merely phase
two in the empire's cover-plan (following "stopping Iraq's WMDs"), the
only real surprise is that the troops are actually coming home at all!
- SAT] (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2vg57t8
-----
52) The choice: Profit-oriented business or tax-reliant government?
Orange County Register
by Mark Landsbaum
"Orange Punch readers may have a little more time over the weekend, so
we offer this slightly-longer-than-usual blog post on a question dear
to everyone's heart: Which is better, profit-oriented private business
or tax-reliant government? Let's say you have a business that you run
economically, without waste or extravagance, permitting you to employ
10 people and to make a 3-percent profit, after expenses and taxes.
Now let's say the government decides to increase your corporate tax
from 9 percent to 10 percent. Just a little increase. Where will you
get the money to pay that tax? Unless you want to pay the increased
tax out of your savings or by spending less on expenses like employee
salaries, 1 percent more in taxes probably means about 1 percent less
in profit, give or take a buck." (07/09/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2g6tf8m
-----
53) What Michael Steele can learn from Howard Dean
The Nation
by Ari Berman
"In his sixteen months on the job, Republican National Committee (RNC)
Chairman Michael Steele has become embroiled in a remarkable number of
scandals and slipups. Yet his latest head-scratcher -- calling the
conflict in Afghanistan 'a war of Obama's choosing' and suggesting it
was unwinnable -- has caused the biggest uproar yet, with prominent
Republicans like Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney calling on Steele to
resign. He seems likely to temporarily survive this latest round, but
there's a good chance the RNC will be looking for new leadership after
November. Steele's controversy-filled tenure brings to mind Howard
Dean's turbulent start at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) five
years ago. Like Steele, Dean took the helm of a largely leaderless
party beset by division and struggling to regain political
power." [editor's note: Although no parallels with GOP or Dem are
implied, perhaps the LP leaders might benefit from some of this
"advice" - SAT] (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2dw5o5h
-----
54) Deficits: Get the money from where the money went
Our Future Blog
by Dave Johnson
"Don't fall for it. Social Security did not contribute to the deficits
or debt, it ran a huge surplus. That surplus was supposed to be set
aside. Instead it was handed out to the very wealthy as tax cuts. Now
the country needs to start paying it back to the elderly, and to
prevent us from getting it back from where it went -- the wealthy few
-- they're instead talking about making people wait until age 70 to
retire, cutting benefits, etc. Every one of us knows that the budget
deficits come from the tax cuts and military spending increases of
recent decades. But every one of us also knows that the beneficiaries
of those tax cuts and military spending use their wealth and power to
corrupt the political system, preventing us from restoring sanity to
our governance." [editor's note: Despite the fact that his
prescription for "restoring the money" (raising taxes, fighting to
"save" SSI) is all wrong, Mr. Johnson's analysis of where it went
mostly (two bottomless-pit imperialist wars) is dead-on - SAT]
(07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26lzq9g
-----
55) Are low taxes exacerbating the recession?
In These Times
by David Sirota
"As the planet's economy keeps stumbling, the phrase 'worst recession
since the Great Depression' has become the new 'global war on terror'
-- a term whose overuse has rendered it both meaningless and acronym-
worthy. And just like that previously ubiquitous phrase, references to
the WRSTGD are almost always followed by flimsy and contradictory
explanations. Republicans who ran up massive deficits say the
recession comes from overspending. Democrats who gutted the job market
with free trade policies nonetheless insist it's all George W. Bush's
fault. ... And in the case of the WRSTGD, the most important of these
is the idea that we are in economic dire straits because tax rates are
too low." [editor's note: YIKE! Let us squash this notion ASAP! Only
an imperialist would say such a thing, and Mr. Sirota is surely not
one of those in "progressive" disguise? - SAT] (07/09/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2e87qmj
*****************************
* See No Evil, Hear No Evil
*****************************
56) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 07/12/10
Freedom's Phoenix
"We're going to space ... and the government is NOT invited." [MP3]
(07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/ernie071210
-----
57) Robert K. Elder on The Last Words of the Executed
Hit & Run
"Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie sat down with Robert K. Elder, author of
The Last Words of the Executed, to discuss the final words people
executed by the state, ranging from Sarah Goode, a victim of the Salem
Witch Trials, to Gary Gilmore, the Utah murderer who became a pop
phenomenon in the 1970s, to Karla Faye Tucker, a killer who famously
said she had an orgasm every time she swung a pick axe into flesh
during a brutal double murder." [Flash video] (07/12/10)
http://reason.com/blog/2010/07/12/reasontv-robert-k-elder-on-the
-----
58) Cato Daily Podcast, 07/12/10
Cato Institute
"Rerank the presidents," featuring Gene Healy. [MP3] (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/cato071210
-----
59) Cynthia McKinney on Antiwar Radio
AntiWar.Com
"Former congresswoman and peace activist Cynthia McKinney discusses
her participation in a 2008 attempt to break the Israeli blockade of
the Gaza strip to deliver humanitarian aid there, the Israeli navy's
ramming of their boat, the accurate coverage provided by a CNN anchor
on scene and the power the Israeli Lobby has over the congress of the
United States." [Flash audio or MP3] (07/11/10)
http://antiwar.com/radio/2010/07/11/cynthia-mckinney-2/
-----
60) Pongracic on Public Choice Economics
Foundation for Economic Education
"Professor Ivan Pongracic spoke to students attending Freedom
University I on June 3, 2010." [Flash audio or MP3] (posted 07/10)
http://fee.org/media/public-choice-economics/
*************************************
* What's Up In The Freedom Movement
*************************************
61) Today's events
Check our sidebar calendar for this week's freedom movement events.
