December 28, 2004

Dream...or Nightmare?
By Lady Liberty

On paper, there's something to be said for Communism. Under true communism, everybody works at something they're eminently qualified to do. Everybody is fed, clothed, and cared for by the collective efforts of everybody else. Nobody is hungry or unhappy; there's no crime because there's no want. In fact, there's only one bad thing about communism: it doesn't work, and it can't work.

People are far happier doing what they actually want to do in life rather than what they may be most qualified to do. Human nature is such that people resent having the fruits of their hard labor forcibly taken from them and distributed to those who've quite literally done nothing to earn it. Their own desire for comfort and accomplishment as well as to care for their own families ensures they'll do their best to keep what they can for themselves. It doesn't matter to them if that puts them on a higher footing than that enjoyed by their neighbors; they would, in fact, encourage their neighbors to do the same. (Read the rest here)

Stop The Bleeding For Real Social Security Reform
By Ed Henry

If you are confronted with a crisis, the very first thing to do is to stop the bleeding. You don’t stand around doing nothing, arguing about what caused it, debating why it happened, who is to blame or how we might prevent it in the future. These are all things to discuss, argue, settle, and perhaps even improve later.

Your very first task is to keep the victim alive and treat the injuries with first aid. If you can’t handle that, get someone competent who can and get them fast. Call 911.

Applying this to Social Security reform, we are immediately confronted with one very stunning obstacle – emergency response lies in the hands of the very people who inflicted the wound, the same body of people who caused the bleeding – Congress and the federal bureaucrats. (Read the rest here)

Libertarian Commentary on The News
By Nathan A. Barton © 2004

Many of us (that is, libertarians) believe that government has proven itself a far greater evil than any benefit that obtains from its existence (based on the generally-accepted definition of government). Others believe that there is some role for government, or that some types of government CAN have their benefits outweigh their liabilities: that certain levels or methods of government can provide for certain things that cannot be provided (or can be provided only with great difficulty) by any other institution. (A common position is that the American constitutional federal republic could (once and possibly in the future) meet this expectation.) So today, let’s look at the news from that perspective: is government now providing any services, meeting any needs, that cannot be met in some other, less dangerous way? My opinion may disagree with yours, and with that of TPoL, FND, and RRND - your comments are very much wanted on these subjects.

Asian quake death toll nears 20,000 (was 12,000)
CNN
"As dawn broke Monday across the Bay of Bengal, countries struck by tsunamis in the wake of the most powerful earthquake the planet has seen in 40 years focused on relief and rescue efforts, and said the death toll from the giant waves -- already nearing 12,000 -- is expected to rise further. The tsunamis also left thousands injured, thousands missing and hundreds of thousands homeless in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Some of the tsunamis reached as far as 1,600 kilometers (91,000 miles) [sic -- 1,600 kilometers would be about 960 miles] from the epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude quake, which was located about 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island at a depth of about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles)." (12/26/04)

On the face of it, this appears to be the greatest natural disaster for nearly a century, based just on current death toll estimates. The worst magnitude earthquake since the 1964 Alaska quake, at least, and far deadlier than that both because of the low population AND the difference in culture and technology. Even statists will not try to claim that government can prevent earthquakes; however, government is frequently touted as the way to be able to (a) reduce the immediate impact of such natural disasters and (b) immediately respond to the recovery needs (recent reports are of several million people homeless). Is this true? One thing I noted last night when I read the first reports is that although there were several hours of time between the quake and the time the tsunami reached such critical areas as the Bengali and Indian coasts, there was apparently NO warning given and thousands died because (a) they didn’t recognize the signs and (b) because no one sounded civil defense/emergency response warnings. I believe that both of these can be viewed as failures of government: first, the lack of education (generally the ‘responsibility’ of government-run, taxpayer-funded schools) about the natural hazards; second, the failure of often-praised and very expensive warning and alert systems, all run by government. Even if a person may think it unreasonable for a vacationing family on the coast to recognize what it means when the water suddenly recedes into the ocean bed by hundreds of meters, that IS what a military man or bureaucrat in New Delhi or Calcutta should recognize, together with reports of a deep, massive ocean quake. Government failed in the first part - will it succeed in the second part: the response? We’ll see, but I don’t plan to place any bets. (Read the rest here)

External Article Links

The Largely Defunct Bill of Rights
by Harry Browne

The Founding Fathers created a Bill of Rights to ensure that Americans would never have to fear government prosecutors the way people in the Old World did.

Unfortunately, the Bill of Rights is a dead letter in too many ways in America. It has now become possible for prosecutors to get a conviction in virtually every case where they choose to indict – whether or not the defendant is guilty.

Fortunately, however, a number of prominent writers are alarmed about the problem – including some people you might expect to be law-and-order conservatives. (Read the rest here)

FICAA.com Presents: The American Jury Hour with Iloilo Marguerite Jones and guests. Heard on The American Voice Radio Network , Thursday Afternoons, Noon Pacific, 1PM Mountain. The weekend rebroadcast of this week's program is at Sunday at 9:00 PM. .

Heard on The American Voice Radio Network American Voice Radio Network can be heard on:

C-Band Satellite at Galaxy 11 (formerly G-7), Transponder 12, Audio 8.1 Internet Streaming Audio (MP3 16kbps) C-Band and Internet Audio feeds are free with no subscription fee or sign up required whatsoever. (Read the rest here)

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