Mars

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 19 Mar 2001 13:00:00 GMT
Well, my format change of yesterday actually looks worse in the RSS version, so I'm reverting.

Nasa has a nice National Geographic Map of Mars. The image is 1280x782, which doesn't fit on my screen, so I reduced it to 960x576 here. [latte]

About Bush'es proposed government charity to churches, Sean Hackbarth says the following (look for 3.18.2001). I'm with him.

Wouldn't it be easier to just boost the tax deductibility of charitable donations? No Office of Faith-Based Initiatives would be needed.

There's a new issue of The Libertarian Enterprise, D Minus 30:

  • The Lie of Cannabis Prohibition by Bill St. Clair - John Taylor printed the piece I wrote last Saturday. Thank you, John!
  • Letters to the Editor - There were a bunch of letters responding to Susan Wells' letter in last week's issue, rightly disagreeing with her statement that:
    Someone has to be in a position to stop people from murder, robbery, arson, rape, robbery, fraud, embezzlement, etc. At the very least, someone has to be in a position to take down evidence and hunt for the perpetrator of such crimes after the fact. Do you think that private organizations can do all of that?
  • Letter from Jack Jerome - Mr. Jerome really liked Minority Mike's piece last week. He also reminds us that it's not looking like GW is any friend of liberty. He can't make heads or tails of the new tax bill, not a good omen.
  • Letter from William J. Westmiller - Mr. Westmiller recommends reading Mike Huben's Non-Libertarian FAQ.
    Huben seems to be a thoughtful and honest -- even if mistaken -- statist, who offers a huge compendium of intellectual stimulation for libertarians. This is a great site for testing your philosophical and logical talents!
  • Letter from E.J. Totty - a truly wonderful response to another part of Susan Wells' letter last week where she whined about the police eavesdropping on cell-phone calls.
    Nothing is safe, absolutely nothing. Not your food, not your water, not the air you breathe, not the ground you stand, nor the sky from falling debris, not the firmament upon which you might gaze. Nothing is safe, least of all liberty. Liberty is the least 'safe' condition under which men (okay, women too) may exist. But it is THE ideal condition where men (yeah, okay, women also) may seek the greatest level of achievement, the largest amount of self wealth, and untold happiness to pursue any goal, any quest, and not have to worry about communists in government stealing the very things that make life so meaningful: the elements of self-determination.

Declan McCullagh at Wired - Xenu Do, But Not on Slashdot: good coverage of the Scientology/Slashdot fracus. Points to David Touretzky's Secrets of Scientology site. Dr. Touretzky also hosts The Secret Library of Scientology, a compendium of links to articles that "L. Ron Hubbard would not want you to read!" I hadn't looked at Dr. Touretzky's home page before, just the DeCSS stuff. Very interesting. [grabbe]

Oliver Wrede - Golden rules for Frontier and Radio Userland Newbies - a good description of a useful way to think about Frontier applications such as Radio Userland. From my perspective, Radio is sadly in need of Tutorial programming documentation. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right place, or maybe I'm about to be asked to volunteer to write it.

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