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Reason
Severed from all Reality;
Private Space Triumph;
Two-dimensional libertarianism; Adventures
of Robin Hood; 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 Sept. 26 - Oct. 2, 2004.
Table of
Contents: (Click on
the name to go to that section)
Political Liberty, Life in Amerika, Ordered Liberty without the State;
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Articles showing a
positive influence of political action on the cause of Liberty.
The Cat Came Back -- Or Tried To,
Anyway
by L. Neil Smith from The Libertarian
Enterprise
"[I]f you care about America, the one way to
change things is to vote for Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Party
Candidate for President. No, he won't win -- this time -- but if he can
make a good showing, say five percent of the vote, the BOYN party will
be taken aback, shaken, and somewhat inclined to review their policies
and practices."
Jimmy Carter Is Right
by Michael Badnarik from
Antiwar.com
"Even if most Americans are not
ready to call for an end to U.S. foreign adventurism across the
board, most have come to realize that the U.S. government has
little to show for its actions in Iraq, and that it's time to
admit the whole thing was a colossal mistake and leave."
In
blow to Patriot Act, federal judge calls secret government
searches unconstitutional
by Larry Neumeister from
SFGate.com
"While Marrero called national
security of 'paramount value' and said the government 'must be
empowered to respond promptly and effectively' to threats, he
also called personal security equal in importance and
'especially prized in our system of justice'."
Articles depicting
the negative impact of politics on Liberty.
Sex and the Cities
by Julian Sanchez from Reason
"'Toys in Babeland' might manage
to escape prosecution as a practical matter... for a while.
But is that really consistent with the spirit of New York
either? Should Manhattanites countenance a regulatory
labyrinth so tortuous that none who earn the disfavor of
neighbors bored or disgruntled enough to keep the building
inspectors on autodial can hope to escape?"
Ten Minutes With C-SPAN
by Jim Davies from Strike The
Root
"The Founders' big mistake was
to suppose that they could create a government that would
be subject to limits; that is, when we think about it more
deeply than they did, impossible; 'limited government' is
an oxymoron. But they did try, give them a "B" for effort;
and one of the restrictions they put in place was that
government may NOT ... have its agents search anyone
without a warrant."
Mercury on the Mind
by Donald W. Miller, Jr.,
MD from LewRockwell.com
"Taking mercury out of
vaccines would substantially reduce the incidence of
autism, but this alone will not eliminate the disease.
Giving too many vaccines over too short a time to
infants ... can also trigger autism .... Avoiding flu
shots that contain thimerosal, and having dentists stop
implanting mercury amalgams in people's mouths would
lower the incidence of Alzheimer's disease."
Some people
say it's Anarchy, some say it's not possible. It is an
interesting topic.
by Anthony Gregory
from RationalReview.com
"Perhaps we should
instead concentrate on showing them how it makes no sense to
strongly believe in freedom on some issues, but strongly favor
and trust state power on others. This brings us back to the idea
that it really is a one-dimensional model -- Liberty on one end,
power on the other. And I don't think Left and Right have
anything to do with it. Some libertarians think we're on the
Right. Others have argued that we have more in common with the
Left. Whatever. My left is your right, unless I'm looking in a
mirror. None of this really matters."
Protection from Protectionism
by Chris Basten from Strike The
Root
"I love libertarian/anarchist
principles, and that means no president, thank you very
much. A president and his party, regardless of which one it
is, cannot protect me. Nor can a Constitution protect me
from the government that drafted it. Nothing about the
government can protect me unless I resort to racketeering
with the State through lobbying and destroying the rights of
the underprivileged in the process."
The State = Unnecessary
Force
by Mark Reynolds from
LewRockwell.com
"I can see that the reason
we are not in chaos is not because of a few police
officers but because people as a whole are happy to live
their lives without endangering the lives, liberty or
property of their neighbors. This unnecessary force of
the state that is in our midst is always looking for an
outlet. It has to be used to keep the reason for its
existence in place."
Articles
demonstrating an increase in the dispersal of power.
More
Bureaucracy, Less National Security
by Ivan Eland from The
Independent Institute
"Throughout its history, the
U.S. government has been organized to provide security from
attacks by other nation-states, which have had even more
bloated and cumbersome bureaucracies than the United States.
But the most severe threat to America now is from small,
nimble terrorist groups that don't fill out forms before
attacking. Same government, different threat."
Iraqi Security Forces: The Grand Illusion
by William S. Lind from
CounterPunch
"Unfortunately, the
problem is not training, but loyalty. All the
training in the world is worthless if the people
being trained have no reason to fight for those who
are training them. And a paycheck isn't much of a
reason, especially when the fellow Iraqis they are
to battle are fighting for God."
