The Best of Ender's Review of the Web for 2003

These are what I thought were the best articles linked from Ender's Review during 2003.
All articles listed below were linked by a 2003 issue of Ender's Review but some may have been originally linked through a different publisher. I believe the publishers chosen for this issue will maintain the links below for access by the public.

Table of Contents:    (Click on the name to go to that section)
Political Liberty, Life in Amerika, Ordered Liberty without the State;
Spreading Decentralism, The New World Hegemon, Politics by Other Means;
Spontaneous Order, Nonspontaneous Disorder, War Is The Health Of The State;
Bits of History, War and Peace, Great Individuals In History;
Culcha', The lighter side, Deep Thought, Miscellany.

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Political Liberty
Articles showing a positive influence of political action on the cause of Liberty.
 
Living the Outlaw Life: An Education in Freedom
      by Claire Wolfe from Backwoods Home Magazine
"For nearly 200 years, through the colonial period and into the beginning of the republic, most education in America was private -- and quite good. Alexis de Tocqueville, visiting from France in the early 1800s, wrote of Americans' outstanding literacy."
 
Personal Voices: The Unalienable Right to Independent Thought
      by Molly Weigel from AlterNet
"The right to be independent and to think independently can therefore be taken away in a given circumstance but not alienated from us. They still always exist as our rights even if we are enslaved, tortured, terrorized, killed, repressed."
 
The Problem Of Copyright: Bushcroft Is Coming, And Disney Is With Him
      by Fred Reed from Fred On Everything
"The advantages of allowing unrestricted copying would be large. ... The alternative may be, and looks very much as if it is going to be, an elaborate system of chips and software built into all computers to allow remote authorities to monitor your files, and erase automatically ones they don't think you should have. Sounds like paranoid delusions?"
 
Life in Amerika
Articles depicting the negative impact of politics on the cause of Liberty.
 
Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em
      by Craig Russell from Strike The Root
"We allow our freedom to slowly and steadily erode because of our way of thinking. Since we believe now in the material rather than the spiritual dimension of life, we have become, essentially, an immoral people. However, morality, because it implies choice, also implies freedom. As we become increasingly immoral, then, we necessarily turn away from choice and toward coercion and force."
 
Police are addicted to lure of easy money
      by Robyn E. Blumner from St. Petersburg Times
"If police and prosecutors don't get to keep the money, if it goes instead to public education or something equally worthy, they are not going to bother with seizures? Funny, I thought forfeitures were done for a law enforcement purpose, as a way to prevent criminals from living large on their lucre, as a disincentive to crime. Now it turns out, it is all about who gets the money. Well, fancy that."
 
RX For Control
      by Mary Starrett from NewsWithViews.com
"While you've been focusing on how the ubiquitous 'they' are moving to take away your guns, you may have been missing the effort to take away your … vitamins."
 
Ordered Liberty without the State
Some people say it's Anarchy, some say it's not possible. It is an interesting topic.
 
Libertarian Property and Privatization: An Alternative Paradigm
      by Kevin Carson from anti-state.com
"A large segment of the libertarian movement is a glorified apology for those currently on top: for big business against small business, consumers and labor; corporate agribusiness against organic farmers; for oil, timber and mining companies who want access to government land with politically determined leases; and for the settlers in Third World pariah states or former pariah states like Israel and Zimbabwe at the expense of the native dispossessed. Or in the words of Cool Hand Luke, 'Yeah, them pore ole bosses need all the help they can get'."
 
The Reluctant Anarchist
      by Joseph Sobran from Sobran's
"[T]he last thing I expected to become was an anarchist. For many years I didn't even know that serious philosophical anarchists existed. I'd never heard of Lysander Spooner or Murray Rothbard. How could society survive at all without a state?"
 
What Anarchism Means to Me
      by Cat Farmer from Strike the Root
"Anarchism is my statement of intention to mind my own business, and not to interest myself in yours beyond what is welcome, mannerly, and appropriate to our relationship, because I expect the same courtesy from you.  We will only care about each other when our relationship is peaceful, and it is not a peaceful act to care to the extent of violating another person's boundaries."
 
Spreading Decentralism
Articles demonstrating an increase in the dispersal of power.
 
