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October 30, 2003
This Bud's Not for You
Boy, the "diversity" crowd will go to just about any length to convince people that racial quotas are a good thing!
"Greater diversity on college campuses significantly lowers rates of binge drinking among high-risk students," says a Harvard study.
I suppose that, to the extent that diversity programs promote suspicion and ill will among various groups, that could lead to less cohesiveness among students and thus fewer frat members who get smashed every night. Otherwise, this is just a bunch of bilge to promote racial preferences.
How about this solution: Be more selective in the caliber of students you admit, and make the course work more demanding so that the students can't afford to go through half their college careers in a drunken stupor? Naw, that'll never happen. Parents are paying exorbitant sums so their kids, who didn't learn anything in the government schools growing up, can now have their egos stroked some more in exchange for an increasingly worthless sheepskin. The graduates will, however, appreciate "diversity" and other P. C. crap.
Tuesday's Hi and Lois comic strip had it about right.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 04:36 PM | Comments (273)
October 28, 2003
Some Christians Really Piss Me Off
From an e-mail I received today:
You have been successfully added to the email list
"ChristianActivis" at Topica.
Here is a welcome message from Charles Demastus:
-----------------------------
Welcome to Christian Activist!
Here's a description of the list:
CHRISTIAN ACTIVIST EZINE is news related to bigotry against Christians,
government abuse of Christians, and general Christianphobia.
Hey Charles, if I wanted to receive your newsletter, I would sign up for it myself. The least you could do is ask me if I wanted to receive it. You're about the fourth Christian in the last year who has tried to sign me up to their Christian newsletter. You wonder why some people are Christianphobes? It's because some of you do things like this.
Posted by Rob at 10:08 PM | Comments (276) | TrackBack
Lysander Spooner, mail entrepreneur
In 1845, writes Wendy McElroy, "private mail companies operated with relative freedom, including carrying first-class mail."
Spooner ran one of those companies, "charging but five cents a letter . . . a very much smaller sum than the government was then charging."
So what did Congress do? It passed a law imposing heavy fines on anyone who offered better service at lower prices than the USPS. Quoting Benjamin Tucker, she writes, "as the carrying of each letter constituted a separate offence, the government was able to shower prosecutions on him [Spooner] and crush him in a few months by loading him with legal expenses.”
No doubt, Congress passed the legislation to promote the general welfare.
Posted by George F. Smith at 08:29 PM | Comments (184) | TrackBack
Lady Liberty's birthday
What a movie it would make -- from the dedication of the Statue of Liberty 117 years ago to a Bush speech today, with cuts to the endless slaughter overseas in the intervening years.
We all know about the "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free."
This is the part of Emma Lazurus' poem we don't hear today:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch whose flame
Is imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands your storied pomp!" cries she with silent lips.
Posted by George F. Smith at 06:56 PM | Comments (171) | TrackBack
Newspeak From Our Dear Leader
"I'll say that the world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership," Bush told reporters. "And America is more secure." He said that is how he will describe his foreign policy in his second presidential campaign.
Funny, but I thought he was only the president of the United States. Now he says that "the world" is "under my leadership." It's been obvious for some time that the guy thinks he runs the world, but he's never admitted it before.
The world is "more peaceful"?! This from the guy who read stories to kids while the 9/11 attacks took place and who started two wars, the latter of which was clearly unnecessary and counterproductive?
I don't know about you, but I don't feel a whole heck of a lot "more free," either. Just read the Federal Register Watch archives, or consider the PATRIOT Act and other usurpations of our liberties. If you want to know about freedom in other parts of the world, ask the Iraqis who now have to fear the midnight knock on (or kick in) the door from the American soldiers, whose wives have been held hostage by the Americans until they surrender, or whose presses have been shut down because they printed the truth.
"America is more secure?" Hey, Mr. President! Ever hear of Nathaniel Heatwole? If America is so much more secure, how come the terrorist alert level is still yellow?
You can go ahead and describe your foreign policy this way all the way through next November, but with each attack in Iraq and security breach in the U. S., your words become ever more hollow.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 03:29 PM | Comments (120)
October 27, 2003
The corrupt TSA
Robert Higgs writes:
"Like any federal bureaucracy, the [Transportation Security Administration] has spawned its share of scandals. A widely reported one involved its booking of the Wyndham Peaks Resort and Golden Door Spa near Telluride, Colorado, to conduct recruiting interviews. Twenty TSA recruiters stayed seven weeks at this plush resort to fill fifty screener jobs. While there, they also shelled out $29,000 of the taxpayers’ money to the local police department for extra security."
