Amerika: Nuclear Rogue State
Our Founding Fathers were proud that Americans were trusted with arms because they knew that only when people are armed could they truly be thought of as free citizens. And that's where the circle closes. Those who want to deprive you of your right to keep and bear arms are intending to deprive you of your freedom, period. Like the criminals their policies encourage, these elitists know that it is always best to disarm victims before you enslave them. -- Charley Reese
Thomas L. Friedman at The New York Times - A Foul Wind - suitcase nukes are getting too easy to come by to study war no more. [faisal]
Some in Israel and in the American Jewish right argue that it is already a war of civilizations and that the only thing to do is kill Palestinians until they say "uncle." That is called "realism." Well, let me tell you something else that is real: If this uncompromising view becomes dominant in Israel and among American Jews, then cash in your Israel Bonds right now -- the country is doomed. Because there are so many more Muslims than Jews to be killed, and weapons of mass destruction are becoming so much smaller and so much cheaper, it won't be long before the student in my Egyptian friend's story gets one of his eight bombs and wipes Israel off the map.
Is that real enough for you?
Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - The Truth About Government Debt - Why governments should be allowed no debt whatsoever. But you knew that.
Any government that consumes 40% of the most productive economy in the world and still can't balance its books is a government that vastly overspends.
Ben Charny at ZDNet News - Guess who's tracking you by cell phone? - another good reason to avoid cell phones. [bluebutton]
The nation's cell phone service providers will soon know exactly where every one of their customers is, at all times, and privacy rights groups are asking what they plan to do with the information.
New York Times - America as Nuclear Rogue - as usual, the Amerikan government is subject to different rules than everybody else. [cowlix]
If another country were planning to develop a new nuclear weapon and contemplating pre-emptive strikes against a list of non-nuclear powers, Washington would rightly label that nation a dangerous rogue state.
Brad Edmonds at LewRockwell.com - Founding Firearms - a good medium-length interpretation of the second amendment. [lew]
The founders had the right idea: No one ought to infringe the natural right of individuals to own, carry, and practice with weapons. In spite of their vision and intent, our rights have been infringed, tremendously. Many effective defensive weapons are illegal; you have to prove all sorts of things about yourself, meaning your privacy is invaded by government, whenever you buy a gun; and you are subjected to severe restrictions on carrying a defensive weapon in cities across the US.