|
|
|
Crime is the Wealth of the State;
Weapon of Mass Creation;
Holding Up a Mirror;
House of Sand and Fog; 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 Oct. 17 - 23, 2004.
Table of
Contents: (Click on
the name to go to that section)
Political Liberty, Life in Amerika, Ordered Liberty without the State;
I am happy to receive addresses of potential readers of
Ender's Review who might like to receive a few trial issues and an
invitation to subscribe. Or, if you prefer, please, forward
this e-mail to those you think might be interested,
with the contact and
subscription information at the bottom intact.
Articles showing a
positive influence of political action on the cause of Liberty.
Libertarian Resistance
by Alan W. Bock from The American
Conservative
"Why should a conservative vote for the
Libertarian candidate rather than one of the American Independent,
Patriot, or Constitution Party hopefuls? The main reason is the ability
to send a coherent message of resistance to unconstitutional growth of
government."
Just This Once
by Lex Concord from The Libertarian
Enterprise
"Defeatism is rampant, yet we fight
on, because libertarians are also unbridled optimists, believing
that statism must eventually falter, and liberty will someday
prevail. Just this once, though, let's consider what might
happen if everything went our way for a change, right now."
"I
Have a Plan..."
by Rep. Ron Paul from Texas
Straight Talk
"The problem is that government is
not supposed to plan our lives or run the country; we are
supposed to be free. That our public discourse strays so far
from this principle is an unhappy sign of our times. Those
who believe in limited constitutional government should worry
every time a politician says, 'I have a plan'."
Articles depicting
the negative impact of politics on Liberty.
ID cards spell end of privacy
by Robyn E. Blumner from St.
Petersburg Times
"Standardizing drivers' licenses
will turn them into de facto national ID cards. Just as our
Social Security numbers have morphed from a narrow use into
general identifiers, once Americans are carrying around a
uniform driver's license that is connected to a central
database, it will be used, undoubtedly, as a form of internal
passport."
Ex-Officer Admits to Robberies
by Matt Lait and Scott Glover
from From the Los Angeles Times (via KTLA)
Protect & Serve? "While with
the LAPD, Ruben Palomares led a crew of law enforcement
cohorts in a crime spree that netted hundreds of thousands
of dollars."
My Realistic Dream for
November 2
by Anthony Gregory from
LewRockwell.com
"The more principled
Americans from all sides of the spectrum, disgusted with
politics, will see more than ever that the issue isn't
Republican vs. Democrat; it's Power vs. Liberty. The
neoconservatives will receive a slap in the face from a
Kerry victory, and big government will be headed by
someone who is at least honest that he believes in big
government. It will be more difficult for disingenuous
Republican rhetoric to confuse Americans into believing
in the fabricated compatibility between free markets and
war."
Some people
say it's Anarchy, some say it's not possible. It is an
interesting topic.
by Cat Farmer from
Endervidualism
"A license or permit
is essentially state-granted blessing to do something the state
would otherwise consider a crime. A fine, fee, or levy is the
state's way of getting its cut after the fact of a 'crime'
committed without its advance permission. The state reveals its
priorities in what it protects - a state that ostensibly exists
to protect people's freedoms and then requires people to
sacrifice their freedoms to protect the state appears entirely
self-contradictory."
Weapon of
Mass Creation
by Llewellyn H.
Rockwell, Jr. from LewRockwell.com
"If you can
understand how a small community can recover from a
hurricane without the aid of government, or if you can
understand how a magnificently productive global economy can
grow and thrive and provide for billions, without the aid of
a global state, then you understand a very critical point.
It is this: society and all its works can thrive without
central management by a coercive apparatus. If people have
liberty, property, and law, they have the basis of what it
takes to make a civilization. Anything that compromises
those institutions is a force for de-civilization."
Whither Ye Olde Bicycle?
by Lowell Potter from
Strike The Root
"Once upon a time there was
a little boy who lived in a vast and rich country. He
rode a bicycle around his little bucolic hometown,
fearlessly covering miles and miles of treacherous
highways and byways. The little boy did not wear a
helmet."
Articles
demonstrating an increase in the dispersal of power.
