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September 30, 2003
Why the Post Office Has Problems
I wanted to send some STR shirts via Priority Mail, but I needed a PM envelope, so I asked my mail lady if she had one on her truck. No, she didn't. That would make it too convenient for the Post Office's customers to use their services. Then today, my mail lady put my mail in my mailbox on top of the package that I had put in the mailbox to mail. This is about the third time that this has happened in the last couple of months. How could she have not seen the package? One time, she literally had to push the outgoing package into the back of my mailbox in order to deposit my incoming mail. So what did I receive in the mail today? Two letters for my neighbor, which has also happened a number of times.
I ended up sending the shirts via FedEx, which has drop boxes all over the place that are also stocked with shipping supplies.
Posted by Rob at 08:59 PM | Comments (373) | TrackBack
September 29, 2003
Bush's New Interest in Sex Tourism
From Undernews: To those surprised by George Bush's sudden interest in the evils of sex tourism (in his UN speech), Undernews Irregular Richard L. Franklin offers this theory: it was a shot across Hillary Clinton's bow, a reminder that now the Justice Department files are in the hands of the Republicans.
One of those deeply involved in the Clinton fundraising scandals was an Asian businessman described in some reports as a major underground crime figure with a specialty in brothels, including those featuring under-aged girls.
This could be a big embarrassment for Hillary Clinton, who once told a women's conference, "We are working to stop trafficking of women and girls in this region and around the world. No government and no citizen can rest until we stop this modern form of slavery, protect its victims and prosecute those who are responsible."
The embarrassment is heightened by the existence of a photo of the two Clintons and the businessman with big smiles, standing in front of the shield of the Democratic National Committee.
Posted by Rob at 10:30 PM | Comments (172) | TrackBack
Conservatives Against Bush
Check out this website. It's starting to sink in: Bush is not conservative, if one defines conservative as favoring small government, avoiding entangling alliances, etc. Unfortunately, most of the disenchanted will probably hold their noses and vote for Dubya next year anyway.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 10:09 AM | Comments (156)
September 28, 2003
US Building Prisons in Iraq
From Financial Times: Mr Obey noted the administration was requesting $400m for two new 4,000-bed maximum security prisons in Iraq. "That works out, I think, to $50,000 per bed," said Mr Obey. "How can it possibly cost us that much to build that kind of a prison in Iraq?"
Posted by Rob at 10:36 PM | Comments (285) | TrackBack
September 27, 2003
Auto Emissions Testing
I live in a county that requires an annual emissions test for your car, unless it was made in 2001 or later....or if it was made before 1979. WTF? If any cars need to be tested, it's the ones made before 1979! Why are these cars exempt?
I think it's because of Good Old Boys who live in the rural part of the state and drive older cars. Apparently, these people are more politically powerful than suburban residents who drive newer cars.
Posted by Rob at 03:32 PM | Comments (166) | TrackBack
September 26, 2003
How To Grow An Economy
From a photo caption on Yahoo: "Growth in the US economy was spurred by the largest increase in defense spending since the Korean War."
So the economy grows if wealth is confiscated from the people who created it and spent on things that literally blow up, like bombs? Well hell's bells, why don't we increase the defense budget to $1 trillion, then?
This is why the sheeple don't know anything about economics, because of little things like this.
Posted by Rob at 11:31 PM | Comments (344) | TrackBack
Surveillance Society
I received a renewal notice for my driver's license from the DMV. I don't need to come in to their office since they already have my fingerprint. But now I must provide my Social Slave Number if I want them to renew my license.
Due to the Patriot Act, if I want to open a new account at my brokerage firm, I will have to provide my driver's license number or a passport number.
The web is getting tighter.
Posted by Rob at 11:07 PM | Comments (176) | TrackBack
How Diebold Shut Down BlackBoxVoting.org
Get the word out far and wide that Diebold has done this thing.
More info: http://www.blackboxvoting.com
1. Diebold issued a pull-down demand under DMCA for the BlackBoxVoting.org web site, citing a link posted on a forum in the site, claiming that the link allowed web visitors to visit an unrelated page, containing Diebold internal memos, which they say they own the copyright to.
