Ender's Review: Jan. 2

A Sense of Wonder; Extremism In Defense of the Status Quo; West Africa & Colonialism; Stargate; 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 Jan. 2 - 8, 2005.

Table of Contents: (Click on the name to go to that section)
Political Liberty, Life in Amerika, Ordered Liberty without the State;
Spreading Decentralism, The New World Hegemon, Politics by Other Means;
Spontaneous Order, Nonspontaneous Disorder, War Is The Health Of The State;
Bits of History, War and Peace, Great Individuals In History;
Culcha', The lighter side, Deep Thought, Miscellany.

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Political Liberty
Articles showing a positive influence of political action on the cause of Liberty.

A Free and Prosperous New Year
by David Boaz from Cato Institute
"According to Economic Freedom of the World: 2004 Annual Report, the average economic freedom rating for 123 countries rose from 5.1 in 1980 to 6.5 in 2002, on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 representing full economic freedom."
http://www.cato.org/dailys/01-06-05.html

Are we a republic or a democracy?
by Walter E. Williams from Townhall.com
"In a republican form of government, there is rule of law. All citizens, including government officials, are accountable to the same laws. Government power is limited and decentralized through a system of checks and balances. Government intervenes in civil society to protect its citizens against force and fraud but does not intervene in the cases of peaceable, voluntary exchange."
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/walterwilliams/ww20050105.shtml

Why I Am Not a Party Animal Anymore
by Ali Hassan Massoud from Strike The Root
"The thing about being a 'Party Animal' is that they run in herds. I don't. I won't defend things if I find them indefensible just because it's 'our' president, mayor, or whoever who is in office, but scream bloody murder when the others do the exact same thing."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/massoud/massoud1.html

Life in Amerika
Articles depicting the negative impact of politics on the cause of Liberty.

Of Desperate Housewives and Desperate Regulators
by Adam Thierer from Cato Institute
"Censorship advocates also claim that any exposure to 'indecent' or 'violent' material will result in degenerate, dangerous youths. Increased exposure to media -- and especially television -- they argue, can be directly correlated with promiscuous sexual behavior or aggressive tendencies."
http://www.cato.org/tech/tk/050105-tk.html

The War on Humanity
by Mike Wasdin from Strike The Root
"Over the past 25 years, the United States has built the largest prison system in the world by far. But despite a recent downturn in the crime rate, we remain far and away the most violent advanced industrial society on earth. The average federal drug sentence is 75.6 months, while the average violent felony sentence is 63 months. The War on Drugs has let dangerous offenders off to make room for non-violent offenders."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/wasdin/wasdin1.html

What to Do About Daddy?
by Wendy McElroy from ifeminists.com
"These are two common objections to birth fathers' involvement in adoption: they are uncaring or unfit parents; and, they will use the courts to harass mothers. Without question, a number of birth fathers richly deserve such criticism. But it is improper to deny rights to an entire category of people because individuals within that category behave badly."
http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2005/0105.html

Ordered Liberty without the State
Some people say it's Anarchy, some say it's not possible. It is an interesting topic.

Extremism In Defense of the Status Quo
by Butler Shaffer from LewRockwell.com
"The state is nothing more than organized theft, trespass, and killing, all of which are attacks upon privately-owned property. To support my proposition is to be an anarchist. No matter how deftly one tries to tap-dance around the subject -- as with delusions of 'limited government' -- political systems are inherently at war with private property."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer95.html

The Separation of Property and State
by Anthony Gregory from Strike The Root
"[I]f, in an anarchist society, businesses emerged, people decided to trade, including their labor, and it became clear that these markets, however hierarchical, existed not because of state enforcement but because of the voluntarily pursued preference of the individuals involved ... would you advocate the initiation force to stop it? If so, you are not an anarchist, any more than an atheist who advocates the forced abolition of religion is an anarchist."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/gregory/gregory1.html

What's Right vs. What Works
by Charles Murray, David Friedman, David Boaz, and R.W. Bradford from Liberty
"When I initially proposed this program I called it something like 'Deontological Libertarianism vs. Consequentialist Libertarianism', and I figured that title would draw about three people into the room, [laughter] all professional philosophers. So I don't mean to suggest that it's dumbed down one whit when it's changed to 'What's Right vs. What Works'." Long, but still interesting.
http://libertyunbound.com/archive/2005_01/editors-right.html

Spreading Decentralism
Articles demonstrating an increase in the dispersal of power.

