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August 31, 2003

Found! Bin Laden's "Mini Me"

Check out the gentleman in the center

Posted by David Wiggins at 02:58 PM | Comments (210) | TrackBack

August 30, 2003

Ode to the Artichoke

A couple friends of mine asked me to read "something about peace" at their wedding. After hemming, hawing, and avoiding the issue for a couple months, today I came across this poem by Pablo Neruda. Good stuff.

Ode To The Artichoke

by Pablo Neruda

The artichoke
With a tender heart
Dressed up like a warrior,
Standing at attention, it built
A small helmet
Under its scales
It remained
Unshakeable,

By its side
The crazy vegetables
Uncurled
Their tendrills and leaf-crowns,
Throbbing bulbs,
In the sub-soil
The carrot
With its red mustaches
Was sleeping,
The grapevine
Hung out to dry its branches
Through which the wine will rise,
The cabbage
Dedicated itself
To trying on skirts,
The oregano
To perfuming the world,
And the sweet
Artichoke
There in the garden,
Dressed like a warrior,
Burnished
Like a proud
Pomegrante.
And one day
Side by side
In big wicker baskets
Walking through the market
To realize their dream
The artichoke army
In formation.
Never was it so military
Like on parade.
The men
In their white shirts
Among the vegetables
Were
The Marshals
Of the artichokes
Lines in close order
Command voices,
And the bang
Of a falling box.

But
Then
Maria
Comes
With her basket
She chooses
An artichoke,
She's not afraid of it.
She examines it, she observes it
Up against the light like it was an egg,
She buys it,
She mixes it up
In her handbag
With a pair of shoes
With a cabbage head and a
Bottle
Of vinegar
Until
She enters the kitchen
And submerges it in a pot.

Thus ends
In peace
This career
Of the armed vegetable
Which is called an artichoke,
Then
Scale by scale,
We strip off
The delicacy
And eat
The peaceful mush
Of its green heart.

Posted by at 11:58 PM | Comments (209) | TrackBack

August 29, 2003

A radical defends gold

"In the absence of the gold standard [this radical says] there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. If there were, the government would have to make its holding illegal, as was done in the case of gold. If everyone decided, for example, to convert all his bank deposits to silver or copper or any other good, and thereafter declined to accept checks as payment for goods, bank deposits would lose their purchasing power and government-created bank credit would be worthless as a claim on goods. The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves." (emphasis added)

Alan Greenspan wrote this -- in 1966. As Gary North mentions, he has never retracted a word of it.

Posted by George F. Smith at 08:24 AM | Comments (336) | TrackBack

August 28, 2003

What was that all about?

From a reader: I would love to know what those unmarked police cars cost the taxpayer here in NJ. Is it really necessary for them to stop people on their bicycles (like myself) and ask what was that about back there, Ma'am?
I bicycle every day, and on he way home, I stop at the same place for an
ice coffee. The place also sells gas. Everyone knows me there, everyone
except this cop! I happened to be talking with a man in the parking lot
who mentioned that if gas prices didn't go down, soon he would have to get
one of those, too (bike)!

I looked at his Ford Expedition and said, "I don't know about a bike, but
maybe a smaller car or less time on the road is in order." Now I know the
guy could have gotten pissed at me for saying that, but he didn't. He came
right out and said, "It's this war in Iraq that's guzzling all the gas! They need gas to fight wars."

You know, after he said that, I didn't know what the hell to say to him. I
should have just went on my way, but I didn't. I said Bush and his pals
got our men and women protecting the oil wells in Iraq, Cheney's old
friends at Halibuton are getting rich off this war, while on average two
soldiers a day are getting killed. One way to send a message to our so-called leaders is to not buy as much gas as we're used to, and sit down and write a letter to them about how you feel about this war. And I added that one of the reasons I ride a bike all over town is because I don't want to feel guilty about our troops dying for oil. I ended it with "Speak up! We're American, it's our right to dissent!" Keep in mind it was a noisy parking lot; I was not whispering, but at the same time I was not shouting, either. As I rode away, the guy gave me a smile and a thumbs up. No one in any way was arguing.

As I went my merry way down two blocks and made a right turn, I heard
someone say, "What was that all about?" I looked to the left side of me
and saw a light blue Crown Victoria. I stopped, leaned down into the
window on the passsenger's side and saw it was a police officer. "Excuse
me officer, what did you say?" (looking at the name on the badge) "What
was that about back there in the parking lot, you got a little loud, and I
thought I heard a swear word!" I replied, "Did someone make a complaint,
Officer?" No, he said, "I'm just asking a question!" And I said, "We were
talking abut gas prices, do you want to know the whole conversation?" He
said, "No,you don't have to do that!" I replied, "Well, since there's no
complaint and you don't want to know any more, can I go home now?" The
officer, red in the face, said, "Yes Mam, have a good day!" Now would you tell me what the hell that was all about? If that is not proof we are being watched 24/7? You tell me....

