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Produced in cooperation with the International Society for Individual Liberty http://www.isil.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume III, Issue #787 WEEKEND SPECIAL EDITION Saturday, December 10th, 2005 Email Circulation 2,071 ------ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS -------------------------------------- FREEDOM: "LIVING IT" VERSUS "TALKING IT" Over 6,500 of us say, "Go for the real thing!" Propaganda from public schools, the old media, and government itself make true liberty an electoral non-starter today. Those of us who believe in individual freedom are a small minority. The solution? The Free State Project. We're up to it. Are you? http://freestateproject.org/ LIBERTARIAN? TIRED OF BEING A SLAVE? Discover how to locally build, market and popularize liberty. No need to move or give up. Free libertarian outreach materials, eBooks and more. You can be free. Join us. http://libertopia.net/pages/downloads.html LIBERTYSTICKERS.COM The world's most dangerous stickers! http://www.libertystickers.com THE THIRD REVOLUTION Follow libertarian governor Ben Kane as he walks a harrowing tightrope between his conscience and the law. "[D]eserves to attract the attention of Libertarians and fiction lovers alike." -- LP News http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1591135001/rationalrev08-20 -------------------------------------- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ----- Today's News: 0) RRND -- 4th quarter fundraiser 1) R.W. Bradford, RIP 2) US edges toward Iraq troop reductions 3) UK: Officers in Tube shooting may face charges 4) Florida: Judge rejects LaFave plea, sets trial date 5) China: Town sealed after police shoot protestors Today's Commentary: 6) The impossibility of imposed freedom 7) Thugs'R'Us 8) The solution to Sami (Al-Arian) 9) Bush: "It's just a goddamned piece of paper" 10) Keepers at the gate News 0) RRND -- 4th quarter fundraiser Update, weekend of 11/10 --Starting at $808 as of Friday morning, we're shooting to break $1,000 by Monday. Let's do this! http://www.rationalreview.com/content/4245 ----- 1) R.W. Bradford, RIP Rational Review "I am grieved to tell you that R.W. Bradford, founder of 'Liberty,' died on Thursday, December 8, at his home in Port Townsend, Washington. He was 58 and had fought heroically against cancer for many months." (12/09/05) http://www.rationalreview.com/content/4925 ----- 2) US edges toward Iraq troop reductions Forbes "The US military has delayed sending a combat brigade to Iraq and put another on standby in what may indicate a scaling back of troop levels after next week's elections. ... Around 160,000 US troops are serving in Iraq. ... But after the ballot, scheduled departures would bring US troop levels down to 138,000. 'The hope is that the conditions will permit some drawdowns of troops,' US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said." (12/09/05) http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2005/12/09/afx2381200.html ----- 3) UK: Officers in Tube shooting may face charges United Press International "The British police officers involved in shooting an unarmed man in a London Tube station may face criminal charges. The Independent Police Complaints Commission says the results of its investigation into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes might be sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, the BBC reported. Menezes, an electrician from Brazil, was gunned down in the Stockwell Tube station by police who thought he might be a suicide bomber. The shooting took place in July, not long after the July 7 Transport bombings." (12/09/05) http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20051209-090402-3462r ----- 4) Florida: Judge rejects LaFave plea, sets trial date North Country Gazette "A Marion County judge has rejected a plea deal in which Florida reading teacher Debra Lafave would have avoided jail time for having sex with a 14-year-old student. In a negotiated plea last month, Hillsborough Circuit Court judge Wayne Timmerson sentenced Lafave, 25, to three years of house arrest followed by seven years of probation after she had pleaded guilty to two felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery. If convicted at trial, she could have faced up to 30 years in prison. ... She had been charged in two counties but Marion County Court Judge Hale Stancil refused to accept the deal, instead setting a trial date for April, according to prosecutors from the state attorney's office." (12/09/05) http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/120905RejectsDeal.html ----- 5) China: Town sealed after police shoot protestors Yahoo! News "Armed with guns and shields, hundreds of riot police sealed off a southern Chinese village after fatally shooting demonstrators and searched for the protest organizers, villagers said Friday.Although security forces often use tear gas and truncheons to disperse demonstrators, it is extremely rare for them to fire into a crowd -- as they did in putting down pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 near Tiananmen Square. Hundreds, if not thousands, were killed. During the demonstration Tuesday in