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Wednesday, July 30, 2003
CSPI Goes International - consumerfreedom.com Posted On July 30, 2003 "Last week we told you about the Center for Science in the Public Interest's (CSPI) plan to circumvent the democratic process through the lottery of the courts. CSPI's long-term strategy of sidestepping the American voters also includes a sustained effort to influence international bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Codex Alimentarius Commission, the World Trade Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)." TCS: Enviro-Sci - Thank You, Pew! Via: http://www.junkscience.com/ "---Directing the Pew Center is former Clinton-Gore administration Kyoto Protocol negotiator Eileen Claussen, so it is hardly surprising that Energy Scenarios endorses the substance -- if not the details -- of the Kyoto treaty. Like many previous Pew publications, Energy Scenarios calls for mandatory caps on U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). But this report contains an unexpected twist. It confirms what free-market analysts have said all along -- Kyoto and its ilk are nothing more than energy rationing schemes, a license for politicians and bureaucrats to restrict people's access to energy.---" The Specter of Species Extinction: Will Global Warming Decimate Earth's Biosphere? - Junkscience.com ''Summary: Read or download the first of a series of major reports we plan to produce on topics related to the ongoing rise in the air's CO2 content. Our first report -- The Specter of Species Extinction -- asks in its subtitle Will Global Warming Decimate Earth's Biosphere? Climate alarmists say yes. We suggest just the opposite.'' (co2science.org) GOP Senators Blame Nature for Climate Change - Junkscience.com WASHINGTON, DC, July 29, 2003 "Some Senate Republicans say there is considerable doubt that the climate is warming and if it is, humans are not responsible. Backing up statements he made on the Senate floor Monday, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe today told colleagues of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the science shows natural variability, not human activity, is the 'overwhelming factor' influencing climate change.'' (ENS) Big Acrylamide News (That No One Noticed) - Junkscience.com "'Think back to last year when acrylamide made its debut as a cancer scare, under the auspices of Swedish scientists. It's not hard to recall, since almost every newspaper, radio station, and TV news show reported the study suggesting that our old friend the French fry may be contributing to cancer development in humans. The 'probable carcinogen' is found in high-carbohydrate foods that are cooked at high temperatures, including French fries, crackers, and even cereals. The reports started a scare that spread like wildfire and will probably continue for some time. "What's worse, though, is that new research, suggesting that banning French fries is pointless, is not making any headlines at all."' (Debra Korn, HealthFactsAndFears.com) Overlawyered: GAO: legal costs drive med-mal rates "Congress's General Accounting Office confirms what the Department of Health and Human Services and Joint Economic Committee (PDF) have found before it: 'Increases in medical malpractice insurance rates in some states, including Pennsylvania, were due largely to high payoffs on legal claims, according to a congressional survey released yesterday. ...'Losses on medical malpractice claims appear to be the primary driver of increased premium rates in the long term,' the report states. 'Such losses are by far the largest component of insurer costs.'' (Lara Jakes Jordan, 'Malpractice insurance rise tied to legal claims', AP/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jul. 29). Study: 'Medical Malpractice Insurance: Multiple Factors Have Contributed to Increased Premium Rates', Jun. (PDF format)." Posted by Walter Olson at July 29, 2003 04:15 PM | TrackBack Overlawyered: Push for veterinary malpractice continues 'More on the legal push across the country to reclassify humans as 'guardians' rather than mere owners of pets, and the related-but-different push to expose veterinarians to sky's-the-limit liability for the emotional significance of Fluffy and Snowball, rather than just the token damages that would be agreed to in virtually any imaginable contractual agreement they might reach with their paying human customers. (For earlier items, see Jan. 30-31, 2002, Feb. 12, 2003, and our animal-rights coverage generally (pre-6/03)). ('Malpractice Cases Spike ... for Pets', Christian Science Monitor/ABCNews.com, Jul. 29). Reader Sam Gaines comments: 'I am deeply involved in the animal welfare/rescue movement here locally, but I see grave danger in this move -- the potential for worse, not better, conditions for abandoned animals based on such initiatives is tremendous. Just as laws requiring fees for unneutered pets generally backfire into even more homeless animals than before, this feel-good meddling will simply drive vet costs further off the scale, and the animals will ultimately suffer.''' Posted by Walter Olson at July 30, 2003 10:14 AM | TrackBack " CyberAlert: Exposing Media Bias Daily - Media Research Center Home Page Wednesday, July 30: • Jennings Showcases Biden Tantrum Doubting Wolfowitz’s Honesty • Public “Soured” on “Right-Wing” and “Too Hawkish” Bob Hope • Brian Williams Contends NBC’s “Traps and Filters” Kill All Bias • Senior Calls ABC “Misleading” for Not Noting Her Activist Role • NYT Food Column Uses Monkfish to Castigate Cap Gains Tax Cut ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Links at the site. QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" — Patrick Henry, 3 J. Elliot, Debates in the Several State Conventions 45, 2d ed. Philadelphia, 1836 Judicial Foolishness...Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin ''Unfortunately, as he demonstrated this week, Judge Weinstein is a man with an agenda, and he's not going to let himself be encumbered by trivialities like a jury's carefully reasoned findings of fact about the gun industry. On the positive side, his ruling is virtually certain to help supporters of congressional legislation, which passed the House in March, to block such frivolous lawsuits against gun makers." Oh! Kanada: Open Letter To The Sierra Times Submitted by: Newslinks Admin ''We, too, thought that our freedoms were unassailable. We became complacent and smug. Then, one by one, our freedoms began to erode. The architects of our own demise posed as special interest groups, feminists, socialist, centralist, etc.' ''While we sat back and enjoyed our television and our bar b.q. and our Saturday night hockey, these nefarious groups were hard at work re-engineering the social fabric of our society. Then one day it was too late." The Fourth of July and Other Lies - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: LFA Editor Website: http://www.libertyforall.net ''Just try to exercise your freedom by something as basic as opening a business in your home. In less than a week, someone from your local zoning or planning board will drop by to see what you are doing and to tell you that you can't. Try starting your own school for your children, shooting off fireworks in a lot of states, buying weapons and the list goes on. You can't travel anywhere without interfacing with some arrogant representative of Big Brother. That's just for starters." Credible Complaints? - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin ''The [New York Times] story was widely picked up across the country, but Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute points out that the word 'credible' referring to alleged violations of the Patriot Act simply means that these 34 charges, out of more than 1,000 the department received, would be violations if proven true. In fact, she says, the department has so far found only six charges to be even worthy of investigation, and has since dismissed two of them." global warming - National Center for Policy Analysis "Proponents of the theory that global warming is caused by human activities are trying to use the energy bill being debated in Congress to reduce greenhouse gasses by setting mandatory caps on carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants. Yet even if the U.S. cuts greenhouse gas emissions to, as has been suggested, seven percent below 1990 levels -- and if all of the other developed nations did the same -- the temperature reduction would be less than a half degree. This negligible reduction would come at a steep cost: a 50 percent increase in energy prices, a 1 percent loss in GDP and a million jobs lost. Click here for more." global warming nonsense - NEALZ NUZE "Finally … the Republicans are fighting back on this global warming nonsense. It’s time for you to realize, my friends, that much of the impetus behind this global warming scam is a desire to cripple capitalism and free enterprise. Don’t you find it a bit odd that so many of the people screaming global warming and promoting the hideous Kyoto Treaty are socialists?" Click here academic bias? - NEALZ NUZE "More about that Berkeley study on the psychological makeup of a conservative. Jonah Goldberg says that the study reveals academic bias. Gee … you think?" Click here tax increases? - NEALZ NUZE "And since we’re talking Democrats today .. have you noticed that quite a few of the Democratic presidential candidates are talking tax increases? Yes .. but, they’re only talking tax increases for upper income, high-achieving Americans … the folks who aren’t likely to vote for Democrats." Click here how far the left will go - NEALZ NUZE: "Read this to learn how far the left will go to make sure the taxpayer-funded subsidies keep getting into the pockets of people likely to vote Democrat." Click here DEMOCRATS CONTINUE FILIBUSTERS - NEALZ NUZE "---Now you will hear that the Democrats are only doing to the Republicans what the Republicans did to the Democrats when Clinton was in office. You will hear this, but this is wrong. Before George Bush there has never been an instance where the minority party in the U.S. Senate filibustered the nomination of a judicial candidate who actually had the votes to win confirmation on the Senate floor. The Constitution says these people should be seated with a majority of the Senate votes. The Democrats have changed the Constitution, now instituting a requirement for more than 60% of the votes. "Lesson: Democrats will do ANYTHING, including ignore our Constitution, to reclaim the political power they think should be theirs." FOR THE RECORD - NEALZ NUZE "What looked like a sure thing three months ago is starting to look a bit shaky. I’m talking about Bush’s reelection next year. I’m no expert at counting votes, but my gut tells me that Bush and the Republicans are in trouble next year. He’s generally lost my support through is big spending policies. The government is simply growing much too fast under George Bush to suit my libertarian tastes. And we’re not just talking defense growth here either. "My prediction … if this slippage continues look for Hitlary in the 2004 race. This is going to be fun." America's greatest democracy - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: LVMI Author: William H Peterson ''[C]apitalism, so harassed today, should be especially thought through and guarded in the heat of current debate. Note its basis in private property, equal rights, a limited state (so unlimited today).'' (7/29/03) Senate fails to stop 'shark' attacks - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CSE Author: Michael Shiba ''[I]t is possible to stop man-eating medical malpractice lawyers from causing health care costs to spiral upwards. Unfortunately, members of the Senate missed an opportunity to do just this with their recent filibuster of the 'Patients First Act of 2003.''' (7/29/03) Marginalized - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Author: James V DeLong ''[Pharmaceutical and entertainment] industries spew out extraordinary floods of worthy things: life-saving, life-enhancing drugs; breathtaking movies; music for every possible taste. And both are bitterly demonized, as if they cheat us by asking that money be paid in return for their wares.'' (7/29/03) Foes of the earth - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Europe Author: Alex Avery 'Those who call themselves advocates for the environment continue in their desperate campaign against biotech-improved crops -- the most critically needed farming technology in half a century.' (7/29/03)" NEA gears up to elect Democrats - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Town Hall Author: Phyllis Schlafly ''They [National Education Association members] call themselves 'the world's largest democratic, deliberative body.' But the NEA's version of democracy is: The majority rules, and the minority have no rights.'' (7/29/03) Federal report shows there are fewer poor families - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: NCPA Author: Bruce Bartlett ''It seems that a rising tide really does lift all boats.'' (7/28/03) Why are California teachers angry at Feinstein? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: PRI Author: Lance T Izumi ''Do you hear that cracking noise? That's the government-school monopoly dam about to burst.'' (7/28/03) Daily distortion: Amtrak's bad attitude - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: Dustin Lovell ''Since when do presidents of failed corporations have the right to tell the American people how their tax money should be spent? Don't politicians do enough of that for everyone?'' (7/29/03) Broken window theory - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Reason Author: Tim Cavanaugh ''Reining in the surveillance society, one vandal at a time'' (7/28/03) The international drug war's illusory victories - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Cato Institute Author: Ted Galen Carpenter ''U.S. officials keep defying the most basic economic law: supply and demand. .... Supply side 'victories,' therefore, will always be fleeting illusions.'' (7/30/03) Mercury risks in children often overblown - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Heartland Institute Author: James M Taylor ''A comprehensive study of 643 children, tracked from the womb to 9 years of age, has found no health risks resulting from exposure to above-average levels of mercury in their diets. The study calls into question ongoing state and federal efforts to further regulate mercury emissions ...'' (8/03) Lemons out of lemonade - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: USTL Author: Paul Jacob ''[C]ity officials imply that a permit for selling lemonade in front of your house is indeed necessary when they 'generously' offer one for free to the little girl. .... This business about a supposedly illegal lemonade business shows once again how we need to have police officers watch 'The Andy Griffith Show' as part of their training.'' (7/24/03) Elderly Activist Faults News Network for 'Misleading' Audience - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "A lobbyist portrayed by a network news program as a 'typical retiree' worried about the cost of prescription drugs is among those complaining about the misleading way she was portrayed." Full Story How NOW on implants? - The Washington Times: Commentary (Steven Milloy) "The National Organization for Women portrays itself as being in favor of women making their own informed choices for their bodies. So it's curious that NOW opposes women choosing to have silicone breast implants." Talk before filing that lawsuit - Recordnet.com "Sad news on Page One today: Owners of On Lock Sam say they will close the historic Chinese restaurant, because a man who couldn't get his wheelchair in the bathroom is suing them big time. "As the formidable Oakland attorney representing the man files these big-money access suits for a living, it's tempting to start rattling off lawyer jokes right here. Why does New Jersey get all the toxic-waste dumps and California get all the lawyers? New Jersey got to pick first. "But there are two sides. On Lock Sam may have failed to fix illegal barriers to the disabled. The man suing, Charles Hager, may have had a humiliating experience there, as he claims. Like it or not, he may be legally entitled to win money and to expect On Lock's to remove the barriers. "But that's not what's happening. So the city may lose a living landmark that goes back to 1898.---" Tuesday, July 29, 2003
JULY 27, 2003 THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz "The little fish were 'threatened.' The bureaucrats killed them all.---" THE LIBERTARIAN, by Vin Suprynowicz is e-mailed only to members of Privacy Alert Online who have paid to receive his columns. Forwarding or re-mailing of this information is permitted rarely and only with specific prior authorization. Please write RickTompkins@PrivacyAlert.us for details. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Another example of government error and abuse of power.--TA Media Research Center Home Page "The Leader in Documenting, Exposing and Neutralizing Liberal Media Bias" ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Always worth a visit to cut through the liberal media bias, fraud and error. JURY: HEALTHY SMOKERS GET STOP-SMOKING PROGRAM, NO MEDICAL MONITORING "In the latest example of 'regulation through litigation,' a New Orleans jury decided Monday in a class action case that tobacco companies should pay for stop-smoking programs for healthy Louisiana smokers -- even though the jury also decided that cigarettes are not a defective product. The jury did, however, 'reject[] a claim that the companies should finance medical tests for up to 1.5 million current and former smokers, saying free checkups for smokers who show no signs of disease aren't necessary.' ('Jurors give split tobacco verdict,' The (N.O.) Times-Picayune, July 29; 'Medical Monitoring,' National Public Radio, July 29)." Posted by Leah Lorber at July 29, 2003 12:19 PM | TrackBack " Misfiring on the Second Amendment By Douglas Harding Via: http://www.keepandbeararms.com/ "---The Supreme Court has had very few Second Amendment cases before it, and the only one of any interpretive use is United States v. Miller. In this case the Court concluded the deceased Miller’s possession of a sawed-off shotgun violated the Gun Control Act of 1934, because the gun was not “any part of the ordinary military equipment or that its use could contribute to the common defense.” One could therefore conclude that the Court decided “the people” could possess any weapon which might contribute to military defense. Furthermore, the recent Fifth Federal Circuit Court decision in Emerson v. United States concludes the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms. There is much commentary available written by the Founding Fathers on this subject. I suggest McDowell, and those who agree with him, read it." A victim, not a hero: Tony Martin needs protection and help Via: http://www.keepandbeararms.com/ "---Before the show gathers further momentum, here are some facts to calm pub justice. The current law already provides substantial protection to people who inflict harm or kill while defending themselves, their property, or other people. Only if the prosecution is able to show the force used is unreasonable, will victims be liable. This is in line with the central principles of the criminal justice system, which is there to replace lynch law and blood feuds. "The jury who heard the Martin case, were advised by the judge they could return a manslaughter verdict, rather than murder, if they found the farmer "did not intend to kill or cause serious bodily harm". They decided his actions went beyond appropriate self-defence: he waited with a loaded unlicensed shotgun in his remote darkened farmhouse; fired into the back of Fred Barras, the 16-year-old, which suggests he was running away.---" Gun report's worth at issue -- Misleading, ATF says of findings ''Federal officials have called misleading a report by a national gun-control group that lists 10 gun dealers, including one in Chesterfield County, among the nation's worst in selling guns linked to crimes." ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yes, Virginia, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence reports can't be believed. To Stop Gun Violence, Go to the Source Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft Website: http://home.comcast.net/~bruce.krafft/ ''In between going to work and teaching my sons to duck and cover, I never paused to think about gun-control ordinances, and I doubt the predators who tormented our block did either. It was hard to get worked up about such laws, which clearly had little relevance where we lived. In one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in one of the nation's most dangerous cities, it was easier to buy a pistol than to purchase fresh produce. ... ''All this debate tends to overshadow a distressing fact: it is not firearms that disproportionately harm black people; black people disproportionately harm black people. I can't help concluding that folks who really care about the health of besieged communities should concentrate on the shooters instead of the guns." Media and guns: NY Times Shoddy Journalism And Fraud Submitted by: Doug Charette "The New York Times is the leading advocate for gun control in America. In his book, The Gospel According to The New York Times [© 2000 – Broadman & Holman Publishers, Nashville], William Proctor, a former journalist and reporter for the New York Daily News offers in the book’s preface, '…it has become increasingly apparent to me that the Times is pursuing a highly potent, largely clandestine, and unnoticed strategy to promote a particular worldview – not only in editorials, op-ed columns, or other opinion pieces, but also in news stories. In many instances, news stories, pictures, reviews, op-ed pieces and editorials actually seem orchestrated to promote deeply held values that are an integral part of the Times corporate culture.' " New York City’s Security Myth - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft Website: http://home.comcast.net/~bruce.krafft/ "But Bloomberg’s one-man show signified nothing. When he got to his office after his metal detector photo op, he didn’t push through any new city laws. He didn’t round up owners of illegal guns for a high-profile bust." "After all, passing through a metal detector is easy; but doing something bold that could actually save someone’s life—like banning guns, for example—is tough. Davis was killed with a handgun bought legally." ------- "Actually Askew was already prohibited from purchasing guns by the Brady law. And all this pathetic sack of misinformation has to do is look at England and its ever-rising rates of violent crime to see how well banning guns works." Gun maker takes battle to Congress - Keep and Bear Arms ''Richard Dyke of Windham is a tough advocate for his business and the gun-manufacturing industry. He's also a well-connected one.' ''And Dyke, owner of Bushmaster Firearms Inc., is using as much congressional influence as he can muster these days to fight what he says are direct threats to his industry's survival: civil lawsuits." Michael Moore, Humbug - OpinionJournal - Extra "---As critics have pointed out repeatedly, Mr. Moore himself is a world-class expert on "fictition"; in fact, when it comes to truth telling, not to mention logic, you might say that less is Moore. But if the copious charges of lies and distortions don't make a dent, it's because Mr. Moore's fabrications are the very source of his appeal. Not only has he created an enormously clever fictional character whose name is Michael Moore--a contemporary Will Rogers, able to channel Noam Chomsky via Chevy Chase; a working-class, truth-telling schlub in a trucker's hat who shuffles out of his La-Z-Boy to seek answers to folksy questions from the high and mighty--he has also conjured up a fictional America that seductively taps into long familiar populist resentments that have their most recent incarnation in the rage of the antiglobalization left.---" Anti-Kyoto petition is legitimate - Bizarre Science Allan MacRae The Ottawa Citizen Monday, July 28, 2003 "Re: Scientific 'petition' is much less than it seems, July 7. "Paul Paquet's letter criticizing the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine's anti-Kyoto petition resorted to the usual approach of those who do not understand the science of climate change. Instead of addressing the scientific arguments of the petition (see http://www.oism.org/pproject ), Mr. Paquet attacks the messenger and the logistics of the petition. "I know the Petition Project quite well and I can assure you that "Perry Mason" is indeed a PhD chemist in Lubbock, Texas. All other names on the list are genuine. The only fake name was "Dr. Geri Halliwell," and it was removed when discovered. Mr. Paquet cannot add his name to the list without being a real scientist with credentials that the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine can check. "Mr. Paquet might try calling some of the more famous scientists on the list and verifying their signatures. Thousands of them are listed --with their addresses -- in American Men and Women in Science. "Also, Art Robinson of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine is a published scientist with papers in atmospheric carbon dioxide chemistry to his credit." Allan MacRae, B. Sc., M. Eng., P. Eng. Calgary posted by Aaron at 11:03 PM Lost in the ozone - Junkscience.com "Letter of the moment, responding to 'global warming' - 'problem of mass delusion' (or something like that)": ''Environmentalist doomsayers search constantly for new hyperbole and John Houghton has found one: 'Global warming is now a weapon of mass destruction,' which 'kills more people than terrorism'. Quite. So does frostbite. But despite Houghton's hyperbole, the evidence for whether human-induced global warning even exists is about as dodgy as the average Downing Street dossier. "In fact, the biggest environmental 'weapon of mass destruction' we face today is undoubtedly unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene. These, according to the World Health Organisation, claim around 1.7 million lives a year, a third of them in Africa and 90% of them children. Of course, it's much harder to 'sex up' the simple reality of unsafe water than the mere theory of climate change. But in terms of delivering clear human benefit, I know where it would be better to spend our money and apply our brainpower. --Dr Eamonn Butler, Director, Adam Smith Institute."' (The Guardian) Conservatives - NEALZ NUZE: "Conservatives, you know, are just psychologically disturbed little Adolf Hitler wannabes." Click here ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And these psychologists are politically biased little Freud wannabes.--TA “ADD/ADHD” culture - NEALZ NUZE "Here I go again, hammering those pathetic parents out there who are part of this phony “ADD/ADHD” culture. A British childhood expert says that these children just need to allowed to be children … to “let off some steam.” Click here AND HERE COME THE TEACHER’S UNIONS - NEALZ NUZE "---At the recent in New Orleans the National Education Convention announced a plan to use union funds to target 16 state where the NEA thinks a “pro-education” Democrat presidential candidate can win. By “pro-education” they mean “pro-union.” They’re also targeting about 40 house seats where they can help Democrats take power from evil Republicans. "Oh, and another thing. The NEA is also working for a mandatory pre-K program for children from age 3 to 5. These leftists know that they must grab the hearts and minds of our young children at the youngest age possible …. The sooner to begin the big-government, multi-culti, anti-individualist agenda.---" HAVE YOU EVER REALLY THOUGHT ABOUT THE WORD “UNILATERALISM?” - NEALZ NUZE "---For years now I’ve been trying to hammer home the fact that there is an all-out war being conducted by the left against the concept of individuality. My favorite quotes page contains utterances from such historical heroes as Stalin, Hitler, Khrushchev, Mussolini and other leftists damning the concept of the individual. I also have shared quotations from you American leftist icons such as Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton and the Hildabeast slamming individuality. We even had a local politician here in Atlanta (a Democrat, of course) state that individualism is a sin. "Wake up, my friends. The grand plan is for your individual identity (not to mention your individual worth, dignity and rights) to be absorbed completely into your group identity. The grand scheme is for all rights to be vested in groups, not individuals. Not only is it wrong for our nation to act “unilaterally,” it also wrong for you to conduct your affairs for your own benefit without the involvement of society. You are not to belong to yourself in the liberal utopia, you are to belong to society, just as America is supposed to belong to the community of nations.---" Socialists can get our donor info but we can't get theirs - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: ciscja ''Linda Averill is sure socialism should replace the freedom of America. Socialism doesn't offer a First Amendment. So why does Linda Averill demand First Amendment rights of free speech for the protestors she agrees with?'' (7/27/03) Political overdose - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: USTL Author: Paul Jacob ''It's too bad there's no drug to cure the wheezing of nanny politicians.'' (7/18/03) Data flaws - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Health Facts and Fears Author: Sheila Raju ''Consumers are often inundated by studies touted in the media, promoting certain foods and disparaging others, sometimes frustrating people with credible-sounding but contradictory advice. Often the culprit ... is a flawed method of data interpretation dubbed 'data dredging' by its critics.'' (7/23/03) Inhofe challenges colleagues on global warming - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: NCPPR Author: Amy Ridenour ''Senator James Inhofe ... is upping the ante in the Senate by challenging his colleagues to consider a key possibility: that not only is the science not settled that human activities are causing global warming, 'but the debate is shifting away from those who subscribe to global warming alarmism.''' (7/29/03) Precautionary principle a risky gambit - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: RPPI Author: Michael DeAlessi ''The recently passed Precautionary Principle ordinance purports to make San Francisco a leader by 'challenging traditional assumptions about risk management.' In truth, it will likely be bad for the city, public health and the environment.'' (7/28/03) Misfires in biotech trenches - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CEI Author: Henry I Miller ''[S]ound public policy, like charity, begins at home, and Mr. Bush's own Agriculture Department and Environmental Protection Agency have adopted regulatory approaches to biotechnology as unscientific and regressive as those in Europe; they're just applied in a slightly less aggressive fashion. American farmers and consumers are paying the price.'' (7/28/03) Revealed libertarianism - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Reason Author: Tim Cavanaugh ''[T]he Minaret of Freedom Institute seeks to bridge the divide between the two civilizations [Islam and the liberal west] -- or rather, to show the bridge that, it says, has always been there. Interview with Minaret president Imad A. Ahmad." (7/28/03) Daily distortion: The politics of race - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: Cody Hatch ''Does anyone really believe that black people are oppressed by politicians and need these special lobbying groups to brow-beat politicians into submission, all the while padding their own pockets for 'delivering the black vote'? Let's get real here.'' (7/28/03) The virtue of an all-volunteer defense force - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Cato Institute Author: Walter Y. Oi ''The draft is a poor way to provide an effective common defense. It discourages the adoption of military technologies that can reduce the loss of life and improve effectiveness during military operations. It increases the full economic cost of producing defense capability.'' (7/29/03) Bruce Bartlett: Making news at The Times: "---Longtime Wall Street Journal editor Robert Bartley believes that liberal ideology is behind the problem of inaccuracy [in the traditional media]. 'An editor trying to put out objective reports,' he wrote in a July 28 column, 'has to contend with a newsroom dominated by a single viewpoint.' That viewpoint ignores or downplays facts that contradict the liberal worldview and plays up those that support it. "Fortunately, new media -- the Internet, cable news and talk radio -- provide alternate sources of information and opinion for those who want it. In order to compete, old media like the Times need to strive harder to achieve fairness and balance or continue to lose the respect of the American people." Churchill would understand - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Europe Author: Carlos Ball ''Just as a clear separation of Church and State ensures our freedom of religion, the non-involvement of the government and political parties in the media should be one of our top goals in the new century.'' (7/28/03) What the EPA isn't telling us - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Independent Institute Author: staff ''As shown in The Independent Institute's new study ... critical portions of science in all of these [EPA] reports are misleading, inaccurate, unreliable, or simply wrong. However, that is not an indictment of the individuals involved, but is rather more symptomatic of the nature of science when funded by a government leviathan.'' (7/28/03) Medicare reform measure repeats mistakes of 25 years ago - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Heartland Institute Author: Conrad F Meier ''The Medicare reform legislation now under discussion in Congress has set the stage for a repeat of one of history's most obvious policy-making blunders.'' (8/03) University students deserve human rights - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Ifeminists Author: Wendy McElroy ''This September, make sure the students you care for pack protection of their civil liberties in with clothing and reference books. This is essential for students who are male, white, conservative, openly Christian, or from affluent families.'' (7/29/03) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "---University campuses are strongholds of left liberalism where constitutionally protected rights, such as freedom of speech and religion, are routinely violated.---" University students demand human rights - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Ifeminists Author: Wendy McElroy ''This September, make sure the students you care for pack protection of their civil liberties in with clothing and reference books. This is essential for students who are male, white, conservative, openly Christian, or from affluent families.'' (7/29/03) TheStar.com - New MRI clinic in row over poaching "---The private MRI and CT scanners will increase access to the much-needed diagnostic tools and cut down on waiting times, Conservatives argue. Before the introduction of the private clinics, scanners were only available in hospitals. By summer's end, when the seven private scanners are up and running, there will be a total of 54 MRI machines and 105 CT machines operating in the province. "Best of all, the private MRI clinics will save taxpayers money because their operating expenses are, on average, 36 per cent lower than hospitals, the government contends. While it costs a hospital $800,000 a year to operate a MRI machine for 40 hours a week, the successful bidders in the tendering process for the private sector contracts can do it, on average, for 36 per cent less, said health ministry spokesperson Tanya Cholakov.---" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Socialistic medicine in Canada sandbags against private sector competition. Amtrak to become state-based boondoggle? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Boston Globe ''The Bush administration is proposing to scrap direct federal funding of Amtrak and turn over much of the responsibility for national passenger rail service to state governments, officials said yesterday.'' (7/29/03) U.S. House supports ACLU efforts to limit USA Patriot Act - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Fox News ''309 House members have now joined the ACLU in opposing part of the terror-fighting powers granted to law enforcement by Congress shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.'' (7/29/03) Dems Try to Increase Spending Despite Deficit Complaints -- 07/29/2003 "---'It's clear from the budget numbers that both parties have been on a spending orgy for about four or five years now,' said the Cato Institute's Chris Edwards. 'Ever since they balanced the budget in 1998 and we got a surplus for a few years, that sort of set the green light for Congress to start spending much faster than they did during President Clinton's first term in the 1990s,' said Edwards. 'Both parties and just about everyone else in Congress supports adding $400 billion in taxpayer costs over the next decade with a new prescription drug bill...even though Congress knows that the Medicare program, even without this new added benefit, is going to be heading into a huge fiscal crisis in coming years,' Edwards added.---" Rent-seeking - States doing less with more - The Washington Times: Commentary "---Rent-seeking refers using the power of government to redistribute income to a group that provides nothing new in return. A good example: government employee unions use their political clout and campaign contributions to get large pay increases. Government employee average pay exceeds that of private sector workers, and in the last year for which data are available, 2001, the gap widened. Add to that the more generous fringe benefits, greater time off and enhanced job security, government employees command a major earnings advantage — one that is helping drive up costs. "Is it no wonder that state and local governments are doing less with more?" State and local governments typically are monopolies - States doing less with more - The Washington Times: Commentary "---State and local governments typically are monopolies providing their services in a non-market environment, and they are slow to innovate. For example, they have dragged their feet in terms of moving to more efficient modes of delivering educational services. It takes far more resources to educate a kid at a public university today than a generation ago, for example, yet there is very little evidence the students are learning more. The same is doubly true of students in public schools. Technology, rather than lowering costs by reducing labor, is actually increasing them, by adding more capital to existing labor. With the possible exception of prostitution, teaching is probably the only profession where there has been absolutely no productivity advance in the 2,400 years since Socrates taught the youth of Athens.---" The political science of climate - The Washington Times: Commentary (Patrick J. Michaels) "Today the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, chaired by James Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican, will hold a landmark hearing on recent developments in climate science. The ultimate issue, though, is how and why the political process distorts the normal business of science for its own ends." Monday, July 28, 2003
