My Archives: October 2004
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Our itinerary for October 31st in Transylvania... [more]
Posted by proxy @ 08:45 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Interesting conjecture from an email correspondent about why Pat Robertson has become so publicly critical of Bush's belief that the war in Iraq could be won with no casualties... [more]
Posted by proxy @ 07:19 AM EST [Link]
October 30th in Transylvania... [more]
Posted by proxy @ 07:12 AM EST [Link]
Friday, October 29, 2004
October 29th: Our Official Itinerary in Transylvania... [more]
Posted by proxy @ 12:24 PM EST [Link]
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Onto our second day of Hallowe'en wonder in Eastern Europe... [more]
Posted by proxy @ 10:57 PM EST [Link]
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
An interesting article in High Times: HELP, I'M STONED, WHO SHOULD I VOTE FOR? You need a hint? The article states, “Bush Jr. spent the first half of the 80's getting wasted (perhaps on some of his father's Contra coke), and the second half letting Daddy's rich friends bail him out of failed businesses, and make him managing general partner of the Texas Rangers. Now he's our President. Last year, 700,000 people were arrested for pot in the United States, and Bush's Justice Department continued to raid state-sanctioned medical marijuana gardens at gunpoint.”
Just to let you know what’s happening… [more]
Posted by proxy @ 09:28 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
This from the Wonketter: Lie, Nude Girls for Bush! She writes, "Yes, we've gotten a lot of mail about liegirls.com and their hot, steamy take on the Bush administration record. We're pretty sure the site and the phone line (212-875-7000 -- Call! It works, folks!) are "commenting" in that fancy-pants way liberals do on the absurdity of the Republican's campaign. But here's the thing: If you're an actual Bush supporter, hearing a breathy female voice shout 'Four more years! Four more years! . . . Yes, yes, yes! Yes, Mr. President, I need some wood!' will, in fact, make you hard. Not as hard as "privatize Social Security" or "flat tax," but you know what we mean."
Posted by mac @ 11:45 AM EST [Link]
Update on letter allegedly from John Hospers in which he endorses Bush for President....I am almost literally heading out the door on the first pure vacation Brad & I have indulged in for about 6 years. (Check McBlog for our daily progress through Eastern Europe toward "Castle Dracula" for Hallowe'en.) I still have no definitive sense on whether the letter is genuine as opposed to being an anti-LP prank or a cheap grab for Bush-votes. [more]
Posted by mac @ 11:36 AM EST [Link]
I don't comment often enough upon gun ownership rights, which I advocate, perhaps because I don't personally like guns nor wish to own one. If my neighbor wants a collection of her or his own, however, fine by me. This story, however, outrages me. I agree with the author Bob Smith that the fellow's senseless death was a direct result of irrational anti-gun attitudes. It is also a cautionary tale: stay out of the legal system if at all possible. If its brutal disregard for rights and human dignity don't kill you, it's incompetence may well.
Posted by mac @ 09:51 AM EST [Link]
Monday, October 25, 2004
The news/commentary site Enter Stage Right has offered their vote for authenticity to the Hospers' letter by posting it on their site.
Posted by mac @ 08:42 PM EST [Link]
From the 'what font was it in' department... I am still trying to authenticate the letter allegedly from Hospers. This URL appeared in today's Rational Review newsletter edited by Thomas Knapp. This discussion is appearing on LibertyForum. I still don't know if this is real or 1) a huge anti-LP prank; or 2) a ploy by the Bush people for another few votes.
Posted by mac @ 10:20 AM EST [Link]
Humor break...Boy I am needing a lot of these... [more]
Posted by mac @ 03:52 AM EST [Link]
First a wardrobe malfunction...now a microphone malfunction? "Teen songbird Ashlee Simpson had a microphone malfunction on "Saturday Night Live" last night, scurrying off stage when a production glitch caught her lip-synching the wrong tune."
