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Congress waived soveriegn immunity. Congress passed a statute that allowed the government to be sued. ...Congress in its wisdom put certain limits on that right. ...An important limit that Congress put on that right, they simply did not trust juries to decide cases where the government is being sued.Soverign immunity? That concept is repulsive. Public so-called servants should be more susceptible to jury rulings than the rest of us. How else can we keep them in check? I'm much too angry about this to say anything except: Bill of Rights Enforcement! Now. [wnd]
Lindesmith Center - Shadow Conventions 2000: The Failed Drug War: The Lindesmith Center is sponsoring the Drug Policy day at the shadow conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. The other days of the Shadow Conventions are focusing on "campaign finance reform" and "poverty & the wealth gap". I find it unfortunate that besides libertarians, it is mostly socialist liberals who want to end the war on some drugs. I am drawn to Philadelphia, August 1st, but will probably not go because my company's users conference starts the weekend following the convention, and I may be in last-minute deadline mode. [dpf.org email]
Julian Sanchez at liberzine - Enemy of the people: Lockney, Texas instituted a drug-testing policy for all of its school children. Larry Tannahill refused to allow his son to be tested. He spoke out against the policy. His action is not very popular in Lockney, but it wins my highest respect. I salute you, Mr. Tannahill. [market]
Robert X. Cringely at I, Cringely - Meet Eater: The FBI's Plan for Digital Wiretaps Raises More Questions Than It Answers: Talks about some of the technical details of snooping on internet traffic. For one, it doesn't require a dedicated box, you can just ask the ISP to copy the network traffic from one of its routers. So why does the FBI have a box in a locked closet in our ISPs? Mr. Cringely surmises: [/.]
But I have my own theory about Carnivore. From a network architecture standpoint, the best location for Carnivore is right after the ISP's router. This puts Carnivore in the path of every packet entering or leaving the ISP. It's also a major reason why ISPs might not want to install Carnivore boxes -- it's the network's point of greatest vulnerability. In this position, Carnivore can act as a listening and recording device, OR IT CAN ACT AS A SWITCH. If we ever hear a proposal from the FBI in which it plans to install Carnivores at all 6000 ISPs in the U.S., we'll be giving the government the power to do something it can't do right now.Shut the Internet down.
Bloomberg News via CNET - EarthLink won't install FBI surveillance device: EarthLink is refusing to install Carnivore, though their reason appears to be technical, not a matter of principle. Still, good for them. Slashdot discussion about this story and the Cringely pulpit above are here. [/.]
Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - High Taxes Cause High Gas Prices: Gas Tax Relief Will Benefit Consumers Immediately: Many in Washington are calling for additional oil industry regulation in a supposed effort to control gas prices. In reality, gas is so expensive today because of government regulation and exorbitant taxes. Dr. Paul has introduced three bills to fix the real problem.
The obvious way to reduce the price that consumers pay for gasoline is to reduce fuel taxes. Federal taxes account for nearly 20 cents per gallon of gasoline sold. State and local taxes bring the total to 42 cents per gallon. Thus, while the cost of crude oil is roughly 70 cents per gallon (based on the current cost of $30 per barrel for OPEC crude oil), the "cost of politicians" is 42 cents! In fact, over 43 different taxes are imposed on the production and distribution of gasoline by various levels of government. The pre-tax price of a gallon of gasoline barely has changed in the last decade, hovering around 88 cents throughout the 1990s. The real increase has been in various taxes: in 1990 consumers spent only 27 cents per gallon in taxes (as opposed to 42 cents today). At the same time, EPA regulations (such as those requiring new reformulated gasoline) add significantly to the cost of fuel production. Analysts estimate consumers would save a whopping $67 billion in one year if gas taxes were eliminated. Clearly, we need to end the smokescreen and stop blaming oil companies for high prices that have been caused almost entirely by huge increases in fuel taxes.
Joel Miller at WorldNetDaily - Yakkity yak, don't talk smack: A good overview of the plethora of attacks on free speech that are out there today on both a national and an international level. Bill of Rights Enforcement! Now. [wnd]
I think someone in Congress forgot to fill out an order form for toilet paper. Those yahoos on Capitol Hill keep using the Bill of Rights instead.The War on Drugs, a case in point, just seems to lurch from one unconstitutionality to the next, providing the feds an ever-blooming bouquet of excuses to wipe their heels across the inalienable rights of American citizens.
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Unless you like that jackbooted saunter into the brave new world of government thought control, I'd suggest you sound off to your representatives, telling them the only control needed in your life regarding drugs is what the Constitution allows -- nothing.
Henry Bowman at Sierra Times - Second Notice: The second installment for the Henry Bowman Brigade. Mr. Bowman presents a notice to deliver to your congress critter. [sierra]
"We will not under any circumstances cooperate with any government or law enforcement agency with regard to registration of either firearms, or the owners of those firearms."We will not under any circumstances obey any existing law which is in direct conflict with any provision of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the United States. This action is pursuant to Marbury v. Madison, 5 US 137 (1803)
"We will not under any circumstances submit to any form of government tyranny committed under the guise of enforcing illegal, unconstitutional laws, regulations or any other form of dictate by whatever term it may be known. We are absolved from any need to do so by Title 18 USC, Part 1, Chap 13, sect. 241 & 242.
