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Hardyville in Space;
Guns Are Good For You;
Seabiscuit
(2003);
A
threat to democracy; 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 Aug. 1 - 7, 2004.
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Political
Liberty
Articles showing a
positive influence of political action on the cause of Liberty.
Left and Right in the Same Sorry Rut
by David Boaz from Cato Institute
"The country is polarized, we're told. ...
But liberals and conservatives have more in common than you might think.
Both believe in government magic. And they want you to believe in it
too. ... And the No. 1 way liberals and conservatives are alike: Both
think they can run your life better than you can. ... Americans ... want
government out of their pocketbooks and personal lives."
Worse Than Useless
by Rep. Ron Paul, MD from
LewRockwell.com
"Why should taxpayers be expected to
pay for private political conventions? There is nothing sacred
or noble about political parties, nor do they serve any
altruistic purpose. Political parties per se have no basis in
the Constitution, yet they hold tremendous power over our
lives."
Closing the open door
by Vox Day from WorldNetDaily.com
"Conservatives often argue that we
libertarians are seeking perfection in politics. That is
manifestly untrue, as I support the Libertarian Party even
though its appeal is hamstrung by its flawed logic and
anti-libertarian conclusions on abortion and open borders."
Life in
Amerika
Articles depicting
the negative impact of politics on Liberty.
Sniffing out our rights
by Robyn E. Blumner from St.
Petersburg Times
"Traffic stops are where the
greatest abuses occur. What does a broken tail-light or
driving a couple miles over the speed limit have to do with
drug crime? Nothing. But police use the traffic laws as a
pretext. While a ticket is being written, a drug dog goes to
work, often giving police the opportunity to search the car."
Inside America's Prisons
from Life Extension Magazine
"The reality is that Congress
and state legislatures have passed so many laws that few
people realize that a prosecutor could declare very
innocent activities 'illegal' and subject a citizen to
imprisonment."
Drug war's dirty deal
by Ralph R. Reiland from
PittsburghLIVE
"All told, in excess of 1.5
million people are being arrested each year in the
United States on drug-related charges -- overwhelmingly
for possession, not selling. That's more people arrested
each year for breaking U.S. drug laws than the total
number of people living in Harrisburg, Buffalo, Norfolk,
Durham, Spokane and Cleveland combined."
Ordered Liberty
without the State
Some people
say it's Anarchy, some say it's not possible. It is an
interesting topic.
When can
libertarians agree to disagree?
by Anthony Gregory from
RationalReview.com
"You can be a good libertarian
either way, in spite of the adamant insistence from some that in
order to be a libertarian one must embrace the minimal state, or
dismiss the state outright. Most good minarchists believe in a
state so very small that it would not forbid competing defense
agencies. Some even believe in one so small that it would rely
on 'voluntary taxation.' Such a 'state' becomes very close to
being no state at all, and certainly these libertarians should
be welcomed with open arms."
Birth Certificates and the Law
by Carl Watner from
Voluntaryists.com
"In short, the birth certificate
is the basis for the state’s monopolization of
identification. It is literally 'a license to live,' issued
by the government. The birth certificate is an attack on
every person's right to exist anywhere in the universe."
The Free Market Is the High
Road
by Bart Frazier from The
Future of Freedom Foundation
"Government regulation is
the result of the majority violating the rights of the
minority. This is nothing more than tyranny. The moral
path is to let people live in peace so long as they do
not violate the rights of others."
Spreading Decentralism
Articles
demonstrating an increase in the dispersal of power.
Why We
Need Fully Informed Juries
from Life Extension Magazine
"Jurors, as the representatives
of the people and the community, hold no agenda during any
trial, and most certainly not the government’s agenda. Let
us not forget that the prosecutors, judges, and arresting
officers, as well as the forensic investigators in most
cases, are all a part of, and paid by, the government...."