And:
"Ultimately, however, the TSA’s program serves one political purpose above all others. It routinely abases and humiliates the entire population, rendering us docile and compliant and thereby preparing us to play our assigned role in the Police State that the Bush administration has been building relentlessly."
Posted by George F. Smith at 09:50 PM | Comments (95) | TrackBack
Cheaper textbooks
If you're a college student or the parent of one (as I am), consider ordering textbooks from overseas. In some cases they can be 50% cheaper, according to a New York Times article.
"To the despair of the textbook publishers who are still trying to block such sales, the reimporting of American texts from overseas has become far easier in recent years, thanks both to Internet sites that offer instant access to foreign book prices, and to a 1998 Supreme Court ruling that federal copyright law does not protect American manufacturers from having the products they arranged to sell overseas at a discount shipped back for sale in the United States."
Posted by George F. Smith at 08:02 PM | Comments (302) | TrackBack
Success brings death and destruction
According to President Bush, the rising violence in Iraq is a result of the coalition forces' increased success there.
"The more progress we make on the ground, the more free the Iraqis become, the more electricity that's available, the more jobs are available, the more kids that are going to school, the more desperate these killers become," Bush told reporters, referring to recent attacks by what the administration says are Hussein loyalists.
This is consistent, at least, with the chief reason given for 9-11: They hate us for our success and prosperity.
Posted by George F. Smith at 05:23 PM | Comments (111) | TrackBack
US Out, UN In?
I've written before about how the left, even when it appears to be striking a radically antiwar pose, is still incorrigibly interventionist.
More evidence of this comes from Dennis Kucinich's "exit strategy" for the U.S.A. to withdraw from Iraq:
"People are asking, is there a way out? I believe there is. I am writing to share with you a plan that will get the UN in Iraq and the US out. This plan could bring the troops home by New Year’s day, it will cost much less than the President’s, and it will increase American security.
"The President must go to the UN and announce the US intention to hand over all administrative and security responsibilities to the UN. The UN would help Iraqis move quickly toward self-determination."
Why is it that lefties get weak in the knees and start gushing at the mere mention of the sacred UN? What exactly has the UN done in its 50+ years of existence that justifies this unbridled faith in its ability to bring peace and harmony to the world?
The UN is no more than the sum of its parts. And its parts are governments. It's as if all the local mob families united into a sort of super-mob. Would it thereby gain legitimacy?
Posted by Lee McCracken at 03:13 PM | Comments (96) | TrackBack
George Bush: Anti-Family
Old Rightist (or is that leftist? Kind of hard to tell nowadays...) Bill Kauffman, author of a number of great books, Writes on how the US war machine is the ultimate government-subsidized anti-family program:
"The leadership of the family values Right is hopelessly compromised by its long-term adulterous affair with the Republican Party. But plenty of good folks who call themselves 'conservatives' mean by that now-useless term that they believe in the integrity of families and small communities and detest the vulgar, home-wrecking, and even murderous intrusions of corporate capitalism and Big Government. As they watch this latest American diaspora, as young husbands and wives tearfully leave spouses and children and extended families to serve the Empire, we should remind them that the only foreign policy compatible with healthy family life is one of peace and non-intervention.
"Come home, America. Come HOME."
Good stuff.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 02:23 PM | Comments (164) | TrackBack
We're From the Government, and We're Here to Protect You
The New York Times reports the following in regard to the attempt on Wolfowitz:
"One official said that the military had specific intelligence of an imminent attack on the hotel, the Rashid, where senior personnel of the American occupation live and eat, but that no special precautions had been taken. . . .
"The attack, which officials suggested was probably carried out by men loyal to Saddam Hussein, blasted balconies off two rooms and shattered windows elsewhere in the hotel. American military officials said the attack might have been planned as many as two months in advance and involved some surveillance and rehearsal. . . .
"Nonetheless, a senior military official said, 'We knew this was coming.' The official, speaking on the condition that he not be identified, declined to give details, but said several precautionary security measures could have been taken, including moving Mr. Wolfowitz and his delegation out of the hotel, increasing the security alert and increasing patrols around the hotel. None of those things happened, he said." (All emphasis mine.)
The government knew the attack was coming and did nothing to protect the Pentagon's number-two man. If they won't even protect their own guy when they have "specific intelligence" that an attack is forthcoming, what makes anyone think they're going to protect us?
Posted by Mike Tennant at 10:01 AM | Comments (152)
October 26, 2003
New Vietnam atrocities uncovered
The Toledo Blade, a privately-owned newspaper serving Toledo, Ohio, spent eight months investigating a covered-up killing spree in Vietnam. They recently published the results of their findings.
"It was an elite fighting unit in Vietnam -- small, mobile, trained to kill.
