Libertarian Ceremonial Magick; Conversational Knives & Daggers; The Vets' Case; The Fountainhead; 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. 22 - 28, 2004.

 
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Political Liberty
Articles showing a positive influence of political action on the cause of Liberty.
 
Necktie Party
        by L. Neil Smith  from The Libertarian Enterprise
"You see, above and beyond every other consideration, we have a need, as political libertarians, to differentiate our 'product' from the outdated, discredited, threadbare, grimy, lackluster offerings of the Democrats and Republicans. Sometimes it will be a matter of principle, sometimes it will be a matter of style, but it's always vitally important -- no, make that utterly indispensable -- to provide contrast. We are not just the party of the future, we are the future itself."
 
ID, I Don't
        by Brian Doherty from Reason
"But he has done a glorious thing: raised a clarion call on the far outskirts of liberty, and gotten others to hear, and act. The addition of those new voices to Gilmore's team is heartening, even if it doesn't guarantee a court victory. He's already done the best a rights gadfly can hope for, in a sense. The voices in defense of old-fashioned notions of privacy and liberty to travel without being asked for your papers have now gathered around even this most seemingly quixotic application."
 
Hunter Wins Round Two -- The Fight Has Just Begun!
        by The Hunter from The Price of Liberty
"So that there is no misunderstanding on this, everyone should be aware that I consider this settlement at best a damn fine fighting retreat, not a victory. The vitally important philosophical and legal points involved in the case are going to go unstated. From a personal and practical standpoint this is a very good result, but from a long-term viewpoint of preserving freedom this is a far less than optimal outcome."
 

Life in Amerika

Articles depicting the negative impact of politics on Liberty.
 
Shut Up And Take Your Drugs
        by Mary Starrett from NewsWithViews.com
"The American Psychiatric Association (which, by the way just LOVES what Bush is doing with your money!) boasts of the increase in funding which, of course, translates into more money for them and their pharmaceutical buddies, in their July issue of Advocacy News. The publication also mentions that the Bush administration is 'appreciative' of their efforts to quash mass media's coverage of the negative aspects and abuses inherent in the New Freedom Commission."

Letters About Jews -- In Search Of Conspiracy

        by Fred Reed from FredOnEverything.net
"That Jews are tremendously influential in the media is a fact, easily verified on the Web. However, the leap from 'Jews are powerful in the media' to 'Jews are responsible for all social ills, the collapse of civilization, and everything I don’t like' is a bit of a stretch. Those I know have no idea why John and Vince loathe them, incidentally. Being hit on the head by a piano imparts little understanding of pianos."
 
New blacklist, same old dangers
        by Robyn E. Blumner from St. Petersburg Times
"The CFC distributes nearly $250-million annually to over 2,000 charities and public interest groups designated by employees. However, since October, any group that wants to continue to receive CFC funds must check a terrorism and drug kingpin watch list and sign a certification that it has not knowingly hired anyone on the list."
 

Ordered Liberty without the State

Some people say it's Anarchy, some say it's not possible. It is an interesting topic.
 
Conversational Knives and Daggers
        by Catfarmer from The Price of Liberty
"We cannot change human nature, and we cannot legislate/force others to be honest, thrifty, safe or intelligent. They must do it on their own or bear the consequences, and nobody has the right to do anything about it but defend themselves from aggression."
 
The Inherent Corruptibility of Conservatism and Liberalism
        by Anthony Gregory from LewRockwell.com
"War typifies this problem, as the glorification of the state -- a tradition older than Christianity -- is never more brisk than at wartime, and the wonderful American traditions of liberty are never in greater peril than when the bombs are falling."
 
The Silent Majority Is Ours
        by Dave Stratman from Antiwar.com
"New Democracy has launched a campaign for MassRefusal 2004, a call for people to refuse to vote in this presidential election, as one step toward building coordinated community actions that involve millions of people. Refusing to vote in the presidential election makes a powerful political statement -- 'We don't live in a democracy' -- at little risk to the individual."
 
Spreading Decentralism
Articles demonstrating an increase in the dispersal of power.
 
Thank Government for the Mess We're in
        by Sheldon Richman from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"The second ground for 'I told you so' is that libertarian critics of U.S. foreign policy are advocates of decentralization. By definition, decentralization makes a society harder to disrupt. One of the strongest arguments for a truly free market is that it produces the maximum number of decision-making centers."
 
Moving to create a truly Free State
        by Jon Ward from Washington Times
"Organizers say their primary goals are to limit government, reduce taxes and increase personal liberties. If the plan works, they say, other states will have to follow or lose residents and their tax dollars."
 
