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"Four months after being announced, the End Software Patents project (ESP) is launching a new Web site with arguments for economists, computer scientists, lawyers, and lay people about why they should support the project."
http://www.linux.com/feature/128110
"His philosophy is simple – in order to grind the Drug War to a halt, we must thwart the ability of police to detect and arrest people who use drugs in the first place. We must have so much drug-dealing and trafficking that it literally becomes impossible for government to stop the tidal wave."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/81/knight/knight2.html
"The fact that euros are accepted by many stores in New York City has made the news lately and is well known in gold investor circles. It is yet another symptom of the ongoing demise of the US dollar. The good news for these New York City merchants - and for all others nationwide - is that gold and silver will not be far behind and offer far better advantages as dollar-alternatives."
http://www.safehaven.com/article-9568.htm
"In the United States, only 13 percent of house burglaries take place when someone is home, and studies show this is because about half of U.S. homeowners have a gun. And handguns are by far the best guns for home defense, because they're easy to maneuver in confined spaces and hard for criminals to grab."
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9243
"For decades, the fiat dollar has been the world's reserve currency, issued by the world's largest debtor. The results of this unprecedented combination were entirely predictable: Washington has generated a flood tide of inflation that has inundated more or less the entire world. A tide is a reciprocating phenomenon -- if it goes out, it must come back in. But how do we describe what happens when a relatively small stretch of coastline suddenly has to absorb the impact of every returning tide from all the world's oceans all at once? 'Tsunami' is an entirely inadequate term."
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2008/02/our-moneys-no-good-here.html
"Guns were far easier to obtain in this country before 1968 -- you could buy them through the mail. But there were hardly any such mass-shooting rampages. On the other hand, chart the frequency of these mass shootings against the widespread introduction of such hallucinogenic drugs as Prozac, Ritalin and Luvox among the inmates of the tax-funded youth concentration camps -- the kinds of drugs that Kip Kinkel had been on, the kind that got Columbine killer Eric Harris blocked from enlistment in the Marines. Let me know what you find."
http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/15918992.html
"You're listening to WIMP radio, 9.11 on your dial, the All Threat All the Time station where our programming format aims to keep everyone in a perpetual state of fear. So stay in bed and pull the covers up over your heads. Here are the most important Threat Levels for today...."
http://www.rcreader.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12598&Itemid=42
"The headlines are disturbing and are never-ending. The 'war on drugs' has gone on since the Nixon administration in the 1970s and continues today. The 'war on terror' is an infant compared with the war on drugs. The drug war is the longest war the United States has ever fought and for sure the most expensive."
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0802i.asp
"The problem is, as long as the state is around and granting favors to certain, select groups of individuals who come together to make and sell some product or service, there isn’t a line—fuzzy or otherwise—separating those two concepts. I am not objecting to individuals working together to create goods or services to sell, of course; what I am objecting to is the idea that allowing the state to skim some money off the operation in return for privilege and protection is an acceptable way to operate in a free market."
http://www.sunnimaravillosa.com/node/1324
"Governments are governments no matter what their sizes and locations, and are wholly unacceptable in their very nature, because every last one of them arrogantly presumes to run one or more aspects of my life which rightly belong to me alone."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/81/davies/davies8.html
"Since the state is a criminal gang, referring to the ideals in the Federalist Papers, the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights makes about as much sense as referring to a Mafia stooge’s claims that he only wants to 'protect' a shopkeeper that he is in fact extorting, or a pimp’s protestations of virtuous benevolence with regards to his enslaved prostitutes. Political leaders use virtuous abstractions to 'sell' the imposition of violent power over citizens. As long as individuals continue to be distracted by the shiny emptiness of ethical bloviating, and ignore the gun that is steadily rising towards them, we will continue to remain as enslaved to words as we are to governments."
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=7611
"The state is not a neutral observer. It will pass environmental legislation. It will regulate relations between races and sexes. It will put down this religion in order to raise that one up. In each case, the intervention only exacerbates conflicts, which in turn creates the impression that there really is an intractable conflict at work. For example, if the state taxes one group to give to another group, it fuels conflict and gives the impression that legislation is the route to liberation. But who is the real winner in this game? The state and the state alone."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/hegelianism-election.html
"Handguns are self-defense tools. They are designed to protect people from those who would harm them. In many cases, merely the appearance of a firearm dissuades an attacker. When you prevent people from carrying self-defense weapons, you are making them easy targets."
