End the War on Freedom

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. -- Sir Winston S. Churchill

The best argument for anarchism is the twentieth century. -- Joseph Sobran

The crucial distinction: a recession exists when your neighbor loses a job; a depression occurs when you lose yours.

From kaba:

If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun. -- The Dalai Lama

Ron Paul - Before We Bomb Iraq... - A speech Dr. Paul gave on the House floor on Tuesday evening. He reminds us once again that the president does not have the authority to send troops to war until Congress has officially declared war. Archived in the Congressional Record via this page - click on the link to the right of "5. CONGRESSIONAL WAR POWER".

Mr. Speaker, the war drums are beating, louder and louder. Iraq, Iran, and North Korea have been forewarned. Plans have been laid and, for all we know, already initiated for the overthrow and assassination of Saddam Hussein.

There has been talk of sabotage, psychological warfare, arming domestic rebels, killing Hussein and even an outright invasion of Iraq with hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops. All we hear about in the biased media is the need to eliminate Saddam Hussein, with little regard of how this, in itself, might totally destabilize the entire Middle East and Central Asia. It could, in fact, make the Iraqi problem much worse.

The assumption is that, with our success in Afghanistan, we should now pursue this same policy against any country we choose, no matter how flimsy the justification. It hardly can be argued that it is because authoritarian governments deserve our wrath, considering the number of current and past such governments that we have not only tolerated but subsidized.

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Could it be that only by war and removal of certain governments we can maintain control of the oil in this region? Could it be all about oil and have nothing to do with U.S. national security?

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Let it be clearly understood: There is no authority to wage war against Iraq without the Congress passing a Declaration of War. H.J. Res. 65, passed in the aftermath of 9-11, does not even suggest that this authority exists. A U.N. resolution authorizing an Iraqi invasion, even if it were to come, cannot replace the legal process for the United States going to war as precisely defined in the Constitution. We must remember, a covert war is no more justifiable and is even more reprehensible.

Dan DeDelong at jerrypournelle.com - A Tale Of Two Submarines: Why Government Projects Cost So Much - they cost so much because they're government programs. This is the story of two submarines, built for much the same mission. The U.S. government model cost $41 million. The British commercial model cost $750K. [pournelle]

The author spent four years designing prototype and one-of-a-kind things for the U.S. Navy as an employee of Westinghouse Ocean Research and Engineering Center in Annapolis, MD. I then went to Perry Oceanographics and spent six years doing similar things for the commercial world. I believe that a similar difference exists between the current space launch industry and what could be done if cost and mission performance were the real priorities.

Kevin Whited's Reason Forum - Preaching To The Converted - Mr. Whited thinks that the LP's anti drug war ad in Tuesday's USA Today and Washington Times was a bad idea. I disagree. The war on some drugs epitomizes everything that's wrong with modern government. If people cannot realize that the drug war is absolutely wrong and everyone who has anything to do with waging it is a heinous criminal, liberty is dead. [bluebutton]

W. Daniel Hillis at The Long Now Foundation - A Time of Transition the human connection - things are changing so fast right now that they must be plotted on a logarithmic scale. [cowlix]

Change was not always like this. For most of human history, parents could expect their grandchildren to grow up in a world much like their own. For most of human history, parents knew what they needed to know to teach their children. Planning for the future was easier then. Architects designed cathedrals that would take centuries to complete. Farmers planted acorns to shade their descendants with oaks. Today, starting a project that would not be completed for century or two would seem odd. Today, any plan more than a year is "long-term".

Tibor R. Machan at Laissez Faire Electronic Times - The Transformation of Individual Rights - when the first U.S. revolution occurred, our forefathers believed that the purpose of government was to secure individual liberty. Period. Now that has tranmogrified into the redistribution of wealth. It's way past time to return to our roots.

The sooner we understand, however, that this power to regiment others is ill founded, that it rests on a mistaken extrapolation of ideas from one field of study -- the hard sciences -- to all others, including politics and ethics, the more likely it is that all this power-mongering will be abated, eventually. Then we can perhaps begin to fully enjoy the idea that John Locke has developed and the American Founders set into political motion, namely, that the just and good human community is one that protects our individual rights without any compromise at all -- the free society.

J.J. Johnson at Sierra Times - Dell: Report and Statement From Sierra Times.com - Dell apologized for cancelling Jack Weigand's order. They were just trying to follow federal anti-terrorism law. And they made a mistake. Really. [sierra]

Jack Weigand - Dell Issue - Mr. Weigand's view of Dell's apology. [kaba]

I was contacted by a Dell representative this morning a Mr. John Hood. John made the following remarks.

He extended Dells sincerest apologies for the incident.

He said Dell would review and possibly change the screening policies to prevent this from happening again.

Dell offered to ship the machine I ordered to me at no charge, I respectfully declined the offer.

John told me he would have a statement sent to me sometime Thursday morning the 28th stating Dells position on this issue for me to post here for all to see.

I will post the statement as soon as I receive it.