Angry Libertarian Alliance

Governmental Pussification of Mass Killing

2009-11-08T13:20:00.004-05:00

I know right? The title just about says it all. I could stop now and you’d have the gist of my message, yet there are issues at hand that need to be stated—that haven’t been stated—and I will state them, because the Constitution of this country gives me that prerogative. However, before I delve into the government’s response let me briefly put forth some common sense commentary about the killer himself:

Yea, he’s a fucking Muslim. Let’s not pretend that our collective jaw did not drop when we first heard his name—and the government knew that this collective (jaw dropping) would occur. In response they stalled, consulted, and constructed a plan of action…but I’ll get back to our elected officials. I was watching Fox News at the time (while a retired General was being interviewed) when the killer’s name leaked. When asked to comment, said General responded (essentially): “My jaw just dropped.”

The killer, whom all reports demonstrate, (no matter how they try to spin facts), is a pussy of biblical proportions. The United States Military spent tax payer’s money (to the tune of half million dollars) on this (so-called) officer’s education. Common sense would dictate that when someone (anyone) who spends that kind of money on you—well, you’re their bitch. He took a ride on the gravy train and then hid behind the cloak of religion when reality kicked in—which it always does.

In addition, let us not pretend that this wasn’t a terrorist attack; let us not pretend that this is yet another indictment on the evils of religion; and let us not pretend that our pretentious, socialist, irrational, politically correct media (and government) did not pull out all the stops in a pretentious attempt to dull over the rational facts of this case.

Enter, the leader of the free world: President Hussein Obama. For about five minutes I was sure that the commentary I was watching was a bad feed. I’m not even sure what the hell he was referring to! Didn’t a shit load of American military members just get gunned down on a military installation? What the fuck is he talking about?!? But then after five minutes (or so) of worthless, confusing commentary he finally refers to the shooting.

Basically, the American people are told to wait until the facts of the case present themselves. However, the American majority are not so stupid that they do not realize that the leader of the free world has been fully briefed (at this early stage) as to every single ridiculously ugly detail. “Allah is great!” Bang. Bang. He knew!

Also, let us not pretend that we do not see the irony in this: said killer is a fucking psychiatrist who worked with PTSD inflicted soldiers. The legitimate ones. I do not, will not, (for one second), agree with Dr. Phil that the killer essentially “freaked out” due to stress of a deployment. He should know better, and his comments show him (at best) as ignorant to reality, and (at worse) a fraud to his profession.

Medical military personnel are considered “non-combatants”. They’re not even issued a weapon for deployments, so how the hell could he justify the stance that “uh, I don’t want to be a Muslim, killing other Muslims?”

Facts:

This was a terrorist attack, performed by a known Muslim extremist.

The Army did not perform a proper background and/or security clearance, and/or psychological profile of this particular officer in the initial stages or later still when irrefutable evidence of his weak/contaminated moral nature presented itself.

There was a break down in chain of command communication and execution when the emotional cracks began to show, ie pro arab militant comments, anti-war comments to co-workers, slideshow presentations that were not only questionable but concerning, internet postings, etc.

Mental health workers are held to higher standards of emotional stability and are held to careful scrutiny of performance, both by military and civilian certification processes. Personnel responsible for the integrity of this system failed.

The killer did not suffer from PTSD. He suffered from cowardice and Muslim fundamentalism, but I’m sure that’s one in the same.

Sunshine & Taxes

2009-10-15T05:13:00.001-04:00

I watched a documentary the other day—something I spend an embarrassing amount of time doing. It was one of those apocalyptic, the earth is dying, Al Gore rules and on and on.

Yet it made perfect sense—that the earth was designed to support a billion people, but then mankind discovers OIL (consider it pockets of ancient sunshine, or energy) and now the earth can support a billion times infinity people, and thus we start pro-creating and pumping tons of human beings out into the ample pits of the black liquid sunshine that abounds.

But there’s a catch according to this documentary. There always is.

The oil is running out (or going peak as the experts call it). Peak oil, described as half the oil on earth being tapped. So. Now, the earth is over saturated with people who consume and over tax this natural earth life giving support.