"Known as Tiger Force, the platoon was created by a U.S. Army engaged in a new kind of war - one defined by ambushes, booby traps, and a nearly invisible enemy.
"Promising victory to an anxious American public, military leaders in 1967 sent a task force - including Tiger Force - to fight the enemy in one of the most highly contested areas of South Vietnam: the Central Highlands.
"But the platoon's mission did not go as planned, with some soldiers breaking the rules of war."
Read the Blade's account of the atrocities here and The Guardian's report about the Blade's investigation here.
Posted by George F. Smith at 10:04 PM | Comments (121) | TrackBack
The Big Bad Wolfowitz Escapes by the Hair of His Chinny-chin-chin
One American soldier lost his life and fifteen other people were wounded, while the real target, Paul Wolfowitz, escaped unharmed. What a shame.
It's the entire war in microcosm. Wolfie sends people out to achieve his goals; they die, while he lives. Then he proclaims them heroes and insists "we will not give in to terrorism" while sending out more people to die, and the cycle repeats itself.
The Iraqis know who the enemy is. When will Americans figure it out?
Posted by Mike Tennant at 03:12 PM | Comments (142)
October 23, 2003
Iraq Redux, Cont'd
If you don't think the news media (yes, even the seemingly anti-Republican ones) are in the back pocket of the federal government, take a gander at these two paragraphs from a CNN story with the relatively benign and even-handed headline "Iran turns over nuclear document":
Paragraph one of story: "Iran has turned over to the United Nations nuclear agency a document that Tehran claims provides full disclosure on its nuclear weapons program." (Emphasis mine.)
Paragraph three: "Iran has denied it is developing nuclear weapons and insists that its program is intended only for civilian uses, such as the production of electricity." (Emphasis mine.)
The casual reader immediately gets the impression that the Iranians are trying to develop nuclear weapons. If he bothers to read further, he discovers that the Iranians claim to have no such intentions. Still, first impressions are the most powerful, so how many people will read this and come away believing that Iran has a nuke program?
Of course, the Bush administration isn't going to accept this document as proof. They didn't accept Iraq's documents, either.
"The United States, which has branded Iran as part of an 'axis of evil' . . . , has said Iran must demonstrate it does not have a nuclear weapons program." Proving a negative, as we all know, is impossible. Besides, who died and made the U. S. king, that our government gets to decide who is allowed to have nukes and who isn't? The Iranians might just as well get nukes because they're going to be accused of having them anyway, and actually having them is the only way to be sure Uncle Sam won't attack Iran.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 01:22 PM | Comments (185)
October 22, 2003
Woodrow W. Bush
James Bovard has written an excellent column describing the parallels between World War I and the War on Terror. He shows how both Wilson and Bush entered their "crusades" under the most idealistic of notions and ended up really screwing up both America and the rest of the world. (Link courtesy of Antiwar.com.)
Read it and weep.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 03:44 PM | Comments (124)
Looking for Justice in All the Wrong Places
You're driving down the Interstate when suddenly someone starts shooting at you. One moment you're fine; the next moment you're either dead or seriously wounded. The perpetrators, two teenage boys, are caught and given a relatively light sentence (state custody). You (if you were fortunate enough to survive) don't feel that justice has been served. What do you do?
You sue the people who made the video game that supposedly inspired the perpetrators, of course! After all, this is America, and nobody is responsible for his own actions.
Oh, and don't just go after the manufacturer; be sure to include the store that sold the game, too. Be very certain to sue everyone for exorbitant sums of money as well.
Why not take the chance? One of these days somebody's going to get lucky and wind up with a stupid jury that will award ridiculous damages. Who would have thought, years ago, that it would happen to the tobacco companies or gun manufacturers? Now fast food restaurants are in the trial lawyers' sights. Surely video game manufacturers and retailers, all of whom have loads of money they've obtained via the evil capitalist system, can't be far behind.
The lawyer says that Sony and Wal-Mart should be held responsible because the game "inspires and trains people to shoot at vehicles and persons." Does this mean the victims of the D. C. snipers can sue the U. S. government? John Allen Muhammad, after all, was trained "to shoot at vehicles and persons" by the U. S. Army.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 03:04 PM | Comments (105)
October 21, 2003
A response to Neal Boortz
In his WND article today, Neal Boortz laments the disgraceful actions of Democrats who voted against Bush's funding request for our "operation" in Iraq. As most of you know, Neal Boortz every now and then reminds us he's a libertarian.