2. Not only was BlackBoxVoting.org pulled down, but ALL of the documents, databases and programming for approximately 500 pages of material, most of which did not relate to Diebold at all, was confiscated. Dozens of web pages were pulled down which had nothing whatever to do with the disputed information. According to AIT Inc, the parent ISP, their North Carolina attorney, James Baker advised them that they should remove the entire web site and disable access to the FTP so that Bev Harris or Black Box Voting could no longer access their files (even for the purpose of removing them.)
(continue reading below)
After a negotiation this morning with Black Box Voting publisher David Allen, AIT Inc. agreed to reinstate access to the files but still declined to reinstate the pages of the web site which were not named in the complaint.
3. The confiscated pages included personal contact information for 200 activists, and the private strategy sessions for voting machine activists. BlackBoxVoting.org has yet to receive any explanation at all as to what authority they were confiscated under. We demand their immediate return.
"The .org site had an active discussion going on among people from all over the US and world about election security and flaws found in Diebold's voting system software. The idea that these discussion boards were confiscated is rather chilling. The discussions were password protected and not open for public view.
"In addition to the impact this action will have on the election security debate, it also may represent the first time the DMCA has been used to shut down a discussion. Although I don't know much about the DMCA, I do think it wasn't written with this kind of purpose in mind."
-- Kim Alexander, California Voter Foundation
-------------------------------------
4. Does Diebold even have a legitimate copyright to the memos which the link led to? Most of the memos in question were written in Canada, and resided on a server in Canada up to and including 2003 after Diebold bought a Canadian company called Global Election Systems. In Canada, company correspondence, even internal memos, is not protected by copyright. To date we have been unable to find evidence, other than a claim in a letter, that Diebold even owns the copyright to these memos.
5. These memos are more properly termed "Evidence," because they contain evidence of a pattern of lawbreaking that dates back at least to 1999.
6. Lexis-Nexis would be a worthwhile exercise now for every one of these search terms pertaining to the origins of Global Election Systems: This firm was a wholly owned subsidiary of North American Professional Technologies, Inc., which was in turn a wholly owned subsidiary of MacroTrends Ventures International, Ltd. Charles Hong Lee is one of the principals with these firms; He has been tied in the press to participation in a scheme to bilk immigrants out of some $47 million; he is also connected with a scandal in which a Mr. Graye was prosecuted, relating to Vinex Wines. Charles Hong Lee was also involved with something called "The Vancouver Maneuver," a stock pump & dump scheme that bilked investors out of millions in connection with an entertainment company and something called Beverly Development. Charles Hong Lee was a principal with Global Election Systems, along with the late Clinton Rickards. Talbot Iredale, currently the V.P. for Research and Development for Diebold Election Systems, began with the company in 1991, right around the time the Vancouver Maneuver was exposed in Barron's magazine. This is the pedigree from whence the Diebold Memos arose.
Posted by Rob at 11:01 PM | Comments (127) | TrackBack
The Habits of Freedom
A good article by paleocon Sam Francis on the erosion of liberty under Bush.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 03:29 PM | Comments (140) | TrackBack
Another Cheer for Kucinich!
The congressman has introduced legislation to scale back some of the most egregious surveillance powers given to the federal government under the PATRIOT act. He's calling it the "Benjamin Franklin True Patriot Act." The text of the bill begins with Franklin's quote:
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Go, Dennis, Go!