Good News Where You
Can Find It
by Alan Bock from
Antiwar.com
"The news that young
men and women are voting with their feet, or
with their decisions (still possible so long as
military service is still voluntary) can hardly
be terrible news for those who are skeptical of
war. It has to affect the government's future
decisions (although we might not like the way
many government leaders respond to the
situation)."
Depictions of the coming Imperial power
The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! -- To
Iraq?
by William Marina from
the Independent Institute
"[I]t is perhaps more
accurate to say that the U.S. is 'coming' to resemble
Russia as our institutions have evolved from those of
a free republic to those of the sprawling statism of
empire. This has been occurring for over a century
now, and is not likely to be halted abruptly,
certainly not by the actions of either Bush or Kerry."
Fact-Checking Bush's UN Address
by Stephen Zunes from
Antiwar.com
"It appears that the
Bush administration ... is only concerned with UN
resolutions regarding non-proliferation if the
target of the resolution is a government they don't
like. Such double standards make a mockery of
law-based efforts toward non-proliferation, however,
and will likely encourage, rather than discourage,
regimes to develop weapons of mass destruction."
Democracy: It's for
the Dogs
by Jonathan David
Morris from Strike The Root
"Our current system
is not a series of checks and balances. It is a
series of offices and agencies working in tandem
on local, state, and national levels. It doesn't
exist just for patching up potholes. It exists
for its own sake. This is why politicians
redistribute wealth. Sometimes they take from
the rich and give to the poor; other times they
take from the poor and give to the rich. What
counts is that they're taking. What counts is
their whatever-it-takes-to-win attitude."
War, rumors of war, and politicians fomenting war.
What a
Republican Majority Has Not Meant
by Laurence M.
Vance from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"The Republicans
have now had total control -- an absolute
Republican majority -- for more than a year.
And what did they do during this time? The
usual -- nothing."
An Honest
Debate Between Bush and Kerry
by Anthony
Gregory from LewRockwell.com
"Our great
country used to go to war, killing thousands
and swinging our brute force all over the
globe, without losing the respect of the
world. I want to return to the old-fashioned
ways of American empire, before Mr. Cowboy
here ruined it all by waging war without a
UN seal of approval. The UN was designed to
make global hegemony more palatable to the
world's peoples. I say we use it."
Fredwitz on War
-- He Doan No Nuffin'
by Fred Reed
from FredOnEverything.net
"Bush is beyond
my powers. I didn't much like Bill Clinton,
but he was neither evil nor hard to
understand. I liked Hillary less, but she
was neither incomprehensible nor against
habeas corpus or the right to an attorney. I
have no idea what runs through the mind of
Bush. It worries me. These days so much can
occur in a confined space."
Articles
showing decentralized successes.
by Edward Hudgins
from The Objectivist Center
"If Rutan's company
wins the prize the public's view of space will be irrevocably
altered. Instead of thinking of space as a wasteful government
program, more people will see it as a place to which individuals
can travel (and -- in the future -- work, study, vacation and
live) through the efforts of private enterprise. But already
changes are taking place."
Asian Doubts
Regarding the Dollar
by Gary North from LewRockwell.com
"In short, sell T-bills, buy oil,
and stick the OPEC political regimes with a high-risk currency.
That would move the flow of oil toward China rather than the
rest of the world. Better to stock up on oil than T-bills. This
policy makes sense to me. Will it make sense to the Chinese
government? On the day that it does, the dollar will resume its
fall. Interest rates will rise."
Pot Shows
Promise as Cancer Cure
by Paul Armentano from AlterNet
"[S]cientists overseas have
generously picked up where U.S. researchers so abruptly left
off. In 1998, a research team at Complutense's Department of
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology discovered that THC can
selectively induce program cell death in brain tumor cells
without negatively impacting the surrounding healthy cells."
Articles
showing centrally planned disasters.
Why the Congressman Wouldn't
Drive Me Home
by P. Gardner
Goldsmith from Foundation for Economic Education
"The congressman
was, in essence, enslaving the taxpayer, forcing him to work
to provide the capital to pay for a scheme held dear by
Markey and a majority of his cohorts in Congress."
Oh No! Not Another "Pandemic"
by Mary Starrett from
NewsWithViews.com
"Immunogeneticists like D.
Hugh Fudenburgh report that if someone has five
consecutive flu shots his or her chances of winding up
with Alzheimer's disease increases tenfold."
Taxpayers Suffer from
Exaggerated Death of Affordable U.
by Neal McCluskey from Cato
Institute
"Of course, there's little
reason for a report like 'Measuring Up' to discuss that
phenomenon [politicians buying votes]. It was prepared
largely by people in higher education who benefit whenever
taxpayer money is dumped into academe's coffers."
War is the ultimate State intervention in
society.
