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John P. Mulligan of metajohn said yesterday, "End the War on Freedom is my new favorite source of news about Freedom and Liberty." Thanks, John. Glad you like my blog. I've added yours to my links page.
Nice quote from metajohn:
News is something someone somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising. -- Lord Northcliffe
Harry Browne - Acceptance speech at the Libertarian National Convention, Anaheim, California, July 2, 2000: Great speech. Really refreshing to hear a political candidate actually say something. Mr. Browne agrees with algore that GW's social security plan is too risky. It's too risky because it only let's you invest 2% of your social security money, leaving the other 15% to be wasted away by the government. Mr. Browne will eliminate social security entirely. Similar death for the war on freedom (er... some drugs). Bravo!
Elliotte Rusty Harold at Cafe au Lait - Who Trusts the Trustees? Trusted Security Providers in the Java Cryptography Extension 1.2.1: Suns new JCE allows only trusted suppliers of cryptography code, with a certificate checked at run-time, to plug in to their package. Bad idea. Really bad. And it goes further. JCE is just the first place that Sun is using code signing to keep out non Sun-approved code. More will likely follow. I remember Elliotte talking about this a while back when JCE 1.2 was first released. [wes]
I simply don't trust Sun not to build back doors into their software. A secret agreement between Sun and the NSA to deliberately weaken JCE cryptography is all too plausible. I have no information that any such agreement exists, but given Sun's close ties to the U.S. military-industrial-government complex and given Sun CEO Scott McNealy's avowed disregard for privacy ("You have zero privacy anyway, get over it"), I'm simply not willing to entrust my confidential communications to Sun and the people it trusts. The NSA wields too much influence over the high-tech industry.
Deborah Gage at ZDNet - Sun Expected To Make StarOffice Open Source: good news. [onedan]
Keith Dawson at TBTF - ICANN votes for new top-level domains: this story is all over the web today. Applications cost $50,000. [tbtf]
Eric Peters at the Washington Times - Smile, you're on GPS: Not only can GPS track you, but the British want to use it to make it impossible to exceed the speed limit. [grabbe]
Want to bring out the anti-technology Luddite in you? Then ponder the interesting new uses being found for Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology and the eensy-weensy little transponder hidden in your vehicle, if you have a built-in satellite navigation system. Many new cars have this equipment -- and are thus subject to more than merely receiving helpful route directions from the friendly system of satellites orbiting the Earth in geosynchronous orbit. The same technology that helps you avoid getting lost also lets whomever controls the satellites know exactly where you are while in your vehicle -- and can follow your movements precisely, in real-time, to within a few feet. The transponder in your car is in constant contact with the system of satellites -- the all-seeing, never-blinking watchers in the sky.
bob lonsberry - Tobacco Verdict Is Complete Insanity: Mr. Lonsberry commens on last Friday's $145 billion judgement against the tobacco industry. He hates the tobacco industry, but that doesn't justify theft. Everyone already knows, has known for 50 years, that smoking is bad for you.
Un-freaking-believable. What this country needs is a little more Oprah and Jerry Springer, just a little more dumbing down. One juror told the Washington Post that he knew the tobacco companies could afford the $145 billion judgement because cigarette CEOs make millions of dollars a year. People that stupid shouldn't be allowed to drive or breed....
The beef and dairy industries kill more people than tobacco ever thought of. When will those empires fall prey to a jury box full of buffoons?
Or the automobile industry, or the firearms industry? Where will it end? How did it begin?
We don't know. And it doesn't matter. It isn't important how Rome fell, just that it fell.
Friday was more than a fluke, it was a symptom.
A symptom of our nation disgrace and degeneration.
Michael Gilson De Lemos at LewRockwell.com - One Small Step: a review of Limon Real -- A Free and Autonomous Region by Dr. Rigoberto Stewart. The book is an instruction manual for turning a small part of Costa Rica into a "libertarian autonomous province". What a grand idea! [market]
William L. Anderson at LewRockwell.com - Shake Down: Commentary on the two latest disgusting jury decisions. [market]
If one has had any doubts, let them be put to rest: the rule of law is now dead in the United States. A Miami, Florida, jury ordered the tobacco companies to pay damages to smokers a sum in excess many times of the companies' net worth, this as "punishment" for producing what attorneys called a "killer product." In truth, the very state apparatus of justice has become the real product of death, for it has killed justice.On the same day, perhaps at about the same hour, an advisory jury panel in Texas was telling a judge that the U.S. Government bore no fault whatsoever for the massacre of 80 people at Waco in 1993. In one case, a jury has awarded individuals billions of dollars (on paper) to smokers who freely chose to consume a legal product. In the other case, a jury exonerated those who engaged in deception, people who killed other people who simply wanted to be left alone and who posed no threat whatsoever to society.
