End the War on Freedom

I gave blood yesterday. Haven't done that since I was in college 25 years ago. The process was radically different. Back then I put my name and address on an index card, they stuck a needle in my arm, we waited for the blood to drain, and I was out of there. Yesterday, I was instructed to read 5 pages of text, fill out a health questionaire requiring my social security number and about 50 yes/no questions about health risks. Then I had my temperature and blood pressure taken, a drop of blood tested for density, and had a last chance to anonymously tell them that even though they were taking my blood, they shouldn't use it since I might have AIDS. The nurse gave me a sheet with two peel off stickers containing bar codes. One went on my form and the other went in a space on the peel-off sheet. One meant "use my blood". The other meant "don't use my blood". I guess this allows someone to donate blood with their family, tell the Red Cross not to use their blood, but not reveal HIV infection to the family. Weird.

theage.com.au - 4000 get naked for Melb photo shoot - U.S. photographer Spencer Tunick gathered over 4,000 nude Victorians, and photographed them lying in the street on Princes Bridge in Melbourne. This was Mr. Tunick's contribution to the Fringe Festival. Unglaublich! [grabbe]

Andrew Tilghman at the (Albany, NY) Times Union - Guard troops arrive at Albany airport - apparently 12 soldiers have been assigned to Albany, operating, as I noticed on Friday, in teams of two.

Until this week, the soldiers had civilian jobs and trained once a month at posts in Saratoga Springs, Glens Falls and Gloversville. All are male, either "college age'' or in their "mid-20s'' Maguire said. Some soldiers may return to their homes at night, while others may be provided local lodging. They have the power to detain, but not arrest. They will stand guard at the security checkpoint, but not patrol the grounds. They carry semiautomatic M-16 assault rifles, with the safety on and no live round in the chamber, Maguire said.

Vernon Loeb at The Washington Post - Review of Military's Domestic Role Urged - and the nazis are now talking about reviewing posse comitatus. Seems to me that it's already been tossed in the trash. What else would you call uniformed soldiers in airports? [kaba]

JPFO Alerts - Teach the Goebbels Graduates a Lesson - Apparently some of the Brady Bunch minions plan to hand out victim disarmament tracts outside of gun shops. Patrons are warned to restrain themselves so as not to make bad press. JPFO recommends handing back some Grandpa Jack pamphlets. [jpfo]

Jeremy Sapienza at anti-state.com - Anti-State.com: Banned in the USA - a U.S. military base in the South Pacific has blocked access to anti-state.com. Their advocacy of freedom and peace is considered too militant for our soldiers to see. [anti-state]

Vin Suprynowicz - A reluctance to embrace real solutions - Part of The Libertarian series. Vin got some mail protesting his statement about racial profiling in his September 19 piece. The real solution to racial profiling is to eliminate victimless crime laws. All of 'em.

When a cop sees a young black man walking down the street sucking on a reefer and sporting a gun in a hip holster, nothing any more criminal is taking place than if a cop sees a fat white guy sucking on a stogie while loading his deer rifles into the car for a hunting trip. In each case, a subject is consuming a consciousness-altering drug while handling firearms. Yet -- in a nation where the 2nd and 14th Amendments guarantee everyone the right to bear arms, and where the 9th Amendment guarantees every adult the right to consume any drug he pleases -- no crime is committed unless or until either of these fellows brandishes his weapon at someone else in a threatening manner.

Yet which of these two men is going to get arrested -- heck, drop-kicked and shot on sight if he refuses to "kiss the ground and spread 'em"?

Kathryn Marchocki at The (New Hampshire) Union Leader - Pilots threaten to stop service if kept unarmed - Arm our Pilots. Now. [kaba]

Jean Sims at TNR Online - Police officer urges gun training for all - Grandfield Oklahoma is responding rationally to 9/11, they're training law enforcement and civilians in self-defense with a handgun. Bravo. [kaba]

Jay R. Cavanaugh at DrugSense Weekly - Dr. Mollie Fry Raided by DEA - A California doctor who provided legal medical cannabis has been shut down by gummint sponsored terrorists. If GW is really serious about ending terrorism, he should start right in his own backyard by shutting down the b.a.t.f and d.e.a.

Charley Reese - U. S. Would Face Hard Task in Afghanistan - Mr. Reese warns that a war in Afghanistan will be no picnic. Welcome back, Charley. [lew]

Jeff Elkins at LewRockwell.com - America or Amerika? - a little advice on slowing the slide into an Amerikan nazi state. [lew]

That horrible vision can be averted, even now, at this terribly late hour. It's time for all who love liberty to engage in massive civil disobedience.

Refuse to fly. Let the airliners sit empty on the runways. Let the airport gestapo frisk each other.

Refuse to vote in Federal elections. Let the simpering blowdried scum in Washington DC be elected by ever-diminishing percentages of tax-eaters.

Don't cooperate politely when some jackboot with a Glock asks for your papers or intrudes into your life in any way. Their war on drugs is being extended into a war on 'terror' and is rapidly expanding into a full-fledged war on all our cherished personal liberties. At the very least, be American enough to be rude.

John Pilger at Guardian Unlimited - The world has been in ferment since September 11, but why weren't there similar outcries at earlier atrocities? - how come the press hasn't reported U.S. government atrocities? There have been plenty of them in our lifetimes, killing at least two orders of magnitude more innocents than the 9/11 murders. [lew]

The job of disassociating the September 11 atrocities from the source of half a century of American crusades, economic wars and homicidal adventures, is understandably urgent. For Bush and Blair to "wage war against terrorism", assaulting countries, killing innocents and creating famine, international law must be set aside and a monomania must take over politics and the "free" media. Fortunately public opinion is not yet fully Murdochised and is already uneasy and suspicious; 60% oppose massive bombing, says an Observer poll. And the more Blair, our little Lord Palmerston, opens his mouth on the subject the more suspicions will grow and the crusaders' contortions of intellect and morality will show. When Blair tells David Frost that his war plans are aimed at "the people who gave [the terrorists] the weapons", can he mean we are about to attack America? For it was mostly America that destroyed a moderate regime in Afghanistan and created a fanatical one.

Alan Chartock at The Berkshire Eagle - Freedom to dissent - Mr. Chartock is a big-time socialist. I often hear him spouting about this and that on Albany's public radio station, which he runs. But he got this one right. No matter what the emergency, no matter how bad the war, Americans retain the right to criticize their government.

There is a very small but dangerous group who once wore white sheets and hoods, proclaiming their Americanism while all the while hating blacks and Catholics and Jews and all foreigners. They, too, carried American flags. They conducted witch hunts and sent threatening, anonymous letters, cowards that they were. They had no use for discussion or debate -- they wanted everyone to shut up and go along, no matter what. Some of these very folks tried that in Vietnam, and you know what happened there.

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