Misleading Gun Facts
by Brad Edmonds from
LewRockwell.com
"And every time you
relax gun laws, allowing more people to own guns,
gun crime will go down -- in any country. This is
because all the statistics are driven by ordinary
human nature. ... [Y]ou can bet that in any country,
taking guns away from people will result in an
increase in ordinary crime and in government
oppression. Ultimately, the statistics paint a
picture consistent with that."
Security and
Securities
by Jonathan Rauch
from Reason
"America has changed
since September 11. You don't always see the
change, but it is there, nowhere more
pervasively and importantly than at DTCC. ...
Throughout the company, systems that for decades
relied on central control are being reorganized
for independent movement and judgment. Hubs are
giving way to networks. It is not just
terrorists who are adopting cell structures."
The New
World Hegemon
Depictions of the coming Imperial power
by George
Monbiot from The Guardian
"We are
often told that the passage of laws like this is
dangerous because one day it might facilitate the
seizure of power by an undemocratic government. But
that is to miss the point. Their passage is the
seizure of power. Protest is inseparable from
democracy: every time it is restricted, the state
becomes less democratic. Democracies such as ours will
come to an end not with the stamping of boots and the
hoisting of flags, but through the slow accretion of a
thousand dusty codicils."
Terrorists Rule the Roost
by Llewellyn H.
Rockwell, Jr. from LewRockwell.com
"Regardless of how you
look at it, it becomes clear that these people we
call 'terrorists' are not being kept at bay; far
from it. They are running the country. ... They may
dictate who gets to be the next president. It should
be obvious that the government doesn't object. Not
at all. The government benefits, by getting ever
more reason for ever more money and power."
What Color Is the
Wolf Today?
by Ivan Eland from
The Independent Institute
"Come to think of
it, since the inception of the alert system, the
government has toggled the levels only between
yellow and orange. We've never seen blue or
green either. Maybe it's because these lower
levels might encourage the terrorists to attack
by signaling that U.S. defenses were relaxed.
More important, no self-respecting cautious
bureaucracy would open itself to the risk of
future post-attack criticism for not
sufficiently warning the American people."
Politics by Other Means
War, rumors of war, and politicians fomenting war.
Give Me
Liberty, or Give Me Pepperoni
by Bill Bonner
from LewRockwell.com
"Gone are the days
of the old-fashioned political brawl...gone is
the horse-trading in smoke-filled rooms ....
Gone, too is any trace of heartfelt emotion or
human intelligence. In its place is a staged
event even duller and more insipid than
regularly scheduled TV. We didn't think it was
possible."
The Liberal
Case Against John Kerry
by Matt Taibbi
from New York Press
"After listening
to John Kerry's acceptance address last
week, I did a little experiment. I decided
to remove everything that was bullshit and
see what was left. ... I admit to using the
widest possible interpretation of bullshit.
Bullshit can be outright lies, bullshit can
be calculating come-ons, and bullshit can be
self-aggrandizing self-mythology.... I acted
on all of these varieties of bullshit, but I
also went a little further."
Bush like
Custer
by Eric
Margolis from Toronto Sun
"George W. Bush
takes pride in being strong and decisive,
comparing himself to FDR and Reagan.
Republicans keep trumpeting the president is
bold and resolute. Bush has been decisive
alright -- decisively wrong. The American
leader he most closely resembles is Col.
George Armstrong Custer, an arrogant,
opinionated, headstrong fool who spurned all
warnings, boldly and resolutely leading his
command to disaster on the Little Big Horn."
Spontaneous Order
Articles
showing decentralized successes.
Prolongevity
by Ronald Bailey from
Reason
"Callahan's final
demand that all problems that doubled healthy lifespans might
cause be solved in advance is just silly. Humanity did not solve
all of the problems caused by the introduction of farming,
electricity, automobiles, antibiotics, sanitation, and computers
in advance. We proceeded by trial and error and corrected problems
as they arose."
