December 09, 2004

We’ll start with two news items of particular interest, brought to my attention by friends who are also friends of liberty. Their views (and my own) are not necessarily those of TPoL, RRND, FND, or anyone else! But they are worth an infinity more than what you’re paying for them!

Bad News/Good News: The commentary today starts with two items, which strangely juxtapose with each other.

House passes intelligence overhaul bill
Yahoo
"The House voted Tuesday to overhaul a national intelligence network that failed to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, combining under one official control of 15 spy agencies, intensifying aviation and border security and allowing more wiretaps of suspected terrorists. .... The House voted 336-75 to send the Senate legislation to create a new national intelligence director, establish a counterterrorism center, set priorities for intelligence gathering and tighten U.S. borders .... The bill includes a host of anti-terrorism provisions, such as allowing officials to wiretap "lone wolf" terrorists and improving airline baggage screening procedures. It increases the number of full- time border patrol agents by 2,000 per year for five years and imposes new federal standards on information that driver's licenses must contain."

This is THE big liberty story of the week, to my way of thinking. And it smells to high heaven. The more I’ve heard about this bill (and I commented on the original commission results as being absolute ludicrous and certain NOT to have a significant impact on “fighting terrorism”) the worse it has sounded. More and more conservative groups have come out against it, but it has been steamrollered on by the Administration for their own ends and glory. It is, I am told, about 3,000 pages long, and the full version approved today hadn’t even been printed out for review by the 336 congrus-critturs that voted for it. (For those interested, go to this web site for Bill text ) It not only centralizes intelligence control (a dangerous idea for either a republic OR a tyranny), not only further tinkers with the stupid provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act (making them even more stupid), not only ignores much of the illegal immigration problems (while raising the equivalent of another DIVISION of border agents), but it has these absolutely insane NID (national ID) card requirements. As one person pointed out, Israel has had biometric ID cards for a long time, and look how terror bombings have been completely eliminated in Israeli-controlled areas!

Counter-intuitive: traffic calming works
Wired
Hans Monderman is a traffic engineer who hates traffic signs. Oh, he can put up with the well-placed speed limit placard or a dangerous curve warning on a major highway, but Monderman considers most signs to be not only annoying but downright dangerous. To him, they are an admission of failure, a sign - literally - that a road designer somewhere hasn't done his job. "The trouble with traffic engineers is that when there's a problem with a road, they always try to add something," Monderman says. "To my mind, it's much better to remove things."

As the article describes, over-regulation adds to the chances of serious accidents, while under-regulation (less nannying) reduces such things significantly - kind of what happens when parents get too caught up in Little-League games. A sidebar to the article, “Chaos = Cooperation” gives some guidelines:
1. Remove signs: The architecture of the road - not signs and signals - dictates traffic flow.
2. Install art: The height of the fountain indicates how congested the intersection is.
3. Share the spotlight: Lights illuminate not only the roadbed, but also the pedestrian areas.
4. Do it in the road: Cafés extend to the edge of the street, further emphasizing the idea of shared space.
5. See eye to eye: Right-of-way is negotiated by human interaction, rather than commonly ignored signs.
6. Eliminate curbs: Instead of a raised curb, sidewalks are denoted by texture and color.
This is a human approach to traffic, which is NOT water engineering, after all. And it is an approach that is directly applicable to society and government. As Sunni reflects in her own comments on the article, modern government encourages carelessness - someone (or something) is there to protect us from our own mistakes. I see it on mountain roads all the time - those with big heavy guardrails always have faster traffic, more accidents, and more careless behavior, while those with nothing but a fair amount of blue sky and some white water a long ways down have people driving cautiously and surprisingly few of those cross-markers for a death scene.

As I said, these two stories, about seemingly completely different things, actually are in fine juxtaposition to each other - government attempts to micromanage things fail, usually miserably, and usually resulting in a lot of needless deaths, whether on the highways or the battlefields. A nation which is constantly on the alert for spies, saboteurs, crooks, thieves, muggers, etc. and NOT depending on the “omnipotent and omniscient government” for their protection is FAR more likely to avoid the worst of such things than one which does “let the government take care of us.”

Air Force Academy implicated in sex abuse
Indianapolis Star
”The Pentagon's inspector general says a series of commanders at the Air Force Academy failed to recognize and deal with reports of sexual assaults against female cadets on campus, officials said Tuesday. 'We conclude that the overall root cause of the sexual assault problems at the Air Force Academy was the "failure of successive chains of command over the past 10 years to acknowledge the severity of the problem,"' Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz wrote in a Dec. 3 memo to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, quoting his own report." (12/07/04)

Picking up a story that has been out of the headlines for a few months, this reminds us that it is far easier to slide into a mess than it is to get out of it. The attitude of the Clinton administration towards the military certainly did not help this much, and it has NOT been anyone’s priority since Bloody Tuesday, so the problems just continue.