Don't see your event? Drop us a line at in...@rationalreview.com ... or
see:
www.rationalreview.com/add-your-event-to-our-calendar
... for instructions on adding your events directly!
http://upcoming.yahoo.com/group/4042/
* RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST
* The Freedom Movement's Daily Newspaper
*
* Volume VIII, Issue #1,960
* Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
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In The News:
0) RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser
1) BP says well replacement cap in place by Tuesday
2) Polanski freed as Switzerland rejects US extradition plea
3) Iraq: Six wounded
4) Report: 2010 worst year of Afghan war
5) Pakistan: Roadside bomb kills soldier
6) CA: Feinstein sides with jackboots, crooks on marijuana referendum
7) IL: New Chicago victim disarmament scheme takes effect
8) CO: Elderly burglary victim faces four counts of attempted murder
9) MO: Armed robber shot by would-be victim
10) Officials: Fed has no plans for further "monetary easing"
11) TX: Doctors threaten to drop Medicaid out of fear of more fee cuts
12) Ireland: Catholics attack Orange parade in occupied north
13) NAACP to vote on controversial resolution condemning "tea party"
supporters
14) Brown backs financial "reform" bill in US Senate
15) Loy LeFevre, RIP
16) Napolitano: Bush should have been indicted
17) MN: Felons may have put Franken into Senate
18) For some, job loss leads to fulfillment
19) YMCA downsizing to a single letter: Y
20) Food Nazis push Senate to pass "food safety" bill
Everybody Has An Opinion:
21) The 24 types of authoritarian
22) Right is wrong
23) A modest solution
24) The economics of libertarianism, confused
25) The Free Yourself First Movement
26) Afghanistan is a catastrophe
27) Saving face in an unwinnable war
28) Education witchhunt
29) Not in my name
30) The dark legacy of General McChrystal
31) Government's treason against liberty
32) The pollution solution, part 2
33) Justice for Johannes Mehserle
34) Inflating war
35) Federal revenue and the economy
36) Meet the real death panels
37) Your tax dollars at work -- in West Bank settlements
38) Consequences, chapter 13
39) Media moral standards
40) What irritates the statists
41) Is personal privacy a thing of the past?
42) First, do no harm
43) Funding corruption and waste in Afghanistan
44) Gay marriage, rights and privatization
45) Blundering into a culture war
46) The Iranian threat
47) Crossed hierarchies: WoW, SCA, age, expertise ...
48) Is it time to leave America?
49) "Right and wrong" are universal
50) In this corner
51) When nation-building becomes cowardly escape
52) The choice: Profit-oriented business or tax-reliant government?
53) What Michael Steele can learn from Howard Dean
54) Deficits: Get the money from where the money went
55) Are low taxes exacerbating the recession?
See No Evil, Hear No Evil:
56) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 07/12/10
57) Robert K. Elder on The Last Words of the Executed
58) Cato Daily Podcast, 07/12/10
59) Cynthia McKinney on Antiwar Radio
60) Pongracic on Public Choice Economics
What's Up In The Freedom Movement:
61) Today's events
***************
* In The News
***************
0) RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser
Update, 07/13/10: Oops ... a "zero dollar day," and after such a
strong start to boot!
The ChipIn meter says that we're at $615, but the real number is $715
-- more than a third of a way through a three-month fundraiser, less
than halfway through the first month. That's momentum ... let's get
across the finish line and have two-plus months of "no-fundraising
RRND/FND!" - TLK
http://www.rationalreview.com/content/83890
-----
1) BP says well replacement cap in place by Tuesday
MarketWatch
"BP PLC said Monday it has positioned its wellhead replacement cap
within 40 feet of its gushing Gulf of Mexico oil well and hopes to
have it locked in place by Tuesday. ... BP hopes the new cap will
fully contain the estimated 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil flowing
daily from the well, which ruptured April 20. The well has been
spewing crude unhindered into the sea since operations to replace the
cap began over the weekend." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25rv4ja
-----
2) Polanski freed as Switzerland rejects US extradition plea
Independent [UK]
"Switzerland released Roman Polanski from more than seven months of
house arrest in his Alpine chalet yesterday after rejecting an
American extradition request which would have returned him to the US
to face charges of having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in
1977. ... US authorities have spent 33 years trying to have the
fugitive director returned to America stand trial for having unlawful
sex with Samantha Geimer. There have been at least six failed attempts
to extradite him since 1978." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2wfyvxh
-----
3) Iraq: Six wounded
AntiWar.Com
"In Mosul, soldiers stormed Mosul University, where they searched
students and personnel, after shots were heard outside the campus.
Three Iraqi soldiers were wounded in a blast in Abu Ghraib. Saboteurs
destroyed two electrical transmission towers. In Baghdad, a civilian
was wounded during a sticky bomb blast in Waziriya last night, and
another was wounded in a similar attack today. A bomb left no
casualties in Zaafaraniya. A sticky bomb destroyed a vehicle in
Kadhimiya. A civilian was wounded as he was leaving a Tuz Khormato
mosque. Police in Fallujah arrested two men suspected of robbing a
gold shop on a day of deadly attacks against jewelers and gold
merchants. No casualties were reported after a bomb blasted a U.S.
military convoy near the Iran border in Shalamjah." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/33x2phg
-----
4) Report: 2010 worst year of Afghan war
Daily Times [Pakistan]
"As the US troop-surge fails to quell the Taliban-led insurgency, this
year has been the most violent since the Afghan war began in 2001 and
civilian deaths have risen slightly with the increased insecurity, a
local rights group said Monday. The Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM)
said that the 30,000-strong troop lift was also clouding US foreign
policy objectives, with regional powers such as Pakistan, India and
Iran flexing their muscles in the country ahead of an expected US and
NATO pullout, starting next year." (07/13/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28hb8h3
-----
5) Pakistan: Roadside bomb kills soldier
Pakistan Observer [Pakistan]
"A government official says a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying
paramilitary troops in northwestern Pakistan, killing one soldier.
