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"Some people's activism is easy to see. They write books, or give speeches, or create songs that inspire others. They lead protests or go off to live the simple life, and share their successes and failures so others will benefit. Whether they like it or not, whether they want it or not, by the actions they choose, they get noticed by others. Other people's activism can be very difficult to see, particularly if the person makes little effort to be noticed, or actively tries to avoid notice."
http://www.sunnimaravillosa.com/archives/00000591.html
"Pam Dixon, the executive director of the World Privacy Forum, told the Associated Press that Google was right to resist the requests. 'This is exactly the kind of thing we have been worrying about with search engines for some time. Google should be commended for fighting this'."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1691273,00.html
"The PATRIOT Act isn't dead, but that it's got to face more bickering and amending before it can pass again is a genuine surprise. It's the strongest, most satisfying evidence yet that Americans are coming back to their pre-9/11 ideas about freedom and privacy."
http://www.reason.com/hod/dw011906.shtml
"But, of course, the nannies are after presumed ickiness all over America these days. And public-health departments are rapidly turning away from their traditional mission of public education and bacteria control to become power brokers in civic life. ... It's like a Mormon fell in love with a Baptist and the two gave birth to a public-health official."
http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/0603/nanny-seattle.php
"There's this thing called the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, which just came out and said that Americans not only can't read but are vigorously getting worse. Here it is, from the Washington ever-loving Post, December 25 in the Year of Our Decline 2005: 'Only 41 percent of graduate students tested in 2003 could be classified as 'proficient' in prose--reading and understanding information in short texts--down 10 percentage points since 1992. Of college graduates, only 31 percent were classified as proficient--compared with 40 percent in 1992.' That's college graduates, brethren and sistern! They can't read simple stuff. 'See Spot run. Run, Spot….' What you think them other scoundrels can't do that ain't graduates? Halleluja, dearly beloved, idiots are us. Am us, I mean."
http://fredoneverything.net/Indians.shtml
"High-flying politicians and top level bureaucrats aren't the only ones taking advantage of the virtual grab bag of taxpayer-funded pensions, perks and bloated salaries. Almost everyone in local, state and federal government jobs is offered a pension that most folks in the private sector could only dream about. Many of these government 'workers' retire in their 40s or 50s and receive these generous pensions--sometimes while continuing to work at the same government entity paying their pensions (but with a different job title, of course)."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/61/antunez/antunez1.html
"If you need more examples of how government's order-mandating laws in practice create chaos, open today's newspaper and read the headlines. Government preaches that it is urgently needed to preserve law and order; the plain fact is that the more law, the less order; the result is the inverse of the promise. None of this is happenstance."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/61/davies/davies1.html
"I'm a radical libertarian, an anarchist specifically and most specifically an Agorist. I believe that radical libertarians, such as myself, will be most effective when they overcome any lingering right wing cultural contamination of their libertarian views and embrace their inherent radicalism -- which is most at home on the left. For as the radicals go, so do the moderates grudgingly follow in small steps."
http://www.bradspangler.com/blog/archives/283
"I think LeGuin's fictional anarcho-communist society in The Dispossessed gave a pretty accurate picture of what a federally organized economy would degenerate into, no matter how formally democratic its organization." Long with many other examples and comments -- well worth the time to read.
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2006/01/eugene-plawiuk-on-anarchist-socialism.html
"That which is most quintessentially American points beyond America; the most authentically American patriotism, then, would be the abjuration of patriotism. … The strength of liberal values such as freedom of speech or religious toleration is that they gain support from so many (often contradictory) sources."
http://www.reason.com/links/links012006.shtml
"Home-schooled children do not have to waste their time memorizing meaningless facts about subjects that bore them, just so they can pass the next dumbed-down test to obey and please school authorities. Home-schooled kids don't have to endure twelve years of a third-rate, public-school education that leaves many students barely able to read their own diplomas."
http://www.newswithviews.com/Turtel/joel7.htm
"[I]t may not be possible (or realistic) to put the genie back in the bottle. So instead of a vain attempt to prevent countries from keeping the nuclear weapons they already have, a more pragmatic arms control and nonproliferation approach might be to create incentives and disincentives that limit the size and scope of a country's nuclear weapons program and arsenal so that it is not a direct threat to the United States. Although this is a less than perfect solution, U.S. security would be better served by acknowledging reality and making the best of that reality, rather than embarking on a Quixotic quest for perfection that is not likely to be obtained."
http://www.antiwar.com/pena/?articleid=8396
"Dictatorships seldom appear full-fledged but emerge piecemeal. When Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with one Roman legion he broke the tradition that protected the civilian government from victorious generals and launched the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. Fearing that Caesar would become a king, the Senate assassinated him. From the civil wars that followed, Caesar's grand nephew, Octavian, emerged as the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus."