The Myths of Home Schooling and the Inferiority of State Education
by Dain Fitzgerald from Strike The Root
"Home schooling is an alternative with few supporters among the influential, opinion forming elite. It is derided as something only extreme malcontents and Christian fundamentalists could possibly engage in. While there are plenty of those of that description who home school -- and I for one defend them nonetheless -- there are others who practice it for entirely different reasons."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/fitzgerald/fitzgerald1.html

Competition of Rules -- Medical malpractice is a state [not a federal] issue
by Jacob Sullum from Reason
"Under our federal system, each state decides for itself how to balance the interests of patients injured by medical malpractice against the interests of doctors and patients who suffer when damages are too high and too easy to win. If it gets the balance wrong, the consequences can be seen in escalating insurance premiums, defensive medicine (unnecessary tests and procedures motivated by fear of liability), rising health care costs, and specialist shortages. The state becomes a less attractive place for doctors, for employers, and for residents generally."
http://www.reason.com/sullum/010705.shtml

Aceh and the Governmental Tsunamis
by Fred E. Foldvary from The Progress Report
"Aceh is a distinct ethnic group with its own language and history, and along with other ethnic groups, should be offered real autonomy."
http://www.progress.org/2005/fold385.htm

The New World Hegemon
Depictions of the coming Imperial power

Targeting Congress on Torture
by Nat Hentoff from The Village Voice
"The drumbeat to focus responsibility for the torture and other vicious abuses of noncitizen prisoners in American custody has begun. But it has not yet stirred Congress. Not only is the Republican leadership silent, but where is the outrage from the minority leaders -- Harry Reid in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi in the House?"
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0502,hentoff,59889,6.html

Today's Conservatives Are Fascists
by Justin Raimondo from Antiwar.com
"Like peanut butter and jelly and Abbott and Costello, war and repression go hand-in-hand: it's hard to have one without the other. … So let's start calling these people what they are: fascists, pure and simple."
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=4245

State Capitalism
by weebies from Strike The Root
"The best solution is to get rid of the state. Then corporations could not limit competition by bribing dishonest politicians to pass legislation. They would then be forced to compete in the free market for customers. "
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/weebies/weebies1.html

Politics by Other Means
War, rumors of war, and politicians fomenting war.

The Last Necessary Column On Politics -- Fred Explains Practically Everything
by Fred Reed from FredOnEverything
"A final explanation of all things political will allow the papers to concern themselves entirely with coverage of ghastly murders, divorcing celebrities, and the incursions of space aliens into Puerto Rico. In America, politics breaks mostly into two groups, both of whom probably do not have enough to do: liberals and conservatives. I will explain each."
http://www.fredoneverything.net/LibsAndCons.shtml

BOW TIE ME UP -- Tucker Carlson is a dirty weasel, but he's not the real problem.
by Matt Taibbi from New York Press
"If Tucker Carlson represents the right and Paul Begala represents the left, what is the ideology of the tv studio in which they sit? What's the politics of that dull white table upon which their arms rest? Because the unspoken assumption of the show is that the debate is held in a perfectly neutral medium -- and this is a false assumption."
http://www.nypress.com/18/1/news&columns/taibbi.cfm

Defeating The Republican Police State Mandate
by Sergei Hoff from NewsWithViews.com
"As an illuminating consequence of the November elections, liberty-committed Americans, those who live by the founding principles of nonintervention, personal responsibility, and self-ownership, can clearly identify the Republican Party as their enemy. "
http://www.newswithviews.com/Hoff/sergei3.htm

Spontaneous Order
Articles showing decentralized successes.

