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Friday 27 June 2014 My article "Mechanisms of 'Correcting' Violence" has been posted at the Daily Bell. It explores how the free market would provide redress for aggression, with an emphasis on Samuel E. Konkin III's contributions to the issue. There is an active discussion thread at the end of the article and I respond to comments. Click here to access the article and to join the discussion. I hope to see you there! Big Brother Wants Your Son by Wendy McElroy California Assembly Bill 2201 is indicative of a quiet but growing trend. The U.S. is not only militarizing its police departments to handle a “national emergency” but it is also making certain it can conscript the civilian population at will. AB 2201 is entitled “Selective Service and Drivers License for Vehicles.” Almost every male between 18 and 26 years old who applies for a driver's license or for a renewal at the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) would be automatically registered with the federal Selective Service System (SSS). If the applicant is 16 years old, then his information would be automatically forwarded to the Selective Service upon his 18th birthday. Females are excluded.... California has one of the highest non-compliance rates for registration; an estimated 42 percent of 18-year-olds do not comply.... The California DMV currently shares the personal information of applicants with the SSS, which is then used to mail out registration cards. That's not enough. Through automatic registration at the DMV, the SSS could skip the step of mailing out cards and the risk of their non-return. Come read the entire article and join the discussion at the Dollar Vigilante. I hope to see you there. Thursday 26 June 2014 From the Onion: Humanity Surprised It Still Hasn’t Figured Out Better Alternative To Letting Power-Hungry Assholes Decide Everything From Before it's News: 16 Ways the Supreme Court built the police state & destroyed your rights From InfoWars: U.N. Gun Confiscation Program Serves As Model For Gun Bans In America From the BBC: North Korea: Seth Rogen Movie Is an 'Act of War' From the Dollar Vigilante: ISIS Holds Parade With Captured US Military Vehicles From the Independent Institute: 50 Years of Mischief: The Triumph and Trashing of the Civil Rights Act From Guns: Gun activists aim to sue over blocked websites. Student discovers conservative pages inaccessible From Wholesale Direct Metals: Gov’t Seizes Control of All Your Financial Accounts From the Daily Currant: Unemployed in France Go On Strike From Spiked: A battle for the soul of UK journalism Wednesday 25 June 2014 From USA Today: Judge: No-Fly List Is Unconstitutional From Salon: Police Blew a Hole in My Toddler. Alecia Phonesavanh tells her story From Police State Daily: 100s of Albuquerque Protestors Hold Mock Trial for Police Chief From Firedoglake: So That’s Why They Kept the Drone Kill Memo Secret From Rutheford: The U.S. Supreme Court Is Marching in Lockstep with the Police State From Ben Swann: Greenwald To Publish Full List Of Names Targeted By NSA Surveillance From the Albuquerque Journal: Court to Town: No, You Can't Outlaw Criticism. Town of Ruidoso banned 'negative' comments about government From Hot Hardware: How Vacuum Tubes, New Technology Might Save Moore's Law This one's for Brad. From Playboy: Gary Oldman says he's a libertarian, thinks Bill Maher would "fail the test." Read the whole Playboy interview! From the Daily Mail: Now DEMOCRATS tear into ‘imperial’ Hillary after major gaffes about her enormous wealth From the Telegraph: Leading former Republicans launch report warning climate change 'to cost billions' Friday 13 June 2014 My article "Obama Sets the Stage for a Range War" has been posted at the Dollar Vigilante. The site is a fine resource for freedom options and well worth a thorough browse. There is an active commentary thread at the end of the article and I respond to posts. See you there! Excerpt: On May 21, Obama flexed his muscle under the Antiquities Act of 1906. The obscure Act gives the President the authority to restrict use of federally-owned public land in order to protect national treasures. Through an executive order, Obama created a “national monument” site that consisted of nearly a half-million acres in New Mexico. According to the protesting National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the area “encompasses 68 percent of public grazing lands and 9,000 head of cattle in Dona Ana County, threatening the livelihood of these family ranching operations.” The land grab came with a particularly chilling announcement. In a speech accompanying the order, Obama stated an intention to make “many more” national monument designations before his second term expires. Gold Butte in Nevada was explicitly mentioned as an active possibility. This is approximately 350,000 acres of public land in Nevada; it includes the land over which Cliven Bundy and his supporters almost went to war with BLM agents. Click here for the entire article. From FOX News: Yep, We Nearly Blew Up North Carolina. 