In my analytical mind the answers start pouring in like used sludge, and it’s not long before I conclude… wait for it…wait for it…

We just need to start killing off worthless motherfuckers. YEA! You’ve seen them, there fucking everywhere! Worthless mother fuckers abound. They’re the ones who don’t know how to accelerate in merge lanes—the dumb fucks who always come to a complete stop. Let’s off these bastards and hog our fair share of the ancient liquid fucking sunshine!

But wait. There’s a problem with this theory. Fuck, there always is.

The problem is that progressives have spent our share of money for the next two hundred and fifty fucking million years on worthless fucking programs. Thus, we need these worthless, medicated, non-driving mother fuckers to pay taxes! Fuck.

Has this set in with you yet? Have you glimpsed the raw fucking implications of this deal? No? Well let me clear it up. That jackoff co-worker who doesn’t do shit but talk to his slut girlfriend all day, take long lunches and toss your boss’s salad is the only thing in between you and the Chinese motherfuckers owning your silly ass.

You need him.

But wait, my analytical mind demands…let’s put these fucks to work in factories to produce porn toys and pay off the Chinese. Nope. That won’t work because unions will jump in and demand that we pay the fucks 10 times their worth. Then progressives will set regulations that we can’t chain the doors shut, and that the dildo manufacturing equipment will have to meet some fucking unrealistic safety measure.

Worse yet, they’ll spend our money having staff meetings (yuck) about how we have to insure these worthless cattle, and the EPA will have their say about dildo dust getting into the landfills. OSHA will chime in that we’ll have to provide safety glasses so the dumb fucks don’t poke out there eyes with the anal plugs and then we’re back to fucking zero again.

Fuck. Wait…nope, that’s it.

Your Own Private Afghanistgan

2009-08-08T14:33:00.000-04:00

According to Fox News today, mother fuckers are dying in Afghanistan. I don’t mean just, US, British, Afghan civilians, militant warlords—I mean EVERY fucking body. I haven’t heard too much about embedded media fucks this time around. I mean, there are likely some there, but these cats are the ones with facial ticks, with wives so fucked up they’d rather eat lead in 140 degree heat than deal with their Paxil gobbling , low libido, whiny fucking fat asses. Where was I?

Oh, yea so all these fuckers are all together on this burned out scab of a country killing each other. Does anyone have any answers into…oh….errr……WTF is going on!! <--TWO exclamation points…you knew that shit was coming! Have we all gone completely fucking dumb due to the florescent lights down at the Super Wal-Mart?

\Note: the wife recently informed me that the Wal-Mart, red-vested mother fuckers have started painting the inside of their stores green. Obviously, that can’t be…must have been the PBR interacting with my meds again.

But, yea, so, in Afghan last month a whole school bus of elementary school kids get blown to the holy land. If our countries are so dumb as to participate in this mutual fucking self slaughter of astronomical proportions, shouldn’t they at least get the kids out? Most Americans didn't pick up on this news because they were too busy being jacked off by the media while being force fed all things Michael Jackson.

WTF is the US doing in that piece anyway? Are we still fucking working that pipe-line angle? Global positioning? New & inventive ways to drain the fucking economy? Who fucking knows really?

And I know some right-wing, religious nut, abortion doctor killer is going to go on and on about how we are stopping terrorism at its root. They can talk about how US efforts have culminated in zero attacks in the US since 911.

And maybe they’re right. Perhaps we should continue to act out of fear until there is nothing left of the great nation our founding fathers provided. We can all continue to watch reality tv, get into fist fights over NFL games, and walk around supermarkets with our blue tooth gadgets attached to our empty fucking melons.

Listen, between the US & the former Soviet Block heads, nothing is left of Afghanistan other than a huge fucking parking lot without the black-top. You’re not fighting a war on terror any more than we were halting the spread of communism during Vietnam. You cannot physically beat idealism. And surely invading their holy land & killing bitches will not endear us in the deranged mind of a terrorist. “I was gonna blow your shit up, but now, uh, we’re cool.”