Posted by Rob at 09:19 PM | Comments (292) | TrackBack

More on the Health Fascism

Blogger Colby Cosh has an excellent post on the creeping regime of health-fascism:

"The public, by and large, does support the increasingly oppressive measures being taken against smokers up and down the continent. I believe those who have supported these measures believed that smoking was an exceptionally nasty behaviour whose attempted elimination could not possibly serve as a model for other political campaigns. I don't think anyone imagined, ten or twenty years ago, that by taking a stand against smoking they were laying groundwork for the therapeutic policing of every aspect of human life. As most of us are only beginning to see, those people have now been proven wrong: they have been shown to be unwitting fellow-travellers of totalitarianism."

Posted by Lee McCracken at 02:26 PM | Comments (327) | TrackBack

Defense Spending Boosts Economy?

"Soaring" defense spending pushed GDP to 3.1% for the second quarter, up from 1.4% in the two previous quarters, according to FoxNews.com. Perhaps we should burn our Austrian texts and genuflect Keynes and his disciples -- government spending is our savior after all!

Posted by George F. Smith at 02:06 PM | Comments (199) | TrackBack

Another Example of Military Intelligence

"The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq...blamed continuing violence on...the lack of cooperation from the Iraqi people. "

This astute observation makes it obvious why General Sanchez rose to the top ranks of the military.

Just so you don't think I was taking anything out of context, here is the entire quote (I removed sections for clarity only)

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)--The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Thursday that there was no need for more U.S. troops in the country and blamed continuing violence on insufficient intelligence and the lack of cooperation from the Iraqi people."

Posted by David Wiggins at 11:32 AM | Comments (302) | TrackBack

This Just In: Pleasure is Good!

Reason magazine's Jacob Sullum--always ready to stick his thumb in the eye of the health police--mocks the idea that it's somehow only ok to enjoy the simple pleasures of life (e.g. red wine, chocolate) if they can be shown to have beneficial health-enhancing side-effects.

It's becoming increasingly clear that the new obsession with health uber alles is one of the major threats to liberty in our time. Funny how quickly 60's "liberation" was followed by new forms of guilt.

Posted by Lee McCracken at 09:33 AM | Comments (176) | TrackBack

August 27, 2003

Iraq's costs soar -- guess who pays?

The Washington Post reports that ' Iraq will need “several tens of billions” of dollars from abroad in the next year to rebuild its rickety infrastructure and revive its moribund economy, and American taxpayers and foreign governments will be asked to contribute substantial sums, U.S. occupation coordinator L. Paul Bremer said yesterday.'

"Asked to contribute"?

Posted by George F. Smith at 12:36 PM | Comments (452) | TrackBack

August 26, 2003

Who does foreign "aid" aid?

You think Bush's recent gift of American taxpayer wealth to Africa will help anything but his re-election chances?

In a 1990 FEE article, David Osterfeld provides reasons to question the outcome:

The total net transfer of capital, private and public, from the West to the Third World between 1950 and 1985 amounted to the staggering sum of over $2 trillion in 1985 prices. Private investment accounted for about 25 percent of this total, but its share has fallen from about 40 percent in the 1950s to only about 16 percent in the 1980s. The $2 trillion . . . was enough to purchase not only all the companies on the New York Stock Exchange but, in addition, the entire American farm system. What has this massive transfer accomplished?"

"In practically every case, the influx of “aid” has been immediately followed by the emergence of a massive, unproductive, parasitic government bureaucracy whose very existence undercuts the recipients’ ability for sustained economic growth.

Conversely, the most economically developed parts of the world—Western Europe, the United States, and Japan—developed without aid. Similarly, Hong Kong and Singapore, two of the most economically vibrant areas over the past two decades, received only negligible “aid.”

Finally, Taiwan and South Korea are often touted as “foreign aid” success stories. However, their impressive economic performances began only after large-scale economic aid from the U.S. was discontinued.

Posted by George F. Smith at 10:25 AM | Comments (451) | TrackBack

State tries to muscle VoIP provider

Minnesota's Public Utilities Commission has decided to plunder and regulate VoIP provider, Vonage, by making them "get the proper telephone company business licenses and to immediately pay fees to the state's Department of Administration to support 911 services . . ."