Word List: Types of Government and Leadership "It has been suggested that every government which has ever existed has been a prime example of kakistocracy, or the rule of the worst, but this list of over 160 different types of leadership suggests that that might be a bit too simplistic. Each of the following words indicates a type of government by a certain kind of person or institution. Everyone seems to want to get in on this rulership gig, from saints and mothers to beggars and prostitutes (hmm ...). Etymologically-minded folks should note the difference between the suffix 'archy', meaning 'rulership', and 'cracy', meaning 'power', which both come from Greek roots. This fact, of course, should suggest to any reasonable-minded person that the Greek people are inherently more fit to rule than all other groups. At least in my world ..." The Terrible Cost of Government - house.gov/paul "According to Americans for Tax Reform, Americans finally worked enough this year to pay their whopping bills to the government. "July 11th earned the dubious distinction as “Cost of Government Day” for 2003, the date when the average American has worked enough in the calendar year to pay for government at the federal, state, and local levels. In other words, most Americans turn over more than half of everything they make to government- in taxes, fees, and in the form of regulations that increase the price of goods and services. For high-income individuals, the percentage can be much more than half.---" Update: Miss. high court justice, trial lawyer indicted - overlawyered.com ''A Mississippi Supreme Court justice and a wealthy attorney who helped land the state millions in tobacco settlement money were among five people indicted Friday on federal fraud and bribery charges. Biloxi attorney Paul Minor is accused of funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to Justice Oliver Diaz Jr., Diaz' former wife, Jennifer, and to two lower court judges. In return, Minor allegedly received favorable treatment for Minor and his clients in cases involving multimillion dollar judgments.' The 16-count indictment also names former Harrison County Judges Wes Teel and John Whitfield. Prominent in the state's tobacco litigation, Minor is the son of a well known Magnolia State political columnist, Bill Minor. (Jack Elliott Jr., 'Justice, Attorney Charged in Mississippi', AP/Sarasota Herald Tribune, Jul. 25; Jerry Mitchell, 'Justice, 4 others indicted', Jackson Clarion Ledger, Jul. 26; Jerry Mitchell, 'Charges may alter opinions of Miss. judiciary', Jackson Clarion Ledger, Jul. 27; Jack Elliott Jr., 'Indictment of justice and lawyer come amid debate between Mississippi business, trial lawyers', AP/New Orleans Times Picayune, Jul. 27). More: Beth Musgrave, ''Go see Paul Minor'', Biloxi Sun Herald, May 18. For our earlier coverage, see: Oct. 9-10 and Oct. 11-13, 2002; May 7 and Jul. 24, 2003." Posted by Walter Olson at July 27, 2003 05:48 PM | TrackBack Calif. bounty-hunting, again - overlawyered.com: "July 28, 2003 "The Los Angeles Times's Michael Hiltzik doubts that the cleanup of the Trevor Law Group spells an end to shakedown litigation under California's Section 17200: 'As I write I'm looking at a letter sent two weeks ago by a Bay Area lawyer to a San Jose pool company, offering to settle a potential 17200 claim over a supposedly deceptive newspaper advertisement in exchange for a 'reasonable attorney's fee' of $5,000' ('Consumer-Protection Law Abused in Legal Shakedown', Jul. 21). Hiltzik also relates an amusing anecdote about how the Trevor lawyers helped seal their fate: 'The group also made the mistake of picking on the wrong victims; thinking that it was suing only ma-and-pa service stations, it named, apparently unwittingly, a couple of repair shops owned by the big tire maker Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire, which took umbrage and put Sybesma [experienced defense lawyer Edward Sybesma of Costa Mesa's Rutan & Tucker] on the case. 'How was I supposed to know this was Bridgestone/Firestone?' Sybesma recalls one of the Trevor lawyers lamenting one day -- a line one wouldn't be surprised to hear during an episode of 'America's Dumbest Criminals.'' "The Wall Street Journal's free OpinionJournal has now posted our editor's op-ed on section 17200, which appeared in the paper last Tuesday and was linked here in different form last week (see Jul. 22). (Walter Olson, 'The Shakedown State', OpinionJournal.com, Jul. 27.) Reader comments, too. And Baseball Crank (Jul. 27) quotes extensively and informatively from Justice Stephen Breyer's dissent in the Supreme Court's recent refusal to hear the 17200 case against shoemaker Nike." Posted by Walter Olson at July 28, 2003 12:23 PM | TrackBack QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves." — THOMAS SOWELL (1992) Armed Females of America - Pro-Gun Women on Full Auto "In a free society, decent, hard working citizens tend to their own affairs, help their neighbors when needed or when asked, and pull together as a community when a crisis affects them all. The latter temporarily requires a collective effort to benefit the greater common good. This is the simple application of both the Golden Rule as well as allowing for anything peaceful that does not harm or disturb others. "It is that historically proven most evil of human organizations, namely government, which dominates its citizens by law. Government has killed and maimed more humans than any other man-made calamity. And of course, it is tyrannical, despotic, socialist government, which leads the way in killing, maiming and torturing. Such governments subscribe to the thesis: Government is law, and law is government.---" libertyforall.net - Love it or Leave it "Think about it. The government was organized under the Constitution, essentially an employment contract, with the people of the United States as the employers. The Constitution established exactly what the government was allowed and required to do, and with the addition of the 9th and 10th Amendments, was told that anything not expressly assigned to it in the contract was none of its damn business. "So, when the government exceeded its authority, violated the terms of its employment contract, and began to do things which is was expressly forbidden to do, did that not constitute grounds for termination? Would we let any simple laborer get away with such behavior? If not, then why the hell do we let our elected and appointed officials, people who should be held to the highest and most stringent standards, get away with the same excess? "And where the hell do these 'love it or leave it' types get off telling us that we should leave our homes because some bureaucrat who works for us is doing things we told him not to do?" Gun distributor sues teacher's widow for legal fees - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: John Isaacs ''A gun distributor that won a lawsuit brought by the widow of slain Lake Worth teacher Barry Grunow wants her to pay its legal fees but won't go after her personal assets. ''The Valor Corp. is suing Pam Grunow as a representative of her husband's estate, the gun dealer's attorney Tom Warner said Friday. The company says it is entitled to recover legal costs because Grunow lost her lawsuit accusing the Broward County company of being responsible for her husband's death.'' ------- "More actions like this would certainly keep frivolous lawsuits to a minimum." Ice Cream on a Bed of Lettuce? - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin ''Some lawyers seeking plaintiffs and a means of maintaining their lifestyle have tried, not too successfully, at least just as yet, to go after gun manufacturers. ''Seeing the writing on the wall, and accepting the fact that much of America still views the 2nd Amendment as being part of the Bill of Rights, some lawyers are shifting attention to the food industry..." Almost - Keep and Bear Arms By Dieter H. Dahmen "Such are the circumstances in our country today that fear of government is by far greater than fear of predators. For predators are the basis for government’s usurpation of the people’s power and thus are the lifeblood of its terror. I almost became one of its victims." State Worship - Unpopular Speech by Larken Rose "Every once in a while I use the term 'state-worshiper,' referring to those who think that what is morally right, and sometimes even what is factually right, must be determined by 'government' alone. (Conversely, these people are scared to death of us mere peasants using our OWN judgment in deciding what is right.)" [more] WorldNetDaily: Congress lets down U.S. "Congress had two opportunities recently to uphold U.S. sovereignty, save billions of tax dollars, and to take the leadership in advancing the principles of freedom throughout the world. Congress failed. "On July 15, Congress had the opportunity to stop all funding to the United Nations. The vote failed 74 to 350. "On July 22, Congress had the opportunity to block the funds required to rejoin UNESCO. The vote failed 145 to 279.---" 'Neo-conned' - Unpopular Speech by Congressman Ron Paul, MD "The modern-day, limited-government movement has been co-opted. The conservatives have failed in their effort to shrink the size of government. There has not been, nor will there soon be, a conservative revolution in Washington. Political party control of the federal government has changed, but the inexorable growth in the size and scope of government has continued unabated. [more]---" National Anxiety Center - Warning Signs! "---It isn’t the United Nations’, the United States’ nor anyone else’s business if you want to smoke. It will, however, generate a huge, global black market in tobacco products, spawning criminal cartels comparable to those that sell drugs. It you think the "War on Drugs" is a failure, you haven’t seen anything when the "War on Tobacco" is waged. This kind of prohibition is doomed to failure.--- "First you take away cigarettes and cigars, then you take away guns, then you tell everyone they have to have an identify card in order to hold a job, travel anywhere, get medical care, get married or divorced, and, eventually, have more than one child. It is classic Communism.---" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Classic Authoritarianism. Privacy villain of the week: President's commission on the USPS - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: NCCP Author: staff ''Next week, a special commission created by President Bush will present him with a final report on 'articulating a proposed vision for the future of the United States Postal Service.' That vision includes the idea that no person should be able to mail a letter without the USPS and their pals in Homeland Security knowing about it.'' (7/25/03) Regulations that inhibit hiring - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Cato Institute Author: Richard W Rahn ''The same politicians who complain about rising unemployment are the ones who make it increasingly dangerous to hire anyone. Employers are at risk due to government rules and regulations which complexity and opaqueness rival that of the tax code.'' (7/27/03) An antiprivacy backlash in the making in Congress? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: c|net news ''[A]s the two-year anniversary of Sept. 11 approaches, there are signs that Congress realizes it went too far in allowing electronic surveillance and other invasions of personal privacy. Consider some recent evidence ...'' (7/28/03) Mandatory libertarianism - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Author: Arnold Kling ''[I]f I could propose a required course in libertarianism for all Americans, here are some ideas that I would want students to take away.'' (7/28/03) Tinkering with the ballot - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Las Vegas Review Journal Author: Vin Suprynowicz ''Have taxes ever led to the fall of a civilization? Rome, for starters. Have taxes ever killed anyone? Heck, yes. .... The fact that '60 Minutes' rarely does 'trend pieces' on the huge social and economic cost of taxes doesn't mean they're not out there.'' (7/27/03) Anti-intellectuals in the schools - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Strike the Root Author: Bernard Chapin ''The ignorance of the students is something all school personnel must acknowledge and accept ..., but the ignorance of the staff is something to which I have never easily adjusted. Given the state of our culture, I guess it really is not that surprising that many educators possess a lack of intellectual curiosity, but what is consistently shocking is their lack of shame about it.'' (7/28/03) Kucinich's new horizon not all that new - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: ciscja ''[I]f you take a closer look at some of Kucinich's own words, he starts to fit into a typical pattern. Tax and spend.'' (7/27/03) Daily distortion: Would you like ice cream with that lawsuit? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: Dustin Lovell ''How many thugs with blunt objects raised over the heads of customers have you seen at the local Baskin-Robbins, pushing them to get that extra scoop of double-chocolate fudge on their waffle cone? None? Really? That's funny, because I haven't seen them either.'' (7/25/03) U.S. prison population adds to states' budgetary woes - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Kansas City Star ''America's prison population grew again in 2002 despite a declining crime rate. The growth cost the federal government and states an estimated $40 billion a year at a time of rampant budget shortfalls.'' (7/28/03) Gearing up for battle at RNC - The Washington Times: Commentary (Donald Lambro) "The new Republican National Committee chairman has a warning for Democrats: Attack President Bush, and Ed Gillespie's going to hit you — hard." Liberal body count? - Modbee.com | The Modesto Bee Published: July 28, 2003, 04:40:20 AM PDT "I see from your front page (July 18, 'Death toll in Iraq war hits a grim milestone') that you have teamed with the rest of the liberal media to keep the body count of our soldiers in Iraq constantly in the headlines. "While losing one American soldier is one too many, I wonder if the people of California are aware that the murder rate in Compton is greater than the death rate in Iraq. It's easy to understand why the liberal media doesn't talk about it. They can't blame it on President Bush." NORV AZEVEDO Merced Sunday, July 27, 2003
Thomas Sowell: Random thoughts "Liberals' attempts to create a left-wing Rush Limbaugh demonstrate their basic misconception of the world. The Rush Limbaugh program was not created by big government, big business, or big media. It was one of those spontaneous things that happens in the real world of individual initiative that liberals are so out of touch with -- and so hostile to." Thomas Sowell: Random thoughts "Why is the welfare state so successful politically? (1) It is always easy to rob Peter to pay Paul -- and later rob Paul to pay Peter, in order to win both votes; (2) it is easy to hide costs and call that 'reducing' costs; and (3) the easiest place to hide costs is in the future, which is invisible." Thomas Sowell: Random thoughts "As long as human beings are imperfect, there will always be arguments for extending the power of government to deal with these imperfections. The only logical stopping place is totalitarianism -- unless we realize that tolerating imperfections is the price of freedom." Thomas Sowell: Random thoughts "We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did." Thomas Sowell: Random thoughts "Gun control laws are like OSHA for criminals. When criminals have guns and their victims don't, crime becomes a safer occupation. In some countries with strict gun-control laws, burglars enter houses while people are still at home several times as often as that happens in the United States." Thomas Sowell: Random thoughts "Have you ever heard a single hard fact to back up all the sweeping claims for the benefits of 'diversity'?" Pat Buchanan: A study in appeasement "---What might the GOP do? Exactly what Democrats would do, were they in power and a Christian Coalition leader unleashed such partisan bile on their president and party. Demand an IRS audit of its tax exemption. Red-line out from the budget all discretionary funding for its programs. Have the House speaker write to corporate contributors of the organization to tell them this is an unfriendly act. "Conservative groups should ferret out the big donors to the NAACP and publish their names, so stockholders can respond to Bond's slanders. Congress could act to break up big foundations like Ford, longtime financier of the NAACP, and require foundations to expend 7 percent of their assets yearly until they go out of business. "Play hardball with people who play hardball with you.---" Kathleen Parker: Sex, lies and videotape in Las Vegas "Michael Burdick, the hoaxer made infamous for his naked-women-paintball Bambi-hunting 'business,' is a philosopher. He believes in free speech, free will, a free America and ... free publicity. "And he loves a good joke, which is apparently what he pulled on a gullible media, including yours truly. Mea culpa. I hang my head in shame. I'm sharpening my cat-o'nines for ritualistic flagellation.---" Jacob Sullum: The rush to condemn ephedra "---The Bechler case illustrates the peril of leaping to conclusions when someone dies after consuming an ephedra product. News reports frequently assert that 'more than 100 deaths' have been 'linked' to ephedra. Yet a RAND Corporation study of all the 'adverse event' reports in the FDA's files and in the medical literature that were available as of September 30 found only two fatalities where there was an attempt to rule out other factors.---" George Will: The problem with Europe "---A proper constitution distributes power among legislative, executive and judicial institutions so that the will of the majority can be measured, expressed in policy and, for the protection of minorities, somewhat limited. A proper constitution does not give canonical status, as rights elevated beyond debate, to the policy preferences of the moment. "But that is what the proposed European Union constitution, with more than 400 articles, does.---" Saturday, July 26, 2003
Crime rate around Ohio State scares students, parents - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Ohioans For Concealed Carry PAC Website: http://www.ofccpac.org ''Every chance they get, the editors at the Columbus Dispatch publish commentary opposing legal self-defense in the state of Ohio. Judging by the state of affairs in Columbus and around the OSU campus, the Dispatch prefers that only the bad guys be armed. The crime wave around campus has gotten so bad, Columbus police have even told volunteers at the Community Crime Patrol to stay out of the area." They’re Coming to Take Them Away - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Doug Charette "Indeed, after the Martin shooting, a police spokesman was quoted as saying, 'We cannot have people take the law into their own hands.' All of Martin's neighbors had been robbed numerous times, and several elderly people were severely injured in beatings by young thugs who had no fear of the consequences. Martin himself, a collector of antiques, had seen most of his collection trashed or stolen by burglars. When the Dunblane Inquiry ended, citizens who owned handguns were given three months to turn them over to local authorities. Being good British subjects, most people obeyed the law. The few who didn't were visited by police and threatened with ten-year prison sentences if they didn't comply. Police later bragged that they'd taken nearly 200,000 handguns from private citizens. How did the authorities know who had handguns? The guns had been registered and licensed. Kinda like cars. Sound familiar?" "WAKE UP AMERICA, THIS IS WHY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS PUT THE SECOND AMENDMENT IN OUR CONSTITUTION." Why ex-cons should be given the vote - Keep and Bear Arms ''---Democrats have a terrific incentive to make this a campaign issue: If ex-felons could vote, Democrats would win more elections. Research conducted by Uggen and Manza suggests that enfranchised felons would have tipped the scales to Al Gore, and to several Democratic senators in the 1980s and '90s. Famously, more than 600,000 ex-cons couldn't vote in Florida (though a small number managed to find a way), which means that the Felon Factor positively dwarfed Ralph Nader, hanging chads and butterfly ballots in terms of impact on that nightmarish statistical dead heat." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Birds of a feather. Guns reduce crime [Letter] - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft Website: http://www.idcwebdev.com ''In a recent editorial titled 'Pistol-packing capital' (Our View, July 21), The Tribune refers to this as 'acting on the intellectually flawed and morally bankrupt argument that pouring more guns into a violent city would somehow make it less violent,' and that the proposal is 'grounded in a culture that has watched far too many movies.' It lists scary what-if scenarios involving accidents and shoot-outs in the streets. But in the end it offers not a single shred of real evidence for its position. ''It may have escaped The Tribune's notice, but there is a substantial and growing body of hard evidence that concealed-carry laws reduce violent crime rates far more effectively than any gun control law yet devised. And it happens without creating a flood of horrific incidents like the ones described.' ..." Overzealous police raid at bar tough to swallow - sunspot.net - maryland news "MEMO TO Linda and Marty Clarke: That little midnight raid the cops staged on your Swallow at the Hollow restaurant/bar the other night? It was nothing personal, folks, just the Baltimore police trying to calm the city and instead throwing a chill into a neighborhood joint that's been a feel-good landmark for the past 60 years. "When those 18 officials swooped onto York Road and Northern Parkway and frightened customers inside the Swallow, it was all about good intentions that turned into a case of overkill.---" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Practicing police state tactics. Voting Machines Blasted by Scientists - Unpopular Speech by Bev Harris "What follows is a set of discoveries, the result of the first-ever public examination of a secret, proprietary computer program used to count votes in 37 states. A hundred dollar item allows anyone to stuff the ballot box; remote access was left unprotected, encryption keys were made available to hackers, and passwords, audit logs and votes were easily compromised." [more] Edwin J. Feulner: The 'state' of education "Ronald Reagan said it best: “The most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.’---” Still At It - The Washington Dispatch - Opinion "---I don’t know about you, but I am sick to DEATH of being continuously lied to by the International Left – the International Left that worships and is trying to force upon the world by any and every means possible a dysfunctional economic theory that has a phenomenal record of failure and upon which some of the most brutally bloody dictatorships in the history of mankind have been based, including: Hitler (no matter what the Left says, as head of the ‘nazi’ – short for ‘national socialist’ in German – party, Hitler was a socialist), Lenin and Stalin along with their Warsaw Pact puppets such as Tito, Honecker, and the Çeaçescus, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro, Kim Jong Il, and until recently, Saddam Hussein. The crimes of these murdering leftist monsters have been, and continue to be, so horrific that an outraged world should be demanding of those in the International Left (and those who so slavishly support them) an accounting of the many millions slaughtered by these ‘revolutionary luminaries’ of theirs.---" Feminist Leaders Are 'Phonies,' Conservative Speaker Says - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "Emphasizing the failures and hypocrisy of the feminist movement and calling feminists who claim to speak for women 'phonies,' conservative activist Michelle Easton told a gathering of students this week to be wary of the tendency of the media, feminists and other liberals to ignore and often marginalize conservative women." Full Story Judicial foolishness - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED "Two months ago a federal jury rejected a lawsuit filed by the NAACP blaming gun manufacturers and distributors for urban gun violence. At the time, this newspaper warned that the presiding judge, Jack Weinstein would take some step to undermine the jury verdict on behalf of the NAACP. On Monday, our concerns were borne out." Bush not to blame - The Modesto Bee Published: July 25, 2003, 08:05:12 AM PDT "As I read that a change is needed in Washington, I thought that this is why California is in such trouble. When are the Democrats going to take responsibility for the problems they create? President Bush did not create the problem; Gov. Davis did. It's strange you don't remember that Bill Clinton was still president when it all started. "Davis asked him for help and Clinton said California had to get itself out of trouble. That's when Davis started his deals. So until California stops blaming everyone else, we will always be in trouble." BARBARA CAROTENUTO Modesto" Gas prices high for a reason - The Modesto Bee "It's true that Californians typically pay more for gas than do residents of other states, but there are well-documented reasons for the difference. "The U.S. Energy Information Administration cites the fact that our state government requires a unique blend of gasoline, cleaner than any gasoline used on the planet, and it costs more. "Because California's refineries operate near capacity to meet product demand, any unanticipated upsets or outages, combined with our geographic isolation from external supply sources, have an immediate impact on the market. "Finally, combined federal and state taxes on California gasoline are the fourth highest in the nation -- over 50 cents per gallon, as reported by the American Petroleum Institute. "The Web site www.modestogasprices.com is a good way for readers to compare local prices. Another excellent source is AAA's Web site (www.aaa.com), which provides members with prices reported by local stations, complete with street addresses." JOSEPH SPARANO President Western States Petroleum Association Sacramento Friday, July 25, 2003
Paul Applauds Congressional Restrictions on Patriot Act "Congressman Ron Paul praised two landmark votes in Congress that could mark a turning point in the battle to protect civil liberties threatened by the Patriot Act. Paul has been an outspoken critic of the Patriot Act since its hasty passage in the weeks following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The Act endangers civil liberties by easing federal rules for search warrants, allowing warrantless searches in some instances, allowing expanded wiretaps and internet monitoring, and even allowing federal agents to examine library and bookstore records. Yet despite these serious constitutional questions, few if any members of Congress read the 500-page Patriot Act prior to voting on it!---" Overlawyered: Mississippi probers could consider indictments this week ''A federal grand jury investigating state trial lawyers, judges and a Supreme Court justice could consider indictments as early as this week.' (Jerry Mitchell, 'Justice investigation may end this week', Jackson Clarion Ledger, Jul. 23). And the Mississippi Supreme Court has issued a new rule providing 'that in multi-judge districts and courts, civil cases shall be assigned immediately by a random method when the complaint is filed,' so that no one would know in advance who the judge was. 'The problem is a few members of the bar are trying to manipulate the system to get the judge that they want,' said Chief Justice Edwin L. Pittman. ('Judge selection process revised', AP/Jackson Clarion Ledger, May 31)." Posted by Walter Olson at July 24, 2003 10:24 PM Freedom For All - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin ...''The government needs the Constitution to legitimize its power but at the same time seeks to shirk any limits it imposes on that power. An insidious tactic in this campaign is the advancement of the idea that if the public wishes to be safer, the government must be subject to even less constitutional control. This is nonsense, of course, and historically indefensible. The greatest and most present danger to civilized nations in the last few centuries has usually been their own leaders." Timothy Wheeler on NAACP & Gun Lawsuits on National Review Online Via: "Litigation Without Justification Is Tyranny" - http://www.keepandbeararms.com/news/kabanews/disp.asp?d=7/25/2003 "---In summary, small groups of elite powerbrokers around the country have abused the judicial process in an attempt to destroy the firearm-manufacturing industry. They have fraudulently harmed a highly regulated industry that deals honestly in a legal product. The estimated $100 million that gun makers have spent so far to defend themselves is already jacking up the price of guns those same cities will have to buy for their police departments. And so it goes. "That small urban-power elites could wreak such damage outside legitimate government channels is an outrage that cries out for a legislative solution. Thirty states have already passed laws barring malicious litigation against innocent gun manufacturers. A federal law would put a stop to judicial abuses and leave gun policy to the legislatures. What an agreeably democratic change that would be." — Timothy Wheeler, M.D. is director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, a project of the Claremont Institute. The End By Any Means - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: LFA Editor Website: http://www.libertyforall.net ''So how is it that we can protect ourselves from evil power mad dictators and vengeful terrorists when our own government is becoming the very thing Americans say they despise? ''It is the ends that truly justify the means. But the ends are just the opposite of what our leaders say they intended. Then why don't our leaders recognize this and reduce the damaging effects of far too much government encroachment in our lives." Bush Administration to Study Global Warming - Cato Daily Dispatch for July 24, 2003 "In 'Brave New Climate,' Patrick Michaels, Cato Institute senior fellow in environmental studies, writes: 'I sincerely doubt that a panel of the most esteemed ecologists would argue that we should bring planetary temperature down. Perhaps the most logical temperature would be the average since the last big ice age, 11,000 years ago, about a degree warmer than today. The flowering of human civilization and its co-evolution with Earth's biota are the hallmark of the post-ice age regime. Consequently, it's a pretty good argument that the mean temperature during this period is a salubrious one. ''One could hone it a bit more,' he writes. 'The actual dawn of civilization occurred in a period climatologists used to call the 'climatic optimum' (before the current era of 'climatic hysteria') when the mean surface temperature was 1-2ºC warmer than today.'" 'Research' - Junkscience.com -- Main Page "'When I use a word' Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'... ...'Impenetrability! That's what I say!' --Through the Looking-Glass' (Number Watch)" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now conservatism is a mental disorder. Good grief!!!!!!!! How NOW on Breast Implants? - Junkscience.com ''As feminists campaign against FDA approval of silicone breast implants, 10 years of scientific research has dismissed a link between the implants and disease.'' (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com) Mona Charen: Killing the goose that laid the golden egg "When it comes to foreign policy, I sleep better at night knowing that Republicans control the White House and the Congress. But on health care, it has lately become difficult to imagine how things could be much worse with the Democrats in charge.---" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Socialized medicine threat rises again. Brent Bozell: Trashing the Army at the movies: "In the same week that Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch returned home to waving flags and ovations of love, Hollywood is sending out very different pictures. It's portraying the U.S. soldier as a crook and drug-dealing scumbag. The Miramax movie 'Buffalo Soldiers' begins its run in New York and Los Angeles just three days after Lynch's return home.---" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Movie fiction presented as fact. Class action shakedown - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CSE Author: Dick Armey ''Trial lawyers continue to exploit the American legal system. Will Congress finally stop the abuse?'' (7/24/03) The war on fat's casualties - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Author: Sandy Szwarc ''With all of the pressure to be thin, the onslaught of diet messages finds a ready audience. At any given time, up to 80 million American adults are on a diet. Women and children are the primary victims of this relentless harping.'' (7/24/03) Acrylamide news that went unnoticed - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Health Facts and Fears Author: Debra Korn ''The [Swedish] reports started a[n] [acrylamide] scare that spread like wildfire and will probably continue for some time. What's worse, though, is that new research, suggesting that banning French fries is pointless, is not making any headlines at all.'' (7/24/03) Environmental blame game rigged among humans - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: GPPF Author: Benita M Dodd ''For environmental activists and government regulators, the influence of humans has ... become the catchall explanation for stress on the environment, for environmental degradation and for non-compliance with federal standards. The blame game has been so successful that most Americans would accept without question that humans are the biggest scofflaws when it comes to the environment.'' (7/18/03) Congress has second thoughts on USA Patriot - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Alternet ''Taking a clear stand against anti-privacy provisions in the Patriot Act, the U.S. House of Representatives in an overwhelmingly bipartisan effort last night agreed to an amendment that would bar federal law enforcement from carrying out secret 'sneak and peek' searches without notifying the target of the warrant.'' (7/24/03) Swiss hospitals on verge of breakdown? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Swiss Info ''Doctors say that since obligatory health insurance was introduced in 1996, the Swiss seem to feel they have a right to healthcare. This tendency has increased as health insurance has become more expensive.'' (7/25/03) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Socialism strikes again. Robin Hood in reverse U.S. corporations deprive the needy with their greedy tax shelters - Recordnet.com By Arianna Huffington Record Staff Writer Published Friday, July 25, 2003 "All across corporate America, high-priced accountants are hard at work helping companies avoid billions in taxes by hiding profits in a host of tax-sheltering schemes.---" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Socialist Huffington doesn't know the difference between tax avoidance [which is legal] versus tax evasion [illegal]. Gun control maneuvers - The Washington Times: Commentary (Linda Chavez) "Gun control is a loser at the polls, and Democrats know it. Now, Sen. Orrin Hatch is putting a fly in the ointment by introducing a bill that puts gun control back in the spotlight and Democrats on the spot." Lawyers scream about ice cream - The Washington Times -- America's Newspaper Caroling Lee (THE WASHINGTON TIMES) "Trial lawyers and a consumer health group are teaming up to go after America's ice cream, sending out legal notices to six major chains this week as the group released a study criticizing ice cream's nutritional value." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oh, good grief!!!!!!!! Give me a break from the food fascists. Thursday, July 24, 2003
QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "By a very conservative estimate, a hundred million people have died at the hands of their own governments in this century. Given that record, how bad could anarchy be?" — Joseph Sobran Kids And Firearms - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft Website: http://www.idcwebdev.com ''Everyday, 10 American children ages 18 and under are killed in handgun suicide, homicides and accidents.'' "And how many of those are gang-related deaths or deaths in the commission of a crime?" ------- ''Nearly 3,000 teens use handguns to commit suicide every year.'' "So 8 out of those 10 'child deaths' are suicides." ------- ''An estimated 400,000 youngsters carried handguns to school in 1987.'' ... "And were there 400,000 school shootings in 1987?" ------- We made it! - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin ''In a free society, government has the responsibility of protecting us from others, but not from ourselves. Before government got into the business of protecting us from ourselves, we did have a greater measure of protection from others. Yesteryear's children rode their bikes or walked to a friend's house, knocked on the door and let themselves in. Many families didn't lock doors until the last family member was home for the evening, and they did that in poor neighborhoods ..." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Walter Williams comments on the Nanny state. Hate and Punishment - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin ''...Suppose there were three men named Furrow, each of whom killed from a different motive. Alfred Furrow shot a letter carrier because he had taken out a life-insurance policy on him and wanted to collect the benefits. Buford Furrow shot one because he disliked people of different ethnic backgrounds. Charles Furrow shot one because he wanted to prove to fellow gang members that he was a tough guy. ''Legally, these crimes are identical. That is, they all constitute premeditated murder." ... Can You Fight City Hall? - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: LFA Editor Website: http://www.libertyforall.net ''My experience has taught me that individuals can and do make a difference when they become involved at the local level. Here we find the essential key to throwing off chains created by an overbearing Nanny State. We must learn to reassert ourselves as true independent citizens and reclaim our stolen birthright, which is control of government. You should never miss the city/county council or commission meetings in your local area. If you have children, and even if you do not, you should never miss a school board meeting. Anywhere the State meets you should be there to witness it first hand and use your presence and voice to oppose each new link in the chain of our bondage as it is forged. You must be willing to speak in public before endless boards in the fight to close down the foundry that produces the shackles of regulation. You must be willing to call for and support the repeal of useless laws to help preserve your freedom and that of generations that will follow. Show up, you can fight City Hall." Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence United with the Million Mom March Statement on the Tiahrt Amendment - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft Website: http://www.idcwebdev.com [Excellent example of how blatantly anti-gun psychos will lie to support their war against the Second Amendment.--TA] ''We've all seen politicians do handstands for the NRA - that's nothing new, but right now a viewer from a distance would think the House floor was just a big game of NRA Twister.' ... ''Specifically, the so-called 'Tiahrt Amendment' would: ''Protect 'Bad Apple' Dealers Who Cannot Keep Track of Their Firearms.' ''Shield 'Bad Apple' Dealers From the Public Eye...' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To get the truth, Google this: "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act". [The Tiahrt Amendment at issue is the one related to this Act in the House.] Too many concealed-gun permits issued in N.H. - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft Website: http://www.idcwebdev.com ''Guns are used for hunting, target-shooting and, when there is a real threat against the gun owner, self-protection. In all three cases, there is no need to conceal the weapon.' ''But here in New Hampshire, the ability to carry a concealed weapon is a highly prized and protected privilege, whether or not there is a threat against the owner. . . . but it also leads to far too many hidden guns being carried into public places all across the state.'' ------- "And crime rates in New Hampshire are some of the lowest in the nation. So what exactly is this paranoid, pseudo-journalistic hack whining about?" Defenseless in DC - Keep and Bear Arms ''Sen. Hatch's bill has Democrats sputtering about 'home rule' since it would overturn a city law, but they'd rather not talk about gun control per se so close to an election year. I don't blame them.' ''There's no correlation between tough gun laws and lower crime. Indeed all the liberal prognostication on Florida's 'right to carry' law, the first in the nation in 1987, proved wrong. Not only did Florida's streets not turn into public shooting galleries, as liberals predicted, but 24 other states have followed suit. There has been no discernible increase in violence as a result and not a single conviction of a permit-holder for killing an innocent party.' ''Sen. Hatch has the right idea. Treat D.C. residents like responsible grownups-and citizens entitled to Second Amendment protection." NCPA - Daily Policy Digest - Economic Freedom Leads to Greater Democracy and Prosperity "---Freeing people economically unleashes individual drive and initiative and thus puts a nation on the road to economic growth, according to the Economic Freedom of the World: 2003 Annual Report, published jointly by the Fraser Institute, the Cato Institute and the Economic Freedom Network. "The key ingredients of economic freedom, says the report, are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete and the protection of person and property. Using 38 variables for each country, the report measures the institutions essential to ensuring the rule of law, property rights, freedom to trade, sensible regulation and reasonably sized government.--- "The report notes that Hong Kong is the most economically free, followed by Singapore, the United States, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. "The rankings of other large economies are Canada, 6; Germany, 20; Japan, 26; Italy, 35; France, 44; Mexico, 69; China, 100; India, 73; Brazil, 82; and Russia, 112. The bottom five nations are Guinea-Bissau, Algeria, Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Myanmar." Source: James Gwartney, Robert Lawson, Neil Emerick, "Economic Freedom of the World: 2003 Annual Report" The Fraser Institute, July 8, 2003. For text Click here For more on Freedom and Growth Click here NCPA - Daily Policy Digest - "Dumped" Imports Benefit Consumers "---The evidence suggests that the benefits to consumers from 'dumped' imports, in the form of cheaper products, are often significant. This does not include the manufacturing jobs created in industries that use imports to fabricate other products." Source: Kenneth H. Kelly et al., 'Quantifying Causes of Injury to U.S. Industries Competing With Unfairly Traded Imports: 1989 to 1994,' Federal Trade Commission, December 2002. For text Click here For more on Trade Benefits Click here Retrospective on August - www.numberwatch.co.uk ''Well, what a productive silly season we have had! On one day there were half a dozen junk stories in The Times alone. Then, of course, there's the Guardian Ecology Page. Most notable of all, however, was the apotheosis of Clive Bates, the egregious director of ASH. Always on hand with a totally over the top comment when news is hard to come by, he really hogged the British newspapers with some of his most creative balderdash.---" Chronology Of A Crisis - Bizarre Science "In 1996, BSE — or Mad Cow Disease — spread food hysteria across the Continent, as 10 people died from a new form of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease that was linked to contaminated beef. At one point, epidemiologists from Imperial College, London, predicted that vCJD could kill millions. So far, 139 have died, just a handful of them outside the U.K. The crisis is one of the most potent examples of how science can get risk wrong. "BSE would have to be one of the most stupid scares of all time. Just ask Numberwatch publisher John Brignell." posted by Aaron at 3:12 AM Marvin Olasky: Among the alienated, Marx lives "Many have proclaimed the death of Marxism, but C.S. Lewis said it best: Witches don't die, they merely come back in a modified form. And therein lies a story.---" Helle Dale: What you didn't hear in the media "There’s good news and bad news about Iraq. Wait a minute . . . there is good news? Yes, but except for the news that U.S. troops have killed two sons of Saddam Hussein in a fire fight, reporters have not been falling over themselves to share it.---" Clifford D. May: Kofi Talk "---Among Europe’s many criticisms of America is now this: We refuse to relinquish substantial authority in Iraq to the United Nations. Until and unless we do, we’re being told, don’t expect much military or economic support from overseas. "But if the UN has the expertise to quash rebellions and construct sound government institutions, why is that not on display in Liberia? Why is the UN pleading instead that for American troops to assume responsibility for restoring law and order in that distressed corner of Africa?---" EU ban on biotech hard to swallow - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Acton Institute Author: Amy Vroom ''[I]f the evidence that Americans have been eating corn flakes made with biotech corn for over ten years without incident isn't enough, the EU should look at the differences between traditional breeding methods and biotech breeding. Numerous scientific bodies ... have concluded that gene splicing techniques themselves are safer than traditional breeding methods ...'' (7/23/03) Chuck can borrow my copy of the Constitution - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: ciscja ''Chuck [Schumer] has written a letter to George Bush. In Burger King terms, that letter -- big as it is -- would be a Whopper Letter. I call it a Whopper Letter because it has actually rewritten the constitution.'' (7/23/03) Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine more concerned with animal rights - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CCF Author: staff ''Most Americans are too smart to knowingly take dietary advice from PETA. But when animal rights activists put on the sheep's clothing of the medical profession, it becomes harder to know who's credible. Force-feeding animal rights propaganda to Americans doesn't sound very 'responsible' to me.'' (7/23/03) The deficit distraction - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Town Hall Author: Alan Reynolds ''There are more or less efficient ways of financing federal spending. But allowing government spending to grow faster than incomes of private households and firms is always dangerous. To focus on deficits and taxes is to miss the point.'' (7/24/03) Weapons of political destruction - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Town Hall Author: Thomas Sowell ''Does anyone doubt that our demonstration of resolve and power in Iraq is what has made other terrorist-supporting nations start to back off? Unfortunately, that effect is being rapidly eroded by politicians who know that their only chance of winning the 2004 presidential election is by discrediting President Bush.'' (7/24/03) The Viagra monologues - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Town Hall Author: Mike S Adams ''Last week I finally found the time to read it ['The Vagina Monologues'] in its entirety. I'll never be the same.'' (7/24/03) This land is my land - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: NCPPR Author: Ryan Balis ''[I]t is bitterly ironic that an international body has significant influence over the places that symbolize our nation's independence and national beauty. More substantively, the program poses a threat to national sovereignty.'' (7/03) Breaking the welfare chains - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CSE Author: Max Pappas ''One of the key ingredients in the 1996 reforms was the decision to reduce federal involvement by giving block grants to states and letting them both create their own plans and decide who is eligible for help. Besides shifting control to those closer to those in need, this also created 51 policy laboratories experimenting with different versions of reform.'' (7/23/03) Growing outrage - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Reason Author: Jacob Sullum ''Under the federal system ... a state can make marijuana legal for medical purposes, or for any purpose at all, and the national government has no authority to negate that decision. .... Substantial changes in the drug laws are most likely to come at the state level, but only if the federal government decides to step back and respect the Constitution.'' (7/23/03) Affirmative action isn't an education pass - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: AFF Author: Raul Damas ''[L]et's not give Democrats a pass on an issue as important as education. The next time somebody tells you how great it is that affirmative action was 'protected,' ask them what that means for the Black and Hispanic students still in the same failing schools they were in before the Court's decision.'' (7/21/03) The coming class struggle - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Author: Steve Antler ''What we need are laundry tags for political ideas. Future generations would thank us for them. We should start work right now because class struggle -- once a fundamental aspect of left wing ideology -- is certain to migrate from left to right quite soon.'' (7/23/03) Declaring war on postal employees? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Washington Post ''A presidential commission examining ways to improve the U.S. Postal Service has recommended several strategies businesses use, including a pay for performance system. That led to the USPS union president stating, 'They've declared war on postal employees.'" (7/24/03) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Union leaders in government monopolies hate cost saving measures. Liberal Bias Permeates College Texts, Professor Warns - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "Emphasizing the problem of economic and religious biases in college history books, professor and author Burt Folsom told an audience of young conservatives Tuesday to be more aware of what they are reading and to be unafraid to challenge the views of educators." Full Story Wednesday, July 23, 2003
LEFT LIVING A LIE? - Glenn Reynolds: Instant punditry on culture, politics, and the law "---But what I am now coming to appreciate is that increasing numbers of persons on the Left create in their minds a false world in which to live — a world that better suits their preconceptions. They are not content to disagree with the goals of their opposition or about predictions of future policy results. They must make up facts about the world that fit their theories — like the “homeless” crisis that immediately vanished when Clinton took office. Their world is really and truly socially constructed. In their world Cuba really is a better place, as was the USSR up until the moment it collapsed, at which point those on the Left retroactively became anti-communists who had long struggled to bring down what they formerly claimed was a better and more just society.---" RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS (Web log) - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Randy Hudson "Law professor Randy Barnett, on Glenn Reynolds' MSNBC web log, has 3 days of interesting remarks about the 2nd Amendment, with more to come." QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." — Tench Coxe in `Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution' under the Pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1. War on Drugs causes patients to suffer needlessly - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: LFA Editor Website: http://www.libertyforall.net "As a pain clinic nurse told me recently, all doctors could treat pain, but unfortunately very few choose to treat pain. A patient who requests pain medication is immediately suspected of being a junkie, labeled a 'drug-seeker' and treated accordingly. ... Often, patients are told that they are depressed. Gee, I can't imagine why anyone living in constant agony, treated like a drug addict and ignored or yelled at by doctors would be depressed." Anti-Brady Bill sheriff joins Libertarian Party - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: LFA Editor Website: http://www.libertyforall.net "The Arizona sheriff whose legal challenge against the Brady Bill went all the way to the Supreme Court and ended with a historic victory for states' rights has joined the Libertarian Party. Richard Mack, 50, became an LP member in June, saying that Republicans and Democrats 'have had a monopoly on our political system and have made a mess of it. It's high time for a change and some fundamental competition.'" No Defense in the Workplace--Again - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Anonymous "It has been pretty quiet in the media since the July 8, 2003, Meridian, Mississippi Lockheed-Martin workplace shooting and massacre by racist hot-head wacko-employee Doug Williams." "Although Mississippi is a concealed carry state, it is a foregone conclusion that Lockheed-Martin probably prohibited licensed CCW holders from having, carrying, or accessing a personal defense weapon while on company property." "Isn’t it interesting how victims always obey the rules and the predators don’t?" 'Physicians Committee' Should Come Clean About Animal-Rights Agenda Posted On July 23, 2003 "The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an animal-rights front group claiming to be a medical charity, launched a media campaign this week featuring reckless charges about health risks supposedly connected with eating meat.--- "The established medical community has soundly rejected PCRM's dietary advice in the past. The American Medical Association (AMA) has written that it "finds the recommendations of PCRM irresponsible and potentially dangerous to the health and welfare of Americans." In a separate public censure, the AMA marveled at "how effectively a fringe organization of questionable repute continues to hoodwink the media with a series of questionable research that fails to enhance public health.---" Current Editorial: Our Reply to a Climate-Alarmist Newspaper Editorial - Junkscience.com: ''Summary: Sometimes some of the stuff we read is just too false to ignore.'' (co2science.org) The Body Mass Index and other myths - Junkscience.com ''Aside from wealth, fame, and good looks, what do Michael Jordan, Jerry Rice, Joe Montana, Barry Bonds, Italian soccer star Roberto Baggio, Kevin Costner, Richard Gere, and Pierce Brosnan have in common?'' (Jim Duzak) When Food Goes Bad: CHEMICALS, CHEMICALS - Junkscience.com -- Main Page ''...Enter, preservatives: chemicals that are added to prepared foods to extend their lives -- and ours. Yes, they are chemicals. And yes, they are additives because, obviously, they have been added. (So have salt, sugar, spices, vitamins and so on.) Quite simply, without preservatives most of our foods would spoil. ''And yet we are continually wooed by food labels demurely hinting at their superiority with the phrase, 'Contains no additives or preservatives.' (Some day, I'd like to see a label that adds, 'Will spoil the minute you get it home.')'' (Robert L. Wolke, Food 101, The Washington Post) Thanks for the Mammaries - OpinionJournal - Scene & Heard "---A manufacturer of implants, Dow Corning, became a cause célèbre for activists and the mother's milk of the plaintiffs bar. As recently as last year, the flattened company agreed to pay the federal government $9.8 million for the treatment of women with diseases studies now say were unrelated. "But the science was always dubious, and in 1999 the Institute of Medicine reported there was no basis for the claims. In fact, none of the alleged autoimmune diseases could be found to have any higher incidence in women who had had their breasts enlarged. Oh well. The fees the lawyers collected fed the pot for attacking politically unpopular industries--from tobacco and firearms to HMOs. Dow Corning eventually filed for bankruptcy.---" Book review: 'Bountiful Harvest' - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Carolina Journal Author: George Leef '''Bountiful Harvest' is a marvelous counterattack against the technophobes and environmental doomsayers.'' (6/25/03) Coral calcium and the true believers - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Health Facts and Fears Author: Debra A Korn ''[E]ven when there are no direct negative health consequences, money is usually wasted when consumers believe extraordinary claims advertised in magazines, television infomercials, and websites, and their time and attention is diverted from treatments that work. That was the case with Coral Calcium Supreme ...'' (7/21/03) NAS gets it right on new dioxin regulation - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Heartland Institute Author: James M Taylor ''After decades at the top of the list of 'deadly chemicals' decried by liberal environmentalists, dioxin's risk has been found to be too small to merit new government regulations.'' (7/23/03) Malthusian twaddle - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Reason Author: Ronald Bailey ''Many readers of my column about 'Real Environmental Racism' decided that I might finally see the error of my ways if I would just read Daniel Quinn's novel 'Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit.' So I read it.'' (7/23/03) Daily distortion: Give up the drug money - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: Dustin Lovell ''Why should the rest of us pay 400 billion dollars to buy drugs for people that can already afford them? Who's paying for my medication when I get sick? Who's paying for doctor visits why my family goes in? Oh, that's right. I am.'' (7/22/03) Bush administration embraces the welfare state - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Cato Institute Author: Chris Edwards and Tad De Haven ''Bush wants to show that he is 'compassionate' with his conservatism. But big-time social spending sure isn't compassionate to federal taxpayers.'' (7/23/03) Dying to be thin - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Author: Sandy Szwarc ''The war on obesity has been fought for almost forty years, yet our nation is now so fat, according to some, a crisis has been declared. Often brazenly overlooking or distorting the scientific evidence, diet admonitions ... have succeeded in creating a nation preoccupied with thinness, but one suffering as a result.'' (7/23/03) Big Food lawsuits mean the end of American way of life - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: St Paul Pioneer Press Author: Joe Soucheray ''As the war against Big Food unfolds, watch out. Your vehicle will be under attack, your house, your job.'' (7/23/03) Family's Dream Home Sits Empty - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "Beware of buying property overlooking a scenic spot. A Washington couple learned the hard way that preservationists don't take kindly to homes with a view." Read the story Vox Populi: Leave Our Kids Alone - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "Our report on efforts to make sure parents are present when their kids are questioned by police in California schools prompted one mother to relate her experience with the local school system and her seven-year-old daughter." Read Letters to the Editor Commentary: Rep. Pete Stark: Raving Lunatic - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "The committee brawl that Rep. Bill Thomas is expected to discuss on Wednesday featured Rep. Pete Stark, a California Democrat, whom columnist Michelle Malkin describes as 'the foul-mouthed poster boy for Liberal Double Standards.'' Read the commentary Fact-O-Rama -- In Combat, Size Matters "Among the factors involved in the issue of placing women in combat units are the range of physiological differences between men and women. One of these factors is physical size and strength. “The average female recruit has from 50%-70% of the strength, stamina, and muscle mass of the average male recruit with the greatest disparity existing in the female's upper body strength. Since the major physical capacity requirements for many military jobs are deemed to be lifting and carrying, upper body strength is a limiting factor for women in these jobs.” (SOURCE: Federation of American Scientists) Second Amendment Cases Full of 'Legal Trickery' -- 07/23/2003: "A senior official with a pro-Second Amendment group is charging gun control advocates of manipulating the legal system to find better venues for cases involving firearm manufacturers and whether they should be held liable in cases where guns are used to commit crimes.---" Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Fox Newswatch Picks Up Evidence of Bias that CyberAlert Detailed "You read it here first. FNC’s Fox Newswatch over the weekend cited CyberAlert indirectly as an example of the “new media” that gets out information that has been ignored by the mainstream media, and picked up on two subjects addressed recently in CyberAlerts: The tendency of the networks to portray prescription drug coverage advocates for lobbying groups as typical seniors suffering from high drug prices and how liberals, such as Julianne Malveaux and Nina Totenberg, were not punished for advocating the death of conservatives, but MSNBC fired Michael Savage for wishing AIDS and death upon a caller to his show.---" Networks Virtually Ignore Anti-Regime Protests in Iran "Using statistics compiled by the Media Research Center, the Washington Times on Monday editorialized that while the networks are “fixated” on the controversy over a single sentence in President Bush’s State of the Union address, they are missing a much more significant story: the swelling anti-government protests in fundamentalist-controlled Iran. [Rich Noyes, the MRC’s Director of Research, submitted this item for CyberAlert.]---" CNN’s Woodruff Fails to Point Out Distortion in DNC Ad She Plays "CNN’s Judy Woodruff showcased, on Monday’s Inside Politics, a new Democratic National Committee ad attacking President Bush over his State of the Union claim about Iraq seeking uranium in Africa, but she failed to point out how the DNC ad distorted Bush’s words by dropping the first six words of his sentence, which attributed his assertion to how “the British government has learned,” and only used the last ten words of the 16-word sentence. "The sentence in question in full: 'The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.'---" Overlawyered: It's raining money for Mo. governor "Against a backdrop of growing political difficulties for Missouri Governor Robert Holden, 'how did Holden's campaign pile up an impressive $623,245 in contributions? Who are the governor's backers and why are they opening their wallets? ... Reports filed last week show that the biggest identifiable chunks of money the last three months came from two groups: trial lawyers and labor unions.' Holden just vetoed a bill that would have limited damages in lawsuits. Besides giving more than $80,000 to his campaign in the last quarter, lawyers also gave $240,000 to the Missouri Democratic Party." (Virginia Young, 'Lawyers, unions give big to Holden war chest', St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jul. 21.) Posted by Walter Olson at July 21, 2003 02:01 PM Overlawyered: Beaumont and its reputation "Lawyers and judges in Beaumont, Texas are far from pleased to hear their city called a 'judicial hellhole' and 'the Barbary Coast for class-action litigation.' 'Defense lawyer James R. ('Jay') Old Jr. says the county has unfairly gotten a reputation as a place where 'the plaintiffs and defense bar work together to combine for the greatest amount of billables for the defense lawyers and the greatest recoveries for the plaintiff''. Why, sir, the very idea is preposterous! Besides, there's a silver lining in the city's reputation as a forum-shopping destination for lawyers around the state and country: 'In fairness, it represents to us an industry. It puts a lot of people to work here,' says Jim Rich, who heads the Beaumont Chamber of Commerce. However, things might be changing: recent elections have shifted the three-member appeals court that oversees Beaumont to a 2-1 Republican edge, from 3-0 Democratic." (Terry Maxon, 'Beaumont known for torts', Dallas Morning News, Jul. 20). Posted by Walter Olson at July 21, 2003 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How goes it in your city? QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "If you think it's wrong to kill someone who is about to kill you, you are too stupid to be allowed to vote." — Michael James I was ejected from a plane for wearing 'Suspected Terrorist' button - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin ''Your readers already know about my opposition to useless airport security crap. I'm suing John Ashcroft, two airlines, and various other agencies over making people show IDs to fly -- an intrusive measure that provides no security. But I would be hard pressed to come up with a security measure more useless and intrusive than turning a plane around because of a political button on someone's lapel.'" Modern Liberalism: The State Church of the Left - The Washington Dispatch - Opinion Via: http://www.keepandbeararms.com/news/kabanews/disp.asp?d=7/22/2003 "---This is the ideology of Modern Liberalism, what some call dysfunctional morality, what others call Statism, and what the communists at the UN call “civil society.” It is today’s state church, the heavy-handed religion of the left; and the fact that roughly 50 percent of all America worship before this alter of state, begging for free food, unjust privileges and endless moral accommodations, stands as a sad testimony of the pathetic state of religion, morality and education in the United States today." NCPA - Daily Policy Digest - None Dare Call it Barratry Daily Policy Digest Tuesday, July 22, 2003 "Not content with class action lawsuits, some California trial lawyers specialize in demanding cash settlements from thousands of businesses in exchange for not suing them. These shakedown suits don't require allegations of injury -- or even the inconvenience of clients: just the threat of a lawyer armed with California's bizarre consumer protection laws.---" CSPI's '9 Percent' Approval Rating "---CSPI [Center For Science In The Public Interest] hopes to take advantage of a flawed perception described by Financial Times columnist Patti Waldmeir, who writes that obesity lawsuits 'are increasingly seen as democracy at work.' But actually, concludes Waldmeir, the opposite is true: 'One judge or jury, viewing one lawsuit, should not decide fat policy for an entire nation.' "The food cops at CSPI support obesity lawsuits precisely because they want one judge or jury to decide fat policy for the entire nation. Michael Jacobson knows CSPI's positions are unpopular. So he hopes to sidestep democracy, and place his trust in lawyers like John Banzhaf. If Banzhaf follows through on his plan to 'sue them and sue them and sue them,' perhaps he will eventually find that one jury willing to legally impose his views (and CSPI's) on the rest of us." FRANKENSTEIN FOOD SAFER THAN ORGANIC - Pennington attacks GM critics and vegetarians - Junkscience.com ''SCOTLAND'S top food expert revealed yesterday he'd rather eat so- called Frankenstein Food than organic produce. "Professor Hugh Pennington launched a scathing attack on critics of genetically modified food. "He claimed organic fruit and vegetables - backed as a healthy option by supporters such as Prince Charles - are as dangerous as mass-produced food.'' (Sunday Mail) the party of sabotage - NEALZ NUZE: "David Horowitz calls the Democratic Party the party of sabotage." Click here Mona Charen: Did we lose the war in Iraq? Via: http://www.boortz.com/nealznuz.htm "---I hope I'll be forgiven an 'I told you so' of my own. Five months ago, I was asked at a public forum for a prediction about how liberals would respond to the stunning victory in Iraq. I said they'd probably start complaining if the country wasn't a Madisonian democracy within three months. These are the same people who were ready to declare the war a 'quagmire' when we hadn't defeated the enemy in two weeks (it took three).---" I GUESS ONLY REPUBLICAN LIES COUNT - NEALZ NUZE: "'The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.' "That statement is true. It is not a lie. The British government is standing by its intelligence assessment to this very day. So, the Democrats want to take a statement which has been verified as true, and somehow turn it into a lie in their TV commercial. Just how do you go about that? Easy, you just eliminate the first five words. On the Democrats television commercial you will see Bush simply say 'Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.' "This is blatantly dishonest. The Democrats are showing you that they will lie in order to gain some political advantage -- in this case, raising funds. But where is the media outrage? I can't watch every television news show, but on those that I have watched only one news program has pointed out that the Demcorats eliminated five words from this quote to completely change its meaning. That news channel was, of course, Fox News. Liberals will tell you that by showing what the Demcorats did with this quote Fox News Channel is proving its right-wing bias.---" Pull the plug on Medicare? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: AFF Author: Matthew Grady ''[I]t seems clear that Congress is focused on the wrong problem when it comes to prescription drugs. Discussion in Washington has focused on what type of subsidy should be granted to seniors to help alleviate drug costs while large barriers to cost-reducing investment and innovation stand unnoticed.'' (7/21/03) False rape charges hurt real victims - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Ifeminists Author: Wendy McElroy ''How prevalent is the false reporting of sexual assault? .... Studies and statistics often vary and for legitimate reasons. .... But such a dramatic variance -- two percent to 50 percent -- raises the question of whether political interests are at work.'' (7/22/03) Joseph P Overton: Character for a free society - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Mackinac Center Author: Lawrence W Reed ''A free society flourishes when people seek to be models of honor, honesty and propriety. .... Those who favor the steady advance of liberty must assign top priority to raising the caliber of their own character and learning from those who already have it in spades.'' (7/22/03) Liberal or conservative? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Strike the Root Author: Cat Farmer ''Pop quiz. Is it liberal, or conservative, ideology to accept the following notions as true?'' (7/22/03) Daily distortion: AP and uranium-gate - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: Cody Hatch ''Bush made it clear that the British government was the source of his claim, and they stand by their story. ... I don't really understand, short of partisan politics, why people are so caught up in this dubious claim that Bush lied. He very well may have, but if this is the best evidence Bush's detractors can come up with, I'm less than impressed.'' (7/21/03) New funeral regulations do not benefit customers - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Cato Institute Author: David E. Harrington ''Opening up the funeral market to more competition would make life -- and death -- easier to handle. Sadly, most states are stampeding in the wrong direction.'' (7/22/03) Ted Kennedy loves the Medicare bill - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Town Hall Author: Bruce Bartlett ''For conservatives, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, is like a canary. When he starts supporting their initiatives, they should get out.'' (7/22/03) Freedom Book of the Month, July 2003 - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Free-Market.Net Author: Don L. Tiggre '''[I]t's the fight of the individual against the cumbersome machinery of the state, and his victory against it, even with all the weight of law on its side, that makes this book such a great pro-freedom read.' Can you guess what wildly popular book Tiggre means?" (7/22/03) Dr. Wiley and the pure food law - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Health Facts and Fears Author: Jack C Fisher ''[H]istorians often attribute passage of the nation's first pure food and drug law to the 1906 publication of Upton Sinclair's instantly popular novel, 'The Jungle', a lurid tale of dereliction and abject filth in the meatpacking industry. But there was more to it than that.'' (7/17/03) Federal gov tosses $4 million at child obesity 'problem' - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Boston Globe "The U.S. Surgeon General was among those launching a $4 million program to educate doctors, community leaders, and families about childhood obesity, and to encourage exercise." (7/22/03) ~~~~~~~~~~~~ File under "Police State" and "Food Nannies". California judge okays $1.1 billion Microsoft settlement - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: ZDNet ''A California judge ... gave preliminary approval to a landmark settlement under which Microsoft will pay $1.1 billion to settle a class-action suit that claimed it overcharged consumers for Windows.'' (7/21/03) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~` File under "Lawsuit Abuse" and "Rule by Lawyers". Affirmative Action Foe Fires Back at Lawmaker's Insult -- 07/22/2003 By Marc Morano CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer July 22, 2003 "American Civil Rights Institute Chairman Ward Connerly, a black man who has successfully fought raced-based policies in California, responded to Congressman John Dingell's appeal to stay away from the state of Michigan by calling the congressman 'narrow-minded and venomous.'---" Horatius Pipes - The Washington Times: Commentary (Frank J. Gaffney Jr.) "A long-term, global and often violent struggle for the soul of Islam being waged by the radical state religion of Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism, backed by the full resources, royal family and government of that kingdom." Monday, July 21, 2003
