Loony Libertarianism by weebies
Individual responsibility should not be a foreign concept to libertarianism. The concept of each person being responsible for their actions and the consequences of their actions would go a long way to overcome the glaring contradiction currently being supported. That and a consistent application of all the principles of libertarianism; not the pick one principle and then fantasize it being true advocated by so many. If people do that, libertarianism will become a philosophy worth adopting, and can be the basis for a rule of law.


- posted by SARTRE @ 7:06 AM (0) comments

 
RFID Cards Get Spin Treatment by Mark Baard
U.S. government will not use radio-frequency identification tags in the passports it issues to millions of Americans in the coming years.
Instead, the government will use "contactless chips." The distinction is part of an effort by the Department of Homeland Security and one of its RFID suppliers, Philips Semiconductors, to brand RFID tags in identification documents as "proximity chips," "contactless chips" or "contactless integrated circuits" -- anything but "RFID."

- posted by SARTRE @ 12:33 PM (0) comments

 
Which Way for Liberty? by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
What the Bush regime has taught us is that there is a difference between being anti-leftist and being pro-liberty. They have demonstrated that the threats to liberty emanate not only from leftist thought but also rightist thought in which the state is used to impose a particular view of the good at home and abroad. I don't think the US has ever had a left-wing president as convinced as the Bush administration of the ability of government to work miracles.
- posted by SARTRE @ 5:43 AM (0) comments

 
White House considers MI-5-type security division
The concept has been compared by some to the MI-5 domestic intelligence service in Britain, with training, investigation, surveillance and prosecution in national security cases consolidated in one division. It also would be a natural extension of the Justice Department's dismantling of the so-called wall that separated law enforcement and intelligence operations and hindered the sharing of information before the Sept. 11 attacks, proponents say.


- posted by SARTRE @ 6:48 AM (0) comments

 
New city police cars will have cameras by FRAN SPIELMAN AND FRANK MAIN
"You could pull into a street corner and, if there's a drug deal going on a half-block away, you can hear what's going on. You could have all the windows shut and the air-conditioning on and you could hear everything going on outside the vehicle," Picardi said.

Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said he would be concerned if the police recorded those conversations without a warrant.


- posted by SARTRE @ 6:02 AM (0) comments

 
Paul Craig Roberts: No Conspiracy for This Fool by URI DOWBENKO
In his column called "A Threat Greater Than Terrorism," Roberts continues to promote the idea that the Neo-Conquest of America is a product of delusion or accident, but certainly not a well-planned agenda to turn the United States into a third world nation.

The conspiracy against the United States is relatively straight forward. It acts on the understanding that self-centered Americans will put up with almost anything when it is couched in "patriotism" and the "war on terrorism."

- posted by SARTRE @ 7:56 PM (0) comments

 
Has Anything Changed? by Paul Walter
As America continues today with all their fun times, shopping at the mall or heading off to Mexico for a little sun and drinking, this is what the Schindler family is doing right now: watching their daughter die a barbaric death. Not because their daughter is in a "persistent vegetative state," or because she wants to die, but because this is what happens when the judicial system turns its back on the innocent and sides with the wicked.


- posted by SARTRE @ 7:09 PM (0) comments

 
Terri Schiavo, the State, and the Culture of Death by William L. Anderson
Thus, the Schiavo case, if nothing else, highlights nearly everything that is rotten in American governance. We see the rank hypocrisy by people on all sides, we see the imposition of the state and federal courts as the Ultimate Authority, and, in the end, and we stand around helplessly shouting at one another while a woman slips into death, it being illegal to give even the literal cup of cold water to her. The state mandates death, and no one does it better.
- posted by SARTRE @ 6:55 PM (0) comments

 
Why Do Republican Judges Want Terri Schiavo Dead? by JOHN ARAVOSIS
As I suspected, it's, once again, the GOP judges who are staking out the position that Terri Schiavo should be permitted to finally die with dignity.

Not only is the Florida judge a big ole Republican, but of the 3 appellate court judges deciding on this yesterday, the dissenter (i.e., agreed with the Religious Right) was a Clinton appointee, and the two judges who said it's time to let Terri go were a Bush and a Clinton apppointee.

