Oct. 14 — 20, 2007

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Ender's Review
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Web articles of likely interest to individualists found during the preceding week.
 

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Pursuing Liberty

Articles showing the positive influence of action in the pursuit of Liberty.

Pantie raid on Myanmar as protests get personal

      By AP from Toronto Sun

"Women in several countries have begun sending their panties to Myanmar embassies in a culturally insulting gesture of protest against the recent violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters there, a campaign supporter said yesterday. 'It's an extremely strong message in Burmese and in all Southeast Asian culture,' said Liz Hilton, who supports an activist group that launched the 'Panties for Peace' drive this week. The group, Lanna Action for Burma, says the country's superstitious generals, especially junta leader Gen. Than Shwe, also believe that contact with women's underwear saps them of power."

http://torontosun.com/News/World/2007/10/20/4590956-sun.html

The Dividing Line: HR 3835, The "American Freedom Agenda Act"

      By William N. Grigg from Pro Libertate

"Point by point, the measure describes how the Bush Regime has made war on the Constitution -- through the creation of extra-constitutional military commissions; the presidential designation of U.S. citizens as 'unlawful enemy combatants' devoid of due process rights; the effective abolition of the fundamental due process guarantee, the writ of habeas corpus; the institutionalization of the demonic practice of torture; the use of 'extraordinary rendition' to outsource torture of detainees to terror states abroad; the employment of presidential 'signing statements' to nullify laws; the practice of warrantless wiretapping...."

http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2007/10/dividing-line-hr-3835-american-freedom.html

Anarchy, or Spontaneous Order, on the Streets of Saigon

      By Joshua Snyder from LewRockwell.com

"In The Ancient Chinese Libertarian Tradition, Murray N. Rothbard notes that the 'spontaneous order' spoken of by Proudhon and F.A. Hayek was presaged by the Chinese Taoist Chuang Tzu (369 BC–286 BC). Said the sage, 'Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone'. "

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/snyder-joshua2.html

Ron Paul's America

      By Andrew Sullivan from The Daily Dish at The Atlantic

"The strength in the Mountain West is impressive, if unsurprising. The hostility of the South to his message of individual liberty is also no big whup. "

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/10/ron-pauls-ameri.html

Life in Amerika

Articles depicting the negative impact of politics on the cause of Liberty.

Burma on the Potomac: Another Step Deeper Into Tyranny

      By Chris Floyd from Empire Burlesque

"Is this the America you thought you were living in? Is this the America your parents and teachers told you about? Is this the America that you sing about at all the ball games and public events, 'the land of the free and the home of the brave'? Is this the America you have carried in your mind, and perhaps your heart, all these years? You'd better snap out of it. You'd better slap yourself in the face and look around, see where you really are."

http://www.chris-floyd.com/Articles/
Articles/Burma_on_the_Potomac%3A_Another_Step_Deeper_Into_Tyranny/

Welcome to Captivity

      By Bill Bonner from The Daily Reckoning

"What they will do is to use their paper U.S. dollars to buy America's valuable assets. The dollars, of course, are essentially worthless. The United States can create as many as it wants at negligible cost. But the companies…the factories…the land…the resources - those are really valuable. When the foreigners gain ownership, Americans' own wealth - and independence - is reduced. What did you expect? 'The borrower is slave to the lender,' it says in the Bible. Welcome to captivity."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/Issues/2007/DR101907.html

A policy of uniform indoctrination

      By Vin Suprynowicz from Las Vegas Review-Journal

"When you hear the loud and angry -- and unanimous -- shrieking and denials, the attempts to shout you down as a dangerous lunatic who should not be allowed to speak such repulsive thoughts, you'll know you've stumbled on the real uniform indoctrination curriculum of the government schools."

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/10534507.html

The "Showtime Syndrome"

      By William N. Grigg from Pro Libertate

"Owing to budget shortfalls, Beaver Village, Ohio (pop. 464 as of the most recent census) disbanded its police department for several years, relying instead on the Pike County Sheriff's Department to handle emergency calls. About a year ago, the village repudiated its blessing by reconstituting its police force, which consisted of Chief Daniel Seal, auxiliary officer Brady Ratzlaff, and officer trainee Adam Mather."

http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2007/10/showtime-syndrome.html

Ordered Liberty without the State

Some people say it's Anarchy, some say it's not possible. It is an interesting topic.