"Minnesota is the first U.S. state to attempt to regulate VoIP, according to Vonage. VoIP is a new breed of cheaper phone service that lets people place calls through the Internet, avoiding telephone companies' local and long-distance networks."

Not surprisingly, VoIP regulations are backed by the major phone companies.

The New Jersey-based Vonage says it plans to fight the ruling. Reason Express suggests they ignore it. "Are state troopers going to break into Vonage customers' homes and confiscate their voice-over-Internet equipment? This is really the crux of the matter, as sooner or later the technology will evolve to let people bypass the old phone network completely -- and without the help of a third-party company. What would the world look like with peer-to-peer telephony?"

Posted by George F. Smith at 08:53 AM | Comments (178) | TrackBack

Two kinds of gold standards

Gary North writes:

"Honest money begins with these steps: (1) the revocation of legal tender laws that require people to accept the State’s money; (2) the enforcement of contracts; (3) laws against fraud, which fractional reserve banking is. The free market can do the rest."

On the other hand, "The State’s gold standard is a preliminary to eventual confiscation or debasement. The State’s promise of redemption on demand should not be trusted."

Posted by George F. Smith at 08:25 AM | Comments (394) | TrackBack

August 25, 2003

US Efforts in Afghanistan to go Bankrupt?

Remember - Arbusto Energy (bankrupt) and Dubya's other major business interest Harken Oil (bankrupt) (I won't count the Texas Rangers as Dubya was only a minority partner.) If his history of business "success" is any indicator, we can expect Afganistan's reconstruction to go bankrupt based on this quote:

"A senior American diplomat said President Bush, viewing the situation "like a businessman," had decided that investing more reconstruction money here now...

Posted by David Wiggins at 11:39 AM | Comments (192) | TrackBack

A Personal Account of Things in Baghdad

I'm not a sappy sentimentalist, but it almost brought me to tears to read this diary of a woman from Baghdad - an educated computer science professional. It kind of puts the lies we hear about "bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq' in their proper perspective. See if you can read this without having tears well up in your eyes for the terrible crime those who claim to govern the United States have wrought against the innocent citizens of Iraq

Posted by David Wiggins at 10:22 AM | Comments (180) | TrackBack

August 23, 2003

Bush Intentionally Exposes New Yorkers to Toxic Air

This one is gonna be hot. It may be the nail in the coffin for the Bush administration

"The agency's {EPA} inspector general issued a report this month that said White House officials had instructed the agency to reassure New Yorkers that the air in the vicinity of the World Trade Center was safe to breathe, even though deadly contaminants were present."

New Yorkers will flip out. There will be endless lawsuits and investigations. The New York media will be obsessed with this story - sick firefighter heroes - sick jewish grandmothers. Every malady will be blamed on the air and the government will be sued. Oy Vey!

"Representative Jerrold Nadler said, "That the White House instructed E.P.A. officials to downplay the health impact of the World Trade Center contaminants due to `competing considerations' at the expense of the health and lives of New York City residents is an abomination."

Posted by David Wiggins at 02:12 AM | Comments (143) | TrackBack

August 22, 2003

Democracy in America - a Conversation with a Frenchman

(from a Frenchman named Bruno)

"As a Frenchman I have been reading all the US political comments I could since the Sept. 11th attack, trying to understand what was happening to the minds of my American friends.

As a "Saint Cyr" graduate (the supposed French counterpart of a West Point one) having also resigned from the Army as a captain (though on grounds opposite to yours), I am glad that your "Losing the War on Terror" mail is the first one fully reflecting my own humble thoughts and at last humourously providing a satisfactory answer to my questions about the current US ruling team, i.e. that we are facing pure cynicism (probably induced by the Ceasarian belief of enjoying the Global Power).

Therefore I am now hoping that you might explain as well the second and most puzzling part of my questions, namely : how come that the same American lie-hating public opinion, which fired President Nixon for a lie over his tricky campaign and which nearly empeached President Clinton for a childish lie over a back-office blow job, today keeps mainly supporting a president obviously lying on much more important matters, involving the culprits of the brutal death of thousends of American and foreign people, and the need to even cause many more casualties.

If you have tackled that touchy subject, important to me because of the number of American good friends I cann't fully understand anymore, your comments would be most welcome."

Faithfully yours
Bruno

My reply (FWIW)

Bruno,

Thanks for the kind mail. I am a competitive cyclist and great fan of the Tour, by the way. Voltaire is also a big inspiration to me.