But this gets interesting: according to the AP article, “A police chief in a neighboring province said a Western airstrike Wednesday night killed five farmers loading cucumbers into a taxi. The U.S. initially said the men were militants who had been seen placing weapons into a van. The American military said later in the day that they had been seen planting wire-controlled roadside bombs.”

And later that day they were seen throwing radio-active camel poop at each other. So, yea, I’m asking the same question you are right now: with all this sinister “James Bond” shit going on, why fuck with the cucumbers? When this reporter inquired of said farmer, he replied mockingly, “Bitches gotta eat, yo!” No not really, I made that last part up.

But there HAS been a measurable drop in volunteerism at local cucumber farms. Naw, I made that shit up too.

And , look, man, I’m not fucking busting balls, or making light over the loss of US service members. I’m just really fucking pissed that whatever lame ass angle our government is propagating in that wasteland, over in that fucking cesspool, that our proud US men & women are paying the ultimate price.
Folks, people die in Afghanistan. It’s where one goes. It’s like going to Wal-Mart for brain damage, or McDonalds for heart failure. It’s a fucking dying ground, a killing field, and it must be stopped.

Fuck, I thought all this was over when Bush flew in on a jet fighting cock, stood like a peacock in a crotch hugging flight suit and announced victory.

FWM

Anyone Still Out There?

2008-10-08T12:09:00.002-04:00

As you can see, the Angry Libertarian Alliance did not turn into a group blog attacking ridiculous government antics. There's only one Angry Libertarian writing here and I'm not even that angry anymore.

If you are interested in writing for this blog, leave a comment. If you still read this blog, leave a comment.

If neither of those things happen in the next week, I'm shutting it down.

PJM Purges Paul

2007-02-20T13:56:00.000-05:00

Those bastards over at Pajamas Media have purged Ron Paul from their Presidential primary poll. I guess they were pissed off that An Army of Davidsgot together to help him win last week's poll.

You taste that? That's the bitter taste of irony!

Stupid Bureaucrat Evicts Man from Van

2007-01-23T16:58:00.000-05:00

After an Indiana newspaper published a touching human interest story about a 93-year-old man living in a van with a little help from his friends, a local bureaucrat had to piss in his Wheaties by kicking him out:

Sheryl Crum was the employee from the housing division of the Marion County Health Department who visited Green's van after the story ran. She pronounced it in violation of the County housing code and therefore uninhabitable. Reporter Will Higgins explained the code requires that "a domicile have running water and electricity," and power cords and bathroom privileges at the towing company don't count.

The Star ran a follow-up piece about the eviction, which generated a furor over the Housing Authority's actions. Apparently we're not the only ones who think that it's ridiculous to kick an old guy out of his van.

Republicans Accuse Libertarians of Stealing

2006-11-08T19:06:00.000-05:00

Ramesh Ponnuru blames a Republican loss in Indiana on a Libertarian candidate "taking votes from him."

If Sodrel loses in Indiana, as looks likely, it may be because a libertarian candidate took votes from him. The same thing happened to keep Slade Gorton from winning re-election to the Senate and to keep Jon Ensign from beating Harry Reid. So far, losing because of libertarians hasn't caused Republicans to move toward the libertarians ideologically. But maybe things will change this time.

For the last time, they're not your votes, you goddamned smug Republicans! You want the votes, earn them, don't blame Libertarians for stealing them from you.

Can't Save the Workers Without Fucking Over a few Workers

2006-09-21T12:54:00.000-04:00

On my other blog, a cautionary tale of how not to react to globalization.

I'm still in a, kind of a state of disbelief. It's a crying shame that, uh, I don't have that option, simply because of a union that I have supported for 40 years. And as far as I'm concerned they have taken money out of my pocket." The irony, he says, is that the other union members he works with couldn't wait for him to get back, to decide whether to sign up for an overseas operation themselves.

This ought to help the labor movement bounce back, right?

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...fuck unions...

Why We're Angry

2006-06-28T16:23:00.000-04:00

This sums it up.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...making sandwiches...

