PapersPlease.org
"The Pentagon says that Dick Cheney's old company Halliburton has been overcharging the government in its 'no bid' contract in Iraq. Boy, how bad are you overcharging when the Pentagon notices?" -- Jay Leno
Joel Pett at Marc Brands Liberty - Bush requests intelligence investigation - cartoon commentary on Bushnev's directions to the Pre-War Intelligence Panel. Hehe. [smith2004]
# Ron Paul at LewRockwell.com - Rush Limbaugh and the Sick Federal War on Pain Relief - Dr. Paul read into the federal record this screed against the war on doctors who prescribe effective treatment for chronic pain. [lew]
Mr. Speaker, the publicity surrounding popular radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh's legal troubles relating to his use of the pain killer OxyContin hopefully will focus public attention on how the federal drug war threatens the effective treatment of chronic pain. Prosecutors have seized Mr. Limbaugh's medical records to investigate whether he violated federal drug laws. The fact that Mr. Limbaugh is a high profile, controversial, conservative media personality has given rise to speculation that the prosecution is politically motivated. Adding to this suspicion is the fact that individual pain patients are rarely prosecuted in this type of case.
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By waging this war on pain physicians, the government is condemning patients to either live with excruciating chronic pain or seek opioids from other, less reliable, sources -- such as street drug dealers. Of course opioids bought on the street likely will pose a greater risk of damaging a patient's health than opioids obtained from a physician.
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Finally, I wish to express my hope that Mr. Limbaugh's case will encourage his many fans and listeners to consider how their support for the federal war on drugs is inconsistent with their support of individual liberty and constitutional government.
# Tibor R. Machan at LewRockwell.com - A Libertarian Quarrel - the argument between minarchist and anarchist libertarians is nothing compared to the argument between we who believe in individual sovereignty and the minions of the all-powerful state. [lew]
Eventually, certain thinkers who studied these heretical thoughts developed solid arguments and got published somehow and the notion of the sovereignty of human individuals, as opposed to states, became palatable enough to inspire influential and clever people to translate them into law and public policy. The American Founders were the most successful of these people, managing to declare to the world that it is individual human beings who have unalienable rights to their lives, to their liberties and to the pursuit of their happiness. However much or little they succeeded in curtailing the powers of the state, the idea that this may well be a good idea could no longer be kept out of circulation.
Unfortunately, bad habits are difficult to shed, so the actual legal order they forged didn't fully recognize and protect unalienable individual human rights. And many elements of the old system were kept intact, such as taxation, conscription, secondary citizenship for various groups, and so even slavery. But the cat was out of the bag, intellectually -- as Abe Lincoln somewhat duplicitously put it, "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."
The result was the eventual development of the libertarian alternative to all varieties of statism. This development, however, didn't resolve one of the questions that has always been on the minds of political thinkers, namely, whether government of any type is evil, a criminal organization disguised as something necessary for society or is the a germ of legitimacy to the institution, only it has been twisted by power hungry rulers and their apologists to serve corrupt ends.
# Dudley Hiibel - PapersPlease.org :: Hiibel - a Nevada man was arrested for refusing to show ID. He was smoking a cigarette outside of the truck that his daughter was driving. This happened back in May of 2000. It will come before the Supreme Court on March 22. If the Supremes find in favor of the state of Nevada, "Papieren Bitte" (Papers, Please) will become the order of the day in the United Soviet States of America (USSA). The site includes the police video and court documents. Amicus briefs on behalf of Mr. Hiibel have been filed by The American Civil Libertires Union, The Cato Institute, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Electronic Privacy Information Center, The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, National Coalition for the Homeless, Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, National Alliance to End Homelessness, National Health Care for the Homeless Council, National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, PrivacyActivism, Cyber Privacy Project, and FreeToTravel.org. Briefs supporting the state of Nevada have been filed by the Solicitor General, The National Association of Police, and The Criminal Justice Legal Foundation. [lrtdiscuss]
# Basil Fishbone at Sierra Times - Why You Should Consider Moving to Montana - relatively freedom-oriented current residents whose balance towards liberty could be tipped by a few thousand free-state immigrants, pretty good employement opportunities, better-than-you-probably-think winters in the western mountain valleys. FreeWest.org is the home of the Free West Alliance (FWA), "working to enhance liberty in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming." [lrtdiscuss]
# Jeff Cooper's Commentaries - February 2004: The Chill Factor - enjoying winter; 6.8mm under discussion as new military cartridge; another full-house battle in the forthcoming presidential election; Chinese determined to enter the human race; remembrance for Washington's birthday (February 22): "Government, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master"; action in Iraq is at spitting distance in the dark, perfect for the heavy-duty combat pistol (i.e. 1911); a paragraph on the RPG; prize offerred for 20 shots in a 20-inch circle in 20 seconds at 1,000 yards; Steyr Scout considered more economical than cobbled together psuedo-scout rifle; Sir Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, was a warrior, the definitive scout; the ACLU stumbles on; "some people are better than other people... Equality is not only impossible, but also undesirable"; Gunsite benefit to law enforcement; on the desireablility of exemplary punishment; pleased with The Art of the Rifle; the joy of war; a trip across rural America by a British newsman; unprepared African "hunters"; why life insurance is not offered in Bantu Africa; "Recently a Swazi of consequence declared that the great evil the white man brought to Africa was money"; Mugabestan's problems likely resolvable only by the death of Mugabe; the SHOT show will introduce many "new" products, but there is really very little new in the firearms business; the US military is running out of small arms ammunition; poetic commentary on modern lawsuits; first proof of C Stories is with the printer.
And the Chinese are scheduled to hold a Formula 1 race this summer. Motor racing hardly seems fitting behavior for a Marxist, but Marxism seems to have become almost thoroughly abandoned, except in United States academia.
# Mike Cumpston at Gunblast - Hiding the Heavy-Weights: Concealment Strategies that Work - recommendations for holsters that hide full-sized handguns. [gunblast]
