Rational Review News Digest
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http://www.rationalreview.com/newsProduced in cooperation with the International Society for Individual Liberty http://www.isil.org ---------------------------------------------------------- Volume IV, Issue #941 Tuesday, July 18th, 2006 Email Circulation 2,001 ------ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS -------------------------------------- THE BOSTON TEA PARTY America's new libertarian political party wants you! Online convention -- August 19th, 2006 http://www.bostontea.us FREEDOMAIN RADIO! Passionate, articulate, funny and irreverent, Freedomain Radio shines a bold light on old topics -- and invents a few new ones to boot! http://www.freedomainradio.com/ RADIO FREE LIBERTY Principled Libertarian Podcasts - Changing the world one iPod at a time! http://radiofreeliberty.com/ FAST. EASY. GETS AROUND. Social bookmarking for libertarians! http://www.freedomSLUT.com -------------------------------------- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ----- Today's News: 1) Indonesia: Hundreds dead, missing in tsunami 2) Senate poised to pass stem cell bill 3) Gunmen kill at least 40 in Iraq market attack 4) Afghanistan: US forces will try to retake towns 5) Westerners flee Lebanon as fight continues 6) Mickey Spillane, 1918-2006 7) Bush: Is this thing on? (tap, tap) 8) NAACP issues corporate report cards 9) Africa: Congo rebel chief "to disarm" 10) Retired officer sentenced in arms deal 11) UK: Reid bans groups for "glorifying terrorism" 12) Bulgarian mothers tricked into selling babies 13) Space shuttle Discovery lands safely 14) Germany: Veteran prostitute becomes local landmark 15) Washington governor bills feds $50 million 16) TX: Wife shoots abusive husband 17) OR: Storeowner shoots alleged burglar 18) Mexico: Obrador urges civil resistance 19) NC: Insect's spread threatens hemlock forests 20) Reed blames tribes for laundering scheme 21) Tiny chip the size of a pencil dot 22) TN: Gulch owners may up taxes for "services" 23) CO: Democrats say Salazar seat secure 24) Business takes one small step into space 25) A pledge to track uranium fades Today's Commentary: 26) Sustainable freedom: The dilemma 27) Searching for America's next enemy 28) Israel's war is not ours 29) Government the exploiter, not protector 30) Distractions 31) The 200th anniverary of Liechtenstein 32) The impossibility of discussing anything at all 33) Just war for the sake of argument 34) They called me a child pornographer 35) It must be an escalation 36) The Ralph in the mirror 37) Why free markets succeed and governments fail 38) Raad warriors 39) Pundits'R'Us 40) Israeli-Arab war: Terrorism on both sides 41) The problem with signing statements 42) Another reason for bringing the troops home 43) Florida's fear of history 44) A Paulson agenda 45) Is it time for a third world war? 46) Cheerleading the apocalypse 47) Atrocities in the Promised Land 48) Dopey Internet bill hurts kids 49) Not paying attention in Sunday school 50) EC regulators undermine property rights (again) 51) A crisis foretold 52) Blame big business for high gas prices 53) Neocons rise from Mideast ashes 54) State drug tax law must be rewritten or dumped 55) The Arlen Specter-Dick Cheney deal ... 56) Liberals who hurt own cause 57) Final days of Arizona's final free-flowing river Today's Movement News & Events: 58) Fundraising auction for Richard Celata and family 59) If they come for you in the morning 60) Seminar: Liberty, Economy & Society 61) Authority and autonomy in the family 62) Boston Tea Party organizational convention 63) Reason in Amsterdam 2006 Today in Political History: 64) "Don't mourn -- organize!" News 1) Indonesia: Hundreds dead, missing in tsunami ABC News "The death toll from a tsunami that smashed into fishing villages and resorts on Indonesia's Java island has crossed 340, and over 200 more people are missing, officials said on Tuesday. At least four non-Indonesians were among the dead and 54,000 people were displaced, they said. No warnings had been reported ahead of the waves, which struck on Monday afternoon, despite regional efforts to establish early warning systems after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that left 230,000 killed or missing, including 170,000 in Indonesia. But many residents and tourists on the southern Java coast recognised the signs and fled to higher ground as the sea receded before huge waves came crashing ashore." (07/18/06) http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2206077 ----- 2) Senate poised to pass stem cell bill MSNBC "The White House emphatically renewed President Bush's threat to veto a bill heading toward Senate passage that would authorize federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, a practice Bush loathes. 'If (the bill) were presented to the president, he would veto the bill,' read a fresh official statement of administration policy Monday, with the sentence underlined for emphasis." (07/17/06) http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13903040/ ----- 3) Gunmen kill at least 40 in Iraq market attack CNN "A coordinated attack Monday in Mahmoudiya south of Baghdad killed at least 40 people and wounded dozens, and small-arms fire killed a U.S. soldier in the capital. The incidents took place as Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence festers in and near Baghdad. There were differing accounts of what took place in the attack, which was near the the city's al-Jazaer neighborhood around 9 a.m." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/z57jk ----- 4) Afghanistan: US forces will try to retake towns Houston Chronicle "U.S.-led forces will launch 'decisive operations' to reclaim two southern towns captured in recent days by the Taliban, the military said Tuesday. Scores of Taliban militants chased police out of two southern Helmand districts near the border with Pakistan. ... More than 10,000 U.S., British, Canadian and Afghan soldiers are taking part in an anti-Taliban offensive across southern Afghanistan." (07/18/06) http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4054259.html ----- 5) Westerners flee Lebanon as fight continues Visalia Times Delta "Westerners fled by land, sea and air Monday as Israel sent ground troops into Lebanon briefly and Hezbollah rockets knocked down a three-story house in northern Israel. However, there were signs of movement on the diplomatic front to end the worst fighting in 24 years. The exodus of tourists left downtown Beirut eerily silent, with the shutters down on fancy stores and restaurants in a stark reminder of the country's civil war." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/s62mb ----- 6) Mickey Spillane, 1918-2006 North County Times "Mickey Spillane considered himself a 'writer' as opposed to an 'author,' defining a writer as someone whose books sell. 