Who Owns the Dead?
by Adam Young from Strike The Root
"With the insurer paying up front to the heirs as ordered by the deceased's will, the life insurer would assume the risk of locating buyers. These buyers would more than likely be their fellow insurance companies, who in a free market would have the incentives to manage the organ and body procurement process."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/younga/younga1.html

Capitalism Without Capital
by Arnold Kling from Tech Central Station
"The industrial economy required planning and bureaucracy. The Internet economy instead is better described by Friedrich Hayek's terms spontaneous order and competition as a discovery procedure."
http://www.techcentralstation.com/010305A.html

Supernatural powers become contagious in PC game
by Will Knight from NewScientist.com news service
"[I]n November 2004 several players began complaining that the characters and even some inanimate objects in their lovingly built worlds had begun behaving oddly. Some noticed that characters no longer aged while others found magical items -- like an espresso maker that gives its user unlimited happiness -- inexplicably installed in their character's homes."
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6857

Nonspontaneous Disorder
Articles showing centrally planned disasters.

U.S. dollar's freefall to have global effect
by Eric Margolis from Toronto Sun
"Here are what will be the big stories of 2005, according to my cloudy crystal ball: ... The biggest problem the world faces this new year is the continuing fall of the U.S. dollar. The Bush administration's reckless spending, ruinously expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (now costing as much as the Vietnam War), America's galloping trade deficit and credit spending frenzy are creating the perfect economic storm."
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Eric_Margolis/2005/01/02/805674-sun.html

Random Thoughts on the Big Wave
by Jim Davies from Strike The Root
"When biometric IDs are implemented everywhere, don't count on this for long, but it means that when you fly off for a weekend in Thailand, Uncle will be none the wiser. When you return, he will know, but not until."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/davies/davies1.html

Why Trust in Social Security?
by Jacob G. Hornberger from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"How can morality and compassion and obedience to God be reconciled with majority rule, the IRS, and bureaucratic decision making? Maybe that's why our American ancestors declined to enact such socialist programs as Social Security (which originated among German socialists during the regime of Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck) for more than 125 years after our nation was founded."
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0501a.asp

War Is The Health Of The State
War is the ultimate State intervention in society.

Hayek for the 21st Century
Biographer Bruce Caldwell Interviewed by Nick Gillespie from Reason
"One reason that he was so keen to get the book published during the war was that people were already making the same argument that had been made in various German-language countries during the 1920s: that wartime production produces what people need and that state planning is an efficient way to do it. People were calling for the same sorts of controls that were in place in the war to continue in peacetime."
http://www.reason.com/0501/fe.ng.hayek.shtml

Those Comforting but Dangerous Stories
by Bob Wallace from The Price of Liberty
"What we've got today is two groups at war, each claiming they are good and their opponents are evil. Each denies responsibility for what it has done. The US denies responsibility for what it has done in the Islamic world, and the Islamic world denies responsibility that its 1400 years of genocide, destruction and theft is the worst the world has ever known."
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/05/01/06/wallace.htm

They Say They Can Lock You Up for Life Without a Trial
by Elaine Cassel from CounterPunch
"We will have an attorney general, Albert Gonzales, who has already validated your government's plans. In memos to his boss right after September 11, and in subsequent memos, Gonzales told Bush he had unlimited and unassailable power during 'wartime'."
http://www.counterpunch.org/cassel01042005.html

Bits of History
The Past seen with a fresh look.