Local administrator Jehanzeb Khan says Monday's attack in Sanghar
village in the Orakzai tribal area also wounded four other troops in
the vehicle. The military declared victory in Orakzai in June after
pounding Taliban militants in the area for months with airstrikes and
artillery. But militant attacks and military operations in the area
have continued." (07/13/10)
http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=41133
-----
6) CA: Feinstein sides with jackboots, crooks on marijuana referendum
San Francisco Chronicle
"California's senior U.S. senator has agreed to participate in the
campaign opposing a ballot initiative that would legalize the
recreational use of marijuana and tax commercial pot sales. Public
Safety First, the committee working to defeat Proposition 19 on the
November ballot, said Monday that Senator Dianne Feinstein would be
listed among the measure's official opponents in the election
information guide the state mails to registered voters." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2b6snsx
-----
7) IL: New Chicago victim disarmament scheme takes effect
11 Alive News
"An ordinance that Chicago officials say is the strictest handgun
regulation in the country takes effect Monday. The restrictions were
approved by the City Council July 2 in response to a Supreme Court
ruling that local lawmakers say will put more guns in people's hands.
The new ordinance bans gun shops in Chicago and prohibits gun owners
from stepping outside their homes, even onto their porches or in their
garages, with a handgun. Suits have already been filed by a man who
wants to open a gun shop in the city and four residents along with a
gun sellers group. They claim the ordinance is
unconstitutional." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26ggvp2
-----
8) CO: Elderly burglary victim faces four counts of attempted murder
Jefferson County Conservative Examiner
"The Jefferson County District Attorney is pursuing charges against an
82 year old man who protected his property, and his life, with a
firearm back in February of 2010. Two suspected illegal immigrants
[sic], who attempted to steal a trailer from Robert Wallace and run
him over with a pickup truck, were finally arrested Friday in
connection with the case. Robert Wallace, the 82 year old homeowner,
still faces 12 felony charges, including four counts of attempted
first degree murder. Furthermore, the two suspected illegal immigrants
[sic] went months without being charged at all." (07/11/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28ffa97
-----
9) MO: Armed robber shot by would-be victim
Self Defense Examiner
"Police say that a man was in a parked car, on the 5400 block of
Riverview Blvd in St. Louis, MO just after 10 PM when a robber drove
up, got out of his own vehicle, approached the parked car on foot, and
brandished a handgun. The victim reportedly drew his own gun and fired
in self defense, striking the robber in the arms and chest, and ending
the attack. The robber is said to have fled a short distance through
an alley, before collapsing in front of a home." (07/11/10)
http://tinyurl.com/27nwjvg
-----
10) Officials: Fed has no plans for further "monetary easing"
Business Week
"Two Federal Reserve officials said the central bank has no plans to
deploy additional tools for stimulating the economy and that the
recovery is intact. Fed Governor Elizabeth Duke, asked about possible
additional steps that could be taken to bolster growth, said in an
interview in Washington that 'there are no plans to do that at this
point.' Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker said 'Consideration of
additional easing steps is very far away.' Their comments echoed
remarks last week by the Dallas Fed's Richard Fisher and Kansas City's
Thomas Hoenig, who said more stimulus isn't needed even after reports
that private payrolls in June grew less than anticipated and
manufacturing cooled." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2v3up9u
-----
11) TX: Doctors threaten to drop Medicaid out of fear of more fee cuts
Dallas Morning News
"Doctors in the Dallas area and across Texas are threatening to opt
out of Medicaid because of payment cuts, which would further damage
the state's already uneven delivery of health care to the poor. The 1
percent trim to provider fees that starts Sept. 1 sounds modest. But
doctors, insurance industry officials and health care experts widely
see it as the first of many hits coming to doctors' wallets as Texas'
fiscal woes deepen." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2wejr9r
-----
12) Ireland: Catholics attack Orange parade in occupied north
The Raw Story
"Catholic rioters in Northern Ireland hurled petrol bombs, rocks and
other missiles at a Protestant parade and their police escort Monday,
seriously injuring a female officer. Police responded by firing rubber
bullets and a water cannon in a bid to subdue the demonstrators, in
the latest outbreak of violence on the biggest day of the British
[sic] province's marching season. The demonstrators were attempting to
block the annual march of Protestant Orangemen passing the Ardoyne
shops in the north of the city, a notorious flashpoint in the Northern
Irish capital." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/257aueu
-----
13) NAACP to vote on controversial resolution condemning "tea party"
supporters
Washington Post
"Members of the NAACP will vote Tuesday on a resolution that condemns
what the group calls 'explicitly racist behavior' by supporters of the
'tea party.' The resolution, which is expected to pass, pits the civil
rights group against the conservative grass-roots movement, which has
repeatedly denied allegations of racism." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/35rt3la
-----
14) Brown backs financial "reform" bill in US Senate
Chicago Tribune
"A key senator's support Monday for the sweeping overhaul of financial
regulations most likely assured its enactment .... Sen. Scott Brown of
Massachusetts, one of a handful of Republicans who voted for the
Senate's version of the legislation, said he would vote for the bill.
He had balked last month at revisions made by a House-Senate
conference committee to fund the bill's $19 billion cost over the next
10 years. But the joint committee reconvened late last month to make
changes to satisfy him. Brown's backing should give supporters the 60
votes needed to avoid a Republican-led filibuster." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2wta8qn
-----
15) Loy LeFevre, RIP
LewRockwell.Com
Loy LeFevre, widow of Freedom School/Rampart College founder Robert
LeFevre, has died. Few details available at this time. Link is to a
brief remembrance blog entry. Hat tip -- Wendy McElroy. (07/12/10)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/61366.html
-----
16) Napolitano: Bush should have been indicted
Raw Story
"Fox News' senior judicial analyst made some surprising remarks
Saturday that may go against the grain at his conservative network. In
a interview with Ralph Nader on C-SPAN's 'Book TV' to promote his book
Lies the Government Told You, Judge Andrew Napolitano said that
President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should have
been indicted for 'torturing, for spying, for arresting without
warrant.' The judge believes that it is a fallacy to say that the US
treats suspects as innocent until proven guilty. 'The government acts
as if a defendant is guilty merely on the basis of an accusation,'
said Napolitano." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fa9vp6
-----
17) MN: Felons may have put Franken into Senate
Fox News
"The six-month election recount that turned former Saturday Night Live
comedian Al Franken into a U.S. senator may have been decided by
convicted felons who voted illegally in Minnesota's Twin Cities.