'This is an income-generating job,' he told The Associated Press during a 2001 interview. 'Fame was never anything to me unless it afforded me a good livelihood.' The macho mystery writer, who wowed millions of readers with the shoot-'em-up sex and violence of gumshoe Mike Hammer, died Monday at 88." (07/18/06) http://tinyurl.com/rvzh8 ----- 7) Bush: Is this thing on? (tap, tap) USA Today "President Bush got bit again Monday by the open-microphone bug. Apparently unaware that his words were being broadcast, Bush offered an unvarnished assessment of Syria's alleged support for Hezbollah's attacks on Israel. He also criticized United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, teased British Prime Minister Tony Blair about a sweater he recently gave the president, and joked about the long-windedness of some unnamed world leaders." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/m3ftx ----- 8) NAACP issues corporate report cards Philadelphia Inquirer "Even companies that make an effort to work with minority-owned businesses typically spend barely 5 percent of their contracting dollars with them, the NAACP president said Monday as his group released report cards on several industries. Blacks shouldn't spend money with companies that don't hire them or advertise in their communities, NAACP President Bruce S. Gordon said. 'If corporations spend their money on us, we'll spend our money with those corporations,' he said. 'It's real simple.'" (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/zvg6u ----- 9) Africa: Congo rebel chief "to disarm" BBC News [UK] "A Congolese rebel leader who kidnapped seven Nepalese United Nations peacekeepers in May has agreed to lay down his weapons, the UN says. Peter Karim and 60 of his fighters have agreed to end their war against the government, a UN spokesman said. ... Mr Karim and his Front of Nationalists and Integrationists (FNI) militia are one of several armed groups based in the volatile, mineral-rich north-eastern Ituri province. The UN mission in DR Congo (Monuc) has been helping the Congolese army to disarm militias across the east, ahead of elections on 30 July." (07/17/06) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5187148.stm ----- 10) Retired officer sentenced in arms deal Miami Herald "A former military intelligence officer was sentenced Monday to a year in federal prison for helping a convicted arms trafficker export parts for jet fighters and other aircraft that were ultimately destined for Iran. George Charles Budenz II, a retired Navy commander, pleaded guilty in November to three counts of illegally exporting engine parts for F-5 fighters, T-38 military trainers and Chinook helicopters to Malaysia and Belgium on behalf of Pakistani arms dealer Arif Ali Durrani." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/gt3f6 ----- 11) UK: Reid bans groups for "glorifying terrorism" Guardian [UK] "Two UK-based Islamist militant groups, al-Ghurabaa and the Saved Sect, were yesterday named as the first extremist groups to be banned in Britain under new anti-terror laws. The two groups are believed to be splinter organisations of al-Muhajiroun, which was dissolved in 2004 by its founder, the radical Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, who later fled to Lebanon and is now banned from returning to Britain. The groups are the first to be targeted by the home secretary, John Reid, under anti-terror legislation outlawing extremist organisations who 'glorify terrorism.' Until now the home secretary's powers of proscription have been used only against organisations directly involved in terrorism." (07/17/06) http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,1823038,00.html ----- 12) Bulgarian mothers tricked into selling babies Independent [UK] "The European baby-trafficking industry is booming. Every year, hundreds of women are duped into making the desperate journey from Bulgaria to Greece hoping to earn money for a better life. Alexander was just one member of a notorious criminal gang that makes its money from trafficking pregnant women and selling their babies on for up to 20,000 on the black market." (07/17/06) http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1183340.ece ----- 13) Space shuttle Discovery lands safely Columbus Ledger-Enquirer "The shuttle Discovery and its crew of six returned safely home Monday, rejuvenating a space program that until now had been vexed by the same chronic foam problem that brought down Columbia three years ago. Within hours of the smooth touchdown, NASA was already looking ahead to the next shuttle launch in just six weeks and, with it, the long-awaited return to construction work on the half-finished space station." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/nlyf9 ----- 14) Germany: Veteran prostitute becomes local landmark Ananova [UK] "A prostitute who has been working the streets of a German city for almost 50 years is to feature in a promotional film about the region. Blonde working girl Brigitte is in her sixties but says, after 47 years on the job in Koblenz, she still has no plans to give up. 'Brigitte is probably the only prostitute in the world who is also a town landmark,' said tour guide Manfred Gniffke. And she is so well known that producers of a short film promoting the city titled You Are Koblenz hired Brigitte to star in it alongside other local celebrities." (07/17/06) http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1917894.html ----- 15) Washington governor bills feds $50 million Modesto Bee "Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire sent a bill for nearly $50 million to the federal government Monday -- money she says the state is owed for jailing illegal immigrant criminals. Gregoire said even though it's the federal government's responsibility to incarcerate illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, the state has been doing it -- and footing the bill -- for years." [editor's note: What a neat idea! I think I'll start doing parts Gregoire's job -- the parts that entail running around saying "I'm the governor; I'm in charge" -- and bill the state of Washington for her salary - TLK] (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/lybx4 ----- 16) TX: Wife shoots abusive husband WFAA News "Richardson police are investigating the death of a 48-year-old man who they say was shot by his wife Saturday night. Police received a 911 call at 11:04 p.m. Saturday from Linda Weng, 55, who said she had shot her husband, David Weng. Officers found Mr. Weng dead, apparently from a single gunshot wound to the chest .... Richardson police Sgt. Kevin Perlich said police were investigating the incident as a domestic shooting. He said Ms. Weng had marks on her body that showed there had been physical contact between the couple before the shooting. Ms. Weng was treated for minor injuries at the scene. ... Last month, Richardson police went to the home and arrested Mr. Weng in connection with a family violence incident." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/pk7tk ----- 17) OR: Storeowner shoots alleged burglar KGW News "A storeowner shot and wounded a 16-year-old in the back side after he tried to rob his Beavercreek store Saturday night and helped nab another man, sheriff's deputies said. ... Police said Robert Finke, the owner of Clarks General Store on South Beavercreek Road, and a neighbor heard breaking glass around 11 p.m. Saturday night and ran to the store, confronting two burglars inside. The owner held one suspect at gunpoint inside the store, then ordered him to the front porch of the store where he told him to empty his pockets with items stolen from the store, Strovink said. Shihadeh, who had initially fled the burglary scene, returned to the store and said he was armed with a gun. Both suspects ran from the store, with Finke and his neighbor Travis Wilber in hot pursuit." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/qbsaq ----- 18) Mexico: Obrador urges civil resistance Washington Post "Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the runner-up in Mexico's presidential election, called on a massive crowd Sunday to commit acts of 'peaceful civil resistance' to force a vote-by-vote recount. Lopez Obrador's exhortation significantly intensified his efforts to use public pressure to reverse his apparent half-percentage-point loss to Felipe Calderon, a free-trade booster. The rally in Mexico City's downtown square, the Zocalo, was the latest and largest flash point in a two-week electoral crisis expected to last two months while a special elections court hears Lopez Obrador's fraud allegations and decides whether to conduct a recount." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/qqepa ----- 19) NC: Insect's spread threatens hemlock forests Yahoo! News "Within the serene forests that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to southern Appalachia every year, a quiet massacre is under way. A tiny pest small enough to float on the breeze -- a bug called the hemlock woolly adelgid -- is slowly poisoning the majestic hemlock trees that make up much of the green canopy in the rugged region, threatening the scenery that visitors admire from the overlooks of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the cliffs of Chimney Rock Park. ... Adelgids can be killed off, at least temporarily, by injecting insecticides into the trees or the surrounding soil, by spraying trees with an insecticide or soap solution, or by releasing beetles that feed on the adelgids. But there are limits to money and manpower, and soil injections are believed to provide only about five years of protection. ... Once the current infestation has run its course, the adelgid population will crash and achieve a rough equilibrium with the now outnumbered beetle population. The beetles should then be able to hold the adelgids in check, allowing the hemlocks to grow back." (07/17/06) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060715/ap_on_sc/hemlocks_under_attack ----- 20) Reed blames tribes for laundering scheme TPM Muckraker "The Indians made me do it. On the eve of a tense primary election, that's Ralph Reed's defense against corruption accusations that threaten to capsize his candidacy for Georgia lieutenant governor. Reed is suffering some punishing body blows from his opponent for his schemes to use money from Indian casinos to pay for Christian anti-gambling efforts -- by funneling the cash through shell companies to disguise its true source. The charges have been around for months, of course -- accompanied by ample evidence that Reed played a key role in concocting the schemes and putting them into practice. To date he has dodged the allegations by first claiming ignorance of the clients, and then woodenly chiming that 'Had I known then what I know now, I would not have undertaken the work.' But yesterday, he changed his tune -- and blamed the Indians." (07/17/06) http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001147.php ----- 21) Tiny chip the size of a pencil dot San Francisco Chronicle "Hewlett-Packard's newest microchip looks like a small sticker that can be attached to virtually any object: a photograph, a patient's hospital tag, a movie poster. But the device, which is the size of a pencil dot, can pack a lot of information: the voice of a child pictured in a photo, a summary of someone's medical history on a hospital tag, or even a trailer of a movie portrayed on a poster. The Memory Spot operates similarly to radio frequency identity, or RFID, tags now being used to track inventory and company supplies. But the HP chip is smaller, more powerful and capable of recording and broadcasting more kinds of information." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/fzwhj ----- 22) TN: Gulch owners may up taxes for "services" Nashville City Paper "Property owners in downtown's highflying Gulch district are mulling the creation of a localized property tax increase for themselves in an effort to procure extra city services such as cleaning crews and special security protections. The move to establish what is called a business improvement district (BID) for the area, a former railroad hub, has been led by Gulch visionary Joe Barker. Barker is a partner in Nashville Urban Venture, which the Metro Development and Housing Agency chose several years ago to lead the redevelopment efforts of the roughly 30-acre site. Metro, for its part, has pumped $6.7 million into the area to provide for infrastructure improvements now apparent. Under a Metro Council bill the legislative body will consider on the first of three readings at its meeting Tuesday, property taxes in the Gulch would be increased by 15 cents per $100 of assessed value." [editor's note: The first question might be, why do they need to use a property-tax hike to accomplish this? Why not just pool resources among those who want the work done, and pay for it that way? Stay tuned - SAT] (07/17/06) http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?news_id=51009 ----- 23) CO: Democrats say Salazar seat secure Fox News "What a difference an election cycle makes. Two years ago, Republicans were elbowing each other to run in Colorado's 3rd Congressional District and the party helped to raise more than $1.6 million to secure it. Today, Democratic Rep. John Salazar is in the seat and Republican Scott Tipton is campaigning against him largely without the help of national Republicans, whose