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
"On Friday, Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath notified the Department of Homeland Security that the state will not comply with REAL ID but will pursue the identity security policies it deems appropriate. McGrath urged DHS not to penalize the state for rejecting REAL ID. DHS Assistant Secretary for Policy Stewart Baker chose to interpret McGrath’s letter as a request for an extension of the REAL ID compliance deadline and granted it."
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2008/03/23/montana-wins-real-id-standoff/
"I happen to think that only the blending and transformative powers of a free society—politically, economically and morally free—will dissolve fear and mutual grievances into something approaching a colorblind environment."
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2156
"Fox Television has informed the Federal Communications Commission that it will not pay the agency's proposed $91,000 fine for a pixelated strip show on Married in America, broadcast in 2003. 'FOX believes that the FCC's decision in this case was arbitrary and capricious, inconsistent with precedent, and patently unconstitutional,' the network declared in a press release."
"The surveillance state reaches its furthest extreme in The Last Enemy, a recent BBC miniseries that should be coming to the U.S. soon. "
http://io9.com/372006/civil-liberties-are-so-2007
"In any society made up of tens of millions of people or more, it is impossible for any government, no matter how authoritarian, to directly control the actions of everyone, or even of a significant number of people. Of necessity, orders issued by any authoritarian government must be somewhat general, just as laws are in any society: those orders cannot possibly specify everything that the rulers actually want to see happen. In addition, there can never be enough enforcers to ensure that people do exactly what those in power want all the time, or even most of the time. As a result, those in power depend on the cooperation of those they rule...."
http://powerofnarrative.blogspot.com/2008/03/enabling-evil.html
"This Wright business is a perfect example of the American electorate at its squeeby worst — panicky, gutless, acting more on reflex than thought, incapable of retaining information for more than a few minutes at a time. It's also a great example of how the presidential election process has become more about enforcing the attitudes of a cultural orthodoxy than a system for choosing leaders. Through scandal after idiotic scandal, the election process has become a painfully prolonged, deeply irritating exercise in policing conventional wisdom, through a variety of means keeping the public in a state of heightened, dumb animal panic, and ultimately turning the election itself into a Darwinian contest — survival of the Squeebiest."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/19729398/generation_squeeb
"A school district in Alabama raised “an outcry” over the proposed change. Not because of any principled stand against further state encroachment on nonschool time, mind you, but because the new schedule would have longer breaks at other times of the school year, most objectionably during football season! 'You don’t touch football here,' a campaigning father said. Lock kids in a classroom for 12 years (at least) — the most formative years of their lives — and there’s nary a peep from America’s parents. But don’t touch football!"
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0712f.asp
"Wall Street banks, brokerages and hedge funds may report $460 billion in credit losses from the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, or almost four times the amount already disclosed, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Profits will continue to wane, other analysts said."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aIGeO4anyk.c
"The state subsidizes their operating costs, to the extent that for many of the Fortune 500 the total sum of direct and indirect corporate welfare exceeds their profit margin; if state subsidies and differential tax advantages were eliminated, they would immediately start bleeding red ink and sell off subsidiary enterprises at fire sale prices until we had a Fortune 50,000. And with the collapse of profitability and share value that would result from the extraction of the government teat, it’s likely that many of those enterprises would be bought up at pennies on the dollar by their own workers, or simply abandoned to workers (like the recuperated enterprises of Argentina)."
http://www.theartofthepossible.net/2008/03/27/public-vs-private-sector/
"People are advertised, persuaded, brainwashed, conned, Ponzi schemed, schooled, and more to convince them to sell themselves into virtual slavery. It is not a non-issue, it is a central issue. Living by debt is walking on a wobbly fence when falling on the wrong side is slavery. Call debt slavery merely de facto slavery if you will, but if it looks like a dead fish and smells like a dead fish, then why treat it other than like a dead fish? Notice how important thrift and debt avoidance was to Thoreau in the first half of Walden. He noticed that, like today, people would sell themselves into debt for superficial luxuries in housing when one could build an acceptable structure without debt. For those who say it cannot happen, I say rather, don't let it happen."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/81/lg/lg2.html
"The state – by virtue of a monopoly on the use of violence that defines all political systems – is, of course, the most dangerous and destructive of our identities. The sense of accomplishment or greatness we would like to feel for ourselves, we find reflected in the imagery of 'our' nation-state"
http://www.lewrockwell.com/shaffer/shaffer169.html
"We are presently in the midst of a huge, century-long example in the form of economic destruction caused by government over-spending and over-printing of money. These sins have brought down nations and empires repeatedly in history and they are currently bringing down the American empire."
http://www.strike-the-root.com/81/allport/allport8.html
"Chances are if you're running a commercial open-source company, Google is one of your best friends. That's because a search on Google for 'open source and (whatever company X sells)' can yield the largest volume of referrals to an upstart in that business."