Blind Patriotism
by Mike
Wasdin from Strike The Root
"Like almost
all wars, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq appear to
have increased patriotic feeling. As casualties have
mounted and opposition to the war has increased, a
pattern seen earlier in the Vietnam War has re-emerged:
Those in favor of war consider those who oppose it to be
unpatriotic, or even outright traitors. Several
conservative commentators have indicated they feel that
news that paints the US in a negative light is giving
aid and comfort to the enemy. Once again, war is the
health of the State."
Their Crisis, Our
Leviathan
by Gregory Bresiger from
Ludwig von Mises Institute
"The rejection of
Washington's pacific, noninterventionist foreign
policy is the tragedy of our nation. That's because
the mistakes are neither understood nor are the
consequences appreciated. War is more than the health
of the military industry complex. A huge welfare state
usually goes along with an imperial foreign policy.
Theodore Roosevelt and his Progressive allies of the
early 20th century advocated both. They reversed the
classical liberal/Jeffersonian foundations of our
original constitution."
Only Draft the One You
Love
by Charles H.
Featherstone from LewRockwell.com
"Just because we're going
to have a universal draft doesn't mean that it will
really be universal. How difficult would it be for the
Selective Service Administration to mine census data,
match it against election return information, and
draft people more likely to say 'yes sir, no sir,
three bags full, sir!' People more likely to support
the leader, the regime, and the policy of the day."
The Past seen with a
fresh look.
by Bob
Wallace from Endervidualism
"Most
citizens don't know the true history of their
governments. The government schools in the US gloss
over the real past of the US, instead spoon-feeding
students Soma about the United States having never
made a mistake. This view ignores such things as the
200,000 Filipinos and Filipinas murdered when the US
invaded and conquered the Philippines in the late
1800s, or the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
when Japan had been trying to surrender for months.
I've heard this selective editing of the past--indeed
the creation of a false but glorious past--described
as 'fine feeling and bad history'."
The Real Meaning of
"Progressive" Politics
by Barry Loberfeld from
FrontPageMagazine.com
"All of these thinkers
contributed to what would become the ethical
foundation of the Progressive Movement: a contempt
and loathing of 'individualism' -- and its political
expression in the Declaration of Independence and
the Constitution…."
How to Avoid Work
by Claire Wolfe from
Backwoods Home Magazine
"Jobs are abnormal. For
most of human history, most people didn't have jobs.
They didn't earn wages for someone else's profit.
They worked -- hunted, smithed, cobbled, sowed,
sewed, potted, gathered, wrote, counted, harvested,
cooked, baked, mined, acted, preached, begged,
tinkered, weaved, and wainwrighted. They worked
their patooties off. But they didn't have to punch
in at 7:00 ('Five minutes late; report to the
personnel office!') or sit in a cubicle in a
windowless, air-recycled office year after year,
never noticing the patterns of the day or of the
seasons."
Articles showing the
nature of War.
The profitable business
of war
by Ben
Aris and Duncan Campbell from Salon
"The
debate over Prescott Bush's behavior has been
bubbling under the surface for some time. ... But
the new documents, many of which were only
declassified last year, show that even after America
had entered the war and when there was already
significant information about the Nazis' plans and
policies, he worked for and profited from companies
closely involved with the very German businesses
that financed Hitler's rise to power." Ad view (but
no registration) or subscription required.
National Guard Bush
vs. Swift Boat Kerry
by Thomas Wheeler
from Strike The Root
"Many Americans
followed their conscience and did whatever they
could to avoid service in an illegal and immoral
war. The real heroes of the Vietnam era were the
draft-dodgers, the deserters, the soldiers who
refused to fight and those who refused to follow
orders. Those actions took real genuine courage
and many did so at great personal risk."
While America slept
by Col. David H.
Hackworth from WorldNetDaily.com
"In its micro way, the
Lynch scam symbolizes the miasma of deception
surrounding the invasion and the ugly unsolvable
occupation already causing the direst consequences
to our national security. From post 9-11 to the
present, the war, too, has been based on lies
fanned by the same Pentagon propaganda machine
busy doing everything possible...."
Some people stand out
from the crowd.
Pioneer - John
"Johnny Appleseed" Chapman : Sept. 26, 1774
from
appleseed.org
"John Chapman,
or Johnny Appleseed, owned many tracts of
land throughout Ohio and Indiana. He used
this land to plant apple seeds, transplant
seedlings and set out orchards. He sold and
gave trees to the pioneer settlers."
Novelist -
Elizabeth Gaskell : Sept.29, 1810
by
Encylcopedia of British Women Writers from
The Victorian Web
"The later
publication of 'North and South,' also
dealing with the relationship of workers
and masters, strengthened G.'s status as a
leader in social fiction."
Musician/Composer - George Gershwin :
Sept.26, 1898
by Jane Erb
from Classical Net
"A poor
scholar uninterested in intellectual
pursuits, George left school at fifteen to
join music publisher Jerome K. Remick as
Tin Pan Alley's youngest-ever song-plugger
for $15.00 a week, all the while trying
his hand at composition."
