Hi Amber
The congress of the United States possesses no power to regulate, or interfere with the domestic concerns, or police of any state: it belongs not to them to establish any rules respecting the rights of property; nor will the constitution permit any prohibition of arms to the people; or of peaceable assemblies by them, for any purposes whatsoever, and in any number, whenever they may see occasion. -- St. George Tucker's Blackstone
Tom Toles - SLOBO - cartoon commentary on the trial of Slobodan Milosevic. Hehe. [sierra]
Amber Eden - A letter to everyone else - The life of a single Mom is hard, as Amber testifies at her new domain: ambereden.com. Blessings to you, Amber. May your luck change for the better, and soon. [loony]
Here's the deal.
I'm working. As a temp. For not very much money an hour. I start at 9:00, because with my kiddo in school, that's the earliest I can start. And so I end at 6:00. If I'm lucky. Which, in case you hadn't gathered, lately, I'm not. While this is a full time gig, it is not paying like one because, well... I'm a temp. I stand to almost double my hourly wage when my indentured servitude is up. That's good, because I can barely afford to live on what I'm making. Yes, divorce is a GRAND thing.
And I'm being my usual full time mother self, which as you may or may not know involves 2 hours of driving each and every day. This puts me home at somewhere between 7:00 and 7:30. With no extra stops... like no stopping at the store, or at the gas station... In other words, sometimes (if everything runs like clockwork, which it never seems to lately) I get home at 7:00 at night. With my kid in tow. Who needs to then be fed. And bathed. And helped with homework. I have my hands full in a way that only a parent could understand.
To make my life a more complete paradise, my daughter and I have both been VERY, VERY ill. In turns, and then simultaneously and now in turns again. Right now it happens to be my turn. Yes, we've gone to the doctor. Yes, that does cost an arm and a leg. No, I don't have a mommy or daddy to bail me out if I get in trouble.
Timothy Richard at anti-state.com - Organ Rentals - not only should it be legal to sell your organs, why not rent them? Do you own your body or not? [anti-state]
Howard Pankratz at The Denver Post - ACLU sues agents in drug raid - no search warrant, no arrest warrant, but the jackboots broke into a home, kicked the dog across the room, pointed guns at everybody, and arrested two boys. Hang 'em. [sierra]
Stewart Stogel at The Washington Times - Assault rifles for Annan guards investigated - Kofi Annan, the man who would disarm you and me, apparently believes he's better than the rest of us. His security guards use MP5 sub-machine guns to protect him. They were likely illegally imported, and are illegal for them to possess outside of the U.N. building. Get the US out of the UN! Get the UN out of the US! [libertycommittee kaba]
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar at The Seattle Times - Flight crews want to be armed, ready - At least one lady has her head on straight. Why there's any argument at all about arming pilots, I can't understand. Arm the passengers. Arm everybody. Always. Everywhere. [geneice]
Airline Capt. Linda Pauwels is an "anti-gun" mom who keeps her two young children away from violent video games and television shows.
Yet if the government allows pilots to pack a pistol to defend the cockpit against hijackers, Pauwels says she'll get a gun and explain to the kids that she needs it for work.
AP via FindLaw - Gun Sales Tied Up Nationwide - the b.a.t.f. changed the Brady bill form, but neglected to print enough copies of the new form. So... lots of gun shops couldn't make sales. End the Brady bill. Now. [geneice]
William Safire at The New York Times -
The Great Unwatched 
- bemoans the death of privacy in America. Big
Brother is watching you, everywhere. [faisal]
Is this the kind of world we want? The promise is greater safety; the tradeoff is government control of individual lives. Personal security may or may not be enhanced by this all-seeing eye and ear, but personal freedom will surely be sharply curtailed. To be watched at all times, especially when doing nothing seriously wrong, is to be afflicted with a creepy feeling. That is what is felt by a convict in an always-lighted cell. It is the pervasive, inescapable feeling of being unfree.
Brian Micklethwait at Samizdata - Another thing that technology is about to do for us - a new mouthwash is being developed. Use it once, no more tooth decay, ever. Hope it works. [samizdata]
John Markley at anti-state.com - The Fall Guy - once again, the free market is being blamed for the demise of Enron. Not! Government over-regulation is the culprit, as usual. [anti-state]
Diana Lynne at WorldNetDaily - Say the 'N' word, go to jail: Man sentenced for uttering slur at another for attacking his wife - a nigger assaulted Lonny Rae's wife at a football game. The nigger should be spending a year in jail for felony assault. Instead, Mr. Rae was sentenced to seven days, for calling a spade a spade. He has appealed, and is willing to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court. I call the attacker a nigger because of his attack, not because of the color of his skin, just as I would call a cop a nazi because of his actions, not because of his fancy uniform or funny hat. [kaba]
"'Hate words' according to the Idaho legislature," Rae told WorldNetDaily, "are nigger, spook, gook, dike, fag, chink, spic -- there's not one of them in there relating to white people. There ain't 'cracker' or 'honkey.' So I say to myself, this is a law for minorities only, and that violates equal protection."