Can Markets
Predict Elections?
by B.K. Marcus from Ludwig von
Mises Institute
"The prediction market advocates
would certainly agree with Hayek's elaboration, but they have
lost track of the original argument that Hayek was trying to
elaborate. The more limits that are placed on the profit
potential of prediction markets, the more limits are being put
on their predictive power."
Making the
World Better
by Richard W. Rahn from Cato
Institute
"It has long been recognized that
the remittances foreign workers send to their homelands dwarf
official foreign aid in both size and effectiveness. What is
often not recognized is how foreign visitors and immigrants use
the skills and knowledge they acquire in America to improve
their native countries."
Nonspontaneous Disorder
Articles
showing centrally planned disasters.
Pseudo-Tort Alert!
by Michael I.
Krauss and S. Fred Singer from The Independent Institute
"And did these
five defendants behave differently from all those other
utilities that were not sued? Not at all--the AGs want all
companies to understand the moral of this story: Any company
can be sued, at any time, for legally doing business, when
the AGs decide to regulate by litigation."
Campaign Finance Won’t Square
the Circle
by Sheldon Richman from The
Future of Freedom Foundation
"Scalia provides ample
evidence that this law is not what it seems. 'This
litigation [sic] is about preventing criticism of the
government.... Those in power, even giving them the
benefit of the greatest good will, are inclined to believe
that what is good for them is good for the country.'
(Emphasis added.) "
Native American Sovereignty
Violated Again
by Larissa Price from The
Foundation for Economic Education
"As a 'benefit,' the Yakamas
are granted the tax revenue from tobacco sales. However,
tribal leaders suspect that the harm of the 100 percent
price increase and the cost of delivery will exceed the
revenue. Nevertheless, tribal leaders signed the agreement
to stop the government raids."
War Is The Health Of The State
War is the ultimate State intervention in
society.
Myths of the Money
Machine
by George
F. Smith from Strike The Root
"Of course,
war and its attendant loss of life, liberty, and wealth
are only a few of the many blessings the Fed makes
possible. The Fed exists to inflate the money supply,
that is, to increase the amount of money in circulation.
Imagine what you could do if you could legally print
your own money and force others to accept it. The
government has. That's why it created the Fed."
Close The Door On The
Draft
by Mary Starrett from
NewsWithViews.com
"The draft is slavery. It
is worse than slavery. Forcing a man or woman to work
your fields is bad enough, forcing them to kill and
die is another. While Iraq becomes an increasingly
bloody and bottomless pit, your elected
representatives are crying 'More, More!' Forced
conscription will make your sons and daughters chattel
of a government that feels it has a right to your
children's very lives to advance a global agenda."
Only War Will Prevent War
by Anthony Gregory from
LewRockwell.com
"Neolibertarians, however,
still believe that the government, which supposedly
can't do anything right, can still wage war correctly.
One of the lines of reasoning is that governments are
terrible at producing, but ever competent at
destroying. But war is, in the statist mindset,
supposed to produce something in place of what it
destroys, is it not? That's why it's often called
'nation-building,' even by its opponents."
Bits of History
The Past seen with a
fresh look.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
by Ralph
Raico from LewRockwell.com
"The most
spectacular episode of Truman's presidency will never
be forgotten, but will be forever linked to his name:
the atomic bombings of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 and
of Nagasaki three days later. Probably around two
hundred thousand persons were killed in the attacks
and through radiation poisoning; the vast majority
were civilians, including several thousand Korean
workers."
The Revolution of 1800
and the USA PATRIOT Act
by William J. Watkins,
Jr. from Independent Institute
"To combat the Acts,
Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drafted the
Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. In these
Resolutions, Madison and Jefferson accused Congress
of exceeding its powers and declared the Alien and
Sedition Acts void. Times were so tense that Madison
and Jefferson hid their authorship because they
feared prosecutions under the dreaded Sedition Act."
