Writes Clay Rossi: "Our government is using an old KGB favorite psychotropic drug on detainees. Need I say more?"
Thanks to Bill Anderson for this article on Texas cop-bureaucrat brutality against children and parents from the YFZ Ranch.
Writes Matthew Dailey: " "I'm a twenty-one year-old living in northern California. About a year ago, I was the most leftist of the left, a product of my high school education I'm ashamed to say. But when Ron Paul entered the national political scene last summer, I started to pay attention. Since then, my views on economic freedom have vastly changed. Now I'm a daily visitor to lewrockwell.com and the blog. Thank you for giving me a place to feel sane."
The wonderful Austrian economist Louis Michael Spadaro has died at 94. A famed teacher at Fordham, he was a friend and colleague of Ludwig von Mises, and the editor of New Directions in Austrian Economics. I remember Lou for many virtues, but his kind heart and dedication to Mises the man and the thinker stand out. May he rest in peace.
UPDATE from Ralph Raico: "I was saddened to hear the news of the death of Lou Spardaro. I knew him many years ago from the Mises NYU seminar, where Lou was one of the most active participants. His comments were always intelligent and to the point, but what I remember most is his invariably gentlemanly and considerate attitude which, I think, helped create the atmosphere of intellectual camaraderie that prevailed at the seminar."
It's too bad Judge Napolitano has to share the show.
Tom: If Arlen Specter regards it as an egregious wrong for the New England Patriots to spy on their opposition, does he regard it as equally wrong for the United States government to employ people to spy on other governments, or the American people? Might his concern be nothing more than a carry-over from the 2005 Super Bowl when the Patriots beat his home-state team, the Philadelphia Eagles? The people of Boston had better watch out, lest the senator try to persuade the Bush administration to engage in a "shock and awe preemptive strike" against this newly-discovered member of the "axis of evil." "If we don't fight the Patriots in Boston, we'll have to fight them at Giants Stadium!"
The headline reads "Schwarzenegger seeks to privatize state lottery." This proposal would go to the voters, but:
If voters reject the proposal, a temporary, 1-percentage-point increase in the state sales tax would automatically go into effect, lasting only until state finances improved and the budget was balanced.
I don't know what is worse, another protectionist scheme that gives "private" a bad name, or duping the voters into slapping themselves with a so-called "temporary" tax.
Why not just legalize gambling, sell the State Parks, and let the non-violent criminals go free?
Let's see. What does it mean to have no friends in the GOP establishment, as Murray Sabrin is darkly accused of? It means you have no friends who: support the government lying us into unust wars that kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people for reasons that have nothing to do with defending America; lie to thousands of young Americans to get them to join the military, get shipped out to Iraq, and come back in body bags, with missing arms and legs, blind and/or deaf, or mentally destroyed; think of the American taxpayers as possessing a bottomless pit of money to be plundered for the purpose of buying votes from special interest groups, just like the Democrats; despise the constitutional protection of civil liberties and do everything possible to destroy them; believe that the purpose of government is for those who run it to plunder those who do not; are happy to turn religious people in America into the biggest chumps and patsies in world history by merely paying lip service to "family values," "right to life," and other meaningless buzz words while never intending to do anything for them; think numskulls like George W. Bush, Bob Dole, and John McCain deserve to be the most powerful people on earth; and "justify" it all by constantly calling themselves "The Party of Lincoln."
If you've ever watched a baseball game on TV, you might have noticed that before every pitch, a right-handed catcher will shield his right hand with his catcher's mitt while signaling something to the pitcher with one, two, three, or four fingers. The signal is what kind of pitch to throw -- fastball, curve, change-up, slider, etc. I was taught this in little league baseball in the 1960s, where I proudly earned the nickname of "fireball" Dilorenzo because at age 12 I could throw a 75 mph fastball.
Spying on the other team's signals and strategies has been a part of American sports as long as there have been organized sports.
But now, since the economy is humming along as smooth as silk, and no one is dying anymore in any of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the government is strictly obeying the Constitution, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania (I'm ashamed to say that he's from my home state)is calling for an "independent" (a.k.a., government hatchet job) investigation of "spygate" -- the alleged videotaping by the New England Patriots of what goes on on the sidelines of its opponents.
The only good thing to say about this is that it will divert THE GREATEST DELIBERATIVE BODY ON EARTH for a few hours from raising our taxes, getting us into more unjust wars, and finishing off what's left of the Constitution.
Tom: You've given me a great idea! Let's start an informal listing of those of us who "have no friends in the GOP establishment." I will sign up!
I second what Tom DiLorenzo said about Murray Sabrin. What's interesting is how hard the New Jersey GOP worked to find someone plausible to oppose Murray. The guy they settled on is former congressman Dick Zimmer, who comes from the Walter Mondale/Bob Dole tradition.