That's the finding of an 18-month study conducted by Minnesota
Majority, a conservative watchdog group, which found that at least 341
convicted felons in largely Democratic Minneapolis-St. Paul voted
illegally in the 2008 Senate race between Franken, a Democrat, and his
Republican opponent, then-incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. The final
recount vote in the race, determined six months after Election Day,
showed Franken beat Coleman by 312 votes -- fewer votes than the
number of felons whose illegal ballots were counted, according to
Minnesota Majority's newly released study, which matched publicly
available conviction lists with voting records." [editor's note: Given
similar chicanery by GOP as well as Dems (dating much further back
than Chicago's graveyards of 1960), this is "dog bites man" news -
SAT] (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2dkm9wx
-----
18) For some, job loss leads to fulfillment
Boston Globe
"Jim Deramo says his former company's bankruptcy was a blessing. Tom
Hurwitch is glad he is no longer a cog in the wheel at a huge
management consulting firm. And former portfolio manager James Wiess
feels liberated from the shackles of the stock market. Like about
104,000 others in Massachusetts who have lost jobs in the past three
years, none of the three changed occupation by choice. But unlike
their counterparts, they have found work they like even better --
whether it is because they are pursuing a new passion, have a saner
schedule, or enjoy running their own business. 'Sometimes getting
fired is the best thing that can ever happen to you,' said Wendie
Howland, a former insurance case manager and consultant who is now a
certified nurse life care planner." [editor's note: Seeing obstacles
as opportunities is a fundamental part of what American
entrepreneurship was built upon - SAT] (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2eq89dq
-----
19) YMCA downsizing to a single letter: Y
New York Times
"The YMCA, the nonprofit organization founded 166 years ago in England
as the Young Men's Christian Association, is undergoing a major
rebranding. It is adopting as its name the nickname everyone has used
for generations: 'the Y.' ... 'It's a way of being warmer, more
genuine, more welcoming, when you call yourself what everyone else
calls you,' said Kate Coleman, the organization's senior vice
president and chief marketing officer. The Y's new name coincides with
its efforts to promote programs on youth, healthy living and
communities." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2ftplw6
-----
20) Food Nazis push Senate to pass "food safety" bill
Washington Post
"A year after House Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly approved
legislation to improve food safety, public health advocates [sic] are
growing frustrated that the Senate has yet to take up the bill. A
coalition of food safety groups tried to turn up the pressure last
week on Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, and
minority leader Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, running
newspaper ads in the lawmakers' two states featuring constituents who
fell seriously ill from food poisoning. The ads urged Reid and
McConnell to move the bill to the Senate floor and pass
it." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/289erpd
*******************************************************************
* HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 07/13/10
*
* Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 97,057 ... Max - 105,858
* (source: www.iraqbodycount.org)
*
* American Military Deaths in Iraq: 4,412
* (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/)
*******************************************************************
****************************
* Everybody Has An Opinion
****************************
21) The 24 types of authoritarian
Fr33 Agents
by Davi Barker
Cartoon. (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3xtpgoy
-----
22) Right is wrong
Cato Institute
by Brink Lindsey
"Without a doubt, libertarians should be happy that the Democrats'
power grabs have met with such vociferous opposition. Anything that
can stop this dash toward dirigisme, or at least slow it down, is a
good thing. Seldom has there been a better time to stand athwart
history and yell 'Stop!' So we should rejoice that at least some
conservatives haven't forgotten their signature move. That, however,
is about all the contemporary right is good for. It is capable of
checking at least some of the left's excesses, and thank goodness for
that. But a clear-eyed look at conservatism as a whole reveals a
political movement with no realistic potential for advancing
individual freedom. The contemporary right is so deeply under the sway
of its most illiberal impulses that they now define what it means to
be a conservative." (07/12/10)
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11971
-----
23) A modest solution
LewRockwell.Com
by Butler Shaffer
"We need to step outside the circle of our conditioned thinking and
consider alternatives to our dilemmas. I have a modest proposal to
offer to resolve the national debt: repudiate it! The reality is that,
even after more extended wars and the formalization of slave-state
efforts to avoid it, defaulting on this debt will become the ultimate
solution. Leviathan, and its institutional keepers, will not curb its
appetites, particularly when all that stands in its way are the always-
expendable people." (07/13/10)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer220.html
-----
24) The economics of libertarianism, confused
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Robert P. Murphy
"The radical libertarian critique of the federal government isn't
simply that it's inefficient, or that, gee whiz, we really ought to
redeploy 3 percent of our troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. No, the
radical libertarian critique is that the people in DC are quite
literally a bunch of thieves and killers. I hate to be so frank, but
that's what the situation is. It's not a 'gaffe' or a mere 'error'
when the CIA sets up a foreign network of secret prisons, or when the
president of the United States claims the authority to assassinate US
citizens without any procedural challenge." (07/12/10)
http://mises.org/daily/4535
-----
25) The Free Yourself First Movement
WendyMcElroy.Com
by Wendy McElroy
"There has always been a strong streak of (for want of another word)
'survivalism' within the libertarian movement: gun advocates, gold
owners, those who retreat to form communities, doom sayers, etc. But,
again, this is different ... although guns, gold and community
networking certainly have an honored place in the life of anyone who
values independence and freedom. One difference: although the Free
Yourself First Movement may be largely in response to negative
conditions, it is overwhelmingly positive in its message and sometimes
joyous in its attitude. In stead of fretting about the state of the
world, these people try to marginalize the negatives so that the
quality of their lives is not deeply impacted by what a politician
does." (07/12/10)
http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.3383
-----
26) Afghanistan is a catastrophe
The Guardian [UK]
by Simon Jenkins
"There is simply no good news out of Afghanistan. Iraq was always easy
in comparison. It would eventually exhaust itself and consent to some
form of brutal authority, allowing the west to 'declare victory and
retreat.' Afghanistan is quite different. Its innate xenophobia
should, in 2001, have been exploited to drive a wedge between the
Taliban and al-Qaida. Instead, invasion and occupation have thrown
them together, while the nation-building ambition of liberal
interventionism has gone potty. Everyone involved in this wretched war
knows it has failed, yet leaders must tell us the contrary. In London
last month the hero of the hour, General David Petraeus, declared
'progress is being made,' that 'Marjah is in reasonably good shape'
and that Afghanistan was 'enjoying a rising tide of
security.'" (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3x6sppb
-----
27) Saving face in an unwinnable war
Toronto Sun
by Eric Margolis
"Sinking in debt and no closer to victory, heads may roll as the U.S.