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0711f.asp
"One of the most significant new features added in alpha 5 is support for Wubi, a new installation mechanism that makes it easier for Ubuntu and Windows to coexist on the same computer. Wubi provides a complete Ubuntu installer that can be run in Windows from the Ubuntu Live CD. It installs Ubuntu into a folder on the Windows file system and sets up a boot menu so that users can choose between Windows and Ubuntu when the computer starts."
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080224-wubi-arrives-a-look-at-ubuntu-8-04-alpha-5.html
"David Healy, a psychiatrist at Cardiff University, UK, specialising in the use of SSRI drugs, says the latest study confirms suspicions that the drugs' effectiveness had been dramatically overstated. 'Most importantly this new study shows that the people who did respond to the drugs would have responded to placebo, anyway. It confirms that GPs should not be dishing these drugs out as first-line treatment for mild depression,' he told New Scientist. The drugs were, he notes, 'routinely being given to people who would get better without them'."
"It should be noted that SQLite isn't open-source software, strictly speaking. Though SQLite's underlying source code is freely available as part of the public domain," [If this pullquote interests you, also see this very relevant article.]
http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9879010-39.html
"American advocates of imperialism have been few and far between, and we have to go all the way back to the latter years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th to unearth the most explicit. Theodore Roosevelt is perhaps the best known, but there were others.... If Beijing decided to cut our purse-strings tomorrow, the mighty American Empire would fall quicker than its Soviet counterpart, albeit with a much louder crash. The strenuous life leads to exhaustion. In the life of a nation, this means economic exhaustion, otherwise known as bankruptcy."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12426
"If we continue to allow corporations to claim ownership over our money, our medicines, our seeds, plants and genes, then make no mistake about the outcome: We will all end up as worker slaves in an elitist plutocracy run by corporations. Some say we're close to that already. Just look at how effectively corporate interests now control the U.S. Congress, for example. There's hardly a law passed today that doesn't have the backing of a profit-minded corporation. ... No wonder U.S. corporations so strongly favor the U.S. patent system. It is the legal machine by which corporations can strong-arm the masses, stealing not only their present resources but also their future wealth, effectively criminalizing farmers and peasants for daring to plant the same seeds they've planted for generations."
http://www.naturalnews.com/022754.html
"The Justice Department's answer to the accusation that it framed Siegelman is that Siegelman was indicted by career prosecutors and convicted in a fair trial by a jury of his peers. These claims are no more truthful than anything else the DOJ says."
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03012008.html
"History will probably show George W. Bush to have been a bold president, ready to gamble his legacy at a moment’s notice. Some risk-taking has paid off for him and other rolls of the dice haven’t."
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2129
"It comes down to one thing only: the simple-minded, unthinking impression that [McCain] is a war hero and, more than anyone else, has what it takes to smash the evil foreign peoples who want to kill us. In short, he appeals to the militaristic, nationalistic impulses of the base Republican base. ... We need to recognize that there is a form of nonleftist statism of a very distinct kind. It is not socialist in the traditional sense. It believes in a corporate state, combined with protectionism and belligerence in foreign policy. The right-wing predecessors here are Mussolini, Franco, and Hitler, and the name of the ideology is fascism."
http://www.mises.org/story/2900
"No matter how moderate McCain seems on domestic issues, on the issue of war he's stark raving mad. He's a wounded, crusading Ahab, and civilian command and diplomatic restraint are his Great White Whale. If he gets put in charge of a Middle Eastern war that is easily widened, it's whirlpool time for all of us."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/18721308/mccain_resurrected
"While some cynics still view Barack Obama’s appeal for 'change' as empty rhetoric, it’s starting to dawn on Washington insiders that his ability to raise vast sums of money from nearly one million mostly small donors could shake the grip that special-interest money has long held over the U.S. government."
