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Thoughts Along
the Way;
A Gangrene of
Politicians;
Our Options
Have Changed;
Starman;
these articles have their titles and text in this color and are featured
this week in -
Ender's Review of the Web
Web articles of likely interest to individualists found during the week of Aug. 29 - Sept. 4, 2004.
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Table of Contents: (Click on the name to go to that section) Political Liberty, Life in Amerika, Ordered Liberty without the State;
Articles showing a
positive influence of political action on the cause of Liberty.
Free Speech Phone Phreak
by Trav S.D. from Reason
"They blend in with the commuters. From a
distance one would be unaware that a political action was taking place
at all. But standing in the middle of the platform is a surreal
experience, as first one person, and then another,and then another,
passes by quietly mouthing 'Congress shall make no law...' into their
cell phones. The experience is almost subliminal, like a whisper in your
head."
$9 Trillion Didn't End Poverty --
What to Do?
by Jenifer Zeigler from Cato
Institute
"Getting a job as a solution to
poverty may seem like common sense. Granted, not every job pays
a wage that will catapult a family into the middle class.
However, every job provides job experience, and that leads to a
better job. Maybe today's minimum-wage, service industry
employee is not on a track for management. But he is showing
that he is a reliable worker who can learn and perform duties,
something a future employer will value."
The
Promise of George W. Bush
by Karen Kwiatkowski from
LewRockwell.com
"The promises of our homespun
spinner of tall tales in the White House do have mass appeal.
But judging from the faces of Republicans and Democrats and
even Bush family members on the convention floor, not everyone
there was 100% convinced. That's the spirit!"
Articles depicting
the negative impact of politics on Liberty.
Where Are The Solutions,
Fred? -- Fred Coughs'em Up
by Fred Reed from
FredOnEverything.net
"Sez me, two kinds of problems
exist: Those we can't solve, and those we won't solve. The
ones we won't solve are usually the worst, or at least the
most annoying. How much sympathy am I supposed to have for
people who, beating their thumbs with hammers, complain that
it hurts? That's the United States, thump, thump, thump. Our
problems are solvable. We just prefer to complain."
Disorder at the ACLU -- ACLU head signed agreement to abide by a requirement of the patriot act
by Nat Hentoff from The
Village Voice
"This promise to the
government, betraying ACLU core principles, was not made
by the staff of the ACLU, which, as I've often written,
has persistently and effectively illuminated the
Bush-Ashcroft raids on the Constitution -- currently, for
example, exposing the government's national harassment of
anti-Bush protesters."
OshKosh Police Give Excuses
-- Not Explanations
by The Liberty Crew from
Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership
"Details of that incident
were unclear, but one thing was absolutely certain:
Following the wounding of an officer, Oshkosh police
confiscated firearms -- without consent and without
warrants -- from homes of innocent men and women. The
police violated these Americans' Fourth Amendment rights
and left them defenseless, knowing full well there was a
sniper on the loose in their neighborhood."
Some people
say it's Anarchy, some say it's not possible. It is an
interesting topic.
by Bob Wallace from
Strike The Root
"Gangrene has no use
at all. It's an infection that eats away at a healthy body.
And that certainly describes politicians and politics, which eat
away at society and civilization. ... Yep, that certainly
describes politicians, politics and the State--an infection,
like gangrene."
Voting Is Evil
by Brad Edmonds from
LewRockwell.com
"When you vote for anyone, even
a libertarian, you are voting to give the coercive power of
government to that person. You are voting that he be able to
force everyone to do whatever he wants. This is made worse
by the fact that there is no legal requirement that any
politician even attempt to do in office what he claims while
running for office."
What Exactly Is Freedom?
by David MacGregor from
Strike The Root
"Moral dilemmas arise when
my property rights come up against yours. And they can
be easily sorted out by reference to exactly whose
property is at stake. Obviously, as my body is my
property, then I can smoke marijuana and it's nobody
else's business - unless I smoke it in your house
without your permission. As for driving at 150 km/hour,
that depends on who owns the road - and whether they
mind or not. And a reference to property rights also
sorts out the issue of euthanasia."