Supreme Court weighs direct wine shipments
MSNBC
"The Supreme Court on Tuesday faced one of the thorniest questions about doing business across state borders: Should consumers who can buy wine directly from suppliers in their state be allowed to buy it from other states as well? Laws prohibiting such sales are unconstitutional and should be upended, lawyers for a coalition of winemakers and consumers told the high court's justices. At issue are laws in Michigan in New York that allow in-state wineries to ship to state residents, but bar other wineries." (12/07/04)

Anyone want to agree with me that the Supremes, and government in general, should have more important things to do than decide where someone can buy wine, just because they want to do it by mail or internet rather than in person? Let’s get government out of this business entirely, no?

Group tells NASA that trying to save Hubble Space Telescope with robot is costly, uncertain
Dodge City Daily Globe
”Trying to save the famed Hubble Space Telescope with a robot would cost $2 billion with just a 50-50 chance of success, an aerospace research group is advising NASA in the coming days. And that thumbs-down is likely to be preceded by another potentially negative finding from the National Academy of Sciences, due to report on Wednesday. Both reports could spell doom for the popular, aging Hubble, whose fans have lobbied heavily to get it repaired to prolong its life and continue its stream of stunning and revealing pictures from space." (12/07/04)

Once again, a government-caused and -encouraged mess, made worse by government. If these “fans” have enough clout, they’ll add another 2 Billion to the deficit, the national debt, and the pork to be divided out by our “leaders.” Of course, since the NAS is itself not much more than a guvmint bureaucracy, can we really believe that they are peddling a honest story, and not pushing some pet scheme of their own?

Delaware: Were teen's guns a plot or a hobby
Fosters Online
"Days after the arrest of a local teenager following the discovery of a cache of guns and armament in his apartment, police are still trying to determine if his weapons were a hobby or supplies for a deadly plan. Police seized nine rifles, a handgun, silencers, ammunition, a homemade bulletproof vest and other items from Michael Steward’s apartment at 306 Plaza Drive on Dec. 1. "The challenge we have is trying determine whether we have a person experimenting or if he had some sort of plot to harm people," police Capt. Anthony Colarusso said. Steward is being held at the Strafford County jail on $100,000 bail on three felony reckless conduct charges. The charges stem from Steward allegedly firing his guns inside his apartment with a 16-year-old juvenile inside." (12/07/04)

A tough case to most people - but why should a local government (or any government) have any say so on whether a gun can be discharged just because a minor is present? (I guess that makes me a criminal in Delaware, since most of the time when I’m discharging a firearm these days, my “juvenile” sons are present.) There is nothing indicating that he was discharging the firearm in an unsafe manner, or threatening anyone. How can this be “felony reckless conduct”? Are we to believe obviously anti-gun cops on this charge?

'Torture' of Guantánamo Britons to be outlined
Guardian [UK]
"The first British lawyer to visit Guantánamo Bay is tonight expected to describe what he found there and outline allegations of torture made by a British detainee. Clive Stafford Smith, a human rights lawyer, represents two of the four Britons still detained at the US military facility in Cuba. One of those he represents, Moazzam Begg, 36, from Birmingham, claimed in a letter made public in October that he had been subjected to "vindictive torture" and death threats by the US authorities. Ahead of a press conference later in London, Mr. Stafford Smith said: "Britons are being tortured at Guantánamo and I am appalled that Prime Minister Tony Blair repeatedly uses information extracted under torture to support his contention that my British client Moazzam Begg is a threat to security." (12/07/04)

This seems to be the day to question people - this attorney is basing his accusations on letters without any evidence, just as the so-called former Marine NCO testifying in Canada is making claims concerning all the civilians murdered by fellow Marines (perhaps he is contemplating running for president as a Democrat in 30 or 40 years). Show some proof, and not just claims, sir!