Wash Post Cites Gephardt’s “Pledge to Fill Taxpayers' Pockets” "Strangest photo caption of the weekend. Under a photo in Sunday’s Washington Post of Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt, with his hand on the shoulder of an older man in Iowa as the two seemed to converse: “After a July 10 speech by Gephardt, left, in Emmetsburg, Iowa, Martin Eischen, right, accepts the presidential hopeful's pledge to fill taxpayers' pockets.---” Federal Reserve Inflation Punishes Saving "---The real measure of inflation is the increase in the money supply. Chairman Greenspan, through his relentless cutting of interest rates, has made it possible for banks to flood the worldwide economy with dollars. In fact the money supply, as measured by a figure economists call M3, has nearly doubled since 1996. "This increase in the money supply ultimately causes price inflation, despite the government’s claims. When the money supply rises quickly relative to a fixed amount of goods and services, prices always go up. In other words, more dollars chasing the same number of consumables results in higher prices.---" 'Public balks at obesity lawsuits': "July 21, 2003 "Per a Gallup Poll conducted July 7-9, 'nearly 9 in 10 Americans (89%) oppose holding the fast-food industry legally responsible for the diet-related health problems of people who eat that kind of food on a regular basis. Just 9% are in favor. Those who describe themselves as overweight are no more likely than others to blame the fast-food industry for obesity-related health problems, or to favor lawsuits against the industry.' (Lydia Saad, Gallup News Service, Jul. 21). Some opinion pieces: Kathleen Parker, 'A ludicrous premise for a lawsuit: Obesity is the food's fault', Chicago Tribune, Jul. 16('It's hell living in a rich country with too much to eat, isn't it? ... The idea that restaurants are trying to make food taste better by combining sugar or fat to their protein, also known as 'cooking,' hardly qualifies as criminal conduct.'; Robert Tracinski, 'Reductio ad Totalitarianism', Ayn Rand Institute, Jun. 26 (quotes our editor)('The problem with the 'reductio ad absurdum' argument, one of my philosophy teachers once warned me, is that your opponent may simply embrace the logical end result of his ideas -- no matter how absurd it is. And that's exactly what is happening now.'); Patti Waldmeir, 'In America it takes lawsuits to change lives', Financial Times, Jul. 21 ('the point is publicity, not liability. ... My children have never seen a McDonald's advert: they know instinctively that fat is good"). QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "Some of the worst abuses of government force in recent years were precipitated by technical and victimless gun-law violations. For example, the BATF claimed that the Branch Davidians possessed machine guns without paying the required federal tax and filling in the proper registration forms. So a tax case worth less than $10,000 led to a 76-man helicopter, machine gun, and grenade assault on a home in which 2/3 of the occupants were women and children." — Dave Kopel and Dr. Michael S. Brown, Prohibition Fever, NationalReview.com Some discontented Americans eyeing Canada- - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin "...Although each has distinct motives for packing up, they agree the United States is growing too conservative and believe Canada offers a more inclusive, less selfish society... ''For decades, even while nurturing close ties with the United States, Canadians have often chosen a different path - establishing universal health care, maintaining ties with Cuba, imposing tough gun-control laws..." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fleeing to the Canadian "Heaven On Earth" [The great socialist/communist dream.] Revenge of the Bill of Rights - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: LFA Editor Website: http://www.libertyforall.net ''Authoritarian-minded folks would argue that if citizens could do anything the government does, we'd have utter chaos. But libertarians know that it's government run amok, doing all sorts of things that citizens can't do, that causes the chaos. What was legal yesterday is illegal today. What wasn't regulated then is regulated now. What belongs to us can belong to the government whenever they wish to take it, under whatever pretext of legalized thievery they choose to invent. How can any of us make long-range plans in an atmosphere of government chaos?" Bucks influencing votes? - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: RPA-PAC Website: http://www.rpa-pac.org ''The Associated Press looked at six measures in the House - medical malpractice, class action lawsuits, overhauling bankruptcy laws, the energy bill, gun manufacturer lawsuits and overtime pay - and compared lawmakers' votes with the financial backing they received from interest groups supporting or opposing the legislation." Tony Martin refused leave 'because of risk to burglars' - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Blacksnake ''Tony Martin, the farmer who killed a criminal who broke into his house, has been denied a preparatory home visit before his release on parole next week because he is considered to be a 'danger to burglars'.'' ------- "Criminals continue to have more rights than subjects in the UK..." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Coming soon to the USA? Living the outlaw life: The Quisling Effect by Claire Wolfe: "---Juan Fuentes was just a man minding his own business. On the morning of August 23, 2000 three neighbor children, Jessica, Anna, and Vanessa Carpenter, rushed up pounding his door. Anna was bleeding from dozens of puncture wounds. All three were desperate. A naked intruder had broken into their home and was at that moment savaging their little brother and sister with a pitchfork. The girls begged Fuentes to get his gun and save the little ones' lives. But Fuentes said no. It wasn't that he was afraid to confront the intruder; with his rifle he could easily have dropped a pitchfork wielder. No, it was the government he was more terrified of. They'll take my gun away if I do that, he told the desperate girls, whose brother and sister were dying horribly at that moment. To compound the horror, the girls' own father, John Carpenter, had locked away the family pistol in obedience to California's 'child-safe' storage laws. All five Carpenter children knew how to shoot and how to handle guns safely, but because their father feared the law more than he feared an armed intruder, they couldn't save themselves or each other.---" Lawsuit Challenging Federal Campaign Finance Laws Moving to Supreme Court - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Melissa (skypod) Website: http://profiles.yahoo.com/skypod ''The District Court decision was a slow, soft, pitch down the middle of the plate, and we hope to hit it out of the park on appeal to the Supreme Court.' ''It took three federal judges five months to write 1,638 pages to justify how it was constitutional for Congress to control and criminalize public criticism of members of Congress.' ''Each judge wrote a separate opinion. They agreed on less than they disagreed. The whole decision should be a red flag to the Supreme Court that something is very, very wrong with the campaign finance law.---" Privatized military services - National Center for Policy Analysis "Privatized military services are a $100 billion industry that the Pentagon uses to an increasing extent, say analysts.... " Deficit PoliticsNCPA - Daily Policy Digest "Last week's announcement that the federal budget deficit will reach $455 billion this fiscal year (which ends on September 30), brought predictable denunciations from the Democrats. It's not so much that Democrats care about deficits -- after all, they are the party that invented deficit spending -- they just want to score points against the Republicans, says Bruce Bartlett. "Politically, the main importance of the deficit is that it undermines the case for tax cuts, notes Bartlett. Indeed, every Democrat running for president next year would reverse already-enacted tax cuts, at least in part. They want the higher revenues to pay for increased spending, rather than deficit reduction. But higher deficits make their case easier.---" Using lawyers to lower your living standards - Bizarre Science Climate Change Reaches the Courts Published by Climate Justice Programme, 2003/07/14. "An unprecedented alliance of 70 environmental organisations, lawyers, academics and individuals in 29 countries have today announced their backing for legal cases to combat climate change. Under the umbrella of the international and collaborative Climate Justice Programme, they want to see existing laws enforced to help present and future generations and hold the perpetrators of climate damage accountable and liable for the consequences of their actions. These cases have already started. "If they win, expect a massive increase in your cost of living. [With no corresponding beneficial effects on climate. - TA] posted by Aaron at 9:34 PM Prime Time Consumer Freedom - ConsumerFreedom.com (7/21/03) '''I would not be surprised to see McDonald's paying more than $50 billion over the next decade' in 'punitive damages' and 'compensation for pain and suffering,' greedy trial lawyer John Banzhaf told a British newspaper yesterday. But thanks to ABC News, around seven million Americans saw the Center for Consumer Freedom's advertisement mocking buffoons like Banzhaf, who are trying to turn food companies into their next cash cow." The nonsense continues - Junkscience.com ''Islanders consider exodus as sea level rises - 'Tuvalu leaders look for a new home before waves wash their low-lying country away' (The Guardian) ''Venice's 1,500-year battle with the waves - 'For the people of Prague and Dresden, last summer's flooding was devastating - but the sort of unwelcome surprise that cities around the world will have to get used to as global warming causes sea levels to rise.' (BBC News Online) ''Decades of devastation ahead as global warming melts the Alps - 'A mountain of trouble as Matterhorn is rocked by avalanches' (The Observer, UK)" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Good grief!!! - What BS. Food Not Addictive: Scientists' Work Taken Out Of Context - Junkscience.com ''Last month we noted that no one (with the exception of animal rights lunatic Neal Barnard) supports legal shark John Banzhaf's theory that fast food is addictive. Now we know why. "The scientific research on the supposedly addictive nature of food, with which Banzhaf merrily threatens restaurants, was misrepresented. So say the scientists themselves.'' (Center For Consumer Freedom) Science historians ponder naming “enemies” in science literature - Junkscience.com "In a perspective article published in the July 4, 2003 issue of the journal Science, Arizona State University biologists and historians of science Matthew Chew and Manfred Laubichler discuss a fundamental problem in the science of ecology - its use of metaphorical language. "In the process, they are asking a question that has even greater consequences: can the way scientists communicate their findings warp or even dangerously mislead our perspective on science’s meaning?" (ASU) Adult ADD - NEALZ NUZE "For all of you drug fans out there .. you know, the ones who take such delight in drugging your children with Ritalin every day … here’s a bit about the newest health fraud: Adult ADD!" Click here no worse tyranny - NEALZ NUZE: "There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him." -- Robert Heinlein Sue the lawyers - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CFIF Author: staff ''In a role reversal, corporations are moving up the pleading cover sheet to become plaintiffs, rather than defendants, in litigation related to frivolous lawsuits. And with an added twist, corporations are suing the lawyers who at one time represented the plaintiffs who filed suit in the first place.'' (7/18/03) Cartoon on the latest way to get rich quick, courtesy of lawyer John Banzhaf. (7/8/03) Via: Fee-market.net Get rich quick.bmp Lost opportunities - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Hoover Institution Author: Eric A. Hanushek ''One way to look at the costs of failed education reforms is to calculate the added money we put into our schools with no improvement in student performance. These costs, although significant, pale in comparison to the opportunity costs to our economy.'' (7/21/03) Do not bother - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: AFF Author: Joanne McNeil ''Telemarketing is a nuisance, but if it were unbearably so, we would have voluntarily sought out solutions. Nothing is 'free' or 'easy' if it is provided by the government. The cost of this regulation will be large, and unfortunately, indirect and unseen.'' (7/21/03) Never-till farming a boon to the environment - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Heartland Institute Author: Dennis T Avery ''[T]he biggest factor in soil health is a recently discovered gooey protein called glomalin, produced naturally in soil by the mychorrizal fungi that live on the roots of most plants. Organic farming not only has no advantage in producing soil health, but organic farmers destroy the glomalin with their frequent plowing to control weeds.'' (7/1/03) Report details Justice Department employees' civil liberties violations - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Kansas City Star ''A new report by internal investigators at the Justice Department has identified dozens of cases in which employees have been accused of serious civil rights and civil liberties violations.'' (7/21/03) Backlog of whistleblower cases growing in U.S. - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Washington Post ''Hundreds of whistleblower complaints about waste, fraud and abuse in government are going unexamined, with the backlog of cases at the Office of Special Counsel more than doubling in the past 18 months ...'' (7/21/03) Hotel Owners Must Pay City to Rent Rooms to Tourists - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "In San Francisco, a 'hotel conversion ordinance' is making it tough for small hotel owners to do what they do best." Read the story ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fascism by the Bay. Federal Judge Rules Gun Industry Not a 'Public Nuisance' - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "The latest attempt by opponents of the Second Amendment to hold the gun industry responsible for the actions of individuals who misuse firearms to commit crimes failed on Monday." In News This Hour Sunday, July 20, 2003
So when is it time to actually fight? - Unpopular Speech by Michael Webber "At the current rate of new 2nd amendment infringements actually fighting to enforce the U.S. Constitution is almost a certainty in our lifetime. Remember, it's better to fight and perhaps die for your rights than be guilty of allowing your children or grand children inherit oppression or worse, extermination." [more] America is a police state - Unpopular Speech by Neal Boortz "About 10 days ago, some obscure British diplomat opined that America was becoming a police state. This utterance brought on the usual expressions of outrage from Americans who have grown somewhat weary of the anti-American sentiments of foreign leftists. Now that the rhetoric has died down a bit, can we take a second look at what this anti-American firebrand had to say?" [more] Why the U.N. can never bring peace - Unpopular Speech by Bob Just "If you ask people what the U.N. stands for, most would probably answer "peace," or at least the world's best hope of peace. For millions around the world, a U.N.-fostered peace is more than a hope; it is an inevitable necessity. They put their full passion into ending war — or as a recent Walter Cronkite PBS series framed it — into "Avoiding Armageddon." The horror of war is what galvanizes them." [more] KLEIN'S LAWS - Unpopular Speech by Chuck Klein "KLEIN'S 1st LAW OF SURVIVAL: 'The second to last thing a morally responsible, prudent person wants to do is kill another human being regardless of how reprehensible, villainous or dangerous that person might be. The last thing this morally responsible, prudent person wants to do is be killed by that reprehensible, villainous and dangerous person.'"[more] IRS Takes Property After Computer Error; Refuses Compensation, Declines to Apologize - Unpopular Speech by National Center for Public Policy Research "Tax attorney Earl Epstein of Philadelphia testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee that one of his clients, whose name remained confidential, had had a lien placed on her small beauty shop by the Internal Revenue Service Collection Division. The lien was for unpaid taxes of approximately $175." [more] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Big Brother is never wrong. Dave Kopel & Richard Griffiths on CBS & Hitler on National Review Online "---Significantly, the Weimar law required the registration of most lawfully owned firearms, as do the laws of some American states. In Germany, the Weimar registration program law provided the information which the Nazis needed to disarm the Jews and others considered untrustworthy.[Emphasis added by TA] "The Nazi disarmament campaign began as soon as Hitler assumed power in 1933. While some genocidal governments (such as the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia) dispensed with lawmaking, the Nazi government followed the German predilection for the creation of large volumes of written rules and regulations. Yet it was not until March 1938 (the same month that Hitler annexed Austria in the Anschluss) that the Nazis created their own Weapons Law. The new law formalized what had been the policy imposed by Hitler using the Weimar Law: Jews were prohibited from any involvement in any firearm business.---" Trading A Constitutional Republic For Big Brother - Unpopular Speech by Chuck Baldwin "The principle of limited federal authority is the bedrock principle upon which our government was created. America's founders envisioned a nation of strong, independent but united states, and a very limited and myopic central system." [more] The legal system is now our enemy - Unpopular Speech by Dennis Prager "I was raised to believe that law is the glory of decent society; that the rule of law is the sine qua non of civilization; that international law is the greatest protector of human rights; that lawyers should be coupled with doctors as an elite profession to which a young person can aspire; that making laws is the great work of legislatures; that law schools are among the noble places of learning in society; that the title 'judge' was perhaps the highest appellation in society; and that the jury system is an essential component of a just society. Most of the preceding has become nonsense." [more] Where We're Headed - Unpopular Speech by Robert A. Waters "You're sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door. Half awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers. At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way. With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun." [more] WAKE UP CALL! - Unpopular Speech by Binyamin L. Jolkovsky "Here is something to think about: If Israel, with its limited resources, has the ability to track down Hamas' terror masters, why doesn't America? And, as Hamas is listed as a terrorist group by United States Department of Justice, why is the Jewish State coming under attack from the Bush administration when it is aggressively undertaking to target its leaders who openly — and proudly — proclaim their intention of raining and reigning hell on the West!?" [more] 13 Zero Tolerance Horror Stories - Unpopular Speech by George A. Clowes "It is a common conceit of many reformers and lawmakers that the problems of society can be solved simply by passing a law — then another, and another." [more] Jews vs. Anti-Semites: A View Without Fear or Favor - Unpopular Speech by Lev Navrozov "What Bob from Michigan finds necessary to add to my analysis is his understanding of the fatal role of Jews in the "Russian revolution" — and in all disasters of Christendom or mankind at large. He writes, "80% of the Bolsheviks were Jews." After "similar data" on the United States, Bob from Michigan asks me, "Please explain to me what is the mental illness of Jews that makes them Leftwing." [more] Unpopular Speech - Kindergarten Baby Destroys Bill of Rights "---I am an educator. I have sat in meetings years past, quite nauseated, where discussions were centered on students writing diaries of one kind and another. The emphasis was to develop 'better self expression.' One of the questions students were to answer when they were able to guess the correct answer to a math problem was 'how did that make you feel.' Yes, the jokes circulating on the Internet are correct. Many of you did not realize that joke was making fun of the process by which your rights were being systematically demolished by the mentally ill liberal left that is managing this nation for a number of totally psychotic and a-social causes, including animal rights, the NWO, Socialism, Political Correctness, and Communism.---" Read their lips: no new taxes - Recordnet.com By Charles Poochigian "---However, passing a state budget isn't a benign act. It's one with significant long-term implications for all of us. "Generally, those exerting the most pressure represent special interests satisfied with their piece of the budget pie. Neither the date on the calendar nor the cries of certain special interests make a bad budget any better. "Upon close inspection, it's obvious the budget being proposed is so flawed it's not worthy of support.---" Tripled vehicle fees are highway robbery - Recordnet.com By Tom McClintock "Illegal taxes are what political revolutions are made of. "Just ask King John, whose illegal taxes produced a tax-payer revolt that ended with the Magna Carta. "Or George III, whose illegal taxes provoked the American Revolution. "California's Royal Governor could profit from their example. "Gov. Gray Davis' action to triple the state vehicle tax is brazenly illegal.---" Saturday, July 19, 2003
An Afternoon With Eustace Mullins - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Melissa (skypod) Website: http://profiles.yahoo.com/skypod ''Eustace Mullins is the last living protege of Ezra Pound, the author of the only book burned in Germany since Hitler (a burning under the direction of Americans), and a former researcher for Joseph McCarthy. He's ... one of the most hated men in America in some circles. He belongs to no group, espouses no movement or party and doesn't give a damn what you think of him. ... Here's a piece of my conversation with him on his front porch on July 8th, 2003." Eating Away at the Fabric of Freedom - Unpopular Speech by Dave Kopel "Banning handguns, the gun prohibition lobbies accurately recognize, is not politically feasible to accomplish all at once. Accordingly, the lobbies often focus on measures which set the stage for moving towards near-prohibition in incremental steps. In pushing for pre-prohibition measures, the lobbies work hard to select measures which superficially seem to affect only a small minority of gun owners — so as to keep the tens of millions of gun owning American families on the political sidelines." [more] WorldNetDaily: Federal land grabs transforming American society "---A free society cannot exist where government controls the use of land and its resources. Nevertheless, governments – pushed by environmental extremist organizations – continue to buy private property at an unprecedented rate, and to issue new regulations to control the land they cannot yet afford. "People in rural areas have been fighting for years. Their screams of protest have been drowned out by the steady stream of propaganda about the wisdom of "protecting" the land for future generations.---" Capitalism Magazine: An Air(wave) of Confusion over Censorship by Wayne Dunn "I used to think liberals were the only ones confused over what 'censorship' is. We're all familiar with left-leaning celebs waxing political, but then when protested cry that their freedom of speech is being infringed. But recently censorship confusion came out of Nashville radio talk-show host Phil Valentine's conservative mike.---" Randy E. Barnett on Supreme Court & Sodomy on National Review Online "The more one ponders the Supreme Court's decision in Lawrence v. Texas, the more revolutionary it seems. Not because it recognizes the rights of gays and lesbians to sexual activity free of the stigmatization of the criminal law — though this is of utmost importance. No, the case is revolutionary because Justice Kennedy (and at least four justices who signed on to his opinion without separate concurrences) have finally broken free of the post-New Deal constitutional tension between a "presumption of constitutionality" on the one hand and "fundamental rights" on the other. Contrary to what has been reported repeatedly in the press, the Court in Lawrence did not protect a "right of privacy." Rather, it protected "liberty" — and without showing that the particular liberty in question is somehow "fundamental." Appreciation of the significance of this major development in constitutional law requires some historical background.---" Diversity Is Uniformity - Unpopular Speech by Gail Jarvis ''Diversity Workshops' are the current preferred indoctrination tool for modifying speech and behavior. Even though you may have heard of them, you may not know how widespread they are. Without fanfare, and with an assist from academia and the mainstream media, they have permeated our society, large cities as well as small towns. [more]" Propaganda: Nobody Does It Better Than America - The Texas Mercury "---Now, most libertarians or otherwise thoughtful people will react with dismay when told that most of their fellow human beings react so unthinkingly to sock-you-in-the-gut emotional propaganda. Unfortunately, most people are not capable of really thinking things out. Most people really do buy perfume because of the emotional imagery. Most people really do believe the 'independent expert', whether in politics or buying a car. Most people want to go with the crowd, or follow the leader. To do otherwise requires independent thought and the willingness to be ostracized, which is an unbearable psychological burden for many.---" Rich Lowry: Extreme Nonsense: "---Greens will reach for anything to prove the mayhem supposedly caused by our industrialized way of life. In its latest dire warning, the World Meteorological Organization even cited the unusual cold snaps in North America last winter as proof of the disasters wrought by global warming. Hey, it was 'extreme weather.' If you want 'proof' of global warming, look no further than how extremely cold you might have been in February." Paul Greenberg: How diversity became Orwellian "---I'd like to think George Orwell would also have seen through a current American orthodoxy: Diversity. By capital-D Diversity, of course, I don't mean a diversity of ideas, talents, aptitudes or experiences, but only a cosmetic, quota-derived Diversity. The kind that has succeeded Marxism on American campuses as the ideology du jour, de facto and now, thanks to Sandra Day O'Connor, de jure.---" Michelle Malkin: The N.Y. Times' 9-11 scam: "The New York Times -- unrelenting champion of the underprivileged, mighty battler against all corporate evils, and vehement opponent of Republican tax cuts for the 'rich and powerful' -- lives by a far more self-serving motto: All the corporate welfare that's fit to collect.---" Mike S. Adams: Uncle Tom's Cuban "I used to consider white liberals who praise Fidel Castro to be the most despicable people imaginable. That’s probably because I have to deal with these people on a regular basis. I call them Starbuck’s Socialists. You know the type. They spend about ten dollars a day to have other people make their coffee while they read the $20 deluxe edition of The Communist Manifesto at Barnes and Noble. They also spend a fortune to send their children to private schools with other white kids. Most of them are college professors. "But now I’ve changed my mind. I’ve decided that black liberals who praise Fidel Castro are just as repugnant.---" Shades of the Twilight Zone - Townhall.com by David Limbaugh (7/19) "When I talked to Democrats and listened to their spokesmen on TV following the Bush-Gore post-election battles, I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone." David Limbaugh: Shades of the Twilight Zone "---Is there a legitimate debate in the scientific community about the existence, severity, cause and effects of global warming? If it turns out that this phenomenon has been overblown, how will the history books record the moralistic, alarmist rantings of the intelligentsia? How do history books today record the rantings of this same class of people who were just as sure a generation ago that global cooling was the world-threatening menace?---" Neil Cavuto: We are what we eat "---I'm fat because I like to eat, not because someone made me eat. It's an important distinction and one worth remembering now, because a lot of lawyers are set to tell me that it's not my fault I like to eat. It's the fast-food industry's fault for 'sucking me in' to eat. What a relief to hear that! All these years I've been blaming myself for my gluttony, when in fact, it was McDonald's and Arby's and Burger King and Pizza Hut all conspiring in a calorie-busting cabal to turn me into the slothful pig I've become.---" Amir Taheri: Running Iraq "Two months after he arrived in Baghdad, L. Paul Bremer III, the American interim ruler of Iraq, has confounded doomsayers by creating an interim Iraqi authority as the first step towards democratisation in that war-torn land. "The new authority, presented as a governing council, is the most representative that Iraq has seen since its creation as a state in 1921.---" Urban Residents Must Do Without Modern Supermarket Amenities - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "A grocery store's alleged historic value is preventing the store's owners from serving their customers to the best of its ability." Read the story ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Preservation activist fascists. Cal Poly Defends Free Speech Policy Amid Dispute With White Student - CNSNews.com "The involvement of university administrators in a campus dispute at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo is getting 'more and more outrageous every day,' according to the white student who was ordered to apologize for posting a flyer at the school's multicultural center." Full Story ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cal Poly Defends Fascist Policy. NAACP time warp - The Washington Times: Commentary "---National Center for Health statistics indicate that with 2 in 3 black babies born to unwed mothers today, black children are far likelier to grow up poor than youngsters from any other group. And according to the Census Bureau, black children in single-mother households are nearly 5 times likelier to live in poverty than are black children born to two-parent families; 47 percent of black youngsters under 18 who live in female-headed households are poor compared to only 10 percent who live with two parents. The problem of illegitimacy has plagued the black community for nearly 40 years, but goes unaddressed by the NAACP or any other major black organization.---" Misunderstanding the Bible - Modbee.com Published: July 19, 2003, 06:35:11 AM PDT "I hope those -- such as Marlys Gilbert (Letter, July 9) -- who cite the Book of Leviticus concerning the 'abomination' of homosexuality are also prepared to follow the rest of Levitical law, including never trimming one's hair or beard (19:27), not eating pork (11:6), not having tattoos (19:28), never planting a field with two kinds of seed nor wearing clothing made of two kinds of material (19:19). (Too bad; poly-cotton blend T-shirts are so comfortable!) "This is why context is important. The laws in Leviticus were aimed at differentiating Jews from Gentiles, and therefore, about enforcing ancient Israeli customs and culture rather than making moral judgments. In fact, the Hebrew word used, "Toevah," means "culturally forbidden" (not intrinsically wrong) and does not have the connotation "abomination" does in English. In this case, a moral argument citing Leviticus is not sound." ERIN HAWKINS Modesto Friday, July 18, 2003
NY Times Reporter Finds Trust in Bush, Headline Says Opposite - mediaresearch.org "A New York Times reporter traveled to southwest Ohio, where he found: “In conversations here with nearly three dozen voters, the vast majority said they generally like President Bush and believe he is doing a good job. Many people said they remained convinced that Iraq posed a threat, even though no chemical or biological weapons have been found. And there was a broad consensus that the result of the war -- the ousting of a brutal dictator -- was good for Iraq as well as the United States.” "So how did the New York Times headline this story on its July 17 front page? “In Ohio, Iraq Questions Shake Even Some of Bush's Faithful. "A bit of a disconnect.---" QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." — THOMAS JEFFERSON (1801) Taxpayer Funded Reckless Lawsuits Against The Firearms Industry - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin "A chart detailing everything from date, court and case number to case status." Statement from Sen. Orrin Hatch regarding the District of Columbia's Personal Protection Act - Keep and Bear Arms ''Mr. President, it is no secret that the District of Columbia, our great Nation's Capital, suffers from the most startling violent crime rates in the country. It has the highest, the absolute highest, murder rate per capita in the country. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, and despite the most stringent gun control laws in the country, in 8 out of the 9 years between 1994 and 2002, Washington, DC had the highest murder rate in the country. In fact, the results are in for 2002, and unfortunately they continue to paint a grim picture. Mr. President, the District of Columbia has again reclaimed its rather unenviable title as the 'Murder Capital of the United States. ''It is time, Mr. President, to restore the rights of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves and to defend their families against murderous predators...." school voucher demonstration project - National Center for Policy Analysis: "The education bill that was expected to bring a school voucher demonstration project to the nation's capital has hit a roadblock: opponents of education choice vow to kill the proposal. NCPA research shows that in areas where additional money and resources have not improved education - as is the case with Washington, D.C.'s, public schools - school choice may be the best option to protect children trapped in lower-performing schools." Click here for more Regulations are raising home prices - National Center for Policy Analysis "Regulations are raising home prices, say economists, not a scarcity of land or housing supply...." Food Not Addictive: Scientists' Work Taken Out Of Context - ConsumerFreedom.com (7/18/03) "Last month we noted that no one (with the exception of animal rights lunatic Neal Barnard) supports legal shark John Banzhaf's theory that fast food is addictive. Now we know why." Scientific Agriculture vs. a Load of Manure - Junkscience.com -- Main Page ''If there is one bit of nostalgia that is widely shared by anti-modernists and many in the mainstream as well, it is the belief that our diets are bad and getting worse. What's more, our global fast food chains are purportedly corrupting the diets of other peoples. One way to have a best-selling book with minimum effort and thought is to come up with new 'evidence' or examples of how horrible modern nutrition is. Everything from the Paleolithic diet to the dissection of our fast food nation has captured the imagination of the reading public and passed into the realm of conventional wisdom.'' (Thomas R. DeGregori, ACSH) Longer Lives, Sicker People? - Junkscience.com -- Main Page "Golden Ages, like most any mythic memory, are less about the past than about the present and a set of ideological guidelines meant to transform it. Tradition sanctifies. If it is alleged that some herbal medicine has been used for thousands of years, then it is thought it must have some efficacy that modern medicine cannot match. After all, that which is of ancient vintage has not only survived the test of time but has the added virtue of being closer to nature. The presumed superiority of all things natural is the flip side of the belief that the food supply in affluent societies is contaminated — and part of the larger conviction that modern life is unsafe." (Thomas R. DeGregori, ACSH) The bombast and jargon of 'U-speak'' - Junkscience.com -- Main Page ''Now that I am no longer employed at a 'centre of excellence' (a Canadian university), daily engaged in the 'pursuit of excellence,' I no longer need maintain the fictions which sustain university life; for example, that the current crop of semi-literate undergraduates are 'the best educated generation in history.' Given that few entering university can either read or write, this might be thought a difficult shibboleth to maintain. But, no, not where 'diversity' is the goal and 'tolerance' the watchword; not in institutions engaged in a postmodern rejection of truth and falsity; not in institutions too intellectually troubled to affirm the multiplication tables. Instead, everyone plays along and few are so boorish as to comment upon the Emperor's nakedness. Anyway, the pay is good, one's colleagues are, for the most part, amiable, so why rock the boat? "One unexpected consequence that I discovered on leaving the university was a feeling of liberation. Ironically, the very institution that invented tenure to safeguard free speech has become a place of stultifying political correctness. Small wonder that a former U.S. secretary of education called universities ' ... islands of repression in a sea of freedom.'" (Ian Hunter, National Post) Great Moments in Public Education - OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today "Daniel Lipsman, a retired schoolteacher in New York City, is in trouble with the law--for sending his daughter to school. The Daily News reports 15-year-old Angela 'has earned her associate's degree and is on her way to a bachelor's--but she can't have the sheepskins because she never got a high school diploma.' "It gets worse: 'The gifted girl's proud dad is being investigated by child protective services for alleged educational neglect--for letting his daughter go to college.' A judge in Albany ruled that 'Angela was not legally free to skip high school' and upheld a state Education Department diktat that imprisons children in high school until they turn 16 and doesn't allow them to get an equivalency diploma until age 17. Angela's father says he'll 'go to prison before my daughter goes to a city high school.'" The problem for the Democrats - OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today "The problem for the Democrats is that a significant number of their voters are far more passionate about their party's enemies than their country's. As Mark Steyn puts it: 'One reason why the President . . . is all but certain to win re-election is the descent into madness of his opponents. They've let post-impeachment, post-chad-dangling bitterness unhinge them to the point where, given a choice between investigating the intelligence lapses that led to 9/11 and the intelligence lapses that led to a victorious war in Iraq, they stampede for the latter. Iraq was a brilliant campaign fought with minimal casualties, 11 September was a humiliating failure by government to fulfill its primary role of national defence. But Democrats who complained that Bush was too slow to act on doubtful intelligence re 9/11 now profess to be horrified that he was too quick to act on doubtful intelligence re Iraq. This is not a serious party.' Also from Steyn, here's the pithiest single sentence describing the current political situation: 'The Democrats smell blood and don't want to be told that it's their own.'" ASK YOUR DOCTOR ABOUT STRATTERA - NEALZ NUZE "Strattera. Get to know that name. It’s a drug marketed by E.I. Lilly. It’s for adult ADD. Lilly is trying to get you hooked on this drug. You go to a website, you answer a few questions, and the website tells you that you have symptoms of adult ADD. You are then instructed to print out the questionnaire and take it to your doctor who, presumably, will quickly prescribe Strattera. "What’s behind this? A law is moving through congress that will restrict the ability of school teachers and counselors from promoting the ADD/ADHD scam in schools. This means that the drug companies may well have reached a peak insofar as drugging children for this phony disease is concerned. Time to look for a new market … time to get adults in the game. "Childhood ADD/ADHD is what of the greatest medical frauds in the history of our country. Will it be surpassed by Lilly’s adult ADD scam?" state-sanctioned 'gay marriage - NEALZ NUZE: "OK .. just to stir the puddin' a bit. I don't personally support the idea of a state-sanctioned 'gay marriage.' But ... this question. Can you tell me just how your own marriage would be affected if a gay couple were allowed to marry? Come on! I'm waiting. Tell me just what this would do to harm your marriage? " BLAIR’S SPEECH - NEALZ NUZE "If you didn’t see it live yesterday, you really missed something. So, as you would expect, I have included a link for you.