Posted by mac @ 02:32 AM EST [Link]
Gordon P. is at it again, providing us with scientific sophistication. It's been suspect for some time that the human species may have suffered a "near extinction" event sometime in the last 100,000 years, because as a species, humans have a remarkably small genetic diversity, which is most easily explained by the hypothesis that in evolutionarily recent times the global human population may have fallen to only a few thousand individuals, and perhaps even as low as a few hundred individuals. [more]
Posted by mac @ 02:20 AM EST [Link]
This purports to be from John Hospers! "Dear Libertarian: As a way of getting acquainted, let me just say that I was the first presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party back in l972, and was the author of the first full-length book, Libertarianism, describing libertarianism in detail. I also wrote the Libertarian Party's Statement of Principles at the first libertarian national convention in 1972. I still believe in those principles as strongly as ever, but this year -- more than any year since the establishment of the Libertarian Party -- I have major concerns about the choices open to us as voting Americans." In short...Hospers is endorsing George Bush. Pat T. has already written to ask if this is real or a hoax. I am trying to track that down right now... Since Hospers' reported email address currently appears on Free Republic, I feel able to post it here for those who wish to verify the authenticity of the letter or comment upon it. johnjhospers AT aol.com. [Note: substitute @ for AT.] If, by some happy star, this happens to be a prank, please let me know so that I can post that fact. But, according to a Freeper who claims to have written to the aforementioned email address, Hospers (or whoever responded) verified the authenticity and provided a phone number if further proof was required. (I will not provide the phone number, however.) The aol email box seems overloaded at the moment, perhaps due to a flood of queries. A "real beyond question" e-mail address for John appears on the USC website: johnhospers AT sprintmail.com. FWIW, Dr. John Ray is among the bloggers now posting the letter on one of his blog sites and he allegedly received it directly from Hospers in an e-mail. American Backlash has also posted it. Perhaps Hosper has gone Schulman. Let's hope for the prank theory to be true.
Posted by mac @ 02:10 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Humor break: Cam Cardow"s cartoon "Bush or treat; Mark Fiore's animated cartoons "The Treason Hunters and OppositeLand; and, the feature story from the Onion, "US Finishes a Strong Second in Iraq War."
Posted by mac @ 01:08 PM EST [Link]
Classical liberal Jennifer Roback Morse announces, "I just want to let all my friends know that I have been invited to be a regular contributor to the TownHall blog, which you can find at TownHall -- a project of the Heritage Foundation. We report on the elections, popular culture, religion and the general state of the world. We have a bit of fun while we're at it. For instance, we asked readers to suggest a suitable name for an award for the most blatant Voter Registration fraud. (In response to the news of a registration worker paid by a liberal group, registering Jeffrey Dahmer and Mary Poppins to vote in Ohio.) Among the suggestions were: The Voter Bloater Award, The Lazarus Award (special award for registering the dead) and my personal favorite, The I Registered Elvis Award."
Posted by mac @ 02:08 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, October 23, 2004
The Sun Herald reports, "More than 800 former soldiers have failed to comply with Army orders to get back in uniform and report for duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Army said Friday. That is more than one-third of the total who were told to report to a mobilization station by Oct. 17." The article jumped out at me for two reasons... [more]
Posted by mac @ 03:17 PM EST [Link]
Bruce Schneier maintains a very nice blog dedicated to "covering security and security technology." A sample? [more]
Posted by mac @ 11:51 AM EST [Link]
Wimblehack -- the New York Press' "First Quadrennial Election Hack Invitational tournament," which will answer the question: 'Who is the worst campaign journalist in America?' -- requires updating. Round 3 and Round 2.
Posted by mac @ 08:57 AM EST [Link]
Friday, October 22, 2004
Thanks Tex! -- for forwarding this photo which explains a lot about my earlier speculation on the bulge in Bush's jacket during the first 2 Presidential debates.