Creator defends secession comic book 
        from Big News Network.com 
"Director Reginald Hudlin is defending a comic book he helped create in which a city secedes from the United States, TV One Access reports."
 
The New World Hegemon
Depictions of the coming Imperial power
 
Rebuilding America: Foreign Policy
        by Jacob G. Hornberger from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"In fact, if the secret files of the Pentagon and the CIA are ever opened, the generations of Americans living at that time are likely to be quite shocked at all the things that were done in their name and with the resources that the American people entrusted to these agencies."
 
Empire of the 21st century
        by Eric Margolis from Toronto Sun
"The 150,000 troops stuck in the stalemated Iraq and Afghanistan wars appear fated to remain there indefinitely. Meanwhile, the U.S. will open new bases in Bulgaria and Romania as part of America's new 'imperial lifeline.' They will be linked to new U.S. bases being built across Central Asia, Pakistan, Iraq and the Gulf, designed to cement Washington's hold on the Muslim world and its natural resources."
 
Quick and Full Disengagement
        by Doug Bandow from Cato Institute
"Why are Americans patrolling Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia, which are of only peripheral interest to Europe, and of no concern to the US? Japan should take on a front-line role in deterring potential Chinese adventurism. Why does Washington treat populous and prosperous South Korea as a perpetual defence dependent?"
 

Politics by Other Means

War, rumors of war, and politicians fomenting war.
 
Cynical Presidential Candidates
        by Sheldon Richman from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"Kerry wants it both ways: he spoke honestly and dishonestly 30 years ago. He can't say he lied back then, but he can't stand behind his words either. Each path is perilous to his quest for the presidency. Bush, as we should know, is not above such wordplay."
 
The Government Says We Need More Government
        by Rep. Ron Paul from Antiwar.com
"Our nation will be safer only when government does less, not more. Rather than asking ourselves what Congress or the president should be doing about terrorism, we ought to ask what government should stop doing. It should stop spending trillions of dollars on unconstitutional programs that detract from basic government functions like national defense and border security. It should stop meddling in the internal affairs of foreign nations, but instead demonstrate by example the superiority of freedom, capitalism, and an open society."
 
Political Veterans for Censorship
        by Jacob Sullum from Reason
"One suspects that Bush's problem with 527s is not that they're unaccountable to the public but that they do not answer to him. Although their preferences are obvious, they can still act independently, an ability that is especially important now that McCain-Feingold has silenced traditional advocacy groups at election time."
 
Spontaneous Order
Articles showing decentralized successes.
 
An Ode to Cuban Cigars
        by Jonathan David Morris from Strike The Root
"But forbidding the purchase of Cuban cigars is a funny way of striking a blow for free market economics. ... So if America's interested in leading the free world -- an oxymoronic concept, but work with me here -- we would do well to lead by example instead of by force and protectionist tactics. Open the market. Lift the restrictions. Let freedom ring, and people will hear it."
 
Let the Market Work, Especially During Disasters
        by John R. Lott, Jr. from LewRockwell.com
"Companies in states all across the south, hoping to make a few dollars, loaded up their trucks with food, water, and generators. The higher the prices, the faster these 'greedy' companies and individuals got their products down to customers. But their greed meant less suffering. The more products delivered, the less prices rose."
 
On Breastfeeding, Rights, and Good Manners
        by Wendy McElroy from ifeminists.net
"But no valid civil right entitles anyone to benefit from another person's possessions, from another person's time and labor. No one has a civil right to access someone else's property without the owner's consent. To demand such a 'right' is an uncivil act that strips away one of the main protections of a peaceful society: namely, the line dividing what is mine from what is yours."
 

Nonspontaneous Disorder

Articles showing centrally planned disasters.
 
High Prices as Policy
        by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. from LewRockwell.com
"This whole scenario obscures the vast cost of government purchases of oil to conduct the war, a war which has already cost the average household $1,400 and will end up costing more than $3,000 per household. Is this a policy driven by a government working closely with industry? We would be naïve to think otherwise."
 
The Return of the Third Way
        by Katy Harwood Delay from Ludwig von Mises Institute
"The self-enamored power-seekers of our species do not seem to be capable of seeing themselves as other than puppeteers of our national welfare, and not only that, but also of international finance, global temperature, and world peace. Where is the humility?  Where is the modest, observant curiosity about what really makes a healthy economy go around?"
 
Backdoor Censorship
        by Hanah Metchis from Reason
"The courts have said that regulating commercial speech is unproblematic because commercial messages are not important in the way that political, religious, and artistic speech is. But commercial speech can be critical to decision making in a free-market economy, just as political speech is critical to decision making in a democracy."
 