priorities now lie with securing incumbents in uncertain districts and saving money from what they say is a long shot, even in a Republican-leaning district." (07/17/06) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,203900,00.html ----- 24) Business takes one small step into space Christian Science Monitor "Some 120 miles higher than the International Space Station orbits, an alternate vision for spaceflight has arrived. The new kid on the cosmic block is Genesis 1, a diminutive prototype for what could be a new generation of inflatable, commercial space stations, orbital hotels, or even living quarters and labs for the moon or Mars. The module, which has the silhouette of a 14-feet-long, 8-feet-wide blunt sausage, lofted on a Russian rocket last week. The Genesis may be small, but it should not be underestimated. Its successful launch and deployment add an important dimension to efforts to open the final frontier to Everyman, analysts say. Genesis 1 'is incredibly significant,' says George Whitesides, executive director of the National Space Society, a space-advocacy group in Washington. 'This is the only real, funded project that's trying to create a destination in space privately, as opposed to the other folks, who are creating private launch vehicles.'" (07/17/06) http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0717/p03s03-usgn.html ----- 25) A pledge to track uranium fades Boston Globe "Four years after the leaders of the world's eight largest economies vowed to raise $20 billion over 10 years to prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear materials, only $3.5 billion has been donated -- and far less has been used to secure enriched uranium, the key ingredient of a nuclear weapon. Hundreds of tons of uranium remain at loosely guarded facilities across Russia and the former Soviet Union, and in nearly 40 other countries, according to specialists. And the need to secure the material has grown: In April, Russian police arrested a foreman in a nuclear plant for attempting to sell 22 kilograms of uranium. At the annual meeting of Group of Eight leaders in Russia last week, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin -- calling nuclear terrorism the 'greatest threat we face today' -- announced a new effort to train other countries to track, secure, and intercept nuclear materials that may be sought by terrorist groups." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/lx8w8 ---------------------------------------------------------- HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 07/18/06 Civilian Casualties in Iraq: Min - 39,123 ... Max - 43,575 (source: www.iraqbodycount.org) American Military Deaths in Iraq: 2,553 (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/) ---------------------------------------------------------- Commentary 26) Sustainable freedom: The dilemma Backwoods Home Magazine by Claire Wolfe "The left is forever pushing the term 'sustainable.' It seems to mean 'severely limited under central government control.' Permit me to repossess that perfectly good word. Let it mean what it ought to: capable of lasting without artificial props. Then let's apply it where it's desperately needed: Creating Sustainable Freedom. But how? So far, nobody has figured that out. Freedom can't be sustained by bits of paper, however noble their intent. Freedom can't be sustained by guns, useful though guns may be in discouraging both freelance and tax-supported gangsters. Freedom certainly can't be sustained with vast edifices of legislation, regulation, and punishment. That's one of the great cons of all time -- believing the very destroyers of freedom can be freedom's saviors.To endure, freedom must be self-governing and self-regenerating." (07/15/06) http://www.backwoodshome.com/columns/wolfe060715.html ----- 27) Searching for America's next enemy Ludwig von Mises Institute by Doug Bandow "Peace is boring. How else to explain the search by some conservatives for a new enemy? After the Cold War the foreign policy establishment could have gratefully accepted peace, stopped meddling around the globe, and demobilized America's outsize military. Instead, it found other enemies. Doing so wasn't easy. Saddam Hussein's Iraq proved to be easy prey. Now Iran is getting the most attention." (07/17/06) http://www.mises.org/story/2252 ----- 28) Israel's war is not ours Free Market News Network by Ilana Mercer "It's ominous to hear prominent American neoconservatives speak of Israel's war as our own and the conflagration in the region as the commencement of WWIII. 'What's under attack,' writes William Kristol, 'is liberal democratic civilization.' It's ominous but not surprising. Hyping a war as a symbolic war gives it momentum -- and facilitates its expansion beyond regional confines." (07/18/06) http://www.fmnn.com/Analysis/56/5656/Israel.asp?nid=5656&wid=56 ----- 29) Government the exploiter, not protector Future of Freedom Foundation by Sheldon Richman "If you begin with an incorrect premise, you are bound to arrive at bad conclusions. Nowhere is this more true than in matters of government. The debates over the 'war on terror,' the Iraqi occupation, and the Bush administration's casual approach to civil liberties are premised on the idea that the primary mission of the government in Washington is to protect the American people from harm. Wrong." (07/14/06) http://www.fff.org/comment/com0607b.asp ----- 30) Distractions The Libertarian Enterprise by Chris Claypoole "Many of us have noted that the 'body politic' has the memory span of a goldfish and moves from one crisis or scandal to the next as quickly as a glutton at an all-you-can-eat buffet loads his plate. (And the aftermath of each set of actions produces the same flushable result.) One of the reasons Americans have such a lousy set of elected officials is that most of the people that vote have little knowledge of, or interest in increasing that knowledge of, the issues that represent the causes (rather than the symptoms) of what is wrong with the United States today." (07/17/06) http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2006/tle376-20060716-05.html ----- 31) The 200th anniverary of Liechtenstein The Free Liberal by Fred E. Foldvary "Why did so many people of Germany elect and support the Nazis during the 1930s and 1940s, while the people of Liechtenstein, also ethnic Germans, remained free and peaceful? The difference was the structure of government, as a small principality. The Swiss also remained peaceful; though much larger than Liechtenstein, Switzerland is highly decentralized into cantons, which limits the power of the central government." (07/18/06) http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/002183.html ----- 32) The impossibility of discussing anything