Posted by mac @ 09:27 PM EST [Link]
Gordon P. picks up on a conversation that Brad, he, and I had in person while Gordon was visiting our farm a few weeks back. I emerged from my workroom in confusion. I thought I understood the whole electoral college process but a news story -- half-heard in the background as I worked -- reported on a state splitting its electoral college votes proportional to the popular vote rather than "winner takes all." That knocked my concept out of its framework and I confessed utter ignorance to both Brad and Gordon, asking them to treat me like a "foreigner" and explain electoral colleges to me. Comes to pass that I did understand the process with one caveat: two states stray from the norm in how they allocate votes. [more]
Posted by mac @ 07:04 PM EST [Link]
Libertarian gossip: Justin Raimondo's antiwar blog today is distressing. [more]
Posted by mac @ 06:38 PM EST [Link]
Gordon P. writes, I knew that the "regulatory" function of the Executive Branch was cranking out paper almost as fast as the Treasury Department, but _this_ article presents a factoid that boggles even _my_ cynical mind. [more]
Posted by mac @ 08:57 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, October 21, 2004
I am among the throng who believes Martha Stewart was 100% railroaded by government officials desperate to make an oh-so public example of a prominent, wealthy person who was *not!* going to get away with making a bundle on the stock market. They wanted the average Joe and Jane who'd lost their retirement funds as the economy sagged to know who/what to blame: not government policies (e.g. inflation due to a white-hot printing press at the Treasury) of course. No, the culprit was Martha Stewart and, the feds vowed, 'a pound of her flesh will be delivered as publicly as possible.' Part of the bread and circus strategy. As the Save Martha site states, "Martha Stewart was being made an example of, seemingly to wash away the sins of Enron and Worldcom and so many other corporate scandals that had wiped out peoples' investments." [more]
Posted by mac @ 06:38 AM EST [Link]
This strange item, complete with photo of Karl Rove, from the White House Pool Report... [more]
Posted by mac @ 05:36 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Heads up: for an unusual change, here's a security warning that affects almost every web browser except Internet Explorer. This includes Netscape, Mozilla, Opera, Konqueror, and Safari...basically any browser that supports "tabbed browsing", under any operating system. Yes, even Linux.
How it works: It's possible for a hostile web page to include a link to another, legitimate web page, but then the hostile page can pop up its own dialog box on the legit page. So the hostile (but innocuous-appearing) page could give you a link to, say, your bank, and then pop up a box asking for your account number and password, which would be sent to the hostile page (not the bank page that you're viewing). [more]
Posted by brad @ 09:54 PM EST [Link]
Gordon P. forwards news of an unsettling scientific breakthrough: "Scientists have discovered a way of manipulating a gene that turns animals into drones that do not become bored with repetitive tasks. The experiments, conducted on monkeys, are the first to demonstrate that animal behaviour can be permanently changed, turning the subjects from aggressive to `compliant' creatures. The genes are identical in humans and although the discovery could help to treat depression and other types of mental illness, it will raise images of the Epsilon caste from Aldous Huxley's futuristic novel Brave New World..."
Posted by mac @ 11:48 AM EST [Link]
Reason Magazine has just posted Who's Getting Your Vote? Reason’s revealing presidential poll. It opens, "Voting for president is a lot like sex—and not just because it takes place every four years in the solitude of a semi-private booth." And, yes, scroll down alphabetically to "Mc" and you'll find my poll responses. Reason's "Show Us Your Vote! Why journalists should open their secret ballots" by Matt Welch is also interesting.
Posted by mac @ 11:06 AM EST [Link]
The news keeps breaking so fast that I have to correct myself on a daily basis. Wait a minute...I do that anyway, even without CNN... [more]
Posted by mac @ 11:00 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
As usual, Justin Raimondo's daily editorial on the war today is excellent: "Suicide Mission. The meaning of the soldiers' rebellion in Iraq ." My God, that man is good on Iraq, and he has been tireless in keeping both real news and libertarian commentary on the war flowing. Nat Henthoff's "Should we outsource torture?" provides good commentary on H.R. 10, the House bill now in the Senate upon which Gordon P. has been updating us.
