Featured Articles
Table of Contents:
If you encounter any difficulty using this document please let me know as soon as you notice. Contact information is at the bottom of this page.
I am happy to receive addresses of potential readers of Ender's Review who might like to receive a few trial issues and/or an invitation to subscribe. Or, if you prefer, please, send a link to this page or the index (which also has comprehensive source site links) to those you think might be interested.
Find all RSS feeds & e-mail lists on the Sign Up page –
or use this RSS feed for Ender's Review
"Libertarians leery of Paul should ask themselves (while bearing in mind that of course no one, certainly no libertarian, is under any obligation to support or advocate or vote for any politician ever): Have we ever seen a national political figure better in libertarian terms—better on taxes, on drugs, on spending, on federalism, on foreign policy, on civil liberties?"
http://reason.com/news/show/121633.html
"Let me have my culture, and I will let you have yours. I do not question your right to teach your children as you think best. Do not question my equal right. In fact, whatever your culture, if you want to attend the schools of my children, I will require no more than minimal criminality, civilized comportment, and academic compatibility. Welcome, whatever your color."
http://www.fredoneverything.net/Desegregation.shtml
"I had 23 guns to turn in and didn’t want to take them all in at once as I expected that would raise suspicions. So I decided to visit three or more turn-in locations to 'spread' things out. You know, take five or so into each location until I ran out of guns or they ran out of credit cards."
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=291523
"Proclaiming that one day of the Iraq War costs $720 million, or $500,000 a minute, the Quaker pacifist group American Friends Service Committee is taking the money-focused message to a dozen U.S. cities in a series of seven-foot (more-than-one-metre) banners. The banners stress what could be bought with the war dollars: one banner says that the tax funds spent in Iraq each day could pay for 84 new elementary schools, while another says it could pay for health care for more than 163,000 people."
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N28352931.htm
"What the Bush administration did after 9/11 was not to engage in precise police work to find any would-be terrorists in our midst. Instead, it issued edicts and enacted laws that curtailed all of our freedoms. And it cast a gigantic dragnet over Arabs and Muslims in this country, treating many of them with a de facto presumption of guilt. To put those experiences in context we need to examine how the Bush administration constructed the edifice of repression."
http://www.alternet.org/rights/57689/
"Were there to be a serious discussion of immigration in the USA, it would have to address why there is a differential in treatment between East European and Latino immigrants in the public mind and in reality. "
"A leaked TSA memo warns screeners to be on the lookout for terrorists staging dry runs through airport security. (The TSA issued a short statement following the leak, and here's an AP story on the memo.) Honestly, the four incidents described, with photos, sure sound suspicious to me...."
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/07/tsa_warns_of_te.html
"Some people objected to my original headline that this kind of horseplay is just part of growing up. Fair enough, though I seem to remember quite a bit of butt-slapping and bra-strap snapping in middle school (not to mention adolescent boys' habit of continually kicking, punching, and flicking one another in the nuts). These incidents resulted in scoldings, detention, or, in the worst cases, suspensions. Never incarceration."
http://reason.com/blog/show/121584.html
"How odd that government – an institution run entirely on the basis of coercion (which is to say, on the basis of violence, both threatened and real) – presents itself, whenever possible, as a tool of compassion. This mismatch between government's actual methods and its supposed goals reveals two things: first, that much of what governments do is not what people want (thus the need for coercion) and, second, that what people DO want is a more emotionally healthy and compassionate, and thus less coercive, world. "
http://www.strike-the-root.com/72/allport/allport4.html
"The state seeks to usurp our liberty and take our property by appeals to disorder and destitution. One way in which we know the state is evil is that it attacks us in a pincer maneuver, undermining our thrift, which results in disorder and destitution, and then from the other flank, using these results to further usurp our liberty and take our property."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/guillory10.html
"I do believe that education, in terms of speaking to people about liberty, is the best means of eventually achieving a free, voluntaryist society. I think this because political routes are untenable. Why participate in the state when you oppose its very existence?"
http://www.strike-the-root.com/72/awuku/awuku2.html
"The right calls this tyranny 'socialism'. The left calls this tyranny 'capitalism'. Ultimately, in some senses, there is no capitalism and there is no socialism. There is only Liberty or Tyranny."
http://www.bradspangler.com/blog/archives/716
"In the marketplace we trade with one another — we give up something in exchange for something we want more — and that is the basis of our relationship. If one party becomes dissatisfied with the terms of the trade, he is free to walk away. That’s called freedom of association."
