End the War on Freedom

Rachel Lucas - Letter to Dubya - instructions on pronouncing "nuclear". Hehe. From the above linked definition: [rachel]

Usage Note: The pronunciation (nky-lr), which is generally considered incorrect, is an example of how a familiar phonological pattern can influence an unfamiliar one. The usual pronunciation of the final two syllables of this word is (-kl-r), but this sequence of sounds is rare in English. Much more common is the similar sequence (-ky-lr), which occurs in words like particular, circular, spectacular, and in many scientific words like molecular, ocular, and vascular.

Don Lobo Tiggre at SunniMaravillosa.com - Deliberate Death of an Anarchist - fiction. Well done.

Thomas L. Knapp at Rational Review - Time for a new Dallas Accord? - Can't we libertarians just get along? At least until we reach limited or minimal government and moving to full anarcho-capitalism becomes a practical possibility? [smith2004]

The Dallas Accord seems to be lost in the fog of history. I don't know the names of the principals who hammered it out, or in what official manner it might have been endorsed, but it came down to an agreement that anarchists and minarchists would set aside their fundamental disagreement over the legitimacy of government per se. While working for more freedom and less government, the Party would, in its official operations, make no comment on the ultimate question of whether government should be dispensed with entirely or kept alive, albeit as a shadow of its former self.

...

I am an anarchist. I don't think anyone who didn't already know that will find it surprising. I believe that, ultimately, government always does more damage than it does good; that that's its nature. Eventually, I hope that we will arrive at the point where we can choose to shrug it off entirely.

I also recognize that we aren't there yet; therefore, unlike some anarchists, I choose to involve myself in the political process. Limited government is conducive to minimal government; minimal government allows the question to be raised, in an environment where it can be considered seriously: do we really need this institution at all? I don't expect that to happen within my lifetime, nor do I feel the need to pursue it as an immediate goal.

The Libertarian Party is a train that is going in my direction. I recognize that the bulk of the passengers will be disembarking at stations somewhere east of the one for which my ticket is stamped.

Walter S. Hadwen at K.N.O.W. Vaccines - Sanitation Vs. Vaccination - The Origin of Smallpox - a 1923 article on how cleanliness, not vaccination, prevents smallpox. Also here at rense.com. [birdman]

Before the passing of the Public Health Act of l875 in this country, every succeeding epidemic of smallpox was worse than its predecessor in spite of more and more compulsory vaccination; but with less and less vaccination and more and more sanitation smallpox has become a comparative curiosity. It is only in unsanitary quarters it can gain a hold.

Sir Edwin-Chadwick, the veteran sanitarian, has well said: Smallpox, typhus, and other fevers occur in common conditions of foul air, stagnant putrefaction, bad house drainage, sewers of deposit, excrement sodden sites, filthy street surfaces, impure water, and overcrowding, and the entire removal of such conditions is the effectual preventive of diseases of those species, whether in ordinary or extraordinary visitations.

Colin Freeze at The Globe and Mail via Liberty Forum - Pot possession not illegal, judge rules [Canada] - possession of marijuana has been ruled legal by a judge in Ontario. [smith2004]

Terry Bressi via Cryptome - Police checkpoint incident - Arizona police are now working with U.S. customs and I.N.S. stopping vehicles, demanding drivers licenses, and searching trunks. Mr. Bressi was dragged from his car and arrested for refusing to present his driver's license on demand. Personally, I think we should flood the courts with these cases. If the cop doesn't have a reason to stop you, do NOT provide identification and do NOT cooperate in any way. If you're in a bad mood, make your non-cooperation active instead of passive. If arrested, plead innocent and demand a jury trial. But I doubt I've got the cojones to walk my talk on this one. [cryptome]

I was cited with two class 2 misdeamenors - each of which carries a maximum jail time of 4 months and a maximum monetary fine of $750.00:

• ARS 28-1595B - Operator fails/refuses to exhibit drivers' license
• ARS 28-622A - Failure to obey officer while directing traffic

It would appear that it is now unlawful to drive home from work these days without getting proper clearance from the local authorities.

Radley Balko at Backwoods Home Magazine - They Can't Catch That Tiger - names Tiger Woods "man of the year" for excellence in inactivism.

"So we are here tonight in a kind of anti-matter protest -- an unpolitical undemonstration by deeply uncommitted inactivists. We are part of a huge invisible picket line that circles the White House twenty-four hours a day. We are participants in an enormous non-march on Washington -- millions and millions of Americans not descending upon the nation's capital in order to demand nothing from the United States government."
-- P.J. O'Rourke, addressing a group of libertarians in 1993

Sunni Maravillosa - The Precautionary Principle and my Crystal Ball - why market forces are better than the precautionary principle.

Incomplete knowledge is a fact of life. If the precautionary principle were adopted in every aspect of life, making babies the old fashioned way would have to end: after all, what's more risky than just, er, throwing together random sperm and eggs to create life, when that could result in any number of ghastly inherited diseases, or predispositions to others? Such scenarios make genetic modification of one gene in an organism seem downright cautionary in comparison, yet no one is advancing doing away with sexual reproduction based on the precautionary principle. (Or are they?)

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