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Source: J. Neil Schulman @ Rational Review Author: J. Neil Schulman Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Nowadays it’s not only socially acceptable, but socially encouraged, to be intolerant of people who engage in activities which are generally regarded as anti-social. Right-thinking people, often thinking themselves tolerant, would pour a glass of water on someone’s cigarette if he lit up in a restaurant, and would likely be applauded by other people who think themselves tolerant. There is equally little tolerance for the man or woman who wears an animal’s fur as a coat but, practically speaking, there seems to be more tolerance for people who wear animal skins tanned into leather. Maybe the reason is that if you splash red paint on some ‘rich bitch’s’ fur coat you might get sued, but if you splash red paint on a biker chick’s leather jacket, you’ll be talking to your lawyer from a hospital burn ward. But if there is one class of people whom almost everyone seems to agree it’s okay to be nasty to, it’s the person who gets in your face and wants to give you a message.” (originally published 1996; posted 03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yc5vnrx Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: KN@PPSTER Author: Thomas L. Knapp Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Bourgeois libertarianism is a failure not of theory or of ideology, but of imagination: Bourgeois libertarians simply can’t get their heads around the idea that a real free market or a real free society might produce outcomes or phenomena that they aren’t already familiar and comfortable with. The bourgeois libertarian’s Libertopia is the same house he lives in now, on the same suburban street that house is on now, with the same brands of clothing in the closet and the same shows on TV (minus Keith Olbermann, perhaps). … the bourgeois libertarian reacts negatively and viscerally to the suggestion that Libertopia may not turn out as a carbon copy of the present-day Peoria metro, only with private label police cruisers.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yahl2jd Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: LewRockwell.Com Author: William Norman Grigg Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “‘If I’m the bad guy to the average citizen … and their taxes have to go up to cover my raise, I’m very sorry about that, but I have to look out for myself and my membership,’ grunted Chris Mesley, president of the Albany, New York Police Officer’s Union. ‘As the president of the `local,’ I will not accept `zeroes’ [no increase in salaries or benefits]. If that means … ticking off some taxpayers, then so be it.’ It would be difficult to find a more candid expression of the parasite class’s predatory contempt for the productive than the words that departed Mesley’s snout. The police union capo will occasionally remove that appendage from the public trough just long enough to spew demands for an ever-larger share of the wealth produced through the honest labor of others, or to justify some corrupt privilege he claims as a ‘cog in the mighty machine of state.’ In all of this he is entirely typical of the army of public employees pillaging what little remains of America’s wealth.” (03/12/10) Link: http://www.lewrockwell.com/grigg/grigg-w135.html Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Liberty For All Author: Donald Beezley Posted on 03.11.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Economics is actually very simple. Human beings, by their nature, must be free to take action to achieve their goals. We don’t have fur, claws and instincts like lower animals. We must apply our minds to goal-directed action to satisfy our needs. Freedom works because it is consistent with our nature — our requirement to be free to take action to survive and flourish. Political liberty, in turn, is designed to protect that requirement.” (03/11/10) Link: http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=3926 Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: AntiWar.Com Author: Justin Raimondo Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The virulent anti-Americanism of the Israeli government, underscored by its recent very loud slap in the face of the Vice President of the United States, is nothing new. Yet many are shocked — shocked! — at Israel’s behavior. The official spin out of Tel Aviv is that the announcement of more settlement-building — at the very moment when Biden was pleading with his good friend ‘Bibi’ to cease and desist — is all due to a single minister in a very fractious cabinet: yet Netanyahu and indeed the entire Israeli government supports this move to throw more Palestinians off their land and build exclusively Jewish settlements. What gives this public rebuff a particularly sharp sting is that it subverts the very idea of the ’special relationship,’ which Biden cravenly insisted on even as he was being humiliated …” (03/12/10) Link: http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/03/11/biden-in-israel/ Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Fox News Forum Author: Kelly Shackelford Posted on 03.11.10 by Steve Trinward “Everyone’s heard the advertisement that claims, ‘what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.’ While that’s questionable, one thing that is not questionable is that what happens in the Texas education battle will not just stay in Texas. What your kids learn about historical figures like Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein most likely depends on what happens in Texas in the next two days. Texas is in the process of adopting its social studies standards, which only happens every ten years. The standards cover U.S. Government, American History, World History and more, and they affect how students in grades K–12 see America, its founding principles, and its heroes for the next decade. … [W]hat happens in Texas will impact the nation.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ylqxngs Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Christian Science Monitor Author: Richard L. Scott Posted on 03.11.10 by Steve Trinward “Which is better in war? Wipe out a nation completely and start fresh? Merely disarm the enemy through aggressive tactics? Or subdue through nonaggressive means altogether? Philosophers from Niccolo Machiavelli to Carl von Clausewitz to Sun Tzu have been debating the most effective means to approach warfare for centuries. Today, the United States has been actively fighting two wars with high casualty rates for both sides. It would be valuable for the commander in chief and senior military leaders to consider the merits of a nonlethal approach to warfare.” [editor’s note: It would be far more valuable if societies were to stop starting wars in the first place, but as long as the thirst for empire and “We’re Number One” continues, it’s unlikely to occur - SAT] (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yb6haas Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The Nation Author: Tom Hayden Posted on 03.11.10 by Steve Trinward “A plain reading of yesterday’s vote on the Kucinich war powers resolution is that an overwhelming majority of the House has authorized the Afghanistan war, including a majority of Democrats. The war now has greater legitimacy. The vote was 356-65-9. (If Rep. John Conyers had been present, the dissenting bloc would have been 66, including just five Republicans. Few members took the option of abstaining.) Strong Kucinich supporters will feel vindicated that their hero took a lonely stand and forced the House to a moment of choice. Critics will note that a dubious war has been legitimized, and that it will be more complicated for those who voted ‘aye’ to reverse course in the months ahead. The outcome will make the anti-war forces appear weaker for now than they are, and appearances do matter.” (03/11/10) Link: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100322/hayden2 Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Prospect Author: Adam Serwer Posted on 03.11.10 by Steve Trinward “The sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine is a national disgrace. Both President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have called for it to be ended, and prominent Republicans like Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions and Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn have indicated they’re sympathetic to the idea. Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the Fair Sentencing Act, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin’s proposal to eliminate the disparity entirely. ‘It is plainly unjust to hand down wildly disparate prison sentences for materially similar crimes,’ Holder said at a D.C. Court of Appeals Judicial Conference last summer. … Under current federal law, it takes 500 grams of powder cocaine to trigger the same mandatory minimum sentence as 5 grams of crack cocaine.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y8vjc75 Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: Sabin Willett Posted on 03.11.10 by Steve Trinward “Last week in Washington, right-wingers rallied to a demand by Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley for the names of Justice Department attorneys who used to be with law firms representing Guantanamo detainees. Elizabeth Cheney’s Keep America Safe group released on YouTube a video denouncing the ‘Department of Jihad.’ Breathless announcers at Fox TV began publishing the names. The right has long asserted that the Obama administration is coddling detainees. Now they had an explanation. Lawyers were the enemy within. … So last week’s news was confusing. The much-maligned Justice Department lawyers are working against lawyers like me, Senator Grassley. If they are your enemy, they sure conceal it well.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yjbbwre Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: In These Times Author: Idious Buguise Posted on 03.11.10 by Steve Trinward “Back then. way before all this bloodshed and carnage and butchery. When there were no sirens and riots and bombs, and the lipsticked, powdered, mascaraed and coiffed women sauntered down pavements on bright red stilettos and the men came up to me, grabbed my elbow and demanded to escort me across busy intersections, I wandered the avenues and alleys and cul de sacs and shopped in the souk and ate late cream- and sugar-heavy breakfasts with the civil servants in brightly lit, music-booming cafes and sat by the Tigris and watched young Iraqis flying kites and old Iraqis reading newspapers and discussing the local and national politics and listened to the ‘English TV News for Foreigners.’ Back then. Way before rape and kidnap and sniping were commonplace. Back in 1977 and the world was full of disco and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Amnesty International won the Nobel Peace Prize and Jimmy Carter pardoned draft evaders and Anwar Sadat visited Jerusalem. It was different.” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ybt6tcr Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Cato Institute Author: Michael D. Tanner Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “President Obama’s attempts to ram health-care reform through an increasingly reluctant Congress are starting to resemble a really eventful episode of ‘The Sopranos.’ Whether or not you believe former Rep. Eric Massa’s bizarre accusations of locker-room confrontations and conspiracies to drive him from office, there is no doubt that the Obama administration and its congressional allies are willing to use every trick in the book to get this bill passed.” (03/10/10) Link: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11436 Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Independent Institute Author: Ivan Eland Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “President Obama has been so chastened by his failure to meet the pledge of closing Guantanamo prison within a year that Rahm Emanuel, his chief of staff, is trying to negotiate with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to gain Republican support for doing so. In exchange, Graham wants Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other alleged 9/11 attackers tried using a military tribunal instead of a civilian court and also wants unconstitutional legislation allowing the indefinite detainment of terrorism suspects without trial. Closing Gitmo is designed to revive a tarnished U.S. image abroad rather than being a substantive change in policy, and it now apparently may come at the expense of using unconstitutional and discredited means of holding and trying terrorism suspects.” (03/11/10) Link: http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2748 Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Reason Author: staff Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The ongoing recession has raised a troubling question for otherwise resurgent Keynesian economists: How can the American economy keep getting worse under the intensive care of an interventionist economic team almost universally praised for its brilliance? The answer may be that the Obama administration is dealing with a fictional economy, one that bears little resemblance to the economy the rest of us inhabit. And when the difference between fact and fiction becomes too apparent, they just make stuff up. Herewith, five big lies the administration loves to tell and the mainstream media (with some notable exceptions) love to repeat …” (for publication 04/10) Link: http://reason.com/archives/2010/03/11/five-lies-about-the-american-e Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: The American Conservative Author: Sean Scallon Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “It’s not surprising that only 65 members of the House of Representatives voted for a resolution that would have called for the end of the war in Afghanistan. Certainly the Democrats in charge were not going to approve a resolution that would have repudiated their own President’s foreign policy so recently after our ‘glorious victory’ in Marjah. What is surprising is so few Republicans voted for the resolution. Only five were willing do so: Ron Paul, Jimmy Duncan, Walter Jones Jr., the most consistent of the antiwar Republicans, along with John Campbell of California and Tim Johnson of Illinois.” (03/11/10) Link: http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2010/03/11/you-vote-for-it-you-own-it/ Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Disloyal Opposition Author: JD Tuccille Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Fundamentally, the argument for mandatory treatment comes down to two fundamentals: all drug use is abuse, and drugs make people do bad things they wouldn’t otherwise do. But not all use is abusive — in fact, most drug use is not. And an asshole who does bad things and takes drugs is, at the end of the day, just an asshole. Forgetting those points creates an invitation to the government to intervene in our lives if we simply engage in behavior that rubs officialdom the wrong way — and it also allows the powers-that-be to let real criminals off easy for their bad decisions.” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y9qglse Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Mother Jones Author: Matthew Power Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Anticipating hordes of black-masked, Starbucks-smashing anarchists, the Pittsburgh police and the Secret Service coordinated nearly 4,000 law enforcement officers, outfitting them with the latest in riot-dispersal technology. Crowds marching on the summit were met with pepper spray, stun grenades, and — for the first time on US soil — acoustic cannons that blast painful sounds as far as 1,000 feet. But the protesters had their own crowd-control methods, and that’s what had brought the state troopers to the CareFree Inn. What they found when they broke down the door were a couple of middle-aged housemates from Queens, New York. Elliott Madison sat at a desk with a laptop and a cell phone. A police scanner lay nearby. Michael Wallschlaeger was at the minifridge grabbing some hummus when the police rushed in. According to the criminal complaint filed against them, the two men had been ‘communicating with various protestors, and protest groups … [via] internet based communications, more commonly known as ‘Twitter.’” (03/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yd8womf Filed under: LAND Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The Weekly Standard Author: Matthew Continetti Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Paul Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future would drastically overhaul the American welfare state in a free-market direction. The Congressional Budget Office says it would solve the entitlements crisis through a series of changes to Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. The Roadmap also includes a fundamental tax reform — one that Ryan says, and the CBO assumes, would bring in revenues equivalent to the long-term historical average of 19-percent of GDP. Two new studies dispute that figure, however. I talked to Ryan this evening to get his response.” (03/10/10) Link: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/paul-ryan-roadmap-warrior Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Slate Author: Timothy Noah Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “As currently devised, the individual mandate, which would be phased in between 2014 and 2016, would impose a tax penalty on people who fail to acquire health insurance. Under the Obama proposal, it would be 2.5 percent of income or $695 (whichever is higher), with exemptions for people who either fall under the tax-filing threshold or who, if forced to purchase health insurance, would end up spending more than 8 percent of their annual income. The majority of those subject to the mandate would receive a government subsidy whose precise size is being worked out in House-Senate negotiations. The answer, then, to the question What happens to people who don’t buy health insurance? is simple: They have to pay a $695 fine. But as Jost points out, that begs the question, What happens to people who don’t pay the fine? Uh … nothing.” (03/11/10) Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2247580/ Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute Author: Jonathan M. Finegold Catalan Posted on 03.11.10 by R. Lee Wrights “I was recently involved in a car accident in which I managed to smash the front end of my Chrysler — one consolation is the fact that it was a Chrysler and so was not much of a loss. I sat around for a minute or two, trying to figure out what had just happened. Finally, I got out of my car to talk to the driver of the truck I had hit. While filling out the claims report and talking to my insurance company, I could not help but examine my experience through the lens of Austrian economics and the free market.” (03/11/10) Link: http://mises.org/daily/4165 Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Heartland Institute Author: Maureen Martin Posted on 03.11.10 by R. Lee Wrights “President Barack Obama has larded $50 million into his latest iteration of a health care bill, for grants to the states so they can ’study’ innovative ways of controlling medical malpractice costs. Please spare us. Malpractice reform has been studied to death over the past three decades and more. All 50 states have already enacted reform measures of one kind or another. The last thing we need is more study, more meddling by the federal government in state affairs, and more unnecessary federal spending.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yhshpha Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Hawaii Reporter Author: Christopher G. Adamo Posted on 03.11.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Among the many absurdities proffered by Barack Obama sycophants in the media and throughout the liberal establishment is the notion that Obama possesses great leadership qualities. Throughout his public life he has consistently proven himself to be the antithesis of leadership. And ever since the ‘healthcare’ debate reached its present impasse, he has resorted to the manner of pettiness and bullying that would embarrass any truly great leader of the people.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yhn2moq Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Future of Freedom Foundation Author: Jacob G. Hornberger Posted on 03.11.10 by R. Lee Wrights “In that one paragraph lies the plunderbund society in all it majestic glory. Everyone is supposed to feel morally obligated to answer all those intrusive questions in order to ensure that his community receives its fair share of the loot forcibly collected by the Internal Revenue Service during the course of the year, but especially on April 15. You see, all that IRS-collected money goes into a gigantic pool that the president and Congress then have at their disposal to distribute to people.” (03/11/10) Link: http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2010-03-11.asp Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: FreedomWorks Author: BPeck Posted on 03.11.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Democrats such as House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd have continued to press for what they consider to be necessary financial reform. Considering the track records of government officials who have overseen private industries (i.e., Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, and former SEC Chairman Christopher Cox’s role in the 2008 meltdown of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Charlie Rangel’s corrupt House Ways and Means chairmanship, and the near insolvency of direct programs such as Social Security and Medicare) it makes me wonder why exactly we would need more government regulation in the credit markets.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ygv5qco Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Foundation for Economic Education Author: Steven Horwitz Posted on 03.11.10 by R. Lee Wrights “A recurring economic theme of President Obama’s election campaign and presidency has been that previous administrations neglected fundamental structural problems that need to be addressed if we are to continue at our accustomed standard of living in the 21st century. This view was nicely encapsulated in his original budget proposal, which emphasized education, health care, and the environment, especially the ‘green jobs’ concept.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yaaqcsc Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Competitive Enterprise Institute Author: John Berlau and Jonathan Moore Posted on 03.11.10 by R. Lee Wrights “The flash point of last year’s health care debate was the public option. The proposal, which calls for a government-created health insurer to compete with private insurers, was praised by President Barack Obama and its liberal supporters as a way of ‘keeping insurance companies honest.’ Conservatives criticized it as a slippery slope to a government-run single-payer system.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ykhteyy Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Campaign For Liberty Author: US Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) Posted on 03.11.