Think Locally, Act Locally, Live Locally
      by Bill Kauffman from Families Worldwide
"Families are strengthened immeasurably--and the state and transnational corporations likewise weakened--by having one fixed location--whether a farm, a home, a business--upon which generations of memories are balanced and around which children are resident. The schools that free men and women produce in such circumstances enrich, educate, and root."
 
The Purposes of State
      by Butler Shaffer from LewRockwell.com
"Their government 'means well' and, since most people identify themselves with their nation-state, that seems sufficient to overcome any fundamental criticism. To think ill of their own government is to think badly of their own character."
 
The Lake of the Woods
      by Bart Frazier from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"Lake of the Woods is proof that private individuals can successfully provide an infrastructure and social amenities for a large number of people without using the coercion of government."
 
The New World Hegemon
Depictions of the coming Imperial power
 
An American Empire! If You Want It instead of Freedom
      by Richard M. Ebeling from Future of Freedom Foundation
"The specific danger was reflected in the title of one of the essays in the volume [The People's Pottage], 'The Rise of Empire.' Garrett summarized what he considered the requisite signs of the emerging American Empire."
 
The Insanity of the State
      by Butler Shaffer from LewRockwell.com
"In the language of 'chaos' theory, the state becomes an 'attractor' for the kinds of people who are disposed to use violence and intimidation against others; people who are willing to exploit the sociopathic nature of all political systems."
 
The Gangs of DC
      by Chris Floyd from CounterPunch
"The ultimate goal is not Iraq -- that bombed, blockaded state partially controlled by a witless thug whom the gang once succored -- but domination of the world's oil supplies in the coming century, when the surging nations of China and India will reach their economic peak."
 
Politics by Other Means
War, rumors of war, and politicians fomenting war.
 
We've Been Neo-Conned
      by Congressman Ron Paul from Antiwar.com
"The modern-day, limited-government movement has been co-opted.  The conservatives have failed in their effort to shrink the size of government.  There has not been, nor will there soon be, a conservative revolution in Washington. Political party control of the federal government has changed, but the inexorable growth in the size and scope of government has continued unabated."
 
So Many Hitlers
      By Joseph Sobran from Sobran's
"Once Hitler is introduced into the conversation, and he usually is, any sense of measure disappears. All-out war becomes imperative, and it's petty to ask what the consequences may be. When you're budgeting for Hitler, cost is no object."
 
What's Conservative about the Pledge of Allegiance?
      by Gene Healy from Cato Institute
"From its inception, in 1892, the Pledge has been a slavish ritual of devotion to the state, wholly inappropriate for a free people. It was written by Francis Bellamy, a Christian Socialist pushed out of his post as a Baptist minister for delivering pulpit-pounding sermons on such topics as 'Jesus the Socialist'."
 
Spontaneous Order
Articles showing decentralized successes.
 
How words enter the language
      from World Wide Words
"A student recently e-mailed me to enquire how a word officially becomes part of the English language. He was certain that there must be some formal process involved. Surely, he said, there must be a body such as a group of lexicographers that decides when a word is really a word, as otherwise English would be anarchic." Guess what?
 
The Free Market and Hawks
      by Bart Frazier from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"Rosalie Barrow Edge should be considered a hero to libertarians and conservationists alike. In 1933, she founded Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Kempton, Pennsylvania. At a time in our country's history when the economy was a shambles and socialism was hip, Edge managed to establish the first refuge for hawks in the world -- without the aid of government."
 
On Property Public and Private
      by Sheldon Richman from Foundation for Economic Education
The concept 'property' implies exclusiveness. It signifies that the owner of a thing, unlike anyone else, is entitled to use and dispose of it. He requires no one else's permission. Property rights are the most fundamental rights of all, the purpose of which is to identify an 'assured free sphere' for each individual, to use F. A. Hayek's term."
 
Nonspontaneous Disorder
Articles showing centrally planned disasters.
 
Mercantilism, USA 
      by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. from Ludwig von Mises Institute
"The great economic error of mercantilism is the belief that foreign buyers are great but foreign sellers are not, and thus are barriers to imports necessary."
 
Limited Liability Corporations in a Free Society
      by Bob Murphy from anti-state.com
"The way I see it, individuals in a free society with private property rights would have the option of pooling their funds into a joint entity called a 'corporation,' and they would even have the option of issuing (limited liability) stocks and bonds to raise capital, but such actions would in no way limit the ethical and legal obligations of the founding members."
 