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01162006.html
"I'm sure that between the time I submit this article and when it appears, I will think of another dozen reasons. Or I will be reminded of some person or event, slap my hand on my forehead and go, 'why didn't I remember that?' But you get the picture."
http://www.partialobserver.com/article.cfm?id=1730
"Speaking of the NSA's special access programs, Tice said that 'only a very few people have access' to these operations, adding, 'We call them "black world" programs.' Tice, as he also said, specialized in these programs. As for the range of NSA's reach, Brian Ross noted: 'Tice says the technology exists to track and sort through every domestic and international phone call as they switched through centers . . . and search for key words or phrases that terrorists might use. . . . Intelligence analysts then develop graphs called spiderwebs . . . linking one suspect's phone number to hundreds or thousands more. . . . Tice says the potential number is likely in the millions if the full range of secret NSA programs was used'."
http://villagevoice.com/news/0604,hentoff,71823,6.html
"Gore's address is the first sign of leadership from the Democratic party in six years. This alone makes it a major news event. But not even his own party took notice. According to reports, only one Democratic senator, Dianne Feinstein (CA) was in the audience. One would have thought the entire Democratic congressional delegation would have turned out in support of Gore's challenge to Bush's extraordinary claims of power. The lack of an opposition party makes the media vulnerable to intimidation by a dictatorial-minded administration."
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts01182006.html
"You know we are witnessing a defining moment in American politics when a leader of the Democratic Party starts talking like an Old Right Republican. In a wide-ranging and withering critique of the president's domestic 'unilateralism,' Gore lit into this administration's insistence that the president must become a virtual dictator in wartime -- and that we are, for all intents and purposes, permanently at war on account of the 'war on terrorism'."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8410
"If more money can be made by investing in Washington than by drilling another oil well, money will be spent there. Nobel laureate F.A. Hayek explained the process 40 years ago in his prophetic book The Road to Serfdom: 'As the coercive power of the state will alone decide who is to have what, the only power worth having will be a share in the exercise of this directing power.' As the size and power of government increase, we can expect more of society's resources to be directed toward influencing government."
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5411
"In this never-ending struggle, there are always tradeoffs between the pace of development and its security risks. No software is perfect. They all have bugs. But people demand development. The market never rests. We must all take some risk. How much is acceptable? [Competition] prevails here too. ... All these fascinating details aside, keep in mind that the terrain on which these wars rage is wholly market based. The idea that any public bureaucracy could oversee the process is unthinkable."
http://www.mises.org/story/2017
"If the experts were right, there would be no Hong Kong as we know it. Half a century ago, Hong Kong was a crowded, impoverished rock with no resources, not even drinking water. Today it is a thriving place, filled with entrepreneurs and other energetic, productive people. According to the philosophy of establishment development economics, Hong Kong should have been impossible."
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0510b.asp
"Each [member of LifeSharers] has signed a legal document authorizing the donation of his organs and--this is the significant part--requesting that they be offered first to another member of LifeSharers if a suitable recipient is on the UNOS waiting list. Kindness aside, each member's goal here is to increase his chances of receiving a transplant, should he ever need one, by giving other people an incentive to sign up in the hope of increasing their chances."
http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110007838
"There is no better example of the fraudulent nature of political systems than is to be found in the concept of 'eminent domain.' The lies that have long been taught to gullible people about how government exists in order to protect the lives and property of individuals, are revealed in the practice that allows the state to forcibly take property from its owners."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer128.html
"Whatever one thinks of Wal-Mart (it really should disavow eminent domain), when government tampers with prices and wages, bad things happen to the supposed beneficiaries. … Companies don't scrimp on medical benefits because they are stingy. They do so in part because medical care is increasingly expensive and workers may prefer cash to insurance. Government intervention is the reason. The best way to make health coverage cheaper is for government to quit inflating the price of medicine through burdensome regulation and competition-throttling licensing. As medical costs came down, so would the price of health insurance."
