Beyond Conventional Thinking; Clueless in Baghdad; The Dysfunctional Society; Nell (1994); these articles have their titles and text in this color and are featured this week in -
 
Ender's Review of the Web
 

Web articles of likely interest to individualists found during the week of July 25 - 31, 2004.

 
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Political Liberty
Articles showing a positive influence of political action on the cause of Liberty.
 
An activist marketplace for ideas
        by Donald Meinshausen from RationalReview.com
"Americans are tired of cowardly, canned limited debates between the two major parties. In describing our alternative, think of how the major stations have lost audience share to cable, Internet and alternative media. By describing ourselves this way we can get this media to identify with us and the theatre that we can provide."
 
A welcome judicial mess
        by Robyn E. Blumner from St. Petersburg Times
"Another intriguing prospect is to adopt the Kansas model, where the jury first decides guilt and then considers sentencing enhancements, similar to the two phases of a death penalty case. At least on paper, this approach has much to commend it, returning to the jury much of its traditional role as the trier of facts."
 
'The Fraud Factor'
        by Vox Day from WorldNetDaily.com
"The Factor reminded, 'If anybody has been abused by the Patriot Act, call us, please. We want to put them on the air.' Upon hearing this, Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Party's candidate for president, was quick to respond to Mr. O'Reilly's challenge, apprising 'The Factor' personnel of his victimized status. But like bold Sir Robin, O'Reilly bravely ran away."
 
Life in Amerika
Articles depicting the negative impact of politics on Liberty.
 
Nibbled to Death for Your Own Good
        by Bob Wallace from LewRockwell.com
"The State is trying to crush all the fun out of life, under the guise of it being for our own good. Right now it's no drinking or smoking or driving a car without a seatbelt. What next, laws against being chubby? ... Liberty is very rarely lost all at once. It's lost degree by degree."
 

Free silence zone

        by the Editorial Board of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"George Orwell's novel '1984' cited oxymorons as tools of state. 'War is Peace,' 'Freedom is slavery' and 'Ignorance is strength.' Only two decades after the book's title, we ought to add the phrase: 'Free Speech Zone.' At the Democratic National Convention in Boston, a razor-wired concentration camp -- OK, the designated demonstration area -- is supposed to be a safe harbor for protest."
 
Trampling Aliens in the Name of Anti-Terrorism
        by James Bovard from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"The Mustafas' lawsuit for compensation was heard and dismissed by the same judge who originally threw them in the slammer; the judge declared that all of the government officials involved had acted 'in the utmost good faith'."
 
Ordered Liberty without the State
Some people say it's Anarchy, some say it's not possible. It is an interesting topic.
 
Beyond Conventional Thinking
        by Brian Doherty from Reason
"One of government's most pernicious effects is the way it colonizes our consciousness, in a manner deeper and more significant than advertising or markets ever manage. I would call upon my fellow citizens to loosen the mental bondage government has over them, to ignore it rather than engage in pointless and hopeless efforts to change it, but I don't think I really need to."
 
Voting Is an Act of Violence
        by Brian Drake from Strike The Root
"I think it's important to remember what the State is, and what the State is not. As for the former, the State is nothing more than institutionalized violence. What other institution in society can get away with stealing your money or taking you into custody for a 'crime' that probably has no victims? The war on some drugs, which is essentially a war on commerce, provides examples of crimes against the State."
 
The Silver Linings in Canceling the Elections
        by Anthony Gregory from LewRockwell.com
"I’m serious about this. Can’t we see America becoming just as totalitarian while maintaining elections? What do elections really do to temper bad government, anyway? Canceling the elections will at least make Americans wake up and realize they have no control over the government. It will smash the illusion, held by many, that voting every four years, along with 100 million other Americans -- when we all know that the winner will either be a Republican or Democrat -- somehow means the government represents the people."
 
Spreading Decentralism
Articles demonstrating an increase in the dispersal of power.
 
Homeschooling for Liberty
        by Tom Smedley from LewRockwell.com
"Home-schooling is the place where the love of liberty intersects the love of our children. This is normal, principled, child-rearing, where we take our offspring by the hand to lead them on a guided tour of the real world, the wondrous universe. It is also, in retrospect, one of the few important things I have done with my life. If you are like me, you have met too many parents in tears over how their children were alienated from them, and came to hold in contempt the defining values of their family."
 
Home birthing fears are unjustified
        by Heather Duncan from The Daily Herald
"It seems that the most reasonable conclusion concerning safety is that there are risks and benefits inherent in giving birth both in and out of hospital. The decision of where to give birth is best left to individuals based on their unique beliefs and circumstances." This article is mixed in its recommendations, but that may well be because of pharmacological legal constraints not related to homebirth. Some of the comments are also enlightening. 
 