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/022608.html
"We're told that certain drugs have to be prohibited because they're too dangerous. But we should also resist efforts to make them less dangerous because doing so might encourage drug use. It's a bizarre argument until you consider the real motivation behind it: In truth, it's not so much about the harm some drugs do; it's about an absolute moral opposition to the use of some drugs. Even if they were completely harmless, some people simply don't like the idea that we can ingest chemicals that make us feel good."
http://www.reason.com/news/show/125195.html
"Gillette ... giving away ... razors, which were useless by themselves ... [created] demand for disposable blades. A few billion blades later, this business model is now the foundation of entire industries: Give away the cell phone, sell the monthly plan; make the videogame console cheap and sell expensive games; install fancy coffeemakers in offices at no charge so you can sell managers expensive coffee sachets. ... Over the past decade, however, a different sort of free has emerged. The new model is based not on cross-subsidies — the shifting of costs from one product to another — but on the fact that the cost of products themselves is falling fast. ... We are just a few decades into the discovery of a new world."
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free?currentPage=all
"[G]old clauses are now perfectly legal, and they will surely become even more popular as the inflationary horror unfolds, even in China...."
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/Writers/Mogambo/DREssays/MG022608.html
"Apple and Microsoft will continue to have their places at the table, but it's Google and Canonical that I think point to the future. That future involves a teeming morass of communities, all bickering for their place."
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9878546-16.html
"Investors don’t intentionally seek out storage programs that claim to, but don’t own real silver. No one purposefully puts themselves at great risk. They just don’t think about it much. I understand why people are attracted to hold silver at the dealer they bought it from and without serial numbers (for 1000 0z bars) - it’s easy. I understand why people are attracted to no or very cheap storage plans. Who doesn’t want to save money? Unfortunately, this may amount to being penny-wise, but dollar-foolish."
http://news.silverseek.com/TedButler/1204056208.php
"The problem for those who promise universal and affordable health care is that medically we are not all created equal. Because of genetics and lifestyle, some people are more likely to get sick than others, and some people are already sick. This upsets the politicians' plans, and they must do something about it. ... To be actuarially sound, insurance must discriminate on the basis of risk. If the government bars insurers from such price-discrimination, they really wouldn't be in the insurance business at all. It would be more accurate to call their activity a forced subsidy. We should at least call a thing what it is."
http://www.fee.org/in_brief/default.asp?id=1916
"Every day we are enticed to consume every product you can imagine: cars, celery, computers, anything. There is constant calibrating of supply and demand. If anyone attempts to overprice a product and make profits, another entrepreneur sweeps in to offer the same for less and draw profits away. Innovation is everywhere, so that supplies are required to adopt the latest thing in order to stay afloat. No profits are permanent. They are always and everywhere threatened. These days, this happens almost overnight. Now think of the difference with public water markets, in which the theme is always: you are using too much."
http://www.mises.org/story/2899
"Under close scrutiny ... it is troublingly apparent that (a) the agency [ONDCP] is failing to achieve its stated goals, and (b) the drug czar’s office is manipulating and falsifying statistics in its public reports in order to claim successes that are not warranted."
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0711g.asp
"The record industry has sued over 20,000 music fans to 'protect artists' copyrights.' But they haven't turned over any of the money to artists...."
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/28/record-companies-don.html
"As FDR edged closer to war, the need was felt for a mass-based anti-interventionist organization. In August, 1940, Flynn became one of the founders of the America First Committee and chairman of the New York City chapter. At its height, the America First Committee had over 800,000 card-carrying members, among them E. E. Cummings, Sinclair Lewis, Kathleen Norris, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, and Irene Castle. (The actress Lillian Gish served for a time on the national board, but was forced to resign when this led to her being blackballed — 'blacklisted'? — in Hollywood and on Broadway.) Younger members of America First included John F. Kennedy, Sargeant Shriver, Gerald Ford, and Gore Vidal."
"As the British government's top advisor revealed this week in a remarkably candid interview with the Observer, Western business leaders don't care how many Iraqis die -- or who kills them -- just as long as their own profits can be guaranteed. "
http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1441&Itemid=135
"All the checks and balances, the carefully-planned delineated authority of a separation of governmental power, are trumped when the government advances to the universal patriotic action of a state of war, a war of, by and for the state."
http://www.thepriceofliberty.org/08/02/25/lang.htm
"Is there any reason a Christian who was opposed to the war in Iraq could in good conscience still join the military? I have previously explained why Christians have no business joining the military, even to serve as a military chaplain. I have also expressed my opposition to the National Guard. But what about a Christian joining the military to be a witness for Christ or to serve his fellow soldiers? What could possibly be wrong with that? My short answer is that one would be an accomplice to murder, that’s what wrong with it."