Posted by Lee McCracken at 12:21 PM | Comments (150) | TrackBack
And Now, Some Good News
Congress has effectively killed the Terrorist Information Awareness program (formerly Total Information Awareness). Jim Lobe reports.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 12:11 PM | Comments (128) | TrackBack
Two Cheers for Dennis Kucinich
Okay, Dennis Kucinich is not exactly my cup of tea, politically speaking. But give credit where credit is due. When asked at Thursday’s Democratic primary debate what his least popular act as president would be, Kucinich said:
“First, I would take action to stop the federal death penalty. Second, I would move to cut the Pentagon budget by 15 percent … Third, I would move to create a Department of Peace which would seek to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society and to work with the nations of the world to make war itself archaic." (quote via Slate)
Granted, a “Department of Peace” sounds pretty hokey (who needs another government department, anyway?), but the man’s heart is in the right place on this one.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 12:00 PM | Comments (184) | TrackBack
September 25, 2003
Another reason to oppose mobocracy
ROBERT GUTSCHE JR, NEWSDAY - Queens' own Joseph Simmons, better known as Rev. Run of the pioneering rap group Run DMC, was joined at a news conference by his big brother, and Def Jam Recordings founder, Russell Simmons and World Wrestling Entertainment's chairman Vince McMahon to announce [a voter] registration campaign. Beginning this week wrestling stars and hip-hop artists will visit colleges and high schools across the country to help register voters. . . Smackdown, first organized by WWE, registered more than 400,000 voters for the 2000 presidential election.
Posted by Rob at 12:31 AM | Comments (143) | TrackBack
September 23, 2003
Does the GOP Know the Secret Handshake?
The gang over at WorldNetDaily is lambasting Gen. Wesley Clark for having glad-handed "Bosnian Serb commander and indicted war criminal Gen. Ratko Mladic in 1994." They've even posted the photos to prove it. (Robert Novak has also written about this in his column.)
Funny how Democrats' hobnobbing with "war criminals" is a bad thing, but Republicans' doing the same thing isn't. When was the last time you saw the photo of Rumsfeld shaking Saddam's hand (prominently featured on the STR home page) on WND or any other "conservative" site?
Posted by Mike Tennant at 10:33 AM | Comments (145)
How Karl Rove Turned Wesley Clark into a Democrat
HOWARD FINEMAN, NEWSWEEK After Al Qaeda attacked America, retired Gen. Wes Clark thought the Bush administration would invite him to join its team. After all, he'd been NATO commander, he knew how to build military coalitions and the investment firm he now worked for had strong Bush ties. But when GOP friends inquired, they were told: forget it. Word was that Karl Rove, the president's political mastermind, had blocked the idea. Clark was furious. Last January, at a conference in Switzerland, he happened to chat with two prominent Republicans, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and Marc Holtzman, now president of the University of Denver. "I would have been a Republican," Clark told them, "if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls." Soon thereafter, in fact, Clark quit his day job and began seriously planning to enter the presidential race-as a Democrat.
Posted by Rob at 12:08 AM | Comments (145) | TrackBack
September 22, 2003
Oh, that's what we're fighting for!
In a recent roundtable discussion of foreign policy and libertarianism at Reason magazine’s website, (ex?) leftist and Iraq hawk Christopher Hitchens said:
"It is plain to anyone that John Ashcroft is too doltish to hold the office of attorney general in war or peace, is illiterate as regards the Constitution, and despises the idea of church-state separation for which, in part, we are supposed to be fighting."
This statement struck me as odd, and not because I have a particularly high opinion of John Ashcroft....
No, what seemed strange to me was Hitchens’ claim that the idea of church-state separation is somehow integral to the war on terrorism of which he has been such a staunch supporter.
The idea here seems to be that Our Way of Life is inherently threatened by the mere existence of Islamic theocracies. But it seems to me that church-state separation in America is only threatened by Islamist terrorists if one assumes that it’s likely (or at least possible) that fanatical Muslim fundamentalists will succeed in conquering the U.S. and subjecting it to something like Taliban-style rule. Not only does this seem unlikely (to say the least), it’s not even clear that this is the goal of the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11.
The goal of the terrorists, so far as one can tell, seems to be to drive the U.S. out of the Middle East. No less an authority than Osama bin Laden has openly stated this as his objective, and the murder of American citizens seems calculated to serve this end. Specifically, he objects to the U.S. alliance with the government of Saudi Arabia and our troop presence there. Nothing that I’ve seen indicates that the conquest of the U.S. is even among his goals.
