New York Statewide Smoking Ban
"The 2002 Floral Flag is 740 feet wide and 390 feet high and maintains the proper Flag dimensions as described in Executive Order #10834. This Flag is 6.65 acres and is the first Floral Flag to be planted with 5 pointed Stars comprised of White Larkspur. Each Star is 24 feet in diameter; Each Stripe is 30 feet wide. This Flag is estimated to contain more than 400,000 Larkspur plants with 4-5 flower stems each for a total of more than 2 million flowers. You can drive by this flag on V Street south of Ocean Ave. in Lompoc, CA." Very impressive. The page contains two photos, one from an airplane and one from a satellite 423 miles up. [scopeny]
James M. Odato at The Albany (NY) Times Union - Pataki signs ban on smoking - after a quick pass through the legislature thanks to senate majority leader Joe Bruno, New York will this summer join California with a state-wide smoking ban. No smoking in bars, restaurants, or offices, including membership clubs that have hired any staff. I sent the following letter to the editor:
With Pataki's signature on the smoking ban, the nanny state drives one more nail into the coffin of private property rights. Restaurant and bar owners, not government goons, are the only people with the authority to decide whether, where, and when smoking is allowed on their property. If people don't like an establishment's smoking policies, they are free to eat, drink, and work elsewhere.
It's time to stop the unending encroachment on the rights of property owners. If you own a restaurant or bar and you believe that smoking is a benefit to your business, I urge you to ignore this fascist ban. Tell your customers that they are free to smoke on your property. Tell them that if anyone attempts to stop them, you will ensure that the nearest lamppost gains a new swinging decoration.
Bill Walker at Laissez Faire Electronic Times - Peaceful Trade--the Nemesis of Dictators - a short history of the United States' horrible record at getting rid of dictators, and a short exploration of what might actually work: free trade. [grabbe]
Henrietta Bowman at Sierra Times - Faces of the War - I'm not sure why Ms. Bowman thinks this may be her most controversial and unpopular piece, but it's a good one. [sierra]
Use "Red Dawn" for a scenario if you will. How would you, as patriotic Americans, react if an overwhelming Chinese force invaded America, much as we are doing Iraq, to "liberate" us? Would YOU give a good rat's derierre about the Geneva convention?
Look at these population figures for US cities most resembling Basra's 1.3 million: Press Release for Population Estimates
The closest in both numbers and climate to Basra are Phoenix and San Diego. Now imagine both of those cities attacked by China and running out of water, food and medicines. That is what has happened to Basra. 60% of people in Basra are without safe water to drink. Three days in the desert without water is a death sentence...60% of 1.3 million...
If the Chinese tried to do that to me, I would flay them alive. But the Iraqis are supposed to WELCOME us???????
All I can say is I am praying both for our troops and for the Iraqi civilians. Do I hate someone in this damned war? YOU DAMNED BETCHA! I want to see them hung from the nearest Liberty Tree ever since the NeoCons under Donald Rumsfeld did this: On 9/11/01, barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq--even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks.
Andrew Macdonald via The Mad Moose - The Turner Diaries - I haven't read this, and it may sicken me too much to get far. Apparently this was one of Timothy McVeigh's inspirations. According to the reviews on its page at amazon.com, this book is required reading to understand the danger of the white supremacist worldview. [birdman]
Earl Turner and his fellow patriots face this question and are forced underground when the U.S. government bans the private possession of firearms and stages the mass Gun Raids to round up suspected gun owners. The hated Equality Police begin hunting them down, but the patriots fight back with a campaign of sabotage and assassination. An all-out race war occurs as the struggle escalates. Turner and his comrades suffer terribly, but their ingenuity and boldness in devising and executing new methods of guerrilla warfare lead to a victory of cataclysmic intensity and worldwide scope. The FBI has labeled The Turner Diaries "the bible of the racist right." If the government had the power to ban books, this one would be at the top of the list. The Turner Diaries is the most controversial book in America today and it's a book unlike any you've read!
Murray Sabrin at USA Daily - Ron Paul for President - I'd vote for him. [trt-ny]
Charley Reese - The Terrorist Advantage - some rational advice for dealing with the terrorist threat until we throw the idiots in Washington out and change our foreign policy so that they don't want to attack us any more.
The proper way to deal with terrorists is to ignore them. That means reasonable security at airports and ports of entry, but all of this show of uniforms and guns and stupid color schemes isn't going to do any good. Like the old baseball player who used to "hit 'em where they ain't," the terrorists, when they are ready, will simply choose a target that's unguarded. Given today's media environment, it doesn't matter where they strike. A bomb in a mall in Smallville, Nowhere, will generate the same publicity as a bomb in New York or Washington, D.C.
The Israelis have been a miserable failure at preventing terrorism (their policies generate it perpetually), but they do know how to deal with the attacks. They clean up the mess, bury the victims and go right on with their lives. They don't talk about it for weeks on end or shut down their country. They've learned to accept it as a fact of life. There are accidents, there are storms and there are terrorist incidents. Clean up, bury the dead and go on with life.
We Americans are going to have to learn to do that, too, at least until we elect a government with brains enough to solve the political problems that generate terrorism. The Bush administration is dead-wrong to think that it can solve the problem of terrorism by hunting down the terrorists. That assumes there are a finite number of terrorists, like the old Dalton Gang.
Gary G. Kohls at the Baltimre Chronicle - What Would You Do If You Saw Your Nation Going Fascist? - Dr. Kohls reminds us what it was like in Germany for "patriots" during the Nazi era. Is that lesson relevant today? You probably know my opinion, but read his piece. [kaba]