Suicide
Mission
by Justin Raimondo from
Antiwar.com
"Our elites are still
intoxicated by their post-cold war triumphalism, still
chattering about building an American imperium on the
British model: the U.S., they aver, is a 'global hegemon,'
and the world is now 'unipolar,' with Washington, D.C., the
New Rome, the epicenter of the mightiest empire the world
has ever seen. Hogwash."
Honor the Country by
Distrusting the Government
by Sheldon Richman from
The Future of Freedom Foundation
"[T]rust was not
supposed to be the basic American attitude toward
government. Distrust is closer to the mark. The
United States was founded in revolution against
tyranny. The revolutionary generation had felt the
brunt of arbitrary power and didn't want the new
country to suffer the same curse. Thomas Jefferson,
who best captured the spirit of the time, warned
against 'confidence' in power. He proposed jealousy,
that is, vigilance, instead."
Fallujah and the
Moral Level of War -- It's Worse Than a Crime; It's
a Blunder
by William S. Lind
from CounterPunch
"The point here is
not merely that in using terrorism ourselves, we
are doing something bad. The point is that, by
using the word 'terrorism' as a synonym for
anything our enemies do, while defining anything
we do as legitimate acts of war, we undermine
ourselves at the moral level - which, again, is
the decisive level in Fourth Generation war."
Depictions of the coming Imperial power
Global Eye -- Hysterica Passio
by Chris Floyd from
TheMoscowTimes.com
"Now we come at last to
the heart of darkness. Now we know, from their own
words, that the Bush Regime is a cult -- a cult whose
god is Power, whose adherents believe that they alone
control reality, that indeed they create the world
anew with each act of their iron will. And the goal of
this will -- undergirded by the cult's supreme virtues
of war, fury and blind faith -- is likewise openly
declared: 'Empire'."
Delusions of Empire
by Justin Raimondo from
Antiwar.com
"How does one debate a
ruler who has the power to 'create new realities'?
The answer is: one doesn't. In this new conception
of America's chief executive, Bush isn't the
president, or even a monarch in the traditional
sense, but the virtual embodiment of the American
hyperpower: accountable to nothing and no one,
either human or divine."
Should the United
States outsource torture?
by Nat Hentoff from
The Decatur Daily Democrat
"The horrifying fact
is that, if this torture provision in the House
bill is not stripped from the House-Senate
conference, this country will inform the world
that we 'lawfully' approve torture even though
America has signed the International Convention
Against Torture as implemented in our own 1998
Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act."
War, rumors of
war, politicians fomenting war,
and elections.
Five Reasons
Not to Vote
by Jim Davies
from Strike The Root
"The very act of
pulling a lever, or writing an 'X', or
punching out a chad, is an act of violence
against our fellow humans; it is an act which
says, for a common example, 'I know full well
that I have no right to steal my neighbor's
money to pay for my child's education, so I
want you, Ms Candidate, to go do it for me."
Voter's Digest
by James
Ridgeway from The Village Voice
"Throughout this
election, the 'Voice' will be gathering
information and articles about allegations
of voter fraud and disenfranchisement. Check
this page for regular updates."
First Amendment
Hypocrites
by Jesse Walker
from Reason
"The issue here
is not whether Sinclair is biased to the
right (it obviously is), not whether the
program is good journalism (it probably
isn't), and certainly not whether Bush
deserves reelection (in my opinion he does
not). This may look like a partisan issue
this month, but this time next year its
ramifications will cross party lines."
Articles
showing decentralized successes.
Spontaneous Order
by Robert Klassen
from LewRockwell.com
"Today we stand on the
threshold of another revolution. Human population is growing at an
historically unprecedented rate; there have never been so many
human persons living on this planet. Meanwhile, individual life
expectancy is also growing. ... I depart from the doom and gloom
crowd here, and I predict the decline and fall of political
governments everywhere, not from violence, but from irrelevance."
What's the
Answer for High Gasoline Prices? Nothing
by Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren
from Cato Institute
"[A]lthough motorists don't conserve
much in the short run when fuel prices go up, the experience of
the 1970s and early 1980s demonstrate that motorists will turn
to conservation with a vengeance if fuel prices stay high over a
long period of time. Given the costs associated with exchanging
cars, moving households, and adopting new travel practices, it's
not short sighted to ensure that high gasoline prices are here
to stay before changing one's lifestyle. Government intervention
to encourage or force those investments in the short term might
well cost society more money than it would save through reduced
gasoline consumption."
