April 05, 2005

Who's Crazy Now?
By Lady Liberty

I don't typically comment on school shootings at any length. That's largely because most of these tragic incidences have been so much alike, and I don't much care for the idea of repeating myself ad nauseum. But the recent school shootings in Red Lake, Minnesota are different for me. You see, I grew up in nearby Bemidji, Minnesota. Hearing my obscure little hometown mentioned repeatedly on Fox News and CNN, or seeing the name of the small town newspaper there cited as a source for international news wire stories, is jarring.

The victims of the Red Lake shootings were taken to North Country Regional Hospital in Bemidji. I have a cousin who is a head nurse there. The Beltrami County Sheriff's Office was one of the enforcement agencies called in to assist with the aftermath. My father worked for the Beltrami County Law Enforcement Center for many years. The grey winter landscape as well as the distinctive accent of those interviewed on TV are viscerally familiar to me. So I suppose I can't be blamed for taking an especially close look at this particular school shooting. What I discovered was something I knew before, but which was really brought home to me in my personal connections to the site of this latest incident: Most school shootings are very much alike indeed, and it's within those very similiarities that we should be learning the most. (Read the rest here)

Pipedreams Of Social Security Reform
By Ed Henry

Let’s be honest. Investment accounts are a risk, but they’re a good idea. They’re an exceptional idea if they take payroll tax money that’s going to be paid anyway and put it to a more useful purpose than letting the government waste that money as happens now. What do the younger generations have to lose?

From its beginning, the federal government has been taking excess/surplus payroll taxes generated by the Social Security program and spending that money elsewhere. At first, the amounts were relatively small and could be written off as contingency funds that hardly anyone noticed and the government was expected to pay back. It was listed under “Federal Debt.” (Read the rest here)

Candle-makers, Blacksmiths...and the Post Office
by Chuck Muth

Candle-makers were none too happy with the invention of the light bulb, for obvious reasons. Ditto blacksmiths with the invention of the automobile. So you can imagine how the post office must feel today about cheap long distance rates, faxes and email.

While candle-makers and blacksmiths still roam among us today, like the buffalo their numbers have greatly diminished since the country's founding years. I assume they fought the tide of progress tooth-and-nail, but in the end their fate was inevitable. So, too, is the fate of the once great United States Postal Service (USPS). Its demise is a foregone conclusion. The only question is when and how the USPS as we know it today will be put out to pasture for good. (Read the rest here)

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

Freedom is seldom lost all at once - rather, it is nibbled away bit by bit. However, the bites grow larger as the devouring tyrants gnaw closer to the bone, and we see this happening this week in several places. It is dangerous, and getting worse, at least in my view (not necessarily anyone else's, at FND, RRND, or TPoL)! We have just a few items today, as the world press and many of us are preoccupied by events in the Vatican.

UK: Double jeopardy law to be scrapped
Independent Television
People acquitted of serious crimes due to a lack of evidence could face court again as the so-called double jeopardy law is scrapped. The 800-year-old rule, which stops someone from being tried twice on the same charges, comes to an end tomorrow and many people acquitted of charges in the past could find themselves back in the dock if new evidence comes to light. For victims and their families the move is being seen as a hard fought victory, while many others think it will lead to more miscarriages of justice. Scotland Yard has already said it will review the cases of three men accused - then acquitted - of killing teenager Stephen Lawrence. The National Crime Faculty has calculated that there are 35 murder cases in which defendants who were acquitted could now be reinvestigated and new charges brought.

Just when you thought things could get no worse in our cousin country - this kind of thing happens. They are destroying a legal system even faster than we are - there will be no protection from being hounded to death, literally, by the state. (Read the rest of the commentary here)

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