March 18, 2005

A Tale Of Two Juries
By Carl F. Worden

This has been an interesting day in the history of California criminal justice.

On the same day Scott Peterson was sentenced to death by lethal injection for the murder of his wife, Laci and unborn son, Connor, in Redwood City, California, a jury in Southern California found actor Robert Blake not guilty of the murder of former lover Donna Lee Bakely. Blake was also acquitted on one charge of soliciting the murder of Ms. Bakely. On a second charge of soliciting the murder of Bakely, the jury locked 11-1 in favor of not-guilty.

I doubt very much that the prosecution will retry Blake for the second murder solicitation in view of that jury finding. (Read the rest here)

The Evil Fidel Castro
by Bob Wallace

There are some things I cannot comprehend. I can barely understand sky-diving, but do understand it enough so I might even do it myself someday. I'm sure I'd be screaming all the way down, though. However, I cannot understand scuba diving. There's monsters in the ocean, ones that to me are something out of an H.P. Lovecraft story. Remember Jaws? About as far as I've ever gone into the ocean is ankle-deep.

I know a guy who scuba dived in caves. I know of others, like LRC columnist Humberto Fontova (his site) who dived off of the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, down 200 feet (way past the safe limit) to spearhunt fish. He didn't do it occasionally. He did it lots. He even wrote a book about it, The Helldivers' Rodeo. (Read the rest here)

Democracy May Be Breaking Out, But Is Freedom?
By Sheldon Richman

Virtually everyone from President Bush to the New York Times sees democracy on a roll. Afghanistan, Iraq, the Palestinians, and Saudi Arabia (men, not women) have had elections. Egypt could be next. Is something really happening in that part of the world?

Perhaps. The real question is, what is happening? People are indeed going to the polls to elect parliaments and presidents, and are doing so under risky conditions. One should admire their willingness to defy murderers in order to have a say in who will govern them. After many years of living as subjects under repressive regimes, those populations apparently and correctly believe they deserve no less. (Read the rest here)

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

Happy Saint Patrick's Day - and pause to think about the impact of millions of Irish malcontents - stiff-necked and rebellious - on the history of the world, together with their equally obnoxious Welsh, Scots, Breton, and Cornish cousins. The recent trend of world history, of seeing the retreat of freedom across the globe, in many ways might be considered a de-celticization of the world. And that is too bad, because Celtic culture has almost always been one of liberty. At least that's my opinion, if not necessarily that of anyone else, including TPoL, RRND, or FND

Boy Scouts make preemptive move against ACLU
Baptist Press
The Boy Scouts of America has taken a step to save thousands of local public school systems from being used by the ACLU. Just last month, the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) , threatening to sue public schools that charter Boy Scout groups. The ACLU contends that schools' sponsorship amounts to religious discrimination and violates the separation of church and state. (According to information on the ACLU website, the group also views various Scout emphases -- such as allegiance to God and country, a resolve to help others, a commitment to remain morally straight, and character development -- worthy of legal action.) In response to this latest legal warning, Boy Scout national spokesman Gregg Shields explains the BSA defused the threat simply by transferring the charters to parent-teacher organizations or churches. "So we'll still be in the school; we'll still use the school building, if we did before -- simply the school administrator will not have to endure litigation from the ACLU."

A good move in more than one way - with BSA cutting its formal ties with both DoD and the various schools, it restores some of the freedom it has lost over the years, and may actually be better able to survive the coming collapse of the GRTF-school complex. But it is still a shame that they have to do this - that even a threat that probably took an ACLU lawyer fifteen minutes to write (but three billable hours!) should cause such a drastic action. And don't think the ACLU won't try to literally get the Scouts thrown out of the building as well. Already efforts are being made to prohibit recruiting of Scouts in public schools "because of their religious stance." Is it because Scouts are essentially a liberty-loving and -promoting organization and provides a fertile ground for leadership training and self-sufficiency? (Read the rest of the Commentary here)

New at The Price of Liberty
The Mailbag for Friday

Features From The Last Issue

Soft Totalitarians On The Loose At The UN By Carey Roberts Job Market Reflected In Payroll Taxes By Ed Henry Government’s Social Security Mess By Sheldon Richman Libertarian Commentary for Thursday

New Articles Posted Every Week Day !
Click Here for the Archives
PLEASE let me know if you find a broken link!
Each day's front page is linked to the date on the calendar.
Just click on one for more great articles!

New Feature At The Price of Liberty
BEWARE - The Idiot Zone
Ok, I think I got it right this time! New Idiot sighting by our own Ed Henry!
(Read the rest here) And send us your IDIOT sightings too.

READER'S FORUM
New topics are being added frequently now.
Take a look and let us know what you are thinking about the issues of today.

MamaLiberty is the owner, publisher, writer, chief cook and bottle washer for The Price of Liberty. I'd love to hear from you! I promise to delete any nasty notes, threats or other nonsense. Serious questions and comments will be answered to the best of my ability.

Serious writers are also invited to submit articles for consideration. Please see the mission statement and the writer's guidelines first, just to save you time and effort. I don't require exclusives, by any means. Please do not submit someone else's copyrighted material unless it is clearly marked for use on the external oped page. Include a link to it or we can't use it. Thanks!