Climbing off the bandwagon

      By Wendy McElroy from WendyMcElroy.com

"[W]hy reject politics altogether? Why not view it as simply another method within a broad framework of strategy? The obvious response is because it is inconsistent with libertarian principle, but there is another reason to emphasize the moral rejection of politics. Politics is seductive. It offers the illusion of quick, easy victory within a respectable vehicle. There is rousing campaign rhetoric, straw hat enthusiasm and the enviable advantage of an objective measure of success or failure - namely, a vote total." [Thanks for the goto, Wally Conger]

http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.1056

Anarchy: A Better Option?

      By Patrick Hirsch from Associated Students of Pomona College.

"Anarchy, the social concept of the absence if authority, has acquired an image that doesn’t match up to reality, much like American democracy. Common perception of anarchy involves mohawked teens clad in studded leather jackets throwing bombs and generally wreaking havoc upon civilized society. In actuality, the anarchist movement has existed for hundreds of years, usually holding peaceful living as a core value."

http://www.tsl.pomona.edu/?page=opinions&article=2648&issue=95

Do We Worship the Market?

      By Anthony Gregory from LewRockwell.com

"To say that libertarians worship the market is no more correct than saying that drug policy reformers worship drug abuse because they question the notion that government force is the proper remedy. At a minimum, libertarians only tolerate the market and wish for it to be separated from state violence. This is the presumed liberal position on religion – that government should neither actively promote nor restrict religion – yet this does not mean all liberals worship every faith that they wish to see isolated from coercive sanction."

http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory148.html

LATTER DAY: Nod to anarchy

      By Peggy Fletcher Stack from The Salt Lake Tribune

"Though Mormons believe in obeying the law and respecting elected officials, they should see capitalism as a necessary evil rather than a system God endorses, he writes. If they were really following LDS principles, Mormons would all be anarchists. 'Every Mormon should look forward to the abolition of government,' Van Wagenen writes, 'and the building of a socialist society based on free association and mutual cooperation'."

http://www.sltrib.com/features/ci_7216457

Spreading Decentralism

Articles demonstrating an increase in the dispersal of power.

Battle brewing between Pirate Bay, recording industry over IFPI domain coup

      By Jacqui Cheng from Ars Technica

"Given WIPO and ICANN's definition of 'bad faith'—which says that the domain cannot be used to cause confusion with the 'Complainant's mark'—there's a decent chance of The Pirate Bay eventually losing control of the domain. But if Pirate Bay can fight back and prove somehow that it has no commercial interests or intent to confuse visitors with the 'real' IFPI site, it might have a chance at succeeding."

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/
20071018-battle-brewing-between-pirate-bay-recording-industry-over-ifpi-domain-coup.html

The Homebirth Option

      By Carrie Cline from WSAZ Huntington, WV

"When you think about having a baby, many people's image of labor includes fear, anxiety and lots of pain. But, the miracle of childbirth doesn't have to be a tumultuous, chaotic experience. Some women try to make it as peaceful and relaxing as possible -- by birthing in the place where they're most comfortable: their home."

http://www.wsaz.com/coverstory/headlines/10585042.html

Bosses do ALL of the work at popular bakery in Oakland

      By staff from Inside Bay Area

"Employees earn an hourly wage and if the books look good, there's also a Christmas bonus. Arizmendi offers full medical and dental coverage, a benefits package and a retirement plan is in the thinking stage. ... Arizmendi is a Basque name from Spain, where the modern worker-cooperative concept originated, according to Andrade. Arizmendi based its modus operandi on that concept. And the worker-owned philosophy is a primary reason why its loyal customers appreciate Arizmendi."

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_7176707?source=most_emailed

Jobs Fight to the Death

      By The Mogambo Guru (Richard Daughty) from The Daily Reckoning

"John Williams, he of the famous ShadowStats.com, probably for these and other reasons, opines that the September jobs data from the Labor Department 'cannot be believed.' And another thing that is unbelievable concerning inflation in prices is the mental disconnect about oil. Kevin Capp, in the Rude Awakening newsletter, writes that that the latest report from the International Energy Agency shows that Peak Oil is here, we are all freaking doomed, and we should be running down the street screaming our guts out in mortal fear, completely nude if you want, but wearing some good footwear since scuffing up your bare feet would be just adding insult to injury."

