So Long, Eazel, and Thanks for All the Bits
MSNBC - The .50-caliber militia - a good story about the .50-caliber rifle and why the government fears it. Good. Any government that doesn't fear its citizens is out of control. ["vfth"]
Bob Stewart: "You've always had a God-given right to keep and bear arms. It means a tank, it means a cannon, it means a Gatling gun. The founding forefathers knew that we had enemies from within which were more treacherous than the ones from without."
J.D. Tuccille at Free-Market.net - The truth seeps out - a good spotlight on Waco prompted by Timothy Lynch'es No confidence, an unofficial account of the Waco incident (PDF) at the Cato Institute, which I linked to a while back.
Lacking only pom-poms, many members of the distinguished media hung up their professional skepticism in 1993 and acted as cheerleaders for the government at Waco and for years thereafter.
Erik Baard at the Village Voice - The DNA Bomb - Though targeting a single individual, as outlined in the excerpt below, isn't currently, and may never be, technically feasible, targeting a particular strain of vegetable or a racial or ethnic group, might not be nearly as hard. Scary stuff. [/.]
Assassins seek to take down a world leader, but they won't need to risk using bullets or bombs. Instead, they stand on a receiving line and shake the leader's hand, coming away with a genetic sample—a fleck of skin, a stray hair--that reveals his secret vulnerabilities. Then they engineer a pathogen that will attack only the dignitary. The next time he addresses a crowd, one terrorist simply coughs, releasing the pathogen-loaded virus into the air. It circulates silently, a contagion harmless to all but its target. Within hours, the leader is dead.
Liberal Arts Mafia - Taxes: what do we pay for? - tabulates income and expenses for the city of Rochester, Monroe County, New York state, and the federal government. Concludes that we should work at reducing debt and increase the budgets. I know where my tax money is going. They're robbing Peter (me) to pay Paul (folks on the government dole). I don't appreciate it. Taxation is theft. Pure and simple. No discussion possible. [unknown]
Nonetheless, if you look at the big picture, all in all we get what we pay for. Yes, there are inefficiencies in government, perhaps even some corruption. Without doubt there are unessential programs which should be axed. Yet, with any bureaucracy, it is one of the costs one must pay (one also has to pay money for vigilance).
Hans-Hermann Hoppe at LewRockwell.com - Secession, the State, and the Immigration Problem - compares the natural order, where all property is privately owned, with nation-states, where a small group arranges things to maximize their tax income. Argues against open borders because "public" property was actually paid for by taxing individuals. Those individuals are the real owners of the property, hence they may exclude whomever they wish. [lew]
The definition of a State assumed here is rather uncontroversial: A State is an agency which possesses an exclusive monopoly of ultimate decision-making and conflict arbitration within a given territory. In particular, a State can insist that all conflicts involving itself be adjudicated by itself or its agents. And implied in the power to exclude all others from acting as ultimate judge, as the second defining element of a State, is its power to tax: to unilaterally determine the price justice seekers must pay to the State for its services as the monopolistic provider of law and order.
Certainly, based on this definition it is easy to understand why there might be a desire to establish a State. Not, as we are told in kindergarten, in order to attain the "common good" or because there would be no order without a State, but for a reason far more selfish and base. For he who is a monopolist of final arbitration within a given territory can make and create laws in his own favor rather than recognize and apply existing law; and he who can legislate can also tax and thus enrich himself at the expense of impoverishing others.
...
An owner's right to exclude others from his property is the means by which he can avoid "bads" from happening: events that will lower the value of his property to him. By means of an unceasing flood of redistributive legislation, the democratic state has worked relentlessly not only to strip its citizens of all arms (weapons) but also to strip domestic property owners of their right of exclusion, thereby robbing them of much of their personal and physical protection. Commercial property owners such as stores, hotels, and restaurants are no longer free to exclude or restrict access as they see fit. Employers can no longer hire or fire who they wish. In the housing market, landlords are no longer free to exclude unwanted tenants. Furthermore, restrictive covenants are compelled to accept members and actions in violation of their very own rules and regulations. In short, forced integration is ubiquitous, making all aspects of life increasingly unpleasant.
Jonathan Sherwood at the University of Rochester - New Light-Based Computer Runs At Quantum Speeds - the quantum computer takes its first baby steps, not as quantum atoms, but as light. [brianf]
www.eavel.com comments creatively on the closing of Eazel. [script]
