"Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude." ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

photo courtesy of javi.velazquez
Column by Emmett Harris.
Exclusive to STR
- 10 comments
"Their real goal is to extract more tax dollars out of your pocket without having to muster the political courage to advocate a tax increase...." (Editor's pick)
"China, Japan, and Russia all have moon base plans at various stages of development. But beyond nationalist bravado, pure scientific research, or the fun of space tourism, is there any reason for people to be on the moon? Is there anything we want there?"
"Nothing is more urgent than stopping the march to war now underway. Economic warfare has begun already. Sanctions and embargoes are belligerent acts under international law; such policies goaded the Japanese into attacking Pearl Harbor in 1941. The U.S. State Department recently reassured Israeli leaders, who along with their American lobby are in a bigger hurry for war than President Obama is, that the sanctions will devastate the Iranian economy — more precisely, the Iranian...
"It quickly became ossified conventional wisdom that NATO’s war in Libya to aid rebel factions in overthrowing Moammar Gaddafi was a clear human rights victory. But the reality in post-Gaddafi Libya has long been in tension with that claim, and that’s true today more so than ever."
"...the call for privatization does not get at the real reason the private sector works better than the political sector. The great advantage of the private sector is not private ownership per se but that private owners compete with one another. Classical liberals would do better to contrast not the “private” and “public” sectors, but the 'competitive' and 'monopolistic' sectors."
"It’s not quite the new Pakistan, or even the new Yemen, but it’s close — especially as new bases for the U.S.’s Shadow Wars pop up and expand. The U.S. military sometimes seemed like it was casting about for a reason to set up shop in Africa. Counterterrorism has given it one."
"Kelly Voluntaryist a Keene NH activist, gives the TSA a little T&A in the name of liberty at the Manchester Airport in protest of the TSA. The TSA has been stripping people of their rights, clothes, dignity etc. (body scanners etc.) So basically, Kelly stripped down in an effort to restore the inherent natural rights, which have been stripped away by an overly evasive government acting on its own volition."
"Critics seem to forget that while $1 trillion seems like a lot of loot to the average American family, the amount is pocket change for a government that steals so much from us each year. Think comparatively about these reductions—Obama requested $3.73 trillion for expenditures in 2012, so Ron Paul's 'draconian cuts' will leave us at the same spending levels we had in 2005."
"Andrew Napolitano discusses the recent Supreme Court decision against governments using GPS devices on people without warrants."
"HB 2288 (PDF) would force any company that provides Internet access to consumers in Hawaii to keep undefined “consumer records” for two years, including historical records on the sites a user visited as well as assigned IP addresses. This bill would affect anyone using the Internet in Hawaii, not just those suspected of a crime.
UPDATE: The bill has been...
"Standardized testing is a common method by which colleges and universities evaluate the competency of applying high school students. But an increasing amount of students are cheating on such tests, which has caused lawmakers in New York to consider actually harvesting "digital DNA" from students and applying it to special ID cards that students would be required to furnish both before and after taking the SAT or ACT exams to prove their identities."
"As we mentioned yesterday, Facebook Timeline is coming whether you like or not. In the next few weeks, your Facebook profile will be assimilated, giving you seven days to get your house in order before everyone can browse through your virtual history."
"It's no secret at all that casual gaming giant Zynga has a dreadful reputation for copying the games of others, and then crushing them in the marketplace. What's even more ridiculous is that Zynga also has a habit of using IP laws to go after competitors. There's been a lot of news this week over the story that Zynga's new tower sim game Dream...
"Last year, the New York Police Dept. was caught in an ugly scandal when the Village Voice reported it showed a 72-minute film titled The Third Jihad to police as a “terrorist training” video. Officials at the time downplayed the number of officers who saw it, and claimed it was quickly pulled when it was deemed 'inappropriate.'
The video condemns...
"Like the United States and Canada, Brazil and Argentina, Australia and South Africa, Israel is also a settler state, created by a European population that came not merely to rule but to occupy and to substantially displace the indigenous people. Unlike any other settler state, however, the settlers of Israel understood themselves not to be venturing forth but to be coming home—and though individually any Israeli could make a home in any number of places, as could anyone from...
"William Tucker has powerfully explained how the future of technologically advanced civilizations depends upon a sophisticated ability to convert the highest energy densities into increasingly denser power performance, and in the process compacting the time and space necessary to do productive work."
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
Last week I recommended that you read Against Intellectual Monopoly. In it, the authors reference several examples of copyright legislation used as censorship. One of the most modern versions involves the Church of Scientology threatening Google over the church's critics showing up on the search engine. Though the article is from 2002, it's a pretty interesting narrative to tell.
Videos: Battlefield Detectives (recommended), Flying Wild Alaska (recommended), Nightmare in Jamestown (recommended), Gold Rush: Alaska (recommended), Erasing David (recommended), Brad Meltzer's Decoded (recommended), Flash Forward (pretty good), Pawn Stars (recommended), Nova: The Spy Factory (recommended), Sherman's March (recommended), Client 9 (recommended), Surfwise (recommended), Moving Midway (recommended), Fat Head (highly recommended), The Trials of Henry Kissinger (recommended), Under Our Skin (recommended), Beer Wars (recommended), The Street Stops Here (recommended), The Cartel (MUST SEE), Freakonomics (recommended), A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (recommended), The Tillman Story (highly recommended), Inside Job (a leftish perspective of the financial crisis), Robin Hood (strongly recommended), Gasland (recommended), Friday Night Lights, Seasons 1-5 (highly recommended), The Power of Nightmares (3 parts, MUST SEE), Frontline: The Wounded Platoon (MUST SEE), Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (highly recommended), Sons of Anarchy, Seasons 1-3 (MUST SEE), Hacking Democracy (MUST SEE), For the Bible Tells Me So (recommended), Frontline: The Merchants of Cool (recommended), Green Zone (recommended), Generation Kill (MUST SEE), Shut Up and Sing (recommended), Collapse (recommended), The Singing Revolution (recommended), Jericho, Seasons 1 & 2 (MUST SEE), Frontline: Black Money (recommended), Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa (strongly recommended), Frontline: The Madoff Affair (MUST SEE), Taxi to the Dark Side (MUST-MUST SEE), Frontline: Hand of God (MUST SEE), Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (MUST SEE), Defiance (strongly recommended), Frontline: Ghosts of Rwanda (MUST SEE), The Heart of the Game (highly recommended), Downfall (highly recommended), Frontline: Inside the Meltdown (recommended), White Light, Black Rain (strongly recommended), Rendition (highly recommended), The Ground Truth (highly recommended); see recommended movies
Books: Throw Them All Out, More Money Than God, Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan
Music: Sunshine by Schuyler Fisk







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