Here is my email response to his article:
Dear Neal Boortz,
Thank goodness bankers and politicians in the early years of the 20th century had the foresight to push for a central bank so government could print whatever dollars it needs to fund whatever programs are necessary to advance freedom and prosperity worldwide. As a triple tribute to our Founders, our patriotic leaders in one year created the Federal Reserve and the Sixteenth Amendment, tossing in the popular election of senators as a bonus. Of course, the Fed didn't reach maturity until Roosevelt confiscated the people's gold in 1933, and the income tax didn't get teeth until 1943, when legislators slipped withholding on the taxpayers to make it easier for them to pay for the war.
As you know, just because we adopted two planks of Marx's manifesto doesn't put us on the road to communism. Our pledge includes "under God."
As we've learned, evil flourishes everywhere outside our borders. True, we may have allies today, but they change with the winds of political expediency. Look how Saddam let us down. With endless war our foreseeable future, we must truly be God's chosen people to have had such prescient leaders 100 years ago, who gave us the tools to fight for freedom and peace.
Democrats abandon US? How about a professed libertarian with a microphone?
George F. Smith
Posted by George F. Smith at 03:23 PM | Comments (160) | TrackBack
Iraq Redux
"Iran has agreed to allow tougher U. N. inspections of its nuclear facilities and to suspend its uranium enrichment program," reports CNN.
The Iranians obviously didn't learn much from the Iraqis. They think they're going to stave off, or even prevent, a U. S. attack on Iran by giving in to U. S. (and Israeli) demands for more inspections of their noo-kyoo-ler facilities. Didn't they pay attention to what happened to Iraq? Saddam Hussein opened his whole country up to Hans Blix and his U. N. inspectors, and the U. S. turned around and bombed Iraq to smithereens anyway. Blix, we were told before the war, was an incomptent Inspector Clouseau who would never find Saddam's stockpile of WMDs no matter how much time he was given--and besides, we couldn't afford to take the chance that Saddam might give some of his vast arsenal of weapons to al Qaeda. (Of course, the irony now is that David Kay says he can't find anything but wants more time to search.)
Memo to Iran: Stop trying to make nice with the neocons. It won't work. They don't operate under normal rules of logic, as in: (a) Please let the U. N. inspect your facilities; (b) You let the U. N. inspect your facilities; therefore, (c) We will leave you alone. Their logic is: (a) Please let the U. N. inspect your facilities; (b) You let the U. N. inspect your facilities; therefore, (c) We're going to "liberate" your country, too, for failure to comply with our wishes.
The best thing the Iranians can do is follow the example of the North Koreans: Get nukes, and get 'em now. When you can do real harm, the neocons will make nice with you. It's only when you're no threat that they'll threaten you.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 11:15 AM | Comments (112)
October 20, 2003
Is the recovery real?
The Daily Reckoning of Oct. 20 asks: "How come so much apparent productivity and so little employment?"
"[A]s a recovery develops, businesses typically rehire workers in order to keep up with rising demand. This causes profit growth to ease off, but it sustains the recovery by putting more money in more pockets."
Employment is rising, but in places like China and Bengladesh. Americans are finding bargains overseas.
"A real recovery requires more than just debt and credit; it must have investment in new machinery and new employees -- at home, not just in China. What is happening is no recovery; it is merely an adaptation to a perverse set of conditions... and is sure to lead to an even more perverse outcome."
Posted by George F. Smith at 09:16 PM | Comments (122) | TrackBack
Iraqi monkey trap
According to legend, you can catch a monkey by cutting a hole the size of a monkey's paw in a coconut and filling it with rice. When the monkey sticks his hand inside and grabs a fistful of rice, he finds he can't pull his hand out without first letting go of the rice. The hole is big enough to allow his hand to go through, but not his fist.
"'The Bush administration has stuck its hand into a coconut called Iraq, grabbed a fistful of oil and control, and now is finding it difficult to get out.'"
"The administration clearly wants its hand free of the coconut.
"But it also wants the rice." Full article here.
Posted by George F. Smith at 08:56 PM | Comments (150) | TrackBack
WIAs
From a friend: "[Names withheld] were recently at the Landstuhl military medical facility in Germany. While there, [name withheld] was shocked to see so many wounded/injured/ill troops sent there from Iraq. Medical staff told her there are far more patients now than there were during "major combat operations." It was deeply saddening for her. Also, troops are arriving there from desert heat conditions without cold weather clothing, and they are freezing. Many people are donating supplies, the chaplains are rallying support, and the PXes are offering $250 gift certificates for clothing for these troops. However, many of these troops are in no capacity to shop for clothing. Moreover, those without life-threatening injuries feel as though they are forgotten. They are housed in local, military billeting, often treated as though they have full mobility. In reality, many of these people are in wheelchairs or casts. [Name withheld] saw many wheelchair-bound troops fighting to negotiate through hospital doors unassisted (not to say people were sitting around, doing nothing to help them). Also, [name withheld] spoke with one soldier who was boarded on the third floor of the billeting. There are no elevators. He has a cast that starts at his hip and continues all the way down. He was just one example. As might be expected, many troops are missing limbs and/or other portions of their bodies.