News Flash: Anti-Smoking Groups are Liars

2006-05-17T11:33:00.000-04:00

Jacob Sullum notes that the claim that secondhand smoke exposure causes atherosclerosis and heart attacks is bullshit, purposely advanced by anti-smoking groups to scare people.

Remember kids, "Smoking is Healthier Than Fascism"

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...puff, puff, pass...

Affirmative Action at the CIA

2006-05-09T08:36:00.000-04:00

The Bush Administration is showing their commitment to the "differently abled" by nominating a man to run the CIA who can't read.

Hat Tip: Radley Balko

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...idiots...

Bush Still Supports Preemptive War

2006-03-16T11:29:00.000-05:00

The President still supports preemptive war, despite the Iraq fuck-ups. Not only that, but he's got an even longer list of bad countries that we're thinking of striking against.

What an asshole.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...angry...

Mohammed Cartoons

2006-03-13T12:56:00.000-05:00

Professor Eugene Volokh has a good analysis of the cartoon controversy, complete with illustrations.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...instablogging...

Something to Think About

2006-02-15T20:21:00.000-05:00

"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws." -John Adams, 2nd US president (1735-1826)

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...strangely fitting...

Get Your Passport In Order

2006-02-08T09:57:00.000-05:00

Looks like the DOJ believes that the President can order a killing on U.S. soil.

Emigration looks better and better.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...wtf...

Government to Steal Church for Development

2006-01-27T12:17:00.000-05:00

Stephen Gordon at Hammer of Truth notes a shitty, though predictable, outgrowth of the Kelo v. New London decision. The government in Sand Springs, OK is taking a black church to redevelop a "rundown area of town".

With bulldozers churning up the earth at the front door, the small Centennial Baptist Church in this struggling industrial hub west of Tulsa seems about to fall to the wrecker.

The Rev. Roosevelt Gildon in his Centennial Baptist Church, in Sand Springs, Okla. The church is resisting the city's plan to clear the church and other occupants to make way for superstores like the Home Depot.

But the construction is just roadwork, for now. And that is all it will ever be if the congregation has its way.

"The Lord didn't send me here to build a minimall," said the longtime pastor, the Rev. Roosevelt Gildon

Admittedly, the city is not using eminent domain yet; they're just keeping it as a last resport, if they can't come to an agreement on the price of the buyout. So, either negotiations are successful, or we steal your church. What an option.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...disgusted...

Cereal Killer

2006-01-16T17:55:00.000-05:00

In These Times story, "Snap, Crackle ... Patents" reports on how one Arizona company is using IP law to prevent anyone else from selling cereal the way they sell cereal.

Back in 2000, David Roth had one of those "eureka" moments that are the stuff of American entreprenurial legend. After spotting a box of Cocoa Puffs hidden behind the desk of a Wall Street executive, Roth dreamed up a retail business that would sell cereal all the time.
...
Across the country, Rocco Monteleone was getting set to open Bowls, a cereal cafe in Gainesville, Florida, (near the University of Florida) when he found out that Cereality had beaten him to the punch. OK, he figured, no harm, no foul: It's America. Anyone can open a restaurant selling cereal. Right?
...
In May, Monteleone received a letter from Cereality's attorney warning him that he may be in violation of a patent application the company had filed for its "methods and system" of selling cereal. These included: "displaying and mixing competitively branded food products" and adding "a third portion of liquid."

That's right, this company decided to patent selling cereal with milk to college kids.

In the end, the PTO denied the patent application, but this is the kind of bullshit that begs for IP reform.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...happy new year...

Action: Stop the Patriot Act

2005-12-16T09:44:00.000-05:00

Act now to stop the renewal of the Patriot Act. Check out
this post at Hammer of Truth for step-by-step instructions on what you can do to block the Patriot Act.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...still angry...

There Oughtta Not Be A Law: Airplane Toilet Edition

2005-12-08T11:05:00.000-05:00

Christopher Elliott writes in the New York Times about the fact that there is not a law requiring all airplanes to have a working restroom.