and NATO wrap up their pointless Afghan adventure." (07/11/10)
http://tinyurl.com/24ntutd
-----
28) Education witchhunt
CounterPunch
by Jonathan Cook
"Hundreds of Israeli college professors have signed a petition
accusing the education minister of endangering academic freedoms after
he threatened to 'punish' any lecturer or institution that supports a
boycott of Israel. The backlash against Gideon Saar, a member of the
prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party, comes after a series
of moves suggesting he is trying to stamp a more stridently right-wing
agenda on the Israeli education system." (07/12/10)
http://counterpunch.org/cook07122010.html
-----
29) Not in my name
The Libertarian Enterprise
by Matthew Sims
"Dustin, that is exactly what you are saying. If those people over
there are acting in your behalf as your proxies you are exactly saying
that you want to kill innocent people to effect some kind of outcome.
You won't define the outcome as anything other than 'win the war and
come home.'" [This was a blog post in reference to "Letter from Matt
Simms" in the previous issue of TLE - MLS] (07/11/10)
http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2010/tle578-20100711-03.html
-----
30) The dark legacy of General McChrystal
AntiWar.Com
by Kelley B. Vlahos
"Gen. Stanley McChrystal might have left town through the back door
with his four stars barely intact, his 35-year career in the Army
humiliatingly cut short by a lack of judgment with a counterculture
magazine. But in reality, he got off easy." (07/13/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fnpyp7
-----
31) Government's treason against liberty
Campaign for Liberty
by David McKalip, MD
"It was King George who was committing treason by rejecting the
natural rights of individual men. The treason is on the side of any
government that would oppress the naturally granted liberties of men.
They do treason to us and our natural right to life; to our own
individual liberty and to our own happiness. To our ability to work in
our environment as individuals and through our own labor create a
property that has value. To trade it with others through contract in
ways that benefit us both. Governments of any form that would
interfere with our natural individual rights are a TREASON to nature
and the natural rights of man and these governments must be reminded
of their rightful place." (07/12/10)
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=1006
-----
32) The pollution solution, part 2
Liberty For All
by Mary J. Ruwart
"Environmental restoration is costly and difficult. Restitution
therefore becomes an incredibly onerous punishment and the most
effective deterrent known. Let's examine a real-life example of how
restitution, coupled with privatization, can protect our waterways. In
Britain, individuals have property rights in the rivers that run
through their land. If someone upstream pollutes the water and harms
the fish, the downstream owners don't have to wait for a bureaucratic
commission to study the issue. Instead, they immediately sue the
polluters to protect their valuable property and claim restitution for
damages. As a result, would-be polluters are effectively deterred from
damaging the environment." (07/12/10)
http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=4554
-----
33) Justice for Johannes Mehserle
Reason
by Radley Balko
"Early in the morning of January 1, 2009, in a now infamous incident
captured on video by dozens of cell phones and replayed across the
globe, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Officer Johannes Mehserle shot
and killed 23-year-old Oscar Grant as Grant lay on his stomach on an
Oakland BART platform. Last week, a Los Angeles jury found Mehserle
guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Because the jury had the option to
convict Mehserle of second-degree murder, and perhaps because the jury
contained no blacks (Mehserle is white, Grant was black), the verdict
has enraged civil rights groups and sparked protests and rioting in
Oakland. The Department of Justice is now looking into the possibility
of trying Mehserle a second time under federal civil rights law. The
jury got it right." (07/12/10)
http://reason.com/archives/2010/07/12/justice-for-johannes-mehserle
-----
34) Inflating war
The American Conservative
by Thomas DiLorenzo
"Government can finance war (and everything else) by only three
methods: taxes, debt, and the printing of money. Taxes are the most
visible and painful, followed by debt finance, which crowds out
private borrowing, drives up interest rates, and imposes the double
burden of principal and interest. Money creation, on the other hand,
makes war seem costless to the average citizen. But of course there is
no such thing as a free lunch. As a general rule, the longer a war
lasts, the more centrally planned and government-controlled the entire
economy becomes. And it remains so to some degree after the war has
ended. War is the health of the state, as Randolph Bourne famously
declared, and the growth of the state means a decline in liberty and
prosperity." (for publication 08/01/10)
http://amconmag.com/article/2010/aug/01/00016/
-----
35) Federal revenue and the economy
TCS Daily
by Jon N. Hall
"The shortfall in federal revenue isn't that the feds can't suck
enough money out of the economy due to low tax rates; the problem is
the economy itself. The economy is ailing. And it's not a cyclical
disease; it's chronic, structural. The current problems with the
economy have been festering for decades and have finally come to a
head. Evidence that the economy has taken a turn for the worse can be
seen in the response to the ever-increasing doses of stimulus. The
patient lies comatose on its gurney, we apply the electrodes, turn on
the juice, and still it just lies there unresponsive. By contrast,
after the 9-11 attacks (which occurred during a recession) GDP started
expanding again the very next quarter. But now we seem headed for a
double-dip in the recession, and experts say it will take years for
employment to return to pre-recession levels. There's even talk of a
lost decade ahead, such as Japan suffered in the Nineties. We mustn't
delude ourselves that we can go back to the halcyon days of healthy
federal revenue by merely hiking tax rates." [editor's note: "Healthy"
federal revenue? The closer to zero the "healthier" for most of us! -
TLK] (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2brhjwm
-----
36) Meet the real death panels
Mother Jones
by James Ridgeway
"While politicians of all stripes shun the idea of health care
rationing as the political third rail that it is, most of them accept
a premise that leads, one way or another, to that end. Here's what I
mean: Nearly every other industrialized country recognizes health care
as a human right, whose costs and benefits are shared among all
citizens. But in the United States, the leaders of both political
parties along with most of the 'experts' persist in treating health
care as a commodity that is purchased, in one way or another, by those
who can afford it. Conservatives embrace this notion as the perfect
expression of the all-powerful market; though they make a great show
of recoiling from the term, in practice they are endorsing rationing
on the basis of wealth. Liberals, including supporters of President
Obama's health care reform, advocate subsidies, regulation, and other
modest measures to give the less fortunate a little more buying power.
