December 02, 2004 (Unfortunately, phone line problems caused this Commentary to be sent in too late for publication on Thursday.)

Start of a new month - ice-blue skies, and a lot of really nasty news, unfortunately. At least that is my opinion, not necessarily that of TPoL or anyone else! But - it’s not ALL bad, folks!

Dutch Hospital has begun intentionally killing newborns
(AOL)
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Nov. 30) - A hospital in the Netherlands - the first nation to permit euthanasia - recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives. The announcement by the Groningen Academic Hospital came amid a growing discussion in Holland … In August, the main Dutch doctors' association KNMG urged the Health Ministry to create an independent board to review euthanasia cases for terminally ill people ''with no free will,'' including children, the severely mentally retarded and people left in an irreversible coma after an accident. Three years ago, the Dutch parliament made it legal for doctors to inject a sedative and a lethal dose of muscle relaxant at the request of adult patients suffering great pain with no hope of relief. The hospital revealed last month it carried out four such mercy killings in 2003, and reported all cases to government prosecutors. There have been no legal proceedings against the hospital or the doctors.

I honestly had a hard time clicking on the headline to read this news story, which makes me sick to my stomach - even knowing the hypocrisy of governments, who have no problem killing children by bombing them or burning them to death or a dozen other ways - there is something different between such wholesale killing and having the state, one by careful one, with no question as to their human identity or existence or life, to snuff out the life of an innocent child so that “no one need be bothered” to care for it or love it. The Dutch government, rapidly becoming the cesspool, not just of Europe, but of the world, has proven its complete illegitimacy - the ONLY possible justification for government is to protect people, and obviously this hideous monstrosity and excuse for civilization has decided to ally itself with the Moloch-worshippers and Khmer Rouge and Stalins and Hitlers of today and the past. As one American observer said, “there is no more slippery slope in the Netherlands - it has become a cliff of death.”

Illegal immigrants treated like cattle
(AOL)
HOUSTON (Nov. 30) - Three people involved in the nation's deadliest smuggling attempt were part of a scheme that treated immigrants "worse than cattle on the way to the slaughterhouse," a prosecutor said Tuesday in opening statements. The trial of Victor Jesus Rodriguez, Claudia Carrizales de Villa and Fredy Giovanni Garcia-Tobar is the first related to the May 2003 deaths of 19 illegal immigrants inside a tractor-trailer. Prosecutor Daniel Rodriguez said the three were part of a smuggling ring that tried to transport a group of more than 70 immigrants from south Texas to Houston. But defense attorneys said the three had minimal involvement.

The deaths of these people can properly be laid at the feet of the smugglers, but there is another unspoken defendant here - the US Government which has failed its responsibility to establish and maintain borders, and an electorate that wants the cheap labor of illegal migrants but pretends to want to control its borders. Much like the war on drugs, the war on illegal immigration is a demonstration of the hypocrisy of the American people, who want their cake and to eat it too.

Torture charges brought against Rumsfeld et al
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"A group of American civil rights attorneys filed a criminal complaint in German court yesterday against top U.S. authorities, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, for acts of torture committed at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The complaint also names former CIA Director George Tenet; the former commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez; and seven other military leaders. ... The attorneys said that since the United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court, they could not take their case there. They chose Germany because it has legislation allowing the prosecution of war crimes and human rights violations across national boundaries." (12/01/04)

Following the Red Cross accusations, this makes the week a bad one for the Pentagon, no question. At the same time, the “American civil rights attorneys” are grandstanding, as such charges could have been filed in the United States, even if the actions were committed overseas. By doing it in Europe, they get more coverage and better spin - just like the President going to Canada to make announcements that repeat what he’s said in the US.