Call for drastic cut in UK fishing areas
Independent [UK]
"Proposals to ban fishing in almost a third of UK waters to protect threatened species provoked an angry response from industry leaders today. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution made the recommendation in a report which warns that existing policies to stop over-fishing have failed. Commission chairman Sir Tom Blundell said the sea should be treated in the same way as endangered areas on land. He said: "We need to take positive steps to allow the environment to recover. Marine reserves should be created to protect 30% of the UK's seas from fishing." But industry leaders accused the Commission of having "tunnel vision" and talking "codswallop". (12/07/04)

The problem appears to be real, and certainly it is not a surprise to find that existing government policies have failed. But this proposal will fail also. Why? Because it does not address the problem with a common good - no one owns it, and no one therefore has any incentive to protect and conserve it - rather the opposite is true: rational people have to get as much as they can before it disappears completely. If the Lord Commissioner would make it possible for individuals or fishing fleets to OWN the schools of fish, this problem would soon disappear. If indeed (keeping in mind it is a government commission making the claim) there is really a problem: knowing how governments lie in their own best interest.

Lenin statue, free to good home
Ananova
"A former Eastern Bloc country is trying to find a new home for a five tonne statue of Lenin. Authorities in Slovakia put the statue in a scrapyard after a company boss demanded it be moved from the front of his building. The bronze statue of the Soviet communist leader had stood outside the headquarters of the municipal maintenance service in Nitra for decades. But when a new headquarters was opened up, the statue was left behind and the new owner of the building doesn't want it." (12/07/04)

Now surely there is some nice museum someplace that would love this relict of the past? Or some good American university which needs a statue of one of its intellectual heroes?

Massachusetts: Income growth means tax cut
Boston Globe
"Couples will save $30 on their state income taxes, and Beacon Hill budget writers will have an extra $300 million to spend in the coming fiscal year, as the recovering economy continues to pump money into state coffers at a faster rate than expected. State officials confirmed yesterday that rising revenues will trigger an expansion of personal income tax exemptions. The change, which will save individual taxpayers about $15 a year, is called for in a tax bill the Legislature approved in 2002. Now couples will be able to deduct $7,150 from their taxable income, up from $6,600, and individuals can deduct $3,575, up from $3,300. The announcement was made during a State House hearing in which administration officials and outside economists said the state is likely to collect at least $16.5 billion during the current fiscal year, $300 million more than the prediction Beacon Hill budget writers had settled on in October." (12/07/04)

Now, let me get this right. As I recall, Mass has about 6 million people, but each of them is only getting 15 bucks, costing about 90 million - and the state gets more than 3 times that. Sounds like one of those old comic routines: one for me and one for you and one for me and one for me and one for me… And if I figure right, for each of their 6 million people, it is costing $2750 per person for this state government! Per year. At a minimum wage of $5.15 per hour, that is about one-fourth of their annual income! Ancient kings only demanded 10% of the poor’s income! Only our “enlightened democratic government could expect more.”

Mama's Note: Actually, I think 10% was what the church expected. The local "lord" didn't get nearly that much. It would be terrific if a reader researched this and let us know what really happened. Of course, it differed from country to country and era to era, but there should be averages calculated somewhere. Anybody want to enlighten us?

Colombia's poor inherit drug estates
Christian Science Monitor
"Sandra Betancur used to work for drug lord Jairo Correa Alzate on his sprawling ranch in this hot, fertile corner of central Colombia. Now she's close to owning the very land that once belonged to the lanky capo, who was killed eight years ago. 'We didn't have anything and now we have a lot,' says Ms. Betancur, who lives here with her 4-year-old daughter. Colombia, like many South American countries, is a nation of economic extremes. Less than 1 percent of the population owns 60 percent of the land. Now the government has reinvigorated a program that gives land seized from millionaire drug dealers to the poor -- in effect, tearing a page from the Marxist playbook. While leftist rebels have been waging war for 40 years in the name of the disadvantaged, conservative President Alvaro Uribe's program is undercutting a main plank in their platform." (12/08/04)

Now let me understand this - it is WRONG to expropriate land and divide it among the “people” but it is RIGHT for a right-wing government to do it in the name of the War on Drugs? Who is fooling who?

Autopsy discovers cocaine bags burst in inmate's stomach
Tennessean
"A 51-year-old Nashville man who died in police custody after fighting with officers had two plastic bags of cocaine in his stomach, one of which ruptured, releasing crack rocks into his stomach, medical examiners said yesterday. Andre Roosevelt Lee struggled with officers Saturday during a traffic stop and at a jail booking area in the hours before he began foaming at the mouth inside a Metro holding cell, about 3:40 p.m. He had suffered a cut over his eye during a scuffle near Interstate 65 at the MetroCenter exit, police said. Another cut to his ear occurred when Lee repeatedly slammed his head into a wall at the jail, according to a Police Department news release. 'Lee's skull was not fractured, and (the visible injuries) ... appear totally unrelated to his death,' Metro police officials wrote." (12/07/04)

Even though the immediate cause of this man’s death appears to be due to his own stupidity, the circumstances seem to point to the police making a bad situation into a really bad one that killed the guy. And as for “repeatedly slamming his head into a wall” - well, that kind of crack overdose might trigger that kind of rage. Or, as we have seen elsewhere, it could be that the police are just lying.