War Is The Health Of The State
War is the ultimate State intervention in society.
 
Being Pro-War Is Not Necessarily Patriotic
        by Ivan Eland from The Independent Institute
"The profligate use of the war metaphor in unrelated matters demonstrates that the glorification of war runs deep in contemporary America. The word 'war' is so effective in raising passions that it is used as a propaganda tool for the cause of the day. For example, there is a war on poverty, a war on drugs, and a war on terrorism."
 
How Do They Get Away With It? 
        by Paul Craig Roberts from Antiwar.com
"What does the persistence of such extraordinary falsehoods say about the U.S. media? How can a free people with First Amendment rights be so totally misinformed? The answer is that an independent media no longer exists in the U.S."
 
Islam: A Simple Man's View
        by Robert Klassen  from LewRockwell.com
"America's political demons of yesteryear are all gone; the Germans, Italians, Japanese, and even the Chinese are now our friends and trading partners. Here we are with this huge standing army, and military appropriations, with no demons in sight. This is political government's worst nightmare, so they demonized our own citizens with the War On Drugs. But that was too low key."
 
Bits of History
The Past seen with a fresh look.
 
Real Medical Freedom
        by Dale Steinreich from Ludwig von Mises Institute
"Free-market medicine in the U.S. did not begin with the American Revolution. A situation most closely approaching a free market existed in the U.S. between about 1830 and 1910. Between 1830 and mid-century, colonial licensing laws were repealed, temporary, or rarely enforced."
 
The Deacons for Defense
        by Larry Pratt from NewsWithViews.com
"As the mob threatened to break into the car, Deacon Henry Austin shouted that he had a gun. Then he fired a warning shot from his .38 into the air. The mob kept closing in. Austin then fired almost point blank into the chest of Alton Crowe who was in the front of the mob. While Crowe survived, the fun of beating up on blacks died that afternoon in Bogalusa."
 
As Long as a Hundred Live
        by Sean Corrigan from LewRockwell.com
"[F]or, as long as but a hundred of us remain alive, never will we on any conditions be brought under English rule. It is in truth not for glory, nor riches, nor honours that we are fighting, but for freedom -- for that alone, which no honest man gives up but with life itself."
 

War and Peace

Articles showing the nature of War.
 
Gettysburg College's Hate Crime 'Artist'
        by Thomas J. DiLorenzo from LewRockwell.com
"Unlike modern Americans who have been brainwashed by the Lincoln cult, in the 1860s the entire world knew that in his first inaugural address Abraham Lincoln pledged his support for a constitutional amendment that had just passed both the House and the Senate that would have forbidden the federal government from ever interfering in Southern slavery. The whole world also knew that in that same address he threatened a military invasion of any state that failed to collect the newly-doubled federal tariff."
 
A Very One-Sided War
        by Uri Avnery from Strike The Root
"The pilot who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and killed tens of thousands of innocent civilians – was he a soldier or just a criminal, a terrorist? And what were the pilots who destroyed whole cities, like Hamburg and Dresden, when there was no valid military necessity anymore? ... Were the commanders of the British and American air forces terrorists....?"
 
Poor Choice for a Fake Casus Belli
        by Gordon Prather from Antiwar.com
"Without question, the use of Saddam's nonexistent nuke program as a pretense for invading Iraq has vastly increased your chances of being nuked. If for no other reason, North Korea unfroze its 'nuclear freeze' and is busily producing nukes for 'deterrence' and/or for sale to the highest bidder. Iran may now have decided to follow the North Korean example."
 
Great Individuals In History
Some people stand out from the crowd.
 
Writer - Ray Bradbury : Aug. 22, 1920
        from RayBradbury.com
"[I]n 1953 [he wrote], Fahrenheit 451, which many consider to be Bradbury's masterpiece, a scathing indictment of censorship set in a future world where the written word is forbidden. In an attempt to salvage their history and culture, a group of rebels memorize entire works of literature and philosophy as their books are burned by the totalitarian state."
 
Writer - Baroness Orczy : Aug. 27, 1865
        from Pegasos
"The book adaptation of 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' was rejected by more than a dozen publishers. Orczy's bestselling novel had as its background the French Revolution. Sir Percy Blakeney is a mysterious hero, who saves the lives the French aristocrats and helps them to escape the guillotine. ... To conceal ... that he is the Scarlet Pimpernel, Sir Percy assumes the double role of a clumsy English aristocrat, and swashbuckling hero, the master of disguise."
 
Artist - Jack Kirby : Aug. 28, 1917 
        From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Kirby is popularly acknowledged by comics creators and fans as one of the greatest and most influential artists in the history of comics."
 