Unbelievable as it may sound, the only apparent law on the books that requires an aircraft to fly with a working restroom, the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986, applies to planes with more than one aisle that were delivered or refurbished after April 1992. That's a huge loophole, given the number of jets that are older or have just one aisle. Plus, federal law seems to be mum when it comes to the all-important passenger-to-toilet ratio on a plane.

Oh my God, whatever shall we do? I mean, if there's no law, it's merely a matter of time before airlines force their passengers to "hold it" for the duration of the flight. Emergency session! Pass a law now, before there's stinking planes full of piss and shit flying around our fair country!! Oh noes!!

Or maybe it's not such a big problem after all, because airlines don't want to piss off their passengers.

Of course, airlines don't exploit this regulatory lapse. United, like other domestic and international airlines, operates all its planes - no matter their age or size - with a full complement of working restrooms. Most of the time. "If a lavatory is malfunctioning, we will close it down and refer customers to an alternative one on the plane," said a United spokeswoman, Robin Urbanski. "If more than one lavatory is malfunctioning, we typically divert the plane."

As Derek was saying to me, "I think there are people who believe basic physical forces would cease to function if the American legislature did not enact a regulation requiring them to occur. So of course airlines wouldn't put washrooms in just to keep their passengers happy and using their airline..."

Next time someone suggests a law to fix a non-problem, just remind them of the idiocy of toilet regulations for airplanes.

Hat tip: Nick Gillespie at Hit and Run

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...not dead yet...

The Grey Lady Catches Up

2005-11-21T16:52:00.000-05:00

As mentioned here back in July, IJ is winning the New London war, even though the Supreme Court ruled against them.

It looks like the New York Times figured it out today. My favorite passage:

"We need to have some positive things happening so that every lender and investor I go to doesn't say, 'I want to be 100 miles away from here,' " Ms. Jones said. "Eminent domain in Fort Trumbull has been on the front page of every newspaper in the country, and it has not put New London in the most positive light."

Despite losing in court, the holdouts have gained political leverage, largely through the public relations effort led by the Institute for Justice, Mr. Joplin said.

Scott G. Bullock, a lawyer for the Institute for Justice who argued for the resistant property owners before the Supreme Court, said, "We might have lost the battle, but the overall war is really going in our favor."

"What developer is going to want to build on land that was received through probably the most universally despised Supreme Court decision in decades?" Mr. Bullock asked.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...vindicated...

Do you have a permit for that satire?

2005-10-25T10:00:00.000-04:00

Looks like the White House is suing The Onion for the use of the Presidential Seal without "official approval."

Hammer of Truth has come up with their own...umm...use of the the Seal. Wonder how long it'll take to get approval for that. Given how far the Administration has stretched the collective ass of the country, it should be a no-brainer.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...tee hee...

D.C. Council Fixes Mistake

2005-10-19T09:33:00.000-04:00

Props to the D.C. Council for repealing their 'zero-tolerance' DUI law. Too bad it took a lot of people getting arrested for having a single glass of wine to make 'em do it.

"D.C. is once again open for business," said council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), principal author of the legislation. She said visitors "can come in and have a glass of wine and not be harassed or intimidated."

The changes would place alcohol levels from .05 to .079 in a "neutral zone" that would require other factors, such as sobriety field tests, to establish a driver's impairment. The changes would bring District law in line with that of Virginia, Maryland and other states.

It still remains to be seen whether Mayor Williams will sign the legislation.

Before yesterday's vote, Williams wrote the council a letter in which he questioned the need to change the law and said police are "not unfairly targeting drivers who have a drink at dinner." After the vote, he issued a statement that criticized the council's action.

Williams noted that six people in the District died last year in alcohol-related crashes in which the driver's blood alcohol level was less than .08.

"The fact that people are dying on the road is reason enough for us to think long and hard about undoing years of federal and local public safety messages that stress: 'Don't Drink and Drive,' " Williams wrote.

How disingenuous can the Mayor be? Six people died last year justifies arresting people who have had one glass of wine? Not hauling people to jail for having one drink is 'undoing years of federal and local public safety messages'? What a tool.

Maybe Mayor Williams just hasn't been teased enough at parties yet.