Posted by Rob at 01:38 AM | Comments (221) | TrackBack
October 17, 2003
It's Not Nice to Fool Uncle Sam
"The Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration ordered security searches of all U.S. commercial aircraft Friday after suspicious bags were found in the bathrooms of two Southwest Airlines flights, U.S. officials told CNN."
Isn't it a little late to start searching the planes now, guys? I know, I know: You were shown up by some rank amateurs, and now you have to prove you're doing something by making a big show of searching every plane.
If the people who did this are ever caught, you can be sure they'll be prosecuted and sentenced very publicly and harshly, not for the crime of taking "unlawful" items on board an airplane (and then proceeding not to hijack the plane) but for the crime of making the government look as ineffectual as it is--and taunting the bumbling bureaucrats with notes in the bags (which almost certainly did not say that "the TSA was doing a good job," as the "adminstration source" claimed).
This is the second embarrassing incident for the feds in as many months. Last month we had ABC News employees smuggling depleted uranium into the country--the second time they had accomplished that feat.
In a rational world, Americans would come to the correct conclusion that the government can't protect them and ought to quit trying. In the real world, though, the TSA will just clamp down harder on our rights, the "conservatives" will cheer and denounce anyone who voices doubts as "unpatriotic," and we'll be even less safe.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 03:33 PM | Comments (258)
This Just In: God more important than the State
A recent Zogby poll of religious believers (article here) of various backgrounds shows that they overwhelmingly attach more importance to religion (as well as things like family life and economic security) than to politics. And most are convinced that politics is a greater source of violence than religion (well duh: politics is violence).
Posted by Lee McCracken at 11:38 AM | Comments (277) | TrackBack
Dean the Puritan?
The always interesting Steve Sailer wonders if Howard Dean is a latter-day Puritan.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 11:29 AM | Comments (338) | TrackBack
October 16, 2003
How to Stop a Sieve From Leaking
Joseph Galloway and James Kuhnhenn, writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer, obviously have a wicked sense of humor. Here are the opening three paragraphs of an article entitled "Bush orders officials to stop the leaks":
"Concerned about the appearance of disarray and feuding within his administration as well as growing resistance to his policies in Iraq, President Bush - living up to his recent declaration that he is in charge - told his top officials to 'stop the leaks' to the media, or else.
"News of Bush's order leaked almost immediately.
"Bush told his senior aides Tuesday that he 'didn't want to see any stories' quoting unnamed administration officials in the media anymore, and that if he did, there would be consequences, said a senior administration official who asked that his name not be used."
Posted by Mike Tennant at 03:00 PM | Comments (285)
October 15, 2003
Amazon.com: Tax Collector for the IRS
Remember how I dropped Cafe Press as a vendor because they demanded my Social Slave Number so they could report my earnings to the IRS? Well now Amazon.com is doing the same thing. From now on, I'm going to use Laissez Faire Books as much as possible.
Posted by Rob at 07:32 PM | Comments (176) | TrackBack
Some Dead Americans Are More Equal Than Others
Let's see now. . .
A few Americans get killed in Gaza, and the government tells the rest of them to get out of there.
Meanwhile, Americans get killed or wounded every day in Iraq, and the government insists on keeping them there indefinitely.
No doubt in both cases Americans are being attacked because the terrorists "hate freedom and democracy." (You don't have to be a terrorist to hate the latter, by the way.) We're told we can't pull our troops out of the Middle East because to do so means "the terrorists will have won." Why shouldn't the government recommend the other Americans in Gaza stay and put their own lives at risk so as to hand the terrorists a defeat? Aren't they being "unpatriotic" by high-tailing it out of there to save their own skins?
Something just doesn't add up here.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 04:21 PM | Comments (200)
October 14, 2003
Today Davis, Tomorrow Bush
You have to hand it to those Californians: They really like throwing low-life executives out of office.
Somehow I doubt this will become a big enough movement to succeed, but it would be nice if it did. Of course, then we'd just end up with another hack politician, but at least it might put some fear into those clowns in Washington.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 08:48 AM | Comments (257)
October 10, 2003
Destroying Cuba in Order to Save It
The U. S. sanctions on Cuba have been such a success at ousting Castro for the last 40 years that Bush is planning on tightening them even more. (Come to think of it, they worked well in Iraq, too.)
Bush says, "The Castro regime will not change by its own choice--but Cuba must change." That sounds like a very thinly veiled threat to me. Then again, if "liberation" was a good enough reason to invade Iraq, why not take over Cuba, too?