Brazil: a two part movie review
      by Robert Blumen from LewRockwell.com
From part one: "Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film 'Brazil' was recognized at the time as a brilliant work of social commentary and a stunning feat of visual imagination. I believe that it is the strongest statement of classical liberal views in a work of popular culture to emerge since that time." From part two: "The world of 'Brazil' shows a totalitarian society in which freedom has been forfeited for a false promise of protection from terrorist attacks. " Sounds, like it might be relevant, eh?
 
War Is The Health Of The State
War is the ultimate State intervention in society.
 
Lifting the Wool: Governments Are Mafias, War Is Their Racket
      by Alan Bock from Antiwar.com
"The ultimate expression of the essential character of the state, of course, is war, which not only involves killing foreigners who may or may not be a real threat directly, but provides multiple justifications for stepping up the use of force against inconvenient or obstreperous members of the society it rules directly."
 
Suppose You Wanted to Have a Permanent War
      by Robert Higgs from The Independent Institute
"I'll concede that having a permanent war might seem an odd thing to want, but let's put aside the 'why' question for the time being, accepting that you wouldn't want it unless you stood to gain something important from it. If, however, for reasons you found adequate, you did want to have a permanent war, what would you need in order to make such a policy viable in a democratic society such as the United States?"
 
Healthy State, Moribund People
      by Henry Gallagher Fields from The Last Ditch
"But during wartime, Bourne points out, government and the State become as one -- patriotic Americans, overawed by the heroic warrior State, automatically obey the dictates of their government. The demands of the government become commands of the Deity."
 
Bits of History
The Past seen with a fresh look.
 
Character and Freedom
      by Craig Russell from Strike The Root
"The laws that governed people's actions came not from without -- not from Washington or any civil authority -- but from the individual heart. They did good things because they knew those things were good, and they refrained from doing bad things not because they were afraid of being caught but because they knew those things were bad."
 
Remembering the "White Rose"
      from Deutsche Welle ("The Voice of Germany")
"60 years ago, on Feb. 22, 1943, three students of the Munich-based resistance group 'White Rose' were executed for inciting young people to rise against Hitler…."
 
The Socialist Pledge of Allegiance
      by Bob Wallace from LewRockwell.com
"Originally the pledge was recited with an extended right arm in the 'Bellamy salute.' In 1942, Congress decided that the Bellamy salute was too much like the Nazi salute. Taking its place was the current hand-over-the-heart gesture."
 
War and Peace
Articles showing the nature of War.
 
Foreign Policy for Tyros 
      by Jacob G. Hornberger from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"Did you know that the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal held that waging a 'war of aggression' -- that is, a war in which the invader had not been attacked by the invaded country -- is a war crime and that some of the Nazi defendants were convicted of waging a war of aggression? Did you also know that the Nuremberg judges rejected the Nazi attempt to justify their war of aggression by reference to doctrines of 'a war of liberation' and 'preemptive attack'?"
 
Interview with Robert Higgs 
      by Paul Craig Roberts from Townhall.com
"Paul Craig Roberts interviewed Robert Higgs. . .author of "Crisis and Leviathan" -- a study of how war and crisis lead to the growth of government and the decline in liberty -- about the unintended consequences of an American invasion of Iraq." Prescient!!!
 
Is Judgment Day Inevitable?
      by Craig Russell from Strike The Root
"What brought this immense, terrifying, almost unthinkable and yet almost forgotten Technological Power of the State again to mind was the new Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines', which ends with a nuclear holocaust. 'Judgment Day,' his character says, 'is inevitable'.”  
 
Great Individuals In History
Some people stand out from the crowd.
 
Murray Rothbard: A Legacy Of Liberty
      by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. from Ludwig von Mises Institute
Murray Rothbard's birthday was March 2. This website is a good resource for understanding his contribution to the ideas of liberty. "Murray N. Rothbard (1926-1995) was just one man with a typewriter, but he inspired a world-wide renewal in the scholarship of liberty."
 
The Radical Individualism of Paul Goodman
      by Richard Wall from LewRockwell.com
"Those who claimed him did not actually hear him, but perhaps selected only what they wanted to hear. For Goodman, the struggle would not have been about rights, but about liberty, community and the human scale of things, and, as with Albert Jay Nock, about doing the right thing, about striving for excellence and perfection in life, against the overwhelming tide of mediocrity and passivity."
 