1961 blast could've had 260 times the power of that in Hiroshima From CNBC: Uber's sign-ups jump 850% after taxi drivers strike across Europe - the strike is described as "PR gold" for Uber From CBS Las Vegas: ‘None Of The Above’ Tops Nevada’s Dem Gubernatorial Primary From Spiked: Black cab protest: beware the evil app! From the Freethought Project: Man’s Car Siezed as an “Illegal Cab” After Driving Wife to Work From the Weekly Standard: Biden: Iraq stability 'among Obama's great achievements' Blast from the past From the Guardian: Warrantless cell phone tracking ruled unconstitutional in federal court From the Telegraph: The Coming Digital Anarchy From new.com.au: Aussie Government grabs $360 million from idle household bank accounts From Boing Boing: How Heinlein went from socialist to right-wing libertarian From Reason: Hey Republicans: If You Reduce Cantor's Loss to Immigration Reform, You Will Keep Losing Thursday 12 June 2014 My regular Thursday column has been posted at the highly recommended Daily Bell. This one is entitled "Do You Really Want to Be Correct?"" An active discussion occurs each week in the commentary thread at the end of the article and I respond to posts. I hope to see you there. Click here. Excerpt: Falsification was not intended to assess general beliefs or ideologies but the process can be loosely bent to that purpose. In fact, Popper himself used falsifiability in rejecting Marxism and Freudianism. Adapting falsifiability to become a general intellectual tool means that a person should reverse the normal process of trying incessantly to prove his beliefs are correct by amassing confirming evidence. Instead, he should pause every once in a while and ask, "What, in principle, would disprove my belief in X or Y?" For many people, this process offers an entirely fresh perspective on their own ideas. - See more at: http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/35389/Wendy-McElroy-Do-You-Really-Want-to-Be-Correct/#sthash.xDLtW5ds.dpuf From the Dollar Vigilante: Does Edward Snowden have Stockholm Syndrome? by: Jeff Berwick From the Onion: New Law Enforcement Robot Can Wield Excessive Force Of 5 Human Officers From the Free Beacon: Another Hillary Clinton gaffe From Times of Israel: Computers now hacked without Internet From the Free Thought Project: 16 Year Old Gymnast Shot Dead by Police For Holding a Stick, Cops Seize Video Footage From the Business Insider: 10 things you need to know about tech this morning From Reason: Ralph Nader on the Left-Right Alliance. Hat tip to Michael Burns who comments, Another good segment that was just posted today by Nick Gillespie, (who oddly enough practices Shared Parenting) with Ralph Nader, who is sounding a lot less of a progresssive nowadays with some of the comments he makes here. Runs about an hour, but has some real gems in it. From Cracked: 5 Famously Dumb Movies With Mind-Blowing Hidden Meanings From Activist Post: Notice How Nobody Calls The Feds Out On Totally Sucking Against Terrorism Wednesday 11 June 2014 My latest article for The Hill has just been posted: "Is Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag a political pawn?" Any circulation you can bring to it would be appreciated. Excerpt: Senate Resolution 453 is "a resolution condemning the death sentence against Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, a Sudanese Christian woman accused of apostasy." On June 3, the measure passed the Senate unanimously, and it is now before the House (H.R. 601). It is an ill-considered bill that could cause damage. The Sudanese appeal process is far from exhausted, and politicizing Ibrahim's brutal sentence could easily backfire against her. It could also strengthen the notoriously corrupt President Omar al-Bashir. From the New American: Oklahoma Affirms Gold and Silver as Legal Tender From the Dollar Vigilante: The US Government Has Nearly As Much Debt As The World Has Wealth by Jeff Berwick From the Washington Post: Can you be Catholic and libertarian? And from Religion News: Catholic libertarian pope's top advisor says they're incompatible. Hat tip to Brian C. who writes, The church hierarchy thinks that Paul Ryan is the leading proponent of libertarianism. Libertarians think that the concept of Paul Ryan being a libertarian is grotesque. That said, the Catholic Church hierarchy is unlikely to endorse the non-aggression principle under any circumstance. The reason they are unlikely to endorse the non-aggression principle is a combination of two