The Guardian (UK) has stirred up a hornet's nest with its Operation Clark County... [more]
Posted by proxy @ 09:45 AM EST [Link]
I'm finally excavating myself from a mountain of work, and finding the time to write blog entries again. However, what's on my mind this 3 a.m. is neither politically relevant nor aimed at helping you with your computer. It's pure geekish musing, so feel free to skip it if you're not technically inclined. [more]
Posted by brad @ 04:29 AM EST [Link]
Monday, October 18, 2004
Pat T. forwards an extremely disturbing news item that I quote in full... [more]
Posted by mac @ 10:23 AM EST [Link]
Gordon P. writes of proposed Suborbital 'enabling' legislation, Well, I suppose it was inevitable that some congresscritter would respond to "SpaceShip One -- Government Zero" [that is, the private sector's trumping of NASA] by introducing some 'enabling' legislation that would instead be the exact opposite -- but, as Kirsten Tynan wrote of the legislation, I hardly expected that it would happen _this_ soon! :'-(
Posted by mac @ 03:57 AM EST [Link]
Another Monday morning and I'm up in the wee hours, coffee cup brimming, in an attempt to scrape together enough gumption to finish an essay that's overdue for an anthology due out from Transaction Publishers. They seem to be the publisher of choice for libertarian and conservative institutes these days. But I digress...or, rather, I want to digress... So here's a fun site: Mock the Vote with spoof animations and songs. The site declares of itself, "Funnier than G.W. pronouncing 'nuclear.' More powerful than John Kerry's hair spray. It's the Web's best and brightest political satire shorts all in one place." Back to work. Can no one save me from my contractually-obligated fate?
Posted by mac @ 03:39 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, October 17, 2004
Just one comment on the Bill O'Reilly sexual harassment case that is dominating the news... [more]
Posted by mac @ 10:54 AM EST [Link]
Brad and I were utterly charmed by Jon Stewart's October 15th live appearance on CrossFire during which he not only gave the most honest commentary I've heard on TV in a long time but also wiped the floor with Tucker Carlson. [more]
Posted by mac @ 08:24 AM EST [Link]
As an indication of how bloggers are influencing the political landscape, I just received the following message from a group that seems to believe I support Bush... Not that I support Kerry, either. [more]
Posted by mac @ 07:52 AM EST [Link]
The Monster Limo Weblog advises us of a "Terrifying Video Of Bush Via DailyKos. The clip is a 'thank you' message taped by Bush for the members of the Iraqi Survey Group. It hasn't been altered in any way. The fact he can barely finish his sentences should be a genuine cause for concern. This was no impromptu appearance, like his disastrous press conferences and debate appearances. This was a planned, scripted, recorded address.I'm starting to think rumors of Bush's ill health may have basis in reality. Watch the clip and decide for yourself. It clearly made a stir amongst the members of the ISG." [Warning, long download] [more]
Posted by mac @ 07:36 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, October 16, 2004
Check out the Rocky Horror President Show.
Posted by mac @ 09:21 AM EST [Link]
Friday, October 15, 2004
Gordon P. writes, Adam Thierer blogs on the FCC vs. the 1st Amendment in "Howard Stern and the Future of Media Censorship." [more]
Posted by mac @ 12:19 PM EST [Link]
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Gordon P. writes, Rand Simberg satirizes postmodernism by writing a "postmodern eulogy" to Jacques Derrida [founder of deconstructionism who recently died]. He also links to the infamous "Postmodern babble generator," a bit of code that produces artificial postmodern text that even postmodernists have difficulty distinguishing from "real" postmodern text. For the geeks among us, the postmodern babble-generator uses a recursive grammar fed to the cleverly-named "Dada Engine," the details of which are listed in the equally cleverly titled "On the simulation of postmodernism and mental debility using recursive translation networks." The simplicity of the recursive grammar used pretty much conclusively demonstrates that postmodern text has near-zero complexity and information content... >:-)
Posted by mac @ 11:22 AM EST [Link]
Pat T. writes to me on an issue I should have addressed long ago: the Scott Peterson trial...and she expresses a sentiment I share. [more]
Posted by mac @ 10:32 AM EST [Link]
A one-sided but none the less amusing bit of humor. Slow to load but worth the wait. You have to click on each picture to see the next one. Each page illustrates a pair of contradictory Bush quotes or an instance where he used one set of "facts" and, then, another.