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/Writers/Mogambo/DREssays/MG101507.html

The New World Hegemon

Depictions of the coming Imperial power

The Iraqi Genocide -- Blackwater Security, Bush's Private Waffen SS

      By Paul Craig Roberts from CounterPunch

"International polls show that the rest of the world regard the US and Israel as the greatest dangers to world peace. Americans claim that they are fighting wars against terrorism, but it is US and Israeli terrorism that worries everyone else. The rest of the world knows that the wars are about US and Israeli hegemony and that the US and Israel are prepared to engage in whatever acts of terror are necessary to achieve hegemony."

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts10162007.html

Bipartisan Perversity: Rebuking the Truth, Mocking the Dead

      By Chris Floyd from Empire Burlesque

"Bush has quite literally turned the war into a matter of mirth, particularly in the infamous 'comedy' bit at the White House Correspondent's Dinner, when he hilariously pretended to hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction -- the ostensible reason he had sent thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to their deaths -- behind the curtains and under the sofa in the Oval Office. Not even Hitler or Stalin ever turned war into such a macabre public joke. But Bush did, in front of the national press -- whose high mandarins roared with laughter at the sickening display."

http://www.chris-floyd.com/Articles/
Articles/Bipartisan_Perversity%3A_Rebuking_the_Truth%2C_Mocking_the_Dead/

Psychologists, torture and the rules

      By Robyn E. Blumner from St. Petersburg Times

"It is no longer purely academic to ask whether American medical or psychological practitioners may participate in such information eduction or whether their professions courageously stand in the way."

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/10/14/Opinion/Psychologists__tortur.shtml

EFF warns House committee about the privacy risks of government databases

      By Ryan Paul from Ars Technica

"Cohn's report ... addresses the potential for government misuse of collected data. Cohn refers to a report issued by the Department of Defense's Technology and Privacy Advisory Committee, which warns of 'mission creep' and the tendency of federal law enforcement agencies to attempt to perpetually expand the use of [collection] without regard for the privacy implications."

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/
20071014-eff-warns-house-committee-about-the-privacy-risks-of-government-databases.html

Politics by Other Means

War, rumors of war, and politicians fomenting war.

A Nation on the Edge of the Final Descent (II): A Culture of Lies, and a Desperate Need for Action

      By Arthur Silber from The Power of Narrative

"Major actors in the Bush administration have longed to attack Iran for years, and they have never tried to hide it. Now, their viciously murderous purpose is being aided and abetted by leading Democrats such as Hillary Clinton. And no one will ask: Why don't you act to stop this insanity?"

http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2007/10/nation-on-edge-of-final-descent-ii.html

The Great Disconnect

      By James Leroy Wilson from The Partial Observer

"We (rightly) condemn greedy businessmen for exploiting workers, stealing from investors, and gouging customers. Why, then, do we praise the 'noble intentions' and 'courage' of politicians who commit far greater atrocities against far greater numbers of people?"

http://partialobserver.com/article.cfm?id=2692

Mitt Romney: The Huckster

      By Matt Taibbi from Rolling Stone

"America is getting older, and yesterday's liberalism is slowly but surely turning into a new generation's conservatism. So when some starched-up, smooth -talking, TV-ready creature like Mitt Romney, who made his fortune laying off factory workers, walks onto college campuses and starts bashing cohabitation and having children out of wedlock, he loses young people who are tired of watching our leaders fuck things up on a grand scale and then turn around and blame our problems on stoned teenagers. "

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/16983679/mitt_romney_the_huckster

Tomorrow's Neocon Today

      By Radley Balko from Reason

"Polls show Hillary Clinton has now opened up a striking 33-point lead over Barack Obama in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. ... For seven years, the left has been up in arms about President Bush's aggressive foreign policy, his secrecy, his partisanship, and his expansive claims on executive power. It's odd, then, that they're prepared to nominate Hillary Clinton to carry the party into the 2008 elections. The problem with Hillary Clinton is two-fold: First, she's likely to be as bad or worse than Bush on all of those issues, and second, she's the one Democrat the Republicans still have a chance to beat."

http://www.reason.com/news/show/123103.html

Spontaneous Order

Articles showing decentralized successes.

Penguin on an Inspiron: a review of the Dell Inspiron 1420n with Ubuntu

      By Ryan Paul from Ars Technica

"Open source software provides an alternative to commercial proprietary software, which—much like music that is encumbered with DRM—can only be used in the manner dictated by the creator. Ubuntu liberates users from arbitrary restrictions and doesn't contain invasive antipiracy spyware mechanisms like Windows Genuine Advantage."