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9902519-7.html
"'That would be an odd “right of the people” if limited to militias,' commented Chief Justice John Roberts in the Supreme Court hearing March 18 in District of Columbia v. Heller. The case concerns whether the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns violates the Second Amendment guarantee that 'the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed'."
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2157
"[T]he income tax imposed by the national government in Switzerland takes no more than 11.5 percent of a taxpayer’s income, and that most taxation (and spending) takes place at the canton and municipal level."
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2008/03/28/real-federalism-in-switzerland/
"I have followed the discussion on the Federal Reserve lately, not only how it is meddling with the currency and thereby trying to push the market in one direction or another. My interest has been mainly in the arguments for and against 'the Fed,' i.e. reasons it exists and results of its existence (and meddling)."
http://www.perbylund.com/blog/?p=57
"Every time the West gets up on its high horse and lectures the Chinese government about its lack of 'morality,' the tide of anti-Western Chinese nationalism rises higher. We saw this when the U.S. 'accidentally' bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during Clinton's Balkan War of Aggression, and again when that American spy plane went down over Hainan island."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12585
"Five years ago the United States attacked and occupied Iraq. It has lost militarily, politically and morally. The end of the war may be in sight. But the consequences will endure, as will the deep-seated impulse among America’s leaders for global intervention without constraint."
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5104
"U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is calling for extensive, wide-ranging reforms to the way the government regulates financial markets, including proposals to give the Federal Reserve more power and create new bodies to monitor mortgages and other transactions."
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/
Story.aspx?guid={380D1A01-0239-4E0B-9613-77E3EF86AB37}
"The country could conceivably recover from most of Bush’s follies, but the destruction of the legal function itself will pose a far more serious challenge: In the absence of public outrage, is it realistic to expect the next president to relinquish the imperial power bequeathed him (or her) by the last one?"
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/03/0081943
"In many ways, it appears that the Clinton campaign is replicating a typical hardball Republican campaign – or for that matter a Republican administration. Instead of self-restraint and self-criticism, it’s all about going on the attack, never admitting mistakes – and treating critics like enemies."
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/032508a.html
"President George W. Bush was not solely responsible for taking the United States to war. He had accomplices, such as Hillary Clinton. Bush was only able launch the invasion as a result of being provided with the authorization to do so by a Congressional resolution. Clinton was among a minority of congressional Democrats who – combined with a Republican majority – provided sufficient votes to give the go-ahead for this illegal and disastrous war."
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5099
"Why do people like climatologists and politicians and airhead Hollywood camera fodder insist that this particular warming cycle, unlike all of the warming cycles throughout the history of the planet up until now, is caused by human activity? Could it be that politicians are doing what politicians have always done - grubbing for money, power, and ego-enlargement by claiming so? "
http://www.rcreader.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12666&Itemid=42
"[S]ome advocates think ... optimists are setting themselves up for a grave disappointment. They point to the lackluster civil liberties records of previous Democratic leaders, Bill Clinton in particular, and to the complex system of fear, secrecy and political self-interest assembled during the Bush presidency -- a machine, they say, that's not easily dismantled."
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2008/03/new_dawn
"Dr. Atala, one of the pioneers of regeneration, believes every type of tissue already has cells ready to regenerate if only researchers can prod them into action. Sometimes that prodding can look like science fiction."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/22/sunday/main3960219.shtml
"People around the world have been using spice cures for centuries, but now scientists are finding that spices can ease inflammation, activate the immune system, kill bacteria and viruses and even cause cancer cells to self-destruct. Spices might help fight everything from Alzheimer's disease and cancer to depression and diabetes."
http://www.progress.org/2008/spices.htm
"The study found that, among the forage crops, the organic systems produced as much or more dry matter as the conventional growing methods. The quality of the feed taken from the organic crops was also sufficient to ensure milk production levels on par with the crops grown via conventional methods."
"Even as creatures become complex, evolution doesn't get any harder. The findings, published yesterday in Nature, shed doubt on a creationist criticism of evolution: that adaptation must rapidly slow as creatures grow more complicated, making them less able to adapt to changing conditions."