- posted by SARTRE @ 2:20 PM (0) comments

 
Strange bedfellows battle Patriot Act abuses by JESSE J. HOLLAND
The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform and the Free Congress Foundation are among several groups that formed a coalition - Patriots to Restore Checks and Balances - to lobby Congress to repeal three key provisions of the USA Patriot Act.


- posted by SARTRE @ 6:59 AM (0) comments

 
''Watch Lists' by John R. Lott, Jr. and Sonya D. Jones
Should people lose rights because they are sympathetic to, but do not actually help, terrorist groups? Should law enforcement be the arbiter of those sympathizers who should be placed on "watch lists"?

Democrats said "yes" to both questions recently as they released a report showing that 35 gun purchases during the first half of last year were made by people on terrorist "watch lists" and called it a major public security risk. Their solution? Ban the sale of guns to people law enforcement places on the "watch list."


- posted by SARTRE @ 6:08 AM (0) comments

 
The Idiocy of Gender Equality by Adam Young
The only genuine form of equality is individual liberty. Liberty as pointed out by philosophers like Herbert Spencer and Roderick Long practices an equality that does not distinguish between gender and ethnicity, but on ability and the requirements of the division of labor. Free market equality values the individual not for what they are but for who they are as a person. A person who has individual needs and desires and interests. The free market deals with real human beings. These tyrannical counterfeit egalitarians like Gudrun Schyman and Maria-Pia Boethius deal instead with straw men and stereotypes.
- posted by SARTRE @ 9:00 AM (0) comments

 
Toward a Sensible Israel Policy by Michael Scheuer
If possible, America's relationship with Israel must be restructured to not only maintain America's ties to an associate of long-standing, but also to emphasize that the United States is the great power, that Israel is a minor power, and that America has neither scrapped its dedication to evenhandedness nor placed its national security in the hands of a minor power. For America's security and its own, Israel should help foment this debate. It is in neither nation's interest to delay debate until Americans have begun to evaluate their relationship with Israel through a lens ever more heavily smeared with the blood of their sons and daughters.


- posted by SARTRE @ 8:35 AM (0) comments

 
Restore the Rights of Clergy in America by Patrick J. Buchanan
Separation of church and state means churches do not dictate state policy and the state does not dictate church teaching. It does not mean rulers have immunity from condemnation or praise.

As Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs argues, Catholic priests have a duty to declare "moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls."


- posted by SARTRE @ 4:08 PM (0) comments

 
The Price of Patriotism . . . by Christopher Manion
In virtually every country in the world, goodwill towards America has been plummeting for two years. However, the phenomenon is not limited to opinion abroad. Indeed, in terms of the domestic "market price" of patriotism, American goodwill is declining rapidly, especially among American youth. At least, that is what recent U.S. Government military recruiting figures show.


- posted by SARTRE @ 5:22 AM (0) comments

 
Bush’s Napoleon Complex by Gregory Cochran
The Bush administration can always plead ignorance. Certainly few of the players knew much about Iraq, the Middle East, or Islam. Judging from their frequent confused historical references, it seems as if Condi and Rummie really don’t know any history at all. But the administration didn’t check with anyone who did know. In fact, it rejected every form of expert advice. I’m sure someone said “wouldn’t be prudent”—but Bush wasn’t in a mood to listen, and no advice, no intelligence briefing, can trump that.
- posted by SARTRE @ 9:00 PM (0) comments

 
Terri Schiavo Case Portends An Ominous Future For America by Chuck Baldwin
However, as with the Roe decision in 1973, it appears that an activist judiciary will once again defy the will of the citizenry and give its blessing to the horrific killing of innocent Americans. They must assume that since the American people have come to accept the thought of helpless, unborn babies having their heads and limbs cut off while in the womb, we will also come to accept the thought of helpless, handicapped adults being allowed to starve to death while in a hospital. One can only wonder what is next.
- posted by SARTRE @ 7:54 AM (0) comments