Hitchens seems to want to enlist us all in a war to spread secularism, tolerance, pluralism and the rest of the progressive litany. But it seems to me that terrorists don't threaten our cherished ideals, so much as our lives. That is, as long as the U.S. continues to meddle in the affairs of foreigners (and then import large numbers of them).
Posted by Lee McCracken at 12:28 PM | Comments (140) | TrackBack
September 20, 2003
The LP is in dire straits
Today I received a fundraising letter from the new Executive Director of the Libertarian Party: "We're in deep trouble....our organization is in the midst of its worst financial crisis in years....I had been warned that the LP was in a cash crunch, but I had no idea how brutal it was. I quickly learned the disturbing details....Our fixed monthly expenses exceed our monthly income, and we are deeply in debt to our vendors....Our revenue stream is 29% lower than it was last year at this point....we owe our state affiliates $67,192....we are unable to fax press releases to the media....For the past year our staff has been so busy trying to stay afloat financially that we've been barely able to function as a political party."
I guess that's what happens when you let a band of thieves run your organization. You know, the vast majority of people in the freedom movement work tirelessly for little or no compensation. There is, however, a small group of professional hucksters, money grubbers (literally) and perpetual candidates who swindle the gullible out of their hard-earned money and use it to pay for rich compensation packages, secret consulting fees for their friends, rent at the swank Watergate complex, disastrous and fraudulent direct mail campaigns, and ballot access for the sake of ballot access, even when there is no hope of an LP candidate winning. The LP is not going to go anywhere until it purges the con artists and liars from its leadership. Perhaps it already has. I don't know since I don't keep up with it anymore.
Posted by Rob at 03:12 PM | Comments (140) | TrackBack
September 19, 2003
Banning email
Likening email to a cancer, Phones4U owner John Caudwell has banished internal email, a move which he claims will save his firm millions of pounds per year. "Customers can still e-mail product questions to staff, but for managers and staff at the 341 branches, interoffice e-mail is no more."
Is this the start of a reverse trend?
Posted by George F. Smith at 07:53 PM | Comments (145) | TrackBack
September 18, 2003
"Matchlessly Wrong About Everything"
Alexander Cockburn on neo-cons.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 12:27 PM | Comments (139) | TrackBack
September 17, 2003
The EU: Enemy of Religious Freedom
P.C. Eurocrats want to overturn a centuries-old policy at the historic Mt. Athos Orthodox monastery in Greece that forbids the entry of women. Once again we see the clash between phony socialist “rights” and the genuine freedoms of religion and association.
It seems increasingly clear that the EU will do everything in its power to crush organic, diverse cultural differences for the sake of bland bureaucratic equality.
The Acton Institute has a useful article on the controversy.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 04:18 PM | Comments (137) | TrackBack
Hans Blix: Iraq probably destroyed WMD ten years ago
I’m not as quick as some to buy the “Bush LIED!” line (though it seems clear he exaggerated, or, more charitably, gambled--see two posts below), if only because he/they had to know that the truth was likely to come out, and that it could potentially be a political disaster for the administration.
But the alternative explanation isn’t much more reassuring. If Blix is right, then the entire U.S. and international intelligence community was duped into thinking that Iraq at least had chemical and biological weapons.
Perfidy or incompetence?
Posted by Lee McCracken at 04:07 PM | Comments (232) | TrackBack
Your Tax Dollars at Work
I read that the Feds sent Ken Lay, former CEO of Enron, a check for $12,038 for planting grass instead of wheat on his 240-acre estate. The check was mailed to his $7 million high-rise apartment.
Posted by Rob at 02:24 PM | Comments (159) | TrackBack
"I Did Misspeak"
From World Net Daily:
WASHINGTON – In the past week, three top Bush administration officials have backed off charges they made against Iraq, explaining they misspoke or overstated the facts.
Vice President Dick Cheney over the weekend withdrew an alarming assertion he made on national television, on the eve of war, about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
"We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons," Cheney said March 16 on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Since making the allegation, the administration has turned up no nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, nor has it been able to produce any hard evidence that Saddam even reconstituted a nuclear weapons program.
