This is truly disgusting, and not surprising in the least, knowing Bush and conservatives

[Hat tip: gus van horn]

What this story amounts to, in essence is, I'm going to murder you in order to save you from any more suffering....

"Bush says he sacrificed free-market principles to save economy"

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081216215816.8g97981o&show_article=1

Let's see, under Bush the growth of government and regulation has doubled, if not tripled. The size of the deficit has grown by a trillion dollars. He's all but demolished the seperation of church and state.
Is there anything "free" left in America, let alone the marketplace?

The Law of Church and State in America

The First Amendment Center has posted online an apparently long-lost book on the history of church/state issues here in America. This is an issue very important to me and to each American's freedom of thought.
I'm eager to see the Objectivist answer to this coming in the summer of 2009!

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/about.aspx?item=Dean_Kelley_Law_Church_State

BB&T chief blames crisis on government [and so do I]

John Allison of BB&T tells it like it is...

http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2008/10/13/daily50.html?ana=yfcpc

Repeal the Bailout

Here's a new website that's just been created and deserves your immediate attention. I'm also putting it in my blog roll.

http://www.repealthebailout.net

Check it out!

Speaking of China...

While I enjoyed the opening ceremonies of the Olympics last night, take a look at Sinodefence.com to catch the latest on China's military buildup/modernization. BTW, I've had this site in my blog roll for years.

http://www.sinodefence.com

Another reason to browse through my blog roll is that I've added Caroline Glick, one of my favorite journalist's to it.

Sad, if true

I was watching Forbes on Fox last night when Steve Forbes himself said the following, "There are now more bureaucrats in the Department of Agriculture than there are farmers in the United States."
If this is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, can you say "leviathan?"


P.S. Today is my birthday!

Coalition for Secular Government

I've just received an email from its founder and I'm posting this announcement for readers. I've joined this new coalition and am looking forward to participating as much as time allows.

Check out the Coalition for Secular Government

http://www.seculargovernment.us/


This is GREAT!!! I've added both the Coalition and their blog, Politics without God to the blogroll.

Government meddling in biofuels caused food crisis

Although I'm no fan of the Guardian, here's a story that should be widely circulated...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jul/03/biofuels.renewableenergy

Hat tip: ALDaily

RED ALERT

I was going through my GMail "cyberwar alerts" this morning when I encountered this link. Perhaps it belongs in the "horror file"? I'll excerpt it below and provide the link.

The blogger sites a Rand Corp. study from 2005 outlining "worst case scenario's" with a global cyber-environmental movement designed to cripple America's---and the West's industrial capacity. The blogger, an environmentalist, has most/all pertinent links.

Take a look...

Perhaps most striking is that their near-worst case scenario called a “transnational web,” sounded like the global justice movements best case scenario.

They write:”In this hypothetical future, the period from 2020 to 2025 witnesses a dramatic growth in the threat to the United States presented by radical transnational “peace and social justice” groups. Using the goal of creating a just “global civil society” as their rallying cry, large militant transnational actors appear, promoting radical agendas for the environment, nuclear disarmament, and Third World land reform.”

They paint a fictitious 2025 scenario of what the Transnational Web could look like in action. In their fictitious scenario they describe a climate network with groups in 80 countries; “World Environmental League (WEL), is spearheading a crusade to compel the UN General Assembly to approve a radical treaty for fossil fuel emissions reduction that would cripple many American and Western manufacturing industries.”
WEL engages in violent actions against the US and corporations and requires a military response.

It’s interesting that they understand the power of decentralized leaderless network organizing more than many social movement folks, who continue to organize in weaker top down organizations, nonprofits, parties and unions.

In the study they recommend a military “Netwar Army” response. Like the RAND book Networks and Netwars, they actually lay the ground work for a military response to international grassroots networks organizing for positive social change and challenging the power of governments and corporations, whether or not nonviolent and un-armed.

Essentially they view grassroots democratic networks and activism as a threat requiring a military response to maintain the deeply anti-democratic power of nation states and corporations.

Welcome to the future.

Here's the link:

http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2008/06/12/rand-not-ran-study-of-future-environmental-networks/

New Items

With a gracious hat tip to Principles in Practice, I've added Andrew Bostom to the blog roll. Check out his insightful critique of Islam. Plus, check out the books I'm currently reading/studying in the left column. I'm trying to clean up my bad habit of starting multiple books, so these are the ones I've selected out of the piles of books [ahem] that I have already partially read. The exception is/are the two non-fiction books, which I haven't started yet. Anyway, I've picked up Soul of the Fire and will finish it before picking up another one of these to go thru. Would that reading/starting too many books was my "only" problem in life! HA.