35 Heroes of Freedom
      from Reason
"Malcontents on the right and left who diagnose modernity as suffering from 'affluenza' or 'options anxiety' will admit this much: These days we've even got a greater choice of ways to be unhappy. Which may be as close to a definition of utopia as we're likely to come." I suspect you think this is "cheating" on my usual way of doing this section.
 
Culcha'
Books, Movies, TV, Media, Music, poetry, etc.
 
On 'Gangs Of New York'
      by Craig Russell from LewRockwell.com
"Martin Scorsese's new film 'Gangs of New York' makes clear that all our glorious oratory about freedom and independence only hides the fact that we have always been -- and remain still -- a land of violence in which the most vicious rule and that might indeed makes right."
 
Gateways to Hidden Worlds - Repairman Jack Confronts the Entropic 'Other'
      by Russell Madden from The Laissez Faire Electronic Times
"[Repairman Jack] also represents -- in a very real and positive way -- the essence of what is greatest about the promise that is America. The American ideal respects the differences that define who we are; honors the right of each individual to indulge his unique brand of (peaceful) behavior; and simultaneously celebrates and expresses the 'strength...resolve...[and] simple decency' that is the hallmark of a life well-lived."
 
The Morpheus Proposal
      by Jim Davidson from The Libertarian Enterprise
"Morpheus continues, 'You have to let it all go, Neo ... fear ... doubt and disbelief. ... Free your mind!' ... Don't be limited by what you've been told all your life about how the system is your friend, how the government is necessary, how you are the beneficiary of its protection, its largesse, its regulations. Understanding is the first step on the path to freedom. Free your mind and everything else follows."
 
The lighter side
Humor, satire, cartoons, parodies, food, popular music and other things to amuse.
 
Leader of the Free World
      by Andy Foulds Design from the UK, requires Flash add-in
This is an incredible set of graphical toys. The first (named above) is fairly self-explanatory: move the cursor and click on the words.
 
Merger
      by Lux Lucre from Lux Lucre's Flash Page (Now hosted by Bill St. Clair)
Bipartisanship revealed: an animation.
 
The Best Of Hubble
      from news.com.au
This is a moving sequence of outstanding astronomical sights. Very cool but bandwidth would be good to have for this.
 
Deep Thought
Scientific and scholarly studies, philosophical essays, in-depth and longer articles
 
The Right to Walk Away
      by Gene Callahan from Ludwig von Mises Institute
"I would like to suggest, as a start down the road to liberty, a single modification to the prevailing view of civil associations, one implied by their nature. It is to recognize the right of every adult person to freely form, join, and leave such associations."
 
Embracing Chance
      by Craig Russell from Strike The Root
"Sometimes it seems everything truly useful and important in my life has come to me unexpectedly, unbidden and unasked for– just by accident, by chance, by coincidence or synchronicity."
 
Against School - How public education cripples our kids, and why
      by John Taylor Gatto from the John Taylor Gatto page (and Sept. Harper's magazine)
"In time a great number of industrial titans came to recognize the enormous profits to be had by cultivating and tending just such a herd via public education, among them Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller."
 
Miscellany
Articles not easily classified
 
Sunsets And Mosquito Hawks
      by Fred Reed from Fred On Everything
"Those of religious nature have attributed such things to any of several thousand gods, some more attractive than others. They, like the acolytes of evolution, are perfectly sure of the rightness of their views. I am not sure of anything. Alone in a darkling wood, with things all about flying and hunting and growing in a vast ungraspable dance, I suspected that I was in the presence of something above my pay grade. Just what, I couldn't say, nor of what intentions or provenance. I didn't think it was much concerned with me. It wasn't physics."
 
Elections and the Lesson of Frodo
      by Craig Russell from Strike The Root
"In the 'Lord of the Rings', only little Frodo the hobbit could be trusted to carry the Ring of Power because anyone else would have used it, thinking he was doing 'good.'  And even Frodo was tempted as he made the long, difficult, dangerous journey to destroy it.  He very nearly died.  But in the end (and with unexpected help), he did succeed."
 
micropiece
      by George Potter from SunniMaravillosa.com
"That is the proper way to be a rabblerouser. By treating people as people. By engaging their hearts and souls. By approaching them as human beings and not potential converts. Walking up wild-eyed and tossing pamphlets and yelling slogans simply gets you written off as a nut. You'll never change a person's mind that way, unless they are as crazy as the slogan shouter in the first place."


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