But as long as health care is viewed as a product to be bought and
sold, even the most well-intentioned reformers will someday soon have
to come to grips with health care rationing, if not by wealth then by
some other criteria." (07/10)
http://tinyurl.com/28kwf7e
-----
37) Your tax dollars at work -- in West Bank settlements
Slate
by Christopher Hitchens
"So here you have it in plain words: The U.S. Treasury Department
passively allows tax breaks to vicious and fanatical groups whose
activity, if conducted by Israelis, would be illegal under Israeli
law! (It's more than a decade since Israel banned tax deductions for
groups that devote themselves to the creation of unrecognized
'outposts' on the West Bank.) This, in effect, constitutes an official
American subsidy to outlaw zealot groups whose aim is to destroy any
chance of accomplishing what is this country's declared foreign-policy
objective. Nor is that the most objectionable part of the sordid
story. Take a glance at the rhetoric of the groups that are flouting
local and international law. According to a Tennessee-based charity
named HaYovel, which aims to fuse the efforts of Christian and Jewish
fundamentalists in a settlement on disputed land in Samaria, the aim
of its tax-exempt donations is to prepare for 'the soon coming jubilee
in Yeshua, messiah.' I don't know about you, but I would prefer them
to be using their own money, not mine, if they insist on rehearsing
for the apocalypse on other people's property." (07/12/10)
http://www.slate.com/id/2260231/
-----
38) Consequences, chapter 13
The Price of Liberty
by Susan Callaway
Fiction. (07/12/10)
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/2010/06/07/consequences-13.html
-----
39) Media moral standards
Salon
by Glenn Greenwald
"When CNN recently announced that it had hired Eliot Spitzer to host a
prime-time news show, I noticed that the word 'disgraced' was applied
to him so reflexively that one had the impression it was a formal part
of his title. ... So common is this appellation that a NEXIS media
search reveals that the word 'disgraced' appears extremely close to
the phrase 'Eliot Spitzer' (within two words) a total of 394
times .... By blindingly stark contrast, ever since he got caught
hiring prostitutes to wrap him in diapers while campaigning on the
basis of Family Values, the word 'disgraced' appeared within two words
of the name 'David Vitter' a grand total of 4 times -- all from small
blogs .... in the 3 years since he confessed to James Dobson that he
was cheating on his second wife with his then-mistress-and-
congressional-aide/now-third-wife, at the same time as he was leading
the Clinton impeachment hearings, [Newt] Gingrich was so described a
grand total of 5 times, none from major news outlets ..." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/3yntpd4
-----
40) What irritates the statists
A Passion for Liberty
by Tibor R. Machan
"Marx called it commodity fetishism and Galbraith, also a socialist of
sorts, lamented the phenomenon in light of how it distracts most of us
from our far more important 'public' goals, the ones that get
neglected because we spend so much money on private goods. For
Galbraith it was one of the major failures of the free market, namely,
that we are at liberty to focus on satisfying our private desires and
thus 'deprive' the public treasuries of our resources that would, by
Galbraith's and his cohorts' account be much better spent on public
goods like schools, roads, forests, monuments, welfare payments,
subsidies, or whatever publicly minded folks would spend our resources
on. Now all this is very irritating to those who have in mind taking
the resources from those of us who have ideas of our own concerning
what they ought to be spent on and using it for what they deem to be
of far greater public significance." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2wleajx
-----
41) Is personal privacy a thing of the past?
Human Events
by Doug Patton
"The government knows more about my property than I do. They have all
the information on my home, including its value, in order to charge me
a fee for the privilege of living there. They know my race, gender,
age, health problems, where I was born, where I live now -- and
probably where I intend to be buried. They know which church I attend,
how much I donate to it and other charities, and how many credit cards
I carry. Several years ago, when Bill Clinton was President and I was
a state leader in a pro-family organization considered to be a part of
the vast right-wing conspiracy by the felon-in-chief and his bride, I
suspect that an FBI file with my name on it was among those illegally
stored on White House computers." (07/10/10)
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38001
-----
42) First, do no harm
The New Republic
by David Rieff
"How can anti-interventionists pay so little heed to the views of the
victims? It is a fair question. I would respond first as an American:
I do not want my country to be the world's policeman, even in the most
humane sense of that word. It seems to me that assuming this role has
been a disaster for the United States. As W. H. Seward said in his
eulogy to John Quincy Adams, 'democracies are prone to war, and war
consumes them.' For make no mistake, these military interventions on
humanitarian or human rights grounds are wars, not armed philanthropy.