I think the answer to your question is a combination of factors. First, the Congress, Presidency, and even Supreme Court are controlled by Republicans. That stifles any political dissent. Second, the national media is controlled by large corporations whose interests are represented by the Republicans. That means no meaningful public dissent on a national level is seen. Third, given the control of information, that segment of the voting public who is not too sceptical and does not seek other sources of information, is ill-informed, even mis-informed, and that leads to voting patterns that support the status quo - Republican.

None of this will change until either some Republicans split from their neocon rulers to promote a less radical, more traditionally conservative agenda; or the large corporations begin to feel the ill effects of neocon policy and act in their best interests opposing it. The Supreme Court is a difficult situation. If neocons can stack the court with their ilk, we, as a nation, will be dealing with that problem for years.

That's my take on it anyway.

Regards,

Dave

Posted by David Wiggins at 08:08 AM | Comments (150) | TrackBack

August 21, 2003

Chaos in Iraq

Wow! I'm watching CNBC right now, 9PM est 21 August. The heading is "Chaos in Iraq" All I can say is HOLY COW!!! That is a far cry from "March To War", "War in Iraq," etc. It sort of tells a story all by itself.

Posted by David Wiggins at 09:11 PM | Comments (264) | TrackBack

Telling Us What to Think

Here's another gem from Herr Rumsfeld:

"Rumsfeld told a news conference in the Honduran capital that Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz had spoken with commanders in Iraq "and they reiterated their belief that the size of the force in Iraq is appropriate today."

"And, at the moment, the conclusion of the responsible military officials is that the force levels are where they should be," Rumsfeld said.

Now how often would a military person, or anyone for that matter, turn down extra help if it was offered?

It looks like the spectacular failure of the Office of Special Plans (weaponsgate) and coercing lies out of subordinates taught Rumsfeld and company nothing.

The truth is a stubborn taskmaster, and all the lies coerced out of subordinates do not change the facts on the ground.

This neocon bunch shares many of the same qualities as religious fanatics, the most obvious of which is that the truth has absolutely no impact on their belief systems

Posted by David Wiggins at 08:16 AM | Comments (251) | TrackBack

August 20, 2003

Sobig.F virus

From someone I know who's in charge of anti-virus for a large network:

Many people are asking why they are getting email from other networks
that says that a message that they sent could not be delivered. This is
an effect of the Sobig worm that I told you about earlier today in my
alert message.

When someone gets infected with this worm, it rummages through their
computer looking for email addresses to use. It can find them in the
address book, or in the web browser's cache files or just "laying
around" somewhere on the hard drive. Once it has found addresses and
created a list of them, it picks one at random to use as the "sender"
and starts sending email to all the addresses that it has found.

What this means to you is, without your computer ever being infected
with the virus, even if your computer is a Mac or Unix computer which
*cannot* be infected by this virus:

1) You may get warnings that a message you sent had a virus and was
therefore rejected.
2) You may get warnings from other networks that a message that you sent
was not deliverable, either because the recipient's mailbox was full or
because the recipient doesn't exist on their network

Neither of these effects is a result of your computer being infected
with the virus. You just happen to be the "lucky" one chosen by the
virus to send the emails. Unfortunately, there also aren't many
technical solutions to this problem. By rule, we *must* accept email
from postmaster@ any network, so number 2 (above) is impossible to stop.
Number 1 above could be stopped if networks would simply stop sending
out virus warning messages. As you can see, and many of you are
experiencing, sending warnings is useless when the virus forges the
sender.

Posted by Rob at 07:19 PM | Comments (161) | TrackBack

Central planning hurts grid

Government central planning may be discredited elsewhere but it's alive and well here. The reason is, the U.S. government is different. They'll make socialism work. First, when a crisis hits, fix the blame on the free market. Always keep enough of it around for such purposes. Then propose how, with enough tax revenue and "cooperation," government will make sure it never happens again. But if it does happen, blame that dirty rotten market for spoiling everything.

Politicians recently blamed deregulation -- the free market -- for the massive blackout. But as Sheldon Richman writes, "The free market has an airtight alibi. It was nowhere near the scene of the crime."

Posted by George F. Smith at 03:51 PM | Comments (456) | TrackBack

August 19, 2003

Why Study Economics?

From some of the comments I've seen on this Blog and elsewhere, economics appears to be a sorely neglected study. Stephen Carson, a Washington U. student, wrote a nice article on why economic understanding is second only to air in importance.

Posted by George F. Smith at 10:48 AM | Comments (214) | TrackBack

August 18, 2003

Hannity & Colmes vs. Becraft & Kuglin

Thought there was a difference between Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes? Not when it comes to government's right to plunder the rest of us. Listen to the MP3 file of their interview with Vernice Kuglin and her attorney, Larry Becraft, here.