---Here’s just one excerpt: 'Can we be sure that terrorism and weapons of mass destruction will join together? Let us say one thing: If we are wrong, we will have destroyed a threat that, at its least, is responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering. That is something I am confident history will forgive. But if our critics are wrong, if we are right, as I believe with every fiber of instinct and conviction I have that we are, and we do not act, then we will have hesitated in the face of this menace when we should have given leadership. That is something history will not forgive.' "Now … read the entire speech. Click here Precautionary principle a risky gambit - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: RPPI Author: Michael DeAlessi ''The recently passed Precautionary Principle ordinance purports to make San Francisco a leader by 'challenging traditional assumptions about risk management.' In truth, it will likely be bad for the city, public health and the environment.'' (7/17/03) MEA trying to target Mackinac Center again - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Mackinac Center Author: Joseph G Lehman ''Anyone can disassociate from Michigan Education Report's free mailing list by merely asking to have his or her name removed, and it will be done 'cheerfully and promptly,' Lehman said. On the other hand, any MEA-unionized teacher who wishes to disassociate from that union and its mandatory dues typically must quit his or her job.'' (7/17/03) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Union fascism. Ambulance chasers II - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Reason Author: Ronald Bailey "Why is Ronald Bailey so obstinate about imposing limits on trial lawyers' fees?" (7/17/03) The organic difference, such as it is - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Health Facts and Fears Author: Thomas R DeGregori ''[P]lants are chemical factories and can express a variety of different chemical compounds if stimulated to do so -- by stresses such as microbial attack, for instance. Organically-grown plants, being less protected than those used in conventional agriculture, would therefore be expected to express more toxins to fend off attackers.'' (7/17/03) Take our livers, not our freedom - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: The Plainsman Author: David Mackey ''The only effect Lifesharers can have is an increase in the number of organ donors. Imagine that -- a solution to a vexing social problem that does not involve the government taking your money or forcing you to do anything! Naturally, the left is aghast.'' (7/17/03) The diet problem - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Author: Sandy Szwarc ''An overwhelming body of research has demonstrated the link between dieting and obesity. The problem is that evidence flies in the face of the reigning orthodoxy in the current battle of the bulge, which cannot afford to acknowledge that the decisive consequence of dieting is ... obesity.'' (7/18/03) The route to poverty - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Author: John Downen ''The anti-globalization crowd would have us keep our jobs to ourselves and deny employment and export opportunities for poor people in developing countries. Neither would they let us buy foreign goods because that takes jobs from people at home.'' (7/18/03) Russia sets bold privatization agenda - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: The Moscow Times ''Russia will sell assets both to raise cash, which the state will use to pay debts, and to improve efficiency by reducing the government's role in the economy.'' (7/18/03) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Somebody tell the U.S. and California about this. British doctor must be deported 'as soon as possible' - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Seattle Post Intelligencer "An innocent mistake by a young British physician who helped tend New York's injured on 9/11 caused him to inadvertently overstay his visa. Seattle immigration authorities say they 'have no choice' but to deport him immediately, insisting on this course rather than allowing him to voluntarily leave." (7/18/03) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Good grief!!! Making sex pay -- the state - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: BBC ''Legalisation is often the only way to tap into this source of wealth [prostitution] while offering prostitutes better working conditions, a route both Germany and the Netherlands have embarked on in recent years.' Belgium and Thailand are among countries considering legalizing and taxing the sex industry." (7/17/03) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Prostitution: Capitalist acts between consenting adults. Politics could be bad for your health - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: The Scotsman ''It seems those who believe the state should take responsibility for most aspects of life also tend to eschew personal responsibility for taking care of themselves.' This is the conclusion reached from a study of 9,000 Russians by an American sociologist." (7/14/03) Bring It on,' Climatologist Says of Global Warming LitigationCNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "A well-known climatologist -- confident that science does not support the claims against fossil fuel-emitting businesses -- has a message for the coalition of international environmental groups filing the lawsuit: 'Bring it on." Full Story Regulations that inhibit hiring - The Washington Times: Commentary (Richard W. Rahn) "The same politicians who complain about rising unemployment are the ones who make it increasingly dangerous to hire anyone. Employers are at risk due to government rules and regulations which complexity and opaqueness rival that of the tax code." Thursday, July 17, 2003
Rangers taught a history lesson - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin ''Jake Browne yesterday holds the same sign in the same area south of Independence Hall where a ranger last Saturday said he could not protest, calling it a First-Amendnment-Free Zone.' ''THE DAY AFTER the opening of the National Constitution Center, Jake Browne learned of two rights apparently guaranteed to the rangers who patrol Independence National Historical Park:' ''The right to be ignorant of U.S. laws you're protecting.' ''And the right to be a bully." New Jersey Coalition for Self Defense Statement (Press Release) - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: R.E. Parker ''There is a theme common to these two incidents: the victims were defenseless because of government or corporate edict. ''Lockheed-Martin prohibits employees from carrying weapons. States such as California and New Jersey prohibit just about any type of tool for self defense, especially firearms. History continues to prove that a disarmed population is a recipe for tragedy. Although two employees tried to disarm Douglas Williams, when a unarmed person tries to subdue an armed person, the result is both predictable, and unfortunate." NCPA - Daily Policy Digest - Would Medical Courts Cure Sick Area of the Law: "Studies show that in lawsuits involving medical questions, most verdicts against defendants -- as many as 80 percent of them -- are unfair and unjustified by scientific evidence, claims Betsy McCaughery of the Hudson Institute. To insure fairer verdicts, she says Congress should establish medical courts where the verdicts will be made by judges or special masters trained to evaluate scientific evidence, rather than ordinary juries.---" $43 trillion shortfall in Medicare and Social Security - National Center for Policy Analysis $43 trillion shortfall in Medicare and Social Security dwarfs the $3.5 trillion federal debt, say economists...." Regulating Health Claims, CSPI-Style: "---The FDA will allow 'qualified health claims' on more products -- a move that, of course, riles our friends at Food-Nanny Central. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which has long argued that you're too dumb to understand health notices on products like wine, complains that 'manufacturers will be able to make claims about the health benefits of their products based on preliminary scientific evidence that may not stand the test of time.' "Funny, we seem to remember that CSPI's vaunted 'liquid candy' study -- overstating soda consumption by 100 percent -- didn't last a week.---" GO FOR A LOSER PAYS SYSTEM INSTEAD - NEALZ NUZE "A bill will be introduced in the U.S. Senate today designed to protect the fast food industry from lard asses. The bill will seek to outlaw lawsuits against the fast food industry by predatory trial lawyers representing the nations blubber-butts who have used junk food as their sold source of nutrition for the past twenty years. "Chances for passage? Not all that good. Trial lawyers will call in their chips and the Democrats in the Senate will stand in the way. "Why not just go for a “loser pays” system instead? The fast food industry isn’t alone when it comes to being in the cross hairs. This lawsuit lottery being conducted by trial lawyers is costing every American money. Now this shouldn’t be done on a federal level. This is something that needs to be addressed by state governments. Just pass a law which requires the looser in a product liability lawsuit to pay the legal costs of the winner. Start with just product liability lawsuits, see how it works, then expand to medical malpractice and personal injury suits. "It’s a good idea. Trust me. I’m a lawyer." BOB GRAHAM – EMBARRASSMENT TO FLORIDA - NEALZ NUZE "Here’s a recent quote from Senator Bob Graham, Florida’s embarrassment. 'If the standard of impeachment that the Republicans set for Bill Clinton, that a personal, consensual relationship was the basis for impeachment, would not a president who knowingly deceived the American people about something as important as whether to go to war meet the standard of impeachment?' "Now the reason that Bob Graham can get away with this nonsense is because he knows that he’s trying to appeal to Democratic voters. Democratic voters are, generally speaking, less intelligent than those who vote Republican or Libertarian. Democratic voters will buy this idiocy that Clinton was impeached because of a sexual relationship. "Once again … and maybe it will sink in this time … Clinton was impeached because he committed perjury. He lied under oath. That’s a crime. People can go to jail for that. He lied to deny a woman her day in court under a law that he, Clinton, signed into law. "Bob Graham understands this … but he also understands that he can ignore the truth and change the facts in order to enrage the passions of the know-nothings who might actually vote for him." IS YOUR CHILD IN DAY CARE? - NEALZ NUZE "A recent comprehensive study has determined that children who spend their early years in day care will turn out to be discipline problems later on. To be more specific, the study says they’ll be more prone to violence and other anti-social behaviors. "Just why are there so many children in day care? How come their mothers aren’t home caring for those kids at home? In a word, government. To be more specific, blame it on the cost of government. "Fifty years ago the average American family would see between five and seven percent of their household income taken by government. Now that figure is often over 40%. Get out your calculator … take a look at your earnings and your spouse’s earnings. Work out a figure representing the total cost of sending the lower-earning spouse to work. This figure should include everything: wardrobe, transportation, day care – every cost that can be associated with sending the lower-income spouse to work every day. Now … look at your federal income tax bill. You will most likely discover that the lower-earning spouse in your household is working for no other purpose than to satisfy your tax burden to the government. "Odd, isn’t it … the far-reaching consequences of our ever-growing imperial federal government. The more government we get the more it will cost … and the more violent children we will raise … and the more crimes they will commit … and the more government will cost … and so it goes." Who's rich, part II - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Town Hall Author: Thomas Sowell ''Class holds a sacred place in the new trinity of 'race, class and gender' that has become a prevailing social dogma among the intelligentsia. It is tough to admit that millions of people are constantly changing incomes and still talk as if we are all frozen into our classes or that we can be neatly divided into the rich and the poor ...'' (7/17/03) You may be entitled to damages - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: ALPF Author: Daren Bakst ''We now know that no industry is safe from unreasonable lawsuits. Take away these high-profile distortions of justice and you still have businesses and individuals that are being subjected to every day legal risk that places incredible costs on them and to society.'' (7/15/03) Statists at the gate - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Strike the Root Author: Bernard Chapin ''There is no better example of 'statism uber alles' than our Internal Revenue Service. They are the most Soviet of our bureaucracy. Indeed, they revel in their labyrinth of their own complexity.'' (7/17/03) The skinny on fat - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Author: Sandy Szwarc ''Most Americans scoff at the notion of a genetic component to obesity, thinking fat people can overcome their genes. But it's much more significant and involved than most realize.'' (7/16/03) The truth about obesity - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Author: Sandy Szwarc ''[E]vidence rarely breaks through the anti-fat rhetoric. Most of the countless popular theories as to the causes of obesity simply don't honestly face the inconsistencies about diet and exercise being unrelated to rising obesity rates.'' (7/14/03) Spam: Lawyers' next cash cow - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: RPPI Author: Ted Balaker ''Lately, it's easy to see why lawsuit-loving lawyers may feel like they're stuck in a rut. No doubt they're hopeful that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and his SPAM Act will reinvigorate the litigation industry.'' (7/14/03) Daily distortion: Cliff Black is my hero - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: Dustin Lovell ''Cliff Black is a spokesman for Amtrak, and the man is my hero. He represents one of the greatest success stories of our time. His company operates on losses of nearly a billion dollars a year, and yet he continues to draw a paycheck.'' (7/16/03) A tax on fat people? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CCF Author: staff ''[A] New York Times columnist has one-upped us by proposing to tax fat people -- and he's serious .... It's a sign of how far public opinion has shifted in favor of the food police.'' (7/16/03) U.S. Postal Service: no privatization, but more businesslike approach - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Washington Post ''The Postal Service should not be privatized, but it should adopt a more businesslike approach to setting rates and closing postal facilities and continue to shrink its workforce, members of a presidential commission said yesterday.'' (7/17/03) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Leaves out marketplace competition - Bad idea. Permanent U.S. ban on internet taxes clears first hurdle - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Fox News ''A House committee acted Wednesday to permanently bar states from taxing Internet service and access and to require the few states that currently tax those services to end their levies.'' (7/16/03) Forsaking history - The Washington Times: Commentary (Mona Charen) "Bruce Cole, chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, thinks the United States is in danger of losing its national identity through a loss of historical memory." A comedy of injustice - The Washington Times: Commentary (Paul Craig Roberts) "Conservatives feel no sympathy for Martha. She is one of those rich people who support the Democratic Party, the raison d'etre of which is to dispossess rich people like Martha. However, at stake is the rule of law, not Martha." State seeks victims of forced sterilization - Recordnet.com "The state's Department of Mental Health is on the look out for any of the 20,000 men and women forcibly sterilized between 1909 and 1970 under California's eugenics law, a policy similar to a Nazi German plan to weed out the mentally, morally and physically infirm. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Check the history - The Germans borrowed the idea from us. Henry Ford was a major proponent of the idea. Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Just a Measly $400,000,000,000 - Notable Quotables - Media Research Center "Despite massive new subsidies, liberal journalists are appalled that some senior citizens might have to pay for their own medicine. Plus, Walter Cronkite thinks your taxes are too low, Aaron Brown wants taxpayers to pay for political campaigns, and guess which effete, pompous character has been on TV for 20 years?" Overlawyered: Bilking poor clients: ''A prominent San Francisco attorney who represented the young, sick and poor was arrested Tuesday on federal charges of stealing $2 million of his clients' settlement money to support a lavish lifestyle that included a six-bedroom mansion and a 73-foot yacht.' At its website, the successful San Francisco law firm of Tehin Partners boasts of having 'achieved an exceptional record of performance in litigation and trial through our 20 years experience as a contingency fee-based plaintiff's law firm', not to mention 'A Legal Philosophy That Sets Us Apart'. Today's San Francisco Chronicle has a full helping of grotesque details (Stacy Finz, 'S.F. attorney charged with bilking underdog clients', Jul. 16) "It bears repeating that of all the institutions to which the temporal wealth of poor people is entrusted, law firms are among the least regulated; when outside authorities finally step in to clean up the mess, as here, it is typically after the fact, rather than in a preventive way through the sorts of regular disclosure and auditing requirements that banks or pension funds must meet. Nikolai Tehin lists among his affiliations Board of Directors, San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association." Posted by Walter Olson at July 16, 2003 09:47 AM Overlawyered: Suit charges lawyers with using fake clients in diet-drug cases: July 16, 2003 Mississippi: ''Civil lawsuits filed in Jefferson County allege that lawyers signed up fake clients for a 1999 lawsuit that resulted in a $150 million jury verdict against the makers of a diet drug.' According to the allegations, lawyers knew that some clients being recruited into the action had never actually taken the diet drug but 'looked the other way'. Defendant lawyers called the allegations 'ridiculous' and 'preposterous'. Federal law enforcers will not disclose details of their investigation of Jefferson County product liability litigation (see Jun. 29, May 7 and links from there), but it is known that the FBI has subpoenaed prescription records from Fayette's Bankston Drug Store, which is frequently named in suits (see May 4-6, 2001). (Tom Wilemon, Beth Musgrave and Margaret Baker, 'Lawyers faked diet-drug case clients, lawsuits claim', Biloxi Sun-Herald, Jul. 1; 'Miss. lawyers accused of wrongdoing in suit', AP/Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Jul. 2). Posted by Walter Olson at July 16, 2003 10:05 AM Church massacre survivor releases book - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft Website: http://www.idcWebDev.com ''Government's Firearms Control Act has come in for renewed criticism as a survivor of the St. James Church massacre releases a book detailing the attack almost exactly 10 years after the event. ''Charl van Wyk, who fired back at the Azanian People's Liberation Army (Apla) cadres as they sprayed the church with bullets, told Sapa the book, titled 'Shooting Back - the Right and Duty of Self-Defence', was a way to oppose the Act." Some Thoughts For Gun Owners - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft Website: http://www.idcWebDev.com "I’m a gun owner and I’m going to admit there are times my blood just boils." "On too many mornings, I’ve awakened to find stories in my local newspapers about kids who were killed while playing with loaded guns in their homes." ... "Delete mystery from the equation. Squelch curiousity. Take the kids to a shooting range. Show them the potential deadliness of guns. Many will find shooting an enjoyable and safe sport. Others will come away disliking guns and want nothing more to do with them. Either way, fine. At least they’ll all have learned a valuable lesson in safety." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Amen. 'Smart' Guns: Dumb Idea! - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft Website: http://www.idcWebDev.com ... "It seems that when you marry a firearm and a computer, the result is something that's less than 100 percent reliable. A handgun, with its shocks, vibrations and corrosive emissions, is not the best environment for a piece of sophisticated electronic hardware. In a life-or-death confrontation with a bad guy, a cop doesn't have the option of saying, 'Timeout, I have to reboot.' It's interesting that the group that smart guns were targeted for--law enforcement officers--is the one rejecting the concept." Re-regulation of electricity - National Center for Policy Analysis: "Re-regulation of electricity will cost $750 million and require 603 pages of new rules to implement, says Stephen Moore.... " drug offenses - National Center for Policy Analysis "More than sixty percent of the inmates in federal prisons and 25 percent of those in state prisons are jailed for drug offenses.... " Conflicted science - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Reason Author: Ronald Bailey ''Despite the alarms, science is not broken, nor even in really bad repair. However, that doesn't mean that peer review and the process of managing conflicts of interest can't be improved.'' (7/16/03) Insider trading - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Town Hall Author: Walter Williams ''Whether it's fair or not, it's the nature of markets that people benefit from specialized knowledge.'' (7/16/03) States can and should vote to outlaw affirmative action - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: PRI Author: Lance T Izumi ''[A]lthough the U.S. Supreme Court may have given the green light to universities to discriminate against highly qualified white and Asian students, that doesn't mean that Americans must simply swallow the universities' preference programs. Citizens of the states can demand that their legislatures pass anti-preference laws, or ... pass voter referenda requiring race neutrality.'' (7/8/03) Feminists slurping at the public trough - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Ifeminists Author: Wendy McElroy ''As a piece of research, the [School Success by Gender: A Catalyst for the Masculinist Discourse] report is a farce. As a glimpse into the mindset of PC feminists, it is fascinating.'' (7/15/03) Who's rich - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Town Hall Author: Thomas Sowell ''One of the most basic confusions is between income and wealth. You can have high income and low wealth or vice versa.'' (7/16/03) Federal judge shoots down road ban in national forests - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Billings Gazette ''A federal judge Monday struck down a ban on road building in a third of America's national forests, saying the Clinton administration rule illegally designated wilderness areas.'' (7/15/03) Inhalable drugs breathe new life into medicine - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Wired ''[T]he pulmonary intake method can process medicine as quickly and effectively as an intravenous injection, but without the patient squeamishness.' Inhalable insulin is top on the list of developments being pursued by pharmaceutical companies. (7/16/03)" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Count on the FDA to slow up this development. Former Congressman Warns of International Gun Control - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "A U.N. group is working toward establishment of an international system to register and regulate civilian possession of firearms, a former congressman told WorldNetDaily." Read News on the Web Say goodbye to equal protection - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED "---In Bakke, Justice Powell wrote that 'the guarantee of equal protection (of the laws) cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color. If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal.' "In overruling her mentor, Sandra Day O'Connor has turned "equal protection" of the laws upside-down. But for many, that's politically correct." Saudi mea culpa - The Washington Times: Commentary (Arnaud de Borchgrave) "The 24,000-strong Saudi royal family has finally conceded that the root cause of Islamist terrorism has been its own Wahhabi ideology. It was Wahhabism that spawned Osama Bin Laden and his al Qaeda. The 1979 "concordat" between the House of Saud and the kingdom's clergy has now been breached." Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Overlawyered: Race, poverty and tort awards: "July 14, 2003 "Who says academics are skittish about pursuing potentially explosive research topics? In 'Race, Poverty, and American Tort Awards: Evidence from Three Data Sets,' in the Journal of Legal Studies, Eric Helland of Claremont McKenna and Alexander Tabarrok of George Mason University analyze data on jury awards by county. Their conclusion: 'An increase in the black county poverty rate of 1 percentage point tends to raise the average personal injury tort award by 3 to 10 percent. An increase in the Hispanic county-poverty rate of 1 percentage point tends to raise awards by as much as 7 percent although this effect is less well estimated. These effects imply that forum shopping for high-poverty minority counties could raise awards by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Average awards fall with increases in white (non-black, non-Hispanic) poverty rates in two of our datasets, thus making these findings even more surprising.' (JLS table of contents; Tyler Cowen at the Volokh Conspiracy got there first)." Posted by Walter Olson at July 14, 2003 10:33 PM Overlawyered: Canada: Protect Thyself, Get Arrested: "July 15, 2003 "Twice in June, Raj Singh Valcha and Harjeet Singh Saini's corner store was burglarized. Total cost: $42,000. Total arrests: Zero. Their reply: Take shifts with an alumnium bat, lying in wait for the inevitable third strike. They didn't have to wait long -- before the month was out, they were burglarized again. Once criminal was incapacitated, the other escaped. And the storeowners? Cited for aggravated assault. To make matters worse, a reader writes: 'Of course the editorials are against defending your own property.' Of course. The first-year law student prospective? No shock here either. When we heard our torts professor mention burglars who slip and fall and sue the would-be victims, mouths drop, people laugh in disbelief, but hey, that wears off by the third day of class. ('Vigilante policing no way to fight crime,' Montreal Gazette, Jul. 2; also check out a letter to the contrary: 'Law now favours robbers and oppressors,' Undated)." Posted by Dan Lewis at July 15, 2003 02:53 PM QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid." —Dwight D. Eisenhower ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He must have been referring to Democrats. Blacks more likely to be shot than whites even when holding harmless objects [News Release]Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft Website: http://www.idcWebDev.com ''Given only a fraction of a second to respond to images of men popping out from behind a garbage Dumpster, people were more likely to shoot blacks than whites, even when the men were holding a harmless object such as a flashlight rather than a gun. ''The finding comes from a study that is to be published this week in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. The research used a virtual reality simulation and was prompted by a number of mistaken shootings of unarmed blacks by police officers in recent years. It was directed by Anthony Greenwald, a University of Washington psychologist who examines the unconscious roots and levels of prejudice." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Comment by: sidmystic@yahoo.com (7/15/2003) "There are times I am ashamed of my alma mater -- and my old department no less! Anthony Greenwald was teaching, as far as I know, while I was attending at the time, but do not recall anything notable of his at the time. "However, I would greatly fault his methodology for 1) using students instead of trained officers and 2) using a video game as a simulator. A miniature "Hogan's Alley" would have been a little more realistic. Identify, point and click is a far cry from identify, draw, point if necessary, shoot if necessary." Letting Teachers Pack Guns Will Make America Safer - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin ''The effect of right-to-carry laws is greater on multiple-victim public shootings than on other crimes for a simple reason: Increasing the probability that someone will be able to protect himself improves deterrence.' ... ''Contrary to many people's impressions, before the federal law was enacted in 1995 it was possible for teachers and other adults with concealed-handgun permits to carry guns on school property in many states." Pratt: Choirboys they are not - keepandbeararms.com Submitted by: Doug Charette "The anti-self-defense lobby wants us to think that guns make good guys go bad. As we can see from just the San Francisco data, most crime victims are far from being choirboys. And of course, other data tell us that their attackers are not in the choir either." "A Philadelphia think tank (Public/Private Ventures) conducted a survey of individuals who were arrested for murder in that city during 1996-1999. The survey found that 90 percent of the suspected murderers had a criminal history." "Don Kates, in an article entitled 'Do Guns Cause Crime?' (Center for History and News Media, July 2, 2002), reports that 'Though only 15% of Americans have criminal records, roughly 90 percent of adult murderers have adult records, with an average career of six or more adult crimes, including four major felonies.' " "If you ever fall afoul of one of these 'choirboys,' it would be better for you to have a gun in spite of the chatterers at the Brady Center. As Gary Kleck reports in his book Point Blank, non-resisters to violent attack are two and a half times more likely to be injured than one resisting with a gun." Latest Acrylamide Panic Based on Fudged Numbers - Press Release "---The Ralph Nader-inspired Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) misrepresented government nutrition data in a June 2003 petition to the Food and Drug Administration, which demanded that the FDA force food producers to reduce the amount of acrylamide present in their products. Today the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) submitted a reply brief to the FDA, detailing how CSPI arbitrarily “adjusted” government statistics and made faulty assumptions about the minimal risk to consumers from dietary acrylamide.---" Agricultural Stardust in the White House? - Junkscience.com ''Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-Greenpeace) has sent a 'dear colleague' letter to his fellow Congressmen, asking them to support a series of bills intended to cripple the progress of lifesaving crop biotechnology. Most of Kucinich's proposed legislation is exactly what you would expect from opponents of genetically enhanced crops -- cumbersome labeling requirements, export bans, and demands that the most heavily regulated and tested agricultural products in history be regulated and tested even more. But some of Kucinich's proposals go where few Luddites have gone before'' (Center For Consumer Freedom) The Anti-Monoculture Mania - Junkscience.com ''The critics of modern life never cease to amaze us. Everyday there is a new crisis of modernity that threatens our continued existence. Nowhere is this more evident than in agriculture. We're told that the use of pesticides is generating soaring cancer rates, yet there is nothing in the statistics which confirms this alarmist rhetoric. It is claimed that the Green Revolution led to a decline in vegetable production. Never mind that in most areas where there were significant advances in the production of modern grain varieties, there were also the largest increases in non-grain consumption; and that the world's population is eating a more diverse diet than ever before. And also, never mind that without the yield increases in Green Revolution grains, there simply would not be any land left for other crops (or for wildlife and habitat conservation), as farmers would plant every bit of land available with the crops that produced the highest yield of calories per unit of land.'' (Thomas R. DeGregori, Butterflies and Wheels) 'Storm Front' - Junkscience.com ''We wrote this book,' Professors Christopher Essex and Ross McKitrick state, 'because we got tired of opening the newspaper or turning on the TV news and seeing a river of idiotic, alarmist nonsense rushing out at the public' on catastrophic human-made global warming.'' (Sallie Baliunas, TCS) 'Erin Brockovich's Junk Science' - Junkscience.com ''Her new suit against oil companies and Beverly Hills has little scientific grounding.'' (Leon Jaroff, Time) NEALZ NUZE: "Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it." -- Thomas Sowell ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unfortunately most people don't really recognize socialism as welfarism and government interference with the free market. They see those activities as appropriate functions of government.--TA STICK TO HURRICANES - NEALZ NUZE "Pat Robertson is praying for God to remove three Justices from the U.S. Supreme Court. Robertson is mightily upset that the Supreme Court has taken law enforcement out of the bedrooms of America. Though Robertson doesn’t say just how God should remove these three Justices, we do not here that all three have lifetime appointments to serve. Do the math. "Now … just imagine what zealots like Pat Robertson would do if he could get his hands on the government’s exclusive franchise on the use of force to accomplish goals. "Remember now … this segment of Nealz Nuze constitutes “Christian bashing.” I know because I’ll get 50 e-mails today telling me so." MEASURING THE DEFICIT - NEALZ NUZE "You are going to hear today that we’ve set a record for federal budget deficits. The figure is around $400 billion dollars. Hey, that’s a lot, but it’s not a record. It’s not even “almost” a record. "When you are considering a deficit the critical measure is not the dollar amount. The severity of a deficit is measured by percentages; more particularly, the percentage of your total economy. "In the past the United States has suffered under deficits equal to 6% of the GDP, and more. This deficit will be just under 4% of the GDP. This is NOT a record, no matter how hard the press tries to make it so. "Look at it this way. Let’s say that your family spends $5,000 more than it makes in 2003. Is that bad? If you only make $25,000 year, it’s bad. To eliminate your deficit you have to cut your spending by 20%. But what if your total income is $500,000? Then you only have to cut your spending by 1%. No big deal. "Critics will try to put this deficit in the worst possible light. They’ll cite only the dollar amount, not the percentage of the GDP. "If our education system in this country were worth a damn people would see through this “record deficit” nonsense. But, then, if frogs had wings they wouldn’t bump their butts every time they jumped. "Now .. having said this, let’s repeat some points from yesterday. Federal spending is increasing under George Bush at a rate that makes Clinton look like a miser. Bush is a big part of this spending with his education bill and other big-government spending measures. He has yet to veto one single spending bill, and is now promoting one of the most expensive spending programs we’ve seen in decades; the free drugs for old folks program." THE CHALLENGE STANDS …. AND THE IDIOCY CONTINUES - NEALZ NUZE "It’s now been over a week since I challenged the listeners to call and cite just one lie that George Bush has told. Remember, though, that a lie that is a statement known by the person making that statement to be untrue at the time the statement was made. "Leftists know that their icon, Bill Clinton, was a liar of pathological dimensions. Their obsession with tagging George Bush serves to salve the guilt liberals feel for their beatification of Clinton. "Meanwhile .. back to those insignificant 16 words in Bush’s State of the Union speech. Even critics now admit that it wasn’t a lie." California poll: 'Don't tax us more, but don't cut the handouts' - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: SF Gate ''While Californians worry about cuts in government spending on education, health care and public safety, there is little support for higher taxes to avoid those cuts, according to a poll released Tuesday.'' (7/15/03) California supreme court ruling supports Miranda rights - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Contra Costa Times ''In a ruling laced with words such as 'misconduct' and 'unconscionable,' the California Supreme Court made it clear Monday that it no longer will tolerate the practice by some police agencies in the state of deliberately ignoring suspects' right to remain silent.'' (7/15/03) Recalibrating the job numbers - The Washington Times: Commentary "According to the media, the labor market worsened in June. Here's what our major newspapers reported. "The Washington Post: "The job picture worsened." The Los Angeles Times: "The US job market worsened." The New York Times: "The labor market got tougher." Other reports were similar.--- "All survey results, however, are subject to measurement error. But the error itself can be measured and must be taken into account in interpreting the survey results. In the case of total payroll employment, the standard error for monthly changes in the data, according to the BLS, is larger than the 30,000 "decline" in June employment. That being the case, the only fair interpretation is that payroll employment was stable last month. In its employment summary the BLS correctly reported that "nonfarm employment was essentially unchanged in June.---" Judicious class action reform - The Washington Times: Commentary "The science of government is the science of experiment. Decades of experimentation with class actions in state and federal courts have disclosed unanticipated abuses: forum shopping for local juries or judges hostile to foreign defendants and predisposed toward gold-plated verdicts; ill-founded class certifications that compel extortionate settlements from innocent defendants; bonanza fees for plaintiffs' attorneys for compromising the relief properly owed to individual class members.---" Monday, July 14, 2003