Sorry, the military-industrial complex is no myth." (07/12/10)
http://www.tnr.com/blog/foreign-policy/76197/first-do-no-harm
-----
43) Funding corruption and waste in Afghanistan
Freedom's Phoenix
by US Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX)
"Last week, GOP chairman Michael Steele came under fire for daring to
say what a lot of Americans already know -- that our involvement in
Afghanistan is an ill-advised quagmire with no end in sight. After
nearly 10 years and approaching $1 trillion spent, the conflict is
going nowhere because there is nowhere for it to go. After all, if
victory is never really defined, defeat is inevitable. With our
economy at home in serious trouble, this wasteful occupation is
something we clearly cannot afford. Each soldier costs us $1 million
per year, and yet most in Washington are only considering how many
more soldiers to send." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/36td9cq
-----
44) Gay marriage, rights and privatization
Adam Smith Institute
by Karthik Reddy
"Under a system of marriage licensed by the state, the government
offers only one type of contract into which people may enter. This
contract is inflexible, and, as it is written, debated, and passed by
Parliament, it is not the ideal contract for every couple. The
privatization of marriage, an idea raised more than a decade ago by
libertarian David Boaz, is not only a viable alternative; it permits a
much broader range of options available to individuals, whether
heterosexual or homosexual. Marriage licensing is merely a form of
regulation, and is identical to any other form of state licensing.
Privatization would end this regulation, and instead allow private
individuals to contract with one another to design a legal structure
most suitable for their needs." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/23e2k9g
-----
45) Blundering into a culture war
The American Spectator
by W. James Antle III
"Back when DOMA first passed, most Americans not only opposed same-sex
marriage but viewed it as an oxymoron or definitional impossibility.
Less than a third of Americans disagreed with this consensus. Fourteen
years later, a much smaller majority rejects same-sex marriage. It is
now a partisan, left-right issue, with liberals and Democrats
perfectly within the mainstream of their side of the political
spectrum believing the traditional definition of marriage is now
inadequate or even unjust. Tauro's decision reminds us that some
things haven't changed, however: same-sex marriage still fares much
better in the courts than at the ballot box." (07/12/10)
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/07/12/blundering-into-a-culture-war
-----
46) The Iranian threat
Z Magazine
by Noam Chomsky
"No sane person wants Iran to develop nuclear weapons; or anyone. One
obvious way to mitigate or eliminate this threat is to establish a
nuclear weapons-free zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East. The issue arose
(again) at the NPT conference at United Nations headquarters in early
May 2010. Egypt, as chair of the 118 nations of the Non-Aligned
Movement, proposed that the conference back a plan calling for the
start of negotiations in 2011 on a Middle East NWFZ, as had been
agreed by the West, including the U.S., at the 1995 review conference
on the NPT. Washington still formally agrees, but insists that Israel
be exempted -- and has given no hint of allowing such provisions to
apply to itself." (07/10)
http://www.zcommunications.org/the-iranian-threat-by-noam-chomsky-1
-----
47) Crossed hierarchies: WoW, SCA, age, expertise ...
Ideas
by David Friedman
"In my Future Imperfect, I briefly discussed the problem of the
inconsistency between hierarchies of age and of expertise -- what
happens, in a rapidly changing field, when the younger and lower
ranked people correctly believe that they know more about what they
are doing than the older and more senior. The same issues arise in
other contexts." (07/11/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26j5lqj
-----
48) Is it time to leave America?
Economic Policy Journal
by Robert Wenzel
"I am asked this question more often than you would expect. Clearly,
many people are thinking things are only going to get worse and not
get better any time soon in America. The short answer is that no one
has to leave TODAY, but a lot of people should be preparing to
leave." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/25n8p6t
-----
49) "Right and wrong" are universal
Albuquerque Libertarian Examiner
by Kent McManigal
"If an act is right for one person, it is right for everyone, and if
it is wrong for one person, it is wrong for everyone. That sounds
simple, right? So why is it so hard for statists to grasp? I must
conclude it indicates they don't want to understand." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/247xj8q
-----
50) In this corner
Boston Globe
by James Carroll
"The difficult gets done immediately. The impossible -- well, so far
it has taken almost a century. How long before the Israelis and the
Palestinians reach the true peace agreement that has eluded Jews and
Arabs since the breakup of the Ottoman Empire after World War I? In
separate meetings in the Oval Office recently, President Obama pressed
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu to shift from the 'proximity' talks enabled by ever-
shuttling US special envoy George Mitchell, with support from former
British leader Tony Blair, to the direct negotiations which alone can
lead toward resolution. Mitchell and Blair have made valiant efforts.
But as great-power diplomats, they represent more than they know. The
American and the Englishman, while putting themselves forward as the
solution, embody the oldest problem." (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2fztfsn
-----
51) When nation-building becomes cowardly escape
The American Prospect
by Courtney E. Martin
"If you walk down Falluja's busiest streets, you are likely to travel
parallel with open trenches that smell of putrid waste. These
trenches, vestiges of a planned but unfinished sewage treatment
system, are more than an eyesore and an assault on the olfactory
senses. They are a reminder of America's broken promises in the
ongoing nation-building effort in Iraq. The New York Times reported
last week that many of the most fundamental needs of the Iraqi people,
the most vital infrastructure projects, have been
abandoned." [editor's note: Since "nation-builidng" was merely phase
two in the empire's cover-plan (following "stopping Iraq's WMDs"), the
only real surprise is that the troops are actually coming home at all!