Posted by George F. Smith at 04:50 PM | Comments (331) | TrackBack

The new STR T-shirts are here!

www.strike-the-root.com/shirts.html

Posted by Rob at 03:45 PM | Comments (276) | TrackBack

August 17, 2003

STR Forum Revamped

I have added a number of new boards to the STR forum. Feedback, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Posted by Rob at 06:44 PM | Comments (255) | TrackBack

August 14, 2003

From the concentration camp...

US "Admits" Gitmo "Numbers Puzzle"

SAN FRANCISCO - The United States said yesterday it had neither an exact count nor all the names of hundreds of people captured in Afghanistan and now detained at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba.

Not even a head count? Sure. How would they know if someone escaped?

Federal lawyers made the disclosure during a court hearing in a case on behalf of Falen Gherebi, a Libyan national believed to be in custody in Cuba.

At the appeals court hearing yesterday, a scheduled discussion over the government's right to hold Gherebi became a debate on whether the government even kept complete records on those held.

"They won't let him out and they won't tell us if he's there," said Stephen Yagman, a lawyer for Gherebi's brother. "This is crazy."

So I guess the idea here is that when people start asking questions about who you've rounded up, you play dumb. Is this for real?

Posted by Andy Henke at 04:49 PM | Comments (148) | TrackBack

Where's Osama?

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our Number one priority and we will not rest until we find him!" - George W. Bush, September 13, 2001

"I don't know where he is. . . I just don't spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you. . . I truly am not that concerned about him." - George W. Bush, March 13, 2002

Posted by Rob at 12:19 AM | Comments (285) | TrackBack

August 13, 2003

Understanding gold

Gary North offers a lucid and interesting essay on gold, explaining why bankers hate it, as well as the role government plays in keeping it from us.

"To keep from facing their day of judgment – redemption day, when the public presents its IOU’s and demands payment – fractional reserve bankers call on the government. They persuade the government to create a bankers’ monopoly, called a central bank, which stands ready to intervene and lend newly created fiat money to any commercial bank inside the favored cartel that gets into trouble with its depositors. By reducing the risk of local bank failures, the central bank extends the public’s acceptance of a system of unbacked IOU’s, called "an elastic currency" when members of the banking cartel create it, and called "counterfeiting" when non-members of the cartel create it."

Read the full article here.

Posted by George F. Smith at 11:54 PM | Comments (257) | TrackBack

August 12, 2003

We Shall Overcome

ANNE GEARAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS - California and other states that want to make marijuana available to sick or dying patients are flouting federal drug laws in much the same way that Southern states defied national civil rights laws, a senior Bush administration lawyer said.

Posted by Rob at 10:43 PM | Comments (162) | TrackBack

FedEx Pilot Whips IRS

You would think a seven-million word tax code would mention something about liability for paying taxes. Then again, maybe one reason for the code's sheer density is to obscure the fact that we really don't have such a liability.

FedEx pilot Vernice Kuglin studied the code and decided it was a bogus claim on her income, so she filled out W-4 forms "showing 99 exemptions, and turned them in to her employer." The IRS called it tax evasion and charged her with evading nearly a million dollars in taxes.

But last Friday, a jury in Memphis told the IRS to take a hike. Read about it here and here. Also, read about Tennessee's recent "Tea Party" tax protests.

Posted by George F. Smith at 10:27 AM | Comments (354) | TrackBack

August 11, 2003

Spam's useful idiots

Ever wonder who would buy penis-enlargement pills from a spammer?

"All were evidently undaunted by the fact that [the spammer's] order site contained no phone number, mailing address or e-mail address for contacting the company. Nor were they seemingly concerned that their order data, including their credit card info, addresses and phone numbers, were transmitted to the site without the encryption used by most legitimate online stores."

Read it and weep.

Posted by George F. Smith at 05:53 PM | Comments (294) | TrackBack

Motto of the liberation?

"This is freedom and freedom can mean different things, and in this case freedom means we are going to have to enforce our values on them" -Capt John Margolis, US Army.

Read the rest here.

Posted by Andy Henke at 02:06 PM | Comments (266) | TrackBack

August 10, 2003

Anarchy Comes to Iraq

From STR's man in Iraq: "I'm having loads of fun learning Arabic, and telling all my new Iraqi friends about anarchism. They are very interested. I have been distributing articles to them from the Minaret of Freedom."