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Since my 2008 campaign for the presidency I have often been asked, ‘How would a constitutionalist president go about dismantling the welfare-warfare state and restoring a constitutional republic?’ This is a very important question, because without a clear road map and set of priorities, such a president runs the risk of having his pro-freedom agenda stymied by the various vested interests that benefit from big government.” (03/11/10) Link: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=685 Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Adam Smith Institute Author: Nikhil Arora Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The American healthcare system does not represent a free market any more than the British one does, or the Cuban one for that matter. Firstly, out of every dollar spent on healthcare in the USA, 50 cents is spent by the government — The US government spends more on Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP than is spent on defence by The Pentagon. Secondly, despite the government using the ‘commerce clause’ of the U.S Constitution to legitimise just about every reprehensible thing it does, it still hasn’t managed to use it for its proper purpose of breaking down barriers to trade — like those that forbid the selling of health insurance across state lines. Thirdly, enterprising people who have tried to set up small, cheap clinics aimed particularly at the uninsured have found themselves the targets of massive bureaucratic red tape, and been forced to close.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ycgnb5f Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: The American Spectator Author: David N. Bass Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Tea partiers gunning for a thorough congressional purge still have reason to hope — if not for mandatory term limits, at least the voluntary brand. Prompted by the wave of anti-establishment sentiment sweeping the nation, candidates are increasingly following in the footsteps of George Washington by self-limiting their tenure in office. Bonded term limits are an innovative way of doing that. The Alliance for Bonded Term Limits, a national nonpartisan group based in North Carolina, is spearheading the effort. It encourages candidates vying for elected office to put their money where their mouth is by promising to stay in office a maximum of three terms or forfeit a hefty chunk of their net worth. Five congressional candidates, all Republicans, have signed the pledge, and others are in the pipeline.” (03/11/10) Link: http://spectator.org/archives/2010/03/11/us-house-cleaning Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Freedom's Phoenix Author: Sharon Secor Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The murmurs are growing louder, and are being heard from Congress, economy watchers, and even the media. Commercial real estate conditions are deteriorating, and that has real potential to inflict further damage on an already weakened economy. Experts have expressed concern about the potentials for thousands more bank failures, due to commercial real estate debt exposure. Many predict a melt-down similar to the one experienced in the home mortgage realm, which would exasperate already tight credit conditions, further restricting the availability of consumer credit and further hampering consumer spending. And, in an economy so heavily reliant on consumer spending, that could have broad ramifications.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y9p3v4a Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Ideas Author: David Friedman Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “We spent last week visiting colleges that my son is thinking of applying to. The experience reinforced the impression I had earlier gotten from web pages — that what Harvard (and, mutatis mutandis, Vassar and …) wants are students who decided, at age fourteen, that their highest priority for the next four years was doing whatever it would take to get into Harvard. It also raised an interesting puzzle. A number of the schools we visited claim to have very generous financial aid programs based on need, but no merit based scholarships at all. How and why?” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y9ehrey Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Poli-Tea Author: d.eris Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Romney perfectly exemplifies the arrogant paternalism of the two-party statist: ‘I’m glad you’ve stood up and spoken up, now sit down and shut up!’ Romney’s demand for the reproduction of the Democratic-Republican two-party state and duopoly system of government is being met with some amount of resistance.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yesshfc Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Jeffersonville Evening News Author: Debbie Harbeson Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Keeping with the theme of throwing useless things out, Clark County definitely needs to toss the idea of adding yet another layer of government with the ability to take money by force. Really now, how many Clark County residents think we need to give another group of people the power to take other people’s money to do what THEY think is important? The only time most of us would think this is a good idea would be after flying at too high an altitude in an unpressurized aircraft. Besides, we’re already funding various airport operations through federal grants and matching funds. If the airport is a solid business idea, then they should be able to figure out how to fly on their own.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yk53kv3 Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute Author: SM Oliva Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The Federal Trade Commission has been conducting its second workshop on ‘how do we save traditional media from the Internet?’ The reports I’ve read from the event are downright comical.” (03/10/10) Link: http://blog.mises.org/12139/subsidies-irs-free-press/ Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Nolan Chart Author: Kenn Jacobine Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The current Supreme Court has a golden opportunity to set the record straight with regards to individual guns rights under the 2nd Amendment. The debate over the years has been very contentious with both sides misquoting the Founders’ statements about gun rights to suit their purposes. The Founders made a lot of statements about gun rights and how they apply to citizen militias. Understanding that at that time citizen militias meant ‘all citizens capable of military service’ it is easy to come to the conclusion that the 2nd Amendment bestows a right to gun ownership to all individual Americans. Fortunately for America, it appears the Supreme Court will come to the same conclusion later this year.” (03/11/10) Link: http://www.nolanchart.com/article7495.html Filed under: 2AM Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Fr33 Agents Author: Kirsten Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “I lose no sleep over the deaths of career IRS collections thugs or other ‘enforcer’-type government agents, nor do I have even the tiniest of violins to play for their money-grubbing relatives trying, through similar government-enforced tactics, to get their filthy paws on assets belonging to others who committed no wrong against them. That said, I do believe there are certainly more clearly ethical and more effective options available to proponents of freedom in the realm of nonviolence — options that do not invoke the damaging appearance of ceding the moral high ground to the state, nor the self-destructiveness of sinking to the level of government agents.” (03/11/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yc9hljk Filed under: LAND Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: QandO Author: Bruce