Hardyville Returns!
From liberator:
"The Senate voted 97-0 for an anti-spam bill to stop those annoying things you get on your computer. The senators made it very clear that when you start misleading the American people and start taking their money over false promises, that's our turf, buddy!" -- Jay Leno
From kimdutoit:
"I could tolerate leftists if they had any coherent ideas for a better way to do things. But they don't. They cling stubbornly to failed brain-fart dreams that have been attempted over and over again with disastrous results, but they never learn. When better ideas come along, they simply screech and holler at them, then fling feces like the monkeys they are." - Acidman
Kevin Tuma - Lovely - cartoon commentary on the "lovely" child of the liberals. Unfortunately, the so-called conservatives are no better, but Mr. Tuma doesn't say that..
Claire Wolfe at Backwoods Home Magazine - Movin' to Hardyville - the classic introduction to Claire's imaginary (or maybe not) free community. BWH intends to print a new Haryville column on the first and fifteenth of every month, starting two weeks from today. Yay!
"Well, I miss concerts and libraries and ... oh, a lot of things," sighed Dora. "I even miss freeway gridlock, sometimes. But I'm getting used to it."
"You already got used to the snow plowing," I agreed.
Dora blushed. When she first moved to Hardyville she famously violated the modern Code of the West. She moved onto a scenic little acreage half a mile past the sign that said, "Road not plowed beyond this point." Then, come the first snowstorm, she went howling into the county commissioners' office, reminding them that since she lived there now, they'd darn well better not "forget" to plow for her.
True, they weren't plowing her road. Just like the sign says, M'am. And they couldn't see any reason to deplete their tiny road maintenance budget now, just because some snooty college girl from Connecticut never learned how to read.
Unlike many notorious California folks -- or New York folks -- or Denver folks, for that matter, Dora got it. She shut up and started trading with a local rancher -- Nat. He plows, she delivers home baked bread. Dora learned. But too many transplant folks would just sit and whine about the lack of services until they finally got what they wanted -- and got our taxes launched into the sky. Or they'd leave, sniveling all the way to the coast about how we benighted rubes failed to appreciate their Bountiful Efforts to Improve Our Community.
You see, that's what I mean when I say Hardyville is a state of mind. It's not where Hardyville is that matters. It's how Hardyville is. If you honestly want Hardyville, and all the cranky, troublesome, but spirit-filling independence it implies, then don't bring your dependencies to Hardyville. Don't bring them anywhere else you go, for that matter.
Outdoors Best Shooters Forum has some hot discussion about second amendment issues. Added to my links page. [publicola]
Warren Richey at The Christian Science Monitor - Secret 9/11 case before high court - secret courts, of any kind for any reason, are blatantly unconstitutional in the United States of America. Anyone who has anything to do with making a trial secret is a criminal of the highest order. Treason describes their crime pretty well. [libertyforum]
MIAMI -- It's the case that doesn't exist. Even though two different federal courts have conducted hearings and issued rulings, there has been no public record of any action. No documents are available. No files. No lawyer is allowed to speak about it. Period.
Yet this seemingly phantom case does exist - and is now headed to the US Supreme Court in what could produce a significant test of a question as old as the Star Chamber, abolished in 17th-century England: How far should a policy of total secrecy extend into a system of justice?
Secrecy has been a key Bush administration weapon in the war on terrorism. Attorney General John Ashcroft warns that mere tidbits of information that seem innocuous about the massive Sept. 11 investigation could help Al Qaeda carry out new attacks.
Yet this highly unusual petition to the high court arising from a Miami case brings into sharp focus the tension between America's long tradition of open courts and the need for security in times of national peril. At issue is whether certain cases may be conducted entirely behind closed doors under a secret arrangement among prosecutors, judges, and docket clerks.
While secret trial tactics have reportedly been used by federal prosecutors to shield cooperating drug dealers, it's unclear whether the high court has ever directly confronted the issue. But that may change if they take up MKB v. Warden (No. 03-6747).
Garry Reed, The Loose Cannon Libertarian - The National Wimp-Out List - commentery on the unconstitutionality of the national "do not call" list, and a list of simple procedures that any moron can use to protect him/herself from telemarketers without help from any Congress critters. Hehe.
I must have a Reader's Digest version of the Bill of Rights. I just can't find the full, unedited text of Amendment I where it says, "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech for politicians and charities but telemarketers are screwed because we don't like you."
But aside from that pesky little Constitutional detail, how could 51 million people (and still counting) be so naïve as to voluntarily hand over their phone numbers to the tender mercies of government bureaucrats by signing up on the national "do not call" list? How long will it take for those dialing digits to mysteriously migrate into the databases of political phone banks, charity scammers and postal spammers with reverse phone directories? And what makes 51 million people think that the telemarketing industry won't adapt in ways they'll come to regret?
Robert Clayton Dean at Samizdata - Reward and Punish - Mr. Dean has noticed that in this world you tend to get more of what you reward and less of what you punish. That's why social "welfare" programs tend to get exactly opposite the results they're aiming for. [samizdata]
Shields UP! is an "internet vulnerability profiler". It tests whether the script kiddies are likely to be able to break into your machine through your internet connection. I'm safe here behind two firewalls. Added to my links page. [smith2004]