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/03/creationism-tak.html
"The opening of the loan window was the first shoe. The other shoe is the demand for new regulations on the investment-banking industry in return for Fed's help. Democrats Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Charles Schumer say that if the investment banks are going to have the same access as commercial banks to the Fed's discount window, they should have to live by the same, or similar, rules as commercial banks. Those rules would govern things like reserve requirements but would likely go beyond that and include new oversight by regulators. ... What can the banks say to Frank, Schumer, and Rosengren? If one accepts the principle that the government agency ought to be ready to rescue these institutions, how can one also object to the quid pro quo of regulation? Granted the premise, the logic is sound."
http://www.fee.org/in_brief/default.asp?id=1976
"It's generally accepted that the market for [mortgage]-backed securities (MBS) will not improve until housing prices stabilize, but that's a long way off. Mortgages are the cornerstone upon which the multi-trillion dollar structured investment market rests. And that cornerstone is crumbling. ... Now that Bernanke's liquidity operations have flopped, we can expect that some RTC-type agency will be promoted as a prudent way to fix the mortgage securities market. The banks will get their bailout and the taxpayer will foot the bill. The problem, however, is that the dollar is already falling against every other currency. It's the bailout premise that has to be challenged."
http://www.counterpunch.org/whitney03292008.html
"So the Fed fixed the price of credit (interest rates) well below the rate that would have been set by the free market. This sent false economic signals to the market that more savings were available than actually existed, leading to an over-investment in housing. Also, by keeping the rate of interest below the rate of inflation, rampant speculation was encouraged, and the foundation was laid for the very type of mortgage financing that has now come back to bite us."
http://news.goldseek.com/EuroCapital/1206721558.php
"To see how the government contributed to the subprime mess, we must look at the feds, not the Fed. The feds helped create the problem in three main ways. First, the federal government contributes to what economists call moral hazard.... The second way ... was with a little-noted change in regulations.... The third federal contributor to the subprime crisis is the Community Reinvestment Act." [I don't believe the monetary analysis here complete, but the three points seem well made.]
http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp
?secid=1502&status=article&id=291507506135021
"Most of the U.S. defense industry is made up of ostensibly private companies, with either no or only small amounts of commercial business, that essentially have become wards of the state. This dedicated defense industry works in collusion with the military services, to inflate threats to justify the need to buy questionable weapons, and with congressional representatives, to make the taxpayers pay the bill for those unneeded arms. In fact, when the big defense contractors choose subcontractors, they do not do so on the basis of getting the best subsystem for the best price (as is done in the commercial marketplace), but to spread the subcontracts over as many states and congressional districts as possible, to widen the political support for the weapons program. Therefore, it becomes almost politically impossible to kill a weapon system, even if its cost has become exorbitant, its performance has been poor, its schedule has slipped, or world events have made it irrelevant."
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2155
"If a neighbor attacks me, I have a right to fight back. But I can't steal my other neighbor's money to buy weapons to do so. More fundamental, I cannot, under libertarian ethics, bomb the whole street. To be an anarchist, you have to, I believe, oppose the state. This would [especially] include its enforcement arm – the police and military. For without the state's enforcement arm, its territorial monopoly would cease to be. Welfare doesn't bother me so much if its not backed up by guns."
http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/48737.html
"After two skyscrapers collapse and the Pentagon is in flames, the government is hailed for failing to protect Americans from the enemies its policies helped create. The 9/11 attackers were mass murderers who had no right to kill Americans. But to pretend that the attacks originated out of nowhere or out of hatred for freedom fraudulently exonerates the U.S. government."
http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0712c.asp
"The Pentagon needs two things to survive: war and oil. And it can’t make the first if it doesn’t have the second. In fact, the Pentagon’s methods of mass destruction -- fighters, bombers, tanks, Humvees, and other vehicles -- burn 75 percent of the fuel used by the DoD. For example, B-52 bombers consume 47,000 gallons per mission over Afghanistan. But don’t expect big oil (or even smaller petroplayers) to turn off the tap for peace. Such corporations are just as wedded to war as their most loyal junkie. After all, every time an F-16 fighter “kicks in its afterburners and blasts through the sound barrier,” it burns through $300 worth of fuel a minute, while each of those B-52 missions means a $100,000 tax-funded payout."