West Africa and Colonialism
by Wendy McElroy from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"By the end of the 18th century, all of West Africa seemed in flux, not only because of the widespread collapse of traditional societies but also because of warfare between competing kingdoms over 'good slave' land."
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0410d.asp

The Genius and Struggle of PayPal
by William L. Anderson from Ludwig von Mises Institute
"I have gone through the story, but have not commented on my opinion of this book. Is it worth reading? Absolutely. Does it have a useful and important story to tell? Yes, indeed it does."
http://www.mises.org/fullstory.aspx?Id=1710

The Shady Origins of Social Security
by Sheldon Richman from The Foundation for Economic Education
"Although most people did not want to see the government get into the pension business, they did favor federal help for the elderly who had lost their savings. A bill to that effect was wending its way through congressional channels -- until Roosevelt, who wanted full-blown Bismarckian compulsory social insurance, told Congress to hold off passing the ad hoc aid."
http://www.fee.org/vnews.php?nid=6531

War and Peace
Articles showing the nature of War.

The Myth of Inevitable War
by Andrew Young from Strike The Root
"History has not thrust America into a decades-long war against terrorism; politicians have, and we should resist them. Their belief in an America destined to rid the world of evil is just as preposterous and self-serving as Sir Edward Grey's claim that militarism made World War I inevitable."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/young-an/young-an1.html

War Prospects for 2005 -- Give them a country, they want the world
by Brian Doherty from Reason
"It's official, says the Weekly Standard ... What America needs is more war. Never mind Mr. and Mrs. America (or Mr. and Mrs. Soldier), who may be tired of the seemingly endless bog down in Iraq, the over 1,300 dead and nearly 10,000 wounded Americans (and more almost every day)."
http://www.reason.com/links/links010405.shtml

Mortgaging the Future of Our Armed Forces
by Ivan Eland from The Independent Institute
"During the 2000 election campaign, candidate George W. Bush criticized the Clinton-Gore administration for overstretching the U.S. military by conducting nation-building expeditions in the developing world that had nothing to do with U.S. security. Much evidence has shown, however, that the Bush administration hyped the Iraqi threat to justify it's own nation-building crusade -- and on a much grander scale than anything the Clinton-Gore administration had ever concocted."
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1445

Great Individuals In History
Some people stand out from the crowd.

Writer - Isaac Asimov : Jan. 2, 1920
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"He also wrote mysteries (many of which were collected in the Black Widowers books) and fantasy. In fact, he has works in every major category of the Dewey Decimal System except Philosophy."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov#Biography

Comedian/Writer - Graham Chapman : Jan. 8, 1941
by Tom and T.J. from Maximum Files
"Opinions on Chapman's creative talent, along with that of his colleagues in the comedy team known as Monty Python's Flying Circus, ranged from disdain at his irreverence, to the platitudes afforded a comic genius."
http://www.lambda.net/~maximum/chapman.html

Libertarian/Writer - Roy A. Childs, Jr. : Jan. 4, 1949
by Joan Kennedy Taylor from Laissez Faire Books
"There were few people in the libertarian movement of the 1970s and 1980s who were not touched and influenced in some way by Roy Childs. His enthusiasm, his generosity, his willingness to listen and advise were all gargantuan."
http://www.lfb.com/index.php?action=help&helpfile=childs.htm

Culcha'
Books, Movies, TV, Media, Music, poetry, etc.

Stargate (1994)
Reviewed by Tom Ender from Endervidualism
"Stargate seems to be based, at least in part, on theories which Erich Von Daniken popularized in his book: Chariots of the Gods. However, among the reasons I like it are: it demonstrates that people everywhere want to be free and when they are given the opportunity, they will pursue their freedom. Literacy and bearing arms are two ways in which people acquire the independence which seems to be a prerequisite to striving for liberty."
http://www.endervidualism.com/agora/stargate_1994.htm

A Tale of the Resistance
by Doug French from LewRockwell.com
"An ex-rock and roll singer, the Black Arrow by day is a millionaire businessman, who is smart, muscular, handsome, and, of course, an expert with a compound bow. By night he turns into a killing machine, leading a rag-tag group of highly skilled commandos who live in the city sewer system in an assault on those who deny us our freedom."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/french/french25.html

Pay Up, Sit Still, and Damage Your Bladder: Theater Economics
by Jonathan David Morris from The Free Liberal
"(One of these days, I'd like to inject a theater owner with truth serum. I suspect 'Child,' 'Medium,' and 'Value' would become 'Surprisingly Little For Your Money,' 'Take Out A Loan's Worth,' and 'Indentured Servitude,' respectively.)"
http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/000589.html

The lighter side
Humor, satire, cartoons, parodies, food, popular music and other things to amuse.