What Happened to Conservatives? "The so-called conservative movement of the last 20 years, starting with the Reagan revolution of the 1980s, followed by the 1994 Gingrich takeover of the House, and culminating in the early 2000s with Republican control of both Congress and the White House, seems a terrible failure today. Republicans have failed utterly to shrink the size of government; instead it is bigger and costlier than ever before. Federal spending spirals out of control, new Great Society social welfare programs have been created, and the national debt is rising by more than a half-trillion dollars per year. Whatever happened to the conservative vision supposedly sweeping the nation? "One thing is certain: those who worked and voted for less government, the very foot soldiers in the conservative revolution, have been deceived. Today, the ideal of limited government has been abandoned by the GOP, and real conservatives find their views no longer matter.---" QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "The only thing that saves us from bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty." —EUGENE MCCARTHY Guns special report: why isn't life-saving technology implemented? - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Sean Glazier ''There are 200 million privately owned guns in the US, including 65 million handguns. Firearms are now the second biggest cause of injury-related death in the country, killing 28,663 people in 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. For African-American teenagers aged 15 to 19, gun-related homicide is the leading cause of death, and for all American teenagers of similar age gun-related homicide and suicide come second only to motor vehicle accidents. 'If it's the number one cause of death for portions of the population, how can it not be a compelling public health problem?' asks Stephen Teret of Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore, Maryland.'' ------- "The enemies of freedom at Johns Hopkins are at it again, spreading misinformation and fomenting panic. How many of those deaths are criminals dying in the commission of a crime, killed either by other criminals, police or armed citizens?" Should the Democrats Draft a General? - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Sean Glazier ''According to a recent Washington Post poll, 72 percent of the public trusts President Bush to handle terrorism better than the Democrats. Republicans have held an advantage on national security issues for two generations, but 9/11 instantly magnified both the size of the gap and its political consequences. The extent of the problem this poses to the Democrats' chances of winning back the presidency in 2004 has not yet penetrated their minds. It's not remotely comparable to mistrust of Republican health care or education policies, as many Democrats seem to believe. It reveals a fundamental worry that voters have about the party, one that cannot be overcome with small measures." Climate Conflict - Bizarre Science Tune in to Discovery Channel: Saturday, July 19 at 9 p.m. ET/PT "Environmentalists predict catastrophe: The enhanced greenhouse effect will lead to drastic global warming, bringing on hurricanes, drought, famine and floods. But what if their prophesies of doom are wrong? Maverick Danish scientist Henrik Svensmark is challenging the greenhouse theory. His research has lead to the conclusion that the sun is the main driver of the climate. "This documentary explores the latest findings from highly esteemed international scientists who support the possibility that the climate is changing mostly because of natural variations of the sun. Money, science, prestige, and possibly the fate of the earth itself are at stake as this fascinating controversy unfolds." ...and he's not the only one. Solar Variability and Global Climatic Change posted by Aaron at 6:43 PM New on the Web: JUNK SCIENCE REARS ITS HEAD AGAIN IN THE GLOBAL WARMING DEBATE - Bizarre Science "Nick Nichols and Paul Driessen discuss the perversion of the PR apparatus to send out apocalyptic messages. Iain Murray describes the PR debacle caused by the insertion and then deletion of junk statements from an EPA report." TacklingJunkSci-Murray GloblaWarmingSciVsSpin Agricultural Stardust in the White House? "Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-Greenpeace) has sent a 'dear colleague' letter to his fellow Congressmen, asking them to support a series of bills intended to cripple the progress of lifesaving crop biotechnology. Most of Kucinich's proposed legislation is exactly what you would expect from opponents of genetically enhanced crops -- cumbersome labeling requirements, export bans, and demands that the most heavily regulated and tested agricultural products in history be regulated and tested even more. But some of Kucinich's proposals go where few Luddites have gone before---" 'High Sierra' - Junkscience.com -- Main Page: " "On its website for student activists, the Sierra Club makes the following criticism of free trade: "'Countries cannot raise environmental or labor standards, because if they do, the corporations that have built factories in that country because of its cheap labor or lax enforcement of environmental laws will then threaten to move those factories to other places.' "Similarly, in their 1994 book Global Village or Global Pillage, authors Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello write: "'The race to the bottom is contributing to environmental destruction worldwide. Global corporations' oil refineries, steel mills, chemical plants, and other factories, now located all over the world, are the main source of greenhouse gases, ozone-depleting chemicals, and toxic pollutants. Their packaging is a major source of solid waste… '…The proportion of the Philippines that is forested has decreased from 35 percent to 20 percent -- less than half the amount needed to maintain a stable ecosystem -- just since 1969.' "The "race to the bottom" argument is common among anti-globalization activists. And, at first blush, it seems logical. Increase the number of market options in which a company can shop the location of a manufacturing plant, and those markets will begin to compete with one another for that company's patronage. In an effort to present the most lucrative offer, then, those countries will lower environmental and labor standards to lowball competing offers. Corporations can then choose the country with the most relaxed standards to set up shop. "It's a compelling and intuitive theory. It also happens to run contrary to all the available evidence." (Radley Balko, TCS) dishonesty of Peter Jennings - NEALZ NUZE: "The Washington Times exposes the dishonesty of Peter Jennings leftist assault on the recent tax cuts." Click here Code red scaremongering - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Carolina Journal Author: Roy Cordato ''It is not the job of public officials to hyperbolize problems in order to encourage people to act in accordance with what those officials believe is their own good. Unfortunately, this is what appears to be happening, not only with the reporting of ozone problems but a host of other environmental concerns.'' (7/9/03) Whatever happened to telecom deregulation? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CEI Author: Stephen B. Pociask ''[I]nstead of regulators letting market forces continue the progress, they entrenched themselves far beyond extraction. Those regulators, once called upon to protect the public from the evils of monopolies, have become monopolist themselves ... all in the name of the public interest.'' (7/10/03) Common Sense #888: McBig Brother? Via: Free-Market.net "---It seems that a Fort Myers police officer was allowed to don the McDonald's uniform and take orders at the drive-through as if he were a regular employee. All the while, peering inside customers' vehicles — without a warrant, of course — to see if anybody had contraband, or maybe a seatbelt unbuckled. If something looked amiss, the McOfficer radioed to another cop down the road, so that the unsuspecting customer could be pulled over.---" The great crawfish raid - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: LVRJ Author: Vin Suprynowicz ''Did I mention the Great Crawfish Raid took place the same day the Nevada Supreme Court threw out a constitutional amendment ... that required a two-thirds legislative majority to raise taxes? They said it might restrict school funding. Land of the free, home of the brave. Pay up, shut up, know your place, go on the dole.'' (7/13/03) The threat to medical innovation - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Author: Sydney Smith ''[T]here's the crux of the problem. Those who fight against tort reform are ignoring the real stories of real people who are being harmed by the status quo.'' (7/14/03) Cost of Government Day 2003 by the numbers - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: ATR Author: staff "Cost of Government Day 2003 was July 11. This chart highlights some interesting components and trends in COGD." (PDF file) (7/11/03) Privatizing pot - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Reason Author: Jacob Sullum ''Can the marijuana monopoly be broken?'' (7/11/03) Daily distortion: Prescription drug price controls may help - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: Cody Hatch ''As our health care industry stagnates, we might actually see a decrease in life expectancy, which will mean fewer elderly people to subsidize via Medicare and Social Security. Those programs might even become solvent if we lose enough seniors ...'' (7/11/03) NPR and I are now divorced - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: ciscja ''I might even still subscribe if they presented both sides and you still knew they were liberal themselves -- but at least they presented my side with some accuracy. But it's as if the conservative side is unworthy. NPR is apt to give Monkeypox a better representation.'' (7/11/03) A rare opportunity for postal reform - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Hoover Institution Author: Rick Geddes ''No entity would benefit more from repeal of its monopoly than the U.S. Postal Service itself. Combined with government ownership, its monopoly status eliminates its incentive to improve its service and opens it up to political interference.'' (7/14/03) Networks Blamed for Using Political Activists As 'Victims' - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "An elderly political activist who was repeatedly portrayed by CBS News as a typical victim of the high cost of prescription drugs, now admits the network 'probably' should have disclosed her lobbying interests during her numerous on-air appearances." Full Story Climatologist Debunks 'Alarmist' Global Warming Claims - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "Climatologist Patrick J. Michaels says fears of catastrophic global warming are scientifically unfounded and 'alarmist,' and he also believes any climate change that does occur would not impact the Earth or its inhabitants in any significant way." Full Story Sunday, July 13, 2003
THE SADDAM/OSAMA CONNECTION, DOCUMENTED - Instapundit.com "THE SADDAM/OSAMA CONNECTION, DOCUMENTED. INTERESTING ARTICLE BY THE JUDGE I CLERKED FOR, Judge Gilbert S. Merritt of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, who has been in Iraq on a judicial-assistance mission with the ABA: 'Through an unusual set of circumstances, I have been given documentary evidence of the names and positions of the 600 closest people in Iraq to Saddam Hussein, as well as his ongoing relationship with Osama bin Laden. "'I am looking at the document as I write this story from my hotel room overlooking the Tigris River in Baghdad.'---" Blogs breaking logjam of journalism - Townhall.com by Kathleen Parker (7/13) ""If not for blogs, Howell Raines might still be editor of The New York Times; Trent Lott might still be majority leader of the U.S. Senate. And we might never have learned the name of "whatshername," Blue-Dress Girl, Lewinsky." Beyond the call - The Washington Times: Commentary (Oliver North) "Liberals are, by nature, opportunists. While I was in Iraq, covering the U.S. Marine and Army units in Operation Iraqi Freedom, it was fascinating to catch American television broadcasts on my man-pack satellite video equipment." Hands free . . . or brains free? - The Washington Times: Commentary (David Davenport) "This year's award for "Legislation Not Supported by Facts or Research But We're Going to Pass It Anyway" goes, once again, to the California Assembly, this time for a bill that would fine drivers for using hand-held cell phones. " Saturday, July 12, 2003
The PCspeak of Diversity - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Sean Glazier ''The evolution of PCspeak parallels that of Newspeak. Consider the evolution of public debate on affirmative action or, more broadly, 'diversity.' ' ''First, there is the introduction of doublethink. Doublethink occurs when someone simultaneously accepts two contradictory beliefs as true. A common argument for affirmative action: it is wrong to judge people on the basis of skin color or gender; therefore, universities and employers should give preference to people based on skin color and gender.' ''Second, euphemistic 'doublespeak' makes doublethink positions acceptable. The term 'affirmative action' strongly implies a positive and correct action.'" You Must Alter Human Nature - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Sean Glazier ''Press reports said a man who bravely tried to grab the gun away from the factory killer was shot through the hand and lost several fingers as a result of his serious injury. How much better it would have been if that same man had used that same hand, not to stop a bullet, but to reach for a gun of his own.' ''The best way to stop an armed criminal is with equal or greater firepower, but sadly, no one in the factory had a gun. When bad guys run amok, the good guys are defenseless. Maybe the bad guys would think twice about shooting, if they knew the good guys were armed, too.'' Neil Cavuto: Don't like the tax cut, don't keep it! "So the other day, I'm hearing former President Clinton bashing this big tax cut. He says it's a total waste, that it means an extra $80,000 for him, and he doesn't need it. He's rich enough as it is. "Nowhere did I hear him say, 'So, I'm going to give it back.'" NEA: Politicizing 'education' Townhall.com by David Limbaugh (7/12) "Since the National Education Association describes itself as "America's largest organization committed to advancing the cause of public education," is it not fair to ask why it spends so much of its energy on political issues having little to do with education?" Friday, July 11, 2003
Biotech and Baby Food - Junkscience.com -- Main Page "Warnings about one societal danger or another often portray children as the likeliest or most susceptible victims. As is the case with so many other public health false alarms, the attack on the new biotechnology — also known as bioengineering, gene splicing, or genetic engineering — is less about real concern for children’s health than about environmental activists’ willingness to exploit children’s issues for their own benefit. Biotechnology has been the target of scare campaigns since the technique was first demonstrated in 1973. Activists, like Jeremy Rifkin of the Foundation on Economic Trends, have been warning against the supposed dangers of biotechnology for three decades, calling it “the most radical, uncontrolled experiment we’ve ever seen” and even likening it to “Nazi eugenics.” Others have claimed that gene-spliced crop plants are “worse than nuclear weapons or radioactive wastes.” Fortunately, the American public has not taken such arguments seriously." (Henry I. Miller and Gregory Conko, FrontPage) Chrysler Group fights back against lawyers - Junkscience.com -- Main Page "Chrysler Group is 'as fed up as hell and not taking it any more.' In what the company described as 'an aggressive and historical move' the auto-maker is fighting back against plaintiff's lawyer's that allegedly cooked the legal books in a suit against the company.' (SRI Media)" Integrity in Science Award is Neither - Junkscience.com -- Main Page "The Center for Science in the Public Interest (aka the “food police”) is holding a big conference in Washington, D.C., July 11 titled, “Conflicted $cience: Corporate Influence on Scientific Research and Science-Based Policy.” ''Though it escapes me how they can assert with a straight face that scientific research funded by corporations is “conflicted” yet scientific research funded by activist groups or the government is not, that is not the topic of this column." (Steven Milloy, FoxNews.com) Jay Bryant: Dems And Lawyers Wield Asbestos Monkey Wrench: "---The asbestos lawsuit problem is the textbook case of how a real problem becomes a monstrosity once greedy lawyers figure out they can get rich off it. There are people who have died from exposure to asbestos, and others who have become desperately sick. If the lawsuits had been filed only on behalf of these people, some sort of justice could have been done. But once the lawyers ran out of real victims, they kept on going, and as even the Post admits, by now 'thousands of companies that didn't make asbestos have been sued by people who aren't sick from it.'---" We'll let you know when you're being censored - Townhall.com by Ann Coulter (7/11) "Earlier this year, the Screen Actors Guild issued a statement lamenting that "those in the public eye should suffer professionally for having the courage to give voice to their views." Dr. Dowd analyzes Clarence ThomasTownhall.com by Paul Greenberg (7/11) "For one day and one day only we here at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette lifted our suspension of Maureen Dowd from the editorial page." We'd be safer with guns on campus - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Daily Camera Author: Brian T Schwartz ''Representatives of [CU-Boulder] undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, the regents, and campus police all support the prohibition [of guns] in the name of campus safety. Yet no one has demonstrated that disarming permit-holders makes the campus safer. .... We should expect more from an institution of higher learning.'' (6/29/03) Play politics - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Reason Author: Jacob Sullum ''For those who wondered how Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) could sponsor a 'campaign finance reform' law that restricts political speech, the answer became clear during a hearing he chaired the other day: McCain has never read the First Amendment.'' (7/1/03) Ending the public school monopoly - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net' Source: CSE Author: Dick Armey ''After all my years [in education], I've come to the conclusion that education is too important to leave to the public school monopoly.'' (7/10/03) Prosecutors make harmful errors, but not punished, study finds - edom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Snitch ''Some prosecutors will do anything to put a defendant in jail .... And when they behave badly enough, innocent people can wind up in prison, while the attorneys get their wrists slapped. So concludes 'Harmful Error,' a three-year study by the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity.'' (7/9/03) Vox Populi: Saving History Education in America - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service ""Readers are in agreement with CNSNews.com columnist Sterling Rome's concerns that liberals are trying to kill history education in America. Now, they want to figure out how to stop it. Read Letters to the Editor Thursday, July 10, 2003
Also via Armavirumque (Jul. 8) - Overlawyered "Also via Armavirumque (Jul. 8), Theodore Dalrymple on the premise behind fast-food lawsuits: 'Left to his own devices, the denizen of hamburger restaurants would eat fresh carrots and brown rice, his natural choices. ... This picture is of a world in which humanity as a whole is good, but is so innocent that it is diverted from the paths of righteousness by a few evilly disposed persons such as the directors of food companies. Were it not for them, we should all be thin as rakes and fit as fleas.' ('The Devil's Food Cake Made Me Do It', National Post (Canada), Jul. 5)." Overlawyered: "Wheelchair ramps in the high alpine zone" "At The New Criterion's newly launched weblog Armavirumque, James Panero tells how the Americans with Disabilities Act led to the installation of a wheelchair ramp at Galehead Hut in northern New Hampshire, which is 'perhaps the most inaccessible' of the Appalachian Mountain Club's historic system of White Mountain huts and can be reached only by hiking over very rugged terrain (Jul. 7)." Overlawyered: Update: San Antonio evidence-faking and witness-tampering case "The Texas case we covered on May 23 and Jun. 26, 2000 and Mar. 17 of this year has now eventuated in a suit by DaimlerChrysler against the Kugle Law Firm. A trial court dismissed the Kugle firm's $2 billion suit against Chrysler and imposed sanctions of $865,000 against three of the firm's lawyers after finding that the steering decoupler of the sued-over Dodge Neon had been altered to simulate mechanical failure and that Mexican policemen had been asked to change their accounts of the accident giving rise to the suit. An appeals court called the firm's conduct 'an egregious example of the worst kind of abuse of the judicial system.'' 'The senior lawyer at the firm, Robert A. Kugle, has been suspended from the Texas bar and has moved to Mexico. He could not be located for comment.' (Adam Liptak, 'Law Firm Is Sued Over Conduct in Liability Case', New York Times, Jul. 10; AP/Miami Herald; San Antonio Express-News)." Posted by Walter Olson at July 10, 2003 QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "The congress of the United States possesses no power to regulate, or interfere with the domestic concerns, or police of any state: it belongs not to them to establish any rules respecting the rights of property; nor will the constitution permit any prohibition of arms to the people; or of peaceable assemblies by them, for any purposes whatsoever, and in any number, whenever they may see occasion." —ST. GEORGE TUCKER'S BLACKSTONE A Continuous Procession of Clones for the State - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Sean Glazier ''As reported by CNN, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NEAP) found, 'About one third of students in fourth, eighth, and 12th grade could not even show a basic understanding of civics at their grade level.' Rather than look upon this news as a sign of failure, teachers should view it as one more example of the state-managed school system's long-running success in taking the youth of this country and turning them into first-class illiterates and ignoramuses." Commit yourself to freedom! - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin "Let's see. I pay for the roads, I pay for the car and the gas – both also heavily taxed. In fact, I pay sales tax when I buy the car, then a tax on the car every year for these county and state stickers. I buy the tires, parts, oil, anti-freeze and whatever else is deemed necessary (all taxed.) And the state's going to be all-magnanimous and extend to me the privilege of driving on its roads? Whatever." TSA Fires Good Guy, but Fails to Screen Its Own Employees - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin "APSA has learned from various sources that as many as eighty-seven on-the-job Federal Air Marshals have suddenly failed background checks. Some of these FAMs have been flying on your airplanes for as long as a year and a half. ...What bothers us is that the TSA, as we have reported to you before, is inflicting obnoxious, excessive so-called 'screening' on pilots who want to defend their cockpits—and they can’t even do simple background checks on their own employees?" Defend Your Life, Go To Jail? "I hope you all read the Doonesburry Comic by Garry Trudeau published June 28th. He is making fun of the NRA and Wayne LaPierre. Basically Mr. LaPierre is asking Congress not to take automatic weapons from the Iraq people. Then it goes on to say that Congress is about to restore this right to bear automatic weapons to the people of America. It would be hypocrisy not to allow the Iraqi's this same right, according to Trudeau. "What this anti-gun comic is telling us is how uninformed and stupid about firearms they really are. You see, he doesn't understand the difference between automatic and semi-automatic weapons. He thinks they are all the same thing. Or he doesn't understand the laws passed in Congress and what they address. Well, which ever it is he's wrong and missed the point.---" I Own A “Sniper Rifle” - Keep and Bear Arms "Those who oppose this view seem to be constantly trying to deny me that right, but do so by subterfuge, questionable statistics and studies, and a calculated gradualism aimed at the elimination of all firearms. Lawsuits aimed at holding gun manufacturers responsible for the actions of criminals are already taking place. The next manifestation of this gradualism will probably be a call to ban 'sniper rifles' - the definition of which, as noted, can include just about any rifle." Hidden guns pose no problem to public - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Ohioans For Concealed Carry PAC Website: http://www.ofccpac.org "Would anyone have reason to fear if or when a carrying a concealed weapon law is finally passed in Ohio? Instead of wild speculation and ridiculous claims along the lines of 'shoot-outs over fender benders' and 'blood running in the streets,' why don’t we instead use the real facts, live data and recent history?" "There are over 50 million man-years of concealed carry behind us right now. That is four million CCW’s over 12-plus years, in 32, now 33 states. Then there is Vermont, where you never needed any permit." Gun Control Is Socialist - Keep and Bear Arms ''To the extent that the United States has imposed gun controls on a population 'protected' by our Bill of Rights, we have a measure of how socialist our country has become. Our government was founded on the idea that individuals have God-given rights that need to be protected from that same government. Furthermore, government was seen as having no rights, but only a few well-defined duties. Socialism requires the reversal of our founding premises. ''Consider who are the most ardent gun control advocates in America. Senators Charles Schumer, Hillary Clinton and Diane Feinstein are among the most eager to ban guns, and they are among the most socialist of our national politicians. ... ''Fight socialism. Buy a gun.'' Nike's free speech case - National Center for Policy Analysis "Nike's free speech case is the dry-run for a new form of corporate shakedown by trial lawyers, says Robert Samuleson...." CSPI Lied On Acrylamide - www.consumerfreedom.com: "CSPI's alarmist report to the FDA on the 'dangers' of acrylamide is scientifically bankrupt, and should be disregarded wholly by regulators. The organization has a long history of attacking companies that produce the foods Americans enjoy most. This latest stunt, while devoid of any scientific basis, illustrates CSPI's now-legendary biases. "The FDA should use this episode to make an example of CSPI, focusing on the tactics it uses to alarm consumers without any scientific basis. Organizations purporting to act 'in the public interest' should be held to a high standard of scientific literacy and ethical conduct. In this case, CSPI has demonstrated neither. The public should be increasingly wary, and the government should decline to act upon petitions as ill-informed as CSPI's." Left in the Organic Dust - Junkscience.com -- Main Page: "'Left in the Organic Dust' - 'For the next several decades, biotechnology will be a leading area of science and industry, of employment, and for enhancing our quality of life. It has the potential to improve our quality of life through medical applications, improved and safer food, and a better environment.' (John Purvis, TCS)" Biotech Comes of Age - Junkscience.com -- Main Page: "'Biotech Comes of Age' - 'What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago many people associated 'biotech' with the Martha Stewart insider trading scandal, which began when the Food and Drug Administration rejected a biotech drug.' (Michael Fumento, Scripps Howard News Service)" 'The real poison is dishonesty - Junkscience.com -- Main Page: "JAY AMBROSE: 'The real poison is dishonesty' - President Bush, who seems honestly to care about the misery of the African people, could do them no better service on his trip to their continent than to speak out loud and clear about how fanatical, well-off, Western environmentalists are annually killing hundreds of thousands of Africans with their misplaced values. It sounds astonishing, but it is true that conjectures about the long-term dubious harm of the indoor spraying of DDT have prevented its use in the fight against malaria, even though it is known to be highly effective, even though nothing else is effective, even though the risks are negligible and even though a million people die from the disease every year and hundreds of millions more suffer from it.' (Scripps Howard News Service) " much progress being made in Iraq - NEALZ NUZE "There is much progress being made in Iraq..You’re just not reading aobut it. Golly, I wonder why?" Click here NEALZ NUZE "About two weeks ago I told you about this story: An undergraduate student at Cal Poly is facing possible expulsion because he posted a flier on a student bulletin board advertising a speech. Some delicate students were offended. Now … here’s more on that issue." Click here The rich are already paying their fair share - NEALZ NUZE "Another excellent Bruce Bartlett column … “The rich are already paying their fair share.” Click here WHO SAID THIS? - NEALZ NUZE "It hurts when my 8-year-old daughter wants to go to the movies or even have a meal at McDonald's and I have to say, 'No, Mommy can't afford it.' If I had gotten a tax cut, I would spend it on the mountain of bills that face me. Like millions of other working people, I would have put that money right back into the economy.' Answer: Margaret Gaffin, who, by the way, earnes less than $10,500 a year and pays no income taxes." It’s all about luck - NEALZ NUZE "Liberals just love to portray success as nothing more than “luck.” This idea of success=luck is essential to liberal dogma. Individual excellence and hard work must not be recognized. Emory University’s Arthur Kellerman, an infamous leftist, writes in a column today about “those fortunate enough to have health insurance.” There you go. It’s not hard work. It’s not good decision management. It’s all about luck." Hidden consumer dangers in energy bill - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CEI Author: Ben Lieberman ''The [inch-thick energy] bill ... has drifted far from its original purpose of ensuring affordable and reliable energy supplies for Americans. Quite the contrary, the energy package is turning into an anti-consumer disaster that deserves to be flushed. If you can only find a toilet capable of doing the job.'' (7/9/03) Should religious leaders condemn gas guzzlers? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Acton Institute Author: Robert A Sirico ''Aside from the debatable contention that SUVs contribute substantially to environmental degradation ... the theologically serious person will want to ask if such campaigns enhance the credibility of the religious message. This campaign strikes me as more of a gimmick to advance a debatable political agenda than a serious theological reflection.'' (7/9/03) Daily distortion: Kraft forced to appease fat and lazy - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: Cody Hatch ''Let's let the junk food companies manufacture junk food without feeling threatened by lazy fat people. There's nothing wrong with a Big Mac and some Oreos once in a while. Just not at every meal. And I didn't need a PR flunkie to tell me that either.'' (7/9/03) Banzhaf's lies, damn lies, and more damn lies - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CCF Author: staff ''[R]espectable news outlets are starting to report Banzhaf's propaganda as fact. Take a recent story in Canada's national newspaper The Globe and Mail, which made an unchallenged, reporting-as-fact assertion that four obesity lawsuits 'have already succeeded.''' (7/9/03) Lessons from the first airplane - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Mackinac Center Author: Lawrence W Reed ''[J]just nine days after Langley's [government subsidized] failure, the Wrights took turns flying their carefully designed [privately financed] plane for as long as 59 seconds at Kitty Hawk.'' (7/9/03) Defending the free market - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: NCPA Author: Bruce Bartlett ''True believers in the free market must therefore fight it [crony capitalism] as strenuously as they fight socialism and other misguided government interventions. In fact, they should fight them more strenuously, because capitalism itself often ends up getting the blame for the inevitable consequences: high prices, high taxes, high unemployment and slow growth.'' (7/9/03) Privatization and competition in corrections - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Heartland Institute Author: Geoffrey F Segal ''New research shows private prisons remain a viable alternative for addressing state budget concerns. Not only do private prisons themselves save money, but they also put external pressure on the corrections system, further constraining the escalation of costs.'' (7/1/03) Summer reading - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Town Hall Author: Thomas Sowell '''The summer vacation is probably as good a time as any to get them [children] something to read to let them know that there is another side of the story, other than the one that classroom propagandists keep forcing down their throats.' Many good recommendations." (7/10/03) Six myths of competitive sourcing "The private sector increasingly has found that outsourcing-through competitive processes-has resulted in both improved performance and lower costs. Yet a shift to such competitive sourcing in the federal government has met fierce resistance from the workforce, unions and elected representatives. Critics base their opposition on six myths: Performance will deteriorate because industry would focus on profits, not public needs. Costs would be higher because government employees are paid less than those in industry, and the government does not charge fees for its services as businesses do. Promised savings from competitions would not materialize. Small businesses would be hurt because prior small contracts would become part of larger overall competitions. Many government employees would be laid off if agencies lost competitions to the private sector; or, even if they won, as a result of streamlining their operations. Managers would lose significant control if much of their work were contracted out. These arguments come up whether the issue is competitive sourcing (i.e. public vs. private), outsourcing, privatization, public-private partnerships, private financing or government entrepreneurship. But these theories increasingly are being tested, and the data are proving them wrong.---" I'm old -- gimmee gimmee gimmee! - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Reason Author: Kerry Howley ''Not content to suck resources from a dying system, the Me Generation has formed a massive voting bloc willing to grant itself one-size-fits all benefits. Last month, in an orgy of self-love, the 108th congress (average age: 55) helped itself to the one resource younger generations will always be good for: future earnings.'' (7/9/03) Waste and fraud plague federal 'entitlement' programs - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: AZCentral ''While lawmakers fight over a billion dollars here and a billion there for next year's budget, agency watchdogs said Wednesday that billions more are being lost every year to waste and fraud in federal programs with budgets beyond congressional controls.'' (7/10/03) Dems Use Filibuster to Kill Senate Medical Malpractice Bill - CNSNews.com -- News This Hour "Senate Democrats Wednesday used a filibuster to end consideration of a measure that would have limited damage awards in medical malpractice cases. After Republicans fell 11 votes short of the 60 needed to end the Democratic filibuster, Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) withdrew the legislation, which would have capped non-economic damages in lawsuits to $250,000. Noting that the House of Representatives passed a similar bill earlier this year, President Bush said in a statement that the nation's 'medical liability system is badly broken, and access to quality health care for Americans is endangered by frivolous and abusive lawsuits.' Other Republicans vowed to continue pursuing the issue, either in Congress or as an issue in the 2004 elections." Vox Populi: NASCAR, Jessie Jackson and Racism - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "Before reading today's Letters to the Editor about the director of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Sports Division calling NASCAR racing a 'redneck cracker sport,' be aware that some of the correspondence includes blunt and controversial language that tackles the question of what constitutes racism in America. Read Letters to the Editor White Student Won't Apologize for Flap at University - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "Initially labeled a 'suspicious white male' by police investigating a dispute at the multicultural center on the campus of California Polytechnic State University, student Steve Hinkel continues to defy university officials who want him to apologize for posting a flyer advertising a conservative speaker." Full Story Blowing the whistle on regulatory sprawl - The Washington Times: Commentary (Wayne Crews) "President Bush and Congress will eventually answer to taxpayers for the $2 trillion federal budget. But who answers for the $860 billion — 8 percent of GDP — that federal regulations now cost on top of official federal outlays?" Wednesday, July 09, 2003