Posted by mac @ 09:51 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
3rd Presidential debate? The Wonkette pretty much captures it.
Posted by mac @ 11:04 PM EST [Link]
Thanks to Hugh B. for a fascinating tidbit of info! Hugh informs me, "Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury strip has continued his 'Mr. Honest Voices (R)' campaign to drive traffic to a new anti-Bush commentary website each day. As we surmised on October 11 -- the first day that Trudeau started doing it -- The Union Leader site was in fact crashed because of all the Doonesbury readers flocking to see what was with this 'URL in a comic strip' thing. Apparently it took only a couple of days for Mr. Trudeau to get smarter and start notifying the webpage host that he was going to be driving millions of hits to their page that day. When we follow the link from today's Doonesbury (which actually truncated the URL so it refers to a Salon error page instead of to the correct Salon page, it becomes clear that Salon knew the Doonesbury readers were coming, and in fact prepared a '50%-off sale' to entice them to
subscribe while they were there to read today's reference from the strip."Posted by mac @ 11:15 AM EST [Link]
For those concerned about their privacy, there is yet another reason not to vote. Kirsten Anderberg writes in Portland Indymedia, "Give me your name, city, and state, and I can probably get your home address in less than an hour *if you vote.* Any information you include on your voter registration form, can be had by any member of the public, for free, at your local courthouse in most states." [more]
Posted by mac @ 10:43 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Gordon P. provides further update on H.R. 10: According to Andrew Brown's Blog, the good news is that at least the clauses 3032 and 3033 buried on p.210 of H.R. 10 allowing prisoners to be "outsourced" to countries known to practice torture were apparently dropped by voice-vote before the final vote approving this monstrous bill. So apparently the RepDems still have _some_ trace of conscience left... The bad news is that these "Torture clauses" were replaced by clauses that would again allow "suspects" to be detained indefinitely, without trial, at the whim of the immigration authorities. While detaining "suspects" indefinitely is arguably less evil than shipping them to Syria or Egypt to be tortured, it is not _that_ much less evil --- and from other reports, the conditions at the detention facilities at Gitmo are not that much better than Egyptian or Syrian prisons, and they have likewise been accused of using torture during interrogations...
Posted by mac @ 09:07 PM EST [Link]
Roderick T. Long juxtaposed the following quotations at the Liberty and Power blog on the History News Network. [more]
Posted by mac @ 03:43 AM EST [Link]
WimbleHack! NY Press has announced the "First Quadrennial Election Hack Invitational—a tournament, to be held between now and the week after the election, which will answer the question: 'Who is the worst campaign journalist in America?' The rules are very simple. We have chosen 32 of the country's leading campaign reporters, mostly from the world of print, and bracketed them into pairs. Each week, the pairs will square off against one another. Whoever writes worse, advances. It's that simple."
Posted by mac @ 03:29 AM EST [Link]
Gordon P. follows up on a previous post about H.R. 10 which has the potential to: 1.) Greatly expand the domestic surveillance powers of the FedGov; 2.) Turn state driver's licenses into de-facto National ID cards; 3.) Interlink all state databases to allow Federal "data mining"; 4.) Give the Attorney General the power to compel all businesses to submit all job applicants to the FedGov for approval. [more]
Posted by mac @ 02:04 AM EST [Link]
Monday, October 11, 2004
Hugh B. writes, I know you typically link to single pane cartoons in your blog . . .but the October 11 Doonesbury is one you might like to mention while it is still fresh. The link in the comic strip is to a reprint of an Op-Ed article by John Eisenhower pleading with all of us not to vote Republican this particular time and saying why . . . but I believe this has caused so many hits on the Union Leader page today by Doonesbury readers, that the paper may need to shut down its server for a while. Maybe Gerry Trudeau has found a new way to leverage his voice by having his characters refer to URLs. Apologies to those who are clicking on this entry post-Oct. 11. The 'toon should be available by clicking on the archive linked through the calendar on the lower left hand side.