Let's Cap the Damage to the Constitution
        by Robert A. Levy from Cato Institute
"Not every national problem is a federal problem. State legislators, courts, doctors, and their patients are not powerless. More than three dozen states have passed damage caps. All 50 states have passed, or are considering, various tort reform proposals."
 
The New World Hegemon
Depictions of the coming Imperial power
 
Clueless in Baghdad -- The Fruits of Unconscious Puzzlement
        by Fred Reed from LewRockwell.com 
"The American attitude implied in policy, and expressed in the bow-wow-woofish patriotism of much of my email, is that most other countries are backward if not actually aboriginal, and in need of enlightenment, perhaps armed enlightenment. Contempt is reflexive and profound. Considerable of my email tells me that Iraqis for example are dirty and flea-bitten, understand nothing but force, and deserve any treatment they get. I find myself asking: How many of these people have spoken to an Iraqi? To any Moslem? "
 
Less Direction, More Intelligence
        by Julian Sanchez from Reason
"As Mancur Olson and other theorists of public choice have famously argued, the guiding imperative of most institutions either is or soon becomes their own self-perpetuation. An intelligence czar faced with a fractious intelligence community that, by all accounts, is cool to the idea of such a position, would be sorely tempted to rely on a redundant but loyal staff more directly under his own control."
 
Out-Toughing the Republicans
        by Alan Bock from Antiwar.com
"This is not the end of the world. The notion that elections in America make a huge difference is more than somewhat overrated. But it is sad, because an opportunity to affect the climate of opinion -- one for which I suspect the American people are more ready than most pols and pundits suspect -- is likely to be lost."
 
Politics by Other Means
War, rumors of war, and politicians fomenting war.
 
The Marriage Amendment: Positions of Power
        by Ronald Neff from Strike The Root
"That is, the failure of the amendment has not just incidentally become a campaign issue; its purpose was to =create= a campaign issue. It was a tactic, and it must be understood as such. There are, of course, the ideologues who actually hope to see the amendment pass some day, but they were merely the playthings of the men in the power business. Ideologues certainly can get their issues passed, but only when the power players see it to be in their interest. That one fact explains why some issues are successful and others are not."
 
When Will They Figure It Out?
        by Butler Shaffer from LewRockwell.com
"What if men and women understood -- as more are discovering -- that no matter who they vote for, the government always gets elected, and the same fundamental policies will be adopted? The greatest political protest that could be mounted, this year, would not be for people to content themselves with remaining in well-hidden protest cages, but to stay home on election day."
 
Hail, the Conquering War Criminal Comes! -- What Kerry Really Did in Vietnam
        by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair from CounterPunch
"It's very striking how we never find, in any of Kerry's diaries or letters, the slightest expression of contrition or remorse.... Nor did Kerry, in his later career as a self-promoting star of the antiwar movement, ever go beyond generalized verbiage about accidents of war, even as many vets were baring their souls about the horrors they had perpetrated."
 
Spontaneous Order
Articles showing decentralized successes.
 
A Little Chaff With My Wheat, Please
        by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. from LewRockwell.com
"The next time you consider believing that the state can do anything better than the market, imagine a sea of permanent bureaucrats, lobbyists, pandering politicians, and those mad attendees at political conventions, and ask yourself: what can these people do that individuals in society -- acting in their own self-interest, coordinating exchange through the market process, constantly testing decisions against economic feasibility and consumer demand -- cannot do. The answer is nothing."
 
Jabbing JibJab
        by Jesse Walker from Reason
"I don't think Woody would have approved, but I don't think he would have threatened a lawsuit either. This is a man who once, in lieu of the ordinary copyright notice, offered this: 'This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don't give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that's all we wanted to do'."
 
P2P network connects phones globally
        by Will Knight from New Scientist
"But there are still several obstacles to widespread take off. For example, at the moment the service can be used to make outgoing calls only. Users also have to use a cumbersome headset and microphone." A link to a free download is available at this site.
 
Nonspontaneous Disorder
Articles showing centrally planned disasters.
 
Trust No One
        by Joe Blow from Strike The Root
"Both individuals and collectives perpetrate betrayals, but by far the worst offender is the State, which includes the agencies that spring up to support it. State agents run State agencies. They not only believe in the State, they also stand to profit from it, at your expense. Alas, instead of being considered cause for alarm, today's State agents are often regarded as being essential to your freedom, but nothing could be further from the truth."
 
Token Justice
        by Steve Kubby from AlterNet
"Because news of such advances in our understanding of medical marijuana has been suppressed, serious opposition still exists within the law enforcement community. They claim that the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 was some sort of hoax, or worse, not a law to be obeyed because federal marijuana laws trump state laws."
 