Media Research Center Home Page - 7/9/2003 3:21:58 PM CyberAlert: Exposing Media Bias Daily Wednesday, July 9: • ABC & NBC Paint Bush Concession as Undermining Case for War • Peter Jennings, “Raised with Anti-Americanism,” Now U.S. Citizen • Bury Scolds Bush’s Remark, “Pretty Macho, Almost a Taunt" • Couric Prompts Mother of Killed Soldier Who Denounces Bush • AP Tags Judicial Watch But Sierra Club Goes Unlabeled • Watch Liberal Journalists Wishing Death for Conservatives Tuesday: • Franks Defending Bush’s “Bring 'Em On” Comment • Howard Dean No Liberal to Washington Post, Really a Conservative • NYT Editor Admits He’s a Democrat, But Still Sees Liberal Bias Monday: • Most Homeless Ever, Numbers “Not Seen Since Great Depression” • NBC Sends Engel Back to Iraq Where He Finds Anti-U.S. Sunnis • Columnist Samuelson Notes Media Bias in Prescription Coverage...and more! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Page contains links to the articles. QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "Amplifying fears is our job and our pleasure. The one bias I'll concede all of us in this business fall prey to: we want there to be a story, and "no problems" is not much of a story." — RICK HOLMES, METROWEST NEWS Congress of Goons - Keep and Bear Arms: " Submitted by: LFA Editor Website: http://www.libertyforall.net ''There's an article on this Vote/Blog/Committee/Caucus web site by Phyllis Schlafly, borrowed from townhall.com, called 'COG stands for surprising assault on democracy'. Personally, I think COG stands for Congress of Goons. Because that's what we would get.'' ''The COG Committee is distressed that it would take several months for special elections to vote up a second string of US congresscrooks, leaving us lowbrows leaderless. That's a problem? Months of no new taxes, no new regulations, no new unfunded mandates, no new rights violations, no new interns inaugurated by incumbents. What a horrifying happenstance for the Big Government class. People might actually discover that they don't need to be lead!" Six Dead in Miss. Plant Shooting Rampage - Keep and Bear Arms : " Submitted by: Bruce W. Krafft Website: http://www.idcWebDev.com ''Authorities said Williams was carrying a .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle when he entered the plant, but he apparently only used the 12-gauge shotgun. He also had three other small-caliber guns in his truck.'' ------- "Notice how quickly the Brady Bunch began dancing on the fresh, bloody corpses of the victims, calling for a renewal to the 'assault' weapons ban, even though the killer didn't use one." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Good thing none of the other workers were armed---They might have cut short Williams' attack and cheated the gun-control crowd out of another excuse for hoplophobic hysteria. A Vigilant Course of Action - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin "Understand something -- simply paying your life membership or your $35 annual fee to the NRA and sitting back to watch what they can do for you is worthless. It’s the cheap, lazy way out. Logging onto firearms message boards and complaining about the rotten shape of current affairs is worthless, unless you take action to remedy the sad state of politics you spend so much time complaining about." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Good advice for remedying other current affairs NCPA - Daily Policy Digest - Reducing Excessive Medical Malpractice Awards "Because they contribute to the practice of 'defensive' medicine -- or unnecessary procedures just to be sure -- liability suits are also a major cause of rising health care costs. "Yet Democrats are expected to muster the 41 votes needed to kill medical liability reform in the Senate today. So why are Republicans smiling? Perhaps because they know they're teeing up what promises to be one of their better issues going into 2004, according to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal. "Likewise, the American Medical Association says that no fewer than 19 states are in 'malpractice' crisis---" GM victim of 'myths and lies': expert - Junkscience.com ''Myths and lies spread by the green movement about the consequences of genetic modification (GM) are preventing the use of new crops that could alleviate third-world famine, an international conference has been told in Melbourne. (AFP)" teachers unions say that teachers are underpaid - NEALZ NUZE: "The teachers unions say that teachers are underpaid. Wow, imagine my surprise. The Hoover Institution says that teachers earn more per hour than architects, engineers, scientists and nurses. Food fight!" Click here teachers unions say that teachers are underpaid - NEALZ NUZE: "The teachers unions say that teachers are underpaid. Wow, imagine my surprise. The Hoover Institution says that teachers earn more per hour than architects, engineers, scientists and nurses. Food fight!" Click here war on drugs - NEALZ NUZE "Do you think our war on drugs in the United States is a good thing? Can you read this article with an open mind?" Click here The top of the reading list today - NEALZ NUZE: "The top of the reading list today. Bob Herbert, a New York Times columnist, says its time for some civil rights leaders to address the problem of black self-destruction. Good thing Herbert is black. If a white columnist were to say this it would, of course, be racism." Click here for article HERE’S SOME GOOD NEWS - NEALZ NUZE "A just-released survey shows that the United States leads the world in the private ownership of guns. We are now near the point where there is almost one gun for every American. "Good. "America is also one of the freest nations in the world. Coincidence? Now we just have to work on removing those laws that prevent law-abiding citizens from carrying those guns for their own protection." I JUST CAN’T BELIEVE THIS IS AN ISSUE - NEALZ NUZE "Have we all lost our minds? Are we really upset by this? Chicago Cubs manager Dusty Baker says that blacks and Hispanics are better suited to dealing with high temperatures. Excuse me, but isn’t this an accepted truth among anthropologists? Isn’t it true that nature herself has seen to it that humans who live in hotter climates have darker skin? If Baker’s statements are true, why in the world are so many people getting their boxers in a bunch over this? Leave him alone. There was no ill intent, and what he said was quite probably true. "The real issue here is what would have happened if a white person had made those comments. I don’t have to fill in that blank, do I?" TRIAL LAWYERS SHOW THEIR STRENGTH - NEALZ NUZE "In New Jersey we have a doctor training Jersey toll booth operators how to deliver a baby. Some of you may wonder why. It’s because more and more live births are now happening while the mother is trying to get to a hospital, and more of these mothers are having to hit the road to cross state lines to find an obstetrician. Why? Malpractice insurance premiums. "The House passed a bill this year to limit medical damages. The vote was close, 229 to 196. That bill is now before the Senate and Democrats are blocking it. Democrats, as you know, are the exclusive beneficiaries of huge donations from trial lawyers. Now these trial lawyers have managed to corral the votes they need to kill this medical liability reform. "If you think that trial lawyers are too powerful in Washington, just remember where that power rests … on the Democratic side of the aisle." TRIAL LAWYERS SHOW THEIR STRENGTH - NEALZ NUZE "In New Jersey we have a doctor training Jersey toll booth operators how to deliver a baby. Some of you may wonder why. It’s because more and more live births are now happening while the mother is trying to get to a hospital, and more of these mothers are having to hit the road to cross state lines to find an obstetrician. Why? Malpractice insurance premiums. "The House passed a bill this year to limit medical damages. The vote was close, 229 to 196. That bill is now before the Senate and Democrats are blocking it. Democrats, as you know, are the exclusive beneficiaries of huge donations from trial lawyers. Now these trial lawyers have managed to corral the votes they need to kill this medical liability reform. "If you think that trial lawyers are too powerful in Washington, just remember where that power rests … on the Democratic side of the aisle." Culturally appropriate food? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Europe Author: Roger Bate ''Picture two virtually identical, and equally safe, ears of corn, the staple of choice of sub-Saharan Africa. Someone decides that one is all right and may save your life, but that the other is not and you may starve instead. Shockingly, this is not an absurd fiction but a real deliberation taking place in Africa and costing lives right now.'' (7/8/03) The critical mass mess - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TCS Author: Frederick M Hess ''While the Court's highly political 'split decision' has prompted much discussion, nearly all commentary has overlooked the simple fact that the Court has read into constitutional doctrine a new and potentially powerful justification for race-based quotas in educational settings.'' (7/8/03) Comparable to what? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Buckeye Institute Author: Rebecca A. Thacker and Joshua C. Hall ''Despite these tremendous gains made by women under a system of free enterprise, politicians continue to re-introduce comparable worth legislation. Comparable worth is a poor solution to a nonexistent problem.'' (7/3/03) Daily distortion: Does NEA oppose affirmative action? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: Cody Hatch ''[L]iberals and regressives should be ashamed of themselves for denying the parents of inner-city children the option of removing their children from the failing public schools and sending them to the school of their choice. How can the fat-cats of the NEA and liberal politicians in Congress enjoy that option while consistently denying that option to those less fortunate?'' (7/8/03) Economic freedom, investment, and prosperity - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Cato Institute Author: James Gwartney and Robert Lawson ''If a country builds institutions consistent with economic freedom, investors and entrepreneurs will come and economic growth will result. The sooner policymakers learn this lesson, the more prosperous the people of the world will be.'' (7/9/03) Upholding liberty in America - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Cato Institute Author: Ed Crane and William Niskanen ''[T]he rise of neo-conservatism on the right .... is using the threat of terrorism to expand government at home and abroad. America must safeguard its freedoms in the fight against terrorism, but protect itself from pernicious policies that erode freedom in the name of liberty.'' (7/9/03) Upholding liberty in America - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Cato Institute Author: Ed Crane and William Niskanen ''[T]he rise of neo-conservatism on the right .... is using the threat of terrorism to expand government at home and abroad. America must safeguard its freedoms in the fight against terrorism, but protect itself from pernicious policies that erode freedom in the name of liberty.'' (7/9/03) The Pitfalls of Precaution - The Heartland Institute Via: Free-market.net "Precaution is embedded in current risk assessment procedures, particularly those directed at human health risk assessments. While 'better safe than sorry' may sound like common sense, such precaution may harm, rather than protect, public health. "Risk assessments based on animal studies, in particular, present a problem because they encourage agencies to focus on regulating what may be insignificant risks, perhaps forsaking more significant risks or inadvertently creating even greater risks. "For example, based on EPA studies showing the potential for a slight increase in cancer risk from trihalomethanes, a byproduct of chlorination, local water officials in Lima, Peru took the precautionary step of stopping chlorination of the city's drinking water. The result was a cholera epidemic that claimed more than 3,500 lives in 1991 alone.---" New York middle school forces STD, pregnancy tests on partygoers - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CNN ''School administrators forced several eighth-grade students to undergo tests for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases after they attended a party, the New York Civil Liberties Union claimed in a lawsuit filed Tuesday with federal court in Manhattan.'' (7/9/03) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Good grief!!!!!!! Are Liberals Killing the Study of History? - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "It's been said that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and as CNSNews.com columnist Sterling Rome points out, the Left has a stake in making sure our kids are insulated from the study of American history." Read the commentary Vox Populi: Readers Slam Teachers Unions - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "Readers are not happy with the nation's major -- and mostly liberal -- teachers unions, and hold them responsible for undermining the teaching profession by being more interested in politics than education." Read Letters to the Editor Fiat of theological dictators - The Washington Times: Commentary (Cal Thomas) "We witness people in the world and, I fear, increasingly in our country, who believe and act as if God not only gave us life but also required us to be in bondage." Straight talk on immigration - The Washington Times: Commentary (Mona Charen) "Though Victor Davis Hanson makes an excellent case that immigration policy is badly out of whack, not to say insane, in California, part of the strength of his new book "Mexifornia: A State of Becoming," is his deep compassion for Mexicans and other immigrants." Tuesday, July 08, 2003
Overlawyered: Class action firm subject to judgment "A federal jury in Chicago awarded $36 million ($8.3 million compensatory, the rest punitive) to the former client of class action plaintiffs' firm Ness, Motley for breach of contract and fiduciary duty. The law firm negotiated a settlement (over the objection of its clients, which it fired at the behest of the defendant) with a convicted felon with tens of millions in frozen assets that gave the firm $2 million in fees, but 'next to no compensation' for the ostensible injured parties. (Ness, Motley has since broken up.) (Adam Liptak, 'Big Litigation Firm Found to Have Acted Unethically,' NY Times, July 4). The Manhattan Institute issued a press release and a study of the case last August." Posted by Ted Frank at July 7, 2003 05:28 PM National Center for Policy Analysis "As House and Senate leaders prepare for negotiations on a Medicare prescription drug benefit, NCPA reminds them that adding the benefit without fixing Medicare's many other shortfalls - and preparing the program to deal with the retiring baby boomers - dooms the financial futures of our children and grandchildren." Click here to read more. NCPA - Daily Policy Digest - Global Warming "Science" Needs Testing: "Very little is known about the causes, effects and extent of climate change, says James Schlesinger, former secretary of energy under Jimmy Carter. "Yet in recent years the inclination has been to attribute global warming to a single dominant cause -- the increase in greenhouse gases. But climate has always been changing -- and sometimes the swings have been rapid, says Schlesinger. "Since the start of the 20th century, the mean temperature at the earth's surface has risen about 1 degree Fahrenheit. The level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has been increasing for more than 150 years. CO2 is a greenhouse gas -- and increases in it, other things being equal, are likely to lead to further warming. Beyond these few facts, science remains unable either to attribute past climate changes to changes in CO2 or to forecast with any degree of precision how climate will change in the future.---" Free Economies and the Road to Affluence - The Cato Institute "The Cato Institute and the Fraser Institute, together with help from 50 think tanks around the world, today release the 2003 edition of the Economic Freedom of the World report, which ranks 123 nations based on 38 separate criteria. Hong Kong continues to boast the world's freest economy, followed by Singapore and the United States. 'The research is unambiguous,' says Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, 'freeing people economically unleashes individual drive and initiative and puts a nation on the road to economic growth.'" PETA Suing To Silence KFC "With its jihad against KFC bombing in the court of public opinion, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is taking its animal-rights mission to a real court. Rehashing the tactics it used against Wendy’s in 2001, PETA’s gang of lunatics filed an injunction with the California Superior Court today to prevent the popular chicken restaurant chain from defending itself against PETA’s attacks. Without a hint of irony or self-reflection, the group that covertly supports arsonists claims that KFC is making “deceptive statements” regarding their treatment of future three-piece dinners.---" Balance, Moderation, and Exercise? 'I Don't Support That.' Posted On July 8, 2003 "Diet scold Marion Nestle, who was the keynote speaker at last month's obesity lawsuit conference and complains that food is too cheap in America, went off the deep end yesterday. Echoing the lawsuit-happy John Banzhaf, who told a May 2003 food policy conference that personal responsibility is 'crap,' Nestle said on CNN that she doesn't support 'balance, moderation, and exercise' when it comes to food choices.---" HERE I GO … SELF DESTRUCTING AGAIN - NEALZ NUZE "---What is it about gay men that drive so many of you bat guano crazy? Why in the world would any moderately sane individual say on network television “you should only get AIDS and die, you pig”? I’m no psychologist, but my educated guess is that a statement such as this could only come from someone with a pathological fear of homosexuals. Why else would you harbor such hate for someone who will have minimal effect on your life?---" Sometimes capitalists are capitalism’s worst enemies - NEALZ NUZE "Sometimes capitalists are capitalism’s worst enemies. Bruce Bartlett writes: A good example of how businesses manipulate government for their own benefit is the prescription drug subsidy bill now before Congress. Although marketed as a benefit for seniors, the true beneficiaries are big businesses that would be able to greatly reduce the cost of their retiree health programs. “ Now .. you need to read the rest of the column." Click here LET’S KEEP DUMBING DOWN EDUCATION - NEALZ NUZE "They’ve been having a bit of a problem in New York. It seems that New York government school students can’t pass that pesky math competency test. Now they’ve killed the messenger. The state’s testing director has lost her job. Now that makes sense, doesn’t it? "Here’s what an unnamed spokesman for New York education authorities had to say. 'Clearly, it is a disservice to public schools to give tests whose results imply students aren't learning essential skills. Now that the state's testing director is gone, we can offer an exam that more accurately reflects what students are really learning.” "The problem is this current test does accurately reflect what the students are learning. Little .. maybe nothing. The solution for government schools? When students can’t pass the test, fire the person responsible for the test and then make them easier. As stupid as parents are these days, they’ll certainly buy it." I JUST LOVE THIS GUY - NEALZ NUZE "P.J. O’Rourke. One of a kind. This quote is from his review of Hitlary’s “Living History” book. If I could write like this you wouldn’t be listening to me on the radio today. "...[I]t says something unflattering about our era that prominent political figures -- who used to write declarations of independence, preambles to constitutions, Gettysburg addresses, and such -- now use the alphabet only to make primitive artifacts, like the letter-inscribed tablet that Charlemagne is said to have put under his pillow each night, in the hope he'd wake up literate. Conservatives, including most of the Founding Fathers, have always worried that the price of a democratic system would be a mediocre nation. But George Washington and William F. Buckley Jr. put together could not have foreseen, in their gloomiest moments, the rise of Clinton-style über-mediocrity -- with its soaring commonplaces, its pumped trifling, its platinum-grade triviality. The Alpha-dork husband, the super-twerp wife, and the hyper-wonk vice president -- together with all their mega-weenie water carriers, such as vicious pit gerbil George Stephanopoulos and Eastern diamondback rattleworm Sidney Blumenthal -- spent eight years trying to make America nothing to brag about. They failed. And that is, ultimately, what makes 'Living History' such a good nonread. If they're going to throw the book at us, and the book is by Hillary, the republic will endure (and the Republicans will prevail)." --P.J. O'Rourke Politics make drug companies sick - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Town Hall Author: Doug Bandow ''Everyone in America has a stake in lowering medical costs. But they also have a stake in maintaining quality health care. If the pharmaceutical industry succumbs to the demagogic campaign against it, we will all suffer the painful consequences.'' (7/8/03) Daily distortion: importance of bloggers - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: Cody Hatch ''The mainstream media (talk radio included) abandoned the mere reporting of facts long ago, and everyone knows it. Blogs are at least honest about what they do, and provide a true marketplace of ideas.'' (7/7/03) Looking a little like '1984' - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Cato Institute Author: Richard Pollock ''This is the 'New Europe'. It's the world Orwell, a socialist, warned about 50 years ago. In the name of some vague utopian goal, the lifeblood of society is drained.'' (7/8/03) PCspeak of diversity - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Ifeminists Author: Wendy McElroy ''The evolution of PCspeak parallels that of Newspeak. Consider the evolution of public debate on affirmative action or, more broadly, 'diversity'.'' (7/8/03) Book Review: Saying Yes by Jacob Sullum - Americas Future Foundation Via: Free-market.net "---The Drug War rests on the assumption that illegal drugs are fundamentally different from other kinds of potentially dangerous substances and incompatible with free will. It also relies heavily on propaganda that growing numbers of people from their own personal experiences know to be absurd. By vigorously contesting the former while pointing out the latter, it is possible to persuade the many well-meaning members of the general public who presently favor the status quo to embrace reform." Federal Register Surges to 75,606 Pages, Study Says - CNSNews.com: The Cybercast News Service "So much for the Republican ideal of smaller government. Under the Bush administration, the Federal Register contains the most pages ever, according to a new study from the libertarian Cato Institute." Read News on the Web ScrappleFace: Doctors Should Prescribe Cash to Ease Pain and Suffering [SATIRE] "The American Medical Association (AMA) today endorsed the use of prescription cash as the most effective remedy for pain and suffering. "The announcement comes as the U.S. Senate takes up President Bush's proposal to cap jury awards in medical malpractice cases. "'Our research shows that when people are injured in an accident, or through physician malpractice, they seek large cash awards for pain and suffering,' said an unnamed AMA spokesman. 'So, we now suggest that doctors prescribe cold cash to relieve all kinds of physical and mental anguish. We encourage Congress to include cash in the new Medicare prescription drug plan.' "Studies show that cash becomes an increasingly effective analgesic as the dosage is increased. Side-effects include blurring of vision, myopia, involuntary contraction of the hand muscles, and potential for dependency and addiction. Ask your doctor whether prescription cash is right for you." Posted by Scott Ott ScrappleFace: Senate Bill Would Rename Head Start 'Kennedy Youth' [SATIRE] "A bill introduced in the Senate today would counter President Bush's effort to turn the Head Start program over to the states, and would rename the program 'Kennedy Youth' after its biggest advocate, the Senator from Massachusetts. "Head Start currently redistributes money from middle-income Americans to pay federal employees to hug, play with and entertain one million pre-school children from low-income families. "The purpose of Kennedy Youth would be to 'actively guide the social and political education of American children.' "'These children are the future of the Democrat party, and...ah...by extension, the country,' said Senator Kennedy. 'They and their parents are learning important lessons, like dependence on the federal government in every aspect of daily life. The Kennedy Youth program will allow me to vicariously hug each future voter. They will learn to love the party even more. And that's good for America.'" Posted by Scott Ott Monday, July 07, 2003
Independence from England, Dependence on Washington? “Isn’t our choice really one of up or down? Down through statism, the welfare state, more and more government largesse, accompanied always by more government authority, less individual liberty and ultimately totalitarianism, always advanced as for our own good. The alternative is the dream conceived by our Founding Fathers, up to the ultimate in individual freedom, consistent with an orderly society. "We don’t celebrate Dependence Day on the Fourth of July. We celebrate Independence Day.” Ronald Reagan "Ronald Reagan’s reminder that the Fourth of July is a celebration of independence, not dependence, still resonates today. We celebrate not only our political independence from England, but also our independence from the feudal notion of loyalty to King and Crown. We celebrate victory by the American colonies over a government that taxed them too much and sought too much control over their affairs. We also celebrate the Founding Fathers themselves, and the great principles contained in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.---" Zyprexa - Overlawyered "Michael Fumento laments that a single study is being misconstrued to justify perverse lawsuits over anti-psychotic medication Zyprexa. (Michael Fumento, 'Lawyers Exploiting the Mentally Ill,' Scripps-Howard News Service, June 26)." Posted by Ted Frank at 11:16 PM | TrackBack (0) " QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "Liberty has never come from government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance." — Woodrow Wilson, May 9, 1912, Address, New York Press Club. The Politicians' Constitution - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: LFA Editor Website: http://www.libertyforall.net ''I think I've finally figured out why politicians seem to be confused and utterly unaware of what the U.S. Constitution actually says. Either they never took the time to sit down and READ it, or they have their own version that is very different from the one that is often referred to but seldom understood." The Children Have Spoken About Guns in School - Keep and Bear Arms by Janalee Tobias, Founder/President, Women Against Gun Control "'Friends, On Monday, June 30, 2003, 1 p.m., the 5th grade class of Miss Erickson, at South Jordan Elementary, South Jordan, Utah, held a mock trial. The issue at trial: Should guns be allowed in school? South Jordan Elementary school is in Jordan School District where policy is currently being drafted regarding CCW permit holders taking guns to school." ["The comments of the jurors reflected their fear of a crazed criminal coming in and shooting up the school. They want teachers to be able to carry a gun for their protection as long as they know how to use it, know the safety rules, and keep it out of the reach of students. They also want the "bad guys" to think that if they come into their school to shoot it up, that a "good guy" is going to shoot them back and protect the children. "The verdict is in: Children think that the best way to "save the children" is to let honest, law-abiding citizens carry guns for protection."] Ben & Jerry's New Scam - Junkscience.com "Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s is scamming consumers with a new campaign that just may land the company in deep fudge brownie." (Steve Milloy, FoxNews.com) Click for an earlier Ben & Jerry's scam. 'Kenyan doctor pleads for GM crops' - Junkscience.com ''Florence Wambugu, who grew up in poverty in Kenya, is a passionate believer in genetically modified food. In Australia, the debate over GM crops remains academic, but in famine-stricken Africa it is a matter of life or death. Dr Wambugu will get a receptive audience among the Nobel laureates and other leading geneticists at the international conference in Melbourne, but it is the public and governments who need convincing.'' (The Age) 'WMO Joins the IPCC Mantra' - Junkscience.com ''A short press release by the WMO (World Meteorological Organisation - a UN body), dated 2nd July, attracted worldwide publicity. In the release, the WMO put the spotlight on `extreme weather events', the latest fad being promoted by the greenhouse industry to explain away the lack of general warming predicted by the climate modellers.--- "Most of the WMO press release was just a repeat of already discredited claims by the IPCC in their 2001 report - the claimed 0.6°C 20th century warming, the 1990's being the warmest decade etc. etc., 1998 the warmest year etc. etc., and so it went on - a catalogue of tired old claims which have peppered the press releases of nearly every environmental group since the IPCC first made them in 2001. Even the discredited Hockey Stick was thrown in for good measure, even though that concept is seen by so many scientists to be merely junk science at its worst." (Still Waiting For Greenhouse) Déjà vu (all over again)n - July 2003 "Caption in the business section of the Sunday Times July 6, 2003: "The big issue: with obesity reaching epidemic proportions, food is becoming the new tobacco." "From Number Watch February 2002: "As we suggested last month, obesity has become the new tobacco for the scare industry." "From Number Watch January 2002: "Obesity is the new cause célèbre among the health fascists of the Nanny State. Watch out for dutiful epidemiologists “proving” that it causes every known ill of mankind, as do tobacco and alcohol." Knights of the long lies 4/7/3 "The medical establishment has been hammering away at public smoking, hoping to force an emulation of the diktats in California and New York. Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer, has now joined in. 'But Sir Liam firmly identified smoking as the most important issue facing public health. Passive smoking caused lung cancer, heart disease, cot death, asthma and ear infections, he said.' This is a massive lie, created from junk epidemiology, or in the case of the EPA pure multiple fraud. "What has the nation come to when the President of the Royal Society, the Astronomer Royal and the Chief Medical Officer all routinely spout junk science?" A Conspiracy So Vast - NEALZ NUZE "Not a few people are wondering if Ann Coulter might possibly have gone just a wee bit too far in her new book “Treason. Among them is this Wall Street Journal columnist." Full story Welfare as Stimulus "---President Bush’s justifications for the his tax cuts have helped muddle the whole debate on taxes by claiming that simply giving people more money will stimulate the economy. Lost is the notion of creating incentives to get people to work (lowering marginal tax rates). Using the essentially Keynesian reasoning advanced for the tax cuts, now even welfare payments appear to qualify as a stimulus for economic growth. "Editorials in the New York Times talk of “fat cats” getting their tax cuts and that “there won’t even be crumbs left over for the working folks.” Somehow a tax bill that ensures that high-income people will pay yet a greater share of the tax bill has been painted as unfair to poor people. "For that matter, the 2001 tax cut also shifted a greater share of the tax burden to higher income people. Even without the newest tax change, about 10 million more low-income people have been completely removed from having to pay income taxes from 2000 to 2003. How many times can you pass transfer payments to offset payroll taxes? Apparently, the answer is more than once. Completely lost in these debates is the focus that Ronald Reagan brought to the issue of marginal rates. Without even the fig leaf of justifying the child tax credit as a tax cut for those paying payroll taxes, why not call the lump sum payment to low income people what it is: permanent welfare payments." Counselling can add to post-disaster trauma - NEALZ NUZE "Maybe if some of our “educators” will read this we can get rid of some of those damned “grievance counselors.” Full story Samuel Adams - The Declaration Revisited - NEALZ NUZE "How would the America of 2003 measure up to the standards set by the men who wrote our Declaration of Independence and crafter our Constitution? Full story IT’S NOT WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS, IT’S WHAT GOVERNMENT WANTS - NEALZ NUZE "A Zogby poll reveals that the majority of Americans aren’t particularly eager for government health care.---For instance, only 16% of seniors think that the Senate (Kennedy) drug plan would be better than what they already have. It matters not. Politicians are on a role and they see their goal of government (socialized) health care becoming a reality. In this case it doesn’t matter so much what the public wants as what will make politicians stronger. Socialized medicine is inevitable, no matter what you may want." I JUST LOVE THIS QUESTION - NEALZ NUZE "Every once in a while I just love to throw this question out, especially when the political season starts to get hot. "It’s very simple. Who owns you? Do you belong to yourself? If so, how much of you do you own? Fifty percent? Eighty percent? Are you bold enough to claim ownership of 100% of yourself? "If you are one of those who claims 100% ownership of yourself, does that make you selfish? Is there some unwritten rule of society that dictates that you must give a certain percentage of yourself to someone else? If so, how much? "Does the government own any portion of your life? If so, how much? How is the limit set? Do you decide how much of yourself you want to give to others through government, or does the government decide that for you? "Back to the original question, who owns you? If you are unwilling to claim a natural right to 100% ownership of yourself, then you are ceding some percentage of ownership to another, most probably government. The only question left at that point is how that percentage is set. The reality is that government makes this decision. The question of charity is no longer one for the individual in our society. Government enforces a claim to a portion of your life, and then seizes that portion of your life for the benefit of other private individuals. The idea of government mandated charity is now so ingrained in our culture that many doubt private charity could ever carry the load. Politicians, of course, just love this. Many of you who have had small amounts of money to disburse in a charitable effort, hundreds or thousands of dollars, have experienced the power that comes with controlling where that money goes. Just imagine how powerful you would feel if you had millions, or billions to disburse. "Back to the question: If you feel that you do, in fact, own yourself, just when are you going to start protecting your interests?" Democracy is a form of religion - NEALZ NUZE "Democracy is a form of religion. It is the worship of jackals by jackasses." H.L. Mencken college idealists - NEALZ NUZE "The college idealists who fill the ranks of the environmental movement seem willing to do absolutely anything to save the biosphere, except take science courses and learn something about it." -- P.J. O'Rourke The Big Three's shameful secret - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Cato Institute Author: Dan Ikenson ''[T]he 'Big Three' harbor a shameful secret. The industry is not as tough as the 'like a rock' image it projects. Behind the facade, the industry fears foreign competition. And it forces its loyal customers to flip the bill for that insecurity.'' (7/6/03) Speed and cynicism - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Heritage Foundation Author: Edwin J Feulner ''If you've ever wondered why Americans are so cynical about Washington, look no further than Congress' recent moves to add a prescription-drug benefit to Medicare.'' (7/1/03) Prescription drugs aren't really that cheap in Canada - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Buckeye Institute Author: Jen Melby ''Some Ohioans are clamoring for government to help control prescription drug prices. ... The Canadian system, however, tends to push up overall spending on prescription drugs, despite the low prices for some brand name ones.'' (7/2/03) Wedding march - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Reason Author: Jacob Sullum ''Marriage is not a government program.'' (7/7/03) Could America follow 'Old Europe'? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CSE Author: Chris Kinnan ''Congress should learn from Old Europe's pension disaster and move this year to create Personal Retirement Accounts as part of Social Security reform. The clock is ticking.'' (7/3/03) Back to the plantation - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: LVRJ Author: Vin Suprynowicz ''One of the most pernicious aspects of slavery was the presumption that it was somehow a 'favor' to blacks for their masters to feed, clothe and house them, on the premise they could have not otherwise have figured out how to fend for themselves and their families. Isn't that the underlying presumption of the modern welfare state?'' (7/6/03) What's happened to America? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: FFF Author: Sheldon Richman ''Who says the government schools and the welfare state don't work? They work perfectly. They were designed to put the American people into a political coma, and that's what they've done.'' (7/4/03) Over 90% of U.S. is rural open space - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Heartland Institute Author: Randal O'Toole ''Data newly available from the 2000 Census show that at least 94.6 percent of the United States is rural open space, calling into question one of the most common arguments made in defense of smart growth and compact urban development: that we are 'running out' of open space.'' (7/1/03) Fast food fallacy - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: ACSH Author: Elizabeth Whelan ''Banzhaf's argument -- that so-called 'fast food' fare, like cigarettes, is addictive and causes illness and death -- is ludicrous. Food supports life and only contributes to obesity when it is overused, that is, when we consume more calories (regardless of the source) than are expended in exercise.'' (6/30/03) Sunday, July 06, 2003