at all The Power of Narrative by Arthur Silber "I personally became painfully aware of the smear tactics that concern me when I began writing seriously about foreign policy in the spring and summer of 2003. Because I offered an extensive critique of the Bush administration's embrace of an aggressively interventionist foreign policy, a policy that history demonstrates always fails, always leads to destruction, and always leads to results that are the opposite of those intended by the interventionists themselves, the same people who had previously found considerable worth in my writing consigned me to 'the other side.' For many people, I was a 'Saddamite,' a particularly vicious and dishonest smear that I discussed just recently. Let us be very clear about the purpose of all such smears. Very simply, it is to prevent all questioning and criticism, and to end debate. That's all. The dishonest smearers hope that their intimidation will cause those with differing views to shut up and go away, never to be heard from again." (07/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/h73y9 ----- 33) Just war for the sake of argument TechCentralStation by Stephen Bainbridge "The current war is not the first time that some have sought to loosen the strictures of just war theory so as to permit 'massive military responses' or 'application of overwhelming force,' of course. Indeed, there is a direct historical parallel between the arguments made by commentators such as Morrissey's or Pham and Krauss and the moral justifications offered for strategic bombing during World War II. ... While the Israelis have not yet resorted to carpet bombing of the Bomber Harris type, neither has their operation been as surgical as Pham and Krauss' column would have one believe." (07/18/06) http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=071806E ----- 34) They called me a child pornographer Salon by Jody Jenkins "As usual during the trip, we took several photos. Because I forgot my digital camera, I bought a disposable camera at a gas station on the way to the campground. I took pictures of the kids using sticks to beat on old bottles and cans and logs as musical instruments. I took a few of my youngest daughter, Eliza, then age 3, skinny dipping in the lake, and my son, Noah, then age 8, swimming in the lake in his underwear, and another of Noah naked, hamming it up while using a long stick to hold his underwear over the fire to dry. Finally, I took a photo of everyone, as was our camping tradition, peeing on the ashes of the fire to put it out for the last time. We also let the kids take photos of their own." [subscription or ad view required] (07/18/06) http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2006/07/18/photos/ ----- 35) It must be an escalation AntiWar.Com by Jonathan Cook "Here we go again -- another 'serious escalation' has begun in the Middle East, or so BBC World was telling audiences throughout Sunday. So what prompted the BBC's judgment that the crisis was escalating once more? You can be sure it had nothing to do with the more than 130 Lebanese dead after five days of savage aerial bombardment from at least 2,000 sorties by Israeli war .... Those dead, most civilians and many of them women and children, hardly get a mention .... No, the BBC proffered a first, hesitant 'escalation' on Thursday night when Hezbollah had the audacity to fire a handful of rockets at Haifa in response to the growing Lebanese death toll. ... the BBC felt confident to declare the escalation had turned 'serious' on Sunday when Hezbollah not only fired more rockets at Haifa but one killed a group of eight railway workers in a station depot. Now that Israeli civilians as well as Lebanese civilians are dying -- even if in far smaller numbers -- the BBC's battalions of journalists in northern Israel finally have something to report on." (07/18/06) http://www.antiwar.com/orig/cook.php?articleid=9320 ----- 36) The Ralph in the mirror Slate by Ralp ... er, Bruce ... Reed "The other day, a Republican acquaintance introduced me to his wife the same way Republicans almost always do. 'Honey,' he said, 'This is Ralph Reed.' For the past 15 years, I have lived under the ultimate political curse: I think like Bill Clinton, but I look like Ralph Reed. When politicos first started confusing Ralph and me, it was merely a glitch in their mental Rolodex. With the same last name, we were political homonyms, like John Kerry and Bob Kerrey. When a pundit wrote about 'Bruce Reed's Christian Coalition,' he didn't even know what I looked like; his mind just pulled up the first entry under the right last name." (07/17/06) http://www.slate.com/id/2145940/ ----- 37) Why free markets succeed and governments fail LewRockwell.Com by Michael S. Rozeff "[T]here is still disagreement over how to create value. Fortunately, some of the human race know how to create it without prompting from theorists and controlling from governments. Others, the socialists, don't. In modern-day America, they think that value is created by maintaining huge armed forces with hundreds of bases all over the world, invading other nations, monitoring everyone's communications, licensing television and radio stations and a hundred other occupations, taking from the haves and giving to the have-nots, forcing everyone to join a government health care plan, forcing everyone who works to pay a Social Security tax which is then given away to the elderly, taking property for private business projects, regulating the mileage of an automobile, forcing security markets to have a national price system, forcing toilets to be smaller and washing machines to be front-loading, paying farmers not to produce or paying them to produce, not producing or working the land if there is some strange insect or lizard living on it or if a stream flows through it, regulating trade, regulating interest rates, controlling money, etc., etc. Being as human as the next person, socialists have no end of ideas. Unfortunately, they are all bad." (07/18/06) http://www.lewrockwell.com/rozeff/rozeff80.html ----- 38) Raad warriors The Weekly Standard by Dan Darling "As Israel continues to come to grips with Hezbollah's missile strike on the northern Israeli city of Haifa, it is important to fully appreciate the implications of this attack. While Hezbollah, like other terrorist and guerrilla organizations worldwide, has long been known to possess a number of Katyushas with a range of up to 10-20 kilometers, the two missiles fired at Haifa are believed to be Iranian-produced Raad-1s, which have an estimated range of as much as 150 kilometers. ... The introduction of Raad missiles should also clear up any lingering doubts among analysts as to the Iranian complicity in the latest violence." [editor's note: In 