| No human being has the right -- under any circumstances -- to initiate force against another human being, nor to threaten or delegate its initiation. The Zero Aggression Principle |
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March
12, 2007 A couple of things that happened this week dovetailed so nicely with some of the news stories I reported this week that it seemed inevitable I'd write more about it. The fact that it has something so integral to do with each and every one of us makes it all that much more pertinent to the matters at hand. I'm talking, of course, about the freedom of religion. The freedom of worship is guaranteed in the First Amendment along with the clear prohibition to the state that it may not establish any kind of an official religion. Most constitutional scholars have interpreted these portions of the First Amendment to mean that the state has no business either promoting or curtailing anybody's religious freedoms. A letter written by Thomas Jefferson to a Baptist group seeking comment on religious rights as opposed to religious privileges likened the notion to a "wall of separation" between the church and the state. (Read the rest here)
Libertarian
Commentary on The News, 4
- 10 March, 2007 Culture
wars: I do not understand why a “compromise” was necessary when the idiocy of removing a cross like this was so obvious, and so greatly opposed. This paves the way for more and more compromises, and is one more step to a religion-free society. Economy: Minor adjustment or a warning tremor of a major quake to come? It hit a lot of folks hard, but for the most part, no one seems to be too worried, right now. (Read the rest here. Two full pages.)
The
First Great Railroad Fight of the 21st Century A recent news item included in several well-known libertarian news digests (but mistakenly identified as "Montana" and not the far better state to the south, Wyoming) concerned some of the latest developments in a legal, political, and transportation battle that has been going on for well over a decade in Wyoming and its neighbor to the east, South Dakota. It has had some surprising impacts over the past fourteen years: one of the few true libertarians to serve in Pierre (in the South Dakota legislature) won his term because of anger about the eminent domain portion of the fight. (Read the rest here)
The
Scandal at Walter Reed Statement
on the Iraq War Resolution Before the U.S. House of Representatives March
7, 2007 There is a pressing need to reassess our now widely accepted role as the world’s lone superpower. If we don’t, we are destined to reduce our nation to something far less powerful. It has always been politically popular for politicians to promise they will keep us out of foreign wars, especially before World War I. That hasn’t changed, even though many in Washington today don’t understand it. Likewise it has been popular to advocate ending prolonged and painful conflicts like the wars in Korea and Vietnam, and now Iraq. (Read the rest here)
Feminist
Eugenics Nearly a century ago a young Austrian corporal became inspired by the vision of creating a Master Race. Once he declared himself the Führer, Adolf Hitler set out to assure the ascendancy of biologically "valuable" Germans. From 1934 to 1937 the Nazi regime sterilized an estimated 400,000 persons whom they viewed as physically and mentally unfit. To silence his critics, Hitler justified his extermination program by invoking the scientific discipline of eugenics, a word derived from the Greek for "good birth." (Read the rest here)
External
Articles
Raging Against Self Defense: A Psychiatrist Examines The Anti-Gun Mentality By Sarah Thompson, M.D. "You don't need to have a gun; the police will protect you." "If people carry guns, there will be murders over parking spaces and neighborhood basketball games." "I'm a pacifist. Enlightened, spiritually aware people shouldn't own guns." "I'd rather be raped than have some redneck militia type try to rescue me." How often have you heard these statements from misguided advocates of victim disarmament, or even woefully uninformed relatives and neighbors? Why do people cling so tightly to these beliefs, in the face of incontrovertible evidence that they are wrong? Why do they get so furiously angry when gun owners point out that their arguments are factually and logically incorrect? (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article on this page!!) What
To Say to a Bunch of People Who Want To Kill You We’ll Protect You Keep in mind that those 300 Greek men sent to hold off the invading 600,000-man Persian army did not win the battle. They lost. They really, really lost. The 600,000 Persians knew that the little Greek army led by Leonidas wouldn’t be a problem. Just a minor stepping-stone on their way into Greece. Like any warrior, however, the Persian leader Xerxes knew it would be better to get the 300 men on his side than to expend the time and minor casualties to fight those 300 Greeks. That’s why the Persian Emperor sent word to that small band of 300 Greek fighters with the following: we will spare every one of your lives. All you need to do is disarm yourselves. Put down your weapons and you will live. It’s a lot like what the Third Reich told many in Poland and elsewhere right before they spent the next few years firebombing those who lay down their guns. It’s a lot like Janet Reno told the wacky David Koresh and his church in Waco right before she firebombed and slaughtered all those children. It’s a lot like what your government has been moving toward since the 1934 National Firearms Registration Act started the same ball rolling here. "Give us your weapons. You don’t need them. We’re from the government. We’re here to help. We will protect you." (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)