http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5097
"There was a strong [libertarian] presence but not dominant or majoritarian. Remember that SDS was founded to be a democratic organization, not to be socialist. Its most basic slogan was 'People Should Be Involved in Making the Decisions that Affect Their Lives.' That was what SDS was about. Whatever decision gets made, it should be democratic. It was on that basis that SDS cut through the whole argument about socialism vs. capitalism. We simply said that whatever economic formation we adopted should be adopted democratically and openly."
http://www.reason.com/news/show/124941.html
"Garrett believed in liberty and self-reliance, and not as two separate things. He was not eager to justify his belief. Some things just are, and liberty and self-reliance was who Americans were. Dependence on the state was an Old World idea, like the divine right of kings. Liberty, he believed, makes the individual strong."
http://www.mises.org/story/2884
"Seventy-five years ago this month Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States. Within days after swearing to uphold the U.S. Constitution, through a Presidential Proclamation he closed the U.S. Mint to gold. Recall that the Mint had been established by the Constitution to protect the people's right to sound money."
http://www.safehaven.com/article-9802.htm
"Much of the reign of the Bush dynasty has been an exercise in reliving the mistakes of the seventeenth century, and in short order we have seen Bush resort to each of the techniques of the Stuart monarchs so close to his heart."
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/03/hbc-90002734
"The recent increase in fighting around Basra, which is rapidly spreading to Baghdad, has the punditariat in a lather. Their sacred Surge has turned into a mere splurge – of resources, lives, and misplaced hope. Well, I could have told you that, and, indeed, I did. But never mind the chattering classes, their delusions of American omnipotence, and my own unfortunate penchant for self-congratulation."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=12596
"Now financial analyst John McGlynn reveals that the Administration has quietly launched a "shock and awe" attack on the Iranian economy, using little-known – and little-understood – financial weapons provided by the Patriot Act to begin 'the complete financial and economic destruction of Iran," as McGlynn puts it, with the ultimate goal of turning the nation into "another Gaza or Iraq under the economic sanctions of the 1990s, with devastating impact on the economy and society'. ... The American people are told nothing about this, of course."
http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1465&Itemid=135
"There is no denying that Hussein was a tyrannical ruler, but since when is it the business of the United States to rid the world of tyrannical rulers? What would be our attitude if another country said that we needed a regime change? And what about all the other tyrannical rulers in the world? Why do we turn a blind eye to them? And even worse, why does the United States ally with tyrants?"
http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance138.html
"Admiral Fallon' s (forced?) resignation was the last warning we are likely to get of an attack on Iran. It does not mean an attack is certain, but the U.S. could not attack Iran so long as he was the CENTCOM commander. That obstacle is now gone. Vice President Cheney's Middle East tour is another indicator."
http://www.counterpunch.org/lind03262008.html
"What's developing now is likely to be the biggest monetary crisis of the past 100 years, potentially the biggest since the U.S. Civil War. This isn't a prediction, just an appraisal of the tumultuous possibilities that are opening up. Americans are going to have to learn to think more like Argentines: if an Argentine tried to keep track of value in the local peso, he'd be bankrupt in 5 years."
http://www.safehaven.com/article-9792.htm
"Though Atom-based computers with Linux will be targeted at emerging markets, the success of the Eee PC in mature markets like the U.S. and Japan means that there is pent-up demand for stripped-down but practical PCs."
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9905393-7.html
"Most folks are surprised to learn that the world’s second largest oil field is not located in Saudi Arabia. Nor even in the Middle East. In fact, it is located offshore Mexico, in the Bay of Campeche, Gulf of Mexico."
http://www.petroleumworld.com/Lag08032601.htm
"Scientists have unlocked the secret of suspended animation, a state of "undeath" where the body's metabolism shuts down but all major organs continue to function. Hydrogen sulfide, also known as sewer gas, may be the miracle substance that finally allows humans to stay alive in a frozen, non-aging state."
http://io9.com/371726/suspended-animation-now-possible-++-using-sewer-gas
"If you're living in a shiny happy world where everything is provided to you, and your white pajamas never ever get stained, then chances are you're in a false utopia. Someone's going to be coming and harvesting your organs, or culling you at age 30, or drugging you into obedience. The fake paradise built on a foundation of shit seems to flourish most during times when technology seems to be solving all our problems (like during the dotcom boom.) Click through for a list of false utopias."
http://io9.com/371704/paradise-is-a-lie-a-history-of-false-utopias
"When Arthur C. Clarke died last week at the age of 90, science fiction—hell, science in general—lost one of its greatest, most forward-looking masters. In his honor, PM’s resident geek and sci-fi buff analyzes the most eerily predictive, prescient films of the future. They’re not necessarily the best movies—just the ones that got the science right, or will sometime soon."