McQuain Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The arguments about licensing in general fall on two sides. Some see no reason to license anything — the market will sort out the good from the bad. Those that approve of licensing argue than in many cases lives and health are at stake and, in such cases, it is the role of government to step in and ensure those who pursue those professions are competent enough to do so. Arranging flowers certainly doesn’t seem to fit the category of a risk to either the life or health of their clients. What it certainly does is limit those who can enter the market. … usually, when such a bar to entry is evident, you’ll find businesses who’ve met the bar to be the most ardent of supporters.” (03/11/10) Link: http://www.qando.net/?p=7429 Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Albuquerque Libertarian Examiner Author: Kent McManigal Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “I’ll admit it. This story from the Albuquerque area, which has ‘gone national,’ has me stumped as to what to think. A woman who decided she was too drunk to drive, stopped driving, called the cops to report herself, and was then arrested by the grateful LEO.” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y9ahonv Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: The Libertarian Enterprise Author: Russell D. Longcore Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Throughout human history, flags were visual identification of leaders, groups, armies, monarchs or nations. A flag flying usually meant some sort of control. The flag of a monarch flying over a castle could mean that the monarch is in residence or that the monarch owns the castle. A flag flying over a certain building could simply denote that a government owns it. So, what does it say when you fly the American flag, Patriot? Who owns you? And what about the National Anthem, which is about that flag? Is The Star Spangled Banner a proper song for a nation desirous of peace, or is it only fit for a warlike nation? Let’s look together and you be the judge.” (03/07/10) Link: http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2010/tle560-20100307-07.html Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: CounterPunch Author: Jane Lyn Stahl Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “It’s not breaking news that the money we depend upon to be there in our retirement is invested by those corporations who hold it in trust for us just as it’s common knowledge that money deposited into bank accounts doesn’t sit there looking pretty until it’s withdrawn. But, what has changed is that corporations are now effectively ‘going to Las Vegas,’ as a Dallas investor recently told the New York Times, with our pensions. It’s no longer about buying stocks, but investing has now expanded into junk bonds, commodity futures, and foreign stocks, too. More importantly, companies may soon use public pension fund revenue that they’re exposing to increasing risk to rescue failing banks and with FDIC blessing.” (03/11/10) Link: http://counterpunch.org/stahl03112010.html Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: J. Neil Schulman @ Rational Review Author: J. Neil Schulman Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Madison writing in the Federalist Papers knew that no matter how many weapons systems are in service to protecting the establishment powers, nothing can prevent the people from eventually reaching a point where merely by refusing to cooperate the system collapses in on itself. It’s not just guns that would come out in the streets when that happens. It would be SUV’s, iPhones, IEDs, and — in general — the indignation and ingenuity of millions of people who have their garages, attics, and basements filled with so much lethal junk that even I — a science-fiction writer — can’t imagine the havoc they could create if the Middle Class American ever really got pissed off. The Supreme Court of the United States is the mediator between a nation of potential revolutionary maniacs and an establishment that exists — no shit, really — only by their sufferance.” (03/10/10) Link: http://jneilschulman.rationalreview.com/2010/03/a-bad-case-of-liberty/ Filed under: 2AM Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: WendyMcElroy.Com Author: Wendy McElroy Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “America has become a society of elites. Specifically, those in the political class who enjoy an endless economic bounty that comes from the sweat and blood of taxpayers. At the pinnacle are politicians with rich salaries, plush expense accounts (not counting bribes), platinum pensions and health insurance, etc. Then there are the millions of civil servants who are paid considerably more than their private-sector counterparts, who have greater job security due to unions, and who enjoy a pension plan that others can only dream about. The devouring appetite of these elites is fed by the ever-increasing taxes, fees and other money-grabs from the private, productive sector of society. As the level of theft increases, more productive people are being driven in poverty, homelessness and a despair that could easily turn into rage. Last night I was reading about the conditions in 18th century, pre-Revolutionary France. (Specifically, I was reading about the Physiocrats who were precursors to libertarianism.) The parallels to the U.S. did not escape my notice.” (03/10/10) Link: http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.3131 Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Strike the Root Author: Jakub Bozydar Wisniewski Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Upon encountering the claim that some non-statist doctrine (e.g., anarcho-capitalism) is practically unsafe due to its radical character, it is worthwhile to point to the glaring radicalism of every form of statism. Having thus suggested, however, that it is not radicalism per se that is a problem with any given socio-economic doctrine, it is even more worthwhile to underscore that statism is not simply radical, but radical in its incoherence. It seems a very fitting description for the theory that claims, among others: 1. That the only sure way of protecting oneself against violence, aggression and coercion is to help institute and continually support a vast, monopolistic apparatus of institutionalized violence, aggression and coercion.” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yc8r964 Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Center for a Stateless Society Author: Thomas L. Knapp Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The idea that invoking ‘the rules’ against a government will force it to lie down obediently at one’s feet and accept a leash around its neck is beyond superstitious — it’s foolhardy. There are no magic words. There is no secret formula. The relationship between government and governed is inherently adversarial.” (03/10/10) Link: http://c4ss.org/content/2016 Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Campaign For Liberty Author: Jack Hunter Posted on 03.11.10 by R. Lee Wrights “When the City of Chicago banned all handguns recently, countless Americans rightly cried foul. When it looked like the Supreme Court might overturn the ban, gun-rights advocates cheered the decision. But while their heart is in the right place, their enthusiasm is not, as what gun-rights advocates are really cheering is the federal government assuming even more power.” (03/10/10) Link: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=678 Filed under: 2AM Commentary and RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Reason Author: Jesse Walker Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Stack’s worldview, like Bedell’s, was a personalized hodge-podge. These men represent not the far left, not the far right, but the very far end of the