Open Government Information Awareness: "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both.'' - James Madison (Fourth President of the United States) Wired News: Government Prying, the Good Kind "---Researchers at the MIT Media Lab unveiled the Government Information Awareness, or GIA, website Friday. Using applications developed at the Media Lab, GIA collects and collates information about government programs, plans and politicians from the general public and numerous online sources. Currently the database contains information on more than 3,000 public figures.---" Mother Lode (Pt. 2) - Tongue Tied - Skools Archives "Anyone interested in the subject of over-the-top political correctness who hasn't read Diane Ravitch's new book, The Language Police, should if he or she harbors any doubts about the pervasiveness of this nefarious trend. "Ravitch, an NYU professor and former member of the National Assessment Governing Board charged with devising national standards for school testing, chronicles an array of absurd censorship and over-sensitizing of textbooks and standardized tests." Defining 'Discrimination' - Tongue Tied - Skools Archives "A federal judge ruled that a New Jersey girl with chronic fatigue syndrome was discriminated against when the school asked her to share her valedictorian status with another students, reports the Associated Press. "U.S. District Court Judge Freda Wolfson said Moorestown High School should not have tried to force 18-year-old Blair Hornstine to share the spot with two other students who did not share her disability. "Hornstine, whose father is a superior court judge, completed most of her schoolwork over the last two years outside of school and with the aid of tutors. The school district asked her to share the valedictorian spot with two other students who were required, unlike Hornstine, to take classes such as gym that receive less weight in calculating the grade point average." Language Police Cont. - Tongue Tied - Skools Archives "Since the publication of her book, The Language Police, Diane Ravitch says she has been hearing from a number of folks in the publishing and education worlds with yet more howlers about how political correctness is dumbing down our textbooks. "In a column in the Wall Street Journal, Ravitch says a text illustrator wrote to tell her that she was not permitted to portray a birthday party because Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in celebrating birthdays, and another wrote to say he was directed to airbrush the udder from his drawing of a cow because that body part was 'too sexual.' "A contributor to a textbook series on floods could only use photographs in which everyone aboard was wearing lifevests, and Michigan doesn’t allow mention of flying saucers or space aliens on its tests because they might imply the possibility of evolution. "Ravitch has also learned that the specifications for photographs in many textbooks are very detailed. “Men and boys must not be larger than women and girls,” she writes. “Asians must not appear as shorter than non-Asians. Women must wear bras, and men must not have noticeable bulges below the waist. People must wear shoes and socks, never showing bare feet or the soles of shoes, and their shoelaces must be solid black, brown, or white. People must never gesture with their fingers, nor should anyone be depicted eating with the left hand. Things to avoid: holiday decorations and scenes in which a church or a bar appears in the background.” to be governed...Looks like the Republicans have failed "Republicans and Democrats increasingly use the tax code to deliver benefits to their voter bases: Democrats try to steer funds to their low-income constituents; Republicans aim to ensure middle- and upper-income people don't pay a disproportionate share of taxes." --Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2003 TheAgitator.com: A Slice of Patriotism - From Ben Stein: "---Years before that, I said to my father that as I surveyed how great our lives were, I had to conclude that at no time in history had Jews lived as well as they live in America. My father corrected me. 'Benjy,' he said, 'at no time in history has any group lived as well as they live in America. Not German-Americans, not Irish-Americans, not Hispanic-Americans, not African-Americans, not Asian-Americans, all of us live better here than we would have lived anywhere else.'---" Enlightened Altruism - Ideas on Liberty Published April 2003 by Richard W. Fulmer "Libertarians are awfully irritating. They keep talking about 'enlightened self-interest,' which is, both literally and figuratively, a self-centered phrase. Why don't they talk about 'enlightened altruism,' that is, doing the most good for the most people?" Saturday, July 05, 2003
STEPHEN MOORE: A nation divisible - Modbee.com "---That the left does not even seem to struggle with the ethical ambiguities of racial preferences is mystifying. I have a hard time explaining to my 6th grade son, who is an American history buff, why it was unjust for whites to discriminate against blacks, but why it is now acceptable, even encouraged, for schools and employers to discriminate against whites. I have a hard time explaining how it is that two wrongs can ever make a right.---" JAY AMBROSE: The real poison is dishonesty - Modbee.com Scripps Howard News Service Published: July 4, 2003, 09:21:00 AM PDT "President Bush, who seems honestly to care about the misery of the African people, could do them no better service on his trip to their continent than to speak out loud and clear about how fanatical, well-off, Western environmentalists are annually killing hundreds of thousands of Africans with their misplaced values.---" No Weapons Yet? Impeach Bush! - Media Research Center Home Page - 7/5/2003 12:20:00 PM: "No Weapons Yet? Impeach Bush! "One writer charged President Bush was 'either a liar or a fool' when it came to Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, while the liberal media offered no skepticism of 'candid' Hillary Clinton's latest fables. Plus, while millions of humans suffered under communist dictators, the New York Times found a species that had a better life under Soviet tyrants." Happy birthday, America. You stink - Media Research Center Home Page - 7/5/2003 12:12:26 PM "Happy birthday, America. You stink. That seems to be the attitude of NBC News, which is promoting the July 4th Dateline this way: 'They had good jobs, making good money. But now they've lost almost everything. An American nightmare: The new homeless. All new Dateline Friday.' " The Liberty Committee "Dear friend of liberty, "Four years ago, a small group of men and women, united by their determination to restore liberty in the United States, formed The Liberty Committee. These men and women recognized that socialists have, for decades, been actively involved in our national legislative process; patiently, methodically, relentlessly working to make us subjects of the government, instead of the government being subject to us. The founding members of The Liberty Committee came together to fight these collectivists and reclaim our country from their clutches. "The national legislative process, I readily admit, is complicated, frustrating and, at times, boring. The socialists, however, do not let this deter them from their objective. They understand the laws we live by come from this process, and that is why they are involved in it. "To counter the socialists, thousands of Americans who treasure freedom have become actively involved with us in the national legislative process. These Americans hail from every congressional district in the country. Nineteen of my U.S. House colleagues have also joined our cause by their participation in my Liberty Caucus. "We must be victorious against the socialists' authoritarian agenda. I invite you to join us in this fight. As our numbers grow, so grows our influence. Together, with my caucus of liberty-minded colleagues on Capitol Hill and thousands of freedom-loving Americans throughout our nation, we can defend and advance liberty for ourselves, our children, and future generations. "For liberty, Ron Paul" Friday, July 04, 2003
Barnes and Noble Animal Farm "George Orwell's classic satire of the Russian Revolution is an intimate part of our contemporary culture. It is the account of the bold struggle, initiated by the animals, that transforms Mr. Jones's Manor Farm into Animal Farm--a wholly democratic society built on the credo that All Animals Are Created Equal. Out of their cleverness, the pigs Napoleon, Squealer, and Snowball emerge as leaders of the new community in a subtle evolution that proves disastrous. The climax is the brutal betrayal of the faithful horse Boxer, when totalitarian rule is reestablished with the bloodstained postscript to the founding slogan: But some Animals Are More Equal Than Others. . . ." 1984 "In 1984, London is a grim city where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be." NARA | Exhibit Hall | The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription: "---We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.---" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lest we forget, it's Independence Day, not just the 4th of July. Fat Tax Roundup Posted On July 1, 2003 "Like a weed or a virus, health nanny Kelly Brownell's idea for a 'Twinkie tax' on high-calorie and high-fat foods has spread as far as England and New Zealand. Legislatures in New York and California have debated the fat tax, and U.S. News & World Report actually called it one of 16 'smart ideas' to save the world. We've been telling you for years how silly fat-taxes are -- and we're not the only ones---" Reading, Writing, and Writs - ConsumerFreedom.com (7/3/03) "If anyone still doubts that the money-hungry trial lawyers suing fast-food restaurants are indifferent to the destruction they cause, this should convince them. Publicity-loving legal shark John Banzhaf has warned the Seattle School Board that he plans to sue them over soft-drink vending machines in schools. He even said school board members might be sued individually." Spitzer’s Nuisance - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Newslinks Admin "When it comes to press coverage, as is well known, New York State attorney general Eliot Spitzer enjoys a charmed life. When he gets to the courtroom, on the other hand, the spell has been known to break. On Tuesday, a state appeals court handed Mr. Spitzer a stinging defeat, ruling 3-1 to sustain a lower court’s dismissal of his lawsuit attempting to obtain gun control by hauling into court the companies that manufacture guns." ... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Spitzer is a committed fascist. Hardball: Should teachers be allowed to carry concealed guns into school? - Keep and Bear Arms "The state of Utah has a mandate allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons on school grounds. Does it make students safer or endanger them?" "BLAINE RUMMEL, COALITION TO STOP GUN VIOLENCE: I don’t know of any parent in America who would be comfortable knowing that their child is in a classroom with a teacher who’s carrying a hidden handgun. And let’s remember that in a lot of these cases, the privacy of the gun owner is supreme. --- Transcript (half way down)" ------- "There are many parents in America who won't send their kids to public schools because the children are sitting ducks. This gun prohibitionist is simply ignorant and admits it openly." U.S. kids don't know much about history - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: David Morris "I've got this big area to summarize the article, and all I can think of is - DUH!" ------- "Apparently the truths in the Declaration of Independence aren't so self-evident. "When Rep. Roger Wicker asked high school seniors in his Mississippi district to name some unalienable rights, he got silence. So the Republican congressman gave the advanced-placement history students some help. 'Among these are life,' Wicker said, 'and ...' 'Death?' one student said. So much for liberty and the pursuit of happiness. ..." Mona Charen: Conventional wisdom strikes out "Among the things everybody knows is that Democrats, being the party of the little people, raise money in small contributions, whereas Republicans, being the party of fat cats, raise funds in huge basketfuls from wealthy corporate types. At least, that's the way the world is usually portrayed by the 'Today Show,' The New York Times and the Democratic Party. "So it's of more than passing interest to see the results of a study conducted by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The study, which tracked 1.6 million contributions to House and Senate races, the two political parties and political action committees during the 2002 election season, found that Republicans raised far more from small donors than did the Democrats.---" Commentary: Put the 'Independence' Back in Independence Day - CNSNews.com The Cybercast News Service "The Fourth of July is Independence Day, but America's leaders and intellectuals have been trying to move us further and further away from the meaning of Independence Day - away from the philosophy that created this country." Read the commentary Constitution Still Benchmark for American Way of Life, Policy Experts Say "---The U.S. Constitution, the oldest legal document of the Western world, is especially important to our lives today because it prevents the 'tyrannical tendencies' of democracy from occurring in our nation, said Melissa Schwartzberg, assistant professor of political science at George Washington University. 'By constraining ourselves through a constitution, we permit our better selves to triumph,' she said.---" Is 'All-American' un-American? - The Washington Times: Commentary (Larry Elder) "Punishing and rewarding companies for their business practices is better left to the marketplace." Grateful for the Patriot Acts - The Washington Times: Commentary (Michelle Malkin) "To civil-liberties alarmists, Viet Dinh, the primary architect of the Patriot Act, is a traitor. To me, he is an American hero." Thursday, July 03, 2003
Global greed screed -- The Washington Times "The European Commission and the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development based in Paris) are reprimanding and threatening several political and economic entities with blacklisting or other sanctions because of their economic policies. You are probably thinking they are going after Fidel Castro of Cuba, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, or the rulers of several African countries — all of whom have managed to greatly reduce the standard of living and liberties of their people while increasing misery and poverty. "No way. Instead, these European political leaders and bureaucrats have declared war on the political leaders and statesmen who brought their people record prosperity and economic opportunity, and upheld the rule of law and liberty. "According to new data just released by the World Bank, the six economies that have the highest per capita income (on a purchasing power parity basis) are: Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the United States, Bermuda, Switzerland, and the Cayman Islands. These six entities are all free-market democracies. They are all characterized by providing a high degree of economic freedom and personal liberty for their people. They all provide strong protections for private property and have low levels of corruption, honest and independent judicial systems, relatively small black markets, and very low levels of poverty.---" What privacy? - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Heartland Institute Author: Twila Brase ''The federal medical privacy rule went into effect on April 14, 2003. It gives us no reason to celebrate. Despite the flurry of privacy notices and irksome new obstacles to normal patient-doctor interactions, private medical records have not been protected.'' (7/1/03) Fact-O-Rama -- Educational Spending v. Academic Results “A host of studies on the link between school finances and test scores has not shown a systematic link between spending and achievement. Another set of studies test whether higher school spending leads to higher earnings for students later in life. The findings in this body of work are also mixed. Even the most optimistic results suggest a very low rate of return to increased school expenditures.” (SOURCE: Seminar Brief for “The Two-Legged Stool: The Neglected Role of Educational Standards in Improving America’s Public Schools,” by Julian Betts, for The World Bank Group.) Landmarking tomfoolery - The Washington Times: Commentary (Paul Craig Roberts) "In effect, Justice O´Connor declared diversity to be a "compelling state interest" that trumps the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution." The Fourth honors one of a kind - Recordnet.com "One other legacy of Western civilization is a universalism that's foreign to many other cultures and is new even in the West, having developed only within the past couple of centuries -- and, of course, having developed imperfectly, as all things human are imperfect. --- "Tragically, it recently has become fashionable in the West to move backward from universalism toward tribalism, as the intelligentsia seeks to Balkanize and promote collective guilt by race.---" Wednesday, July 02, 2003
Overlawyered: Big Food Next? July 01, 2003 "The first lawsuits against fatty-food sellers were justifiably the subject of parody, but a few months later, without plaintiffs having won a single case, a USA Today front-page article treats the idea of big damages awards as a near-inevitable outcome, quoting two plaintiffs' lawyers, and without a single quote from anyone suggesting that such lawsuits may not be good public policy. Such coverage has a tendency, of course, to be a self-fulfilling prophecy." Posted by Ted Frank at July 1, 2003 10:15 PM Overlawyered: Gun store suit: July 01, 2003 "DC sniper Lee Malvo shoplifted the rifle he used from a Tacoma store, which is now subject to a lawsuit, as is Bushmaster Firearms, the gun manufacturer that sold the rifle to the store. (And why not the coal miners that supplied the steel manufacturers that supplied Bushmaster Firearms?)" Posted by Ted Frank at July 1, 2003 10:21 PM Overlawyered: Daubert July 02, 2003 "It's the tenth anniversary (plus four days) of the Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals opinion that limited in federal trials the use of expert testimony that is not scientifically reliable. Peter Nordberg's Daubert on the Web is one of the more comprehensive sites on the web on any subject; he has started a blog that promises to be fascinating. Along with recent Supreme Court jurisprudence on punitive damages in cases such as BMW v. Gore and the expansion of interlocutory review of class action certification, Daubert has been one of the few brakes on the expansion of tort liability in the last ten years. As my former Brandeis colleague and GMU Law professor David Bernstein points out, however, Daubert did not stop the use of junk science to extract billions from breast implant manufacturers, and now some of that money is being used to fund efforts to weaken Daubert." Posted by Ted Frank at July 2, 2003 06:23 AM QUOTES TO REMEMBER - Keep and Bear Arms "Police officers who continue to support the kind of gun control which is aimed at law-abiding citizens are sadly mistaken if they think it will make their jobs safer and prevent suicide. Cracking down on duck hunters and target shooters cannot and will not affect the criminal misuse of firearms in any way. Policing will always be a dangerous job. Violent criminals will always be out there ready to shoot at cops, using homemade guns if necessary. Suicide is also here to stay as long as there are ropes, razors and high buildings from which to jump. It is the dreamiest of daydreams to think that if we just pass a few more laws against legitimate gun owners, we will one day be able to go out on patrol without side arms, and that suicides will become a thing of the past." — Constable John A. Gayder NCPA - Daily Policy Digest - Increased Wealth Leads to Improved Health Wednesday, July 02, 2003 "Studies show that wealthier populations demand, and achieve, cleaner environments. The 2002 Economic Freedom of the World Report, published by the Fraser Institute, consistently ranks countries with cleaner environments among the wealthiest and the freest. "However, in a survey of student perceptions about the environment, researchers found that not all students are aware of the link between economic freedom and environmental protection. "While most students cited water quality, global warming or air quality as their top environmental worries, one percent of those polled said that over consumption and rampant consumerism were the greatest environmental issues facing Canada. "Fifty percent said that they believed economic growth leads to environmental deterioration. "While 53 percent said that trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) hurt environmental quality. "However, recent studies prove that as income increases, so does environmental quality. As economic growth and life expectancy in a country increase, clean air and a sound environment become high priorities for its citizens, and they are more likely to pay out of pocket for environmental protection. Furthermore, trade agreements, because they encourage economic growth, lead to environmental improvement." Source: Liv Fredricksen and Kenneth Green, "A Freer Planet is a Cleaner Planet," Fraser Forum, May 2003. For text Click here For more on Environmental Education Click here Frankenfood is here to stay. Let's talk - Junkscience.com "The trans-Atlantic battle over agricultural biotechnology is the biggest food fight since the one staged by John Belushi in the movie "Animal House." While it may be almost as entertaining, it is not likely to be any more productive. Nothing good can come from a situation in which Europeans talk of "Frankenfoods” and the US calls Europeans “Luddites.” Coming to an agreement about genetically modified (GM) foods will take clever diplomacy on both sides, not name-calling." (Dan Glickman and Vin Weber, IHT) ForTheChildren™: "Democratic Field Tries to Add Punch to Environment Issue" - Junkscience.com "Democratic presidential candidates are putting a new emphasis on making environmental issues more voter friendly. Instead of talking abstractly about ozone levels or the Superfund budget, they speak of the children whose asthma is aggravated by smog, or of how many more minority members than whites live near toxic waste dumps. "Even as the Republicans have tinkered with their vocabulary in an effort to ward off Democratic attacks over the environment, Democrats are trying to lift environmental issues out of the confines of science and transform them into topics of greater scope across the spectrum of social justice, national security and morality." (New York Times) "Forget the science, run with emotional nonsense? Figures!" NEALZ NUZE "Friday will be the 225th anniversary of the signing of The Declaration of Independence. Print this out and read it. Then give it to your children to read, for they surely won’t learn much of this stuff in their government schools." Full story A prescription time bomb - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Heritage Foundation Author: Derek Hunter ''[T]here is one thing the 78 percent of seniors who already have prescription drug coverage should know: If the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003 becomes law, there will be no reason for their former employers to continue to offer prescription drug coverage.'' (6/30/03) Daily distortion: Crisis in arts funding overdue - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Prudent Politics Author: Cody Hatch ''We've been subsidizing the arts for too long already, and it's time for them to abide by the same market forces something like, say, our food, has to live by. Surely food is more necessary than the goofy art I see around town ...'' (7/1/03) Beef against fast food could lead to economic indigestion - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: CCF Author: Richard Berman ''[M]ost of the extra pounds ... are attributable to sedentary lifestyles -- not diets. But it's far easier to point the finger at sugar and super sizes. And restaurants are easier to sue than building owners who install elevators and auto companies that pitch affordable cars ...'' (7/1/03) Discriminate but obfuscate - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: Cato Institute Author: Robert A Levy ''Under the guise of seeking a more 'diverse' educational climate, the Constitution may be treated as so much tissue paper. Essentially, that's the pronouncement from the nation's highest Court and the nation's chief executive.'' (7/1/03) Socialism's farewell note - Freedom News from Free-Market.Net Source: TechCentralStation Author: Marian L. Tupy ''The proposed European Constitution represents the last gasp of European socialism. With its 260 pages and 70,000 words, it is one of the longest and most uninspiring farewell notes in human history.'' (07/02/03) Privacy's rebirth - The Washington Times: Commentary (Paul Greenberg) "Last week the Supremes decided homosexual relations belong behind closed doors -- and there's no reason for the all-seeing, all-knowing state to come peeking and prying around. If the Constitution didn't require such a result, a sense of propriety would." Tackling junk science - The Washington Times: Commentary (Iain Murray) "The administration should state clearly that tackling junk science is not censoring science, but championing it." Liberty, equality . . . and diversity? - The Washington Times: Commentary (Ward Connerly) "The Supreme Court has now demoted the concept of equality under the law in favor of a concept with a much cheaper pedigree: "diversity."" Taking on affirmative action - Recordnet.com "The solution to the affirmative-action problem is quite simple. "All persons applying for college, jobs, housing, etc., should describe themselves as 'black' (a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa, according to an equal-opportunity recruitment questionnaire). "Since anthropologists tell us we're all of African ancestry, this would be an accurate response. Let the recipient of the information prove differently. Of course, most Americans don't have the courage to take on the politically correct nonsense we're treated to daily." By Richard Farago Stockton Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Overlawyered: FBI probing Jefferson County verdicts June 29, 2003 "News from the most litigation-famed county in Mississippi (see May 7; May 4-6, 2001): 'The FBI is investigating huge jury verdicts in Jefferson County and several of the trial lawyers who have been involved with them, according to sources close to the investigation.' Last year, when a local resident interviewed by CBS Minutes suggested that jurors profit 'under the table' from some of the huge verdicts, Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association official David Baria called for a criminal investigation; now that he's got one, however, he's not so happy about it, calling the FBI probe 'a concerted effort to demonize lawyers and judges' as well as politically motivated. (Jerry Mitchell, 'Verdicts, lawyers under FBI scrutiny', Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Jun. 22). Posted by Walter Olson at June 29, 2003 10:28 PM | TrackBack " Overlawyered: "Flood of Fees Draining Enron Funds" June 29, 2003 "Fees in the Enron bankruptcy, which include accountants' and advisers' as well as lawyers' fees, total $496 million through May, the richest in history (see Dec. 27-29, 2002). 'Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose state is a major creditor, complains that attorneys in the case are 'lining their pockets. There is a lot of money sloshing around, and the participants are taking it away from the people who really deserve it,' he said in an interview. John W. Toothman, president of the Devil's Advocate, a Northern Virginia company that scrutinizes legal fees, and co-author of a textbook on fees, calls it a 'feeding frenzy.' Enron 'has turned its pockets inside out, and everybody who can get in line gets a piece. The lawyers have been first in line.'' (Peter Behr, Washington Post, Jun. 28). Posted by Walter Olson at June 29, 2003 10:46 PM | TrackBack " Avoiding 'informer society' - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Sean Glazier ''Try to imagine how your sense of security would be shattered if you were targeted personally by police, based on anonymous, unfounded complaints. Accepting such an anonymous-informer atmosphere puts us on the slippery slope to a secret police state.'' ''We Americans who cherish the guarantees of our Constitution and Bill of Rights must stop and reverse this slide...." Descent Into Derangement - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Sean Glazier ''While the Workers World Party was lying low, preferring to recruit people who first become involved in one of its many fronts, supporters of two other political parties were busy soliciting support. The Democratic Party was represented by a few supporters of long-shot presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and three identically-dressed members of 'Team Barbara Lee,' the radical Berkeley congresswoman. The Green Party also had a large presence...." George Orwell's legacy - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Sean Glazier ''It was Orwell who coined the terms doublethink, thought police and, of course, Big Brother. ... from his years as a police officer in Burma (then a British colony); his hand-to-mouth existence in London, as bookseller, teacher and free-lance writer; his embrace of socialism and his subsequent horror, based on a near-death experience on the front lines in the Spanish Civil War, where he witnessed the cruelty of Soviet agents, at how Stalinism had brutally perverted the utopian ideal.'' New gun law makes activists of couple attending rally - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Anonymous ''Minnesota's new handgun law has done more than make it easier for citizens to carry a weapon in public. It also has given rise to opponents taking their first plunge into political activism.'' '' 'This is my first rally of any kind,' Sandy Hilleshein said before nearly two hours of speeches and songs. 'This whole thing scares me. I don't see why people have to have them -- guns -- and now they can be concealed.' '' ... ------- CONSIDER... "A revision of this person's statement is worth considering: 'This whole thing scares me. I don't see why people have to have them -- BIBLES -- and now they can be concealed.'" Squeegee Nation - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Liberty For All Website: http://libertyforall.net "The state is nothing more than a glorified shoeshine-boy or squeegee kid, endlessly following around after people trying to simply live their lives and get ahead, pushing upon them 'services' they don't want or need - or if they did, they could get elsewhere for a better bargain - and then demanding in a self-righteous tone to be paid for its 'services." The United Nations is a Menace - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Orange Fuzzy "The United Nations is a 'World Government in Waiting.' It has not only not fulfilled its promise, it is actively working toward a socialist/collectivist world government with itself in charge." Useful Idiots - Keep and Bear Arms Submitted by: Orange Fuzzy "Without exception, within months of seizing power, ALL of them had liquidated the people Lenin called 'useful idiots' who had supported them. Teachers, low-to-middle level politicians and bureaucrats, civil administrators - the list went on and on. In place after place, through many different periods of history, and in the service of many different ideologies, ordinary working people had paid the ultimate price for what they thought was 'doing the right thing''. 'Shadow of extinction' - Junkscience.com ''Only six degrees separate our world from the cataclysmic end of an ancient era.'' (George Monbiot, The Guardian) "Just one little problem with your hand-wringing hypothesis George - we have observed first hand the effects of significant volcanic eruptions (think Pinatubo, St Helens, Krakatoa...) and the effect is most definitely a global cooling. Eruptions of the scale suggested at the end of the Permian would result in an ice age (think nuclear winter), making runaway greenhouse a rather unlikely." Junkscience.com -- Main Page "Hmm... 'Full fat milk and butter may help prevent asthma' - 'Young children who regularly eat products containing milk fat are less likely to develop asthma, concludes a study in Thorax.' (BMJ-British Medical Journal) "Could it be that the food police are actually responsible for allegedly rising asthma incidence? Oh my!" NEALZ NUZE "Is there any way to stop the government “educators” from dumbing down our textbooks?" FULL STORY Thomas Sowell: No media bias? "---Whether the issue is abortion, gun control, affirmative action or a whole range of other controversies, too many in the media seem less concerned with letting their readers and viewers know what the arguments are on both sides than with promoting the liberals' views.---" Dennis Prager: Liberal damage to black America is enormous "One of the most dangerous myths in our lifetime has been that liberalism and the Democratic Party are black America's best friends. For all of us who desperately want African-Americans to prosper, the destruction of this myth may be the single most important step to that end." |