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/dell-inspiron-1420n-ubuntu-laptop-review.ars

Live fast, love hard, die young -- Chasing females can take years off life

      By staff from The Economist

"The point about polygyny, according to Dr Clutton-Brock, is that if one male has exclusive access to, say, ten females, another nine males will be waiting to topple the harem master as soon as he shows the first sign of weakness. The intense competitive pressure means that individuals who succeed put all their efforts into one or two breeding seasons."

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9982969

Two, deux, dos: Heavily used words evolve more slowly

      By Henry Fountain from International Herald Tribune

"As to how frequency of word use would affect evolution, Pagel said a possibility is that if errors are made in speaking common words, they may tend to be corrected, precisely because they are so common and so important for communication."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/16/healthscience/17word.php

Humans Perceive Others' Fear Faster Than Other Emotions

      By staff from ScienceDaily

"The researchers set out to determine if we become aware of fearful, neutral or happy expressions at the same speed, or if one of these expressions reaches our awareness faster than the others. To do this, they needed to find a way to slow down the speed at which subjects processed facial information -- which usually takes less than 40 milliseconds. At those high speeds it is difficult to tell which images rise to awareness the fastest."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071014081055.htm

Nonspontaneous Disorder

Articles showing centrally planned disasters.

Japan and China lead flight from the dollar

      By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard from Telegraph

"The Greenback has already fallen below parity against the Canadian Loonie for the first time since 1976 and has touched record lows against a global basket. It closed at $2.032 against the pound. David Woo, an analyst at Barclays Capital, said Washington was happy to see the dollar slide. 'They don't care so long as the fall is not disorderly. They see it as a way of correcting the deficit.' he said. ... BNP Paribas said America has relied on 'hot money' from abroad to cover 25pc to 30pc of the US short-term credit and commercial paper market over the last two years. This flow is now in danger after the seizure in parts of the market over the summer and after the Federal Reserve's half point rate cut, which has shaved the US yield advantage over other countries."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/10/16/bcnchina116.xml

The WarOn Commission Report

      By Garry Reed from Loose Cannon Libertarian

"There are several special interest high profile taxbuck-funded long-running campaigns to report on, and most of these so-called WarOns are going quite well for the bureaucracies that run them and the bureaucrats who directly benefit from them."

http://www.freecannon.com/WarOnReport.htm

Health Care Debate’s Real Issue is Who Decides

      By Michael D. Tanner from Cato Institute

"[W]e should actually be grateful that Edwards has so clearly illustrated the fundamental question that should be at the heart of any debate over health care reform: Who decides? That is, after all, the central question of most politics. Whether talking about educating your children, what charities you support, how you behave in your bedroom, or how you operate your business, the complexities of the political process boil down to whether you will make these decisions or whether the government will."

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8733

Financial Flings: Robert Rubin…

      By Lila Rajiva from The Mind-Body Politic

"That’s about what the new fund financed by three major banks and orchestrated by the Fed is all about - saving the hides of a few big banks that waded too deep (through their affiliates) into the subprime slime."

http://mindbodypolitic.com/?p=479

War Is The Health Of The State

War is the ultimate State intervention in society.

The Song That Is Irresistible: How the State Leads People to Their Own Destruction

      By Robert Higgs from The Independent Institute

"Whatever promotes the growth of the state also weakens the capacity of individuals in civil society to fend off the state’s depredations and therefore augments the public’s multifaceted victimization at the hands of state functionaries. Nothing promotes the growth of the state as much as national emergency—war and other crises comparable to war in the seriousness of the threats they pose. ... [T]he fundamental condition of the entire process by which the government leads people to their own destruction is widespread public fear, which causes people to put aside their normal distrust of the state and to turn to it, especially to its chief, as a child turns to a parent, for security and reassurance that everything will be okay if only people do as they are told."

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2051

NSA Spying: What Did Pelosi Know?

      By Ray McGovern from Consortiumnews.com

"How did the American people react upon learning in December 2005 of this glaring infringement on their Constitutional rights. Most reacted as they have been conditioned to act—out of the old fear-factor shibboleth: 'After 9/11/2001, everything changed.' Yes, just as after 2/27/1933, the night of the burning of the German Parliament (Reichstag) in Berlin, everything changed."