- SAT] (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2vg57t8
-----
52) The choice: Profit-oriented business or tax-reliant government?
Orange County Register
by Mark Landsbaum
"Orange Punch readers may have a little more time over the weekend, so
we offer this slightly-longer-than-usual blog post on a question dear
to everyone's heart: Which is better, profit-oriented private business
or tax-reliant government? Let's say you have a business that you run
economically, without waste or extravagance, permitting you to employ
10 people and to make a 3-percent profit, after expenses and taxes.
Now let's say the government decides to increase your corporate tax
from 9 percent to 10 percent. Just a little increase. Where will you
get the money to pay that tax? Unless you want to pay the increased
tax out of your savings or by spending less on expenses like employee
salaries, 1 percent more in taxes probably means about 1 percent less
in profit, give or take a buck." (07/09/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2g6tf8m
-----
53) What Michael Steele can learn from Howard Dean
The Nation
by Ari Berman
"In his sixteen months on the job, Republican National Committee (RNC)
Chairman Michael Steele has become embroiled in a remarkable number of
scandals and slipups. Yet his latest head-scratcher -- calling the
conflict in Afghanistan 'a war of Obama's choosing' and suggesting it
was unwinnable -- has caused the biggest uproar yet, with prominent
Republicans like Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney calling on Steele to
resign. He seems likely to temporarily survive this latest round, but
there's a good chance the RNC will be looking for new leadership after
November. Steele's controversy-filled tenure brings to mind Howard
Dean's turbulent start at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) five
years ago. Like Steele, Dean took the helm of a largely leaderless
party beset by division and struggling to regain political
power." [editor's note: Although no parallels with GOP or Dem are
implied, perhaps the LP leaders might benefit from some of this
"advice" - SAT] (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2dw5o5h
-----
54) Deficits: Get the money from where the money went
Our Future Blog
by Dave Johnson
"Don't fall for it. Social Security did not contribute to the deficits
or debt, it ran a huge surplus. That surplus was supposed to be set
aside. Instead it was handed out to the very wealthy as tax cuts. Now
the country needs to start paying it back to the elderly, and to
prevent us from getting it back from where it went -- the wealthy few
-- they're instead talking about making people wait until age 70 to
retire, cutting benefits, etc. Every one of us knows that the budget
deficits come from the tax cuts and military spending increases of
recent decades. But every one of us also knows that the beneficiaries
of those tax cuts and military spending use their wealth and power to
corrupt the political system, preventing us from restoring sanity to
our governance." [editor's note: Despite the fact that his
prescription for "restoring the money" (raising taxes, fighting to
"save" SSI) is all wrong, Mr. Johnson's analysis of where it went
mostly (two bottomless-pit imperialist wars) is dead-on - SAT]
(07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/26lzq9g
-----
55) Are low taxes exacerbating the recession?
In These Times
by David Sirota
"As the planet's economy keeps stumbling, the phrase 'worst recession
since the Great Depression' has become the new 'global war on terror'
-- a term whose overuse has rendered it both meaningless and acronym-
worthy. And just like that previously ubiquitous phrase, references to
the WRSTGD are almost always followed by flimsy and contradictory
explanations. Republicans who ran up massive deficits say the
recession comes from overspending. Democrats who gutted the job market
with free trade policies nonetheless insist it's all George W. Bush's
fault. ... And in the case of the WRSTGD, the most important of these
is the idea that we are in economic dire straits because tax rates are
too low." [editor's note: YIKE! Let us squash this notion ASAP! Only
an imperialist would say such a thing, and Mr. Sirota is surely not
one of those in "progressive" disguise? - SAT] (07/09/10)
http://tinyurl.com/2e87qmj
*****************************
* See No Evil, Hear No Evil
*****************************
56) Declare Your Independence with Ernest Hancock, 07/12/10
Freedom's Phoenix
"We're going to space ... and the government is NOT invited." [MP3]
(07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/ernie071210
-----
57) Robert K. Elder on The Last Words of the Executed
Hit & Run
"Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie sat down with Robert K. Elder, author of
The Last Words of the Executed, to discuss the final words people
executed by the state, ranging from Sarah Goode, a victim of the Salem
Witch Trials, to Gary Gilmore, the Utah murderer who became a pop
phenomenon in the 1970s, to Karla Faye Tucker, a killer who famously
said she had an orgasm every time she swung a pick axe into flesh
during a brutal double murder." [Flash video] (07/12/10)
http://reason.com/blog/2010/07/12/reasontv-robert-k-elder-on-the
-----
58) Cato Daily Podcast, 07/12/10
Cato Institute
"Rerank the presidents," featuring Gene Healy. [MP3] (07/12/10)
http://tinyurl.com/cato071210
-----
59) Cynthia McKinney on Antiwar Radio
AntiWar.Com
"Former congresswoman and peace activist Cynthia McKinney discusses
her participation in a 2008 attempt to break the Israeli blockade of
the Gaza strip to deliver humanitarian aid there, the Israeli navy's
ramming of their boat, the accurate coverage provided by a CNN anchor
on scene and the power the Israeli Lobby has over the congress of the
United States." [Flash audio or MP3] (07/11/10)
http://antiwar.com/radio/2010/07/11/cynthia-mckinney-2/
-----
60) Pongracic on Public Choice Economics
Foundation for Economic Education
"Professor Ivan Pongracic spoke to students attending Freedom
University I on June 3, 2010." [Flash audio or MP3] (posted 07/10)
http://fee.org/media/public-choice-economics/
*************************************
* What's Up In The Freedom Movement
*************************************
61) Today's events
Check our sidebar calendar for this week's freedom movement events.
Don't see your event? Drop us a line at in...@rationalreview.com ... or
see:
www.rationalreview.com/add-your-event-to-our-calendar
... for instructions on adding your events directly!
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