Articles
demonstrating an increase in the dispersal of power.
Taiwan's Independence Gambit
by Nicolas Heidorn from The
Independent Institute
"With a unified government
behind independence, Chen's promised constitutional
referendum in 2006 to make Taiwan a 'normal and complete
nation' by 2008 would be well on its way. China is
steadfastly opposed to a new constitution, which it views as
tantamount to independence."
An Officer in Court
by Uri Avnery from
Strike The Root
"All heads were turned
to something going on behind us. There, in an
incredibly daring exploit, one of the demonstrators
climbed the steep wall, in spite of its smooth
surface, using only his bare hands and heels. After
reaching the top he threw a rope down, and a number
of other followed him up and unfurled a Palestinian
flag. So it can be done. ... There go the security
arguments."
All Arab Eyes on
the Convention
by Jamal Dajani
from AlterNet
"The average Arab
sees no difference between Bush and Kerry. To
them 'the lesser of the two evils is still
evil.' Recent declarations by the Senator about
his position on the war on Iraq did not bring
hope to 'the man on the street' in the region.
They understand that Senator Kerry does not want
to end the occupation of Iraq, but merely wants
to put a happy face on it by proposing to
internationalize the occupation."
Depictions of the coming Imperial power
Cry Havoc
by Chris Floyd from The
St. Petersburg Times, Russia
"There's nothing really
new in Bush's murder-by-proxy scheme, of course;
America has a long, bipartisan tradition of paying
local thugs to do Washington's bloodwork."
Bush's 'War on Terror': No Lack of Imagination
by Ivan Eland from The
Independent Institute
"President Bush's
disastrous use of the c-word [crusade] to describe
U.S. policy merely confirmed the obvious to many
Moslems around the world. Repeated polls of the
Islamic world demonstrate that intense anti-U.S.
hatred is generated by U.S. foreign policy, not by
U.S. culture, technology, or political and economic
freedoms. In fact, those latter characteristics of
U.S. society are often admired in Moslem lands."
Threats...Danger...Fight...Fight...Fight...Fight
by Bill Bonner from
LewRockwell.com
"America cannot
continue to be the world's only superpower, for
Nature will not permit a monopoly for very long.
And yet, no foreign nation is strong enough to
offer a serious military challenge -- at least
not yet. So the U.S. of A. must ruin itself...
and needs leadership that is up to the task. In
Bush and Kerry, America seems to have found its
Louis XVI... it's Nicholas II, its Theodosius,
Rome's last emperor."
War, rumors of war, and politicians fomenting war.
The Madness of
Emperor George
by Butler Shaffer
from LewRockwell.com
"Politics is the
mobilization of war, what Randolph Bourne
called 'the health of the state.' Politicians
will no more act to dismantle the war system
than crime syndicates will work to end the war
on drugs. We need to extricate ourselves from
this organized insanity, a task we can
accomplish only by observing our own thought
processes -- at the same time being aware that
the 'observer' is the 'observed'."
Red Guard
Republicans
by Ronald N.
Neff from The Last Ditch
"Sammon and Mrs.
Stone are willing for the '80 percent' of
what they agree with to take a back seat
when the Democrats are in power -- as they
surely will be again some day. But the 20
percent -- that's where their hearts are.
That's what has to have a seat at the table
no matter who is in charge."
Campaign
Finance Reform or The Big Lie Revisited
by Charles
Stone, Jr. from The Libertarian Enterprise
"The big winner
in the whole campaign finance reform fiasco
are the media, especially the electronic
media. ... The McCain bill will make them
the most powerful political entity in the
country by making it impossible for affected
parties to purchase time to express
conflicting views."
Articles
showing decentralized successes.
Straw Men & Ham Sandwiches
by B.K. Marcus from
LewRockwell.com
"Since becoming an
economic libertarian and an advocate of laissez-faire capitalism,
I've noticed that most attacks on capitalism are forms of the
Straw Man fallacy: instead of defining the opposing view in terms
that its advocates would accept, you create a 'straw man' -- a
stand-in or dummy position -- to attack in its place. The straw
man is easy to defeat...."