political long tail. If they belong to a tradition, you won’t find it by tracing the intellectual evolution of any organized movement. You’ll find it in the lives of people like George Metesky, Samuel Byck, and Ted Kaczynski.” (03/10/10) Link: http://reason.com/archives/2010/03/10/the-children-of-george-metesky Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: AntiWar.Com Author: Justin Raimondo Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “In spite of the fact that the United States faces no enemy anywhere in the world capable of opposing it on a battlefield, the Defense budget for 2011 will go up 7.1 percent from current levels. A lot of the new spending will be on drones, America’s latest contribution to western civilization, capable of surveilling large areas on the ground and delivering death from the skies. It is a peculiarly American vision of warfare, with a ‘pilot’ sitting at a desk half a world away and pressing a button that can kill a target far below. … Washington’s embrace of drones as the weapon of choice for international assassination is one major reason why the United States has become the evil empire.” (03/11/10) Link: http://original.antiwar.com/giraldi/2010/03/10/the-rogue-nation/ Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: LewRockwell.Com Author: Jim Fedako Posted on 03.11.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The ‘I have nothing to hide’ response is used time and again by folks who I now see as exhibitionists — exhibitionists for the state. These folks see nothing wrong with opening their private lives to the state — they have nothing to hide. So the very same folks who pull their blinds to keep the leering eyes of their neighbors out of their bedrooms open those very same blinds to those very same neighbors when they (their neighbors) act as agents of the state. And those folks do so as if a state badge transforms their neighbors into something other than voyeurs — as if the badge makes it all OK.” (03/11/10) Link: http://www.lewrockwell.com/fedako/fedako18.1.html Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Fox Business News Author: John Stossel Posted on 03.10.10 by Steve Trinward “[T]his week I look at out of control state licensing requirements. The state of Louisiana now licenses 87 professions, including acupuncturist’s assistants, manicurists and even florists. You want to earn a living engaging in consensual trade with other adults? You must kiss the bureaucrats’ rings first. Fortunately, someone’s fighting back. My syndicated column this week features the efforts of the Institute for Justice, a libertarian public-interest law firm that specializes in challenging such intrusions on freedom. (Who knew there were lawyers who weren’t evil?)” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/y9yewbv Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Our Future Blog Author: Robert Borosage Posted on 03.10.10 by Steve Trinward “Financial reform, as it is called, shouldn’t be all that complicated. Break up the banks deemed ‘too big to fail,’ since that offends any possibility of market discipline and puts taxpayers on the hook for future bailouts. Crack down on gambling with other peoples’ money in the financial casino. Give consumers a cop on the beat to protect them from the cons and frauds. Tax the big guys to get our money back. Outlaw compensation schemes that give million dollar incentives to make risky bets. But, of course, finance is its own world, with its own patois, ethos and interests. And banks and regulators have a strong interest in making this stuff complicated.” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yzhzn4z Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The American Prospect Author: Daniel Levy & Amjad Atallah Posted on 03.10.10 by Steve Trinward “About three years ago, it looked like the United States might be emerging from its long neoconservative night to play a constructive role in ending the Israeli-Palestinian and broader Israeli-Arab conflicts. … The Bush administration had long resisted that equation, influenced as it was by the neoconservatives and their often Likudist-inspired Middle East worldview. The conflict and the accumulating grievances that it has generated have a deeply corrosive effect on both America’s standing and ability to get anything done in the region and beyond. At about the same time, Barack Obama, then a young senator who was just launching his presidential campaign, seemed to get it.” (03/09/10) Link: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=a_path_to_peace Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Orange County Register Blog Author: Alan Bock Posted on 03.10.10 by Steve Trinward “I’m not sure yet what to make of the arrest of an owner-operator of a medical marijuana facility called 215 Agenda in Lake Forest, and two others. There certainly are operators of such facilities who operate outside the law, and the state law and guidelines issued by Attorney Gen. Jerry Brown, though they were developed in cooperation with patient advocates, have some ambiguities and shortcomings, IMO. On the other hand, given that it issued complaints against 35 facilities last year and has made it clear it wants to shut down all such operations in the city, it appears that Lake Forest is not all that interested in a good-faith effort to allow California’s medical marijuana law to operate without unnecessary hindrance. A particular example of bad faith is the city attorney’s invocation of federal law. The city is a subdivision of the state and its officials’ job is to uphold state law, not federal law.” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yldrle2 Filed under: LAND Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Boston Globe Author: H.D.S. Greenway Posted on 03.10.10 by Steve Trinward “It will take many weeks of coalition building after Sunday’s election before we know who rules Iraq, or whether the country will unite or splinter along sectarian fault lines, but for the United States it will mean success or failure. The outcome will shape Iraq’s post-America future. Robert Malley of the International Crisis Group posed the vital, worst-case scenario question. ‘If you got back to a situation of chaos and of uncontrolled violence in Iraq, would that lead the administration to say we’ve done our best, it’s now up to the Iraqis, we’re leaving? Or, on the contrary,’ Malley asked on National Public Radio, ‘would it persuade the administration that it needs to stay a little bit longer, act a little bit more forcefully?’” (03/09/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yjepage Filed under: CANDi Commentary and PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The Nation Author: John Nichols Posted on 03.10.10 by Steve Trinward “Long before Barack Obama or Nancy Pelosi began talking up health care reform as a top priority for the Democratic Party, Congress and America, Dennis Kucinich was doing so. Indeed, the former Cleveland mayor, Ohio legislator, two-time presidential candidate and now senior U.S. House members has across the past 35 years been one of the country’s steadiest proponents of real reform of our broken health-care system. So Kucinich’s questioning of the reform legislation being advanced by President Obama and House Speaker Pelosi is neither casual nor uninformed. The congressman from Ohio knows the intricacies of the healthcare debate as well as any key player in Washington. And he objects to the compromises contained in the measure the president and the speaker are whipping House Democrats to support.” (03/08/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yjs89dl Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Liberty For All Author: Richard C. Evey Posted on 03.10.10 by R. Lee Wrights “There are many organizations that have been, for the best part of this Republic’s history, tax exempt. These groups are formed under what some call religion. The places of these religions are called churches, synagogue, mosque, holy places, and places of worship. I will use the term ‘churches’ in referring to all religions. If I offend someone, get over it.” (03/10/10) Link: http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=3933 Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute Author: Michael Rozeff Posted on 03.10.