Posted by Rob at 07:57 PM | Comments (299) | TrackBack

How the Feds helped fuel the stock market bubble

(from a New Yorker article): Wittingly and unwittingly, Washington encouraged the great giveaway. During the 1992 election campaign, Bill Clinton and Al Gore made a political issue out of lavish C.E.O. pay. A year later, the new Administration limited to a million dollars the tax deductions that corporations could take for executive salaries. The reform turned out to be counterproductive. Since executive stock options weren’t counted as regular compensation, corporations had yet another reason to pay their senior managers less in salary and more in options. In 1994, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (F.A.S.B.), the descendant of the Accounting Principles Board, set out to force companies to deduct the value of the stock options they granted from their earnings. Following an intense lobbying campaign by Silicon Valley companies, several leading members of Congress, including Joseph Lieberman and Dianne Feinstein, threatened to put the F.A.S.B. out of business if it went ahead with the change. The board backed down, and the latest official attempt to control corporate avarice came to an end.

Posted by Rob at 04:52 PM | Comments (159) | TrackBack

The Myth Goes to Market

It looks like the media myth that is Jessica Lynch, War Hero, refuses to die and will soon take the form of a book. Ms. Lynch has refused a deal for a television movie and instead has decided to relay her “story” in a book to be published before the end of the year- to maximize profits through Christmas sales, no doubt. The last I heard, she couldn’t honestly recall what had happened during her capture so the book promises to be a short and quick read.

Karen De Coster has already adequately explained the true details of the well-publicized Lynch episode in Iraq, so I’ll not waste blog space outlining it. Only in the military can one receive three medals for being in an automobile accident and spending nearly all her time in captivity in a hospital bed while doted on by caring, Iraqi doctors. If Jessica Lynch was a man and experienced the same event would anyone have paid attention? Or cared?

Ms. Lynch appears to have created a new variation of women winning fame and fortune by spending time on their backs.

Posted by Roger Young at 04:47 PM | Comments (267) | TrackBack

August 09, 2003

Liberian coin

I was going through my coin collection today when I came across a coin from Liberia. The inscription reads, "The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here." Wow! Can you imagine seeing something like that on an American coin today?

Posted by Rob at 11:45 PM | Comments (196) | TrackBack

Winning Hearts and Minds in Iraq

(from Yahoo News) To quell the insurgency, American troops raid homes in broad sweeps, arresting anyone caught in their net. Iraqis say what is most distressing is their physical treatment during and after arrest. U.S. troops put their boots on the back of men's heads as they lay facedown, forcing their foreheads to the ground. There is no greater humiliation, they say, because Islam forbids putting the forehead on the ground except in prayer.

Posted by Rob at 11:42 PM | Comments (374) | TrackBack

GoDaddy Sucks!

If you ever need a web hosting company or a place to park a domain name, etc., avoid GoDaddy like the plague. They SUCK! They are one of the worst companies I've ever dealt with. Their customer service is horrible, and they are not customer-friendly at all.

Posted by Rob at 03:38 PM | Comments (637) | TrackBack

Crime in Baghdad

(from Yahoo News) After the fall of the Saddam regime, Baghdad finds itself in the midst of an unprecidented crime wave, with 47 times as many gunshot deaths in July as the year before.

Posted by Rob at 12:33 AM | Comments (300) | TrackBack

August 08, 2003

Liberventionism: An Oxymoron?

Blogger Gene Healy makes the case against "libertarian" interventionism--i.e. wars to topple authoritarian regimes around the globe. Nicely summarizes the key arguments.

Posted by Lee McCracken at 01:21 PM | Comments (134) | TrackBack

Dems Get Marching Orders

(from Opinion Journal) The Hill reports that when Congress adjourned for August, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, sent her members home with a "recess packet" that "includes detailed instructions on how to throw a local party - a 38th birthday bash for Medicare." Among the advice: "Order your cake! Order a sheet cake with 'Happy Birthday Medicare' written on it." There's more:

The orders go on: "Buy additional party supplies. Be creative. Buy a 'Happy Birthday' tablecloth for the center table. Purchase disposable plates and utensils if the facility will not provide them. You may also wish to purchase additional party favors -- horns and whistles can be very useful to 'boo' the Republican agenda," suggests the document.

Lawmakers are reminded to "review supply check list. Confirm cake/food orders and make sure supply checklist is complete. Provide writing utensils and paper for seniors to complete letters to the editor."

On the day of the meeting, lawmakers are told to "arrive early" and then: "Set up tables. Spread a 'Happy Birthday' tablecloth on the center table, where cake will be placed. All other tables should have pens/pencils, writing paper, and copies of the sample letter to the editor."

In bold bullet-points the document commands lawmakers: "Know where the restrooms and telephones are located."

