May 17, 2005

Taking it on Faith
By Lady Liberty

I read a lot, and much of what I read is science fiction. I'm capable of suspending all disbelief for hours at a time while I live in the world of the book I'm enjoying, at least until it's over. But seeing something on the printed page, no matter how immersed in imagination I might become, is no comparison to actually experiencing something in the real world.

Given my interests, more than a few people have asked me if I believe in UFOs. The answer to that question is an unqualified "yes." After all, people see UFOs all the time. A UFO is simply an "unidentified flying object," no more and no less. To deny that such things exist is obtuse, something I sincerely hope I'm not. But then comes the follow-up question: Do you think that UFOs are of alien origin? My answer to that is a little less definitive. I hope they are - come on, how amazing would it be to meet intelligences from another world?- but I don't really know. To say yes again would be to imbue the lack of evidence with nothing more tangible than wishful thinking. I hope I don't do that, either. (Read the rest here)

Media Coverage of Intelligence Manipulation
Reflects Public Acceptance of Imperial Presidency
By Ivan Eland

Delayed for two weeks after first reported and buried in the back pages of most major U.S. newspapers is the blockbuster story that key players in the British government believed the case for the invasion of Iraq was “thin” and that the Bush administration was manipulating intelligence to provide a rationale for an aggressive U.S. policy. In contrast, a merely symbolic and exhortative visit to Iraq by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is headline news in the same papers. The media coverage of those two stories—in inverse proportion to their importance—is a symptom of the decline of the republic and the ascension of the imperial presidency.

On May 1, 2005, the Sunday Times of London published a verbatim summary by a British official of a July 23, 2002, meeting on Iraq involving the British Prime Minister and some of his closest advisors. In the summary, the official encapsulated a report to the prime minister by Richard Dearlove, then head of Britain’s foreign intelligence agency MI-6, who had just returned from talks in Washington. According to the summary, Dearlove had reported that: “Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD [weapons of mass destruction]. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.” In addition, the subsequent guerrilla insurgency in Iraq makes prescient Dearlove’s observation that “[t]here was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.” (Read the rest here)

Social Security Demeans Workers
by Sheldon Richman

We can thank President Bush for reminding us that Social Security is not a pension or insurance plan but a welfare program. He did that recently when he proposed changing the benefit structure to favor (even more) low-income retirees at the expense of the “better off.” Whether this new wrinkle to his not-yet-defined plan to “save” Social Security will win support, we don’t yet know. But it will certainly prompt new points of debate over the issue.

Social Security has always been a welfare program. The essence of welfare is that government transfers money from one person to another, not that the money goes to the poor. The constellation of programs that transfer money from the taxpayers to businesses is properly called corporate welfare. (Read the rest here)

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Nathan is back at last!!
Libertarian Commentary on The News
By Nathan A. Barton © 2004

It appears that the weekend remained relatively calm and peaceful, except in the Mideast. But it may be the calm before the storm in the west, as things begin to build up on the legislative front and life in general.

I'm starting today's column with what is frankly an attack on the increasingly poor excuse for the press found in the mainstream media. Remember, please, the views expressed herein are not necessarily those of TPoL, RRND, or anyone other than the author.

Mainstream Media: enemies of all that is good

Newsweek: Koran desecration may have been in error
"Newsweek said it may have erred in reporting that U.S. military investigators found evidence that interrogators desecrated the Koran at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center, an article that sparked anti-American demonstrations in Pakistan and Afghanistan that resulted in at least 15 deaths. 'We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst,' Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in 'The Editor's Desk' column published on Newsweek's Web site." (05/15/05) (Read the rest here)

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