1991, I underwent the interesting experience of traversing a belt of minefields separating Saudi Arabia from Kuwait. The mines I saw were almost all of either American or Italian manufacture. This should clear up any lingering doubts about who laid those mines, right? - TLK] (07/18/06) http://tinyurl.com/kg9db ----- 39) Pundits'R'Us AlterNet by Rory O'Connor "The site is aimed at consumers who 'feel like they have something to say but can't get it past the filter,' Lockhart told the Wall Street Journal. Oddly, however, he and the rest of the group introduced their venture at an invite-only press breakfast attended by top political reporters for such MSM stalwarts as the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Time magazine. I would have liked to have been there -- but I couldn't get past the filter!" (07/18/06) http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/38885/ ----- 40) Israeli-Arab war: Terrorism on both sides Independent Institute by Ivan Eland "By declaring that 'Israel has right to defend itself,' the Bush administration is tacitly approving Israel's pounding Lebanon into rubble and reinvading Gaza. Since 9/11, the administration has tried to cast its 'war on terror' as broadly as possible, including an invasion of Iraq and the labeling of groups that focus their attacks only on Israel -- Hamas and Hezbollah -- as terrorists. And these groups do oftentimes engage in monstrously unacceptable acts of terrorism -- that is, by striking innocent civilians to get them to pressure their governments to change policy. But sometimes these groups undertake legitimate acts of war. Yet the world's most powerful governments -- led by the United States -- seem to deem any actions by these groups as terrorism. At the same time, they avoid that label for any actions taken by other governments, such as the disproportionate measures now being undertaken by Israel." (07/17/06) http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1767 ----- 41) The problem with signing statements Cato Institute by Richard A. Epstein "There is nothing new about a president adding a 'statement on signing' to legislation he has approved. Since the country was founded, presidents have used these statements for relatively innocuous purposes: to thank supporters, explain their support for the bill or express satisfaction -- or dissatisfaction -- with legislation passed by Congress. What is new and troubling is the extraordinary frequency with which President Bush has used these statements, and the unorthodox way he uses them." (07/18/06) http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6539 ----- 42) Another reason for bringing the troops home Mother Jones by Raed Jarrar "The ongoing civil conflict in Iraq is one of the major issues being considered in the debate over future U.S. military and political steps in Iraq. A growing number of analysts argue that U.S. military forces must stay in Iraq to prevent a full-scale sectarian civil war between Sunni and Shia Arabs in Iraq. But evidence exists that the roots of the Iraqi civil conflict is political rather than sectarian, and that the best solution is finding a way to bring the troops home." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/gcwqf ----- 43) Florida's fear of history Common Dreams by Robert Jensen "One way to measure the fears of people in power is by the intensity of their quest for certainty and control over knowledge. By that standard, the members of the Florida Legislature marked themselves as the folks most terrified of history in the United States when last month they took bold action to become the first state to outlaw historical interpretation in public schools. In other words, Florida has officially replaced the study of history with the imposition of dogma and effectively outlawed critical thinking." (07/17/06) http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0717-22.htm ----- 44) A Paulson agenda National Center for Policy Analysis by staff "Hank Paulson, the recently named Treasury Secretary, has inherited an economy that has grown at a 4 percent annual rate for three years and now has 30 months at the end of a second-term presidency to keep it that way, says the Wall Street Journal. The task won't be easy, says the Journal, but there are areas Paulson should focus on to keep the economy steady." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/l429y ----- 45) Is it time for a third world war? Common Dreams by Danny Schechter "There are screws loose in high places. Elements of the intelligence 'community' which have done such a fine job in Iraq, and their Israeli counterparts, along with the cadre of paid and unpaid cheerleaders in the TV punditocracy, seem to have decided that what the world needs now is another world war.And they are not shy about saying so." (07/17/06) http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0717-28.htm ----- 46) Cheerleading the apocalypse Truthout by William Rivers Pitt "The fighting between Israel and Lebanon over the course of the last few days presents perhaps the most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis. The leadership of Israel and Hezbollah spend the blood of innocents to prove how very tough they are, and the lords of unreason hold sway over all. Syria trembles on the edge of significant involvement, with Iran waiting in the wings." (07/17/06) http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071706J.shtml ----- 47) Atrocities in the Promised Land CounterPunch by Kathleen Christison "Those who are horrified -- and there are many -- cannot penetrate the shield of impassivity that protects the political and media elite in Israel, even more so in the U.S., and increasingly now in Canada and Europe, from seeing, from caring. But it needs to be said now, loudly: those who devise and carry out Israeli policies have made Israel into a monster, and it has come time for all of us -- all Israelis, all Jews who allow Israel to speak for them, all Americans who do nothing to end U.S. support for Israel and its murderous policies -- to recognize that we stain ourselves morally by continuing to sit by while Israel carries out its atrocities against the Palestinians." (07/17/06) http://www.counterpunch.org/christison07172006.html ----- 48) Dopey Internet bill hurts kids Heartland Institute by Sonia Arrison "Social networking Web sites like MySpace, Friendster, and Facebook are becoming increasingly popular with the nation's youth, prompting attempts to control the medium. Protecting children is the goal ... but the outcome is too often the opposite. Legislation recently proposed by Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick (R-PA) threatens to stop minors from accessing social networking sites in schools or