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0704e.asp
"We have to exercise our rights. As Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff threatens with his bulldozer blades, a vast number of citizens who live inside the checkpoints will be holding a series of protests against the wall. Such events will show our love of the Rio, love of our environment, love for our culture and heritage and love for our friends and neighbors. "
http://riograndeguardian.com/columns3_story.asp?story_no=3
"Not content with aiming for top results however, another group of researchers is using EAs to produce designs that dodge patents on rival inventions. Koza took a 1-metre-tall, Wi-Fi antenna made by Cisco and attempted to create another that did a better job without infringing Cisco's patent. He used an EA that bred antennas by comparing offspring with how the Cisco patent works and weeding out ones that worked similarly. 'Our genetic program engineered around the existing patent and created a novel design that didn't infringe it,' says Koza."
http://www.newscientisttech.com/channel/
tech/mg19526146.000?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg19526146.000
"Why are ... travesties good for kids? Because they can teach kids to not place their faith and allegiance in institutions. That in any organization, ambition, greed, or even just stupidity can take over. That 'heroes' like athletes and astronauts are at least as flawed as everyone else, and politicians probably worse than most. These and other scandals can teach kids to be skeptical about what institutional authorities tell them, and careful about how they spend their money and invest their time."
http://independentcountry.blogspot.com/2007/07/what-are-we-teaching-our-kids.html
"Corrupt and undemocratic practices by the CIA have prevailed since it was created in 1947. However, US citizens have now, for the first time, been given a striking range of critical information necessary to understand how this situation came about and why it has been impossible to remedy. "
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/IG26Aa01.html
"Once a censorship regime is set up to govern the global network, there is nothing intrinsic about ICANN's operation that necessarily limits it to just censoring gTLDs. This is a very new institution experiencing a high rate of growth and evolution, with exploding revenues as the market for domain names expands and the fees collected match the rate of expansion of new domains. Once an institution like this is established, it becomes a prime candidate for expansion of its policy domain. "
http://towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/1085/1/
"Most who suffer from those afflictions -- and I say this in utter sincerity -- are good and decent people. They are not depraved or consciously dishonest. They simply don't understand the extent to which they have surrendered control over their opinions to paid professionals in the art of manipulation."
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/
2007/07/talk-radio-bulimia-and-fox-news-reflux.html
"Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev criticised the US, and current President George W Bush in particular, on Friday for sowing disorder across the world by seeking to build an empire."
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?
page=2007%5C07%5C28%5Cstory_28-7-2007_pg7_49
"The Bush Administration may be preparing to lash out at old ally Pakistan, which Washington now blames for its humiliating failures to crush al-Qaida, capture its elusive leaders, or defeat Taliban resistance forces in Afghanistan. One is immediately reminded of the Vietnam War when the Pentagon, unable to defeat North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong forces, urged invasion of Cambodia."
http://www.ericmargolis.com/archives/2007/07/is_the_us_prepa.php
"Shortly after he was reelected, President Bush declared that American voters had had their 'moment of accountability' regarding the Iraq war. ... Almost all of the Founding Fathers would have recognized Bush’s interpretation as dictatorial tripe. But it is also worthwhile to examine the war frauds by which Bush and Dick Cheney won a second term. This is especially relevant, since Bush and Cheney may use similar frauds to attack Iran. ... They swayed tens of millions of Americans to take their beliefs from their rulers, not from the facts."
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0704c.asp
"We Americans aren't responsible for the tragic loss of life, the horrific expense, the incalculable damage to our standing in the world – it was those foreigners who failed us. They're responsible! We'll blame anyone but ourselves, but we bear the responsibility, and I don't mean that in any collective-guilt sense. I mean the American government and our ruling elites, especially the American media, which acted as a transmission belt for this administration's lies and continues to be the primary means by which support for our failed foreign policy is maintained."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=11334
"Limbaugh's show was probably instrumental in the Republican Congressional victory of 1994. But it also made the 'attack' style not only acceptable, but pervasive. It is now acceptable to view those who disagree with you as not only ill-informed, but also stupid and degenerate. Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and many others have followed in Limbaugh's footsteps. Their world is not one of good ideas vs. bad ideas, but rather of good people vs. evil people."
http://partialobserver.com/article.cfm?id=2627
"As for me, I'd choose profit-driven people to provide my health care services, people with motives like those who deliver goods to my supermarket, deliver my overnight mail, produce my computer and software programs, assemble my car and produce a host of other goods and services that I use."
