Trick or Treat
The small man
Builds cages for everyone
He
Knows.
While the sage,
Who has to duck his head
When the moon is low,
Keeps dropping keys all night long
For the
Beautiful
Rowdy
Prisoners.
Kevin Tuma - Spook - cartoon commentary on the growing surveillance state. Not funny.
Mike Shelton at the Orange County Register - Lights Out!! - cartoon commentary on "security" trumping liberty.
Armed Females of America - Resourcefulness at Work - Both passengers and pilots are forbidden the possession of knives on airplanes. A picture showing how one pilot cut his sandwich in spite of this prohibition. Hehe.
Amber's back! Amber's back! Welcome back, Amber!! And she's singing Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Wish I had that album here. Hopefully I'll remember to grab it tonite. [loony]
Brian Fitzgerald - Please, don't step on freedom - a poem for these times. [brianf]
Gene Callahan at LewRockwell.com - The New America - Mr. Callahan tries his hand at "a motivational, neocon type essay." One thing bothers him about his essay, however. Read it to discover what. Hohohohoho. [lew]
Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - Business as Usual in Washington? - entangling alliances, security trumps liberty, unlimited spending, growing deficits. It's business as usual in DC.
I happen to believe that our battle against the current crop of terrorists can be won in a relatively short period of time. But winning the war over the long term is very different. This cannot be accomplished without a better understanding of the enemy and the geo-politics of the entire Middle East. Even if relative peace is achieved with a battle victory over bin Laden and his followers, other terrorists will appear indefinitely from all corners of the world if we do not understand the issues.
Martin Masse at Le Quebecois Libre - We Are Losing the War Against Terrorism - Mr. Masse predicts that the war on terrorism will join the war on drugs as a permanent war that can never be won because winning it is not the goal. [lew]
While it doesn't seem very probable that the demand for hallucinogenic substances will disappear any time soon, the "demand" for terrorist acts against the West is not at all a preordained reality. On the contrary it is fed by our actions, more specifically by the U.S. foreign policy. Not only is nothing being done to eliminate the causes of this resentment ("We shouldn't show any sign of weakness by responding to the terrorists' demands!", warn the warmongers), we're doing everything now to fan the flames by killing innocent civilians who have nothing to do with bin Laden. Let me repeat the libertarian creed here, for all those who don't know or remember it, including many who call themselves libertarians: collective responsibility is a monstrous collectivist notion and killing innocent civilians in the pursuit of whatever aims is never justified, in New York or in Kabul.
bob lonsberry - Airport Screeners Should Be Federal Officers - As usual, Mr. Lonsberry has a strong opinion. This time it's the wrong one, however.
The frontline in this new war will stretch right through American society, crossing again as it has before the boarding gates of America's airlines.I submitted the following comment, which Mr. Lonsberry chose not to print:
And that outpost must not be manned by part-timers getting paid $5.70 an hour.
It must be staffed by officers capable of defending the Republic, held to the highest standards of law enforcement and with training second to none. I think of the deputy United States marshals who stand guard outside federal courtrooms, retired cops many of them, with savvy and weapons and confidence.
In truth, no changes whatsoever are necessary to airport security. The passengers will provide the additional security. If anyone attempts to hijack another airplane, he will be overwhelmed by the attack of hundreds of passengers, who will kill him with their bare hands, shoes, purses, keys, etc. If it happens on my plane, I'll be part of the attacking horde.
Still, I would personally feel safer if I knew that a goodly number of the passengers, and the entire crew, were armed and ready to defend against bogies. Remove all the metal detectors. Remove all the x-ray machines. Fire most of the "security" staff. Replace them with bomb sniffers for both carry on and checked baggage. Encourage passengers to travel armed. Sell ammo with frangible bullets (that won't damage the airplane) in every airport.
As you said, Bob, in your note on comment 26: "It is the function and duty of all citizens and organs of the Republic to defend it." Let we the people do our duty on airplanes, and the government won't have to spend a penny more of our stolen tax money.
Steve Dasbach at The (New Hampshire) Union Leader - Federalizing airport security would make it worse, not better - Mr. Dasbach reminds us that history has proven that federalized airport security screeners would be: Not very secure, Susceptible to corruption, More expensive, Prone to sloppiness, Badly trained and hostile to customers. [market]
Jayne O'Donnell at USA Today CPSC to sue over Daisy BB gun - The Consumer Product Safety Commission is suing Daisy because they claim that some idiots are having a hard time determining if their BB guns are loaded. [market]
Consumer Product Safety Commission - CPSC Files Lawsuit Against Daisy Manufacturing Co. To Recall Two Models of Daisy's Powerline Airguns Due to Defects - More details of the lawsuit. Strangely, Commissioner Gall opposed this lawsuit. I sent the following email:
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 22:59:20 -0500
To: info@cpsc.gov
From: "Bill St. Clair" <bill@billstclair.com>
Subject: Daisy Powerline Airgun Recall
Cc: bill@billstclair.com
Hello,
I think your attempted recall of Daisy's Powerline Airguns is completely bogus. Anyone who knows anything about guns knows the following:
1) Every gun is always loaded. No matter how many times you've checked that it is unloaded, treat every gun as if it is loaded. Always.
