PortableApps.com
"Last century over 170 million people were murdered by their own governments, and your government doesn't want you to have a gun. Doesn't that bother you just a little?" -- Unknown
From kaba:
"By a very conservative estimate, a hundred million people have died at the hands of their own governments in this century. Given that record, how bad could anarchy be?" -- Joseph Sobran
From pournelle:
"All inanimate objects are scientifically divided into three categories: Those that break down, those that don't work, and those that can't be repaired." -- Russel Baker
# Russmo.com - Spies Like Us - cartoon commentary on n.s.a. spying on Americans. Hehe.
# Claire Wolfe - 10 worst Americans -- who can say? - Claire chimes in on the latest blog meme.
I tried coming up with a 10-worst list. Really I did. Had I completed it, the top (that is, the lowest and most verminous) name on the list would have been Father of the Drug War, Harry Anslinger -- as devious, lying, power-mongering a slug as ever oozed across the political landscape. That man and his political and law-enforcement descendants are responsible for more human misery than any individual president, senator, or congressslime. But of course, today's presidents, senators, and congressslime are mostly Anslinger's descendents. And therein lies the problem in trying to list any 10.
My list, had I made one, would have consisted almost entirely of do-gooders -- those people who are so morally certain of their own righteousness that they're willing to use the most powerful weapons of government to force others to go along. Those people who, believing their cause to be more noble, unquestioningly think they have a right to steal from others to implement their own desires.
# John T. Kennedy at No Treason - The Court Has No Use For Me - Mr. Kennedy was called for jury duty. The judge asked if he'd have any problem finding the defendent guilty and he said that he wouldn't, unless he recognized the law to be unjust, in which case he would not convict. The judge said, "You are dismissed and excused from further duty. You do understand why we can't have individuals judging the law, don't you?" State-worshipping tyrant. One commenter managed to get through voir dire and hung a jury on a firearm possession case. Bravo!
# Nicki Fellenzer - Banning Guns One City at A Time - commentary on Jennifer Freeman's article about New York City Mayor Bloomberg dancing on the blood of dead Big Apple cops and vowing to disarm even more law-abiding citizens to satisfy his lust for power. [nicki]
# Nicki Fellenzer - Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy... - Washington DC Mayor Marion Barry was robbed at gunpoint. Serves him right. [nicki]
# Fred Reed at LewRockwell.com - Storm Troopers on Every Corner - Warn Terr, terrace, High Rackies. Bushisms abound. [jomama]
Being in Mexico adds perspective, at least if you watch the great booby hatch to the north. I especially like the Warn Terr, the preferred toy of the latest Bush. Down here we read all about how the feddle gummint is keeping terrace out of the US so everyone will be safer than probably lots of them want to be. (I'd rather be in danger. Just leave me alone.)
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Not just wetbacks get their backs wet. When you consider the ease with which drugs go into the US, and get delivered to every small town, at prices you can't refuse, you realize that the Warn Terr couldn't keep the Queen Elizabeth II from coming across the border on wheels. With a marching band in front. Criminal enterprise is far more efficient than government. Though probably less criminal.
Think about it. The drug trade, heavily mediated through Messico, is a service industry, like delivering pizzas. After all, people want drugs--only the gummint doesn't want people to have them--and the narcos don't make anybody buy them, even fidgety little school boys mad with boredom. (The government forces these to take otherwise-illegal amphetamines. Pablo Escobar never did that.)
By contrast, people don't want fifth-rate schools and unpleasantly wholesome FBI heavies who look like armed accountants snooping through their library records, but government does force them to buy these unwanted services. It does force your boy children to take drugs that would land them in jail if they bought them from free enterprise, such as Colombian drug lords.
Organized crime is a better deal. I much prefer the friendly neighborhood dope dealer to any federal official. I can tell the former "no."
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Things look strange to the North, very strange. That curious little man in the White House persists in his hobby of blowing up High Rackies, a sport which he seems to regard as a sort of video game. We should have bought him a codpiece instead. He probably couldn't have figured out the straps.
# Higgs at The Independent Institute - Traveling Sheep - commentary on the Taking Scissors Away goons' change, in mid-December, of their "rules": more searches and a few formerly-banned items allowed. No real change. It's still the case that the only reason for the airport sekurity gauntlet is to turn Americans into good sheep for the new police state. [cafe]
If airplanes have not been hijacked and air travel has not been substantially disrupted (except by the government's security measures) during the past four years, it is probably because nobody really tried very hard to achieve these objectives. If someone had made a serious attempt, he almost certainly would have succeeded. (Forget that moron, the shoe bomber; besides, even he was thwarted only by the passengers' quick reactions.) Of course, one thing such a determined malefactor would not have tried was a plan that exposed his efforts to discovery or interruption by the airport security system. The generals, it is said, always prepare for the last war. Likewise, the TSA prepares to prevent the last hijacking. Or pretends to do so.
In view of what a farce the whole degrading, obnoxious, contemptible, outrageous system actually is, one has to wonder why it was put in place to begin with and why it remains in place years later in more or less its initial form. Perhaps we can find a clue in the recent statement of BWI Airport spokesman Jonathan Dean: "The traveling public is accustomed to security protocols and procedures." Therefore, do not worry about the recent amendments to the system: "The new actual changes aren't dramatic."
Which is to say, the system remains much as it was before: a degrading, obnoxious, contemptible, outrageous farce. It's also a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, although the government's lap-dog judges say otherwise. I know that I am not the only person in America who looks at this thuggery as I do. So what's going on?
# Jim Bovard - Orange Suits Soon All the Rage on Capitol Hill - Jack Abramanoff pleaded guilty to bribing congress critters and, according to the Wall Street Journal, "says he has information that could implicate 60 lawmakers." Here's hoping he does and that they all go to prison. [bovard]
This is the best news that the moribund prison building industry has had in years. If 60 lawmakers go down in the Abramoff scandal, this could mean that the U.S. Congress may actually have a higher turnover rate this year than the usual turnover rate of the Soviet Politburo. (Congressmen have rigged elections to practically guarantee a 98% reelection rate for incumbents).
# Eric S. Raymond - Live by government regulation, die by it too - Teresa Neilsen Hayden is enraged that the f.d.a. has banned the one medication that keeps her narcolepsy at bay. Ms. Hayden blames her problem on Ralph Nader and Public Citizen, but the real problem here, of course, is the existence of the f.d.a. and the d.e.a. and the concept that it's OK to prevent adults, at gunpoint, from ingesting anything they please. [esr]
# PortableApps.com provides versions of popular open source applications built to run from a USB thumbdrive. The apps and your personal data all live on the thumb drive; there's nothing to install. Plug the drive into the USB port of any Windows computer, and you're good to go. Remove it, and no trace is left (except in the swap file of the host machine). They released Portable Open Office 2.0.1 yesterday. Haven't tried them. [/.]