Besides restricting Americans' freedom to travel or send money or goods to Cuba, Bush wants to "inform Cubans of safer routes to reach the United States" and increase "the number of Cuban immigrants in the US." Yeah, that's what we need. Anyway, doesn't the Coast Guard send these people back to Cuba if it catches them before they reach shore? What's Bush going to do: tell the Cubans how to sneak into the country, or tell the Coast Guard to avoid these "safer routes?"
Bush is also setting up a nice, unconstitutional, taxpayer-funded slush fund called the "Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba."
Can you say, "Only a year until the election?"
By the way, I note that the article also says Bush claimed that Castro's regime is "the only one-party communist government in the Americas." Apparently he's forgotten about most of the countries in Central and South America, not to mention a certain country which pretends to have two parties, one of which pretends to favor freedom and limited government. Then again, since Bush is the highest-ranking member of that "one-party communist government," it probably isn't in his best interest to remind the voters of that.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 03:38 PM | Comments (255)
UN Hypocrisy (surprise!)
Here’s a good article by Brendan O’Neill debunking the notion that the weapons inspectors, in contrast to the warmongering Bush and Blair, were paragons of peace:
"This canonisation of the rational inspectors, in contrast to hysterical Bush and Blair, is a spectacular rewriting of history. Far from being the 'peace warriors' described in one report, the UN inspectors have for the past 12 years held a gun to Iraq's head. Their relentless 'search and destroy' programmes ensured that Iraq remained top of the international agenda, while their reports provided the US and British elites with the moral authority to take action against Iraq as and when they pleased. In the 1990s, between Gulf War I and Gulf War II, inspectors twice paved the way for major air assaults on Iraq, which left hundreds dead.
“Far from being anti-war, Hans Blix, David Kelly and the rest helped to make war an easy option for the West. The inspectors' differences with Bush and Blair in the past year have nothing to do with opposing Western intervention in Iraq - and everything to do with cynically defending their special position on the world stage.”
Unlike a lot of liberals, O'Neill is a consistent anti-interventionist. He doesn't want the U.S. or the UN to establish "benevolent global hegemony."
Posted by Lee McCracken at 11:47 AM | Comments (384) | TrackBack
Kill Your Television
There's a nice piece over at Salon (requires subscription or viewing of a brief ad) on media critic Neil Postman who just died.
Postman's work (most famously Amusing Ourselves to Death and Technopoly) doesn't sit well with a lot of libertarians (especially the techno-utopians over at Reason), but you don't have to buy the whole package to see real insight in the way he analyzed our media culture. He defied easy categorizations of "right" or "left" and was a genuinely independent thinker.
R.I.P.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 11:19 AM | Comments (235) | TrackBack
October 09, 2003
Dentists Enlisted in the War on Terrorism
From my dentist's privacy policy: "We may disclose to authorized federal officials health information required for lawful intelligence, counterintelligence and other national security activities."
Posted by Rob at 01:19 PM | Comments (290) | TrackBack
October 08, 2003
Expensive Mercenaries
From "It's the Economy, Stupid" blog:
Turkey has voted to send troops to Iraq. In exchange for $8.5 billion in aid, Turkey will send up to 10,000 troops...someday. Only $850,000 apiece! What a deal!
Posted by Rob at 11:39 PM | Comments (159) | TrackBack
How Do You Sleep, Mr. President?
Tony Norman of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette lays into Dubya big time in this column. Naturally, one of the local "conservative" talk-show hosts immediately laid into Norman for intimating that people are dying in Iraq for something other than the noble causes of "freedom" and "democracy." After all, only pinko anti-Americans would challenge a Republican president's motives in sending people to die overseas. I'm glad he decided to berate Mr. Norman, or else I'd never have bothered to look for the column.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 02:02 PM | Comments (205)
Son of a Gun
The company, naturally, refused the request. The state, however, still has to review it; and the way things go these days, she may very well get her money. Of course, there would be no state review if the state didn't force employers and employees to pay into its socialist workers' comp scheme.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 12:41 PM | Comments (149)
The Deepening Libertarian-Republican Split
Interesting article at the American Prospect website about the increasing alienation of libertarians from the Bush administration and the GOP in general.
Concern about Bush's foreign policy and civil liberties top the list of reasons for libertarian disaffection.The article quotes a number of libertarian think-tankers and bloggers, some of whom say they may end up supporting Howard Dean if he gets the nomination.
Of course, it seems to me to be wishful thinking to believe that the Democrats offer a viable alternative. After all, many of the new restrictions on civil liberties embodied in the PATRIOT Act are just extensions of power that Clinton sought (and got in some cases). Likewise, it's not clear that a President Dean (or Clark, or Lieberman) would be significantly less interventionist than Bush.