Posted by mac @ 03:17 PM EST [Link]
The wicked witch is dead! Jacques Derrida -- the French philosopher who founded deconstructionism -- that is. I particularly like Scott Ott's "tribute."
More on the Bush "bulge"...more since my earlier post, that is... [more]
Posted by mac @ 06:06 AM EST [Link]
From the BBC to The Australian, in Turkey and in Singapore everyone is discussing the Battle of the Bulge. That is, the accusations and denials that Bush was wired for sound - presumably channeling Karl Rove - during the 1st Presidential debate. And the 2nd one. [more]
Posted by mac @ 02:58 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, October 10, 2004
SF writer and friend James Hogan writes, "I mentioned that I still hear from readers who have only just learned of the existence of Entoverse, the fourth book in the Giants Series. With the fifth in the series, Mission to Minerva, scheduled for release in May -- and very much welcomed by many, I might add -- we're making a special-price offer on Entoverse. For a limited period, the UK Hardback edition published by Orbit is available from the Many Worlds catalog on the JPH web site for $10.00, a 50% reduction from our normal list figure of $20.00. As a reminder, the Baen Books Hardback edition of Paths to Otherwhere is also still on offer at $10.00 too. So, while the stock of Entoverse lasts, there's a chance to obtain both hardbacks for an outlay of $20.00. Not a bad deal at all.
Posted by mac @ 11:59 PM EST [Link]
Movement gossip...Darin Lowder of Politopia writes to me about a project of the Institute for Humane Studies... [more]
Posted by mac @ 01:48 PM EST [Link]
This .gif is for Brad -- an irrepressible critic of MicroSoft. Cartpoons: Ted Rall's "How to Die"; Steve Sack's "Better"; and, Stuart Carlson's "Mr. Bush's Neighborhood".
Posted by mac @ 03:19 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, October 9, 2004
Badnarik achieved his goal. WorldNetDaily reports, "Michael Badnarik of the Libertarian Party and David Cobb of the Green Party were protesting their exclusion from the debate between President Bush and Democratic Party nominee John Kerry" when they were arrested.
Posted by mac @ 07:34 AM EST [Link]
A warning. According to an article in the Washington Times, "A new law designed to speed up the time it takes banks to process checks will take effect Oct. 28, making it harder for consumers to avoid bouncing them. People who write a check from a depleted account a few days before payday -- a custom known as floating a check -- should break this habit, consumer advocates say, because the money probably will be withdrawn much sooner than usual. In other words: Don't write a check and submit it to your landlord on Wednesday if you know the money to cover your rent won't show up in your account until Friday. Otherwise, you may end up paying a hefty bounced-check fee. 'A lot of people who have never bounced a check before now are going to bounce their first one after Oct. 28,' said Gail Hillebrand, a senior lawyer with the Consumers Union, a nonprofit advocacy group that has criticized the law."
And while we are discussing economic matters.... [more]
Posted by mac @ 07:19 AM EST [Link]
Friday, October 8, 2004
Gordon P. follows up on his earlier post on HR 10, a bill pending before the House which has truly ominous implications. He writes, [more]
Posted by mac @ 11:12 AM EST [Link]
Arianna Huffington, of whom I am not usually a fan -- sorry, but her chalk-on-blackboard, high-pitched accent seems to come through even in her writing-- nevertheless, Huffington has an interesting article entitled "Bogus polls: meaningless farce or looming tragedy? Modern technology and wary respondents make polling less accurate -- as media emphasize poll results more than ever." Robert Higgs -- who is an AASG, All Around Spiffy-Sorta Guy -- has an excellent piece entitled "Benefits and Costs of the U.S. Government’s War Making." In essence, Bob argues that America as a free society and as a Republic has been killed by the constant warfare in which it has engaged since the 1940s. It breaks my heart but I agree with him, and I now look to other areas of the world to serve as the next ground in which liberty will root. And, after reading Bob, you might need a cartoon...or two! Tom Tomorrow's "In Their Own Words" and Mark Fiore's "The contractors!"