libraries. His Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) would prohibit schools and libraries from allowing access to a commercial social networking Web site or chat room through which minors might be subject to sexual material or advances. For many kids, that amounts to a ban on using the sites from anywhere outside the home." (07/06) http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19251 ----- 49) Not paying attention in Sunday school Jason Ditz Website by Jason Ditz "Not a good day to be a Christian, I'm afraid, as thousands of 'Evangelists' (remember when that word meant something positive?) are heading to Capitol Hill to 'support Israel.' Which if you read the article is actually a euphemism for 'attack Iran.' That means there are 3,000 self-described Christians who are wholly unfamiliar with the term 'thou shall not kill.' Funny how everyone seems to remember obscure Leviticine laws regarding sexual orientation, but the Ten Commandments slip their mind so freely." (07/17/06) http://www.jasonditz.com/news.php/?readmore=259 ----- 50) EC regulators undermine property rights (again) Center For Individual Freedom by staff "The European Commission (EC), in all its zeal to control competition worldwide by targeting successful U.S. corporations, has once again shown its anti-American stripes, disregard for fairness and contempt for intellectual property rights. This week, the EC issued an unprecedented ruling and levied yet another astronomical fine totaling $357 million against Microsoft Corporation for what the Commission said was the U.S. software giant's failure to comply with its 2004 'antitrust' order." (07/14/06) http://tinyurl.com/zgqx9 ----- 51) A crisis foretold The American Prospect by Jo-Ann Mort "Early last week, I visited friends in Haifa, Israel's third largest city. Their apartment is at the top of the Carmel, a mountain that leads to the University of Haifa. From their living room I looked out over Haifa's port to the mountains of Lebanon and thought about the beauty of that area along the border. By week's end, Haifa was struck by Katushya rockets from southern Lebanon. Israelis in that border area are now being ordered to stay inside and sleep in bomb shelters, as Lebanese are subjected to heavy bombardment by the Israeli army. On Friday morning, my cousin called me from a suburb of Nahariya to tell me that everyone is OK; her kids had a slumber party with neighbors the previous night -- in a bomb shelter. Nahariya, a quiet, quaint Mediterranean town, is experiencing the worst of the Katushyas. One resident has already been killed." (07/17/06) http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=11730 ----- 52) Blame big business for high gas prices Competitive Enterprise Institute by Timothy Carney "This past week, the average price for a gallon of gasoline rose above $3 for the first time since the brief post-Katrina spike. On cue, politicians, journalists, and liberal agitators are crying 'price gouging,' and telling us we need federal policy to guide us towards a petroleum-free world. These complaints hold traces of the truth: (1) We ought to be angry at big business for the high gas prices; and (2) there is something the government can do about it. But the problem is not corporate 'price gouging' and the solution is not new subsidies or regulations." (07/17/06) http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,05442.cfm ----- 53) Neocons rise from Mideast ashes Tom Paine by Robert Dreyfuss "Israel's reckless, high-stakes decision to launch simultaneous wars against both Hamas and Hezbollah last week is a critical, perhaps world-shattering event. It cannot be seen merely in its local context, that is, as an act by the unilateralist regime in Jerusalem to crush the armed wings of two Islamic fundamentalist organizations in Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon. Nor can it be seen merely in its regional context, that is, as an effort to raise the stakes in the struggle against Syria, Iran and rejectionist factions in occupied Iraq. Rather, Israel's actions must be seen, first and foremost, in the context of global politics. The key question: Is the Israeli offensive designed as a calculated effort to catapult the hard-right, neoconservative ideologues back to power in Washington?" (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/k4ltr ----- 54) State drug tax law must be rewritten or dumped Tennessean by staff "When a judge says that a state law i[s] unconstitutional, the most common reaction by state attorneys is to appeal. But Tennessee officials need to think twice about appealing a ruling by Chancellor Richard Dinkins, in which the judge said that a Tennessee tax on illegal drugs was unconstitutional. The state must question the wisdom of waging a potentially expensive court fight over a law that brought in $2.7 million over 18 months. Tennessee's law levies a tax on illegal substances, including marijuana, moonshine and cocaine. Dealers can anonymously pay the tax at a state Revenue office and get a stamp as proof of payment. If they don't and they're busted, they'll be required to pay the tax along with a penalty and interest. Other states have similar laws; North Carolina, in fact, collected $8.5 million one fiscal year. But the fact that other states have similar laws doesn't make Tennessee's law constitutional." (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/gx3uk ----- 55) The Arlen Specter-Dick Cheney deal ... Fox News by Susan Estrich "The Bush administration announced this week that it would allow a secret court to review the constitutionality of its secret NSA wiretapping program. This followed the earlier announcement that it would apply the protections of the Geneva Convention to the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. In other words, the administration is, slowly but surely, allowing itself to be governed by the law. It's about time. This effort by the administration to place itself above the law was doomed from the beginning, an unnecessary grab for power, an attitude gone wrong." [editor's note: If Estrich believes that the Bush administration is going to suddenly discover that there are limits to its whimsical exercises of power, I've got a bridge for sale ... - TLK] (07/16/06) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,203898,00.html ----- 56) Liberals who hurt own cause Boston Globe by Cathy Young "In the jungle of today's political scene, there has been a lot of shrill, intemperate, and vicious rhetoric from the right directed at liberals, leftists, and, particularly, liberal academics. In the rhetoric of people like talk show host Sean Hannity or activist and writer David Horowitz (to use just two examples), liberals are portrayed as fuzzy-headed naïfs at best and terrorist sympathizers at