The paper says the party directions "have raised concerns among Democratic aides and lobbyists that Pelosi is developing a didactic style that can be too patronizing to be helpful."

Posted by Rob at 02:14 AM | Comments (215) | TrackBack

August 07, 2003

The Air Force's new gig

The new pamphlet explaining the Air Force's "roadmap for transformation" lays it all out a little too clearly:

"The Edge explains and gives examples of the three pillars: organizations, new technologies and operational concepts....

Operational concepts such as global response, global mobility and global strike are also contributors. The Edge states it is the merger of CONOPS along with technological advances and newly tailored organizations that will yield a near order of magnitude increase in combat effectiveness.

'We are shifting from threat-based planning to capabilities-based planning with specific emphasis on joint relationships,' Bath said."

In other words, if you've got the big guns you'd better fire them; never mind whether there's a reason. And what's going on at that picnic in Nebraska right now?

Posted by at 11:42 PM | Comments (375) | TrackBack

Fighting a constitutional war

"Lincoln and Roosevelt, as war presidents, centralized power, restricted liberty, and suspended key parts of the Constitution during their stints in office," writes Burton Folsom, Jr. "However, James Madison, the first war president in U.S. history, did not set such a precedent. War emergencies, he argued, were tests to obey the Constitution, not ignore it. His conduct in the War of 1812 is
illuminating, and worth reviewing."

Read his column about the war in the February, 2003 issue of Ideas on Liberty.

Posted by George F. Smith at 09:48 AM | Comments (313) | TrackBack

August 06, 2003

EU Threatens MS

The European Commission, one of five committees governing the European Union, is giving Microsoft "a final chance" to play fair. Microsoft is being bad by including only its media player with Windows and not comparable competitor products as well. The company is also charged with doing sneaky things with their low-end servers. If Bill Gates' enterprise doesn't cooperate, the Commission will fine it. The EU is taking action to protect the children -- er, consumers -- so they will have a choice, as if they didn't have one now. In spite of what some liberrtarians would claim, the EU's threat has nothing to do with aggrandizement, looting, or envy.

Posted by George F. Smith at 11:41 AM | Comments (308) | TrackBack

Ecumenical Setback

FOX 17, GRAND RAPIDS, MI - A church in Greenville thinks the Harry Potter books are part of an evil cult, so church leaders decided to have an old-fashioned book burning, but children's books were not the only things that went into the fire.

"They have changed it the key points in the Bible," said Bishop Tom Turner Sr. of Jesus Non-Denominational Church in Greenville. "The majority of it's probably the same, but it takes just a little bit to mislead people."

So the Book of Mormon, versions of the Bible, even the Catholic Rosary, all went up in flames. Church leaders say any Bible besides the King James version that they use, are distractions. . . Dr. Bastiaan VanElderen has been studying religion at Calvin College since the 1940s and has never seen anything like this here. "No, not at all," said VanElderen. "I've heard a lot of harangs about differing viewpoints, but nothing of this caliber."

Posted by Rob at 01:07 AM | Comments (275) | TrackBack

August 05, 2003

Being Catholic Now a Hate Crime

In light of the Vatican's recent statement opposing same-sex marriage, the finest legal minds in several countries are preparing to lay the smack down on those reactionaries who fail to toe the line.

In Canada, a lawyer and gay rights activist makes threats of legal action:

"'It's just appalling,' said Michael Leshner, who legally wed his partner, Michael Stark, in Toronto in June, Canada's first same-sex marriage. ‘It's sickening, it's obnoxious and it's got to stop.' [...] He accused the Catholic church of preaching ‘religious intolerance,' adding, 'The Charter of Rights trumps the Bible.'"

In Ireland, the "Council for Civil Liberties" has threatened those who distribute the statement with prosecution for "incitement to hatred."

And in Tasmania distributing the Vatican statement could result in a fine of up to $20,000.

Regardless of what one thinks about same-sex marriage or the Vatican's teachings on same, these are not good signs for freedom. To make a whole class of actions off-limits to criticism and effectively outlaw the teachings of one of the world's great religions smacks of totalitarainism and thought-control. Doesn't tolerance go both ways?

Posted by Lee McCracken at 12:42 PM | Comments (293) | TrackBack

Liberty, not dominion

When I attended public school, J. Q. Adams' speech to the U.S. House of Representatives on Independence Day, 1821, was never mentioned. I wonder why.

In his speech, he said, "[America’s] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind."

And:

"[America] well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force....She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit...."

" . . . assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom." How right he was.

Here's an excerpt from Adams' speech.