Cable's War on Satellite TV
        by Francis Orzechowski from The Foundation for Economic Education
"The cable-TV industry has been heavily regulated for decades. Contrary to popular impression, government's extensive involvement has been welcomed as indispensable by cable businessmen. They have gladly accepted regulation as a tradeoff for monopoly franchises in individual markets."
 
War Is The Health Of The State
War is the ultimate State intervention in society.
 
Michael Moore and Freedom
        by Erich Mattei from Ludwig von Mises Institute
"The single greatest asset, and indeed only legitimate premise, of Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' is that it publicizes the coercive, grim face of the inevitable impoverishment that is the result of warfare. It investigates the rapid growth of the United States government and its trend of trampling the rights of individuals, and the corporatism that is spawned out of the close ties between big government and big business, especially in wartime."
 
Kick the Habit: Politics Is Not the Answer
        by Bretigne Shaffer from LewRockwell.com
"We are not likely anytime soon to diminish the state's motives to wage war. What we can do is limit its ability to do so. The only way to do that is to withdraw our support -- and for many of us, that's not going to be easy. ... But the more we ask from the state, the more power we grant it over our lives."
 
Revenge!  I Want Revenge!
        by Bob Wallace from Strike The Root
"Politics creates hate and anger in people. It is inherently civil war. Since the State is based on coercion and the threat of violence, so is politics. Politics is about nothing more than who gets to apply how much violence to people. Politics sets people at war with each other. I wish it didn't exist."
 
Bits of History
The Past seen with a fresh look.
 
Understanding US History and Mythology
        by Anthony Gregory from LewRockwell.com
"My whole article was meant to show how modern statists -- be they authoritarian leftists or crazed neoconservatives -- like to oversimplify history, as well as how the schools so conveniently teach it. In the Official History, American society has become freer and more equal because of the growth of government."
 
Ten Recurring Economic Fallacies, 1774–2004
        by H.A. Scott Trask from Ludwig von Mises Institute
"As an American historian who knows something of economic law, having learned from the Austrians, I became intrigued with how the United States had remained prosperous, its economy still so dynamic and productive, given the serious and recurring economic fallacies to which our top leaders ... have subscribed and from which they cannot seem to free themselves...."
 
Flaming Swords, Devilish Anarchists, and Boolean Logic: The First War on Terror
        by Roderick T. Long from Strike The Root
"All anarchists, whether revolutionary or pacific, were lumped together without distinction, as Muslims would be a century later.... It was in this atmosphere that Theodore Roosevelt, the most direct beneficiary of Czolgosz’s act, issued his famous pronunciamento: 'The anarchist is the enemy of humanity, the enemy of all mankind, and his is a deeper degree of criminality than any other'.”
 
War and Peace
Articles showing the nature of War.
 
Global Eye
        by Chris Floyd from TheMoscowTimes.com
"But the warlords of the White House -- notorious battlefield shirkers who prefer to do their killing by remote control -- have little regard for the cannon fodder they churn through in their quest for dominance and loot."
 
Report Omits Key Player -- Foreign Policy
        by Ivan Eland from The Independent Institute
"The greatest flaw in the commission's analysis and recommendations, however, was one of omission. The panel did not address the underlying causes of the Sept. 11 attacks. Dealing with the underlying causes is the only way to reduce the chances of terrorist attacks in the first place."
 
America's Socialist Policy in Panama
        by Richard M. Ebeling from The Foundation for Economic Education
"Panama symbolizes the contradictions in American foreign policy. Verbally pledged to the principles of individual freedom and nonintervention, the United States has often practiced neither around the world. The American government has had few qualms about manipulating events in other nations to serve its supposed 'national interests'."
 
Great Individuals In History
Some people stand out from the crowd.
 
Philosopher/Longshoreman - Eric Hoffer: July 25, 1902
        from FreedomsNest.com
"His work was not only original, it was completely out of step with dominant academic trends. In particular, it was [completely] non-Freudian, at a time when almost all American psychology was confined to the Freudian paradigm. In avoiding the academic mainstream, Hoffer managed to avoid the straightjacket of established thought."
 
Comedienne - Gracie Allen : July 26, 1895
        by Tinky "Dakota" Weisblat  from The Museum of Broadcast Communications
"The strongest link between on- and offscreen Burns and Allen, however, was the marital bond both pairs shared--and the affection they displayed as actors and as people."
 
Filmmaker - Stanley Kubrick : July 26, 1928
        from kubrickfilms.warnerbros.com
"Probably one of the first true independent filmmakers, Kubrick followed up with two low-budget crime thrillers, Killer’s Kiss and The Killing, then made his first major studio film, the powerful antiwar movie Paths of Glory, starring Kirk Douglas, in 1957."
 
Culcha'
Books, Movies, TV, Media, Music, poetry, etc.
 