"Meet the Press" host Tim Russert gave Cheney a chance to clarify his prewar statement in a return appearance on his show Sunday.
"'Reconstituted nuclear weapons.' You misspoke?" Russert asked.
"Yeah, I did misspeak .... We never had any evidence that he had acquired a nuclear weapon," said Cheney, known for his careful choice of words.
Read more here.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 12:25 PM | Comments (159) | TrackBack
A Great Threat to Freedom?
Apparently Alabama's Roy Moore is not the only one who has run afoul of the ever-vigilant ACLU. The ACLU has filed suit to force a Georgia court to remove a parchment inscription of the Ten Commandments. According to this story (scroll down) "The group said the display at the Barrow County courthouse in Winder violated the constitutional ban on government promotion of religion."
Now, I'm agnostic (pardon the expression) on whether simply displaying the 10 C's in a government building violates the Constitution's establishment clause. But, as a purely practical matter, is this really one of the great threats to liberty in our time? Presumably the ACLU has only a limited amount of resources and should, therefore, direct those resources to where they'll do the most good. Are we really supposed to believe that protecting rural Georgians from being exposed to bits of the Bible is more important than, say, the wholesale clampdown on privacy rights being orchestrated by the federal government? Just asking.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 11:32 AM | Comments (355) | TrackBack
TV Nation
From Forbes: Americans spend an average of four hours a day watching TV, an hour of that enduring ads....at current rates, a typical viewer fritters away three years of his life getting bombarded with commercials.
Posted by Rob at 02:08 AM | Comments (206) | TrackBack
September 13, 2003
Saddam was a WMD
The search for chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons that would constitute an imminent threat to U.S. security can be called off. Bush administration officials now say Saddam himself was a weapon of mass destruction. Yeah!
Of course, the search continues and Colin Powell assures us real WMDs will be found. What a relief.
Posted by George F. Smith at 09:16 AM | Comments (165) | TrackBack
September 11, 2003
Yourmerica
I went into town today to run a few errands, and it was like being on a ride at Disney World called "It's a Statist World After All." First I saw several SUVs with those small American flags above the window on each side (one had 4 flags!), like they were on their way to a college football game. Rah-rah, go Team. Then I saw a convenience store that had a huge American flag that completely covered the side of the building. Then I saw this message on one of those electronic government signs over the interstate that are supposed to tell you about traffic problems ahead: "REMEMBER THE FALLEN; BE PREPARED; WWW.READY.GOV". As I drove down the highway, there were 2 cameras on each side of the highway (4 total) looking each way, every 1/10 of a mile. Who was watching? What were they watching for? I don't know, but it made me feel safe knowing that someone, somewhere was watching me coming and going every 1/10 of a mile. I felt safe from the terrorists. I then drove through downtown, and there was an American flag on every street pole, and surrounding the 9-11 memorial about one foot apart from each other. It was like an orgy of nationalism. Then in the barber shop, I heard a member of the Air Force talking to one of the barbers about the "sea of flags" that they have at the Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield today, where lovers of liberty, including an ancestor of mine, fought and died about 140 years ago to prevent that flag of tyranny from being planted there by an invading army. "You should have seen it, it was killer," he said. I'll bet. That's what the civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq said about it: killer.
God help us if something like 9-11 ever happens again. The American sheeple are so ignorant, unthinking, uncritical, easily duped and easily led that I fear that liberty would never recover from the blow.
Posted by Rob at 04:11 PM | Comments (276) | TrackBack
More power to me
We should not be surprised that government is asking for more power. Bush wants "broader" subpoena powers to catch more terrorists and claims this is "fully consistent with the United States Constitution." Where does one begin analysing a statement like that?
As Charlotte Twight has written, government is good at raising the transaction costs of opposing it. In other words, it's easier for most people to go along with Bush than it is to oppose him.
He wrecks a country that was neither a terrorist hangout nor a threat to us, while earlier had let his primary suspect escape because he was busy with energy deals.