The Rules By
Which We Live
by Tibor Machan from Ludwig von
Mises Institute
"But there are very few laws that
really apply to us all -- they are the ones mainly concerned
with protecting our basic rights. The rule of law is then
evident where very few such laws are upheld, where government
is, therefore, limited to upholding them. That is what connects
the rule of law so closely with the free society."
Articles
showing centrally planned disasters.
Farmers Markets Thrive, So a
Congresswoman Calls for Subsidies
by P. Gardner
Goldsmith from The Foundation for Economic Education
"When it comes
to investing in a potentially rewarding project, it is not
the private sector to which people like Paul and Kaptur
turn; it is the captive taxpayer. Politicians and
businessmen now extol the supposed virtues of looking to the
faceless state, and its powers of coercion, to do the
trick."
The dismal quackery of
eco-economics
by Daniel Ben-Ami from spiked
"A gloomy view of economic
development plays an important role in holding back human
potential. At its starkest, the acceptance of the idea
that economic growth has to be curtailed is a tragedy in a
world where billions of people still live in dire
poverty."
Affordable Housing Mandates
and Inclusionary Zoning
by Fred Foldvary from The
Progress Report
"There is a great demand for
housing in the Bay Area, but the supply has lagged behind.
Land-use regulations in general have stifled the supply of
new houses, including restrictions on development, zoning
that prevents higher population densities, inclusionary
zoning, and so-called 'rent control.' Restrictive building
codes also unnecessarily add to the costs of
construction."
War is the ultimate State intervention in
society.
A Draft or Merely Hot
Air?
by Ivan
Eland from The Independent Institute
"[I]t is
safe to say that a renewed draft will not occur before
the election. And it may not occur after November 2
either, but once the election is safely behind them some
politicians could change their minds. War is costly, and
politicians usually try to hide the financial expenses."
The Empire Exposed
by Anthony Gregory from
Antiwar.com
"Indeed, as Eland points
out, 'all Americans should be against Empire.' As a
result of a century of aggressive foreign
interventions, America has an imperial presidency, a
seriously injured constitutional structure with
Congress no longer serving to curb the Executive
power, blowback terrorism, and more war and clumsy
interventions, bound to fail, all to reverse the
problems of past interventions."
What Ever Happened to
Osama Bin Forgotten?
by Douglas Herman from
Strike The Root
"Maybe, just maybe, OBL
doesn't really exist. Think about it for awhile. In
the cult classic movie, 'The Usual Suspects,' the
powerful and satanic Keyser Soze doesn't really exist
but we learn of his fictional existence as the curtain
falls. Osama, according to our powerful intelligence
agencies and the Neocons, is a satanic figure so
powerful as to command a platoon of suicide bombers to
carry out a flawless hijacking mission on the exact
same day the Pentagon conducted NORAD maneuvers over
the east coast. Not even Keyser Soze was that
powerful."
The Past seen with a
fresh look.
by
William Marina from The Independent Institute
"[F]or
over a century, thanks to the disingenuousness of U.S.
government leaders, the American people have been able
to participate in what the historian William Appleman
Williams once called 'The Great Evasion,' as the
institutionalization of empire has become a 'way of
life,' fundamental to most of the major problems
facing us as a nation, and certainly not part of any
solution."
Hans Sennholz: Misesian
for Life
by Llewellyn H.
Rockwell, Jr. from Ludwig von Mises Institute
"Let me provide one
example of just how he carries the torch. During the
1980s, much like today, there were two camps on
fiscal policy: the left, which wanted more spending
and no tax cuts, and the supply-siders who wanted
tax cuts plus spending increases. Sennholz became
the voice for sanity: in Misesian terms, he called
for tax cuts to be matched by spending cuts."
An Abolitionist Defends
the South
by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
from LewRockwell.com
"The Northern financiers
of the war who lent millions to the Lincoln
government did not do so for 'any love of liberty or
justice,' wrote Spooner, but for 'the control of
[Southern] markets' through tariff extortion "
Articles showing the
nature of War.
Deja Vu All Over Again
from
johnfogerty.com
"One by
one I see the old ghosts rising, Stumblin' 'cross
Big Muddy, Where the light gets dim, Day after day
another Momma's crying, She's lost her precious
child,To a war that has no end." From the man who
made 'Fortunate Son' and 'Who'll stop the Rain'."
