The Fable of the Hornets
Jacob G. Hornberger at The Future of Freedom Foundation - A Foreign-Policy Primer for Children: The Fable of the Hornets - another good parable for our times.
A few days later, however, a terrible thing happened. Several hornets flew into the village and stung some of the villagers, who were understandably outraged. The village council immediately called an emergency meeting. "The hornets have attacked us," one man cried. "We must destroy them all!" After several hours of discussion, everyone agreed that the village had no choice but to wage war on the hornets.
At that point, however, a young boy arose and said, "Maybe if Oscar stops poking the hornets' nests, the hornets will no longer attack the village."
A gasp and a hush immediately swept across the room. Suddenly, one man screamed, "The boy is supporting the hornets!" Another yelled, "He's saying that they were justified in attacking the village." A woman weighed in: "He's suggesting that we got what we deserved!" "Unpatriotic!" "Treason!"
Julia Scheeres at Wired - A Pitch for Smart Postal Stamps - Now they're talking about encoding the identity of the stamp purchaser on the stamp. This is actually good news. It will put the USPS out of business. [market]
Wolf DeVoon at Laissez Faire City Times - High Crimes and Conspiracies - Mr. DeVoon is surprised that GW scripted an entire "town hall meeting" in Orlando. As I remember, Klinton did the same kind of thing all the time. But then Slick Willy couldn't use a room temperature IQ as an excuse.
Part of the problem is that Deputy Dubya is so damned dumb that he was unable to form an independent assessment of what happened at the World Trade Center and what the U.S. response should be to "faceless, cowardly terrorism" -- a ludicrously false characterization that demands we trash plain English in favor of Zionist Newspeak. All 19 WTC hijackers were identified, their faces flashed on every television screen in America. They were Saudis and Egyptians, not Afghans. And Bill Maher was factually, if not patriotically correct: the Islamic commandos who attacked Israeli-owned Cantor Fitzgerald were certainly not cowards.In response to guest Dinesh D'Souza's assertion that people who are willing to die in service to their cause, whatever else they may be, are not "cowards," Maher said: "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly." I was sitting next to Bill when he said this. And not only did I not object, I wholeheartedly agreed. (Arianna Huffington, September 24, 2001)
Russell Madden at Laissez Faire City Times - "Because It's Important": Lame Excuses for Government - In the light of Iowa's decision to cut an important government position, Mr. Madden realizes that we really need an "Office of Homeland Everything Security." Not. Hehe.
Yes, it's true. Iowa must perforce eliminate . . . its state bee inspector!
According to the news report I heard, this tragedy must not be left uncorrected. After all, the report stated, bees are vitally important. Without bees, what would pollinate our plants? Without bees, where would Iowa honey producers be? Without a state bee inspector, who will inspect our beehives and our honey combs and assure vulnerable consumers that the honey they buy is up to snuff? By golly, without a state bee inspector to watch over the apiaries of this great agricultural mecca, i.e., Iowa, what will the bee guys do? Will they be forced to rely -- gasp -- on the free-market? Will we helpless honey fans be at the mercy of unscrupulous beekeepers who will cut corners and ignore the quality of the honey we smear upon our muffins, our toast, and our rolls?
...
Here I have been foolishly worrying about such obscure issues as warrantless searches of emails, phone calls, and homes, detention without bail or legal representation, military tribunals, reinstitution of the draft, gutting posse comitatus laws, censorship, gun registration, escalating the War on Drugs, undeclared military wars, national identification cards, and other such fine points of freedom when I should have been devoting my time and effort to lobbying the state of Iowa to preserve and protect the important position of state bee inspector.