Still, it's nice to see libertarians re-thinking their longstanding tactical alliance with the GOP.
Posted by Lee McCracken at 09:45 AM | Comments (289) | TrackBack
October 07, 2003
The Feds Have Clots of Explaining to Do
Let's see now. . .
The federal government leads us into a war based on wholly fabricated "evidence" of WMDs in Iraq.
The same government vaccinates its soldiers against anthrax and smallpox, which they claim Saddam has but which most objective observers say he hasn't.
The soldiers fortunate enough to survive the shooting (again, in a war predicated on false charges) are now dying of blood clots likely caused by the vaccines--vaccines which wouldn't have been needed if the government hadn't invented stories about WMDs and then believed its own propaganda.
Remember, folks: You have more to fear from your own government than you do from terrorists or foreign governments.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 03:33 PM | Comments (255)
Columbia Pictures Rules Out Moe, Larry, and Curly in Eye-Poking Probe
The White House has (conveniently) ruled out Karl Rove, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and Elliott Abrams, the three most likely candidates, as leakers in "The Don't Plame Me Affair" (as this might be titled were it an episode of The Man From U. N. C. L. E.).
How do we know these men didn't leak the identity of a CIA operative? Because they said so! White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who considers news reports fingering the aforementioned officials to be "unsubstantiated," says he asked each of them if he was the leaker, and each denied it. Since none of these men has ever been involved in anything unethical before(*cough, cough*), we can rest assured that this is the truth, although it is at least as likely that one of their subordinates did the leaking so as to give these guys some plausible deniability.
Also, according to the second paragraph, there's a "5 p. m. deadline on Tuesday for officials to turn over information" to the Justice Department; but, according to the final paragraph, the "White House was unlikely to give the investigators any material on Tuesday." They prefer to wait for one of the "variety of deadlines over the next two weeks," preferably a Friday at 5 p. m.
McClellan also "left open the possibility the leaker would never be found." Gee, there's a surprise!
Remember when conservatives and Republicans (rightly) insisted that the Justice Department couldn't be trusted to investigate the Executive Branch of which it is a part? That, of course, was in the bad old days of Janet Reno and Bill Clinton. Now, with the fine, trustworthy conservatives John Ashcroft and George Bush in there, we can surely trust Justice to investigate the White House. Right?
Posted by Mike Tennant at 01:40 PM | Comments (203)
October 05, 2003
Heroic Man Tries to Make Citizen's Arrest of Blair
From The Scotsman: A man was held by police after trying to make a citizen’s arrest over Mr Blair’s involvement in the Iraq war. Ian Brown, 41, from Cardiff, allegedly confronted the Prime Minister and his wife, Cherie, as they entered the conference centre. He was later released without charge
Posted by Rob at 09:26 PM | Comments (243) | TrackBack
October 04, 2003
An insider's view of public schools
Sixteen-year-old Ashley Anderson writes:
"They were treating me like just another 'product' of the education system, just another number. They want worker bees. Push a button. Pull a lever. Get just enough 'education' to learn how to be compliant, happy little 21st Century workers who don't ask any questions and keep their noses to the grindstone. I thought, 'surely, not my school'. I was wrong."
And:
"In the 8th grade, my science class spent the first six weeks learning from the end of the textbook. It was all about global warming, recycling, and population control. It made me wonder how this 'control' will be accomplished. My teacher wanted to get all those things out of the way so we wouldn't have to deal with them later in the year, but why are they in the curriculum in the first place?"
It's called indoctrination, American style.
Posted by George F. Smith at 05:55 PM | Comments (273) | TrackBack
Politics as stale news
The existence of government is evidence of our stupidity. The Valerie Plame fiasco is turning into what we have a right to expect from an organization invested with unfathomable wealth and power. Do we really expect Bush to be anything other than a hypocrite and tyrant? While he shows outrage over the leak and demands justice, his supporters go to work on Wilson's character. It's "slime and defend" time again.
Posted by George F. Smith at 05:07 PM | Comments (238) | TrackBack
They're Russian to Join the Pre-emptive War Club
I hope the "pre-emptive war" crowd is happy with themselves. The Russkies are now explicitly getting into the act. Oddly enough, the Russian defense minister, Sergei Ivanov, admits that "the use of force without UN approval could encourage countries to acquire a nuclear potential," but he's willing to proceed with it, anyway. You don't suppose the Russians feel a little threatened by Uncle Sam. Do you?
Posted by Mike Tennant at 10:44 AM | Comments (266)
October 03, 2003
We Report, you get it wrong
"The more commercial television news you watch, the more wrong you are likely to be about key elements of the Iraq War and its aftermath, according to a major new study released in Washington on Thursday."