Posted by mac @ 11:05 AM EST [Link]
This just in! According to KVOA in Arizona, KAIT in Arkansas, WBOC in Delaware, WBAY in Wisconsin and WQAD in Illinois, "President Bush has won re-election as president by a 47 percent to 43 percent margin in the popular vote nationwide. Ralph Nader has 1 percent of the vote nationwide. That's with 51 percent of the precincts reporting." Later, WBAY-TV issued a correction, stating: "President Bush Did Not Win Election on October 7." The station said the test article was picked up by WBAY.com's automated system. "The headline of the AP story did not bear that all-important word for the automated filters ... 'test,'" the station said.
Posted by mac @ 03:08 AM EST [Link]
Thursday, October 7, 2004
Humor break: Drew Sheneman's "US Security Check List"; Steve Sacks' comment on Friday night's 'debate' "Lehrer the Tape Changer"; Pat Oliphant's "Bird Flu"; and, at great personal risk "That's Uncalled For" offers a scoop on the first Presidential debate that occurred last week. He writes, "All throughout the debate, Bush was seen taking notes on a piece of paper at his podium. At great risk to life and limb, we were able to smuggle out the notes and present them so that they are available for everyone to see. The Bush Notes....
Posted by mac @ 11:09 PM EST [Link]
Gordon P. writes, H.R. 10 and S. 2845 are two bills receiving virtually _no_ media attention, yet they have immense potential to expand the intrusive powers of the FedGov. If passed, these bills contain text and amendments that will: 1.) Greatly expand the domestic surveillance powers of the FedGov; 2.) Turn state driver's licenses into de-facto National ID cards; 3.) Interlink all state databases to allow Federal "data mining"; 4.) Give the Attorney General the power to compel all businesses to submit all job applicants to the FedGov for approval. Again, I must wonder if the agency in charge of these domestic intrusions will be called "The Committee for State Security" (KGB) or "The Ministry for State Security" ("the Stasi")... >:-(
Posted by mac @ 12:34 PM EST [Link]
This disturbing news item comes from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "Names, phone numbers and other information about Seattle high school students must be provided to the Defense Department on request -- unless parents opt out in writing by Saturday. The No Child Left Behind Act, an expansive education reform bill passed two years ago, requires high schools across the country to release information about juniors and seniors to military recruiters and to give them the same access to students as college recruiters and prospective employers." [more]
Posted by mac @ 08:28 AM EST [Link]
Wednesday, October 6, 2004
Jay Leno on the VP debate: "My question is, if Cheney's debating, who's running the country?"..."I thought the most amazing part of the debate was when Dick Cheney told Edwards in his Darth Vader voice, 'John, I am your father.'"..."According to the latest poll, Bush and Kerry are tied at 49 percent and Nader is at one percent, and the margin of error is three percent. You know what that means? Nader is trailing the margin of error! The margin of error is two points ahead of Nader!"
Posted by mac @ 03:40 AM EST [Link]
Movement gossip: Congratulations to Stephen Cox whose new book -- a biography of Isabel Paterson entitled "The Woman and the Dynamo: Isabel Paterson and the Idea of America" -- has just been published by Transaction Publishers. Stephen writes, "There's a chapter about Paterson and feminism, with some speculations about why the libertarian movement was especially attractive to women. I argue, in fact, that women started the movement." Now how can you resist an author who offers a teaser like that?
