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"The American government has perhaps not been so distrusted and resented since the Nixon years. This is a blessing from the point of view of someone who prefers quiet peace and liberty to grandiose wars to liberate the world and presumptuous domestic programs to save the economy from itself. A robust skepticism of central power has been at the heart of America's national heritage, and it is now finally returning after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 revived a faith in the federal government unseen since perhaps the days of Franklin Roosevelt."
http://www.nwmeridian.com/content/051229_04_p1.php
"The Founders had every opportunity to add 'except for bombs, mortars, artillery and other devices that can kill more than one person at a time' [to the 2nd amendment] -- all of which were well-known by 1787. They did not."
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Dec-25-Sun-2005/opinion/4819453.html
"What's going on is that President Bush's broad view of his own powers and his disregard for the other branches of government have provoked a backlash that goes well beyond the carping of partisan Democrats. Even a court that was prepared to uphold the president's authority to detain suspected terrorists as 'enemy combatants' is not prepared to let him submit his actions to judicial review only when he feels like it."
http://www.reason.com/sullum/122805.shtml
"Such horrible events will occur as long as the government asserts power over what we may and may not ingest. In a truly free society it would have no such power. When government enforces laws against consensual activities police terror is inevitable. Since there is no complaining witness in drug sales (as there is in real crimes), police turn to foul tactics to catch lawbreakers. Entrapment and reliance on untrustworthy informants are two common tactics."
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0512j.asp
"Let's face it, what’s more important: the truth or the nation? The nation, right? It doesn't matter if the leader took the nation into a war on false pretenses -- it's safer and more fashionable to toe the party line. Those women and children were being discriminated against and savaged by those Poles in the Danzig Corridor. Saddam was an evil man. We had to go after them. The world is better off today. The revisionists can say all they want, but the leader had to act before the proof came in some terrible form like a mushroom cloud. Take it to them I say. Kill them all then let God sort them out."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rogers/rogers192.html
"This further invasion of the public's privacy is part of a trend in law enforcement to go beyond merely responding to criminal activity in an attempt to prevent it. But allowing security personnel to question people, conduct intrusive searches, and possibly even make arrests on such flimsy criteria, instead of on hard evidence of criminal activity, should raise alarm bells with all Americans concerned about their civil liberties."
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1644
"I wish these British rebels the best of luck, and congratulate them on progress to date, but urge them--and all good rebels in America--to work from root principle downwards, starting with a reasoned attack on the government jugular--its pretended need to exist. It's very encouraging to hear of large numbers of people angry with government, but unless that's done, their action will remain superficial...."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/52/davies/davies11.html
"We're at the cusp of the information age, already having experienced unprecedented accessibility of knowledge. We have the genome cornered; it must soon come out with its hands up. On the brink of nanotech, we have nowhere to go but forward into immortality. And man's liberty index will react to these developments as it always has: it will rocket into the sky, ever upward, on its current path, its steadiness broken only by an occasional acceleration. We'll continue to get older, healthier, wealthier, wiser, stronger, faster, and prettier. With it, we'll only get more stubborn with our rights and more precise in our demands."
http://www.anti-state.com/blog/?p=35
"Socialism was not leftist when seen from this larger historical perspective, because its strategy (and some would say its ultimate goal) was conservative: centralized power. The confusion came from the fact that Socialism's rhetoric and stated goal was progressive, borrowed from the language of liberalism."
http://www.bkmarcus.com/blog/2005/12/rothbardian-left-and-right.html
"Millions of Americans perceive that the federal government is broken and might not be fixable. They view centralized power as heavy-handed, intrusive--and yet useless when it's called upon for help, as in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Right or wrong, like them or not, state sovereignty activists say, 'We have a solution.' Their solution is radical local activism to restore power to citizens at the state level."
