End the War on Freedom

Kevin Tuma - Baywatch II: Dupe Patrol - cartoon commentary on U.S./China relations. Hehe.

The End of the Internet - link sent by my friend Brad in Wyoming. Hehe.

thinkhole is back. John P. Mulligan's weblog "For Great Justice" returns after a long absence. Welcome back, John!

I took the kids to see Shrek on Sunday. A good time was had by all. Adventure. Laugh-out-loud comedy, including subtle jokes for the adults that fly right by the kids. Nice love story. Surprise ending. Recommended.

The Museum of Depressionist Art is a very funny place. Follow the "Next" links at the bottom of each page for a laugh a minute. [randomonium]

American Pie is a missive I received via email. Warning: contains four-letter words and strong opinions. I don't agree with everything said here, but I agree 110% with the sentiment.

I Am Your Worst Nightmare. I am a TRUE American.

I like big cars, big tits, and big cigars.

Fallen Angels by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn is available for free at the Baen Free Library. I've never read one of Larry & Jerry's books. This is a good opportunity. [pournelle]

Amir Shah of AP via Yahoo News - Hindus to Be Required to Wear Label - The Taliban in Afghanistan will require that Hindus wear an identity label on their clothing. Hmm... Where have we seen this before? How long do you suppose it will be until they start gassing them? And how long after that until the u.s. bombs them into the stone age?

There's a new issue of The Libertarian Enterprise: Happy NC Secession Day!

• Letter from Keith Shugarts - C. Everett Koop's sky is falling again. He's discovered that summer, July especially, is the most dangerous time for kids. He warns parents to watch out for their kids safety, and pushes legislation to punish them if they don't do so as the king directs.

  I suspect that Rosie O'Donnell and Barbara Streisand will begin campaigning for the banning of July in the near future, Sarah Brady (forgetting for the moment that her wheelchair bound husband was shot in March 30th) will start Summer Control Incorporated, and that there will be a march of concerned mothers descending upon Washington, DC to call for "reasonable" restrictions to be placed on Summer.

• Overview & Review: Drug Crazy by James J Odle - a review of Mike Gray's book about the insanity of the war on freedom, er... some drugs. Recommends it if you need a good introduction to the war. I remember liking it when I read it a year or so ago.

  "Jim Klimek...[ran] his car off the road...and when discovered the next night his legs were frozen. Gangrene set in and a series of amputations followed...Only his torso, head and arms remain. But the nerve endings they sliced through are still active, and he claims that he needs morphine to deal with the sensation that his lower half is still in the process of being sawed off. In Virginia, however, narcotics agents are trained to see through this kind of ruse. They know that many times people like Klimek are simply faking their symptoms to feed a drug habit. As the Virginia state police manual warns, "Physicians should be alert for 'Professional Patients' showing up in wheelchairs missing various limbs."
  
  Really makes you proud to be an American, don't it?
  
  ...
  
  Nevertheless, the book is not perfect. You wont read any libertarian arguments about the individual right to fry his brains with whatever drugs he chooses. Nor will you read anything about the individual's responsibility to shoulder his own burdens and not inflict the unintended consequences of his drug use on the rest of society. But then, Mr. Gray is not a libertarian. On the drug issue he is a pragmatist.

• A Sexual War Within the United Nations by Wendy McElroy - concerning the want-to-be global government's Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women attempts to redefine the family and the role of women in society.

  Fagan concludes his critique with the only reasonable explanation of the UN's recent PC policies. He writes, "If the objective is to increase state control of all functions of society, then the U.N. approach makes sense."

• Stop the Stupidness by L. Neil Smith - L. Neil encourages us to end the madness of so-called "zero tolerance" policies at schools by publishing the phone numbers and addresses of teachers and administrators who are causing it and letting them know what you think of their behavior.

  The "crime"? These days, it can take many forms. It may consist of getting caught "smuggling" aspirin, or carrying concealed fingernail scissors, or a butter knife Mom innocently packed in your brown bag lunch to spread Miracle Whip on your cheese and Wonderbread sandwich, or, recently, a tiny plastic Green Army Man with his evil bayonet or Ka-Bar.
  
  It may be sneaking Uncle Montmorency's rust-blistered old Webley, a souvenir from World War II, to school to show off to the other kids. Or talking about Uncle Montmorency's old Webley with your buddies. Or drawing a picture of Uncle Montmorency's old Webley when you should be listening to your teacher sing the praises of recyling or the United Nations. [See LIBBITS below - ed.] Or it might even be chewing that cheese and Wonderbread sandwich Mom made you into a replica of Uncle Montmorency's old Webley.
  
  ...
  
  I work every day--and have for nearly 40 years--toward a time and a society in which anyone who wants to, can carry any weapon he or she wants to, any way he or she wants to, any time, any place, without anyone having anything to say about it. If you share that goal with me--or even a small part of it--this is the place to start. Collect those guilty names, addresses, and phone numbers and give them to the world.

Farhad Manjoo at Wired - Bush Puts Energy Into Nukes - with all the energy shortage FUD going 'round, folks are beginning to reconsider nuclear energy. The Japanese can help us with breeder reactors. [mind]

Tim Graham at the National Review - Dan Rather, American Nightmare - Walter Cronkite's unworthy successor appeared on Fox's O'Reilly Factor. Gag me with a spoon. [zero]

Rather's unforgettable "Notable Quotable" spilled out when Bill O'Reilly asked him point blank if he thought Bill Clinton was an honest man. This is roughly comparable to asking if hippos are skinny, or if hurricanes build houses, or to descend into Ratherisms, if that Zesto stand in Huntsville, Texas makes a mean creme brulee. This is not a tough question. But Rather seems to love Bill Clinton so much that white is black: "I think at core he's an honest person. I know that you have a different view. I know that you consider it sort of astonishing anybody would say so, but I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things."

Richard Cowan and Arnold Trebach at Marijuana News - Conference On Rehab Racketeers Tied To Bush Will Raise Important Issues: Saving Children From Drug Treatment Abuse. Saving DEAland from Drug War Lite. A Conference That Should Embarrass Washington - there's a conference July 21-22 in Bethesda, Maryland concerning the abuse, nay torture, of American kids at the hands of Straight, Inc., which has morphed into the Drug Free America Foundation (DFAF). The Dutch drug czar characterized the Straight program as "Hitler jugend". [mjn]

Brian Livingston at InfoWorld - The watermark war - Mr. Livingston berates the RIAA for pressuring the withdrawal from the Fourth International Information Hiding Workshop of a paper meeting their "SDMI public challenge". Not only did the authors break this particular watermark. They showed that no watermarking scheme could work for players that are capable of playing old, non-watermarked, media. Translation: Copy protection doesn't work. Get used to it.

I support freedom of speech and thought, and I support RIAA's right to write letters. But make no mistake: When multibillion-dollar Goliaths threaten to sue professors and colleges, it's an act of unmitigated evil that civilized people everywhere should scorn.

Ian Fried at CNET - Apple installs OS X on all new Macs - new Macs will still boot into MacOS 9 by default, but switching to X will be very easy. [script]

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