Norman Horn is doing a podcast audiobook at his blog Libertarian Christians of Laurence Vance's wonderful book. The first installment is the Foreword, Introduction and first essay. Great stuff. Here's my review of the book's first edition.

This via email from Jim:
"I just read your Lew Rockwell article, “Liberty, Interrupted.” (For which, thanks – it’s excellent.) I just wanted to say that I think I know what you mean. A few weeks ago, I was in Philadelphia and stopped by to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. What a bucket of chuckles that was! Contemplating the line to “go through security,” it occurred to me that if Patrick Henry were to somehow visit that little mausoleum of “liberty” that morning, he’d have been in the slammer at Gitmo by lunchtime."

Amazing.

Now that most 401k accounts have fallen greatly in value, all the 401k account holders should demand that the Congress end all taxation whatsoever on 401k holdings. This would immediately increase their value to the account owner and help offset their losses. The increase would be greater the closer the owner is to withdrawing funds.

Writes Steve Fairfax:

NPR's "Ombudsman," Alicia Shepard, posted a rather pathetic defense of NPR's policy of using euphemisms such as "enhanced interrogation techniques" for torture.  Her tortured argument (couldn't resist) is rather difficult to reconcile with her job description: "The Ombudsman is the public's representative to NPR."

Hundreds of comments, almost universally critical, were posted, many times the normal volume of comments.

The formidable Glenn Greenwald dissected Shepard's arguments and uses them to illustrate "the decay of American journalism."  Greenwald invites Shepard to an interview on Salon Radio.

Shepard disappears for a week.  The Appalachian Trail was not invoked, but despite an intern's claim that Shepard is unavailable, Shepard makes a 5-minute appearance on another NPR radio show, "On the Media."  This provokes many more comments from furious NPR listeners.

Shepard refuses Greenwald's request for an interview, provoking another good dissection by Greenwald.

Read the rest of this entry »

The media is informing us that the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota is now official, and that the incumbent, Norm Coleman, has been bested by the third-rate comedian, Al Franken. On the surface, this should be embarrassment enough for Mr. Coleman. However, he was more thoroughly humiliated a few years ago when the British MP, George Galloway, came to Washington to respond to charges Coleman had made against him. Galloway all but undressed Coleman before a Senate committee, leaving the Minnesotan a mumbling bowl of jelly. It was an interesting commentary on the pathetic state of American politics that, during his subsequent speaking tour of this country, Galloway was repeatedly asked if he would consider moving to a U.S. state to run for the Senate!

Minnesotans can expect the same kind of gurgling nonsense from a Sen. Franken that they heard from the erstwhile Sen. Coleman. Now, however, the comic relief will be coming from a man professionally trained to deliver it!

On Galloway vs. Coleman, see Part I and Part II.

Writes David Bardallis:

Charley Reese often says things that need saying, but when I read a sentence like this:

"True conservatives have argued for years that government, even a benign one, is like a clumsy, retarded giant, and therefore you have to be careful to limit what tasks you assign it."

...my reaction is "Who would assign ANY tasks to a 'clumsy, retarded giant'?" I have LRC to thank for that reaction, of course, or else I might still be spouting such illogic about government today.

Ryan: A similar analysis was developed by Snell and Gail Putney in their book, "The Adjusted American: Normal Neuroses In the Individual and Society."

Last Friday, the Encintas station of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department wrote another chapter in the annals of law enforcement overkill by dispatching an eight-man force, augmented by a helicopter, to deal with a spurious noise complaint prompted by a congressional fund-raising party in nearby Cardiff.

According to guests, the reception for candidate Francine Busby -- which attracted about thirty people, most of them comfortably into middle age and none of them particularly boisterous by nature -- was interrupted by "a vulgar person shouting obscenities from behind the bushes."

Someone, most likely the heckler in question, called in a noise complaint. The Sheriff's Office dispatched the large force under the command of Deputy Marshall Abbott, who has been with the force for about two years and, as we'll see, displays the perverse eagerness to escalate a confrontation that is a persistent trait among younger law enforcement personnel.

Abbott approached hostess Shari Barman to inquire about the complaint. No doubt thinking of the polite fellow who had hurled epithets at the gathering earlier, Barman replied with an epithet of her own.

Abbott asked Barman for her birth date. Puzzled by the question, Barman asked why that information was necessary, not understanding that under the martial law mind-set prevailing today, anything other than immediate, docile obedience to any directive issued by a goon in a government-issued costume is considered a crime.  Read the rest of this entry »

The US's Iraqi puppet government has declared today to be a new puppet government holdiay, "National Sovereignty Day," because US occupation troops are withdrawing (except when they are not) from Iraqi cities to their gigantic bases elsewhere in that US possession, National Pentagon Radio informed me this morning.

There is some controversy in the UK, as there is not in the US, over possession of weapons of mass destruction. Here is the plain-spoken Cardinal of Scotland:

In any and all circumstances the use of a nuclear weapon would be immoral. Since, to use these weapons would be immoral, to threaten their use is immoral and to hold them with a view to threatening their use is also immoral.

Here is the whole article. Of course, these murder missiles are supplied by the US to its British puppet state to make it feel important. (Thanks to Matthew Alexander)

Here were the three best-read yesterday: Dave Deming on why he's a "global warming denier" and a "traitor to the planet," like all thinking non-commies;  Jeff Knaebel on why he's renounced his citizenship in the US government and wants nothing more to do with it; and Mike Gaddy on why he owns guns (hint: he doesn't want to be a government slave).

(Thanks to Minnesota Chris)

From the country that gave us pseudo-free market icon Adam Smith, here's a story that should really get you revved up:

A DRIVER spent two nights in jail after being accused of "revving his car in a racist manner". Mechanic Ronnie Hutton, 49, yesterday described his court ordeal which finally ended when prosecutors dropped the allegation of racism. But he was still convicted of a breach of the peace for revving the engine of his £25,000 Lotus.

Witnesses claimed he had been trying to intimidate a Libyan couple on the pavement. Ronnie, of Stirling, claims he was only revving the powerful V8 engine to avoid another £15,000 repair bill.

Talk about driving on a road to hell paved with good intentions.