http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance135.html
"In this 20-minute interview, Crawford, a one-time press secretary to Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) and widely published journalist, discusses Jefferson's massive contributions to American political discourse; his role in creating the University of Virginia; his relationship to Sally Hemings, slavery, and manumission; and much, much more."
http://reason.tv/video/show/306.html
"Andrew Jackson was a man of many worthy accomplishments. He was certainly right about the evil represented by the Bank of the United States. He was also an individual of considerable personal courage. This doesn’t change the fact that he was a war criminal who presided over one of history’s larger atrocities: The 'Trail of Tears' and beginning of continent-wide dispossession of the Indians."
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2008/02/war-criminal-on-twenty-dollar-bill.html
"The growth of a huge bureaucratic apparatus, the partnership of government and business, social welfare schemes, huge public debts, and the need to resolve economic problems by creating a permanent war economy — all of these phenomena had become dominant first in Italy, then in Germany, and then in the United States under the New Deal. The theme of the book is that while the US was fighting fascism in Europe, the seeds of that doctrine had already been planted at home; the war itself would accelerate their growth."
http://www.mises.org/story/2890
"Washington disliked the Militia, and wanted a traditional European type war, as did his inheritors, the South's leaders, many years later. ... A major ally of the Americans was the antiwar opposition in Great Britain, hence the need to use mercenaries, as the US increasingly now has to resort to."
http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/47790.html
"The rule the U.S. has set up is as follows: restive peoples who find themselves transferred from one great 'prison house of peoples' to newer, U.S.-supported prisons named Georgia – and Iraq – have no right to self-determination. The Kosovars have a special status: they enjoy the protection of the EU and the U.S. armed forces, and the West recognizes their national aspirations. The others, however, must endure being ruled by a central authority that has the support of the U.S. government. Why? Because Washington says so."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12415
"In international affairs, blunders are worse than crimes, and two of the blunders contained in the recognition of Kosovo are likely to have consequences. The first is the creation of an irredenta, which guarantees another Balkan war. Serbia will never accept the wholesale alienation of one of her provinces. Like France after 1871, her whole policy will focus on recovering her lost territory as soon as the moment is ripe."
http://www.counterpunch.org/lind02282008.html
"Throughout the Suharto regime and since, Jakarta enjoyed the full support of the United States. Most of Indonesia’s weapons came from the United States, their officers graduated from U.S. academies, and the two militaries conducted joint exercises. Jakarta was almost completely dependent on Washington for its military strength. Additionally, Jakarta’s generals developed a strong preference for U.S. weapons. "
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5018
"This list does not pretend to be definitive or absolutely complete. Nor does it seek to explain or interpret the interventions. Information and interpretation on selected interventions will be later included as links. Note that US operations in World Wars I and II have been excluded."
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=GLO20080225&articleId=8210
"Victor Hugo (1802-1885), novelist, poet, and dramatist, is one of the most important of French Romantic writers. Among his best-known works are The Hunchback of Notre Dame(1831) and Les Misérables(1862)."
http://www.online-literature.com/victor_hugo/
"Caruso's popular recordings and his extraordinary voice, known for its mature power, beauty and unequalled richness of tone, made him perhaps the best-known operatic star of his era."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Caruso
"Demarest was a special favorite of writer/director Preston Sturges, who cast Demarest in virtually all his films: The Great McGinty (1940); Christmas in July (1940); The Lady Eve (1941); Sullivan's Travels (1942); The Palm Beach Story (1942); Hail the Conquering Hero (1944); Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), wherein Demarest was at his bombastic best as Officer Kockenlocker; and The Great Moment (1944)."
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:18513~T1
"She is best remembered for her superb comic performance in Preston Sturges' 'The Miracle of Morgan's Creek' (1944), her suitably rowdy Annie Oakley in the Irving Berlin musical, 'Annie Get Your Gun' (1950) and her starring role in as a highwire artist in Cecil B. DeMille's 'The Greatest Show on Earth'(1952)."
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant/participant.jsp?participantId=91392
"How do you present a fresh take on one of the most mythologized and written-about periods in American history? My approach was to try and smash all of the conventions of historical documentary filmmaking. Replace the music of the time with a more contemporary soundtrack. Do away with talking-head interviews with aging boomers and present a film that would be perceived as radical as the culture that I was trying to document."