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/wolfe97.html
"While most obstetricians claim that the shift toward hospitals is due to improved knowledge and medical technology, supporters of homebirth counter that the shift is a result of ambition, propaganda, corporate culture and interventionist politics. Homebirth proponents insist that for most women, homebirth is a safe - if not safer - option."
http://www.nwmeridian.com/content/051229_03_p1.php
"There is no perfect system, but by exposing failures locally, there can at least be the freedom to avoid bad governments and pursue better ones. Who knows what the outcome would have been had federalism been kept alive, but one thing is certain: it would have been better than what we have today."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/lora/m.lora9.html
"The real threat to American liberty, the defense of which the administration still insists is the purpose of the war on terror, is a federal government without strict checks and limits on its power, whose executives feel comfortable using the military to spy on peaceful Americans, while telling the media not to report their secret and unconstitutional surveillance activities."
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0512i.asp
"In contrast to the courage of the lone woman who leaked the NSA memo -- and in contrast to the journalistic vigor of the Observer team that exposed it -- the most powerful U.S. news outlets gave the revelation the media equivalent of a yawn."
http://www.antiwar.com/solomon/?articleid=8313
"If we give away [to Congress] 537 copies of 1984, that's 537 copies of that important novel thrown down the memory hole, as good as burned to a crisp. 537 copies that could very well be given to someone who will actually read it, 537 people who may take it to heart and stand up and say, 'Excuse me, but our very own supposedly free nation is described in this dystopian novel. What are we going to do about this?' "
http://bwrmontag.blogspot.com/2005/12/orwell-was-only-21-years-off.html
"What we must keep in mind is that these enemies of personal liberty are from 'both sides of the aisle.' Whether that 'aisle' separates Democrats and Republicans, science and religion, or progress and tradition. The great struggle today isn't between Left and Right, it is between those who are not happy until more people are either killed or thrown in jail, and those who just want to let people mind their own business."
http://www.partialobserver.com/article.cfm?id=1712
"To reiterate, it's not as though any of those wonderful wartime presidents lied about sex. When JFK or Andrew Jackson covered up sexual affairs -- now there might have been a case for impeachment. But no American president has ever been brought down by war deception or sneakily spying on the people, and, for the sake of the future of this Home of the Brave, let us hope none ever is!"
http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory104.html
"[A]ll these purported safeguards are conducted by the president and his small circle of advisers. So what if this group reviews its own conduct every 45 days, assuming it even does that? Bush says the targets are linked to terrorists. But how do we know that? Hasn't this administration gathered information on anti-war activities and PETA? As for those congressional briefings, I'm afraid that throwing bits of information to a couple of congressmen who can't even consult their legal advisers, much less tell the public, just doesn't cut it."
http://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2005/12/blind-faith.html
"The point is that for all the benefits the merchant-State bestows on today's insiders (copyright, patents, regulations, taxes, trade barriers, etc.), they are not so formidable that they can keep all outsiders out. No one person or group can foresee all crucial coming events or anticipate what consumers will want, perhaps least of all state-sheltered firms that feel safe and complacent."
http://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2005/12/market-is-tough-thing-to-squelch.html
"Gold is not a 'barbarous relic' as Lord Keynes famously called it. Nor do the proponents of the gold standard suffer from any 'gold fetish.' They simply realize that gold and silver have usually been chosen as money for such qualities as being already in heavy demand, scarce, highly divisible, portable, and durable, and having high value per unit of weight that make them ideal as media of exchange."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/chernikov/chernikov16.html
"Take the reggae song's advice about not taking a pretty woman as a wife. Pretty women are desired and sought after by many men. An attractive woman has many substitutes for you, and as such, she can place many demands on you. A homely woman has far fewer substitutes for you and cannot easily replace you. Hence, she might be nicer to you, making what economists call 'compensating differences'."