General strike paralyzes Italy
Pakistan Times [Pakistan]
"Italy ground to a halt as millions of workers observed a general strike in a show of force against the economic policies of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right coalition government. Shops and business-owners pulled down the shutters and factories across the country came to a standstill as noisy and colourful columns of demonstrators filed through the centres of Rome, Milan, Turin and around 70 other cities. ... Berlusconi is struggling to reconcile Italy's European Union obligations with his campaign pledge to cut taxes, and has seen his popularity plummet." (12/01/04)

Italy is not the only nation having problems with the European Union versus the people of the country, and Italian politics, always unstable, seem to be shakier than usual. I’m sure many in Brussels would like to see Italian police beating on heads to get things back in “shape.”

Kerry team seeks to join Libertarians, Greens in Ohio recount
Washington Post
"Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign asked an Ohio judge yesterday to allow it to join a legal fight there over whether election officials in one county may sit out the state's impending recount. ... David A. Yost, a lawyer for Delaware County, just outside Columbus, won a temporary restraining order last week blocking any recount there. He told the Columbus Dispatch that a second count would be a poor use of county resources. ... Lawyers for the Kerry campaign asked to join Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb, Libertarian candidate Michael Badnarik and the National Voting Rights Institute in the fight to force the county to participate in the recount." [Post articles may require registration, or use login "info@news-digests.com/news-digests"] (12/01/04)

Virtually no one was paying any attention to the LP/GP attempts, but now that Kerry has chimed in, even the “gray lady” is reporting it.

Louisiana: Court to hear argument on [gay] marriage ban New Orleans Times-Picayune
"There's no question that Louisiana voters overwhelmingly approved an anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution. The question before the Louisiana Supreme Court is whether lawmakers fouled up while writing it. The high court was scheduled Wednesday to hear arguments on a judge's ruling that nullified the amendment, which was approved by 78 percent of the voters in September. In October, State District Judge William Morvant of Baton Rouge struck down the amendment, saying the proposition's structure violated a constitutional requirement that an amendment deal with only one issue." (12/01/04)

Considering how often various courts overturn laws on technicalities, it seems that the overwhelming support for this amendment would justify overturning the “one-subject” rule, but of course justices seldom see it that way. This will be viewed as another example of “activist” judges who must be reined in, whichever way they decide. Of course, would another vote on the same constitutional amendment properly broken into pieces significantly change? Probably not.

UN plan would add nine nations to Security Council
Houston Chronicle
"The United Nations on Tuesday proposed the most sweeping reforms in its history, recommending the overhaul of its key decision-making organ, the Security Council, and holding out the possibility of granting legitimacy to some preventive military strikes. The wide-reaching reforms were outlined in a much-anticipated report commissioned by Secretary-general Kofi Annan a year ago after bruising division over the Iraq war left the United Nations feeling ill-equipped to meet modern day challenges represented by terrorism, failed states, nuclear proliferation, poverty and violence. In its most attention-getting recommendation, the panel called for an expansion of the Security Council to 24 members." (11/30/04)

Thus again lowering the IQ of the Security Council, which has demonstrated time after time the old adage that to calculate the IQ of a committee, you divide the IQ of the smartest person on the committee by the total number of feet in the committee. Of course, when you are already dealing with an IQ in the teens, it is hard to imagine anyone would notice the difference if it drops more.

Tariffs on shrimp upheld
The State
"The Bush administration on Tuesday upheld the imposition of penalty tariffs on shrimp imports from China and Vietnam, handing a victory to beleaguered U.S. shrimp producers. ... In the decision Tuesday, the government set duties on Chinese exports of frozen and canned warm-water shrimp at levels ranging from 27.9 percent to 112.8 percent. Vietnamese shrimp exports will be hit with duties ranging from 4.1 percent to 25.8 percent." (12/01/04)

While completely contrary to the entire concept of free trade, we need to ask ourselves why the US is buying ANYTHING from two of the nations which can be counted to be our most bitter enemies. If we are trying to make them friends through trade, then this kind of tariff is certainly not helping that effort, is it?