Is Free Trade
Obsolete?
by Sheldon Richman from The Future
of Freedom Foundation
From Part 2: "In other words, new
technology may change the configuration of comparative
advantage, but it will not abolish the phenomenon. The gains
from trade come from diverging opportunity costs faced by
different people doing the same things. As long as opportunity
costs differ, there will be the possibility for mutual advantage
from trade. Entrepreneurs will discover those possibilities
because that is how they will earn profits."
The Monetary
Economics of Thurston Howell III
by B.K. Marcus from Ludwig von
Mises Institute
"Yes, it's just a dumb TV show, but
in this case we see the laws of economics accurately portrayed:
once the castaways realize they're marooned indefinitely, their
economic thinking focuses on the limited resources of the
island. As Mises claimed, any fixed amount of money is the
correct amount of money for a given economy. Prices will
adjust."
Articles
showing centrally planned disasters.
The Ownership Society
by Llewellyn H.
Rockwell, Jr. from Ludwig von Mises Institute
"Under a certain
kind of government structure--let's just call it fascism for
short--ownership can be in private hands only in the most
formal sense, but its control and use is subject to central
command. Private property must serve the needs of the state
or else it is taken. In this fascist state, we find the real
separation of ownership and control: individuals own but
only the state controls. What uses of property are not
mandated are often prohibited. This is an Ownership Society
that does not threaten the interests of the state, but
neither does it have anything to do with liberty."
China's Missing Women
by Wendy McElroy from
ifeminists.com
"To Hayek, when a government
oversteps its proper function of protecting freedom and
begins, instead, to dictate choices, it damages the
dynamics of a healthy society. It prevents individuals
from adapting and evolving solutions."
Bye-Bye Scenic Byways
by Derry Brownfield from
NewsWithViews.com
"Look carefully at the claims
made by people promoting tourism, and look carefully at
the people making the claims. Are they benefiting from the
tax dollars? Whose pockets are they lining? Follow the
money trail - you may be surprised where it leads."
War is the ultimate State intervention in
society.
Libertarians for Caesar
by Anthony
Gregory from LewRockwell.com
"Bush is
more than a bad president. He is a wannabe Caesar. Bush
is the biggest welfare-state spender in decades, but his
War on Terror should frighten libertarians much more
than his runaway domestic spending, as bad as the latter
is. … War is the health of the state, and of statism as
well."
The Endless War on
Terrorism
by Jacob G. Hornberger
from The Future of Freedom Foundation
"In declaring that the war
on terrorism can never be won, President Bush should
have also mentioned that, coincidentally, the big
beneficiary of all this is the federal government,
because its power continues to grow and grow and grow
under perpetual war. "
The Backdrop Never
Changes -- Embedded Reporters Continue to Misinform on
Iraq
by Kristina M. Gronquist
from Strike The Root
"It is crucial, amid the
madness, to seek out news sources directly from the
region, to look to the Arabic press, and to find
websites, blogs, and information networks outside the
U.S. Additionally, write directly to Iraqis via email,
contact their websites, see events from their
perspective, through their eyes. These are the sources
of truth, genuine accounts from the people of the
Middle East, who endure untold suffering as a result
of our government's warmongering. Therein one can try
to piece together some semblance of truth, which I
guarantee will shake your trust forever in the
mainstream media and our inviolable government."
The Past seen with a
fresh look.
Jeffersonian Principles
by
Laurence M. Vance from LewRockwell.com
"Jefferson
was not alone in holding these principles of peace,
commerce, and friendship with other nations, while
having no entangling alliances with them. Many men
before and after him held the same views. Two notable
examples are George Washington and Jefferson Davis."
Neville Chamberlain,
Appeasement and the British Road to War -- Reviewed by
Sean Gabb
by Sean Gabb from Free
Life Commentary
"By 1935, the country
had never in living memory enjoyed such profound
home and imperial security, or spent so little of
the national income on defence. Let all this
continue, and by 1960, the financial and strategic
costs of the Great War would have scarred over as
surely as those of the Napoleonic wars had a century
before."
