Logging Is Much Worse!!
Here's a joke making the rounds in Europe: Bush, Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac are holding an economic summit. While Chirac maunders on about something, Bush leans over and says to Blair, "The trouble with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur."
From ambereden:
"...I won't ever forget those images burned into my brain on that day, but I don't need Dan Rather to remind me how to feel." -- sheilla
From tle:
"The country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer." -- Will Rogers
From kaba:
"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it." -- Justice Learned Hand
"Samizdata Illuminatus" at samizdata:
On this day [August 24] in 1814, following the defeat of US Army and Marines defending the capital at Bladensburg, the British military occupied Washington DC, burning most major government buildings.
Perhaps it is time for a really realistic historical re-enactment, starting with 1111 Constitution Avenue, with US taxpayers wearing the Red Coats this time...
Mike Shelton at The Orange County Register - But Logging Is Much Worse!! - cartoon commentary on GW's recent proposal to expand logging rights on federal land. Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Yesterday I bought a Marlin 444P "Outfitter" lever-action rifle. with the proceeds of selling my L.C. Smith shotgun. I've been looking at this rifle for a while. Don't know why. Maybe some echo of cowboy movies or my Wyoming past leaking out. I nearly bought the same gun in .45/70 caliber, but that would have cost twenty cents per shot more to load for. Heavier bullets but lower velocity give the .45/70 less energy than the .444 at up to 200 yards. After that, the heavier bullets win out. Commercial ammo for both of these runs over a dollar a pop, but I'll be able to load the 444 for about thirty-two cents, just a little more than my .30/06. I'll fire it today after shooting traps, in sha' allah. The only thing I don't like about it is the rear leaf sight. I'll probably get a receiver-mounted peep sight sometime soon. Chuck Hawks' .444 Marlin page recommends reloading with 300 grain bullets instead of the 240 grain standard load.
The Guardian Unlimited - A dose of madness - what happens when you inject a 3,200kg elephant with 297mg of LSD (3,000 times the normal 100 microgram human dose)? It falls over and dies, that's what. [picks]
Betsy Pisik at The Washington Times - U.N. considers face-lift - they want to spend over $1 billion of our money to renovate their New York City headquarters. Don't let 'em do it. US out of UN. UN out of US. Now. [trt-ny]
Corinne Low at The Libertarian Enterprise - Fine, Throw Your Vote Away! A Love Letter to Third Party Voters - I'm finally getting around to reading last week's issue. Ms. Low believes in voting. She thinks voting for the Libertarian Party candidate somehow proves something. Same old same old. But written energetically. [tle]
As not only my eighteenth birthday but also the November election looms ahead, I am faced with the same important decisions that all you registered voters out there have made before me. To vote, or not to vote. To choose, the lesser of two evils, or to choose neither. In a famous Simpsons episode, the American public is "forced" to elect one of two ambitious aliens with earthly domination as his first campaign promise. When someone remarks "I believe I'll vote for a third party candidate!" A slime-drooling candidate retorts "Fine! Throw your vote away!" Is that what it comes down to? The satirical brilliance of The Simpsons has deftly pointed out an alarming flaw in the American political system.
...
Corinne Low has decided to vote. She formerly would have agreed with Lopez's treatise, but now is infuriated by it to the point of writing this article. Corinne was raised by anarchists, but has since embraced the libertarian party. She is a National Merit scholar and accomplished playwright who will be entering Duke University in the fall, where she plans to study writing and political science.
Vin Suprynowicz at The Libertarian Enterprise - Which Is The Nation Of Slaves, Numbered Like Cattle? - America is the land of the free and the Japanese live in a closely tracked and regimented society. Right? So how come they have been tearing up their new government numbers, but we've allowed the social security slave number to be required for damn near everything? [tle]
Yet Americans have tolerated a 9-digit Social Slave number for 70 years now. And those of us who have tried it can testify to the kinds of looks you get in the United States of America, this good old Land of the Free, when a prospective employer or Motor Vehicles clerk or bank "new accounts" officer asks for your Social Security number and you reply, "No, that's a voluntary government retirement program. You can call the Social Security Administration and ask them -- they'll tell you right over the phone it's voluntary -- no one is required to join. So I've decided not to volunteer to participate in that particular actuarially bankrupt Ponzi scheme. Anyway, I wasn't going to apply for any government benefits to help me pay for this transaction, in the first place. So just write down on the form there, 'Asked for SS number as required; subject said he had none or declined to provide,' and we'll proceed from there."