Books, Movies, TV,
Media, Music, poetry, etc.
Reviewed by Tom Ender from Endervidualism
"They really don't make them like this any more. The
acting, the direction, the camera work, the color,
the musical score and of course the story all work
together to make this an excellent movie. From the
ultimate swashbuckler: Errol Flynn ... to the
villain's villain of his era: Basil Rathbone ...
Olivia de Haviland as Maid Marian, and Claude Rains
as Prince John; the cast shines."
A high time with "Sky
Captain"
by Wally Conger from
out of step
"This is just the kind
of movie fun we need right now, when the new TV
season sucks and the next wave of movie 'biggies'
doesn’t arrive until Thanksgiving." I agree with
Wally. If you want to see a tremendously fun movie
in the theater now, "Sky Captain and the World of
Tomorrow" is your best bet.
LFB's Exclusive
Interview with Robert J. Ringer
by David M. Brown
from Laissez Faire Books
"Robert Ringer is the
author of 'Action! Nothing Happens Until Something
Moves,' the latest in a string of popular
self-help books that began in the early 1970s with
the self-published Winning Through Intimidation.
That and 'Looking Out for #1,' another signature
self-help guide of the 70s, inaugurated the
libertarian studies of a certain editor ... his
Number One Fan was about 11 years old when
'Winning Through Intimidation' was first
published."
Humor, satire, cartoons,
parodies, food, popular music
and other things to amuse.
The Question
by Mark Fiore from The
Village Voice
Animated cartoon
What Do You Think? Iraq
Hostages
from The Onion
"Extremists in Iraq
continue to use hostage-taking to convey their
message, leaving much of the world wondering what can
be done. What do you think?"
A Rush to War
by Bob Wallace from The
Price of Liberty
"The place: Rush
Limbaugh's front porch. … Soldier: What're you doing,
Mr. Limbaugh? Rush: Directing the war from my
armchair! Oops! Another brave patriot just made the
ultimate sacrifice to bring liberty to oppressed
people! And to bring Jesus back! And to make sure my
SUV has plenty of gas! Say, how do you like my
$20-million-dollar mansion? Pretty good for a
loudmouth and college dropout, huh? Soldier: You've
been drafted, Mr. Limbaugh."
Scientific
and scholarly studies, philosophical essays,
in-depth and longer articles.
In
Search of a Basis for Freedom
by
Bruce Ramsey from Ludwig von
Mises Institute
"[Jeffrey] Friedman is 44, the
son of an atheist rabbi. He is
dark-haired, intense, exacting,
and with a quick smile. He is a
teacher of political science at
Barnard College, New York. He
says he started adult life as
'an annoying Rothbardian
anarcho-capitalist.' Among
libertarians he is famous, and
also a bit infamous, for his
seminars that deconstruct their
creed."
The Mathematical Restitution
Formula and Its Application
by Carlton Hobbs from Strike
The Root
"Punitive damages could be
part of restitution paid to
the victim, not as fines paid
to the state. When victims do
not receive restitution
through a criminal justice
system, there is an increase
in both extremes of letting
crimes go unreported and
unpunished, due to lack of
incentive, and of victims
groups advocating punishments
that do more harm to the
perpetrator than would be done
by fair restitution."
Mr. Fancypants Eats Out -- He's
not an oily Wisconsin skid; he's
my friend.
by Jim Knipfel from New York
Press
"As usual, our paths diverged
as high school rolled on. Don
found other friends and so did
I. We still went to the
occasional movie together --
but never again with the
obsessive regularity we once
did. Thinking back on it, I
think he made more of an
effort at the time to keep the
friendship alive than I did.
By the time I moved to
Chicago, we'd lost all
contact."
Articles not
easily classified.
Can't Wait Too Long
by Brian Doherty from
Reason
"Now the myth is over and
'Smile' exists, as a Brian Wilson solo project, not a
Beach Boys album. And while the saga of 'Smile' has
its own fascinations even beyond the music -- I've
probably spent as much time over the years reading and
talking about it as I have listening to its existing
fragments, as have many fans -- you'll forget the lore
upon hearing the songs as presented here."
Harry's Adventures in
Wonderland
by Harry Browne from
HarryBrowne.org.
"Of course, the U.S.
government won't do the one thing that would make
all these intrusions unnecessary -- bring the
troops home from all over the world and quit
meddling in the business of other countries. And
so there's no hope that airports will become any
friendlier in the foreseeable future."
Why Plants Don't Have
ADD
by Bob Wallace from
Strike The Root
"People like George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin
didn't have formal schooling. Where are the people
like them today? I think there are potential
scholars like them in every generation, but we
lose them to the government schools. The whole
system literally keeps their brains from
developing properly. And the problem is getting
worse."
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