End the War on Freedom

From American Juror (added to the bottom of the right column) [lrtdiscuss]:

"Government can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war." -- Bill St. Clair

From pournelle:

"I note that the Airline Industry loses $4 billion a year as an industry -- but pays $14 billion a year in taxes. This is insane. Some of those taxes go to support the TSA, whose job it is to make people wish they were not flying; it does that job very well indeed, while failing to provide much in the way of protection. A servant who is master: that is the entire institution of the TSA. It also bunches people up nicely so that a terrorist with a roll-on full of RDX and old nails can get far more people and not even have to blow himself up. 'Here, I have to go the loo, can you watch my bag for me for a minute, old chap?'" -- Jerry Pournelle

# The web server mavens at NearlyFreeSpeech.net wrote that yesterday morning's outage lasted four or five hours. Seems about right to me. And after it came back up, the CGI scripts were hanging for a while. That meant for at least one reader, and yours truly, that the page stopped refreshing after printing "Comments:" under the first black title bar. There's a "toggle comments" link at the top of the right-hand column, but that's the last thing to load, so you couldn't get to it. Just in case this happens again, I've put a star to the right of "Links and Commentary from my Crypto-Anarcho-Libertarian Perspective" at the top of the page. You can click it to toggle the comment counts (and turn itself on and off).

# Will Knight at New Scientist - Google's Gmail inspires imaginative 'hacks' - the Galina weblog and the Gmail File System are two examples of inventive uses of Google's gigabyte of free storage. [grabbe]

Crawford adds that Google would do well to encourage this creativity. "Having an independent developer community is a great way to gather creative ideas cheaply," he says.

# William Rivers Pitt at truthout - When the Rabbits Get a Gun - how Amerika created Osama bin Laden and al Queda. How our gummint has systematically bred an army that hates us to the core of their beings. [root]

This is the comforting fiction: Osama bin Laden is a monster who sprang whole from the fetid mire. He had no childhood, no influences, no education, no experiences to form his view of the world. He did not exist, and then he did, a vessel into which the universe poured the essence of evil. It is a simple, straightforward story of a man who hates freedom and kills for the pure joy of feeling innocent blood drip from his fingers.

This is the fairy tale by which children are put to bed at night. As frightening and terrifying as bin Laden may be, it is a comfort to imagine him as having been chiseled from the dust. The fiction of his existence, absent of detail, makes him unique, a singular entity not to be replicated. Osama bin Laden becomes truly scary only when the actual context of his life is made clear, where he is from, what he has seen, and why those things motivated him to do what he does.

Osama bin Laden becomes truly scary when the realization comes that he is not unique, not singular, not an invention of the universe. He becomes truly scary when the realization comes that there are millions of people who have seen what he has seen, who feel what he feels, and why. He becomes truly scary when the realization comes that he is a creation of the last fifty years of American foreign and economic policy, and that he has an army behind him created by the same influences. Simply, Osama bin Laden becomes truly scary when the realization comes that he can be, and has been, and continues to be, replicated.

...

Osama bin Laden learned something else besides the art of killing while he was working as an ally of the United States. He learned that given enough time, enough money, enough violence, enough perseverance, and enough fellow warriors, a superpower can be brought to its knees and erased from the book of history.

Bin Laden was at the center of one of the most important events of the 20th century: The fall of the Soviet Union. Political pundits like to credit Reagan and the senior Bush for the collapse of that regime, but out in front of them, in the mountains of Afghanistan, was Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, the sharp end of our sword, who did their job very well. Today, the United States faces this group and its leader, armed with their well-learned and America-taught lessons: How to kill massively and how to annihilate a superpower.

...

Osama bin Laden is a damned murderer of innocents, with thousands of notches in his belt. His actions are indefensible by any measure. Yet to dismiss him as something other than the creation of his experiences, to categorize him as some unique freak whose motivations are beyond comprehension, is to deny the most important dilemma that faces our world. Monsters are not born. They are made.

# eMediaWire - Racketeering (Rico)Charges filed Against NutraSweet, Dr. Moser of NS, American Diabetes Assn, Monsanto - big trouble for the makers of this neurotoxin. Good. The page contains a link to the text of the lawsuit and to a video about Rumsfeld's connection to it. [smith2004]

For 16 years, the FDA denied approval of aspartame because of compelling evidence of its contributing to brain tumors and other serious disabilities. Donald Rumsfeld, present Secretary of Defense in the Bush Administration, left President Ford's administration as Chief of Staff to become the CEO of aspartame producer G D Searle Co. in 1981. Shortly after, Rumsfeld became the CEO, and the day after President Reagan took office, aspartame was quickly approved by FDA Commissioner Arthur Hayes over the objections of the FDA's Public Board of Inquiry. Hayes had been recently appointed by the Reagan Administration. Shortly after aspartame's approval by the FDA, Hayes joined NutraSweet's public relations firm under a ten year contract at $1,000 a day.

Aspartame/NutraSweet was the product of the G. D. Searle Co. In January 1977, the FDA wrote a 33 page letter to U.S. Justice Department Attorney Sam Skinner: "We request that your office convene a Grand Jury investigation into apparent violations of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act." Skinner allowed the Statute of Limitations to run.

Three FDA Commissioners and eight other officers and Skinner took jobs in the aspartame industry.

The Food and Drug Administration once listed 92 adverse reactions from 10,000 consumer complaints and would send the list to all inquirers. In 1996 the FDA stopped taking complaints and now denies existence of the report. Seizures, blindness, sexual dysfunction, obesity, testicular, mammary and brain tumors and death, plus dozens of other dread diseases named in the suit arise from the consumption of this neurotoxin.

Defendant Moser, past CEO of NutraSweet, is cited for misrepresenting facts to public and commercial users with full knowledge of the deceptions. The toxin is sold to Bayer, Con Agra Foods, Dannon, Smucker, Kellogg, Wrigley, PepsiCo, Kraft Foods (Crystal Light), Conopco (Slim-Fast), Coke, Pfizer, Wal-Mart and Wyeth (to name a few), who use it in some of their products, including children's vitamins. These entities are named in other suits now in California Courts.

Defendant American Diabetes Association's mission is to care for diabetics. A 35 year ADA member, world famous diabetic specialist H.J.Roberts, M.D., discovered aspartame can precipitate diabetes and reacts harmfully with insulin. ADA rejected his report which was then published in a prestigious medical journal.

...

Filed In: The United States District Court for the Northern District of California
Plaintiff: Joe Bellon, individually and as a representative of a class of plaintiffs
Damages $350,000,000

# Robinson Armament - XCR™ Modular Weapon System - a new rifle from the makers of the VEPR and M96. No prices in evidence. [clairefiles]

The XCR™ Modular Weapon System was designed specifically for the U.S. Special Forces. It consists of an Upper and a Lower receiver. The lower receiver is the serialized part containing the fire-control components. The upper receiver has an integral rail system and quick change barrel mechanism. The XCR™ is almost completely new. While the magazine well, trigger, and pistol grip are reminiscent of the AR15/M16 rifle, the components are completely different internally.

The XCR™ has a completely new bolt system which is more durable than the Stoner AR15/M16 bolt. It was specifically made to fire 5.56x45mm (.223) and the New 6.8 Remington Cartridge. It is available now in both these calibers. A .308 version will be available later this year. Pictures of more configurations will be posted on this website in the next few days.

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