Dongzhou, a village in southern Guangdong province, thousands of people gathered to protest the amount of money offered by the government as compensation for land to be used to construct a wind power plant. Police started firing into the crowd and killed several people, mostly men, villagers reached by telephone said Friday. The death toll ranged from two to 10, they said, and many remained missing." (12/09/05) http://tinyurl.com/b4bsn Commentary 6) The impossibility of imposed freedom LewRockwell.Com by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. Transcript of a speech to staff aides from the US House of Representatives: "I can present my own perspective on this up front: all reform in all areas of politics, economics, and society should be in one direction: toward more freedom for individuals and less power for government. I will go further to say that individuals ought to enjoy as much freedom as possible and government as little power as possible. Yes, that position qualifies me as a libertarian. But I fear that this word does not have the explanatory power that it might have once had. There is in Washington a tendency to see libertarianism as a flavor of public-policy soda, or just another grab bag of policy proposals, ones that emphasize free enterprise and personal liberties as opposed to bureaucratic regimentation. This perspective is seriously flawed, and it has dangerous consequences." (12/10/05) http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/imposed-freedom.html ----- 7) Thugs'R'Us [EMAIL PROTECTED] by Thomas L. Knapp "So much for 'luring the weak into drug dens.' These customers had to seek out a supplier for the goods they wanted -- then they had to supply references. And after that, the goods were delivered to them, not consumed in some fictional 'den.' Bottom line: The goons stole $837,000 worth of marijuana and $600K+ in cash, and they're trying to steal another $22 million worth of personal and business assets (to add to $40 million they not only admit to stealing, but brag about stealing)." http://knappster.blogspot.com/2005/12/thugsrus.html ----- 8) The solution to Sami (Al-Arian) WorldNetDaily by Ilana Mercer "[T]he distinction between actions that warrant only opprobrium and deeds that ought to be punished by force of law can baffle the best libertarians. For example, because we condemn the war on drugs, many think we're for drugs. Or, because we reject non-defensive, recreational wars, some presume we are soft on terrorism. However, libertarian philosophy has nothing to say about drugs per se -- it simply rejects the use of force against those who ingest, inject, or inhale them. We libertarians think incarcerating people for their consumption choices has the consistency of arresting a survivor of suicide for attempted murder. Conversely, libertarian philosophy has plenty to say about the killers of London commuters or Israeli and Iraqi civilians: they're scum; they've blown a hole in the heart of libertarianism." (12/09/05) http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47823 ----- 9) Bush: "It's just a goddamned piece of paper" CapitolHill Blue by Doug Thompson "Last month, Republican Congressional leaders filed into the Oval Office to meet with President George W. Bush and talk about renewing the controversial USA Patriot Act. ... GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at the President from his botched attempt to nominate White House Counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. 'I don't give a goddamn,' Bush retorted. 'I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.' 'Mr. President,' one aide in the meeting said. 'There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.' 'Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,' Bush screamed back. 'It's just a goddamned piece of paper!'" (12/09/05) http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml ----- 10) Keepers at the gate Alternative Press Review by Manuel Valenzuela "In this age of modernity and technology, where the television monitor has become the center of the average American household, from cradle to grave acting as surrogate parent, teacher, role model and as influencer of human thought, it should come as no surprise that entire populations can be controlled with such facility and efficiency, turning once thinking humans into grazing sheeple. For in today's day and age, he who controls television controls the masses, and he who controls the masses controls the nation." (12/08/05) http://tinyurl.com/9w3s5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RRND is published every weekday except on holidays. Forward freely. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or financially support RRND, visit: http://www.rationalreview.com/news To support ISIL's Free-Market.Net Project (tax deductible) http://www.isil.org/store/membership.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas L. Knapp ..... Publisher Mary Lou Seymour .... Editor Steve Trinward ...... Editor R. Lee Wrights ...... Editor ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back! http://us.click.yahoo.com/g0CDCD/tzNLAA/cUmLAA/KlSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! 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