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0601f.asp
"As someone who runs electronic bulletin boards, I've seen both harassment and annoyance in practice. Annoyance is when a churlish poster uses a screen name to flame another member because of a comment on Iraq or abortion. Harassment is what recently led to my closing a bulletin board; a member's real name was 'outed' and his 'real life' was shadowed by threats."
http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2006/0118.html
"War always benefits the state and its apparatus of control. Every war has strengthened the state's hand in public affairs and private life. And an ever-more powerful state is NEVER in the interest of the freedom seeker. So, in 2006, keep your wits about you. Keep your eyes open. Don't believe every word you read or are told."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/61/macgregor/macgregor1.html
"The significance of this is not its novelty: it is, after all, a traditional trope of war propaganda that it demonizes the enemy, makes him seem less -- or more -- than human, in order to make it acceptable to kill large numbers of them. The problem for the War Party this time around is that they did the most to create this enemy -- and the trail of their assistance to this supposed mad dog of a country is not hard to trace."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8394
"President Bush has combined these reckless military actions with cowboy rhetoric, which only further stoke the flames of anti-U.S. hatred among radical Islamists. Bringing back the 'clash of civilizations' rhetoric used during the Cold War against the 'godless Communists,' the administration is now implying that those with 'too much god of an alien kind' are trying to build a worldwide empire that could again threaten the United States."
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1654
"Jack Johnson, first black heavyweight champion of the world, won America's supreme prize in sport in 1908 - a prize that had always been the private preserve of white combatants. ... He embodied American individualism in its finest form; nothing - no law or custom, no person white or black, male or female, could keep him from achieving whatever he wanted. ... His widow, asked by a reporter at the graveside, what she loved about her husband replied: 'I loved him because of his courage. He faced the world unafraid. There was not anything or anybody he feared'."
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/story.jsp?story=676527
"Proudhon is best known among [libertarians] for his statement 'Property is theft' (What Is Property?). But this is usually misconstrued, for he also wrote, 'Where shall we find a power capable of counterbalancing this formidable might of the State? There is no other except property.... The absolute right of the State is in conflict with the absolute right of the property owner'."
http://sheldonfreeassociation.blogspot.com/2006/01/proudhon.html
"It is time to evaluate great contemporary and historical rulers and see to what extent they have managed to be true despots. This also gives us a chance to see the real effects of acting as a ruler, and what happens if you fail."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/61/bylund/bylund4.html
"[I]t confirms what analysts such as Scheuer have long said: that al-Qaeda launched its global insurgency in order to secure certain specific and strictly limited goals, the primary one of which is to rid the Middle East of Western military and political dominance."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8419
"In a period of sweeping political changes and uncertainty that characterizes the transition to democracy, many voters aspire for a sense of identity and security and elects populists and demagogues who promote bellicose nationalism that lead to civil and inter-state wars."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/hadar/hadar41.html
"This is the part you never see. The part that is never reported in the news. The part that the president and vice president never mention. This is the agonizing part, the lonely part, when you have to awake to the wound each morning and suddenly realize what you've lost, what is gone forever. They're out there and they have mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, husbands and wives and children. And they're not saying much right now. Just like me they're just trying to get through each day. Trying to be brave and not cry. They still are extremely grateful to be alive, but slowly, agonizingly they are beginning to think about what has really happened to them."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011806Y.shtml
"Having become fully disgruntled with the inadequacies of the political structure and state and federal governments of the United States, Norton took matters into his own hands on September 17, 1859, when, in letters to the various newspapers of the area, he summarily proclaimed himself 'Emperor of These United States'..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_A._Norton
"Through the encouragement of both of her parents, Shari began performing at the age of thirteen when her father taught her magic acts with [Jewish] content. As a youth, she had lessons in acrobatics, juggling, piano, violin and [ventriloquism]."