Warsaw uprising plus 60
by Arnold Beichman from
The Washington Times
"Stalin foresaw a
postwar democratic Poland would resist
Bolshevization of Eastern Europe. So why help the
Poles? For Stalin, the Nazis were doing to the Poles
what he had already done to some 30,000 Polish Army
officers in the massacre at Katyn Forest, near
Minsk. And what he would continue doing when Poland,
with the shameful assent of U.S. President Franklin
Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston
Churchill, was handed over to Stalin's Bolshevik
empire."
War and Peace
Articles showing the
nature of War.
The Ever-Present
Warrior
by Bob
Wallace from Strike The Root
"Society
has to evolve methods to deal with these men; they
can't be imposed from the top down. I am reminded
of Thomas Berger's wonderful novel, 'Little Big
Man', about the Cheyenne. They had two chiefs: a War
Chief for battle and a Peace Chief otherwise. None
of the people had to listen to them unless they
wanted."
Targeting Civilians
at Hiroshima and Nagasaki
by Anthony Gregory
from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"Hiroshima and
Nagasaki should be remembered with solemn and
thoughtful reflection as atrocities that
reinforced collectivist attitudes toward war and
sparked the beginning of a fearful era of cold and
hot war with the United States and its proxies
against the USSR and its proxies."
Revenge of the Mahdi
by Justin Raimondo
from Antiwar.com
"The popular idea that
the 9/11 date was chosen because '911'" is the
common U.S. emergency response number is typical
of the ethnocentric mindset of Western
universalists. That it is also the anniversary of
the day Britain seized Palestine, in 1922, with
the complicity of the League of Nations, would
seem a bit more relevant."
Great Individuals In History
Some people stand out
from the crowd.
Poet - Percy
Bysshe Shelley : Aug. 4, 1792
from Literature
Network
"In 1817 Shelley
published 'The Revolt Of Islam' and the much
anthologized 'Ozymandias'
appeared in 1818."
Actress/Comedienne - Lucille Ball : Aug: 6,
1911
in the Time
100 from Time
"Today 'I Love
Lucy', with its farcical plots, broad
physical humor and unliberated picture of
marriage, is sometimes dismissed as a
relic. Yet the show has the timeless
perfection of a crystal goblet."
Singer - Tony
Bennett : Aug. 3, 1926
from
TonyBennett.net
"As Bennett
recalls, 'Bob Hope came down to check out
my act. ... But first he told me he didn't
care for my stage name (Joe Bari) and
asked me what my real name was. I told
him, "My name is Anthony Dominick
Benedetto," and he said, "We'll call you
Tony Bennett." And that's how it happened.
A new Americanized name, the start of a
wonderful career and a glorious adventure
that has continued for fifty years'."
Culcha'
Books, Movies, TV,
Media, Music, poetry, etc.
Reviewed by Tom Ender from Endervidualism
"This
movie is about a race horse and the people who were
brought together around the horse. It is about
America the way it once was and Americans as they
once were. ... The narrator praises the New Deal and
its programs, but none of the characters profiled in
this story are shown relying on government programs.
They rely on themselves, friends or partners; not
the State."
Hardyville
in Space
by
Claire Wolfe from Backwoods Home Magazine
"I'm
not exaggerating to say that even if you hate
television, you may love
Firefly. I'm not exaggerating when I say
Joss Whedon, the series mastermind, rivals Stanley
Kubrick in filmmaking creativity. I'm not
exaggerating when I say it may break your heart
when you view the last episode of this amazing
show - and that you just might want to slip the
first (of the four) DVDs back in the slot and
start watching all over again immediately." Claire
isn't exaggerating, I
agree completely.
American Outlaws
by H. Arthur Scott
Trask from LewRockwell.com
"Both Ethan Edwards
and
Josey Wales represent one of the highest types
of western hero: the former Confederate soldier
who goes west to find the freedom, land and space
that is vanishing back east. ... He is usually a
border-state yeoman who resists the federal
juggernaut because he senses, rightly, that
despite its moralistic pretensions it represents
tyranny and centralized power."