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/101407a.html

The Hijacking of the Nobel Prize

      By Per Bylund from Strike The Root

"Is there really no one in the world who has done a better job for peace during the last year? How about the people behind Antiwar.com or any anti-war activist of your choice? I would say most of humankind has done a better job than the IPCC and Al Gore. Actually, they could give Average Joe the Nobel Peace Prize without having to resort to even half as ridiculous a motivation."

http://www.strike-the-root.com/72/bylund/bylund4.html

US Has Double Standard at Home and Abroad

      By Ivan Eland from Antiwar.com

"Since World War II, in terms of numbers of military adventures, the United States has been the most aggressive country in the world. And many such interventions cannot be blamed on the need to combat international communism. Even after the United States' major foe – the Soviet Union – collapsed, the U.S. expanded its informal empire and stepped up military activities across the globe. The United States bombed Serbia and Kosovo; invaded Panama, Afghanistan, and Iraq (twice); and intervened in Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia. Furthermore, the United States has kidnapped people and illegally rendered them to secret prisons in countries where torture is perpetrated, or simply had the CIA or U.S. military do the honors."

http://www.antiwar.com/eland/?articleid=11770

Bits of History

The Past seen with a fresh look.

Missing Warren G. Harding

      By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. from Ludwig von Mises Institute

"In the aftermath of that ghastly horror called the Great War, Warren Gamaliel Harding ran for president and won. His platform: Return to normalcy. He was the dark-horse candidate, but won 60% of the vote. Among his first actions was to pardon Eugene Debs, the socialist candidate, who had been jailed for opposing the war draft. He reduced taxes, deregulated, and generally calmed down the country after a culture-wrecking, budget-busting war, and assured a time of great prosperity."

http://www.mises.org/story/2753

The Goal Is Freedom: What Nearly Killed Liberalism

      By Sheldon Richman from Foundation for Economic Education

"People with quite diverse political philosophies have managed to be regarded as proponents. That rock-solid rights theorists and shaky utilitarians have shared the label is enough to make one stop and rethink."

http://www.fee.org/in_brief/default.asp?id=1649

Rand and the Right

      By Brian Doherty from Reason

"As government spending, even under Republican rule, grows faster than ever before; as new plans to further bureaucratize American health care arise; as the benefits of free trade and free movement of capital and labor are under continued assault -- Rand's consistent, passionate and even heroic defense of American freedom is sorely needed."

http://www.reason.com/news/show/122993.html

The Constitution and Foreign Policy

      By Bart Frazier from The Future of Freedom Foundation

"The Framers also had a clear idea of how their country should act on the world’s stage. Fortune had brought them a country separated from most of the world’s wars by two vast oceans. They had recently waged a long-fought, hard-won war against an imperial government, and they simply wanted a government that would leave them alone."

http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0707e.asp

War and Peace

Articles showing the nature of War.

The War on Afghanistan Was Wrong, Too

      By Jacob G. Hornberger from The Future of Freedom Foundation

"[T]he irony of the attacks on both Afghanistan and Iraq is that both actions are simply a continuation of regime-change operations that have long characterized U.S. foreign policy, operations that are in large part responsible for much of the anger that foreigners have for the United States."

http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0707a.asp

Something is Rotten in Iraq and the Pentagon

      By Dave Lindorff from CounterPunch

"It's not like the Pentagon has a list of all the enemy fighters, after all. What actually happens is the military has people come in after an action, and they find all these dead people. They look at the guys and have to decide, are they fighters or are they civilians? If the guy's got a gun in his hand, or nearby, they might assume he's a fighter, but is that a good test in a country where every guy has an AK47? "

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff10152007.html

Iraq – What Happened, Why and What Do We Do Now?

      By Karen Kwiatkowski from LewRockwell.com

"I could wryly wonder how George W. Bush was elected initially on a non-interventionist foreign policy and when he didn’t do that, he was elected again on a foreign policy of permanent war against America haters – with extensive nation building thrown in. That isn’t necessarily a criticism of Mr. Bush – but perhaps there's a bit a of joke here after all. Except that it’s on us."

http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski193.html

Face-Off: Airbrushing Accountability in the Terror War

      By Chris Floyd from Empire Burlesque

"Here's the Terror War ethos in action: when the security forces are caught red-handed in a flagrant act of, literally, overkill -- in this case, the totally unprovoked, multiple shooting to death of an innocent man in a London subway -- they will resort to any measure to avoid the consequences for their action."

http://www.chris-floyd.com/Articles/
Articles/Face-Off%3A_Airbrushing_Accountability_in_the_Terror_War/

Great Individuals In History

Some people stand out from the crowd.