""It is scarcely possible to touch on any subject, that will not suggest an allusion to some corruption in governments." -- Thomas Paine
Posted by George F. Smith at 03:26 PM | Comments (179) | TrackBack
Democracy in Iraq
Isn't this how Bremmer became the CPA Commander? Just substitute the word American for the word Iraqi!
" ''Suggestions that ... all we have to do is get up tomorrow morning and find an Iraqi who is passing by and give him the government (and) say, 'You're now in charge...,' that's not an acceptable solution,'' Powell said. "
Posted by David Wiggins at 10:23 AM | Comments (173) | TrackBack
Towers' Falling is a Metaphor
This has probably been said before, but on the second anniversary of 9-11, it seems the destruction of the World Trade Centers is coming to represent, more than anything else, the turning point of the US empire (such as it is). The falling towers, a metaphor for the falling of the towering military, economic, and social powers of the United States of America.
The irony is that this situation can be attributed more to the US government's response to the incident than the incident itself. The war in Iraq, a war not at all dictated by the events of 9-11, reveals the Achilles heel of US military might. The huge debt piled on as a result of that war has hastened the ascendancy of China, who is funding that debt, as the preeminent world economic power. The ill-will of the world resulting from US government actions in the Middle East has turned mass demonstrations in support of "The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave" into mass demonstrations against "The Land of the Neocon and the Home of the Invaders."
Posted by David Wiggins at 04:58 AM | Comments (294) | TrackBack
From the Man Who Endorsed Bush in 2000
"The only certainty at this time, as far as I'm concerned, is that I will not vote for George W. Bush. He's proven to be reckless, dangerously uninformed, terrible at choosing advisers, far too easily influenced by his bad advisers and, without a script, virtually unable to articulate. He has gotten us into deep trouble not only in the Middle East but here at home, and the scary part is, I don't think he has a clue that he has done so.
Rather than devise policies to solve the problems of America's men and women, he's spent his term paying back his big corporate contributors. I will genuinely fear for the future of the country if he is re-elected."
Would you like some freedom fries with your humble pie, Charley? Are you still "not a libertarian"?
Read the rest of his column here.
Posted by Rob at 02:24 AM | Comments (167) | TrackBack
September 10, 2003
Cost of Iraq War Approaching Cost of World War I
From the Washington Post: With $166 billion spent or requested, Bush's war spending in 2003 and 2004 already exceeds the inflation-adjusted costs of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War and the Persian Gulf War combined, according to a study by Yale University economist William D. Nordhaus. The Iraq war approaches the $191 billion inflation-adjusted cost of World War I.
Many lawmakers say Bush's 2004 request is only the starting point. Rep. David R. Obey (Wis.), the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, predicted the administration will seek still more money once this installment is secured. For their part, Democrats will try to tack on billions more to finance what they see as insufficient funding for homeland security, local police and fire departments and other "first responders."
[The other day I predicted to a friend that Congress would increase Bush's request to more than $90 billion.]
Posted by Rob at 10:32 PM | Comments (228) | TrackBack
Riley told to take a hike
At the polls Tuesday night Alabama voters rejected Governor Bob Riley's proposed record tax hike by more than a 2-1 margin. As an advocate of the Marxian "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" motto, Riley offered a plan "built largely on higher income and property tax payments from the middle and upper classes."
Interestingly, though, Riley justified his proposed plunder on religious grounds, by suggesting "that Christian voters ought to help the poor by reforming a state tax structure that he called immoral." Apparently Riley sees nothing wrong with enforcing his notion of morality at gunpoint, even if the guns pointing happen to be in the hands of law enforcement.
"Low-income families were viewed as major beneficiaries of the plan, but polls showed only mixed support among blacks and lower-income voters."
In a gesture to become the country's leading demagogue, Riley vowed to uphold the voters' decision but said spending "cuts could include releasing 5,000 inmates, ending nursing home care for hundreds of elderly citizens, and curtailing prescription medicines for the mentally ill."