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/07/health%20care.htm
"The implications of some of the ideas in this article may seem immoral, contrary to our ideals, or offensive. We state them because they are true, supported by documented scientific evidence. Like it or not, human nature is simply not politically correct."
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20070622-000002.html
"Hysteria begets cost, especially when politics gets involved. For years now, Europe's big reinsurance companies — the people who insure the insurers — has been raising rates, claiming that global warming is making hurricane damages worse. Interestingly, the American companies, using the AIR data, are not as strident."
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8501
"Guilt plays a vital role in the regulation of social behavior. That worried feeling in our gut often serves as the impetus for our stab at redemption. However, psychologists have trouble agreeing on the function of this complex emotion."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-07/afps-mb072407.php
"For as long as there are lifesaving drugs in development, there will be dying patients undaunted by the dangers of an unapproved treatment. But within the strictures of the current regulatory regime, very few patients--mainly those who, like Gotschall, meet the criteria for clinical trials--are granted the freedom to risk their lives in the face of certain death. ... Whereas patients once had the right to treat their bodies as laboratories, their selves as subjects, the right to experiment on individuals is no longer the province of the individuals themselves. Patients fight for the right to be test subjects for others, and consider themselves lucky to be chosen."
http://www.reason.com/news/show/120763.html
"The gold carry trade has one main goal, and that is to add huge amounts of supply to the market in order to suppress the price of gold. Although there are other added bonuses along the way for the participants, the main reason for suppressing the price of gold is so the world doesn’t know the true value of worthless fiat currencies."
http://www.whiskeyandgunpowder.com/Archives/2007/20070725.html
"James Sherk ... reminds us of three important truths. First, the only workers who benefit from a higher minimum wage are those who actually earn that higher wage. A higher minimum wage causes employers to cut back on both the number of workers they hire and their employees' working hours, which reduces overall job opportunities for the poor."
http://www.acton.org/ppolicy/comment/article.php?id=394&wherefrom=email
"WIPO said Malley's 'aim in registering the disputed domain name was to profit from and exploit' Twentieth Century Fox's trademark to promote and sell his own products and merchandise. The domain name has been registered since 1999." [Especially with IP, but also more widely, following the rules carries less weight than power elite membership.]
http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20070725/118539132000.html
"'Martial law' is a euphemism for military dictatorship. When foreign democracies are overthrown and a junta establishes martial law, Americans usually recognize that a fundamental change has occurred. Perhaps some conservatives believe that the only change when martial law is declared is that people are no longer read their Miranda rights when they are locked away. 'Martial law' means obey soldiers’ commands or be shot. The abuses of military rule in southern states during Reconstruction were legendary, but they have been swept under the historical rug."
http://zmagsite.zmag.org/JulAug2007/bovard.html
"In fact, since 2001 investigations have exposed British (who have a history of false-flag operations), American, Israeli, and Egyptian agents posing as al-Qaeda, but no actual al-Qaeda. Is the organization even real, or is it a 'front organization masking foreign influences' sanctioned by various intelligence agencies? I have to admit, a network of terror cells that targets the West just when they need to crack down on security is mighty handy."
http://www.thesimon.com/magazine/articles/
canon_fodder/01429_al_qaeda_mothers_invention.html
"Our rulers expect to use our flesh and blood -- our children -- as collateral. Conscription and universal national service would be a blood tax imposed on behalf of the foreign creditors funding our empire. This blood-for-debt swap becomes even likelier when one takes into account the coming collapse of domestic 'entitlement' programs"
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/
2007/07/your-kids-as-collateral-coming-blood.html
"Many Christians are in love with the state. They have a warped 'God and Country' complex which inevitably elevates the state to the level of God Almighty. Sure, they may complain about paying their taxes, obeying a frivolous law, or complying with some regulation; they may get upset with Supreme Court decisions about abortion, and even get outraged about government grants used to fund pornographic art exhibits. But when it comes to the subject of war and the military they lose their minds. Bombing, maiming, interrogating, and killing are okay as long as it is done in service for the state."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance115.html
"Sumner, a founder of American sociology and a distinguished professor at Yale University, was an uncompromising champion of economic freedom, unfettered international trade, individual liberty, and limited government. It is fair to say that in his time he was the best-known American exponent of individualist, classical-liberal ideas."