 
Serene Outlaw: Henry David Thoreau in His Second Century by Douglas Herman
One hundred and fifty years later, Thoreau has become part sage, part New World prophet, not only warning us but fortifying and consoling us while we blunder about in this modern world. Indeed, the “nervous, bustling, trivial Nineteenth Century” he derided has evolved into the frantic, foreboding, techno-materialistic world he may never have envisioned. “The deeper our United States sinks into industrialism, urbanism, militarism—with the rest of the world doing its best to emulate America—the more poignant, strong, and appealing becomes Thoreau’s demand for the right of every man, every woman, every child, every dog, every tree, every snail darter, every lousewort, every living thing, to live its own life in its own way at its own pace in its own square mile of home,” observed Abbey.
- posted by SARTRE @ 7:25 AM (0) comments

 
Low-Tax Liberalism Redux by Daniel McCarthy
The panel for the roundtable discussion on the 23rd pitted my American Conservative colleague W. James Antle III and the Cato Institute’s Jeremy Lott against Reason editor Nick Gillespie and the American Spectator’s Amy Mitchell, formerly of Cato herself but here giving a straight Bushist line. The topic was "Conservatives and Libertarians: Can This Marriage Be Saved?" – Gillespie and Mitchell saying no, Antle and Lott arguing the affirmative. One libertarian and one conservative on each side was the idea, though Lott and Antle were both somewhat libertarian and conservative, and, well, the ghosts of Murray Rothbard and Robert Nisbet might argue that Gillespie and Mitchell were neither one nor the other.
- posted by SARTRE @ 6:43 AM (0) comments

 
How Come It's Still 1984? by Vin Suprynowicz
Let's see. George W. Bush makes a big speech about how America promotes democracy throughout the world. How do the Democrats respond? By pointing out that our Founding Fathers purposely set us up with a Republic, while strongly warning against direct "democracy" as nothing but "mob rule," likely to vote the constitutional rights of minorities out of existence at the first opportunity?


- posted by SARTRE @ 6:39 AM (0) comments

 
Deficits Make You Poorer by Rep. Ron Paul
Most Americans are vaguely aware that Congress has run up huge deficits in recent years, but the numbers involved are so large that it’s hard to grasp what our government’s indebtedness really means to us as individuals. The total federal debt is quickly approaching $8 trillion, courtesy of an administration that borrows roughly one billion dollars every day to pay its bills.


- posted by SARTRE @ 9:12 AM (0) comments

 
Looking for an Honest Socialist by Bill Walker
There are no free-enterprise nations today. Every country has government-enforced fiat currency, large State-run economic sectors, and bureaucratic meddling in every area of human life. Many nations even have more than one government telling their citizens what to do, often the US and UN governments as well as their own local kleptocrats. So we don’t really know what an undistorted market economy would look like today; we can make guesses, but we must admit that they can’t be very accurate.
- posted by SARTRE @ 7:06 AM (0) comments

 
Reagan's Real Revolution by Bill Bonner
Reagan had the right instinct. "Get big guv’mint off our backs," was almost his campaign theme song. And when he had the chance, he often did the right thing. Faced with a strike by air-traffic controllers – the only union to back his campaign – he fired 10,000 of them. That is, when he saw some improvement created by his predecessors, his instinct was to generally to get rid of it.

The trouble was that once in Washington, the actor still remembered his lines, but he lost the plot. Almost before he could get his cowboy boots off, he was making improvements of his own.


- posted by SARTRE @ 8:11 AM (0) comments

 
America Was a Great Idea by Anthony Gregory
America was itself a great idea. Thirteen colonies, sold on the lofty ideal of self-determination, defeated the British empire and drove it out of their neighborhoods. They fought it off in the only conflict approaching a just war in American history. It was all an idea, see, that people had rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and not to be ruled by some inbred royalist reprobate named George three thousand miles away.

- posted by SARTRE @ 7:50 AM (0) comments

 
Warning to America ...Part Two by Jani Allan
In America, the New York Times is intent on alarming the already alarmed. "Suspected terrorists," it bawls, "can still buy guns!" Shock and awe. According to this Old York Times, "dozens of terror suspects are allowed to buy firearms in the US!"

As a non-Mexican foreigner in the United States I am not allowed to drive, work or vote, much less buy a gun, open a bank account or buy a computer on HP. If there are loop holes (Cf 9/11 http://www.wingtv.com) they have been allowed or orchestrated.



