Liberate Kalifornia Next
If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
# From clairefiles:
"There comes a time when the operation of the machine, is so odious that you can not even tacitly participate. You've got to place your body on the wheels, the gears, all of the mechanism, and indicate to those that own it and those that run it that unless you are free, the machine will be prevented from working at all." -- Mario Savio
# John Ziegler - A Suggestion for Who President Bush Should Liberate Next - good idea. Hehe. [smith2004]
The place I am thinking about no longer has a Democracy. In their last "election" not one seat changed hands and only about 2% of the contests were even seriously contested. This place is ruled by the tyranny of a socialist regime that is systematically stripping freedoms and liberties away from its people and often acting in the interest of another nation. It is a place that is continually being invaded by the people of that nation who are stealing its resources and threatening its culture. This place has absolutely no military to defend itself. It is also a place that is constantly being hit by natural disasters. It is a place whose leader came to prominence by having citizens pay to see him appear to kill hundreds of often innocent people. Finally, there is plenty of reliable intelligence to suggest that a U.S. liberation force would be welcome there with open arms and that an insurgent movement would be highly unlikely to form (except for, perhaps, along its coastal areas).
# Harry Browne at LewRockwell.com - The Drug Crisis - most of the problems associated with illegal drugs exist only because the drugs are illegal. Americans would be better off in almost every way if we were to completely deregulate currently illegal drugs, all of them. But you knew that. [lew]
Seeing today's never-ending crisis of teenagers using drugs, you can imagine how bad it must have been when there were no laws to stop children -- or adults -- from using drugs. But, in fact, there was no drug crisis at all. A few people were addicted to heroin or cocaine, just as a few people today are addicted to sleeping pills or Big Macs, but there was no national uproar about it. Such people, if they wanted to break their habits, could freely consult doctors without fear of being sent to prison.
There were no black-market drug dealers preying on school children. There were no gang wars over drug profits, because there were no drug gangs. After all, who would buy dangerous drugs from a gangster at outrageous prices when he could buy safe drugs made by a reputable drug company at modest prices?
...
The Drug War has been easily the greatest cause of violent crime in American history: Gangs fighting over monopoly territories, children killed in drive-by shootings, families in the inner city living with the constant sound of gunfire outside their doors, police killing innocent people in misguided drug raids, crooked cops helping to spread poisonous drugs, non-violent citizens sent to prison to be terrorized by violent prisoners -- none of which would exist in the absence of the federal drug laws.
There is nothing that could make our cities safer than repealing the drug laws -- all of them.
# Carl F. Worden at The Price of Liberty - Different War - Same False Hope - I didn't know until now that there were "elections" in Viet Nam before America lost that war. Learn something new every day. Mr. Worden also tells us a little about "Rumsfeld's Boys". [price]
I will once again repeat that this war in Iraq is unwinnable. Like Vietnam, there are outside forces heavily supporting the resistance fighters in Iraq with munitions and money and fighters who are crossing the borders for nothing more than a chance to kill American soldiers and anyone acting in support of them. The huge difference between the Vietnam War and the Iraq War is that Vietnam was a tactical war, whereas the war in Iraq has developed into a strategic one -- and there's a nasty difference between the two.
We could declare false victory in Vietnam and walk away without repercussions. Where Iraq is concerned, when we walk out of there in defeat, as we most assuredly will, we will have created a united enemy of many peoples and nations, and we will be left without the future support of most of our most trusted former allies.
# Nick Turse at Znet - The Emergence of the Homeland Security State, Part II: The Civilian Half - what the Gestapo, er... Department of Homeland Security, has in mind for our once free country. Click around the Products & Solutions section of the AS&E web site to get an idea of how easy it is becoming to spy on you without your permission. [root]
Recently, it was disclosed that the Department of Homeland Security had deployed an x-ray van, previously used in cargo searches at America's borders, in a test run -- taking X-ray pictures of parked cars in Cape May, New Jersey. While, the DHS claimed all X-ray surveillance was conducted on empty cars with their owners' consent, one wonders how long this will last. After all, American Science & Engineering Inc. [AS&E], the manufacturer of the Z Backscatter Van (ZBV), notes that "it maintains the outward appearance of an ordinary van," so it can stand unnoticed and peep into cars as they drive past, or with its "unique 'drive-by' capability [it] allows one or two operators to conduct X-ray imaging of suspect vehicles and objects while the ZBV drives past." Since we're all increasingly suspects (in our "suspect vehicles") in the Homeland Security State, it seems only a matter of time before at least some of us fall victim to a DHS X-ray drive-by.
# Robert W. Black of AP via The Casper Star Tribune - Committee endorses bill liberalizing concealed weapons law - if the legislature follows the House Mineral Committee's recommendation, Wyoming will join Vermont and Alaska in allowing legal carry of concealed weapons without a permit. This is House Bill 298 (PDF), the progress of which can be tracked here. [scopeny]
