Patient Protection Act
Burton S. Blumert at LewRockwell.com - LRC Threatened - LewRockwell.com needs money to continue operating. If you can afford it, please donate. [lew]
Ron Paul at AAPS - H.R. 1699, The "Patient Protection Act" to Repeal the HIPAA Privacy Regulations and To Abolish a National Patient Identifier - Remarks made by Dr. Paul to introduce H.R. 1699, the text of which is not yet available from Thomas. [trt-ny]
"Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Patient Privacy Act. This bill repeals the misnamed Medical Privacy regulation, which goes into effect on April 14 and actually destroys individual medical privacy. The Patient Privacy Act also repeals those sections of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 authorizing the establishment of a ``standard unique health care identifier'' for all Americans, as well as prohibiting the use of federal funds to develop or implement a database containing personal health information. Both of these threats to medical freedom grew out of the Clinton-era craze to nationalize as much of health care as politically possible.
"Establishment of a uniform medical identifier would allow federal bureaucrats to track every citizen's medical history from cradle to grave. Furthermore, as explained in more detail below, it is possible that every medical professional, hospital, and Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) in the country would be able to access an individual citizens' record simply by entering the patient's identifier into a health care database.
Marijuana Policy Project - Medical Marijuana "Truth in Trials Act" Introduced - Two California representatives introduced H.R. 1717, the "Truth in Trials Act" in an attempt to prevent another trial like that of Ed Rosenthal, where the judge disallows the mention of the fact that medical marijuana is legal in the state. The bill text is not yet available from Thomas.
Jacob G. Hornberger at The Future of Freedom Foudation - If Iraq Really Adopts Freedom, Should We Move There? - model amendments to the Iraqi Consitution. An improvement on America's Bill or Rights. If Iraq were to adopt this and really mean it, I would definitely consider moving there. But you can be damn sure the fascist American government won't allow anything of the sort. [smith2004]
Lew Rockwell at LewRockwell.com - Anarcho-Tyranny in Baghdad - commentary on the widespread looting currently going on in Iraq. [smith2004]
It was Sam Francis who coined the phrase anarcho-tyranny, to describe the simultaneous existence of armed dictatorship and the absence of the rule of law. He used it in the context of the crime wave of the early nineties, when armed drug gangs freely roamed American streets even as big government plotted to grab guns from regular Americans and ensnare the bourgeoisie in its regulatory and tax bureaucracy. It is a situation in which government does everything but what it is supposed to do, namely protect life and property.
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What the US is doing in Iraq is what every state throughout history has done. Whatever excuse it gives for its rule -- securing liberty, guaranteeing security, reinforcing virtue, saving souls, stopping terrorism, or whatever -- it always comes down to the same thing: gaining, maintaining, and firming up political control. All other priorities take a back seat to that one. As Murray Rothbard used to emphasize, there is a reason why the state has more severe penalties for challenging its rule than it does for ordinary crime.
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It's extraordinary what the self-proclaimed conservatives of this administration have done to Iraq, and to us. But to the state, it is all justified because, after all, its ability to maintain a secure control over the apparatus of compulsion and coercion is secure. Whether that power is used for the good of society or not is beside the point. In this respect, there is no real distinction between wartime and peacetime, their country or ours.