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/reviews/4256186.html
"Sometimes when you least expect it, you find a message about how Authority can't be trusted and maybe a little individualism — dare one say anarchy? — ain't the worst thing in the world."
http://bwrmontag.blogspot.com/2008/03/bw-at-movies-horton-hears-who.html
"I can't say enough good things about the film version of 'Horton Hears a Who!' now in theaters. I've generally tended to avoid these film adaptations, which stray too far from the original book and introduce strange twists, usually something designed to preach fashionable left-liberal ideology, that just end up being a bother and a distraction. None of this is true of Horton. Yes, it elaborates on the original but in seamless ways that actually end up enhancing the value of the story. "
http://www.lewrockwell.com/tucker/tucker95.html
"Researchers have discovered that people who are incompetent generally lack the knowledge that they are incompetent. This lack of self-awareness is the glue that holds democracy together. As long as people feel capable of evaluating complex economic and geopolitical policies, they will keep voting. And as long as people vote, they will feel vested in the system and support it."
http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2008/03/researchers-dis.html
"China revels in a UN report that found it has the highest smog levels in the world, a sure sign of China’s progress and prosperity."
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/china_celebrates_its_status_as
"Accused in recent days of embellishing her story of a brush with sniper fire in Bosnia, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton today said “don’t be fooled” by photos showing her being greeted at the airport by a pony-tailed 8-year-old Bosnian girl with a bouquet of flowers. 'That was no little girl,' Sen. Clinton told reporters in Gary, Indiana. 'That was a covert ops midget sniper'."
http://www.borowitzreport.com/archive_rpt.asp?rec=6853
"The Optimist ... quotes the poet Robert Burns as saying, 'The best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley'!' Naturally, I take this to be a code of some kind, probably referring to me and my plans, because I am both a man and a mouse (in the cowardly sense, but with an obvious reference to my rat-like beady eyes and diseased, bad attitude), but is he telling me that my plans are in peril, somehow?"
http://news.silverseek.com/SilverSeek/1206683880.php
"Everyone has an odd relationship with evidence. With data. With information. I wouldn't say 'love-hate' relationship, because I don't think people are conscious of their biases. People use evidence to support what they already believe to be true, and explain away contrary evidence. It varies from person to person, but the truth is either believed by faith, or it stems from understanding."
http://www.partialobserver.com/article.cfm?id=2883
"The peaceful majority cannot be irrelevant as long as ideas rule the world. That last phrase may startle some readers, but it’s true. Contrary to what many people think, force does not rule the world. Ideas do ... because ideas determine the direction in which people point their guns."
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0803h.asp
"I can get a 28 day loan of Treasuries - the highest rated securities around. I'll pledge my classic car inventory (junk) to the Fed and in exchange, they'll give me the full value of my inventory - $1,000,000 - in Treasuries. Okay, probably not the full value, but close enough. 95%? Much better than the ten cents on the dollar. With these high quality assets on my books, regular banks will no longer be afraid of doing business with me, and will loan me the working capital I need to continue operations."
http://depression2.tv/d2/node/68
"The emerging discipline of climatology is an interesting one. It has no laboratory. Instead, various measurements are put into computer models to see the extent to which they are consistent with the hypothesis that human activity has contributed to the trend of global warming. Unable to conduct experiments, all climatologists can do is examine statistical correlations."
http://www.mises.org/story/2912
"I like to define the word more exactly as 'a social system which, if established, could not survive'--that is, one that would be inherently unstable. Let's see how a few alternative, possible social systems match up to that. "
http://www.strike-the-root.com/81/davies/davies11.html
"Science fiction and folk had a baby, and its name is filk. This little-known DIY music subculture involves songs composed and performed by sci-fi and fantasy fans, and revolves around fandom themes."
http://tv.boingboing.net/2008/03/26/filk-folk-music-for.html
"Nonchalant… non means not.. and chalant means.. what?"
http://www.hotforwords.com/2008/03/25/nonchalant/
"I don't know that Microsoft is smart enough to see the threat from these machines [Cheap Laptops Running Linux]. Way back, it was IBM that didn't take PCs seriously. Now, perhaps, it will be Microsoft that doesn't take simple, cheap machines seriously. Every new version of Windows is bigger and more complex. I doubt they can do simple. Large companies usually can't." [More Microsoft troubles]
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.