Claire Berlinski at Samizdata - A Modest Proposal - at least as reasonable as bombing Sadam into the stone age. And $9/barrel oil forever sounds like a pretty good deal.
So that's really the deal, Saddam old buddy. It's simple, isn't it? Lay off of Israel, do the needful with the terrorists, and the Gulf is yours. We tried to do the right thing by the Kuwaitis and the Saudis, but you know, there comes a point in every relationship where you have to ask -- "Am I giving more than I'm getting here?" And honestly, we think that point came and went a long time ago. It's like they say in the books about healthy relationships. We feel like one of those women who love too much. Have you read that one? It really spoke to us, all that stuff about being co-dependent and all. Always bailing out some penny-ante, Jew-hating Gulf potentate whenever he gets himself into some stupid mess, and getting no thanks, none at all, not one word, just more abuse about how we're such bullies and warmongers.
Mike Salinero at The Tampa Tribune - Gen. Zinni Says War With Iraq Is Unwise - a top (retired) general speaks some sense to the war-mongers. Hope they listen, but I won't hold my breath. [grabbe]
Christopher Bollyn at Rense.com - Open Letter To World Trade Center Investigators - claims that seismic evidence proves that an explosion in their basements, not airplanes, caused the WTC buildings to collapse. [grabbe]
Carl Bussjaeger at The Libertarian Enterprise - Changing The Rules - from this week's issue, "Freedom's Drought", as are the TLE stories below. The U.S. government's constitutional cage has been completely destroyed. It's time to stop playing by their arbitrary and capricious rules. [tle]
Face it; the Constitution did not provide for a series of checks and balances in the form of counter-balancing branches of government. That's nothing but statist propaganda. The sad - for an old ex-Constitutionalist to be forced to admit - reality is that the Constitution created a federal monster of one body. The branches are merely subsystems.
...
By and large, we've been a remarkably peaceful bunch. A heck of a lot of us like to shoot, but have refrained from shooting government goons; we just keep giving them benefit of the doubt. We keep hoping we can effect a change without spilling blood, even the blood of those whose elimination would raise the moral, ethical, and intelligence average of the world population.
...
The Constitution is dead. The new rules are arbitrary, ever-changing, and destructive of freedom. In spite of that, we've spent years trying to obey those rules to reach freedom.
I think it's time to play by our own rules.
Vin Suprynowicz at The Libertarian Enterprise - Another African 'Drought' - a "drought in Zimbabwe will be the reason they're asking for aid in the near future. This "drought" was caused by evicting productive farmers from their land and allowing their crops and animals to die. [tle]
Vin Suprynowicz at The Libertarian Enterprise - Dare to Face the Failure of DARE - in case you've been living under a rock, D.A.R.E. has been an abject failure. It's made a bunch of police departments feel good, but hasn't reduced drug use by kids. I've read that it's actually increased it in some places. Why? Vin says it's because the D.A.R.E. instructors don't know enough about their subject matter to give kids good information. Also, their parents would be much better teachers. [tle]
Roma Khanna at The Houston Chronicle Raid at hot dog joint preceded Kmart bust - Houston police raided a K-Mart parking lot and arrested everybody in sight. I guess some terrorists wear funny hats instead of rags on their heads. [kaba]
Jacob Sullum at Reason - Barr Exam: Why I'll miss the "worst drug warrior in Congress" - Mr. Sullum doesn't like Mr. Barr's drug warrior persona, but will miss him anyway; he engaged in a many good fights for our civil liberties. [kaba]