"Intelligent design" gets toehold in Pennsylvania
San Francisco Chronicle
"The way they used to teach the origin of the species to high school students in this sleepy town of 1,800 people in southern Pennsylvania, said local school board member Angie Yingling disapprovingly, was that 'we come from chimpanzees and apes.' Not anymore. The school board has ordered that biology teachers at Dover Area High School make students 'aware of gaps/problems' in the theory of evolution. Their ninth-grade curriculum now must include the theory of 'intelligent design,' which posits that life is so complex and elaborate that some greater wisdom has to be behind it. The decision, passed last month by a 6-to-3 vote, makes the 3,600-student school district about 20 miles south of Harrisburg the first in the United States to mandate the teaching ... in public schools, putting it on the front line of the growing national debate over the role of religion in public life." (11/30/04)

Surprising, the Chron is more evenhanded in reporting this than most of the eastern papers. But regardless of which side of the debate you are on (creation vs. evolution), it is clear that having GRTF-schools makes what should be a moral and scientific decision into nothing but another political decision, like zoning a subdivision, when it is far more important.

Ridge resigns Homeland Security post
Las Vegas Review-Journal
"Tom Ridge, the nation's first homeland security secretary, announced Tuesday that he is resigning after three years of reworking American security and presiding over color-coded terror alerts. He's the seventh Bush Cabinet officer leaving so far. Ridge oversaw the most significant government reorganization in 50 years. He'll be remembered for his terror alerts and tutorials about how to prepare for possible attacks, including the controversial 'disaster kits' that caused last year's run on duct tape and plastic sheeting." (11/30/04)

I, for one, hope that I won’t miss him at all - that is, unless the Prez comes up with someone worse. As people from the time of Constantine and Cromwell on have (sadly) demonstrated, a man of faith is not necessarily a man who understands his faith, and is therefore also a man of freedom. His legacy is not a total disaster, but I'd hate to see how much worse it could have been.

Stepped-up airport patdowns go too far for some
Houston Chronicle
"Rhonda Gaynier, a New York real-estate lawyer, was flying home from Tampa, Fla., and passing through airport security when she was asked to step aside for additional screening. What happened next shocked her: Using an open hand, a security agent touched her on her shoulders, under her arms, around her waist, across her bra strap, and between her breasts, Gaynier said -- all in front of other passengers. 'I was almost in tears,' she said. 'I've never been so humiliated in my life. It's one of the worst experiences I've ever had to endure.' The patdown before that mid-October flight was the result of a new government directive ..." (11/30/04)

The incidents just keep coming one after another - and what is to be done? If some gallant man steps forward and says “enough is enough,” he may not live long enough to finish the sentence, and certainly will land in jail. How have we gotten to the point where it is all right to do EXACTLY the same thing for which six-year-olds are now routinely arrested - pawing another person in public? It isn’t just a matter of not flying - it is not being able to suggest or allow ANYONE else in our families and churches to fly, either - lest we hear another one of these stories. Perhaps, as in the old days, the names of the JBT who are doing this can be published and people can be aware of who they are and where they live, so that they can be shunned and refused business - like tax gatherers of old.

79 percent of criminals obtained guns from illegal sources
Men's News Daily
"Ninety-five percent of US police commanders and sheriffs believe most criminals obtain their firearms from illegal sources, according to a survey released by the National Association of Chiefs of Police. Coincidentally, data released by the US Department of Justice appears to confirm this claim by our nation's police executives. The DOJ study refutes the conventional wisdom that guns used in criminal acts are purchased at retail stores or gun shows. About 18 percent of state prisoners and 15 percent of federal prisoners reported that they were armed when they committed the offense for which they were imprisoned, according to the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics." (11/29/04)

Funny how this isn’t appearing in any major media outlets - but the study appears to be a valid one, and so do the various surveys. Do you suppose that this information will be around the next time the Administration or Congress takes up more gun-control bills?

Nathan Barton is a libertarian writing from the Four Corners region of West America. See Nathan's own blog, Liberty's Outpost.

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