http://www.fee.org/in_brief/default.asp?id=1463
"Jittery stock markets, an economy drunk on credit, and politicians calling for varieties of dictatorship: what a sense of déjà vu! Let us recall that the world went bonkers for about ten years way back when. The stock market crashed in 1929, thanks to the Federal Reserve, and with it fell the last remnants of the old liberal ideology that government should leave society and economy alone to flourish."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/1930s-again.html
"Who the fuck is Paul Krassner? When Jack Weinberg said, in 1965, ' ...we don’t trust anybody over 30,' Krassner was 33, an old, old man. But with the gargantuan reputation of his magazine, The Realist, the flagship publication of the radical left at the time, perhaps of all time, and indispensable rag to the hemorrhaging bleeding heart of the Vietnam War–addled counterculture, Krassner was definitely an exception to the new adage. He established himself as the Walter Cronkite of the underground press and was considered the most trusted investigative satirist working in Amockrica."
http://www.laweekly.com/general/a-considerable-town/have-a-nice-life/16892/
"[H]e was easy to approach; his manner was pleasant, not aloof or overbearing. He was of average height. His features were regular, and he wore a mustache. He dressed appropriately for a journalist working in midtown Manhattan in his day — in suit and tie. He was modest, always thoughtful of others, and one of the kindest and most gracious men I have known. His friends called him Harry, and in time I too came to call him Harry. I was proud to have him as a friend."
http://www.mises.org/story/2573
"To be sure, libertarian principles do not prescribe a military strategy or tell us 'what constitutes appropriate and effective self-defense after an attack.' But that doesn't mean libertarian principles are silent on these matters; they do tell us what is inappropriate. They tell us that government should not provoke attacks by brutally intervening in other people's affairs, as the U.S. government has done consistently in the Middle East for more than 50 years."
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0707g.asp
"The application of overwhelming firepower in lieu of alternative tactics has long been the American way of fighting a war. … If we assume that U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq have killed 50,000 people with small-arms fire (a high estimate, I suspect), then they have needed, for training plus actual fighting, 184,000 bullets per person killed. If they have killed only 30,000 in this way, then the figure rises to almost 307,000 bullets per person shot dead...."
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2003
"No one disputes that the situation in Darfur is a humanitarian tragedy, but it is dangerous folly to assume that a U.S.-led military intervention would solve the problem. It might even make a horrible situation even worse."
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8585
"The libertarian camp has always contained some folks who see themselves as 'on the right' and others who reject that, either by saying 'my heart is more on the left' or rejecting the dichotomy altogether."
http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/41296.html
"James Whale, who grew up poor in an English mining town, learned to put on plays in a World War I German prison camp. Postwar theatre work took him to the London stage, then Broadway, then a contract with Paramount, as dialog director for Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels (1930). He began his contribution to the horror film genre with his move to Universal, directing Boris Karloff in Frankenstein (1931)...."
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001843/bio
"He was the first [to] invite black musicians to be on his [radio] show, and in appreciation, artists such as Louis Armstrong and Josephine Baker invited Rudy to their clubs in Harlem."
http://www.rudyvallee.com/bio.html
"His film debut was in 'Sundown' (1941) as a Tribal Policeman…. Among his film credits are: … 'Spartacus' (1960) probably his best known and most popular role as the Gladiator Draba; 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' (1962) as Pompey…."
http://www.dougmacaulay.com/kingspud/
sel_by_actor_index_2.php?actor_first=Woody&actor_last=Strode
"'The Marching Morons' was one of Kornbluth's most famous short stories; it is a satirical look at a far future in which the world's population consists of five billion idiots and a few million geniuses — the precarious minority of the 'elite' working desperately to keep things running behind the scenes."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_M._Kornbluth
Bob Wallace spins an SF short story, quite relevant to today’s headlines. “His Most Royal Excellency George the 17th, from behind several square yards of polished walnut desk, squinted at his visitor as if he was a large bristly rat that had somehow found its way to the hard, straight-backed chair set in the middle of the room. ... The Emperor was convinced his public loved him but he took no chances with his friends in his court. The guards had huge golden Roman centurion-type helmets with red crests on top that stood up like scared birds.”
http://endervidualism.com/bwallace/war_with_yechs.htm
"Rowling's books are a celebration of the human spirit and personal integrity. The problems are caused by human failings — the desire for power, fear of death, greed, jealousy, etc. And solved by human traits that reflect the best of our natures — loyalty, courage, friendship, sacrifice, love, etc."
http://www.melindasnodgrass.com/musings/2007/07/26/the-deathly-hallows/
"Those of us with nothing better to do were assembled in the Hardyville One-Plex, the only building big enough to hold this particular attraction. We hunkered down in our seats, clutching tubs of popcorn, Swedish Fish, and bags of Extreme Sour Patch candies, and got ready to enjoy the show."
http://www.backwoodshome.com/columns/wolfe070723.html
"The following is a partial list of popular movies and books within the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre that take an anti-government stance, even if that was not the intention of the writers, and have been released since the Bush administration took office."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/landingham1.html
"A field study released Monday by the University of North Carolina School of Public Health suggests that Iraqi citizens experience sadness and a sense of loss when relatives, spouses, and even friends perish, emotions that have until recently been identified almost exclusively with Westerners."
