January 30, 2006

Mind Your Own Marriage
By Cat Farmer

Why is it that diverse marital arrangements aren't recognized or tolerated in a "free" society? Weddings have long been church or community functions to witness and celebrate exchanges of marital vows. Weddings are not usually events open to the general public, but only to guests -- a number of family and friends who are specifically invited to attend. If all the townspeople crashed your wedding party, eating your food and drinking your wine, rambunctiously objecting to aspects of the proceedings or the marriage itself, offending the hosts and insulting the guests, you'd be mad, wouldn't you?

Why do so many people seem to perceive nothing amiss in the political variant of this wedding party-crashing scenario -- perhaps because it crashes the festivities by stealth, preemptively preventing marriages from occurring in the first place instead of rudely interrupting wedding celebrations already in progress? Aside from couples that may not meet the State's rigid marriage criteria, how many avoid making formal commitments to family life because of government's heavy-handed, bungling, even brutal interventions? (Read the rest here)

First Amendment First No More
By Lady Liberty

The Bill of Rights was appended to the Constitution almost from the beginning to protect what our Founding Fathers termed to be "unalienable rights." The intent was to preserve those rights for the individual no matter what the government or the majority of its citizens might think. In references to the "tyranny of the majority," the first ten amendments made a good deal of sense.

There are some among the Bill of Rights that enjoy less popularity than others. The Second Amendment, for example, is under consistent attack. So are the Fourth and Fifth Amendments castigated when bad guys go free because the good guys violated one or both, or when we determine that expedience in catching the bad guys outweighs civil liberties. But the First Amendment has almost always had broad support. Apparently, "had" is the operative term here. (Read the rest here)

Government Perpetuates the Underclass

By Sheldon Richman

Sunday's New York Times ran a depressing story about a new study showing that day laborers, most of whom are "illegal aliens," are often stiffed by employers. Of course, they're already working in dangerous low-paid construction jobs.

The Times reported, "Forty-nine percent of those interviewed said that in the previous two months an employer had not paid them for one or more days' work." About 20 percent said they had been injured, many of those missing work as a result. (Read the rest here)

Hamas, Israel and the United States
By SARTRE

Much has been written about the recent Palestinian election that has Hamas the victor. If elections have any connections with the public will at a given point in time, it can be concluded that political change was the motive for such a bombshell vote. It should be clear that unrest from Fatah factions demonstrates their unwillingness to readily accept the outcome of Palestinian sentiment. With this internal conflict there is a larger lesson. Fatah will be remembered as a corrupt regime, determined to maintain the managed chaos. What Hamas becomes may well surprise even the most hardened of critics.

The Bush administration likes to use the thesis that people want freedom. Well, the irony that an election can and will produce a result that spoils the outcome that NeoCons desire only proves the ridiculous hoax that the NWO believes in democracy. A savvy summary comes from Dr. Sedat Laciner, head of the International Strategic Research Organization (USAK - ISRO). (Read the rest here)

Libertarian Proposals For The Constitution (Part Two)
By Nathan A. Barton (TM and © 2006)

In the first part of this article, we looked at some recent proposals to improve the liberty-preserving aspects of the US Constitution. Now, here are some additional ideas.

Direct selection of Representatives: Especially with repeal of the 13th Amendment, restoring Senators as true representatives of the states. Why not also make the “People’s House” truly representative? No, I am NOT advocating that Euro-abortion called “proportional representation,” which only strengthened traditional political parties.

Instead, I am proposing a more radical system. There are approximately 300 million of us, about 150 million voters (actual voters, not registered voters), and 435 congressional seats. Today, these are allocated by states (minimum 1 per state) and geographic population, and then chosen by popular election. Currently, each representative represents an average of just about 1 million people, because of dividing districts by state, a number of small states, and other geographic and political realities. (Read the rest here)

Shackled, But Plunging Ahead Anyway
By Ed Henry

I have a friend who once described a “mess” as trying to put ten pounds of fresh doggie-do into a three pound bag. Today, this description fits almost anything the federal government tries to do. Let’s look at some recent examples:

* The Medicare Prescription Drug plan: Years in the planning, this benefit once estimated to cost $600 billion is off to a rocky start. Only a few weeks old, people who can die without their drugs are finding it difficult if not impossible to get what previously was supplied through Medicare Insurance and they receive it only if they or their pharmacies can get through to a human who knows what he or she is doing. Instead of using the network that was already in place, the government set it up through private insurance companies that, like the news media, all claim that they offer “the best,” just sign up with us. State agencies are running backwards in a forced effort to supply these drugs by working around this system and the entire plan merely reflects the federal government’s inability to regulate the pharmaceutical industry. As one New Orleans welfare worker put it; "helping Katrina victims was a walk in the park compared to this mess." It would have worked better if lobbyists had handed our representatives drugs under the table. (Read the rest here)

Your Feedback and Comments
The Mailbag for This Week

Do you know a good liberty centered blogs? Tell us about it!

Liberty Bloggers We Know