Members said they are concerned that the story was making headlines across the country and portraying the District as the last refuge of Prohibition. Ambrose said she attended a wedding in Maine this weekend and was teased about it. Council member Vincent B. Orange Sr. (D-Ward 5) said participants at a recent business meeting were jokingly warned not to have a glass of wine lest they be carted away.

"The press is killing us," Orange said.

Note to press: Please keep killing them.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...drinky drinky...

Irony Translates Well

2005-10-18T13:39:00.000-04:00

Check out this post about ambivalent Spanish honoring of George Orwell. I'll bet he's spinning in his grave right now.

Hat tip: Samizdata.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...who watches the watchers...

Fuck MADD, Fuck 'Zero Tolerance,' and Fuck Asshole Cops

2005-10-13T12:24:00.000-04:00

Dear All,
This very special episode of the the Angry Libertarian Alliance is brought to you by the latest abuse of government power by the DC Police (and DMV). As this WaPo story relates, Debra Bolton had a glass of wine with dinner and ended up in jail for blowing a .03. Let me repeat that for emphasis, 'point oh fucking three.' Most of you are probably thinking that that's well below the legal limit, and it is. However,

Bolton, 45, an energy lawyer and single mother of two who lives in Alexandria, had just run into a little-known piece of D.C. law: In the District, a driver can be arrested with as little as .01 blood-alcohol content.

As D.C. police officer Dennis Fair, who arrested Bolton on May 15, put it in an interview recently: "If you get behind the wheel of a car with any measurable amount of alcohol, you will be dealt with in D.C. We have zero tolerance. . . . Anything above .01, we can arrest."

Bolton fought the charges and got them dropped (prosecutors apparently have better things to do). Annoyance over, right? Oh hell no! Time for that bastion of abusive bureaucracy, the DMV, to get involved. Even though the charges were dropped and there was no conviction, the DC DMV "warned that it would suspend her driving privileges at the end of this month unless she went through an alcohol prevention program."

Corey Buffo, the DMV's general counsel, explained that the agency drops its procedures only after a case goes to trial and is dismissed on its merits. "Our burden of proof is lower" than the Superior Court's, he said. "Not enough evidence for them may be enough evidence for us." Yesterday, the DMV decided not to suspend her privileges and issued her a warning instead.

Does anyone else smell a violation of 'due process' rights, because I sure do. Suspending someone's driving privileges based on an arrest alone looks like it's ripe for a Constitutional challenge.

Lesson of the day: Don't drink in DC. At all. Ever.

From today's follow-up story, it looks like MADD, the DC Council member who sponsored the law in the first place, and various other interest groups are backpedalling on this piece-of-shit, nanny state law.

Even D.C. Council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large), who has sponsored legislation to lower the legal limit for drunken driving, said she was not aware that police officers are arresting drivers who have as little as .01 percent blood alcohol content -- less than from drinking a glass of wine or beer -- in their systems. Nor did she think that such a policy was a good idea.

...

D.C.'s zero-tolerance policy goes back about seven years. In 1998, at the same time Schwartz introduced an amendment to lower the blood alcohol limit for intoxication from .10 to .08 with much media attention, then-Council member Sandy Allen introduced a provision that lowered to .03 the level that a driver could be presumed impaired by alcohol. Both measures passed.

Gee, maybe people should be careful before passing stupid laws. Fuckers.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...grrr...

UPDATE: If you want to do something about it, then contacting the DC Council would be a good start.

Public Service Announcements We Can Get Behind

2005-10-06T11:10:00.000-04:00

The PSAs linked over at mychoice.ca provide some great tips for people who might feel that government has too much control over their lives.

They cover important topics like recycling, water conservation, and the issue that started the ALA, obesity.

"Your government...let us do the choosing."

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...free to choose...

We're down with CLC

2005-10-05T19:01:00.000-04:00

Check out College Libertarian Central, another resource for the angry libertarian.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...keeping it real...

Compounding Government Mistakes, Nuclear-style

2005-09-15T14:43:00.000-04:00

Steve Gordon over at Liberty for Sale, notes that a draft policy doctrine put forth by the administration would authorize pre-emptive nuclear strikes against an adversary "adversary using or intending to use WMD against US, multinational, or alliance forces or civilian populations."