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Are you aware that a Federal Reserve dollar bill is not a constitutional dollar? Perhaps you are, but if so, do you know what a constitutional dollar literally is? Is it gold? Is it silver? Is it both? What is actually meant by a metal standard? Can the United States or any country be on two standards at the same time? Can two metals circulate as coin if there is but one standard?” (03/10/10) Link: http://mises.org/daily/4149 Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Heartland Institute Author: Art Horn Posted on 03.10.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Floridians have suffered through the coldest winter in almost 30 years. In some parts of South Florida, it’s been colder than anytime in the last 83 years. So many records were smashed that if they were stacked, they would rival the thickness of Al Gore’s investment portfolio. In fact, Gore’s claims that global warming will produce dramatic and cataclysmic warming appear to be melting faster than any glacier. Gore is hardly alone in his poor forecasting record.” (03/08/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yk747l7 Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Future of Freedom Foundation Author: Sheldon Richman Posted on 03.10.10 by R. Lee Wrights “It may be possible to look into America’s future. How? Watch what’s going on in Greece. According to the Washington Post, ‘Greece needs to raise about €23 billion [more than $31 billion] in April and May to pay debts coming due. Greek officials say that either is impossible, or would require punitive interest rates — making it harder to bring the budget under control — unless Europe helps out.’ So the Greek government awaits a bailout from Germany and France, but first it has to impress them that it is serious about fiscal austerity.” (03/10/10) Link: http://www.fff.org/comment/com1003d.asp Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Foundation for Economic Education Author: William L. Anderson Posted on 03.10.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Paul Krugman recently declared that our real economics problem is this: ‘What’s limiting employment now is lack of demand for the things workers produce.’ Not surprisingly, this issue has been thrown about in socialist literature for more than a century. The idea that an economy operates only if workers are paid ‘enough to buy back the product’ is an important assumption behind Marxism.” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yjzp4gg Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Competitive Enterprise Institute Author: Alex Nowrasteh Posted on 03.10.10 by R. Lee Wrights “The Senate is working toward a ghastly compromise on immigration reform that includes a biometric national identification card for all Americans. The stated purpose of this national ID, which an employee must present before getting a job, is to prevent undocumented workers from being employed. Back in December I warned that a national ID is the inevitable conclusion of the anti-immigration movement. The failure of E-Verify to catch 54% of undocumented workers is only accelerating the call for a national ID.” (03/09/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yfuw6uh Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Acton Institute Author: Samuel Gregg Posted on 03.10.10 by R. Lee Wrights “Back in 1996, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales issued a document, The Common Good and Catholic Social Teaching, to address political issues facing Britain at the time. Leaving aside the incoherence that characterized much of that text, a distinctly skeptical tone about market economies pervaded the document — almost to the point of being an anti-Thatcherite screed. … Fast-forward to 2010.” (03/09/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ygljoyh Filed under: RRND Commentary | |
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Source: The Libertarian Enterprise Author: Russell D. Longcore Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “If you grew up in America, you learned the Pledge of Allegiance pretty early in your life. And if you emigrated here, you learned it, either to fit in or before you tried to become an American citizen. But have you ever learned about the Pledge of Allegiance itself, and stopped repeating it by rote long enough to think about what you are pledging?” (03/07/10) Link: http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2010/tle560-20100307-06.html Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: CounterPunch Author: Marie Benilde Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Journalists are now in the same situation as steel workers in the1970s: they are destined to disappear, but they don’t know it. That was the assessment of a banker from BNP-Paribas at the French national press federation’s conference in Strasbourg in 2006. His words caused a sensation, but the statistics support him: having lost more than 2,300 jobs last year, the French press is going through a similar crisis to the United States, where more than 24,500 jobs were axed in 2009. Only 300,000 now work in newspapers in the US, compared to 415,000 a decade ago (according to Figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, quoted by Market Watch. The Washington Post has closed its regional bureaus, and the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune have filed for bankruptcy protection. Every national daily in France, apart from the sports daily, L’Equipe, has lost money. The decline is not surprising.” (03/10/10) Link: http://counterpunch.org/benilde03102010.html Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Cato Institute Author: Malou Innocent Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) plans to use a parliamentary maneuver to force a Wednesday House vote on the removal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. Kucinich’s resolution directs President Obama to remove troops 30 days from the day it is passed or, depending on whether troops can be removed safely in that time frame, no later than Dec. 31. The resolution’s substance and timing are revealing. For there are growing signs that some on the political right have new reservations about our continued military involvement in Afghanistan.” (03/10/10) Link: http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11437 Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Independent Institute Author: William Shughart Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “In an article published in the Wall Street Journal on March 8, 2010, Louise Radnofsky reports that the U.S. Conference of Mayors claims it ‘can put thousands to work on infrastructure projects, as was done in the 1930s.’ The mayors expressed a collective willingness to hire people on jobs that benefit their communities — provided, of course, that the costs of such projects are financed principally by taxpayers residing (and voting) in jurisdictions beyond city limits.” (03/09/10) Link: http://www.independent.org/blog/?p=5266 Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Reason Author: Jacob Sullum Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “‘We allow the insurance industry to run wild in this country,’ President Obama declared on Monday. ‘We can’t have a system that works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people.’ Yet Obama’s plan to tame health insurers would boost their business, protect them from competition, and guarantee their profits, all at the expense of consumers and taxpayers. It is therefore not surprising that the insurance companies, while they object to the president’s rhetoric and quibble over some of the details, are happy to be domesticated.” (03/10/10) Link: http://reason.com/archives/2010/03/10/insurers-gone-wild Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: AlterNet Author: Michelle Alexander Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “If you take into account prisoners, a large majority of African American men in some urban areas have been labeled felons for life. (In the Chicago area, the figure is nearly 80%.) These men are part of a growing undercaste — not class, caste — permanently relegated, by law, to a second-class status. They can be denied the right to vote, automatically excluded from juries, and legally discriminated against in employment, housing, access to education, and public benefits, much as their grandparents and great-grandparents were during the Jim Crow era.” (03/08/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/yfhhwvz Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Daily Speculations Author: Paolo Pezzutti Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “High-frequency finance can revolutionize economics and finance by turning accepted assumptions on their head and offering novel solutions to today’s issues. In high-frequency finance: The first step involves the collecting and scrubbing of data. The second step is to analyze the data and identify its statistical properties. Due to the masses of data points available for analysis (for many financial instruments one can collect more than 100,000 data points per day), identification of structures is straightforward — either there is a regularity or there is none. The third step is to formalise observations of specific patterns and seek tentative explanations/ theories to explain them. Fractal theory suggests that we can search for explanations of the big crisis by moving to another time scale — the short term.” (03/09/10) Link: http://www.dailyspeculations.com/wordpress/?p=4503 Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Mother Jones Author: Nick Baumann Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Government investigators can’t find the Bush lawyer’s emails. His explanation makes about as much sense as his legal rationale for torture.” (03/10/10) Link: http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/john-yoo-email-fail Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Fr33 Agents Author: Ziggy Encaoua Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Just as the economy of Zimbabwe starts to recover after decades of economic mismanagement, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s despotic president, is now intent on canceling any chance of Zimbabwe’s economy recovering. Mugabe is proposing a law that will require all foreign and white-owned businesses based in Zimbabwe to give up a controlling share to black Zimbabweans. Of course this is a populist move by Mugabe and he is spinning it as a policy that will empower blacks in Zimbabwe. Of course, the reality is that this is in fact a racist policy that will only benefit Mugabe and his cronies and if it becomes law it will be utterly disastrous for Zimbabwe.” (03/10/10) Link: http://www.fr33agents.com/2494/more-mugabe-madness/ Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: QandO Author: Bruce McQuain Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “There’s no question that alternative and renewable fuels and energy sources are the way to go — if they’re feasible. Solar, wind, geo-thermal and others all promise clean and renewable energy for our future. But one of the more irritating things concerning some of those energy sources are the claims that they’re technologically ready for prime time. Geo-thermal being the exception (but a very minor source), wind and solar aren’t at all where they need to be to provide for the energy needs of the world. That doesn’t stop the usual suspects from implying they are.” (03/10/10) Link: http://www.qando.net/?p=7414 Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: Slate Author: Timothy Noah Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “Why aren’t Republicans livid about Obamacare’s proposed Medicare tax increase? As someone who believes in progressive taxation and would like to see Obamacare become law, I hesitate to bring this up. But I’m a long-standing observer of Homo Republicanus, and anthropological curiosity is getting the better of me. Obamacare would raise taxes on rich people. Why isn’t the GOP making a bigger stink?” (03/09/10) Link: http://www.slate.com/id/2247374/ Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Classically Liberal Author: CLS Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “It seems that a group of US warming alarmists have been emailing one another discussing an offensive against those nasty people who question their theory. I was looking at those emails and one of them, apparently from David Schindler says: ‘I’d add that Edmonton is near snowless and has been shirtsleeve weather for most of 2010 instead of the usual -40C … but of course there are no major media here, so only the locals know!’ Unlike most global warming theory, which is based on models projecting into the future what the theorists think will happen, given the assumptions they make, this claim is easily verified in the here and now. So I did.” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ylpcdn4 Filed under: RRND Commentary and Twitter-Worthy | |
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Source: National Review Author: US Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “The prospect of Nixon’s shadow falling across his administration must surely unsettle Barack Obama. The legacy of Richard Nixon has suffered for decades whenever an instance of political dishonor required historic quantification. Every time the ubiquitous suffix ‘gate’ is applied to political scandals both great and small — from Clinton-era Travelgate to today’s Climategate — we are forced to think in terms of Richard Nixon. In the minds of the American people, the Nixon years were fraught with criminal conspiracies, dirty tricks, and Machiavellian political machinations. Yet there are some lessons that President Obama would do well to learn from Nixon, particularly when it comes to our nation’s approach to the global terrorist threat.” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ykc3jxc Filed under: CANDi Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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Source: Salon Author: Glenn Greenwald Posted on 03.10.10 by Thomas L. Knapp “It was only a matter of time before American elites abandoned their faux regret over Iraq. For tribalists and nationalists, America can err in its execution but never in its motives. There’s no question — as this glorifying, propagandistic Newsweek cover story reflects — that it’s now official dogma that this was the right thing to do, or at least that we produced something great and wonderful for that country, as was our intent all along (leaving aside the what is actually happening in Iraq). It’s nothing short of nauseating to watch those responsible glorify what they did without weighing — or, in Friedman’s case, affirmatively dismissing as irrelevant — the extreme amounts of death and suffering that they caused, all based on false pretenses. But this is why Tom Friedman is the favorite propagandist of ‘Washington insiders’ — because he feeds them the justifications they need to feel good about themselves.” (03/10/10) Link: http://tinyurl.com/ykn8y95 Filed under: PND Commentary and RRND Commentary | |
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