War on Free Political Speech

Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute has another great article posted at Forbes. Please follow the link below and leave a comment if you are so inclined.

http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2008/03/19/yaron-campaign-finance-oped-cx_ybr_0321yaron.html

The Time for Activism, is Now

Ed Cline, over at the Rule of Reason, has posted an excellent indictment of our Congressoid's moral cowardice. Here is an excerpt:

Congress is proposing, in Barack Obama's Global Poverty Act (S.2433, based on H.R. 1302, passed by the House September 25, 2007), that Americans be delivered into a state of indentured servitude as laborers for the United Nations. Perhaps "indentured servitude" is too kind a term, for as horrendous a condition as it is, there is usually a time limit to such servitude. Slavery would be the more accurate term in this instance, for what Congress is considering is servitude by Americans in perpetuity, in exchange for nothing but the privilege of laboring to "save" the world without thanks or reward, of filling the alleged needs of others, of performing unlimited "community service" for the offense of merely existing.
The not-so-peculiar and odd thing about H.R. 1302 was that it passed the House by voice vote. This is a stratagem adopted by legislators who fear that a bill is so outrageous that it is better that no record be kept of those who endorsed it. S.2433 was passed from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the same manner - by voice vote, without public hearings, to protect the identities of the guilty.

It will probably be introduced to the Senate for a similar, anonymous voice vote - by Harry Reid.

There is a double irony in this behavior. First, S.2433 is a bipartisan-sponsored bill. This underscores the fact that there is no fundamental difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties. Second, it is a piece of legislation which, given the altruist, collectivist premises behind it, one would have thought its creators should have trumpeted boastfully. But it is being handled by corrupt, guilty, fearful sneaks who haven't the courage of their own malice.

Here's a link to Mr. Cline's full article. Don't miss it, if you value your life.

http://ruleofreason.blogspot.com/2008/03/congressional-duplicity-or-treason.htm

Priced in Gold

With an extremely useful HT from Nick over at Rule of Reason, I've added the economic web site, Priced in Gold to my blogroll, for us to witness the destruction of our currency. This site has many other thoughtful uses, as well.

Night of January 16th

Last night my wife and I went to the Park Road Playhouse in West Hartford to see a production of Ayn Rand's play. I won the tix where I work and the whole night was sponsored by the Farmington Chamber of Commerce.
It was quite a shindig. Really. The Chamber had a meet and greet before the show and there was good food and wine to set the night off right.
Overall, the play was done well. The local actors got in the spirit of the play for the most part, although one or two of the parts were overeplayed, thus done poorly. Still, it was fun.
No, I didn't sit on the jury, but that's okay. The verdict was "not guilty."
Upon leaving the theater, we looked up to see the moon with an orange tint and watched the sky for several minutes. Nice!

Shucks

The Patriots lost in their bid to go undefeated last night in the Super Bowl. It was a great game to watch though. The Giants proved their mettle, especially with a stout defense, that harassed Brady all night and closed down the Patriot running game early. I'm happy for Eli Manning, as well.

Update: I'm now wondering if reality and justice caught up with the Patriots, who were shown to be cheating against the Jets earlier this football season???? Hmmmm...

Gather 'round

Two stories have caught my eye recently. Both are very positive, so I wanted to share them with readers.

The first is a story about America's next great gymnast. A 16 year old girl, Shawn Johnson, who seems very much to have a brain as well as athletic skills.
With quotes like these from her, I know I'll be paying closer attention to the Olympics.

"In my eyes, I've never failed because I've never given anything less than my best."

"I think going into any competition, I'm always thinking of myself and not paying attention to others," she said. "I don't feel any different from the first day I started. I love what I do and I don't let anything affect me."

"What leads my career is that you can't succeed in something unless you're having fun," she said. "I love my sport and that really has helped me to get where I am today."

Here's the whole story:

http://highschool.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=765329

The second story that excites me is about SpaceShipTwo. Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Airways has released the design of their ship. Go take a look @:

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/23/601315.aspx

I'm ready to go! Let's fly!

Minor editing.

Columnist Mark Steyn being sued by Canadian Islamic Congress...

Looks like some Canadian's are "offended" by a column Mark Steyn wrote in 2006 and he is now being sued. Here's the link:

http://www.macleans.ca/columnists/article.jsp?id=7&content=20080103_113631_1360

Here are the first two paragraphs:

Do you remember a cover story Maclean's ran on Oct. 23, 2006?

No? Me neither, and I wrote it. Such is life in the weekly mag biz. But it was an excerpt on various geopolitical and demographic trends from my then brand new tome, America Alone: The End of the World as we Know It. I don't know whether my bestselling book is still available in Canadian bookstores, but it's coming soon to a Canadian "courtroom" near you! The Canadian Islamic Congress and a handful of Osgoode Hall law students have complained about the article in Maclean's to (at last count) three of Canada's many "human rights" commissions, two of which have agreed to hear the "case." It would be nice to report that the third sent the plaintiffs away with a flea in their ears saying that in a free society it's no business of the state to regulate the content of privately owned magazines. Alas, I gather it's only bureaucratic torpor that has temporarily delayed the province of Ontario's en­­thusiastic leap upon the bandwagon. These students are not cited in the offending article. Canadian Muslims are not the subject of the piece. Indeed, Canada is not mentioned at all, except en passant. Yet Canada's "human rights" commissions have accepted the premise of the Canadian Islamic Congress--that the article potentially breaches these students' "human rights."

In a related issue, quoting another columnist:

"It didn’t attract much notice, but the General Assembly of the United Nations ended the year by passing a disgusting resolution protecting Islam from criticism of its human rights violations."

Here's that article:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ukcorrespondents/holysmoke/dec07/islam-resolution.htm

I can't imagine any of our political candidates manning the ramparts in defense of free speech.

2008 !

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND READERS.