Posted by mac @ 02:38 AM EST [Link]
The Wonkette gives a witty blow-by-blow of the VP debate. Meanwhile the blogger RudePundit must be disappointed because everything was relatively civil with all the punches -- even some deadly ones -- being delivered in a measured tone. My take? Edwards won...much to my surprise. And I think he will be increasingly seen as the winner as the media pours over every syllable spoken. Why? [more]
Posted by mac @ 01:47 AM EST [Link]
Tuesday, October 5, 2004
Movement Gossip: Free-market.net has discontinued its daily newsletter Freedom News Daily and is reorganizing its website to feature "more original international content and movement news." Good luck to FMN. I am pleased to announce that classical liberal and just plain classy Jennifer Roback Morse has started a blog.
Posted by mac @ 06:43 PM EST [Link]
Cartoon break -- and this time it *is* on the Presidential debates: Pat Oliphant's "Rules of Duels"; Tom Toles' "Lowered Expectations"; Stuart Carlson's "Incidental Contact"; and, Ted Rall's "Remodeling Plans". Onto other cartoon topics: Chip Bok's "Dissidents"; and, Stuart Carlson's "Road to Nowhere". [more]
Posted by mac @ 01:31 PM EST [Link]
Gordon P. writes, As if the "Black Boxes" the Gov't will be mandating in cars, and the sensors they will be imbedding in roadways weren't already providing _enough_ invasive monitoring of U.S. driving habits, now the Federal DOT wants to implement a "Big Brother" system that will monitor and report the position of _every_ car on _every_ road at _all_ times. Gee, these people can't even keep track of a few thousand airplanes, yet they want to monitor 200 _million_ cars?! NOTE: Looks like the last link above will expire before the end of the week, and possibly _today_. I haven't been able to find a "permanent" URL for them... :-( To guard against this possibility, readers can click the "more" URL, which will lead to the reproduced article. [more]
Posted by mac @ 11:39 AM EST [Link]
Monday, October 4, 2004
Humor Break: The Onion reports "Documents Reveal Gaps in Bush's Service as President!" and "Say Hello to the Password Police."
My "theatre year" has officially ended, with no more live theatre waiting in the queue for 2004. [more]
Posted by mac @ 10:52 AM EST [Link]
Sunday, October 3, 2004
Cartoon break: Ben Sargent's "Patriot Act"; and, Gary Varvel's "Havoc in Florida".
Posted by mac @ 02:31 PM EST [Link]
A new entry has been made in the DVBlog
Posted by mac @ 11:04 AM EST [Link]
At last, some good news on the Home Security front.... As Wired reports: "Part of the Patriot Act, a central plank of the Bush administration's war on terror, was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge Wednesday." And, as an update from the ACLU states, [more]
Posted by mac @ 08:42 AM EST [Link]
Saturday, October 2, 2004
Brian C. brings an interesting article to my attention: "7 Habits of Highly Effective Imperialists."
Posted by mac @ 05:22 PM EST [Link]
Friday, October 1, 2004
Cartoon break (Alas, too early to have cartoons about the debate!): Mark Fiore's "The Question"; Jeff Danziger's "Never Mind Him"; and, Ted Rall's "The Bush News Cycle".
Posted by mac @ 08:42 AM EST [Link]
I quote in part an email I received from Free-Market.net activist Sunni Maravillosa. I regret her departure from FMN's newsletter and I look forward to seeing the form in which her activism will next emerge. Here's Sunni's message: [more]
Posted by mac @ 08:02 AM EST [Link]
According to a Gallop poll on who won the first Presidential election debate: Kerry, 53%; Bush, 37%. The single best commentary I've read on last night's Kerry/Bush debate is Justin Raimondo's wrap-up entitled "Kerry Cleans the President's Clock: Bush got his head handed to him – but why does Kerry want to flatten Fallujah?" Thomas Knapp's analysis concludes with words I echo, [more]
Posted by mac @ 06:40 AM EST [Link]