...
Americans, the people who have the highest standard of living in the world precisely because of the private enterprise system, really are nothing more than victims of that horrible system. Like Orwell's citizens of Oceania who Big Brother declared to have been duped by Goldstein, their government tells Americans that private businesses are out to harm them. Their only refuge is the state.
The propaganda has finally worked. War is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is knowledge. The problem, of course, is that while government can convince people that something may be so, that does not mean it really is true.
AP via the South China Morning Post - Footballers arrested for wearing shorts: an entire team of Pakistani soccer players was arrested in Afgahanistan for the crime of wearing shorts in public. [wnd]
Jonathan Hunley of the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star - Hats, tattoos banned: The Taliban takes its dress code a bit more seriously than we Americans, but we still have them. Take the "Central Park" shopping center in Virginia, for example: [wnd]
No hats after 8 p.m.;
Shirts must have collars and be tucked in;
Pants must be worn at or above the waistline;
No tank tops;
No torn clothing;
No clothes with gang-related symbols;
No exposed tattoos;
No "excessive" body piercing.
Scripps Howard News Service via startribune.com - Bacteria can be your friend, after all: anti-bacterial soaps kill everything but the super-bugs. This is a bad thing. It is unhealthy to be too clean. [wnd]
According to a recent Italian study, a baby in its first year needs to be exposed to germs in order to develop the antibodies necessary to fight dangerous infections later in life. If the infant's environment is too clean, part of the immune system is understimulated, while the cells that make antibodies to fight allergens are overactive, making it more likely the child will have allergies or asthma.
Jeff Jacoby at Sierra Times - An Open Letter from Jeff Jacoby: Jeff Jacoby is a conservative columnist at the Boston Globe, currently on four month suspension for penning a July 3 article about the fates of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The Globe claims that his neglect to give credit to previous similar articles was enough of a reason to suspend him. I'm guessing they just didn't like to be reminded that liberty is a costly proposition. [sierra]
The Siren Song of Gun Control: Last May 24, two maggots entered a Wendy's in Queens and executed five of the employees. A month later, three robbers burst into a McDonald's in Houston. Two of them were shot. No customers or employees were harmed. The difference, Texas allows concealed carry, New York City does not. Gun control encourages violent crime. This article will likely move here next week. [sierra]
In spite of the evidence, the Siren continues to lure innocents onto the rocks of gun control. Her song causes them to lose their reason, to surrender their senses, and to believe her lies.Under her influence, they learn to live like sheep and die like cows.
A new article in The Libertarian series by Vin Suprynowicz:
- Has your bookshelf been approved by the BATF? - Vin includes and
comments on the recent
letter to BATF Director Bradley Buckles from
James H. Jeffries III, writing on behalf of John Ross.
The Bill of Rights has an integral structure, like a castle. Folks who believe they can give up one of the first 10 amendments to the claim of "compelling government interest" -- yet still keep the others intact -- are like soldiers who fight to defend nine of a castle's gates while leaving the tenth gate open and unguarded.
The ninth amendment, for instance, tells our government that the people retain inalienable rights too numerous and obvious to enumerate. One of these is clearly the right to manufacture, possess, and traffic in alcohol, tobacco, and any other medicinal plant derivative we please, including opium, cocaine, and Indian hemp.
...
Now, novelist and federally licensed machine gun collector John Ross, author of the magnificent novel of the gun culture Unintended Consequences ($33 postpaid; 800-374-4049; P.O. Box 86, Lonedell, MO 63060) has apparently been singled out for federal intimidation for writing a fictional novel in which American gun owners finally get fed up and start offing their oppressors, including characters clearly based on Janet Reno and gun-grabbing N.Y. Rep. (now Sen.) Charles Schumer.
Bob Stewart at Sierra Times - Stop Government Tyranny: The maker of the Maadi-Griffin 50 Caliber rifle kit tells about the unannounced BATF raid on his business. He was in business for 3 years. They had plenty of time to inform him how to change his kits so that they would be officially considered replicas instead of weapons. Did they do that? No. They raided his home, handcuffed him and his wife, and commanded his 7 year old son to "come out with your hands up!". Personally, I think it's well past time for the BATF to suffer some unintended consequences. [sierra]