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0509f.asp
"The mystery to explain is why a country that is incredibly oil rich -- with the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world -- would face a massive shortage of all oil products. If you knew nothing more than this detail, and you knew something about the history of economic debacles, you might guess: price controls. You would be right."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/puppet-state.html
"The seeming ease with which TROs are issued constitutes a problem for those who wish all restraining orders to be taken seriously. Any court order that can be obtained over the phone by stating a fear, or picked up at Window 3 in a little over an hour, trivializes the process. But a TRO is not trivial. It is a legal constraint upon another human being's freedom. "
http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2005/1228.html
"The proposal released Thursday sets requirements for crew qualifications and training, and establishes training and informed consent for passengers. It does not outline requirements for the vehicles themselves."
http://www.wired.com/news/wireservice/0,69947-0.html?tw=wn_tophead_15
"Reading Higgs leaves no doubt that the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq was an illegal act based in deception. Under the Nuremberg standard established by the US itself, Bush's invasion is a war crime. Widespread slaughter of the civilian Iraqi population and torture of detainees are also war crimes. In one of his best chapters Higgs destroys the claim that US 'smart weapons' are expressions of our morality in warfare because they target only enemy combatants."
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts12282005.html
"Every totalitarian state has used the bogeyman of internal or foreign threats to justify the expansion of their repressive and intrusive powers. The Soviet Cheka (secret police) was created to fight 'anti-state elements.' The Gestapo was unleashed after the German Reichstag was burned down by 'communist terrorists.' Now, Muslims Under Our Mattresses is the 2005 version of the 1950's 'Reds Under Our Beds,' except that the Reds were a real threat while no major domestic terrorist threat to the US has been uncovered in spite of the arrest of over 2,000 Muslims in America."
http://www.ericmargolis.com/archives/2005/12/big_brother_is.php
"Every president seeks to protect and expand executive power, and the most auspicious time to do so is during wartime or other crises. But this president's efforts have been downright breathtaking."
http://www.antiwar.com/bock/?articleid=8324
"In Reclaiming the American Revolution, legal scholar William J. Watkins Jr. has written a book on a fascinating but overlooked episode in our history, namely the battle over the enforcement of the Alien and Sedition Acts. The book, however, is more than just history. Watkins shows why a battle to restrain the expansion of federal power more than two centuries ago is still an important controversy."
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0509g.asp
"It is written that there is nothing new under the sun. Some 2,421 years ago, a politician convinced a powerful democracy that in order to defend itself from an enemy that had attacked it, it was necessary to attack an enemy that had not attacked it."
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48068
"So once more, it is time to remind all and sundry that IF George W. Bush is indeed walking in the steps of one Abraham Lincoln, that there are more than ever grounds for considering our current president to be nothing more than a dictator and a hypocrite who will use any means to further his aims. For indeed, to most of those familiar with history and not national myth, Abraham Lincoln is indeed that and more."
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/05/12/26/nathan.htm
"A majority of Americans now believe the war was a mistake and want to see the U.S. beginning to withdraw troops from the country."
http://www.counterpunch.org/zeese12292005.html
"What are most poignant for me are the pictures and stories of the individual victims. The victims depicted by Picasso are abstract, by Goya foreign; but the family photos with victims tinted in red, are horrifying because you can easily imagine your own photos so marked. To personalize the events gives them the most impact."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/katz/katz10.html
"I fully accept that George W. Bush is evil for starting a war against a nation that was no threat to us. But it doesn't follow that the government leader he made a war against is less evil than he. Indeed, if only a tiny fraction of the charges against Saddam Hussein is true, then Saddam is an order of magnitude more evil than Bush. If the result of the current trial of Saddam Hussein is anything less than a guilty verdict and capital punishment, I will be sorely disappointed. To say that is not to say that the war was worthwhile."
http://www.antiwar.com/henderson/?articleid=8295
"Contemporary opinion considered Madame de Pompadour quite beautiful, with her small mouth and oval face enlivened by her wit. … She reigned in the fashionable world of Paris."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_de_Pompadour
"'[Bogart] achieved class through his integrity and his devotion to what he thought was right,' said friend Nathaniel Benchley in his biography, Humphrey Bogart. 'He believed in being direct, simple, and honest, all on his own terms, and this ruffled some people and endeared him to others'."
http://www.humphreybogart.com/about/biography.htm
"The middle-class Calloway family hoped their son would become a lawyer like his father. But young Cabell, born in Rochester, New York, on Christmas Day in 1907, and raised primarily in Baltimore, Maryland, wanted to be an entertainer. Cab did attend law school in Chicago, but the hours past sunset found him performing in local nighclubs."