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Lewis_Shari.html
"Edwin was somewhat unusual member of the Motown family, he co-wrote some of his numbers and stood out from the Motown programme with his rough soul shout. The visionary producer, Norman Whitfield (Temptations, Gladys Knight, Rose Royce) was looking for just this kind of voice. He chose Edwin to sing the re-recording of the song 'War, huh, Whatizzit Good For, Absolutely Nothing' and the single marched all the way to number 1."
http://www.edwinstarr.info/bioguk.htm
Historical drama stars Morgan Freeman, Djimon Hounsou, Anthony Hopkins, Matthew McConaughey, directed by Steven Spielberg. "The natural reactions of the people of the Amistad to the unnatural lives and convoluted systems of the American State rank [highly] on my list of positive aspects."
http://endervidualism.com/agora/amistad_1997.htm
"But of course it isn't as simple as that, as Willman's interviews with the industry's songwriters, performers, and business executives demonstrate. ... It's that country music, like the country itself, doesn't divide easily into simple stacks of red and blue."
http://www.reason.com/links/links011606.shtml
"Once again my Firefly/Serenity obsession had something to do with the choice of finally picking up a book I had heard buzzings about forever. It was Card who wrote, 'I'm not saying Serenity is the best science fiction movie, ever. Oh, wait. Yes I am.' And Card wrote that a major reason he has not yet allowed Ender's Game to become a film is that Hollywood usually does not make science fiction films as intelligent as Serenity."
http://bwrmontag.blogspot.com/2006/01/bws-book-report-enders-game.html
"Say goodbye to the good ol' US of A…. Say hello to Greater Georgelandia." Animated Flash cartoon has video with audio.
http://www.markfiore.com/animation/greater.html
It's easy to be diplomatic when we've only got two armies left to deploy: Salvation and KISS.
http://www.comedycentral.com/sitewide/media_player/play.jhtml?itemId=49686
"Bush defended the spying by claiming that it was limited to intercepting international communications only between people in Arabic countries and people in America who are known to use Arabic numerals. When an alert journalist pointed out that Arabic numerals are used throughout western civilization, the president appeared angry. 'Well, that's just plain wrong,' he was allegedly quoted as saying. 'Americans use American numerals, whether they're from the western or eastern part of our great civilization'."
http://www.freecannon.com/SpyVsSpy.htm
"He would create an inescapable new world order that bears a remarkable resemblance to the one Aldous Huxley described in his short novel Brave New World, published in the 1930s -- a 'soft totalitarianism' where the first rule is, 'you must be happy.' Happiness, in turn, is a product of endless materialism, consumerism, sensual pleasure and psychological conditioning. If that sounds like a good description of American popular culture, it is exactly that culture Barnett proposes to force down the throat of every person on earth, with the U.S. military serving as the instrument of coercion."
http://www.antiwar.com/lind/?articleid=8422
"If one pushes the thinking of C.S. Lewis up against that of Ayn Rand, one can discover an area within which the seemingly irreconcilable 'opposites' of 'religion' and 'reason' can dissolve into a kind of interrelatedness that is integrative, rather than divisive, of the qualities that are conducive to life."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer127.html
"The scans revealed changes in activity as players who had cooperated got zapped, compared with those who had double-crossed them in the game. The results suggest that men get a much bigger kick than women from seeing revenge physically exacted on someone perceived to have wronged them. ... "
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8605
"Most Americans believe in democracy as blindly as some Moslems believe in the Koran. Alas, democratic fanatics are as dangerous as any others, willing to condone manslaughter and outright murder for their cause. ... Their faith even allows believers to justify or deny torture."
http://www.counterpunch.org/akers01212006.html
"Pirates always plan for the worst-case scenario; if it happens, they are in good shape, if it doesn't, they are in great shape. Pirates are not creatures of the herd, they don't do what the others do, nor do they really care. Pirates are always assessing their surroundings, looking for threats, opportunities, and an escape route. Pirates, at least the successful ones, make a quick assessment of the situation and then act quickly, they know that they can always change course if necessary; indecision is death. Pirates know that a plan is necessary, but at the same time they are not bound to that plan if conditions change--and they will change. "
http://www.strike-the-root.com/61/blow/blow2.html
"The mercuric rise in the use of antidepressants and so-called ADD/ADHD drugs among children and teens is a black mark on the Western allopathic medicine. We have a duty to our kids to explore why it is so. Knowledge on natural remedies abound, but are not widely distributed to the public through Health Canada, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or their mirror agencies worldwide."
http://kevinpmiller.blogspot.com/2006/01/white-punks-on-dope_19.html
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