Posted by George F. Smith at 09:54 AM | Comments (245) | TrackBack

August 04, 2003

Libertarians against Capitalism

A very interesting piece over at anti-state.com this morning by Kevin Carson. Carson, a self-proclaimed IWW mutualist, argues that the consistent application of libertarian principles could bring down the entire system of corporate capitalism as we know it. Why? Because so much of the current economic system is deeply embedded in the coercive state structure, and this undercuts the notion that most of the "private" sector is private in any meaningful sense.

Carson is personally in favor of a mutualist "occupancy-and-use" criterion of ownership rather than the Lockean scheme favored by most mainstream libertarians. Whatever one's position, his argument is well worth considering.

Posted by Lee McCracken at 02:23 PM | Comments (355) | TrackBack

The War God, Rising

Sort of grotesque to watch astronomy, murderous politicians, and Greek mythology slam into each other...the planet Mars is on the rise.

"On 27th August, Mars will be at its closest to Earth for almost 60,000 years. On that date, the Red Planet will approach to within 34,646,418 miles (55,758,006 km) -- 145 times the distance of the Moon.

The last time the two planets were so close our ancestors were living in caves and struggling to survive the extreme conditions of the Ice Age. Who knows what will have happened by the time they are as near again -- 284 years..."

Catch the whole story here. Probably, it'll be worth looking skyward once or twice this month.

Posted by at 01:12 PM | Comments (323) | TrackBack

Another Terrorist Stopped

(From BOING BOING) - A kid who put a note telling TSA snoops to stay out of his luggage was busted on trumped-up "bomb-threat" charges for penning the following and putting it in his bag: "[Expletive] you. Stay the [expletive] out of my bag you [expletive] sucker. Have you found a [expletive] bomb yet? No, just clothes. Am I right? Yea, so [expletive] you." Boy, good thing the eagle-eyed, sticky-fingered underwear fetishists on search-detail were on their toes, otherwise, this kid might have been able to board an airplane with a deadly sarcastic note in his checked luggage.

Posted by Rob at 01:40 AM | Comments (176) | TrackBack

August 02, 2003

America is a Religion

In his latest column George Monbiot makes a wise observation that America is not merely just a country or an idea but a religion.

The reality is that the U.S. Government and military enforcers are the only parties not to understand why Iraqis hate their American “liberators” as much as their former dictator, Saddam Hussein. Monbiot believes that the cause of this clueless state of mind is “not a failure of information, but a failure of ideology.”

“To understand why this failure persists, we must first grasp a reality which has seldom been discussed in print. The United States is no longer just a nation. It is now a religion. Its soldiers have entered Iraq to liberate its people not only from their dictator, their oil and their sovereignty, but also from their darkness.”

“So American soldiers are no longer merely terrestrial combatants; they have become missionaries. They are no longer simply killing enemies; they are casting out demons. The people who reconstructed the faces of Uday and Qusay Hussein carelessly forgot to restore the pair of little horns on each brow, but the understanding that these were opponents from a different realm was transmitted nonetheless. Like all those who send missionaries abroad, the high priests of America cannot conceive that the infidels might resist through their own free will; if they refuse to convert, it is the work of the devil, in his current guise as the former dictator of Iraq.”

This is one of the more insightful pieces I’ve read in a while.

Posted by Roger Young at 04:51 PM | Comments (460) | TrackBack

August 01, 2003

The State Taketh, Giveth, Taketh

A fund raising email is being distributed by the presidential campaign of Dennis Kucinich. The message requests that those who will soon be receiving checks for their child tax credits to use the money to donate to the Kucinich campaign.

Jeff Cohen, who identifies himself as “Communications Director and Dad,” writes, “As a father, I am writing you about Dennis Kucinich. Some of us have just received child tax credits from the IRS and others will be receiving their checks in the coming weeks, up to $400 per child.
I am asking you to donate all or part of that check to the Kucinich for President Campaign...for your children and all children.”
Mr. Cohen even goes so far as describing such a donation as a “peace dividend toward our children’s future.”

Let me see if I've got this right-
A parent receiving $400 or more that was originally stolen by politicians/criminals should turn around and pass that money on to another politician/criminal so he can get elected and steal still more money from the parent. Sounds rational to me.

"Sorry, kids. You'll just have to ride those broken down bikes a few more years. New shoes? Forget about it! We need this money to get ourselves a new slave master. Now, turn around and pledge your allegiance, heart and (most important) your souls to that Yankee war flag hangin' on the trailer wall."

Posted by Roger Young at 07:21 PM | Comments (180) | TrackBack