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/news/2008/02/chicago_10
"Whether it's because they've altered the course of science fiction writing, or simply provide a genuinely alien perspective on ordinary life, these are novels that will rearrange how you think."
http://io9.com/361597/the-twenty-science-fiction-novels-that-will-change-your-life
"This little gem on YouTube is described by its creator, Ole-Magnus Saxegard, as... '[An] animated Documentary-Mockumentary about Evil in western civilization from Ancient Greece to present day'." (animation / video)
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/27/a-history-of-evil-an.html
"Whedon will be working with Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft, both of whom were writers on Angel. "
http://snarkerati.com/tv-news/joss-whedon%e2%80%99s-dollhouse-gets-angel-writers/
"Embarrassed Diebold officials apologized after one of their electronic voting machines prematurely revealed the winner of our upcoming sham election."
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/diebold_accidentally_leaks
"Stephen proves that good bad journalism can be done in a sonnet or a limerick."
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/player.jhtml?ml_video=156636
"Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama take turns using hyperbole during the home stretch of the Democratic nomination."
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=156940&title=democratic-pot-shots
"After declaring his intention to drink himself into oblivion two months ago, Pritchard received pamphlets, letters, and VHS tapes from various religions, all urging him to join their faith. Most deals reportedly guarantee a lifetime of salvation, with additional incentives such as entrance into paradise, the promise of a new and better life, and the ineffable reward of union with a supreme deity. Christianity emerged as an early favorite to land Pritchard Tuesday, after confirming that it had offered him an eternity-length contract with a signing bonus of everlasting bliss."
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/rock_bottom_loser_entertaining
"We're not accustomed to thinking of comedians as cultural commentators, but a performer as sharp and defiant as George Carlin is just the person to call this outdated separation of high and low culture into question. Carlin made a name for himself with comedic bits aimed at provoking conventional Americans, but he cemented his status as a pop-cultural icon by digging deeper, illustrating his gripes about American politics and culture with the imagination and insights of our most ambitious contemporary writers."
http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/int/2008/02/28/carlin/index.html
"If our government understood The Way, it would let people do as they will. As the laws of economics tells us, things will generally work out better, sooner, if the people were not oppressed by excessive taxes, onerous regulations, and arbitrary force. But we don't have a Taoist Emperor or humble Christian King. Instead, we have the slings and arrows of mass democracy."
http://www.partialobserver.com/article.cfm?id=2836
"We need to judge people individually. My main criterion for judging someone is that person's degree of integrity. Does he take responsibility for his actions? Does he lie, cheat, or steal?"
http://www.antiwar.com/henderson/?articleid=12429
"America's debt is not only broader and deeper than its Japanese equivalent…it is also more inscrutable. It's not only the big players who have a lot of debt in the United States, in other words; the little guy has his share. And right now, U.S. authorities are looking for ways to keep the little guy from getting what he deserves - and, incidentally, protect the big lenders from further losses at taxpayer expense."
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/RSS/DR022908sec1.html
"Where did the word Siren come from? It’s an interesting tale of beauty and DEATH!"
http://www.hotforwords.com/2008/02/27/sirens/
"I am flabbergasted that any bank would loan 100% of the price of a house to somebody who didn't even have enough money for any down-payment, no matter how small! And the borrowers just saw a chance to benefit by the bank's stupidity, and they borrowed the money on the 'heads I win, tails I break even' chance that they could later sell at a profit or walk away. Now some of them are merely revealing their true stupidity, too; they are bankrupting their retirements to keep the house that they couldn't afford, that they can't afford, and is now worth less than they owe! Hahahaha!"
http://www.safehaven.com/article-9590.htm
"Soon, the price of gold will hit the $1,000 mark. Then, you will see something unusual…something exciting…something remarkable. You will see the bull market in gold enter a third stage. At first, only the goldbugs bought the stuff. At $300 an ounce…gold was a no-brainer. Then, a few savvy investors and sovereign governments began accumulating gold…gradually bidding it up. But now, as it heads over $1,000 - the bull market in gold is going public. "
http://www.dailyreckoning.com/RSS/DR022908sec2.html
"Vista is a damaged product that lacks many of the important elements a good operating system would boast. And although it may be a bit cheaper, it's still not the OS XP was."
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