Happy Birthday
Internet! Today You Turn…5?
by Braden Cox and Neil
Hrab from Competitive Enterprise Institute
"Government regulators
often decide that an industry is 'mature' and then
saddle it with legal obligations akin to a public
utility. But we should not freeze the Internet, or
slow its growth, to censor speech, spy on the
citizenry, stop child porn or hinder other bad
activities that occur with any enabling technology."
Articles showing the
nature of War.
Ninety-three Years of
Bombing the Arabs
by
Gavin Gatenby from Al-Hayat
"Before
you scoff, try this general knowledge test on a few
well-read, politically literate friends: Ask them to
name the first town in the world where civilians
were indiscriminately bombed from the air. More
likely than not, they'll cite Guernica, the Basque
town reduced to rubble by aircraft of the German
Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War. If
they're really up on their history, they'll know it
happened in 1937 and they'll mention Picasso's
famous painting of the atrocity." [TE: And they
would be wrong. Read the excellent article.]
Coalition of the
Coerced
by Eric S. Margolis
from The American Conservative
"Now, over a year
later, many of America's 32 allies, tributaries,
supplicants, and camp followers that sent a total
of 22,000 troops to Iraq are wishing they had
never become involved and are seeking escape or
giving thanks they are well out of the growing
carnage in Mesopotamia."
U.S. blocked Huston's
war films
by Doug Moe from The
Capital Times
"Huston made many
remarkable films over his legendary career -- from
'The Maltese Falcon' to 'The Man Who Would Be
King' and 'Prizzi's Honor' - but he may never have
made any more important than those small films
that so frightened the U.S. military."
Some people stand out
from the crowd.
Filmmaker -
Preston Sturges : Aug. 29, 1898
from The
Official Preston Sturges Website
"Handed the directorial reins
at Paramount, he took off at top speed. In
1940 alone he wrapped 'The Great McGinty',
wrote and directed 'Christmas in July' ...
and wrote and directed 'The Lady Eve'. In
1941 he won an Oscar for 'The Great McGinty'
in the Best Original Screenplay slot, wrote
and directed 'Sullivan's Travels' ... wrote
'The Palm Beach Story' and began its
direction in November." [TE:
The Great McGinty is one of the most
insightful movies about politics ever made.
Of course, it is a dark comedy.]
Educator -
Marva Collins : Aug. 31, 1936
from
MarvaCollins.com
"She moved to
Chicago and, later taught in Chicago's
public school system for fourteen years.
Her experiences in that system, coupled
with her dissatisfaction with the quality
of education that her two youngest
children were receiving in prestigious
private schools, led to her decision to
open her own school on the second floor of
her home. She took the $5,000 balance from
her pension fund and began her educational
program with an enrollment of her own two
children and four other neighborhood
youngsters[.]"
Cartoonist -
Robert Crumb : Aug. 30, 1943
from
Lambiek.net
"His work was
so well received they asked him to do a
whole comic book, and soon the first issue
of Zap was ready. The publisher however
disappeared with all of the original
artwork. Crumb, who had not only saved
xeroxes of his work, but was already
halfway with the next issue of Zap, found
Don Donahue and Charles Plymell willing to
publish it. So it is that the material for
the second Zap comic was published as Zap
#1, after which the older material for the
first issue was printed as Zap #0."
Books, Movies, TV,
Media, Music, poetry, etc.
by Cat
Farmer from Endervidualism
Verses. An example:
"Who bears heavier chains forged in ignorance Than the oppressors and enslavers of men? No man presents darker or deadlier deceptions Than the fool who believes he serves the light. ... inspired by Lao Tse's 'Tao Te Ching'...."
Starman
(1984)
Reviewed by Tom Ender from Endervidualism
"This
may be one of Director John Carpenter's ... best
films. Jeff Bridges does a wonderful job with this
very different role. ... I've enjoyed Karen
Allen's work .... She is superb in this movie as
Jenny Hayden. Though this movie's storyline is
ostensibly about an alien visitor to Earth, it is
really about what it is to be human."