Make that 5001 inmates and include the governor.
Read the AP story about voter rejection of the proposed tax hike.
Posted by George F. Smith at 11:56 AM | Comments (378) | TrackBack
LP Candidates Lead By Example
From a friend: "I got my sample ballot for the California recall today. There are three Libertarian candidates, and two of them are government employees. One is a tax collector."
Posted by Rob at 12:50 AM | Comments (188) | TrackBack
September 09, 2003
TSA in no hurry to arm pilots
"Here's the problem. Two years after the 911 attacks--almost a year after Congress authorized a broad program to arm commercials pilots--the Transportation Security Administration is dragging its feet, making it almost impossible for pilots to defend themselves against lethal force with lethal force of their own."
Do you still think government exists to protect us?
Posted by George F. Smith at 07:15 PM | Comments (192) | TrackBack
Is the economy growing?
Even though the economy has lost jobs for seven straight months, Washington claims the economy is growing by 3% a quarter, as measured by gross domestic product.
"Growth like that should be producing 200,000 to 300,000 new jobs each and every month. So, not only are we not adding to payrolls but we are still declining," writes John Crudele of the NY post.
Read How the Government is Using a Shell Game to Fool You.
Posted by George F. Smith at 07:04 PM | Comments (197) | TrackBack
Field of Flags
This was in my local rag. Note the Christian "cross" created by the sunlight behind the flag. We have a lot of work to do to reach the brainwashed masses.
Posted by Rob at 10:11 AM | Comments (131) | TrackBack
Your Tax Dollars at Work
ESTIMATED number of soccer balls the U.S. government sent to Iraq to win hearts and minds and "bring life back to normal": 60,000 [Harper's Index]
Posted by Rob at 01:49 AM | Comments (236) | TrackBack
September 07, 2003
When Bad Conduct is Honorable Conduct
A military jury found an anti-war U.S. Marine reservist guilty of unauthorized absence and sentenced him to six months in jail for refusing to report to his unit during the Iraq war, his lawyer said on Sunday.... "Stephen was ready to serve some time. He knew this was likely to happen," he (Funk's Lawyer) told Reuters. Funk also will receive a bad conduct discharge from the military, Collier said.
My hat is off to this man - he has just exhibited a type of bravery that those who obey orders can never accomplish. How easy it would have been for him to show up and load cargo - he was not even at risk of being deployed
A man willing to go to jail because he would not violate his principle. Thoreau would have been proud!
Posted by David Wiggins at 05:53 PM | Comments (237) | TrackBack
Where's Waldo?
Thanks to the heroic AAA, some drivers are finding out.
Posted by Rob at 11:16 AM | Comments (261) | TrackBack
September 05, 2003
Remembering the Forgotten Men
Routine plunder of one class by another is the hallmark of modern advanced societies. In mainstream circles, it is rarely if ever spoken of in such terms, of course, which is why a certain class of people is almost never mentioned: the ones who are plundered, the producers and owners of real wealth. Christopher Mayer writes about a man who understood all this and much more: William Graham Sumner.
Posted by George F. Smith at 09:49 AM | Comments (277) | TrackBack
September 03, 2003
Hey Stupid Taxpayer, I Have a Bridge to Sell You
From http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/:
Since the occupation there have been 400 females abducted in Baghdad alone and that is only the number of recorded abductions. Most families don't go to the Americans to tell about an abduction because they know it's useless. The male members of the family take it upon themselves to search for the abducted female and get revenge if they find the abductors. What else is there to do? I know if I were abducted I'd much rather my family organize themselves and look for me personally than go to the CPA. . .
Listen to this little anecdote. One of my cousins works in a prominent engineering company in Baghdad - we'll call the company H. This company is well-known for designing and building bridges all over Iraq. My cousin, a structural engineer, is a bridge freak. He spends hours talking about pillars and trusses and steel structures to anyone who'll listen. As May was drawing to a close, his manager told him that someone from the CPA wanted the company to estimate the building costs of replacing the New Diyala Bridge on the South East end of Baghdad. He got his team together, they went out and assessed the damage, decided it wasn't too extensive, but it would be costly. They did the necessary tests and analyses (mumblings about soil composition and water depth, expansion joints and girders) and came up with a number they tentatively put forward- $300,000. This included new plans and designs, raw materials (quite cheap in Iraq), labor, contractors, travel expenses, etc.