Update:
The US Government’s Usage of Atomic Bombs - Domestic - WTC The Mysterious
Craters: A thorough examination the debris of the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings reveals further evidence of massive power and heat - a thermonuclear blast. WTC 6 was 8 stories high. The total height of its central debris of the crater was about 30 to 50 feet below sea level and about 120 feet wide. Eight stories of building collapses and leaves a hole at least 30 feet deep. (Read the rest here)
From
The Archives (02/02/05) 76 million baby-boomers looming on the horizon and about to wreck havoc on the supplemental retirement system, Social Security. That’s the story we hear over and over as a reason for immediate Social Security reform of some type. Since one of Alan Greenspeak’s speeches a few months ago, the number has even increased to 77 million baby boomers. What the fear mongers never tell you is whether these figures are births “above normal.” But they certainly imply that it is when they speak of hordes of people about to begin retirement and draining the Social Security insurance program every worker in America has been contributing towards and where they each already have a “personal account.”. The truth is that there were births above the normal rate between 1946 and 1965 after sixteen million lusty servicemen and women returned from the many theaters of World War II and began having children during the primary reproductive ages of their soul mates. But the real figure of births above normal is more like seven or eight million, something Social Security can handle without breaking a sweat. (Read the rest here)
The
Independent Institute The bulk of expert opinion predicts that the Bush administration’s escalation strategy in Iraq will fail. The void created by the administration’s lack of a back–up plan for that outcome has been filled with proposals from pundits, academics, and think–tank analysts, who recommend containing Iraq’s civil war. Most of these analysts suggest removing U.S. troops from harm’s way, pulling them back from major Iraqi population centers and moving them to outlying areas safer from the raging civil war—for example, the Iraqi borders, more remote regions of Iraq, or neighboring countries—while using those forces to try to prevent the civil conflict from turning into a regional war. In general, this is the opposite of the strategy now being pursued by the administration. The administration is taking U.S. troops from existing large bases on the outskirts of Iraqi cities, and quartering them within those cities, so that they can be closer to the Iraqi people and the “bad guys.” So if the administration’s Plan A doesn’t work, the pundits are advocating doing the opposite. Such containment strategies, however, are almost as flawed as the administration’s current tack. (Read the rest here)
The
Future of Freedom Foundation In my article “The Pentagon’s Power to Arrest, Torture, and Execute Americans,” I explained that the post–9/11 power to designate Americans as “enemy combatants” in the “war on terror” has revolutionized America’s legal system by enabling the Pentagon to circumvent the rights and guarantees in the Bill of Rights. In my article “The Critical Dilemma Facing Pro-War Libertarians,” I explained that 9/11 has confronted pro-war libertarians with what undoubtedly is one of the biggest moral and philosophical quandaries of their lives — whether to remain committed to a conservative foreign policy, thereby giving up their commitment to a free society, or to embrace libertarian principles in both domestic and foreign affairs. It might be tempting for people to avoid confronting these critical issues head-on by convincing themselves that there really isn’t any great danger to the American people by this post–9/11 assumption of omnipotent military power over the citizenry. There is no need to overreact to the assumption of such power, people might think. Let’s just wait and see how things develop. If it looks like the power is being abused, we can then do something about it. (Read the rest here)
Individual
Liberty - 101 Lou Dobbs declares that there is only one option in the war on drugs — victory. I agree. The real question is how to achieve this victory. The two things we know for certain are that we will never eliminate drug abuse and addiction and we will never make any real progress towards reducing drug abuse and addiction by government. All the rest of the problems with "drugs" are directly the result of the war on drugs — government prohibition. Drug-related crimes, drug gangs, overcrowded prisons, a poisoned judicial system, and political corruption are all the result of drug prohibition, not drugs themselves. Look at the problems in drug-producing areas of the world such as Mexico, South America, the Middle East and Afghanistan. What would these nations be like absent our drug war? We know very well that the drug war and illegal drug money is helping to undermine local institutions, spread dangerous ideologies, and fuel anti-Americanism. The same applies to the inner city ghettos. (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)
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