A Banner Day
Starting January 1, 2002, it will be illegal in New York state to use a hand-held cellular phone while driving. People are buying expensive hands-free attachments for their phones. Here's a cheap solution to the problem that's making its way around the net.
Brian Fitzgerald - libertarian - an amusing definition. Worth the click. [brianf]
BBC News - Women admit to regular lies - Alwin Hawkins' comment on this story: "I'm sorry, I thought this was the BBC News." Hehe. [heart]
Garry Reed - Government Chaos - The Loose Cannon Libertarian, Mr. Reed's bi-weekly series of libertarian essays, returns at its own domain. Yay! His new banner, below, is now on my banners page, and his new site is on my links page. Summary of this article: Some folks say, "If it weren't for government, we'd have nothing but chaos." Bull. Government is a major cause of chaos.
Hey, if you haven't signed the petition asking L. Neil Smith to run for president in 2004, why not hop over to smith2004.org, and do it right now?
While looking at the smith2004.org banners page, I noticed that they used AdDesigner to design some of their banner ads. So I gave it a try and came up with the following. What do you think?
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No Reevaluation Needed is my reply to David Broder's piece, Time To Reevaluate War On Drugs, in the (Schenectady, NY) Daily Gazette. [drugsense]
LizMichael.com is a very interesting place:
"Political Activism for the Liberation of the World". The following
are a few essays I found there. There are hundreds more.
[no treason]
Bill Bridgewater at LizMichael.com - Armed Revolution Possible and Not So Difficult - Reminds us of the American revolution, the Vietnam war, and the war in Afghanistan. In all three, badly armed local militia defeated well-equipped armies. American citizens are much better armed.
One of these days a truly charismatic individual is going to walk out of the heartland of America and point out that the Declaration of Independence has never been repealed and that it *requires* all citizens to rise up against an oppressive government. With the current attitude toward our government and the people who populate it, a massive groundswell of support for throwing the current crop to the dogs and starting over again might not be so difficult.
Richard W. Stevens at LizMichael.com - The $200 Machine Gun - Remember alcohol prohibition? Worked good, eh? Not! Anyone who wanted it could get strong alcohol whenever they wanted. If the feds succeed in prohibiting weapons, they'll disappear, right? Not! $200 machine guns will be readily available from the black market.
Liz Michael - The Right To Keep And Bear Arms - a very good analysis of the second amendment, "the cornerstone of our republic".
The Second Amendment is not about hunting ducks and deer. It is about arms being held in private hands as a check and balance against a tyrannical government and other tyrannical influences such as organized criminals.
It is the U.S. Constitution's way of protecting our natural right to the means to defend ourselves. Moreover, it establishes the citizens' right to wage war against foreign invaders and, if necessary, against their own government. Understandably, the politicians of today don't want you to know that, because of their own tyrannical intentions. The Second Amendment reflects a basic civil and human right of divine origin -- not a privilege doled out by politicians for good behavior.
Liz Michael - The Drug War - proposes completely legalizing marijuana and decriminalizing coca & opium.
All drugs I would propose for legalization or decriminalization were readily available prior to the Prohibition of the 20's. The original Coca-Cola actually had a touch of cocaine in it. George Washington was a hemp farmer. The society, at least in terms of drug usage, was a much more peaceful society and actually a less addiction-prone society. Basically, it worked. It will work again.
...
Are You Pro-Drugs, Liz?
HELL, NO!!! In fact, I am a clean and sober recovered alcoholic who hasn't had a drink, a drug, or even a cigarette for over 14 years. My years of experience with counseling addicts has taught me that there is nothing you can do to stop an addict who is bent on self-destruction. Warehousing them in jail does not work and since drugs are readily available in jail, jail won't even get an addict clean. Even halfway houses and hospitals rarely work, unless the addict makes a decision to recover.
...
The battle against drug abuse on the demand side can only be overcome through education, honesty, and spiritual intervention. Nothing will halt the supply of drugs until you lessen demand. This is not done, and cannot be done, through the law. A drug war fought on the supply side alone is doomed to failure, and if we are to solve this problem, we must face this reality.
Larry E. Craig at The Washington Post -
Under the U.N. Gavel 
- The senator from Idaho speaks out against
the International Criminal Court.
Instead of trying to "fix" the Rome treaty, the United States must recognize that it is a fundamental threat to American sovereignty. The State Department's participation in the court's preparatory commission is counterproductive. We need to make it clear that we consider the court an illegitimate body, that the United States will never join it and that we will never accept its "jurisdiction" over any U.S. citizen or help to impose it on other countries.
Jerry Pournelle - Wednesday, August 29, 2001 - some good commentary on the Sklyarov case. Will move here next week. [pournelle]
Sklaryov's wife is afraid to come to the US. Do you think this may be a good time to travel abroad now that we have asserted that activities not criminal the one's own country can be prosecuted as heavy duty felonies if the US can lure you to within its borders? I can't think of a sillier precedent to get on the books.
We will all regret this. I thought that when an adult in the Department of Justice saw this idiocy it would be settled. Apparently there aren't any adults in DOJ.
Gene Callahan at Reason - The Roots of Racial Profiling - I just skimmed this, but it appears to be a good analysis of why victimless crimes and asset forfeiture laws lead to racial profiling in the war on freedom, er... some drugs. [wood s lot]
If we really wish to end the scourge of racial profiling, we must address its roots: drug laws that encourage police to consider members of broad groups as probable criminals. We must redirect law enforcement toward solving specific, known crimes using the particular evidence available to them about that crime. Whatever one's opinion on drug legalization may be, it's easy to agree that the state of seizure law in America is reprehensible, even given last year's minor federal reforms. It should be obvious that there's something nutty about a legal system that assumes suspects in murder, robbery, and rape cases are innocent until a trial proves otherwise, but assumes that a landscaper carrying some cash is guilty of drug trafficking.
Drugs, prohibitionists commonly point out, can damage a user's mind. They apparently can have the same effect on the minds of law enforcement officials.
Michael Chapman at Laissez Faire City Times - The Soviet Government's Holocaust - People tend to focus on the German Nazis when they think about mass murder by government. The Soviets were worse, much worse.
Russell Madden at Laissez Faire City Times - Safety Über Alles - a good screed on socialist programs designed to save us from our own choices, e.g. South Carolina's "Click It or Ticket" nazi seat belt checks.