2) Never point the muzzle of a gun at anyone you do not intend to kill. Not even for a moment. Ever.
These are basic rules of gun safety. Anyone who doesn't know and follow these rules has no business touching a gun. Any parent who does not teach his children these rules before allowing them to touch a gun is negligent. Anyone who points a gun at another person, except in self defense, is guilty of assault with a deadly weapon. If he pulls the trigger, he is guilty of attempted murder.
None of the injuries or deaths you've mentioned were in any way the responsibility of the gun or its manufacturer. Each was caused by criminal negligence of the person pulling the trigger. If you feel you must do something about these tragedies, educate people about gun safety. Don't attack Daisy.
Bill St. Clair
bill@billstclair.com
Jacob Sullum at Reason - Seeds of Discord - a few words on the d.e.a.'s recent banning of human consumption of industrial hemp. [market]
In any case, the concern about drug testing could be addressed by setting a legal cutoff for THC in edible hemp products, as Canada has done. But that would require congressional debate and legislation. It’s so much easier to decree the result you want and pretend that nothing has really changed.
Butler Shaffer at LewRockwell.com - World War II Is Finally Over: Hitler Won! - Heil Georgie! [lew]
Does this mean that one who favors any programs such as these is a Nazi, an apologist for the horrors for which this man was responsible? Of course not. What it does mean, however, is that his programs emerged from a mindset quite similar to one that has been prevalent in modern society for many decades: a desire to cleanse the world of any and all imperfections and undesirable elements. In modern obsessions with health -- wherein any condition or practice that renders the world less than one hundred percent hygienic must be forcefully eradicated -- we find the same mania for sterilization that drove Hitler. Such an attitude was well-expressed by the late Alan Watts who spoke of people who want "to scrub the universe."
We are told that if we can just get rid of tobacco, and guns, and people who "hate," and red meat, and research on animals, and pornography, and polluters, and lumber companies, and feminists, and nuclear power plants, and people with religious convictions, and drug use, and homosexuality, and (the list is endless), all of our social problems will be resolved. If we can just purify our world, to make it perfectly safe, healthy, moral, and clean, we can then get on with living.
Joseph Sobran at LewRockwell.com - Patriotism or Nationalism? - If you're a patriot, please don't let recent events turn you into a nationalist. OK? The difference is important. [lew]
When it comes to war, the patriot realizes that the rest of the world can't be turned into America, because his America is something specific and particular -- the memories and traditions that can no more be transplanted than the mountains and the prairies. He seeks only contentment at home, and he is quick to compromise with an enemy. He wants his country to be just strong enough to defend itself.
George Monbiot at The Guardian - Backyard terrorism - The US has been training terrorists since 1946 at the School of the Americas, recently renamed to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC). But you won't hear GW talking about closing that down. [lew]
Well, we could urge our governments to apply full diplomatic pressure, and to seek the extradition of the school's commanders for trial on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity. Alternatively, we could demand that our governments attack the United States, bombing its military installations, cities and airports in the hope of overthrowing its unelected government and replacing it with a new administration overseen by the UN. In case this proposal proves unpopular with the American people, we could win their hearts and minds by dropping naan bread and dried curry in plastic bags stamped with the Afghan flag.
You object that this prescription is ridiculous, and I agree. But try as I might, I cannot see the moral difference between this course of action and the war now being waged in Afghanistan.
Thomas C Greene at The Register - Win-XP vs Red Hat 7.2 - Mr. Greene doesn't like either new OS version. XP insists that you do everything its way, and RedHat is really hard to install. [wes]
Fit-and-finish. If these OS's were cars, XP would be the Warner Brothers Special Edition minivan, and 7.2 would be a Yugo well on its way to becoming a KIA.
Ad Muncher "is a small, efficient and reliable patch for Netscape, Microsoft, Opera, and other, browsers which removes banners, buttons, popups and general browsing annoyances." Found in my referer logs. Haven't tried it.
JDK 1.4 Beta 3 is available from Sun. [wes]
