Tuesday, January 1
|
Robert Kaercher is the guest editor today. |
US
and Britain: ‘Endemic Surveillance Societies’
"According to Privacy International, a human rights group an watchdog on surveillance and privacy, Britain and the United States are in the lowest category when it comes to privacy and government snooping. ‘Greece, Romania and Canada had the best privacy records of 47 countries surveyed by Privacy International, which is based in London. Malaysia, Russia and China were ranked worst’, reports the Associated Press."
“Despite a drop in violence across Iraq, there is still no place in the country that is safe from attack by extremists, the US military warned on Sunday.” The year 2007 was, in fact, the worst year ever in Iraq since the US invasion.
"Viewed from a historian's perspective, the Bush administration since 9/11 has ransacked the past to conjure up comforting expectations for the future. President Bush excels in this exercise, expressing confidence that the ‘untamed fire of freedom’ will one day soon ‘reach the darkest corners of our world’. Yet as the assassination of Benazir Bhutto reminds us yet again, events refuse to play along. History remains stubbornly recalcitrant." Bush’s policies are promoting tyranny throughout the world, not freedom.
Town Pushing to Graciously Allow Seniors to Work Off Property Taxes
“The town [of Greenburgh, New York] is pushing a program that would let seniors work part-time, for $7 an hour, to help pay off some of their property taxes.” This is positively obscene.
No
Criminal Charges for
Missing Wife
“A 24-year-old woman whose disappearance last week set off an intense search that cost taxpayers $250,000 will not face criminal charges, authorities said Monday.” Why would anyone think that she should be charged with a crime? The lady in question suddenly ran off without telling anyone, leaving her car parked by a river with the engine running and her door open, then returned safe and sound four days later. A stupid thing to do, yes, but it’s not her fault that her husband and family solicited the "authorities" to go looking for her and that the local protection monopoly’s "search and rescue" operations are so costly and inefficient. (She may yet face "civil charges" and be forced to repay the local government for its magnanimous "service.")
A
Way of Life Soon to Go Up in Smoke
Smoke
‘em if you got ‘em, Chicago. (Though I have no doubt the market will respond
to the demands of smoking drinkers.)
After
recently delving into my twentysomething early ‘90s past, I rediscovered
this great song. I find that listening to it while editing the Tuesday edition
of a certain anarchist web site is particularly inspirational. (Warning:
Naughty language.)
Marijuana
Ticket Law Only Catching On Near Austin
This is quite typical of the state’s stupid and senseless war on drugs.
Layman’s
Guide to Man-Made Global Warming
“The
purpose of this paper is to provide a layman’s critique of the Anthropogenic
Global Warming (AGW) theory, and in particular to challenge the fairly
widespread notion that the science and projected consequences of AGW currently
justify massive spending and government intervention into the world’s
economies.”
Rand comes fairly close to hitting the nail right on the head in this 1961 speech. Her comments are even more applicable today.
Dr.
Thomas Szasz on Psychiatry
The
good doctor explains that “mental illness” is not a real disease. It’s
an excuse for tyranny. (His book
on Virginia Woolf is definitely on my reading list.)
“Anarchism,
and generally also anarchists, do not condone the state nor political means.
This should always be the case for those advocating and championing universal
liberty. But it is not.”
A photo blog. (12 pages)