- posted by SARTRE @ 7:28 AM (0) comments

 
America by the numbers by Michael Ventura
No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:
- posted by SARTRE @ 7:53 AM (0) comments

 
The War Path of Unity by Joshua Frank
In the context of a party hell-bent on war, whose foreign policy is essentially identical to the Republican policy, it doesn't matter how many MoveOn members donate money to the Democratic Party. In the end, such reformers are left with nothing. No party. No money. No hope. And – perhaps worst of all – no unity.
- posted by SARTRE @ 11:50 AM (0) comments

 
I Am a Reactionary Libertarian: Or Why I Believe in Fusionism by Ira Katz
The ascension of the influence and power of the neoconservatives in the Bush administration has focused attention on the cleavage between so called conservatives and libertarians. This cleavage is not a new phenomenon as is well documented by Jude Blanchette in his bibliographies regarding this debate. However, Blanchette also cites the opposite inclination in the person of Frank Meyer, who "was a long-time editor of National Review and the originator of what Brent Bozell called ‘fusionism.’ It represented Meyer's noble attempt to unite conservatives and libertarians under a banner of anti-statism and tradition." In this essay I will not attempt to explain Meyer’s fusionism from the 50s and 60s, but my own view of fusionism.
- posted by SARTRE @ 6:23 AM (0) comments

 
None of us are Free - Solomon Burke
Thanks to Paul at www.pkj.ca for having created this flash presentation.
- posted by SARTRE @ 7:05 AM (0) comments

 
The Railroading of Matt Hale by Edgar J. Steele
Hale was declared a domestic terrorist and has been held incommunicado under provisions of the draconian and woefully-misnamed Patriot Act. Those associated with the case have been required to sign "SAM" (Special Administrative Procedure") documents which require their public silence. The Feds mean business, too, as lawyers are sitting in federal prison cells right now, accused of violating SAM agreements in other cases. I haven't signed a SAM document in Hale's case yet because I have not taken on an official role. Of course, I haven't been given direct access to Hale, either. We have been forced to communicate in writing, by letter...when my letters haven't been denied to Hale and returned by the authorities, that is. Even so, an attorney-client relationship has existed between Hale and myself for some time now.

- posted by SARTRE @ 4:48 PM (0) comments

 
Constitution Killers by George Neumayr
The Supreme Court's judicial activists are cutting off the branch on which they sit. By rejecting the law and putting their personal opinions in its place, the justices invite the people to imitate them and disregard their decrees with the same willfulness they disregard the Constitution. If Anthony Kennedy isn't bound by the framers' words, why are the people bound by his?

- posted by SARTRE @ 9:36 AM (0) comments

 
The Padilla Ruling Is a Victory for Freedom by Jacob G. Hornberger
It’s true that Padilla might well have committed the crimes of which he is accused. If so, then the government simply needs to charge him with those crimes. Otherwise, as Judge Floyd ordered, federal officials must release him. That’s the way we do things in America. That’s how things are done in a free society.

- posted by SARTRE @ 8:43 AM (0) comments

 
Presidential abuse of power by DALE McFEATTERS
The most egregious assertion of power in the Bush administration's war on terror was the president's right to jail any American indefinitely without trial. The president merely had to designate that person an "enemy combatant."
- posted by SARTRE @ 7:11 AM (0) comments

 
Three Big Disagreements With Libertarians by Chuck Muth
Having recently addressed the campaign nuts-and-bolts of getting limited-government candidates elected as members of the Libertarian Party, let’s now take a look at three big issues which I believe currently stop many more conservatives from joining the them: Abortion, foreign policy and immigration. These are NOT minor issues.

- posted by SARTRE @ 10:50 AM (0) comments

 
'Vital Strategic Interests' versus 'Effectively Fighting Terrorism' by Stephen Bender
The leaders of the United States, like the leaders of every arrogant, powerful state before it, have sought to subordinate or conquer weaker states. The rulers of dominant states have since time immemorial regarded such cold-blooded statecraft as the due of "great men." And they say the human race evolves (which it does, of course, but at a snail’s pace).


- posted by SARTRE @ 8:29 AM (0) comments