End the War on Freedom

From brad:

Here's a really heartwarming story of the advances of women in achieving equality throughout the world.....

Barbara Walters did a story on gender roles in Kuwait several years before the Gulf War. She noted then that women customarily walked about nine feet behind their husbands.

She returned to Kuwait recently and observed that the men now walked many yards behind their wives.

Ms. Walters approached one of the women and said, "This is marvelous. Can you tell the free world just what let women here achieve this reversal of roles?"

"Land mines," said the Kuwaiti woman.

Wyoming Rules is a list sent to me by brad:

16. They are pigs. That's what they smell like. Get over it. Don't like it? Interstate 80 goes two ways-25 goes the other two. Pick one.

Brian Fitzgerald - if only - wonderful! [brianf]

Hello to Fraser McCrossan of Joat's Homepage, a new BlogMax user.

Anne Karpf at The Guardian - A pox on vaccines - vaccination claims are way overblown, at least for measles. [lew]

We call it propaganda when governments peddle "facts" which are demonstrably untrue. And yet the claim that without vaccination measles is a stalking killer is disseminated by both the Department of Health and most medical journalists, despite strong counter-evidence. In 1976, Professor Thomas McKeown, investigating trends in mortality, compared declining death-rates from infectious diseases with medical interventions since the cause of death was first registered in 1838. He found that immunisation had no significant effect on the trend of the death- rate from measles, which had fallen to a low level before mass vaccination was introduced, because of major improvements in sanitation and nutrition. So too had morbidity, the incidence of the disease.

...

Alternative health practitioners argue that measles and other infectious illnesses, far from damaging children, actually improve their overall health. But a child suffering from the disease needs proper, labour- intensive care. Nursing used to be an essential part of the job-description of motherhood: our mothers (for it was mostly them) knew how to nurse an infected child - drawn curtains, cold drinks, and wet flannels. We now think of nursing almost entirely in professionalised terms, as something we pay others to do.

Environmental News Service - Canadian Company Will Sue to Prove Hemp is Not Pot - Kenex, Ltd., a Canadian company that grows and processes hemp, intends to sue the U.S. government over the d.e.a.'s recent ban on products containing even trace amounts of THC. Good for them. [market]

British businesswoman Anita Roddick, an investor in Kenex and founder of The Body Shop, which markets a successful line of hemp oil based cosmetics, said, "The blind prejudice and bloodymindedness of the DEA takes my breath away, especially when its actions are in direct contradiction to Congress. This is one instance when we have to invoke NAFTA. Without its protection, the future is bleak for hemp companies like Kenex."

Alan Bock at Antiwar.com - Naming the Beast: The State and Other Organizations - the state is an elaborate protection racket, an organized criminal organization. But you knew that. [market]

Jason C. Ditz at anti-state.com - Individuality: It Could Affect Someone In Your Family! - drugs are evil, except when the state wants to use them to knock the will out of our children.

The decision to dope him into submission was not an easy one. While for his mother the decision was "immediate", and grandfather grudgingly gave his consent, his father was more skeptical. "Most of my fears were what people were going to think" his father is quoted as saying.

Oh, by all means Mr. Hunter's dad. I know if I had a child and was presented with the choice of having him spend the rest of his life strung out on mind altering drugs and quietly watching television instead of being a marginally misbehaved child, my first goddamn concern would be "What will the neighbors say?".

Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - Argentine Default and the IMF - The i.m.f. would never survive in a free market. Hence, it should be allowed to die. It lives entirely on your stolen tax money.

Imagine a hypothetical bank run by a group of international executives operating behind closed doors, making decisions of enormous international importance. Imagine the bank consistently made high-risk loans to shaky governments with weak economies and currencies. Imagine it made those loans at substantially below-market interest rates, even though the risks involved warranted high interest rates. Imagine it knew that certain corporate interests would benefit directly from contracts awarded by the borrowing nations. Finally, imagine the bank schemed with governments around the world to have taxpayers foot the bill for the predictable losses stemming from bad loans. Surely no reasonable person would invest his money in such an institution, right?

Believe it or not, such an institution exists, and it's called the International Monetary Fund. The IMF is an international organization comprised of member states, much like the UN, that takes your tax dollars and sends them overseas. It's expensive, too, just like the UN, enjoying a $37 billion line of credit provided by American taxpayers.

Ryann Connell at Mainichi Daily News - Chomp! Model's revenge leaves rapist reeling - if you're a rapist, forcing your victim to perform oral sex is generally not a good idea. [unknown]

Sydney Morning Herald - Man charged over offensive weapons at London airport - a 54-year-old racing driver instructor was arrested for possessing "a small lock knife, an old pair of pliers and a screwdriver." Standard household tools are now "offensive weapons". Well, according to Phil Elmore's Understanding Knives, which I linked to a while back, a screwdriver is the most common weapon used by muggers and carjackers. But there's the small matter of intent... Guess that's not considered any more in the world's brave new police states. [zem]

Helen Pearson at Nature - Liars caught red-faced: Blushing burglars reveal their guilt - and you can bet the nazis will try to use this technology. Thermal imaging detects increased heat around the eyes, apparently a sign of lying or being startled. [zem]

Harry Browne at WorldNetDaily - Ignorance is dangerous - a number of little known facts that just might change your opinion about the dangers of government.

Government is a powder keg. Whatever its alleged purpose -- to disarm criminals, make America drug-free, bring peace to the world, alleviate suffering -- it almost always makes things worse, and often creates enormous suffering.

Charley Reese at Enterprise-Journal - Traditional values go only so far - all animals are created equal, but American animals are more equal than others. The American government likes democracies, if the right people win. [lew]

Helms' speech was about traditional American values. They are best stated in our Declaration of Independence: "All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The mistake Helms made was that he doesn't recognize that we apply those values only to ourselves, not to foreigners.

Alan Gottlieb at the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms - CCRKBA Wants To Close 'gun Free School Zone' Loophole after New York Shooting - the Brady Bunch is always talking about closing loopholes. Let's close the real loophole in Gun Free School Zone laws. [kaba]

"This 'loophole' exists because current laws have turned schools into target-rich, low-risk environments," Gottlieb stated. "From Boston to Berkley, the situation is the same. Armed punks have nothing to fear when they go gunning for teachers or fellow students.

"We can close the Gun Free School Zone Loophole," said Gottlieb, "by re-opening school campuses to the philosophy of self-defense. We can make schools safe by getting rid of specious laws that prevent people from protecting themselves on campus. Until anti-gun lawmakers and anti-self-defense organizations honestly admit the laws they pushed have had no impact, and never will, the nation will continue experiencing the kind of senseless tragedy that unfolded in New York on Tuesday."

John Derbyshire at National Review - Less Guns, More Gun Crime - Great Britain banned handguns a while back. The results have been bad. Gun laws disarm only the good guys. [kaba]

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