The Hardy Awards
by Claire Wolfe from
Backwoods Home Magazine
"The votes from the
Hardyville Freedom Film Festival are in[.]" I
think they made very good choices (even with the
strange selection techniques), some of which have
already been features at
This Weekend and others that surely will be.
Humor, satire, cartoons,
parodies, food, popular music
and other things to amuse.
by Evan
Eisenberg from Slate
If you have
ever called any technical support help line for any sort
of problem with computers, television, appliances, or
practically anything else, you should appreciate this
piece. I'm still chuckling about it days later.
Small Group Of Dedicated
Rich People Change The World
from The Onion
"'The Republican Party has
always been blessed with idealists,' Republican
National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie said Monday.
'But really, it's a handful of discreet men behind the
scenes who drive our party. Whether self-made
corporate moguls, inheritors of vast familial wealth,
or heirs to decades-old political dynasties, these men
and the effects of their contributions cannot be
underestimated. They make this world what it is.'
Added Gillespie: 'God bless America'."
Irwin Corey Remembers --
The Original Nutty Professor On HUAC, The 1960 Playboy
Ticket And The Polity.
by J.R. Taylor from New
York Press
"It's also refreshing to hear a leftist
salute indoctrination, as when Corey addresses the
issue of education: 'They say parents should be
involved. No fucking way. Involved? Are parents
involved when they send their children to camp? Why
should they be involved when they've got a classroom
full of teachers who studied to be teachers? The
school system should be run by the government!'" [TE:
Prof. Irwin Corey is funny, but not always when
he intends to be. Considering what he says, I'm glad
he's also a proclaimed communist.]
Scientific
and scholarly studies, philosophical essays,
in-depth and longer articles.
Institutional Dangers
by
Butler Shaffer from
LewRockwell.com
"Perhaps before our civilization
completes its entropic fall, the
information revolution may
awaken our neighbors to the
destructive consequences of
allowing their lives to be
structured for the benefit of
institutions that have shown, by
their lack of resiliency, to be
no longer capable of producing
the values upon which society
depends."
The Wrong Way to Shorten the Work
Week
by Carl F. Horowitz from
Ludwig von Mises Institute
"On a deeper level, the
work-recreation fusion is the
result of a mutual recognition
by employer and employee that
creativity, the spark of every
successful company, is best
nurtured in the spirit of
play, of maximizing
opportunities for spontaneous
behavior. When work becomes
fun, the best minds in an
organization seem to operate
on full alert, adding to the
company's competitiveness and
profit margin."
The Right to a Job
by Robert Ewing from The
Foundation for Economic
Education
"Our most basic, innate right
is the right to live -- the
right to self-ownership, as
nobody can establish a valid
claim to another's life.
Stemming from this is the
responsibility of sustaining
and developing one's life,
which entails the right to
one's faculties and the fruits
of one's labor. There are only
three ways of clarifying
property ownership:
individuals may own whatever
they are able to take; some
individual other than the one
who produces a good or service
decides who has right of
possession; or individuals own
what they produce. The third
option is the only one
consistent with liberty."
Articles not
easily classified.
Is America Finally Coming
Home?
by Patrick J. Buchanan
from Antiwar.com
"The only alliance this
country entered before NATO was the 1778 pact with
France. Washington welcomed that alliance, which
brought French troops and ships to America, for it
meant victory in our war of independence. But no
sooner was the war over than our statesmen were trying
to wiggle out of the alliance with King Louis, who
would eventually lose his head to a revolution.
President Adams finally succeeded in 1800."
The President Speaks,
the Crowd Goes Wild
by Anthony Gregory
from LewRockwell.com
"On Thursday the
president shined like never before in his ability
to unite people of all types and opinions under a
banner of hyper-patriotism, perpetual imperial
war, and growing government at home with only the
façade of liberty intact."
Olympics: Add drugs,
remove jingoism
by Doug Casey from
WorldNetDaily.com
"The idea of the
Olympics is great. But there are at least two
aspects of the event that should be modified. "
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