http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofiles/archive/calloway.html
Social issues drama stars Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, John Garfield, Celeste Holm, Dean Stockwell and Anne Revere, directed by Elia Kazan. "This 1948 Best Picture Oscar winner was filmed from a screenplay written by Moss Hart (for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Writing) based on a novel by Laura Z. Hobson. Elia Kazan received his first Oscar as Best Director for his efforts with this film'."
http://endervidualism.com/agora/gent_agree_1947.htm
"Many people have asked me, 'Joss, what is the future of television? What will we watch? And how will we watch it? Surely you must know, for you are wise, and slender.' I usually smile and say nothing, because I wasn't actually listening to the question. But it's a good one, and I think it's time I let you in on a few highlights of Television-to-Be."
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Insider/?cmsGuid=%7BCDE83132-DDF2-48F9-9DD7-AA5381BCC22F%7D
"SERENITY - The way Science Fiction movies should be made. Joss Whedon's long awaited arrival of FIREFLY onto the big screen. This is a great action packed sci-fi flick with tons of amazing effects and fight scenes." The rest of this guy's list looks pretty good too.
http://www.ifmagazine.com/feature.asp?article=1390
"In a vast outpouring of gratitude to the man they call 'Our Great Savior From The West,' the people of Iraq flooded the polls during yesterday's first free elections, voting overwhelmingly for President George W. Bush as their first democratically elected leader."
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43889
"And now we come to the Dick Cheney 'Goblet of Fire' Award for Courage in the Face of Action. And for the sixth successive year, the award goes to ... the vice-president of the US ... Dick Cheney! This year the judge (who is, once again, Dick Cheney) cites in particular Mr Cheney's fearlessness in speaking with authority on military matters despite the fact that he has never served in the military."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1673894,00.html
What Did the Past Year Give to You? (Animated Flash cartoon video with audio)
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0601,cartoons,71430,9.html
"Let's take another angle. Those who provide health care services 'owe' health care to the sick. But who is that exactly? Doctors, sure -- but what about nurses? Receptionists? The phone companies who maintain the lines? The petroleum companies that supply the gas that powers the ambulances? The janitors who nightly clean up the offices of the insurance companies? The investors who lend money to pharmaceutical companies? ... If people have a right to health care, then can Dr Al take a vacation? Can he retire? Is he obligated to answer health questions while on vacation? What if he doesn't? "
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/molyneux9.html
"Over time, I have realized, with much gratitude, how we had been living in a protected space during the twins' pregnancy and birth. I believed my care providers who told me that I was carrying a singleton. I trusted in my strength as a woman to give birth, and I trusted my body to tell me what I needed to know, and to do what needed to be done. In not noticing the signs that I was carrying twins, I was able to view my pregnancy as completely normal. And I was free of the interventions that are standard in multiple pregnancies and births today, such as bed rest, fetal testing, continuous monitoring, and obligatory c-sections."
http://www.mothering.com/articles/pregnancy_birth/birth_stories/blessings-homebirth.html
"It means to raise the wages and improve the living conditions of poor workers but actually condemns many to chronic unemployment. It forcefully raises the costs of unskilled and inexperienced labor and thereby lifts it right out of the labor market. Yet, many politicians who neither own nor manage a business and do not employ such labor never tire of lamenting and deploring low wages and promising to raise the wage minimum by law and regulation."
http://www.mises.org/story/1991
"You may choose to regift. You may choose to sell your gift. You may donate the gift to your favorite charity. It makes sense in a variety of circumstances! It doesn’t make sense to keep something that you will never use or enjoy."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/murphy-s/murphy-s9.html
"Call it the wrong phrase at the wrong time but 'Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job' was named on Thursday as U.S. President George W. Bush's most memorable phrase of 2005."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1230-01.htm
"The Los Angeles Times reports that creationists have been buying roadside dinosaur parks around the country and turning them into anti-evolution museums."
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