factors: any principle outside Catholic doctrine will undermine their authority, and they have no understanding of economics. From the Mind Unleashed: These 29 Clever Drawings Will Make You Question Everything Wrong With The World | The Mind Unleashed From Arizona Central: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor loses GOP primary to 'tea party' economics professor From Animal New York: Ayn Rand's Actual Letter to Cat Fancy From the Washingtons Blog: Virtually ALL of the Big Banks’ Profits Come from Taxpayer Bailouts and Subsidies From the Speaker: 500 American Communities Are Now Armed With Military Tanks and Military Vehicles, and Have Reportedly Lied on Their Applications to Get Them for Free Saturday 07 June 2014 From NBC News: Obama Defends Taliban Swap, Says He'd Do It Again From Police State USA: Innocent citizens held at gunpoint in terrifying California checkpoints From WMI Central: Just shoot: The mindset responsible for turning SWAT teams into death squads From Adam v. the Man: New book from Adam Kokesh: FREEDOM. Give the intro a listen! From NBC News: Insurer's Message: Prepare for Climate Change or Get Sued From Zero Hedge: This is your federal reserve on drugs From the Daily Beast: Bergdahl’s Dad: Drone Killed Captor’s Kid From Mashable: Declassified: The CIA Has a Sense of Humor From Libertarian News: What Percentage of The US Adult Population Has a Felony Conviction? From the Daily Caller: Worried Family Calls 911 Hoping For Ambulance For Woman, Cops Show Up Instead And KILL HER From InfoWars: Economist: U.S. Banks Preparing to Charge Customers For Deposits From Libertarian News: “The Future is Too Good to Waste on Lies”: Bowe Bergdahl’s Moral Odyssey Friday 06 June 2014 My regular column has appeared at the Daily Bell: "The Achilles Heel of Libertarian War Theory: Who Decides?" There is an active commentary thread at the end of the article and I respond to posts. Click here. From Eric Peters Autos: A practical guide for dealing with cops From Scientific American: The Liberals' War on Science From MinnPost: The case against the annual physical exam for healthy patients From the Onion: God Wonders What Happens To Humans After They Die From Lew Rockwell: Murray Rothbard on the Kochtopus From Reason: The Top 5 Lies About Fracking From Vice News: Why Was the FBI Investigating Michael Hastings’ Reporting on Bowe Bergdahl? From Free Keene: Weare Police Settle With Free State Project President for $57,500 From Ars Technica: Payback Time: First Patent Troll Ordered To Pay “Extraordinary Case” Fees From Rand Paul Review: Watch Obama’s face as Bergdahl’s dad invoked Allah in Arabic From Russia Today: FBI provided Anonymous with targets, new leaks show From the LP: Edward Snowden, Internet's largest websites join Reset the Net Thursday 05 June 2014 My first column as a regular contributor to The Hill has been posted. I am jazzed: "Politics, not economics, driving minimum wage." Excerpt: On April 30, the Senate voted 54-42 to end debate on the Minimum Wage Fairness Act and effectively shelved it for the foreseeable future. The act would have raised the minimum wage of federal workers to $10.10 by 2016 and indexed it to inflation thereafter. Championed by Democrats and opposed by Republicans, minimum wage will be a flash point in the November elections. But does minimum wage genuinely help the workers that Democrats claim it benefits: the young, the poor, immigrants and women? Click here. From the Dollar Vigilante: Breaking News: US Expats in Mexico Left Stranded In Latest FATCA Escalation by: Jeff Berwick From You Tube: We've got modulation. A hat tip to Brad who commented, "I enjoyed watching this -- a webcam video of the control room when they first established contact with the ISEE-3 space probe. I imagine I look like that sometimes. "We got modulation!" From IJR Review: Austin Taxpayers Are Dumbfounded That They Have To Pay For the Services They Voted For From Space.com: Astonishing NASA Image Captures Color of 10K Galaxies From CBS DC: Secret Service Requests Software To Track Social Media Trends, Detect Sarcasm From Liberty Roadmap: Libertarian Kobayashi Muru Test From the National Review: Why Team Obama Was Blindsided by the Bergdahl Backlash From YouTube: Watch Nancy Pelosi squirm when questioned about the NSA by a young Libertarian. From Mother Jones: Libertarian icon on Charles Koch: He "considers himself above the law" A hit piece but interesting. From FOX News: It's income mobility that matters, not income inequality - Stossel From EFF: The Top 5 Claims That Defenders of the NSA Have to Stop Making to Remain Credible From the New York Times: Breakthrough DNA Test Saves Boy in 48 Hours. New software sifts through DNA sample to make quick diagnosis | |||||
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