The other day I read a post on a discussion thread arguing that Sabrin "has no friends" in the GOP establishment. That's supposed to be a reason not to like him?
I just came out of a Books-a-Million store where, under "New Books on Politics" there was no sign of Ron Paul's The Revolution: A Manifesto. I asked one of the clerks about it and she said it wasn't even in the store's computer system as a book they've ever carried. I informed her that it was #7 on the NY Times bestseller list last week, and will be #1 this week.
She was apparently upset over this news, and quickly grabbed a copy of the NY Times bestseller list from last Sunday that was near the cash register. She looked at me in a very self-satisfied way and said, "No it's not. It's not on here." After I suggested that she look at the #7 ranking the smirk disappeared from her mug. So that the customers behind me would hear it, I rather loudly recommended to her that if the store's management was interested in making money they might consider the strategy carrying a few copies of the NY Times #1 national bestseller.
Ain't the free-market great! Idiots like the managers of Books-a-Million who substitute their own personal preferences for their fiduciary duty to make money for the corporations' owners will be quickly "punished" with lower profits and maybe even bankruptcy. That won't be good for their careers (and bank accounts).
Meanwhile, Ron Paul supporters should boycott Books-a-Million, just as the store is boycotting The Revolution.
Chris: The use of GPS systems to track the whereabouts of students parallels the use of such systems to locate convicted criminals. An interesting admission, by the state, of the nature of its school systems. Americans love fascism, as long as they don't have to wear the arm-bands that give it all away!
Given recent news stories about the so-called "D.C. Madam," it might be of greater public interest to have such GPS systems used to track the locations of politicians and other government officials. Perhaps Nancy Grace could be hired to provide live updates on cable TV, finally providing her with the opportunity of presenting meaningful reports.
Popular Vote (w/FL & MI)**
Obama 16,680,827 47.6%
Clinton 16,710,298 47.7%
Clinton +29,471 +0.08%
**(Senator Obama was not on the Michigan Ballot and thus received zero votes. Uncommitted was on the ballot and received 238,168 votes as compared to 328,309 for Senator Clinton.)
Source: Real Clear Politics
The turnout in Michigan was depressed because of the early primary fracas. That hurt Hillary's popular vote total.
Our friend Professor Murray Sabrin, a Ron Paul Republican, is on the verge of winning the New Jersey GOP nomination
to run for the U.S.Senate. The primary is in three weeks. Please do what you can to support him with the
following suggestion in mind: Tomorrow would have been Murray's beloved father's 94th birtday. Daddy Sabrin
was a Polish freedom fighter during WW II who was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust.
Murray came to the U.S. as a child, became a citizen as soon as it was possible, and has spent his
entire adult life battling in the war of ideas on behalf of a freer society. Freedom fighting is in
Murray's blood. Please consider contributing $94 (or some multiple thereof) to Murray's campaign, which
has been very enthusiastically endorsed by Congressman Ron Paul himself.
Students in one Dallas high school are now being tracked by police, using GPS devices, if they don't show up often enough to hear what the state has to teach them.
Not only are their movements tracked during school hours, the state has taken the liberty of tracking all of their movements until 9PM.
A glowing review by the local Fox affiliate is here, but questions about privacy concerns should probably be directed to Principal Cynthia Goodsell.
(Thanks to Mark in Texas for the link.)
Bill Kauffman, author of Ain't My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism (which I review here), reviews Ron Paul's The Revolution: A Manifesto.
Great YouTube on McCain's (and Clinton's and Obama's) Foreign Policy. Scott Ritter at 4 minutes in is especially moving.
Go, Ron, go! He demolishes the evil myth of modern finance: the alleged necessity of central banking, fractional-reserve commercial banking, and monetary depreciation. No wonder the whole establishment fears him, including the Beltway.
(Thanks to Kalim Kassam.)
Even 5% in ultra-red, pro-war, pro-police state West Virginia isn't as bad as the LA Times's Andrew Malcolm thinks it is.
I am not at all surprised by Paul's 13%. I just moved out of the state, but when I was there, the RP Meetups were big and lively -- often going across the state line to help out in Iowa. Even Nebraskans for Peace has been quite active lately.
As far as the state goes, the demographics of Nebraska are changing rapidly: over 70% of the population now lives in greater Omaha and Lincoln, with an ever-increasing percentage of the workforce employed in finance, insurance, and IT -- Obama is even polling within the margin of error in the state; NE awards electoral votes by congressional district, and Obama will probably win the two urban districts. It is a strong reflection on the disastrous state of the GOP when a state Bush won by 28 and 33 percent in 2000 and 2004 is now neck-and-neck. Red State Fascism is now being rejected even in garrison, another sign that the rEVOLution continues to roll along.