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/64237
"We're going to summit the K2 of obfuscation as the House Judiciary Committee grills Alberto Gonzales."
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/?lnk=v&ml_video=90429
"It's another dip into my pile of platters that spin at 78 rpm, including two peeks at the 'Flying Saucer' mania of the mid-1950s." [Web-based player available at the site.]
http://unclewarrensattic.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=239697
"Stephen feels so strongly about tonight's word he got it tattooed on his arm."
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/?lnk=v&ml_video=90416
"Even for those championing immigrants, though, putting one’s primary focus on immigration is to misdirect the spotlight. To state it simply: I am not fundamentally for –– or against –– immigration. What I do support is freedom of association. Examining this right through the lens of the immigration debate will help illuminate the requirements of freedom overall."
http://www.russellmadden.com/Atlas_Magazine.html
"What keeps up the interest is Rand's unwavering advocacy of individualism and, on a larger scale, her celebration of capitalism and resistance to collectivism. The hero in The Fountainhead (the title refers to Rand's assertion that 'man's ego is the fountainhead of human progress') is Howard Roark, an architect with uncompromising creative talent and an ego that doesn't depend on the approval of others. "
http://www.lewrockwell.com/reiland/reiland20.html
"The need for self-actualization through work can be addressed only after the more fundamental needs have been met. If a workplace has been downsized and sped up until it's a living hell just trying to keep from falling further behind, you live in the face of job insecurity, you haven't received a pay raise in three years, and management is utterly unaccountable for shitting on you, the only way to get to the happiness stage is through the more fundamental ones. " [Fairly long entry, but worth it if the topic interests you.]
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/
2007/07/book-review-alex-kjerulf-happy-hour-is.html
"One can be a libertarian whose utopia is an agrarian society that may be almost anarchic in form, but virtually theocratic in practice. Another libertarian may be cosmopolitan and a champion of consumerism."
http://independentcountry.blogspot.com/
2007/07/disagreement-on-many-fronts-but-not-war.html
"Crowd favorite Doug Casey discusses the plight of America. Similar commentary on the economic world-at-large…."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd0lhZJDs0k
"Ties are really man's most affordable, flexible and socially accepted way to express himself by buying something to wear on his chest. Sometimes, it should be a very simple something. I myself think the completely plain-colored tie is underrated. But sometimes, and actually quite often, even the man with a serious, bourgeois role in America's division of labor can brandish a tie exploding with personality."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/gregory/gregory141.html
"Taking the true story of how soldiers on both sides of the line climbed out of their trenches and shared some holiday joy together, the film weaves a story around a farm where German soldiers are settled in against French and Scottish soldiers - and where a Prussian opera star takes advantage of a chance to spent an evening with her opera-star lover on the German line."
http://bwrmontag.blogspot.com/
2007/07/i-have-become-just-enchanted-with-movie.html
"Google 'requested that the Commission should extend to all CMRS-type spectrum licensees clearly delineated, explicitly enforceable, and unwavering obligations to provide (1) open applications, (2) open devices, (3) open wholesale services, and (4) open network access.' ... These are Internet rules Schmidt is asking for, Internet Engineering Task Force-like rules, that Google wants to apply to this fresh patch of wireless connectivity, turning what would have been yet another mobile phone system into a mobile Internet."
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070727_002573.html
Find all RSS feeds & e-mail lists on the Sign Up page –
or use this RSS feed for Ender's Review
Each week immediately after Ender's Review is posted at Endervidualism a small plain text note (~5K) containing a few links to the web edition is sent to ERevNote subscribers.
If you know of prospective readers, please send them a link to this page, or alternately if you don't wish to e-mail them yourself, you can e-mail their addresses to me at this address: Tom@Endervidualism.com 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.
Alternately, you may elect to receive a copy of an HTML e-mail object (50 - 90K). Archives of the HTML e-mail are available to EnderReview members. You may join that group or subscribe to its mailing list.