Culcha'
Books, Movies, TV, Media, Music, poetry, etc.
 
The Fountainhead (1949)
        Reviewed by Tom Ender from Endervidualism
"The Fountainhead is based on the struggle of Howard Roark to pursue his happiness as a modern architect against the forces of compromise and complacency in mid-20th century America. It is a story of rugged individualism against the forces of the status quo and collectivism. Neither the book nor the movie pulls any punches in their explicit advocacy of individualism or indictment of collectivism."
 
Neocon Treason
        by Paul Craig Roberts from Antiwar.com
"In a new book dedicated to Ronald Reagan, 'Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency,' Buchanan rues the rise of Jacobin America. A neoconservative cabal allied with Israel's right-wing Likud Party has captured our government and initiated a new crusade against Islam."
 
Do You Dare To Dance?
        by Sabine Barnhart from LewRockwell.com
"There is an expression that says 'dance like nobody is watching' and there's truth in that. The motive here is for the dancer to enjoy the dance. The dancer is unaware of an audience, which in itself attracts an observer. It's as though the observer stumbles across an unexpected event that holds a fascination. But as soon as the dancer becomes aware of the observer, it breaks the spell of the dance."
 

The lighter side

Humor, satire, cartoons, parodies, food, popular music and other things to amuse.
 
The Vets' Case: A detailed analysis of the Swift Boat affair
        by Jesse Walker from Reason
"I know you clicked through to this story expecting an analysis of the Swift Boat controversy. I'm sorry we had to deceive you."
 
Convention Protesters Plotting To Speak, Assemble -- Prepare for the Worst, Ashcroft Says
        by Andy Borowitz from BorowitzReport
"The Attorney General said that New York's Central Park would be off-limits to protesters for the duration of the Convention, but said that space for the protesters to speak and assemble was being reserved in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Gitmo location was chosen, Mr. Ashcroft said, to facilitate military tribunals for the protesters immediately after they are done speaking and assembling."
 
Infographic
        from The Onion
The Republican National Convention
 

Deep Thought

Scientific and scholarly studies, philosophical essays, in-depth and longer articles.
 
Victor Hugo on the Limits of Democracy
        by Roderick T. Long from LewRockwell.com
"All these so-called 'political questions' are at bottom questions as to whether one group of people may assault and/or plunder another group of people. Once it is admitted that John or Peter may not steal apples from the orchard owner, it is thereby admitted that a million Johns and Peters may not combine to tax the orchard owner, or conscript him into their pet projects, or otherwise restrict his liberty."
 
The Subsistence Fund
        by Frank Shostak from Ludwig von Mises Institute
"The only reason why economies are still growing is not because of central bank and government policies but in spite of these policies. So long as the pool of funding is still big enough to support various economic activities, the central bank and government can give the false impression that it is their policies that made economic growth possible. Once, however, the pool of funding becomes stagnant or begins to shrink, economic growth follows suit and the myth that government and central bank policies can grow the economy is shattered."
 
Transhumanism: The Most Dangerous Idea?
        by Ronald Bailey from Reason
"In his 'Foreign Policy' article, Fukuyama identifies transhumanism as 'a strange liberation movement' that wants 'nothing less than to liberate the human race from its biological constraints.' Sounds ominous, no? But wait a minute, isn't human history (and prehistory) all about liberating more and more people from their biological constraints? After all, it's not as though most of us still live in our species' 'natural state' as Pleistocene hunter-gatherers."
 
Miscellany
Articles not easily classified.
 
Libertarian Ceremonial Magick
        by Don Meinshausen from Endervidualism
"Ancient Greek ceremonial magick is the place where drama was born. Ceremonial magick is the manipulation of symbols with intent. In fact it may have begun in a tent. My intent here is to show how an intolerant fundamentalist, who may harbor a deep prejudice against the goddess, may learn that tolerance is good for America."
 
Don't Help the Cops!
        by Paul Hein from LewRockwell.com
"The charge against him was that he was interfering with a police officer's duties. But what are those duties? To raise revenue by issuing speeding tickets? If so, then Walker was indeed interfering. But if the cops enforce speeding laws to discourage speeding, then Walker's mild efforts were in furtherance of that objective."
 
Wide Open Spaces
        by Bob Wallace from The Price of Liberty
"One of the purposes of parents is to pass on their knowledge to kids. The 'knowledge' that government passes on is mostly worthless. 'All people and cultures are equal...it's not your fault, but someone else's...the country and the government are the same thing...the government can protect you.' All double-plus-ungood double-think untruths."
 
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