Nell (1994)
        Reviewed by Tom Ender from Endervidualism
"In the process of attempting to understand Nell ... Dr. Lovell [Liam Neeson] enlists the aid of a psychology specialist Dr. Paula Olsen (Natasha Richardson). Dr. Olsen soon involves Nell with a medical institution .... This leads to a court confrontation in which the medical establishment ... wants Nell committed ... and Dr. Lovell defends her right to live her own life."
 
The History Before the Myth 'King Arthur': the Movie (2004)
        by H. Arthur Scott Trask from LewRockwell.com
"Readers of a paleolibertarian persuasion can find much to love here. This glimpse of the last days of the Roman Empire gives us hope that the American empire will some day experience the same deserved fate. In addition, we see that the collapse of Roman political authority is not followed by anarchy and bedlam, as neocons and other statists would predict, but by the resurgence of the native Britons, the elevation of their natural leaders -- Arthur, Merlin, and the restoration of a natural social order, based on ethno-cultural kinship and common consent."
 
Comparing the Candidates
        by Julian Sanchez from Reason
"The entire world of 'The Manchurian Candidate', in fact, is a deftly tweaked contemporary America: familiar, but a little more frightened, a little more Foxified, a little further down the road to serfdom. ... But for this viewer ... the new Manchurian Candidate's universe next door makes that ... prospect seem more plausible."
 
The lighter side
Humor, satire, cartoons, parodies, food, popular music and other things to amuse.
 
Crossballs Puzzle
        by Jacob Sullum from Reason
"'Pac-Man's homophobic,' says a video game critic wearing glasses, a sweater vest, and a tie. 'The ghosts are homosexuals: They wear garish, bright colors and dresses, and they rub up against each other in a box. Think about it. Is the Pac-Man going to...let them be homosexuals, let them get married? No, he's going to eat a power pellet and then go chomp the ghosts... If we had power pellets in real life, there would be no gay culture right now'."
 
Infographic -- Bush Campaign Costs
        from The Onion
"As of the beginning of July, President Bush had spent roughly $160 million on his re-election effort. How was some of the money spent?"
 
Hymn to the Democratic Party
        by Arlen Riley Wilson from Robert Anton Wilson website
"O donkey-eared Deity, friend of the poor, How social is thy security, How urban thy renewal, How central thine intelligence."
 
Deep Thought
Scientific and scholarly studies, philosophical essays, in-depth and longer articles.
 
The Dysfunctional Society
        by Butler Shaffer from LewRockwell.com
"'America,' as a social system, simply doesn't work well anymore, and there are latent life forces that urge us in other directions. The institutional agencies around which our lives have been organized are increasingly in conflict with the interests of people grown weary of increasing burdens of taxation and regulation, and of seeking ersatz purposes in life. The political establishment's war against the American people -- in which some 6.9 million are imprisoned or on probation or parole -- is the most compelling evidence for the utter failure of a society dominated by the state."
 
Don't Politicize Stem Cell Research
        by Michael Tanner from Cato Institute
"By its very nature, government politicizes everything it touches. Science is no exception. Stem cell research needs neither government money nor politics. It is better is to get the government out and let the private sector continue its good work. Those people calling for increased funding could take out their checkbooks and support it. Those who oppose embryonic stem cell research would not be forced to pay for it."
 
Should We Have Faith in the Government?
        by Sheldon Richman from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"We are asked, in other words, to put our trust in the state. But no collection of men is less deserving of trust than the state. A casual look at its history is all that is necessary to substantiate that claim. States have been committing horrendous crimes on a mass scale for ages."
 
Miscellany
Articles not easily classified.
 
On 9/11, All Failed But Rugged Individuals
        by James Ostrowski from LewRockwell.com
"On 9/11, big government failed; big business failed; the corporate state failed. The lone individual, facing impossible odds and certain death, acting jointly and spontaneously with his like-minded brethren and sisthren, rose to the challenge. The paper pushers failed; the cart pushers prevailed."
 
Tall Tales from Garrison Keillor
        by Jim Davies from Strike The Root
"His recollection of the 'good Samaritan' story from 2,000 years ago proves that when most humans encounter misfortune in another, they will go out of their way to help; not because it's the moral thing to do, but because doing so enhances our self-esteem and leads to a more agreeable relationship with our neighbors."
 
Socialism is evil
        by Walter E. Williams from Townhall.com
"An argument against legalized theft should not be construed as an argument against helping one's fellow man in need. Charity is a noble instinct -- theft, legal or illegal, is despicable. Or, put another way: Reaching into one's own pocket to assist his fellow man is noble and worthy of praise. Reaching into another person's pocket to assist one's fellow man is despicable and worthy of condemnation."
 
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