"Papieren Bitte" in Boston
"We don't have civil rights so we can be politically correct. We have civil rights so we can be different and offensive." -- madmike
# Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols at eWeek - Think Tank Claims Torvalds Didn't Write Linux - Responding to the most recent claims that Linux contains code owned by various companies, Linus Torvalds finally admits that he didn't write it. Hehe. [samizdata]
"OK, I admit it. I was just a front man for the real fathers of Linux: the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. They (for obvious reasons) couldn't step forward to admit that they had gotten bitten by the computer bug and had been developing a series of operating systems on their own during the off-season.
"But when they started with Linux (which they originally called Freax--they do feel like outsiders, you know, and that's a whole sad story in itself), they felt that they could no longer just let it languish in obscurity.
"They started to look for a front man, and since Santa Claus is from Finland, and thus has connections to Helsinki University, and the Easter Bunny claimed, 'He's got good ears, if a bit small,' I got selected.
"Since then, I've lived a life of subterfuge, always afraid that somebody would find out the truth. I'm actually relieved that it's over, and that the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution has finally uncovered the lie. I can now go back to my chosen profession, the exploration of the fascinating mating dance of the aquatic African frog."
# Nightcrawler at The High Road - So There I Was Again - a novella in many parts. Comments from readers are good too. [highroad]
# L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - Publisher's Note - Neil once again endorses Michael Badnarik for the presidential candidate of the Libertarian Party and reminds us that Aaron Russo would also make a good candidate. He doesn't even mention the third guy's name. Hehe. He asks that you visit www.badnarik.com and donate money to Mr. Badnarik's compaign. This article will move here next week.
# L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - The High Price of Gas - since 40% of the price of gas is taxes, the current spike in prices could be greatly ameliorated by eliminating them.
One more point: invariably, some buckethead in the media will want to know, if libertarians are opposed to some given tax, what they would replace it with. Or even worse, some idiot handler decides that his candidate needs to have a tax policy if he's going to be taken seriously--by subcreatures in the media who are even dumber than he is!
Get this and get it straight: it is not now, nor has it ever been the place of a libertarian candidate to propose taxation of any kind, even when it might amount to less than what's being extorted from taxpayers now. All taxation is theft. All taxation is evil. Taxation is the most insidious form of slavery ever imposed on mankind. It must be the unswerving aim of all libertarians to eradicate it from our civilization.
Completely.
...
More than likely, today's insane gas prices represent a deliberate attempt by the current government to frighten voters into supporting its rapacious and murderous foreign policy. I think most Americans are prepared to believe that now, and it must be communicated to them very clearly. Those in power can be dared to disprove it by eliminating gas taxes.
# bob lonsberry - No More Utah Pistol Permits - Bravo, Mr. Lonsberry! [scopeny]
A right is a right is a right.
And the right to keep and bear arms must stop being hamstrung into a privilege for the relative few. It's time to stand up for what is right -- and what is guaranteed in the Constitution -- and confront this assault on fundamental liberty.
It's time for a civil rights movement for the Second Amendment.
It's time to get loud and obnoxious about liberty, to follow the wise example of the women's suffrage movement and the efforts to bring civil rights to racial minorities. It's time to demand our rights, not grovel for them.
...
The state of Utah, under its own and the federal constitutions, has no authority to require a license of those who wish to carry a handgun. So why does it do it and why do its people endure it?
Because we've been whipped into submission, conditioned by an ever more oppressive society and government to accept whatever we're told. We've been brainwashed into thinking that the power resides with the government, that liberties are granted by the government, that we must not question the government or the politically correct social norms.
Which is a good way to be a sheep.
But a pretty poor way to be an American.
# Bill Whittle - Strength (part 1) and (part 2) - Mr. Whittle still believes in the war on Iraq. He's very good at stating why. I'm not convinced. [whittle]
# John R. Lott, Jr. at Fox News - Whither Gun Control? - the Brady Bunch are having a hard time of it recently. Reality catching up with their lies? [rachel]
Everyone wants to take guns away from criminals. The problem is that if the law-abiding citizens obey the laws and the criminals don't, the rules create sitting ducks who cannot defend themselves. While the debate is hardly over, gun control is just another example of government planning that hasn't lived up to its billing. And like other types of government planning, eventually its failures become too overwhelming to ignore.
# Mac Daniel at The Boston Globe - MBTA set to begin passenger ID stops - "Papieren Bitte" stops to be added at rail and subway stops in Boston. Boy am I glad I don't live there any more. No word yet on the outcome of Dudley Hiibel's Supreme Court case. Not that a decision that you can't be arrested for refusing to show ID will have any bearing on being refused access to transportation, but should they rule against Mr. Hiibel, things will rapidly go south. Cop: "Papieren Bitte." Patriot: "BANG!!!" [root]
MBTA transit police confirmed yesterday they will begin stopping passengers for identification checks at various T locations, apparently as part of new national rail security measures following the deadly terrorist train bombings in Spain.
Although officials would release few details about the initiative, the identity checks will mark the first time local rail and subway passengers will be asked to produce identification and be questioned about their activities.
...
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts has since sought more information about the policies of Massachusetts Port Authority and State Police governing such searches, but ACLU officials say they have had little cooperation from either agency.
"About a year ago they admitted they were using training based on an Israeli security model of behavioral profiling or selection which they declined to either explain or to otherwise amplify what it means," said John Reinstein, legal director for the ACLU of Massachusetts. "We asked for the records and they said that's no longer a public record because anything that has to do with security is no longer a public record."
# Edgar J. Steele - Brown vs. the Bored - on the destruction from inside of the American educational system, with many thanks to the judicial activism that got us forced bussing. America is about equality of opportunity, not equality of outcome. Contains Mr. Steele's usual Jew and Black baiting, but still has interesting points, IMHO.
# Opera Software - Opera 7.5 is available. None of the Simtel downloads worked for me; they all were zero-length. I got it from Opera Software in Norway via the combo-box below the Simtel logo. The new feature that encouraged me to upgrade from 7.23 was an integrated RSS feed reader. The RSS feeds are read into the mail program. Each article becomes one email message. Different than I've seen before, but it works. I'm sticking with Eudora for my email, though. Once burned, twice shy.