First the Back-Door
Draft; Now the Foot-in-the-Door Draft
by Dave Lindorff from
CounterPunch
"Who in Congress, or
the media, or even among much of the public, is
going to argue if the administration next January
announces that there is a critical shortage of
doctors and nurses in Iraq, and that our noble
soldiers are at risk of death or permanent injury
because of inadequate emergency medical services
near the front? "
War on Iraq: -- Not
oil but Israel
by Stephen J.
Sniegoski from The Last Ditch
"There is no evidence
that any group, other than the neoconservatives,
had so marked Iraq for attack; the oil interest
and the foreign-policy establishment certainly had
not. No conspiracy was necessary; rather, the
neocons openly advocated such a policy, as did
Ariel Sharon's government, and it was in line with
long-held Likudnik thinking. Sharon's government
not only supported the war but also helped to
facilitate it through bogus intelligence."
Some people stand out
from the crowd.
Radical - John
Wilkes : Oct. 17, 1725
From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
"He was one of
those opposed to war with the American
colonies and he was also a supporter of the
Association Movement and of religious
tolerance. His key success was to protect
the freedom of the press, removing the power
of general warrants and also the ability of
Parliament to punish political reports of
debates."
Actress -
Jean Arthur : Oct. 17, 1905
by Bill
Takacs from Internet Movie Database
"The real
turning point in her screen career came
when she was chosen by Frank Capra to star
with Gary Cooper in the now-classic 1936
social comedy, 'Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'.
Here, she rescues the hero - thus herself
becoming heroine! - from rapacious human
vultures who are scheming to separate him
from his wealth. In Capra's 1939
masterpiece 'Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington', Miss Arthur again rescues a
besieged hero ( James Stewart), protecting
him from a band of manipulative and
cynical politicians in Washington D.C. And
again she ends up as a heroine of sorts."
Performer/Musician - Chuck Berry : Oct. 18,
1926
from
ChuckBerry.com
"Much to
Berry's surprise, it was that hillbilly
number that caught Chess' attention. Berry
was signed to Chess Records and in the
summer of 1955, 'Maybellene' reached #5 on
the Pop Charts and #1 on the R&B Charts.
Through Chuck Berry, Chess Records moved
from the R&B genre into the mainstream and
Berry himself was on his way to stardom."
Books, Movies, TV,
Media, Music, poetry, etc.
Reviewed by Tom Ender from Endervidualism
"If you
watch this movie, take careful note of the action.
Observe who does what to whom. The State is played
by no villainous superman, but that does not reduce
its presence. On the contrary, it is behind all the
injustice and tragedy which very realistically could
be taken from newspapers in almost any major city."
Book Review: 'Mallcity
14' by Shaun A. Saunders
Reviewed by Sunni
Maravillosa from The Price of Liberty
"'Mallcity 14', by
Australian psychologist Shaun Saunders, is on its
face an interesting story of a teenage boy coming
of age in a consumer-centric world. He begins to
question many of its assumptions -- and the
school's teachings -- and then, to balk at taking
his place in that debt-driven world. Saunders
deftly weaves elements of today's information
society -- and the not-too-distant future -- into
both the setting and action as well."
Book Review: Against
Leviathan
Reviewed by Karen
Kwiatkowski from LewRockwell.com
"America
quasi-corporatism is not fascism, because each
industry is not a single actor able to negotiate
wholly with the state, or to completely act with
the state to pursue this aim or that. Our
corporatism is far more fluid and multifaceted,
but the Leviathan's very widespread usefulness to
all important political actors and factions makes
it remarkably difficult to unseat it or even put
it in a lurch. Only the individual is left out of
the Leviathan equation, and most of us don't
recognize that crucial reality."
Humor, satire, cartoons,
parodies, food, popular music
and other things to amuse.
Banana Republican Fall 04
Catalog
by frank santopadre & john
marshall from jest magazine
"Whether you’ve mismanaged
an unpopular war, or just mangled the English language
again, now’s the time to get back to the basics -- like
a premium dress shirt, a versatile blazer, and that
glass of bourbon you’ve wanted since 1986." That's for
Dubya, but Ashcroft and Rummy may be sent up even
better.