Jazzman -- Jelly Roll Morton : October 20, 1890

       from RedHotJazz.com

"Jelly Roll Morton was the first great composer and piano player of Jazz. He was a talented arranger who wrote special scores that took advantage of the three-minute limitations of the 78 rpm records. \"

http://www.redhotjazz.com/jellyroll.html

Scientist -- James Chadwick : Oct. 20, 1891

       from The Nobel Foundation

"In 1932, Chadwick made a fundamental discovery in the domain of nuclear science: he proved the existence of neutrons - elementary particles devoid of any electrical charge."

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1935/chadwick-bio.html

Actor -- Montgomery Clift : Oct. 17, 1920

      By Ed Stephan from IMDb

"His film debut was Red River (1948) with John Wayne quickly followed by his early personal success The Search (1948) (Oscar nominations for this, A Place in the Sun (1951), From Here to Eternity (1953) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961))." [He also starred in one of my favorites: Wild River.]

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001050/bio

Singer/Songwriter -- Laura Nyro : Oct. 18, 1947

       from LauraNyro.com

" Laura made her first extended professional appearance at age 18, singing at the legendary Hungry i coffeehouse in San Francisco.... "

http://www.lauranyro.com/bio.htm

Culcha'

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

Director De Palma disturbed over Iraq film edit

      By Christine Kearney from Reuters

"De Palma said he expected the images in 'Redacted' to stir U.S. public debate about the conduct of American soldiers. Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi was gang-raped, killed and burned by U.S. troops in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, in March 2006. Her parents and another family member were also killed. He said the film provided a realistic portrait of U.S. troops and how 'the presentation of our troops has been whitewashed' by mainstream media."

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN1846489220071019

Reverend Billy Wants You To Stop Shopping

      Bill Talen interviewed by RU Sirius from 10 Zen Monkeys

"Naturally, when I had the opportunity to interview him, I had to give him a bit of a hard time. Sorry, Reverend, I have a lot of ambiguity about the tendency of some people on the left to tell us how to live – and the anti-consumerist left may be the worst of them all. Of course we may indeed need to change how we live, but there's something too finger-pointy about the whole thing for my taste and it makes my right knee jerk. (That's my libertarian knee. My other knee is left.)"

http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2007/10/15/reverend-billy-wants-you-to-stop-shopping/

GENERATION RX examines rise in psychiatric drugs among children and teens

      By Kevin Miller from Kevin Miller's World

"Ethics, or as Miller reveals, the lack of such, is a central theme of the film. As he investigated the culture of medicine, the producer was shocked to learn that a vast majority of psychiatric drugs being prescribed to millions of children worldwide have never been proven safe and/or effective for the very conditions they are purported to treat. In fact, he uncovered a pattern of collusion between drug manufacturers and their regulatory watchdogs at the FDA, who literally hid evidence of suicidal thoughts and violent acts long before these drugs were approved for the marketplace."

http://kevinpmiller.blogspot.com/2007/10/generation-rx-examines-rise-in.html

B.W.'s Book Report: Out of Step (Part 1)

      Reviewed by B.W. Richardson from Montag ...

"By clearly explaining the nature of the state beast – politicians who accumulate power by promising to protect freedom and offering constituents something for nothing – he whets the appetite for something different, something more accommodating to the free individuals we really are."

http://bwrmontag.blogspot.com/2007/10/bws-book-report-out-of-step-part-1.html

The lighter side

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

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

      By staff from Onion News Network

"For a majority of likely voters, meaningless bullshit will be the most important factor in deciding who they will vote for in 2008."

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/poll_bullshit_is_most_important?utm_source=embedded_video

Headlines - Deep Impasse

      By Jon Stewart from The Daily Show

"If you don't agree with Bush, you're looking to have a thermonuclear reaction bake your shadow instantly into the sidewalk."

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=121873&title=headlines-deep-impasse

Conceptual Terrorists Encase Sears Tower In Jell-O

      By staff from The Onion

"In what is being called the first conceptual terrorist attack on American soil, the landmark Sears Tower was encased in 18 million tons of strawberry gelatin early Monday morning, leaving thousands shocked, angry, and seriously confused."

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/68088

Amusing Ourselves to Depth -- Is The Onion our most intelligent newspaper?