worst, as people always ready to believe the worst about the United States and the best about its enemies. It's too bad that, at times, some on the academic left seem determined to live up -- or down -- to this stereotype. The latest in the academic follies comes from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where the administration has cleared the way for an instructor to teach his belief that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were plotted by the US government to create an excuse for war." [editor's note: Ms. Young might regret writing this piece one day. Altogether too many things do not add up in the "official" story of 9/11 - SAT] (07/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/pyd3r ----- 57) Final days of Arizona's final free-flowing river Arizona Republic by E. J. Montini "Robin Silver is in the business of saving lives, which, as legacies go, is better than most. But it isn't enough. Not for him. He also wants to save the planet, or at least one or two of its most beautiful spots, which happen to exist here in Arizona. So when he isn't working as a physician, Silver heads up the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. I first spoke to him last July about a catastrophic event in our state that none of us noticed, and which we wouldn't have cared about even if we had. For the first time in 75 years, stream flow in southern Arizona's San Pedro River had shrunk to zero. The 140-mile river flows north from Mexico into Arizona, passing east of Tucson and meandering to Sierra Vista. It's the last free-flowing river in the Southwest and has been a source of life in the desert for thousands of years." (07/16/06) http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0716montini0716.html Movement News & Events 58) Fundraising auction for Richard Celata and family E-Bay (sponsored by JPFO) July 20,2006 "The auction is to raise funds for Richard Celata of KT Ordnance in Dillon, Montana. Celata has been unable to earn a living since June 7 when his business was raided by the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Tobacco (ATF), and (of all things) the Canadian ATF. He has not been charged with any crime. We believe his business is one hundred percent legal and that he has been targeted by the ATF in an attempt to intimidate the U.S. parts-kit industry and silence a vocal political opponent." The JPFO "Boot the BATFE" Package: tee-shirt, lapel pin, DVD, novel (autographed!) -- AND membership in the Producers' Circle for the upcoming film, The Gang: Using the Law to Destroy Your Freedom and Security. Total value: more than $300. Auction ends: Jul-20-06 . http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140007926270 ----- 59) If they come for you in the morning Indymedia 07/27/06 - 07/28/06 "On Thursday, July 27 and Friday, July 28, Visual Resistance will present 'If they come for you in the morning,' a benefit gallery show featuring over 70 renowned and emerging artists at ABC No Rio in New York's Lower East Side. The show will feature some of the most respected and prolific street artists working today .... All proceeds from the show will benefit the legal fund of local environmental and social justice activist Daniel McGowan, who currently faces life plus 335 years in prison on federal charges of arson, property destruction, and conspiracy. Daniel was arrested during Operation Backfire, a multi-state sweep of environmental activists who have now been charged with virtually every unsolved earth and animal liberation case in the Northwest. Daniel has pled not guilty to all charges. Thursday, July 27 & Friday, July 28, 2006, 5-10 pm ABC No Rio, 156 Rivington St, Lower East Side, NYC. Co-sponsored by Visual Resistance and Family and Friends of Daniel McGowan." (07/08/06) http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/07/72657.html ----- 60) Seminar: Liberty, Economy & Society Independent Institute 08/07/06 - 08/11/06 "To help high school and college-age students better understand the social and economic issues faced throughout life, The Independent Institute sponsors the Liberty, Economy & Society Summer Seminars as a major part of the Institute's overall program for students. These dynamic seminars help students learn what economics is, how it affects their lives, and how understanding its laws can help them achieve the things they care about." Independent Institute, 100 Swan Way, Oakland, CA. Enrollment fee $195 per student, including course materials. Tuition assistance available. http://www.independent.org/students/seminars/ ----- 61) Authority and autonomy in the family various 08/19/06 "August 19, 2006 at Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA. Speakers confirmed so far include Nathaniel Branden, Peter Breggin (via live video), Susan Love Brown, Marshall Fritz and Sharon Presley. Topics include liberating education, liberating childrearing, encouraging critical intelligence in children, alternative family structures, egalitarian marriage, and encouraging self-esteem in children. The sponsors are Resources for Independent Thinking, the Civil Society Institute, and the Association of Libertarian Feminists." http://www.autonomyinthefamily.org ----- 62) Boston Tea Party organizational convention Boston Tea Party 08/19/06 America's new libertarian political party opens its organizational convention -- held online and open to all members -- on August 19th. Agenda items include the election of a permanent national committee and creation of the party's program. http://www.bostontea.us ----- 63) Reason in Amsterdam 2006 Reason Foundation 08/23/06-08/26/06 "Amidst the beauty of Amsterdam's canals, flower markets and colorful people, attendees of Reason in Amsterdam, 2006 will enjoy a unique opportunity to learn about the contemporary struggle in Europe from prominent European and American intellectuals." An astounding roster of guests and speakers, including Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of the hit series "South Park," Time Magazine's Andrew Sullivan, Reason editors Nick Gillespie and Jacob Sullum, and a host of distinguished authors, activists and political leaders. August 23-26 at the Grand Amsterdam Hotel. $425. Online registration available. http://www.reason.org/amsterdam/ Today in Political History 64) "Don't mourn -- organize!" Details, and the "quote of the day," from Leon's Political Almanac at: http://perspicuity.net/cgi/hypercal.cgi ---------------------------------------------------------- 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 --------------------------------- How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messengers low PC-to-Phone call rates. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! 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