End the War on Freedom

russmo.com - The State of the Union - Cartoon commentary on GW's Tuesday night address. Hohohoho.

Kevin Tuma - Budget - cartoon commentary on our tax burden. Not funny.

From kaba:

The freedom to own and carry the weapon of your choice is a natural, fundamental, and inalienable human, individual, civil, and Constitutional right -- subject neither to the democratic process nor to arguments grounded in social utility. -- L. Neil Smith

An ordinance which... makes the peaceful enjoyment of freedoms which the Constitution guarantees contingent upon the uncontrolled will of an official -- as by requiring a permit or license which may be granted or withheld in the discretion of such official -- is an unconstitutional censorship or prior restraint upon the enjoyment of those freedoms. And our decisions have made clear that a person faced with such an unconstitutional licensing law may ignore it and engage with impunity in the exercise of the right of free expression for which the law purports to require a license. -- Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham AL

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -- Winston Churchill

Ed Lewis at The Patriotist - I Am Not a Terrorist - and how! Will likely move here next week. [market]

I am not a terrorist. I was born in the Republic of Missouri. This makes me a citizen of the union of Republics known as the United States of America.

As a 'by birthright' citizen, I am sovereign. Government is not. It has no power over me except what it enforces through corrupted peace officers, legislators, prosecutors, and judges. It forces upon me 'laws' that are not just, nor within the limits of the Constitution under which the many Republics united in common need and defence.

Lewis J. Goldberg at The Patriotist - Truth Be Told... - I don't agree with all of this, for instance I don't believe that Islam is evil, but there's lots of good stuff. Will likely move here next week.

...patience in long lines at the airport is not "today's manifestation of patriotism," it is a search without a warrant, and a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.

...every Democrat, and almost every Republican in Congress today, if held to the standards expected of legislators in post-revolutionary America, would be guilty of treason and hung by the neck until dead. We are a nation of prostitutes in the sense that as long as we are fat, warm, and dry we don't care what Congress does. The few of us who complain regularly are simply spoiling the party.

CNN - Bush State of the Union address - I missed GW's speech on Tuesday night. Follow the link to a transcript.

Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, members of Congress, distinguished guests, fellow citizens, as we gather tonight, our nation is at war, our economy is in recession and the civilized world faces unprecedented dangers. Yet the state of our union has never been stronger.

...

Our men and women in uniform deserve the best weapons, the best equipment and the best training and they also deserve another pay raise. My budget includes the largest increase in defense spending in two decades, because while the price of freedom and security is high, it is never too high. Whatever it costs to defend our country, we will pay.

...

My budget nearly doubles funding for a sustained strategy of homeland security, focused on four key areas: bioterrorism; emergency response; airport and border security; and improved intelligence.

...

My call tonight is for every American to commit at least two years, 4,000 hours over the rest of your lifetime, to the service of your neighbors and your nation.

Many are already serving and I thank you. If you aren't sure how to help, I've got a good place to start. To sustain and extend the best that has emerged in America, I invite you to join the new USA Freedom Corps.

The Freedom Corps will focus on three areas of need: responding in case of crisis at home, rebuilding our communities, and extending American compassion throughout the world. One purpose of the USA Freedom Corps will be homeland security. America needs retired doctors and nurses who can be mobilized in major emergencies ... volunteers to help police and fire departments, transportation and utility workers well-trained in spotting danger.

...

America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere. No nation owns these aspirations, and no nation is exempt from them. We have no intention of imposing our culture -- but America will always stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human dignity: the rule of law ... limits on the power of the state ... respect for women ... private property ... free speech ... equal justice ... and religious tolerance.

Libertarian Party Press Release - Bush's State of the Union speech was a historic 'missed opportunity' - there was lots wrong with GW's speech. I pulled the excerpts I did above because they were all things I thought were either badly wrong or bald-faced lies.

I wrote the following letter to the editor of the Albany Times Union:

Government Finance Reform

I'm reading a lot about "campaign finance reform" these days. The problem isn't the size of political donations. The problem is that people and companies want to donate at all. And why do they want to donate? Because politicians control huge flows of money, and they want, understandably, to make some of it flow their way. A much better way to solve the problem is to cut government budgets. A factor of 100 makes sense to me, but I'd be willing to settle for a factor of 10 if I thought it would really happen.

And how do you make such a huge cut in expenditures? Simple. Return government to its constitutional limits. Anything not explicitly mentioned in the constitution is not allowed. This eliminates the lion's share of the alphabet soup of government agencies. A standing army in peace time is not allowed. This eliminates a huge part of the military budget. Like Switzerland, America's homeland defense should be our citizen militia. That's you and me, well armed and well trained.

Then keep the budgets low by putting some teeth into the Bill of Rights. If a government employee, elected or appointed, who has sworn to uphold and defend the constitution, breaks that oath, he or she should be jailed for at least five years and forever forbidden from government employment. Search a house or car without a warrant. Go to jail. Propose or vote for an unconstitutional law (and every gun and drug law is unconstitutional). Go to jail. Forbid a jury to judge the law as well as the alleged law breaker. Go to jail.

John Balzar at The Albany Times Union - Fliers line up for airline abuse - for some reason, people are still flying, even though the lines are getting longer and the help is getting ruder. Sheesh.

The one passenger who dared plead quietly for consideration in making his flight received a stony stare. What are you, a terrorist?!

Those National Guardsmen with their assault rifles are here for our safety. They also serve the perverse function of wardens, grimly enforcing docility in the ranks of the prisoners.

Rick Gee at LewRockwell.com - An Act of Conscience - review of one of the great anti-war films. A Massachusetts family refuses to pay taxes because they refuse to support the U.S. war machine. The i.r.s. sells their house to collect taxes "due", but they and their friends occupy it for quite a while. Looks interesting. [lew]

George Jonas at the National Post - Selling smokers down the river - Like the engineer in Mr. Jonas' story, I too used to ask for a seat in the smoking section of airplanes (back when there was a smoking section on airplanes), even though I didn't smoke, because I thought that smokers were better company. [lew]

But that's not how the regulatory mind works. Smoking doesn't worry health commissars half as much as choice. Perish the thought that owners should be able to decide for themselves whether to allow smoking in their places of business or not. Perish the thought that customers should be able to choose between smoke-free and smoking bars.

DataVision "is a database reporting tool similar to Crystal Reports, written in Java. Multiple database backends (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, ODBC) and frontends (LaTeX, XML, comma- and tab-separated data files, DocBook, and HTML) are supported. DataVision uses XML files to describe reports." I haven't tried it. [meat]

Add comment Edit post Add post