I'm a citizen of a fascist state.
The first high school dedicated to preparing students for the front lines in the Nation's homeland security has gone from theory to planning in Wilmington...
Curriculum choices for students, who are to be called Cadets, range from SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) through prison guard...
The Patriot Act and Patriot Act II's evil child will soon become law if the House's 404-6(!) vote in its favor passes the Senate and the President's pen. That evil child is the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007.
This devilish piece of legislation will officially extend the War on Terrorism to American citizens who are deemed radical violent terrorists. When reading the language in the bill it becomes very apparent that there is no specific definition of what a radical or violent terrorist is. That will allow government bureaucrats to have lots of fun with us in the coming years.
Once again,
That's a remarkably discouraging vote count. My god, you can really see what Ron Paul and his supporters up against.
Drew Carey defends the civilizing practice of smoking marijuana for medical reasons. Contrary to the belief of many bureaucrats and the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency, it's the outlawing of marijuana use (for any reason actually) that is a mark of a society that is uncivilized.
Reason.TV has a nice way about it. First I've seen of it. Oh, and where did Carey's flat-top go?
I first heard of the idea of eliminating traffic lights and stop signs on city streets from one of the co-editors of The B-Burgs back in the mid-90's. If I remember correctly he supported his argument with appeals to personal liberty rather than making the argument based on improved safety.
Well, a German town has made the move to such a street environment and their rationale is based on the safety they believe it will provide.
...all traffic controls will disappear from the center of the western town of Bohmte to try to reduce accidents and make life easier for pedestrians.
In an area used by 13,500 cars every day, drivers and pedestrians will enjoy equal right of way, Klaus Goedejohann, the town's mayor, told Reuters.
"Traffic will no longer be dominant," he said.
I know that every time I come to an intersection where the street lights have died (which happens often in Baltimore) the efficiency with which drivers coming from all four directions manuever their cars safely through the intersection always makes a strong, positive impression on me.
Think about the natural ordering effect that such an environment would produce. Within days, if not hours, all jack-ass drivers would immediately realize that in order for them to live another day they had better start slowing down as they approach the next light-less intersection. Plus, things might become a bit more civil on the roads since motorists would almost always be in motion and not getting annoyed idling at red lights every two blocks.
Back to Germany. This offers a unique philosophical problem for the politcial arm of the European Union. These ninnies probably love the idea of cars losing much of their influence on the roads and will applaud the reduction in greenhouse emissions. But at the same time a major symbol of state-imposed public order will pass from the scene when those traffic lights get taken down.
A wonderful development is happening in the market for retirement home services. With the price of care in assisted living facilities skyrocketing in the United States, many American and European retirees are taking their dollars to Mexico and making them stretch a lot further.
With cheaper Mexican caregivers now competing in the market this may also have the effect of slowing down the price inflation of American assisted living centers, therefore helping those who stay behind in the U.S.
American pundits will of course come up with some terrifying stories of dirty Mexican retirement homes and how there's no regulation in the industry. Perhaps a story of one or two Americans who recently died in a Mexican retirement home prematurely will appear. Just observe the hand-ringing over the Chinese toy crises of the past week for a primer.
Then there will be some who eventually get around to suggesting that Americans who slink across the border for a better life are traitors for taking their dollars away from the Homeland.
Today at a crowded farmers market in dowtown Baltimore a man of about twenty came up from behind me, lightly patted me on the shoulder and said, "Nice shirt".
Ted Roberts takes on the nostalgic set. Like those who enjoyed the good old days when only a few could afford the trappings of a lakeside second home or a car. Now, the affluent have to share their way of life with the middle class.
Here's the last sentence in an article bemoaning the fact that fewer and fewer public schools are being named after U.S. Presidents,
Actually, I see this as a positive development. And get these usurpers of personal freedom off our coinage too.When we’re naming more schools after birds than after presidents, something is amiss.
"How would honest Americans be worse off if the Federal Government, in its present form, just ceased to exist?"
That's how Joseph Sobran ends his article regarding the perversion that is Conservatism today.
Would you agree that Sobran has the best voice on the Mises Media section of Mises.org? Unfortunately, there's only one audio file of Sobran on the whole blasted site.
In Justin Rood's piece on the quickly expanding FBI Terror Watch List he makes the following statement,
Privacy and civil liberties advocates say the list is growing uncontrollably, threatening its usefulness in the war on terror.And later ACLU senior legislative counsel Tim Sparapani says,
If we have 509,000 names on that list, the watch list is virtually useless. You'll be capturing innocent individuals with no connection to crime or terror.Ultimately, the reason for maintaining a list like this is not to catch terrorists or prevent terrorism. Instead, it is to be maintained and expanded simply for the sake of feeding the bureaucracy that controls the list with an ever growing budget and to prove the point that government is able to exert an ever increasing measure of power over its citizens.
Arlen Specter has produced a bill to reinstate the right of Habeas Corpus to aliens that was undermined in the Military Commissions Act of 2006. While Specter is a Republican, the other 14 co-sponsers for the bill are all Democrats.
It will be greatly exciting to watch the economies of Eastern Europe continue to evolve over the decades as the vestiges of Communist rule fall further and further back from the collective conscience of the Slavic people.
One such place in this part of the world with a good opportunity for economic advancement is the newly formed Montenegron state. Officially independent in the summer of 2006, this largely homogenous and small state is looking to harness its young entrepreneurial class to increase their standard of living and move full-bore into modernity.
The Mercatus Policy Series has written a brief on this very subject in its current publication. At the bottom of the short article you can find the link to the PDF.
Future success by Montenegro can further bolster the argument that smaller states can be just as economically viable, free and industrious as the large mega nation-states of the 20th century.
Scary stuff from Representative Charlie Rangel. The short of it is that all US citizens between the ages of 18 and 42 would be required to serve their country for two years in a military or domestic service role.
The John Birch Society has a nice rejoinder to the totalitarian bill that Rangel wishes to pass.
The Mises Institute has begun a Print-on-Demand section in their on-line store. Alerted to the fact that numerous readers of their free on-line PDF's actually wanted hard copies for easy chair use the fine folks at the Institute created this nifty little device to satisfy their demands. The prices strike me as quite reasonable.