Poll: In Match-up Between Hillary And Kerry, Most Democrats Would Choose Suicide
by Andy Borowitz from Borowitz Report
"A new survey of Democratic voters indicates that in a hypothetical match-up between Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and former presidential nominee John Kerry, most Democrats would choose suicide over either candidate."
http://www.borowitzreport.com/archive_rpt.asp?rec=1040

A Few Words on the Passing of Dave Barry's Column
by Steve Martin from washingtonpost.com
"And, by the way, you know how he often says, 'And I'm not making this up?' Well, he made that up. Dave Barry, and I am not making this up, loves Satan."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A35008-2004Dec29?language=printer

What Do You Think? -- A Polarized Nation
from The Onion
"Many people say the nation became even more politically polarized in 2004. What do you think?"
http://www.theonion.com/wdyt/index.php?issue=4101

Deep Thought
Scientific and scholarly studies, philosophical essays, in-depth and longer articles

A Sense of Wonder -- Chronicles of Love and Awe
by Bob Wallace from Endervidualism
"Awe, I believe, involves some fear, although not necessarily a bad fear. That combination of love, awe and fear can make you feel more alive. Dipping into your imagination, and fantasy, can make the real world more enchanted. Anyone who's felt it knows what I'm talking about. To those who haven't felt it, I don't know if it's possible to convey the experience."
http://www.endervidualism.com/bwallace/sense_of_wonder.htm

One Pill Makes You Better
by Vince Beiser from AlterNet
"Ibogaine, as even its most ardent supporters say, is not a cure for drug dependence; however, it apparently can play a potent role as an addiction interrupter."
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/20913/

Eight Ethical Objections to an Organ Market… And Why They're Wrong
by Stephanie R. Murphy from LewRockwell.com
"I must tell you that proponents of an organ market have been making their case for years; some of these basic arguments are not my own but part of a discourse on the subject. If you are interested in reading about practical considerations and ethics in organs markets, I have listed some intriguing resources at the end of this article."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/murphy-s2.html

Miscellany
Articles not easily classified

Beyond Theory and Into the Realm of Practice, I
by Eric Gronseth from Strike The Root
"While it [economic secession] will not destroy the government per se, it provides the individual the opportunity to establish his or her natural rights, independent of any national movement. Simultaneously, if many individuals were to undertake such a task, one that would guarantee them personal freedom (at least on their property), then an ad hoc regional movement would develop."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/51/gronseth/gronseth1.html

A Clutch of Nettles -- Beyond my dreams of avarice
by Virginia Dare from The Last Ditch
"So many assorted thoughts and emotions spring to mind as I contemplate this nifty little item that my brain sort of stalls in first gear. I sat in supermarket carts as a child. My children sat in supermarket carts. I push supermarket carts with my soft, exposed hands. I guess I should be using latex gloves. It's a wonder that any of us is alive today to write this observation or to read it. Germs on supermarket carts. God protect us all."
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/vd10.htm

Mrs. Boscio Wants to See You and Other Insights on Life
by Anonymous from Endervidualism
"I will live out as many of my fantasies and achieve as many of my goals as I possibly can without hurting anyone, or otherwise neglecting any of my moral or familial obligations. That I won't compromise on. But I will not work myself into an early grave so that my heirs can drink Jack Daniel's and drive around in shiny new convertibles. Nope, it isn't going to happen that way if I can help it."
http://www.endervidualism.com/guest/mrs_boscio_2see_u.htm

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