"And lastly, we will not 'go gentle into that good night'. The gaggle of Honorable Traitors in the state and federal legislatures should be disabused of any belief that they can implement any of their illegal, unconstitutional acts with impunity. If they come at us with force of arms, whether under color of authority or otherwise, they should expect and will in fact receive a response in kind."
Angel Shamaya at Sierra Times - Court Rules Against Bob Stewart: U.S. Judge Lawrence O. Andersen ruled that Bob Stewart's Maadi-Griffin .50 Caliber Kit is a firearm. This kit can be used to build a gun that fires blanks. With some unspecified to the court amount of work, it can be converted into a real weapon, though doing so without lots of gun-smithing experience will more likely create some very expensive shrapnel. Shame on you Mr. Anderson. [sierra]
Colonel Dan at Sierra Times - Where's the Line? The time for compromising is over. Socialism must die in America. Now. This story will likely reappear here next week. [sierra]
"When citizens fear their government, you have tyranny; when the government fears its citizens, you have freedom." -- Thomas Jefferson...
As a nation, most people behave as if somehow the history of governmental power will be different after the next election because, after all, we are an enlightened and much more sophisticated America than were any of the preceding cultures in the history of the world. We would do well to keep in mind however that never in history, that I know of, has established government ever willingly relinquished control or reversed the trend of accumulating power unto itself over the governed unless forced by the governed to do so--peacefully or otherwise. Governments are by nature and design purveyors of force and power--an addictive combination. They will never relinquish this hold voluntarily no matter what the campaign promises.
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When will we say no more--not one more inch? Will it be soon or never? If it's to be never, let's surrender now so we can put all further confrontation behind us and get on with the new order of things and start to adapt to our new country and lifestyle of being dominated by socialists. If it's to be soon however, then let it be damn soon because we are currently losing ground at a rate that we'll never be able to recover if the trend continues and we grow ever more divergent in our basic philosophies.
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"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." -- Thomas Jefferson
David Cohen at the electronic Telegraph - Sealand runs foul of UK immigration: British immigration turned away an American engineer on his way to Sealand. They claimed that Sealand was part of Britain, so he needed a British work permit. Sealand will get him there another way, exactly how they're not telling. Lots of folks are pointing to this story. [grabbe]
bob lonsberry - I Want Philly Cops Patrolling My Streets: I rarely watch commercial television, so I missed the video of the police "beating" in Philadelphia. Mr. Lonsberry tells us why the police were properly doing their jobs in this particular case. I think he's probably right. BTW, so does J.J. Johnson at Sierra Times, though I didn't like Mr. Johnson's essay as much as Mr. Lonsberry's.
Bob Murphy at LewRockwell.com - Why I Am Voting for Harry Browne: Maybe I'll vote after all, just to put some gum in the works. Harry Browne is the only candidate I could imagine voting for. He doesn't beat out "none of the above", but we're not given that choice. [lew]
If my listener allows me to elaborate, I explain that I will continue to vote for Browne (or whomever the Libertarian Party nominates) until that point at which I think he might actually win. Then I'll switch to a new, even more radical candidate, who doesn't stand a chance of winning. Like Lew Rockwell.
Patricia Neill at LewRockwell.com - I'll Wait for Sales Day On This Peace Accord Deal: I missed the stories she's writing about, but apparently someone in the so-called peace talks between Israel and Palestine is saying that for $100 billion dollars, they'll make peace. Baloney. Patty has some good commentary, but I'm going to go further out on a limb than she did. There will be peace in Palestine when the Jewish invaders leave. That is not bloody likely. Why is America wasting its time and my stolen tax money on this. Let them take care of their own problems. [lew]
Colombians Tell of Massacre, as Army Stood By: Members of a "right-wing paramilitary group" marched into the town of El Salado, Columbia, and started executing and raping. The army blocked humanitarian aid from entering the village. And the U.S. is giving military aid to these people. ["rear"]
El Salado was the worst recorded massacre yet this year," said Andrew Miller, a Latin American specialist for Amnesty International USA, who spent the past year as an observer near here. "The Colombian Armed Forces, specifically the marines, were at best criminally negligent by not responding sooner to the attack. At worst, they were knowledgeable and complicit."
Ed Lewis at KeepAndBearArms.com - The Eve of Revolution: a long article about lots of stuff. Bottom line, we are being bullied into submission, and it's only getting worse. It is time to change the government, peacefully if possible, violently if necessary (and it almost certainly will be necessary). I agree, except that I think that after we throw out the bastards we should replace them with... nothing. [kaba]
It worked! blivet is back up to 37 on the most read sites yesterday page.
Following Dave Winer's example of the next product he's going to learn, I downloaded Gnutella today, and read the tutorial. Neat program! 100K download. Works right out of the box. No Windows registry nonsense. It installs a single ".exe", which saves some state in two text files in the same directory.