      By Greg Beato from Reason

"While other newspapers desperately add gardening sections, ask readers to share their favorite bratwurst recipes, or throw their staffers to ravenous packs of bloggers for online question-and-answer sessions, The Onion has focused on reporting the news. The fake news, sure, but still the news."

http://www.reason.com/news/show/122453.html

Deep Thought

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

Round pegs in square holes

      By Bob Wallace from Endervidualism

“Ever since I was 12 years old I have felt like I belonged to a different species. I’ve always felt human... well, mostly...but with maybe, oh, I don’t know -- some sort of unusual DNA, perhaps like in The Island of Dr. Moreau. That would explain things.”

http://endervidualism.com/bwallace/round_peg_square_hole.htm

It's Not News... ...it's an interview with Fark.com founder Drew Curtis

      Drew Curtis interviewed by Katherine Mangu-Ward from Reason

"Q[uestion]: So you don't believe in the much-vaunted wisdom of crowds? You're not Web 2.0? A[nswer]: We are and we're not. I tell people we're Web 3.0. We've accidentally stumbled on the next step in the evolution of social networking, which I call 'editing.' It's a novel concept."

http://www.reason.com/news/show/123050.html

Screwing Jim

      By Fred Reed from Fred On Everything

"No one doubts, as long as blacks (or women) are not involved, that differences in intelligence can exist between subspecies, which is what the races are. No one will take exception if I say that Border Collies are smarter than pit bulls, or that they have been genetically selected for intelligence. Nor will anyone suggest that the difference is cultural, or that breeds of dogs are 'social constructs,' or that Border Collies do not exist because intermediate breeds do."

http://www.fredoneverything.net/Watson.shtml

Reflections on Utilitarianism

      By Roderick T. Long from Austro-Athenian Empire

"Spencer thought we couldn’t coherently deny the value of pleasure, because pleasure is the form of ethical intuition (in the same way that Kant thought space and time are the forms of sensory intuition); and while he granted that he couldn’t prove that life contains on balance more pleasure than pain, he thought once that premise was granted, all the rest of his theory followed."

http://praxeology.net/blog/2007/10/19/reflections-on-utilitarianism/

Miscellany

Articles not easily classified

Parody Becomes Reality

      By PintofStout from Murphy’s Bye-Laws

"What are the parodists to do? The more they bend and exaggerate the subject the more absurd the subject becomes. Instead of the parody being on a different track altogether, now it appears parody and reality are racing to the (dreadful) finish. It even gets to the point that people can’t tell the difference between the two. So what are the parodists and satirists to do?"

http://pintofstout.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/parody-becomes-reality/

A Turning Point in the Global Warming Debate?

      By Joseph Bast from The Heartland Institute

"The latest IPCC report isn't just unreliable, it's wrong. As S. Fred Singer noted in a letter published in the September 2006 issue of Geotimes, a U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) report, published in April 2006, shows a global warming pattern (in latitude and altitude) that differs dramatically from the pattern calculated by state-of-the-art greenhouse models. In other words, the observed and theoretical 'fingerprints' don't match. Singer says we can therefore state with confidence that the human contribution to current warming is not significant and outweighed by natural climate variability."

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=22197

FDA seizes $71k in herbal tea products as campaign of censorship against nutritional supplements continues

      By Mike Adams from NewsTarget

"According to the Food and Drug Administration, there is no such thing as an herb, food or supplement that has any biological activity whatsoever on the human body (other than simply providing calories), and any person who dares to make such a claim is immediately considered to be in violation of the FDA's authority. Any substance that has any therapeutic effect whatsoever on the human body is considered by the FDA to be a 'drug' and must be approved as such -- a lengthy process costing about $800 million and requiring the favor of an agency that practically works for Big Pharma."

http://www.newstarget.com/022137.html

Microsoft mind reader

      By Justin Mullins from NewScientist.com news service

"Not content with running your computer, Microsoft now wants to read your mind too. The company says that it is hard to properly evaluate the way people interact with computers since questioning them at the time is distracting and asking questions later may not produce reliable answers. 'Human beings are often poor reporters of their own actions,' the company says. Instead, Microsoft wants to read the data straight from the user's brain as he or she works away. They plan to do this using electroencephalograms (EEGs) to record electrical signals within the brain." [Do you still need more reasons to switch from Windows to something else?]

http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/dn12788

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