What Do You Think? --
Bill O'Reilly Sex Scandal
from The Onion
"Last week, a Fox News
Channel producer sued Bill O'Reilly for sexual
harassment, alleging that the cable host pressured her
into phone sex. What do you think?"
Wimblehack: Round 3 --
And then there were four.
by Matt Taibbi from New
York Press
"The press room gasps at
things like the Kerry lesbian-baiting ploy because
it's the kind of vicious celebrity twaddle they're
sensitive to, twaddle they consider themselves experts
and authorities on. If someone makes what they
consider a 'mistake' on that turf, they dive on it
like pigs converging on a watermelon rind."
Scientific
and scholarly studies, philosophical essays,
in-depth and longer articles.
The
Tragedy of the Idealist
by
Bob Wallace from Strike The Root
"It
took me years to understand what
that saying, 'Love your enemies'
means. It doesn't mean to 'love
them,' not really. That's
impossible. It means to see them
as people, not subhumans, not
things, not demons, ones to hate
and project all of the world's
evil onto, so that one can
self-righteously use God and
country as an excuse to
slaughter them."
Does John Ashcroft Understand the
Constitution?
by Jacob G. Hornberger from
The Future of Freedom
Foundation
"People's rights are
fundamental and inherent, and
they preexist government Thus,
the Framers didn't give people
rights in the Constitution but
rather prohibited the
government from taking such
rights away. That's why the
document uses the words 'no'
or 'not' some 46 times."
Who's Afraid of Inequality?
by Jude Blanchette from
Foundation for Economic
Education
"Some things individuals
purchase may offend the senses
(e.g., the music of Britney
Spears). The opposite may also
occur; we may not understand
why the work of Albert Jay
Nock isn't best-selling. Yet
this is largely the outcome
one should expect in a society
that values free choice. To
object to the income
inequality that results from
this process is to object to a
society built upon creativity,
imagination, and diversity."
Articles not
easily classified.
Is Dave Barry Retiring
for Good?
Talk of the Nation from
NPR
"After 30 years as a newspaper
columnist, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Dave Barry is
taking an indefinite leave of absence." Windows media,
Guest: Dave Barry
Rise Of the Feminist
Propaganda State
by Carey Roberts from
NewsWithViews.com
"So when mainstream
media outlets such as the Boston Globe and Fox
News use the word 'equality' to denote its exact
opposite -- and nobody seems to mind -- you know
that we're in trouble."
Walter Mitty's Second
Amendment
by Jeff Snyder from
LewRockwell.com
"To the extent that
the people paid any attention to their system of
government, the great mass spent their days simply
clamoring for more or better 'programs,' more
'rational' regulations, in short, more of the
same. The only thing that really upset them was
waste, fraud, or abuse of the existing programs.
Such shenanigans brought forth vehement protests
demanding that the government provide their
services more efficiently, dammit!"
Please feel free
to forward this to anyone (or any list) who you believe might
be interested, leaving the contact
and subscription information below intact.
Or if you know of prospective readers, but don't
wish to send this to them yourself, please e-mail their
addresses to me at
TomEnder@free-market.net
and I will send them a message
with a link to the latest issue and invite them to
subscribe.
Comments,
suggestions and discussion
on the content and structure of this review are welcome
at the
ERevD: EnderReviewDiscussion
Yahoo group. Feel free to jump in there at any time.
Each week immediately
after Ender's
Review is
posted at
Endervidualism
a small plain text note
(~5K) containing a
few links to the web site copy of this Review will be sent to
ERevNote
subscribers while I'm also
posting a large HTML version
to the
EnderReview group. I hope all these vehicles will
fit the differing
needs of Ender's
Review readers.
The newest
option is
ERevNote: a new e-mail
list used for distributing a small plain text note sent out
weekly. That reminder note contains a few (5) links to the
Endervidualism web site copy of Ender's Review and will be much
smaller in size for those of you with limited in-basket space
and/or those desiring plain text e-mail.
Archives for
ERevNote are
available to the public at -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ERevNote/
Join that
group at -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ERevNote/join
Alternately,
you may elect to receive a copy of the full HTML object
(110-120K) in your in-basket.
Archives are available to
EnderReview members at -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EnderReview/
Join this
group at -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EnderReview/join
.
|
|
|