"Eighty percent of Fox viewers were found to hold at least one misperception, compared to 23 percent of NPR/PBS consumers. All the other media fell in between."
The misperceptions were:
1. US tropps found evidence of close pre-war ties between Iraq and al Qaeda
2. US troops found evidence of WMD in Iraq
3. World opinion supported the government's attack on Iraq
"[T]he more misperceptions held by the respondent, the more likely it was that s/he both supported the war and depended on commercial television for news about it."
Interestingly, people who rely on the internet for news and commentary were not included in the study.
Posted by George F. Smith at 10:44 PM | Comments (597) | TrackBack
Understatement of the Year
And the award goes to. . .Donald Rumsfeld!
While Bush continues to insist that the David Kay report--which cost $300 million and employed 1,200 inspectors over 90 days only to find absolutely 0 WMDs--supports his antebellum arguments about the imminent threat posed by Saddam Hussein and his weapons, Rumsfeld, according to MSNBC, "indicated for the first time Thursday that he had serious doubts about the prewar intelligence reports.
"Asked whether he still believed that such weapons would be found and whether the administration's credibility was suffering because of poor intelligence, Rumsfeld replied:
"'It's not clear that it was off by a little bit or a mile at this stage. If it is off by a lot, that will be unfortunate.'"
Posted by Mike Tennant at 08:30 PM | Comments (313)
My Camera
I'm looking to sell my digital camera. I don't need it any longer, as I'm in the hospital. Here's the last photo I took so you have some idea about the picture quality: picture
Posted by Rob at 02:39 PM | Comments (359) | TrackBack
October 02, 2003
Lincoln, Lincoln, Bo-Bincoln, Banana-fana-fo-Fincoln
National Review Online cites no less an authority on the destruction of liberty than "Honest" Abe himself in support of the PATRIOT Act and other Bush administration tyrannies. Since Lincoln engaged in all kinds of unconstitutional acts to "preserve the union" (while destroying it), it's A-OK for Bush to do the same thing. There's actually a perverse logic in this if one assumes that Lincoln was the great savior of the country. Of course, to those of us without the blinders on, the perverse logic is that the supposed defenders of freedom (the neocons and their pals at NR) are citing one of the great destroyers of freedom to defend another of the great destroyers of freedom, all the while pretending it's to protect our freedom from terrorists. This is akin to citing Hitler in an attempt to vindicate Stalin. Lincoln, one imagines, would be smiling devilishly if he could witness this.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 04:50 PM | Comments (367)
What if America Just Quit the Middle East?
What indeed?
Posted by Lee McCracken at 11:50 AM | Comments (298) | TrackBack
What a Rush!
Rush Limbaugh is under investigation for allegedly purchasing prescription painkillers on the black market. Of course, as all Root Strikers understand, there should be no "black market" for drugs because they should all be legal to be bought, sold, and used, prescription or no prescription. However, it appears that, if the allegations turn out to be true (and let's face it: celebrity scandal allegations are a dime a dozen), Rush is going to get a taste of his own medicine (pun intended) since he's been such a big advocate of the War on Drugs.
I used to enjoy Rush. I started listening in 1993, just before Bill Clinton took office, and it was a lot of fun to hear Rush take swipes at Slick Willie. I even bought both his books and subscribed to his newsletter. It wasn't until Bush came to power that I discovered that Rush was nothing more than a GOP shill. I still listen most days, but not with the same admiration I once had. In fact, some days he makes me mad enough to switch over to the local (openly) socialist talk-show hostess.
It might not be a bad thing if he disappears from the scene. Perhaps then his listeners will figure out for themselves that Bush and the GOP are not the true-blue conservatives that Rush has made them out to be. On the other hand, those listeners may just go back to relying on National Review or other radio hacks like the "very independent" Michael Reagan for their news and opinions, and we'll be right back where we started.
Posted by Mike Tennant at 09:40 AM | Comments (285)
October 01, 2003
Banks get cozier with Big Brother
Our central banking system has played a huge role in aggrandizing government by monetizing its debt. Now it will help government even more by keeping detailed information on its customers, thanks to the obscenely-named Patriot Act.
Posted by George F. Smith at 08:25 PM | Comments (246) | TrackBack
Libertarians target New Hampshire
The Free State Project has selected New Hampshire for the implementation of libertarian political philosophy. The "Live Free or Die" state may someday soon live up to its motto.
"We see ourselves as a kind of chamber of commerce, promoting the state as somewhere where people will come and live freely and do business," said Jason Sorens, a political science lecturer at Yale and president of the project.
Read more about it here.
Posted by George F. Smith at 08:12 PM | Comments (327) | TrackBack