010205.html
If the falling of a hoof
Ever rings the temple bells,
If a lonely man's final scream
Before he hangs himself
And the nightingale's perfect lyric
Of happiness
All become an equal cause to dance,
Then the Sun has at last parted
Its curtain before you -
God has stopped playing child's games
With your mind
And dragged you backstage by
The hair,
Shown to you the only possible
Reason
For this bizarre and spectacular
Existence.
Go running through the streets
Creating divine chaos,
Make everyone and yourself ecstatically mad
For the Friends beautiful open arms.
Go running through this world
Giving love, giving love,
If the falling of a hoof upon this earth
Ever rings the
Temple
Bell.
(The Gift, Poems by Hafiz, translations by Daniel Ladinsky)
Thomas L. Knapp - An Introduction to Inactivism: Mr. Knapp defines inactivism and then recommends some ways to start doing it: Anonymizer, E-Gold, and PGP (the Anonymizer & E-Gold links will credit Mr. Knapp if you buy anything after directly following them). He also includes links to some of our friends. New to me were Liberty Activists and Secession.Net.
Thomas L. Knapp - A Pox on Both Their Houses: Bravo! Bravo! Mr. Knapp comments on Kalifornia's recent self-inflicted energy crisis.
No, for all its airs, California's primary selling point is that it happens to be on our west coast. The size of its population and economy are a function of its attachment to the nation at large, not a testament to any particular heroism on the part of its populace. Having spent a good deal of time in California, from San Ysidro to Sacramento and points in between, I'm inclined to compare that populace to the initially attractive dinner companion who draws the meal out interminably, complains frequently and loudly about the quality of the food, and tries to stick you with the check by ducking out while on an ostensible restroom call. California's "booming economy" has been created, amidst a plethora of counter-productive social and environmental legislation, mainly through parasitism on the rest of the country. The tick, removed from the hound, would no longer be able to suck its blood.Which brings us to the latest Golden State temper tantrum. Californians, it seems, want electricity. They don't want power plants in their back yards, of course (bad for the ocean view). And they certainly don't want to pay market prices for it. Oh, no. Paying for what one receives is an outdated bourgeouis notion that is meant for those yokels back east. They just want the juice, please, with no consequences, no questions asked, and no silly considerations like cost. And if they don't get it, why, the governor will click his heels three times, call out the National Guard, and make those bad ol' power companies fork it over.
...
the rational course for Californians would be to demand that their government stop protecting the corporations at their expense, and stop "protecting" them at the expense of the corporations.
Russell Madden at the Laissez Faire City Times - The Gun Pointed at AOL: concerning a lawsuit brought by three Utah-based employees of AOL for firing them for having guns in their cars in the AOL parking lot.
The politicians and their allies in the press, academia, and elsewhere believe -- oddly -- that once you are elected to political office or appointed to some bureaucratic position that you somehow become not only a technical expert qualified to pontificate on any and all subjects but a moral expert with not only the authority but the right to force your judgments upon the less-well-mentally-endowed subjects, er, citizens who voted you into office. (What in the world a lawyer -- and the number of lawyers in office is frightening -- knows about obtaining oil supplies, growing corn, or preparing for self-defense escapes me. I'd wager a fair sum that most politicians have never worked an oil well, walked a corn field, or fired a handgun.)...
As Ayn Rand said, "The right to life is the source of all rights -- and the right to property is their only implementation. Without property rights, no other rights are possible." ("Man's Rights," The Virtue of Selfishness, p. 94.)
...
If you want to live peacefully with your neighbors; if you want a civilized world grounded in justice; if you want a safe society in which individuals, their families, and their careers can flourish and prosper, then you must adhere rigidly, confidently, and consistently to the right of all persons to earn, keep, and use their property -- including their guns -- as they see fit ... even if you disagree.
The February 2001 issue of Harper's Magazine contains an article by Christopher Hitchens entitled "The Case Against Henry Kissinger; Part 1: the Making of a War Criminal". Part 2 is slated to appear in the March issue. On pp. 44-45, Mr Hitchens writes:
Some statements are too blunt for everyday, consensual discourse. In national "debate," it is the smoother pebbles that are customarily gathered from the stream and used as projectiles. They leave less of a scar, even when they hit. Occasionally, however, a single hard-edged remark will inflict a deep and jagged wound, a gash so ugly that it must be cauterized at once. In January 1971 there was a considered statement from General Telford Taylor, who had been chief U.S. prosecuting counsel at the Nuremberg trials. Reviewing the legal and moral basis of those hearings, and also the Tokyo trials of Japanese war criminals and the Manila trial of Emperor Hirohito's chief militarist, General Yamashita Tomoyuki, Taylor said that if the standard of Nuremberg and Manila were applied evenly, and applied to the American statesmen and bureaucrats who designed the war in Vietnam, then "there would be a very strong possibility that they would come to the same end [Yamashita] did." It is not every day that a senior American soldier and jurist delivers the opinion that a large portion of his country's political class should probably be hooded and blindfolded and dropped through a trapdoor on the end of a rope.
Michael Kelly at the Washington Post via Washington Weekly - Exit the Abusers: Commentary on how nice it is to have the Klinton's out of the White House. How "civil" GW's administration will behave remains to be seen, IMHO. [ww]
Now, somewhat suddenly, we are rediscovering the blessed peace and quiet of a non-pathological presidency. There is something comforting about the front pages in the first weeks of Bush the Younger. A lot of the stories are about controversies, but they are the old and usual sort of controversies: Nominees are put forth and savaged; the people you would expect not to like what the new president is doing do not in fact like it; pundits fan small embers of dispute into slightly larger embers. How boring, how adult, how nice, how normal.
Angel Shamaya at KeepAndBearArms.com - Toy Gun Ban Introduced on the Federal Level: Rep. Edolphus Towns of Brooklyn has introduced H.R.215:
The Consumer Product Safety Commission shall promulgate a rule in accordance with section 9 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 U.S.C. 2058) to declare as a banned hazardous product under section 8 any toy which in size, shape, or overall appearance resembles a real handgun.The bill was introduced on January 3. It is currently in the Energy and Commerce committee with no cosponsors. [market]
NarcoNews - European Union Against Plan Colombia: On February 1, the European parliament passed a resolution against the United States' Plan Colombia. Instead, they support "the peace process initiated by President Pastrana." I'll be interested in seeing how long it takes this story to get to the U.S. mainstream press. [grabbe]
Dave Winer's DaveNet - What is .NET? Dave simplifies the battlefield between Microsoft, Sun, and everyone else. The battle is over. The net won. SOAP lets everyone talk to everyone else. He solicits opinions on a new web site, http://dotnet.soapware.org/.
It's been suggested elsewhere that .NET is an answer to Joel Klein, who now works for Napster partner Bertelsmann, btw.By moving the line between the operating system and applications, Microsoft hopes to confuse the judicial process so thoroughly that they force the split in the wrong place. I don't know about this theory, but I am confused about .NET, so why wouldn't a judge be confused too?
