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August
13, 2007 Libertarian
Commentary on The News,
05 - 11 August, 2007 Free
speech: Seems to me like the flight crew ought to have SOMEONE that speaks Strine, in Atlanta at least. But what really gets me mad about this is that it now apparently a federal felony to cuss a flight crew. I wonder, does that apply to USAF crews as well? If so, we aren’t going to have many soldiers available, pretty soon; they’ll all be in prison and disarmed as felons. Mama's Note: As far as I know, it's not a "felony" to curse the Pope, or much of anyone else. Just how do these people rate anyway - and what's the point? I never heard of anyone actually endangered by a bad word or three, much as I'd prefer not to hear them. The airline accused the lady of being "aggressive," but the news story didn't elaborate. Even if true, that would be no surprise, of course. She'd just gone through the groping, humiliation, insulting and time wasting process of getting on the stupid airplane! I'm afraid I'd have been far more than just "frustrated." That's why I stay far away from airports!! (Read the rest here) [Two full pages!]
Fanning
the Flames of Freedom Abroad I've recently returned from an amazing vacation abroad - I was a teacher at two Liberty English Camps. My experiences in Lithuania and Georgia were a refreshing reminder of why I love freedom, and of why I've been unable to walk away from pro-freedom activism, despite repeated attempts to do so. It's impossible to do justice to my adventures in the span of one essay; instead I'll try to simply provide a sketch of my experiences and observations from the two camps. (More personal observations will likely be forthcoming at my blog, Sunni and the Conspirators.) (Read the rest here)
Staging
the Portland Nuke (A Comedy of Terrors) "In August, Noble Resolve will coordinate with officials in Oregon to model a nuclear attack on Portland." wrote Josh Rogin, military reporter for Federal Computer Week's FCW.com on April 4. His article was the basis of my first call with Lt. Col. Philip Smith, a senior public affairs officer for the U.S. Joint Forces Command, which is conducting the military exercise. (Read the rest here)
Jobs
As Of August First One of the most useful tools for analyzing the current job situation is the amount of payroll taxes collected monthly. Nobody else uses these figures, but everyone who works (legally) in this country pays the same rate of payroll tax unless they are illegal alien immigrants. Therefore, the amount of money the federal government receives in payroll taxes, particularly for Social Security, is a direct reflection of the job situation in America. Of course, these payroll tax figures do not tell us the exact number of people working, but they do tell whether the group of workers is rising or falling and the general trend. It’s much more reliable than what you hear from much of what passes for news today. (Read the rest here)
We
Must Break the Sticks, One-by-One There is a fairly well-known story about a father with three sons. The father is reaching a point in his life where he wants to pass on his successful business to one of his sons. In many cultures, the first-born would get the job. But the father wanted to make sure that the business that he sweated blood and tears and slaved over for years and built up into a thriving enterprise, would survive his replacement. So the father devised a simple little test for each one of his sons to take, separately, without the other two sons being present. (Read the rest here)
Fathers,
The Third Victim of the Abortion Industry One theme surfaces repeatedly in the commentaries: feckless boyfriends who abandon their partners in their hour of greatest need. Hadley Arkes of Amherst College describes women having an abortion as routinely "Abandoned by the man." And Dorinda Bordlee from the Bioethics Defense Fund obliquely refers to fathers as "those who should be caring for [the mothers] and their unborn children." So does research back up these broad pronouncements of male abandonment? (Read the rest here)
From
The Archives On December 17, in Melbourne, Australia, two Christian pastors were found guilty of vilifying Muslims. The judge in the case stated that these pastors – one a former Muslim -- violated Section 8 of the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001 which forbids a person from engaging in conduct that "incites hatred against, serious contempt for, or revulsion or severe ridicule of, that other person or class of persons". These accusations were spurred by – get this – these pastors reading directly from the Quran. In other words, it is now a crime in Australia for a Christian to quote from the sacred book of another religion. This is not the Sudan, or Saudi Arabia or Iran. This is Australia. It is, you know, like, a free country. Things like this don’t happen in free countries. (1) Or do they? (Read the rest here)
The
Independent Institute President George W. Bush is trying to scare us. On July 24, 2007, at Charleston Air Force Base, he mentioned al Qaeda 93 times in a 29-minute speech. For nearly all Americans, mention of al Qaeda brings to mind frightening images of the World Trade Towers crashing to the ground. Nothing reminds us more compellingly of the threat that terrorists pose to our lives, even here in the United States. The president's speech writers are not fools; they would not write such scripts for their boss unless they knew that he wanted to scare us. So the intent is transparent. But why does the president want to scare us? Will his doing so serve any useful purpose? (Read the rest here)
The
Future of Freedom Foundation It's amazing what passes for news these days. Two Brookings Institution "liberals" who favored the invasion of Iraq before it occurred and have since led the war-cheerleading section are now getting attention for writing on the New York Times op-ed page that if the Bush administration stays the course, this is "A War We Might Just Win." Wow. Stop the presses. Michael E. O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at Brookings, and Kenneth M. Pollack, director of research at its Saban Center for Middle East Policy, claim that the war opponents "seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.... We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms." (Read the rest here)
Individual
Liberty - 101 "Imagine how safe we'd feel if the people who inspect and approve bridges could actually lose their jobs and their fortunes if they make a fatal mistake!" The collapse of a bridge in rush-hour Minneapolis must be well known by nearly everyone in the United States by now. Whenever anyone dies, it's a tragedy; when many die, and expensive property (dozens of automobiles) is lost, that's obviously a tragedy. When all this loss of life and wealth happens because government bureaucrats did their jobs poorly or correctly, that's a preventable and costly tragedy — bought at the expense of many taxpayers who likely would have done other things with their money than pay those bureaucrats. Remember, those who might have done other things with their money include the dead victims. (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)
External Articles Iraq
Vets Break Silence on Devastating Realities of War Over the past several months The Nation has interviewed fifty combat veterans of the Iraq War from around the United States in an effort to investigate the effects of the four-year-old occupation on average Iraqi civilians. These combat veterans, some of whom bear deep emotional and physical scars, and many of whom have come to oppose the occupation, gave vivid, on-the-record accounts. They described a brutal side of the war rarely seen on television screens or chronicled in newspaper accounts. (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)
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