The lighter side
Humor, satire, cartoons,
parodies, food, popular music
and other things to amuse.
CIA Asks Bush To
Discontinue Blog
from The Onion
"'I know so many people, but
I'm way too busy to keep in touch with all of them,'
Bush said.'Whether I'm talking about our strategies in
Gitmo or my dogs down in Crawford, the blog is an easy
way to let everyone know what's been up with me. If I've
just had a really good lunch at a new restaurant, or
something funny happens in a briefing from the NSA, I
want to let my friends and family know about it'."
The Vicious Cycle That's
Killing Us
by Radley Balko from Tech
Central Station
"Because wealth begets an increased
chance of death [through obesity and other effects of
affluence], the SOPHISTRY Act will undoubtedly save
thousands of lives. Perhaps millions. We owe it to
America's poor to keep them poor until we can figure
out why getting richer makes them die."
Satire.
What Would Groucho Say?
by Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers
from LewRockwell.com
What if Chief of Homeland Security Tom
Ridge appeared on Groucho Marx's old "You Bet Your
Life" black and white TV show. Mike Rogers thinks
it would be something
like this hypothetical transcript. George
Fennerman (Groucho's
announcer) says the secret word is "control."
Deep Thought
Scientific
and scholarly studies, philosophical essays,
in-depth and longer articles.
by Chris Claypoole from
The Libertarian Enterprise
"Then I
read the essay mentioned above,
'Ethics from the Barrel of a
Gun: What Bearing Weapons
Teaches About the Good Life.'
In brief
(although you really should read
it), it discusses how bearing
arms teaches life lessons that
are essential not only to sound
personal development, but to the
political health of our (fading
fast) republic."
Three cheers for the Surveillance
Society!
by David Brin from Salon
"A
wonderful 1960s paranoia
satire, 'The President's
Analyst,' offered prophetic
warning against implanted
devices, inserted into people,
that would allow them to be
tracked by big business and
government. But who needs
implantation when your
clothing and innocuous
possessions will carry cheap
tags of their own that can be
associated with their owners?"
Taking Freedom Personally
by Russell Madden from Atlas
Magazine
"My freedom is not some
inconsequential political
point. My freedom is not an
aloof, academic topic for
discussion. My freedom is not
some vague, poorly grasped,
floating abstraction with no
practical relevance to my
day-to-day existence. My
freedom is not a parlor game.
I take freedom personally. I
take it seriously. I take it
as vitally essential to who
and what I am."
Miscellany
Articles not
easily classified.
In Defense of 'Deadbeat'
Dads
by Wendy McElroy from
ifeminists.net
"In short, any 'deadbeat
dad' who endures prison is probably unable to pay his
way out. This scenario becomes more likely when you
consider that employed 'deadbeat dads' have child
support withheld from their wages; employers are
required to do so by law. Therefore, those imprisoned
are probably unemployed or have earnings that cannot
cover their payments."
Alert to Implications
by Alan Bock from
Antiwar.com
"As the 9/11 attacks,
which damaged but hardly destroyed the economy,
demonstrated, such a decentralized structure is
more resilient than a top-down hierarchy. This
implies that one defense against terrorism is
further decentralizing authority structures rather
than gathering more power at the center."
New Cartoons for Old
Stories
by Bob Wallace from
The Price of Liberty
"All modern heroes,
who are just updates of Hercules, also support
society and not the State. This is just as clear
as can be, from Superman to Batman to Spiderman to
the Hulk. All of them not only don't support the
State; all are attacked by it. In the movie
version of
The Hulk, he was attacked by the unholy
alliance of the State, Big Business and the
military--the well-known military-industrial
complex. The lesson is that anything the State
gets its tentacles in, it corrupts."
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