Candidates help each other with your cash
Arizona Republic
"You're a five-term congressman with a quarter-million dollars in the bank for your reelection campaign when, much to your delight, you learn in early June that your only opponent will be an unfunded Libertarian whose party represents less than 1 percent of Arizona's voters. What do you do as the Nov. 2 general election approaches? Hold a fund-raiser that will bring in more than $100,000. That's what U.S. Rep John Shadegg did -- but not solely for his own benefit. Shadegg, who represents the north-central portion of the Valley, is just one of several Arizona congressmen who, although facing little or no opposition, continued raising money as if their reelection depended on it but passed substantial sums along to their parties or to scores of other candidates." (12/07/04)

To the Arizona Republic this may be an exciting (and paper-selling) discovery, but to anyone who has gotten involved in politics against this kind of guy, it is common practice, regardless of party. As more and more incumbents face no real opposition, the spreading of the wealth grows more important to the party’s statewide (and even national) strategy. I’ve seen various major party coordinators and candidates cursing their own party-mates who have “hogged” their fundraising bonanzas during periods without much need.

Mama's Note: The difference, it seems, is that this is money contributed voluntarily - not tax money. If people are stupid enough to give money to politicians, I can't say I'm sorry for them at all, and it's no skin off my nose. If, however, they get some kind of "matching funds" from taxpayer money, that's a whole 'nother story.

California: Small cars get ticketed in SUV land
San Francisco Chronicle
"When he came out of a Contra Costa County Mayors' Conference meeting in Walnut Creek awhile back, Martinez City Councilman Bill Wainwright was surprised to see a ticket on his windshield. He was even more surprised when he saw what it was for. Wainwright had been tagged for having too small a car. Seriously. The city parking lot where he had found a spot has two rows of slots reserved for vehicles 6-foot-5 inches or taller, according to a sign posted in the garage. Wainwright, with his Acura, was too short to park there. 'I'd never heard of that before,' Wainwright says. 'I've heard of cars too big for parking spots, but not too small.' And so it is in the land of the land yacht. Out here in suburbs we like our lawns green, our shopping malls trendy, and our family transportation in two sizes: big and bigger." (12/07/04)

This is just too funny for words, especially since it happened to a city guvmint official-type. I hope he has LOTS of fun fighting it.

Indonesia: Man busted for importing 'scary' toy guns
Daily Times [Pakistan]
”Indonesian police have swooped on a businessman in Jakarta for importing children's toy guns that they say could be used for crimes, a report said. The man was arrested after customs officials found a cargo of what they originally described as semiautomatic combat air pistols, but which police later found were toys, the Detikcom news website said. Jakarta Police detective chief Mathius Salempang said officers nevertheless decided to charge the importer for possession of firearms because the playthings posed a danger. 'The gun toys can be categorized as firearms because they can be used to threaten or scare people,' Salempang was quoted as saying. Under Indonesia's tough regulations governing the possession of firearms, violators face a possible maximum death sentence." (12/07/04)

This should be funny too, but apparently this man’s life is at jeopardy because of government lies: “combat AIR pistols” ??? and the most outrageous definition of “firearm” I’ve heard yet - a definition that would apply to a baseball bat, a lady’s hat-pin, or a crazy expression.

UK: "Don't buy children replica guns"
Yorkshire Today [UK]
"Officers who visited a county junior school recently were shocked to discover about 60 per cent of children already owned a mock gun, or BB gun. Most pupils who did not have one of the realistic toy weapons told police that it was at the top of their Christmas wish list. The officers' call to parents is being backed up by a father whose son sparked a full-scale armed police alert after he and friends were spotted playing with BB guns by a passerby, who assumed the guns were real." (12/06/04)

You’d think that Indonesia had been a Brit colony and not a Dutch one for centuries, because their cops are sniffing the same brand of glue or something. This father, rather than supporting the cops, ought to be filing charges against them for their lies and actions.

Nathan Barton is writing on the road through the West. He is a libertarian engineer with a family and hope for the future of liberty. See Nathan's own blog, Liberty's Outpost.

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