.700 Schmernandez
Kim du Toit - The Hoax Exposed - Mr. du Toit's supposed .700 Hernandez cartridge was in fact a butane cigarette lighter. Hehe. [kimdutoit]
Nicholas von Hoffman at The New York Observer - Going Off to War Supplied With Lies - an account of some of the lies that have been perpetrated over the years to fan the flames of the war fever. [trt-ny]
Doubt everything. Trust nothing. Believe nothing. Governments and the media messengers are lying now.
Wendy McElroy at The Libertarian Enterprise - Stalker Tips: How To Deal With A Stalker - practical information, gleaned from personal experience. [tle]
Vin Suprynowicz at The Las Vegas Review-Journal - Why they no longer treat us with respect - our supposed "servants" in government and law enforcement no longer treat us with respect because they think of us as slaves. And, for all practical purposes, we are.
Watch a cop disarm a peaceful and compliant driver who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, before writing him a traffic ticket. Wouldn't it be more appropriate for our "servant" the policeman to take off his gun, unload it, and lay it on the hood of the car, "for the driver's safety," until he had concluded his business with his servant and master, the taxpayer/voter? After all, his quick computer background check has already revealed this driver to be one of the safest and most law-abiding and best-trained citizens out there -- those "pistol permits" don't come in Cracker Jack boxes, you know.
Chris Floyd at The Moscow Times - Global Eye -- Gangs of D.C. - a little lesson in the real reason for the U.S. war on Iraq. [smith2004]
The war is always coming, it's always here, either in utero, full fury or chaotic aftermath. The newest war -- the invasion of Iraq -- will come because a gang of like-minded men is willing it into being. They want it -- it's as simple as that. They want what they believe this war will give them: wealth, dominion, and empire.
The ultimate goal is not Iraq -- that bombed, blockaded state partially controlled by a witless thug whom the gang once succored -- but domination of the world's oil supplies in the coming century, when the surging nations of China and India will reach their economic peak. These vast entities could eventually tilt the imbalance of world wealth away from the Anglo-American elites who have for so long held the high and palmy ground of privilege. But the voracious economies of the Asian behemoths will require unstinting draughts of the oil reserves now locked under the sands of Iraq and Saudi Arabia. There is oil elsewhere, yes -- but nowhere else in the world are there reserves deep enough to satisfy the thirsts of China and India as they come into their own.
Patrick K Martin at The Libertarian Enterpris - To All The Rich Libertarians; A Modest Proposal - Mr. Martin proposes getting together Libertarians and patriots with money to file millions of nuisance lawsuits. [tle]
What was that you said? It won't work you say. Such suits can't be won? Well who told you that the purpose was to win? No my friend, the purpose of the Foundation is to fight and make noise. We must clog the courts, jam the proper channels, and disrupt the normal flow of discourse. Our plan is to be like George Washington, to lose the battles but win the war. How will we win? By showing people what the current occupational government is all about. We must bypass the mass-media by using every pro-freedom website, every independent newspaper, every dinky low-powered radio station, every shortwave broadcaster to get our message out. Our purpose is to make noise, to be the squeakiest wheel in the history of grease. We must force the government to either restore our rights or prove to even the most ignorant of our fellow citizens that we don't have any.
Bill Walker at Laissez Faire Electronic Times - Putting Government in a Strait Jacket - the constitutional meme has failed as a way to keep government in control. Mr. Walker explores some other ideas for putting the straight-jacket back on. [grabbe]
Bob Egelko and Maria Alicia Gaura at The San Francisco Chronicle - Libraries post Patriot Act warnings - a Santa Cruz library has put up signs warning patrons that due to the U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. act, the books they check out may be checked by the f.b.i., and the library is not allowed to tell them if this happens. Bernie Sanders has introduced H.R. 1157, "To amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to exempt bookstores and libraries from orders requiring the production of any tangible things for certain foreign intelligence investigations, and for other purposes." The text is not yet available from Thomas. Ron Paul is a cosponsor. I'll likely ask my Congress critter to cosponsor it, but I want to read the "other purposes" first. [grabbe]