Let's pretend my cousin is a dolt. Let's pretend he hasn't been working with bridges for over 17 years. Let's pretend he didn't work on replacing at least 20 of the 133 bridges damaged during the first Gulf War. Let's pretend he's wrong and the cost of rebuilding this bridge is four times the number they estimated- let's pretend it will actually cost $1,200,000. Let's just use our imagination.
A week later, the New Diyala Bridge contract was given to an American company. This particular company estimated the cost of rebuilding the bridge would be around- brace yourselves- $50,000,000 !!
Posted by Rob at 12:00 AM | Comments (262) | TrackBack
September 02, 2003
Neocon Utopian Nuttiness
The forthcoming book by uber-neoconservatives David Frum and Richard Perle is entitled: An End to Evil: Strategies For Victory in the War on Terror....
Quite apart from Frum & Perle's (no-doubt awful) policy perscriptions, what strikes one is the earth-shattering hubris of their title. "An End to Evil"?? This is the kind of utopian foolishness that conservatives (and even neoconservatives like Irving Kristol) made it their business to refute when it came from the left.
The essence of political utopianism, according to philosopher Eric Voegelin, is "immanentizing the eschaton." In plain terms, trying to create heaven on earth. When man plays god and tries to recreate reality according to how he would like it to be (rather than conforming his mind and actions to the way reality is independently of his will), disaster follows (see, e.g. the history of communism).
Conservatives traditionally stood for limits--limits to government and limits to utopian projects for remaking the social order. The newer breed apparently sees no limits to what power can accomplish.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 12:26 PM | Comments (199) | TrackBack
The Essence of Big-Government "Compassionate" Conservatism
From a speech by President Bush to Ohio factory workers:
"We have a responsibility that when somebody hurts, government has got to move."
Thus we see once again that compassionate conservatism is just our old friend big-government liberalism in disguise. Rather than restricting government to its constitutionally-mandated duties, the new conservatism agrees with liberalism that any sincerely felt need (or want) is a reason for government action.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 11:18 AM | Comments (208) | TrackBack
Take the Neocon Quiz!
From the Christain Science Monitor (via Tim Case's website). This quiz tells you how closely your beliefs about foreign affairs match up with our would-be empire-builders. Turns out I'm an "isolationist." Surprise!
Posted by Lee McCracken at 11:09 AM | Comments (438) | TrackBack
September 01, 2003
Wanted: More Guest Editors
I am looking for two new guest editors. If I know you and you're interested, e-mail me.
Posted by Rob at 01:40 PM | Comments (141) | TrackBack
Flush toilets under attack
The First International Dry Toilet Conference recently concluded in Finland and "warned of an 'environmental disaster' if developing nations decide to take the lead of the industrialized world and choose modern flush toilets."
Larry Warnberg, one of the conferences featured speakers, said it would be a "mistake to inflict that convenience on a developing country and cost without realizing what the consequences are."
"But Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the free-market environmental think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute," said the "toilet and indoor plumbing and indoor sanitation generally have greatly assisted in elevating the life expectancy and disease mitigation of the developed world."
Posted by George F. Smith at 12:50 PM | Comments (210) | TrackBack
State and Religion
"Chief Justice Moore's claim that he has a constitutional right to declare his faith in God is true but it is also a bit of sophistry. It doesn't mean what he alleges that it means, namely, that he is authorized to give official endorsement to the Ten Commandments. It means that he may worship at the church of his choosing; that he may display the Ten Commandments at his home or some private, non-governmental gathering of which he is in charge."
Tibor R. Machan argues that "Governments have no moral authority to take sides on religious matters."
Posted by George F. Smith at 12:00 PM | Comments (173) | TrackBack