Woo fucking hoo! Now, instead of just getting a bunch of ground troops stuck in a tar-baby of a war under false pretenses, we're gonna up the ante by nuking the shit out of countries that talk trash about WMDs. Really, does this seem like a good idea to anybody? Bueller?

Read the whole post, it's quite good.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...nukyoolar...

Sauce for the Goose

2005-09-13T11:48:00.000-04:00

According to the Christian Science Monitor, North Korea and Iran will continue their nuclear efforts, claiming that peaceful nuclear energy development is their right.

'Rogue nation,' 'axis of evil,' and other diplomatic perjoratives can be translated as 'country that doesn't play by our rules.' The United States is particularly hypocritical in trying to refer other nations to the UN Security Council for violations of rules that we never have, nor ever will, respect.

Freedom is the one thing one cannot have if one is unwilling to give it to others. This applies to states as much as to individuals. By attempting to prevent the self-determination of other countries, we create security threats that make us less free.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...back from the dead...

The Libertarian Party is No Longer a Membership Club

2005-08-08T10:09:00.000-04:00

Steve Gordon reports that the Libertarian National Committee has passed the Squyres proposal for zero dues. That's right, boys and girls, our little party is growing up. No longer will your LP bona fides consist of whether or not you sent the Party your $25 this year. Rather than requiring you to pony up the dough to be a member of the party, we're going to use the voluntary approach of encouraging you to pony up the dough, with such libertarian tactics as guilt and shame.

Hey, it works for those other parties.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...pleased...

Libertarians, get off your principled asses!

2005-07-31T10:45:00.000-04:00

Nothing makes this Libertarian angrier than the radical elements of the party who would rather lose without compromise than acheive a small victory. This phenomenon has caused more people to give up on the LP than probably any other single factor.

J. Daniel Cloud wrote a great editorial in LP News that gets right to the heart of this problem.

I want to see some Libertarians get off their principled asses and do something to enact those principles in America. And I’m ready to do something myself. That’s why I helped write — and proudly signed — the Exit Plan for Iraq. It ain’t perfect. But it shows Americans that the LP wants to see U.S. troops leave Iraq. It shows that we’re tired of the killing. It shows that we are willing to accept incremental change, so long as change occurs. It shows that we are capable of thinking in terms of “transition” instead of “revolution.”

The party spent more than 30 years trying to change American politics from the outside, with philosophical purity in place, and we failed. If you are one of those who think Libertarians shouldn’t be politicians, feel free to continue sending nasty e-mails complaining that the Libertarian Party is “compromising” too much, that we’re settling for incrementalism.

Hear, hear. Thanks to Tim West for drawing this to my attention.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...stfu and do something...

IJ: Even When They Lose, They Win

2005-07-24T23:12:00.000-04:00

Major props to the good folks over at the Institute for Justice. Not only did they not miss a beat after the loss of the Kelo v. New London case, ratcheting up efforts of The Castle Coalition to protect private property rights for eminent domain abuses, it looks like they managed to derail Connecticut takings:

The largest organization of Connecticut municipalities said Monday that a suggested moratorium on seizing private property is unnecessarily broad.

A spokesman for the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities said towns and cities using eminent domain laws for traditional public uses, such as building schools and roads, should be able to proceed.

Lawmakers suggested the moratorium after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month that New London can seize homes for a private economic development project. They want time to consider changing Connecticut's laws to provide more protection for property owners.

The upshot is that, even though the SCOTUS has ruled that these takings are constitutional, the publicity has made them unpopular enough that they're going to be delayed, hopefully indefinitely.

It just goes to show that the sort of government abuses that are specific to local government are extremely vulnerable to having the light of the public eye shined on them.

Rock on, IJ!

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...supporter...

Something to chew on

2005-07-15T12:20:00.000-04:00

...over the weekend.

"I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for
this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." -James Baldwin, writer (1924-1987)

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...blogging light...

Good quote

2005-06-29T16:57:00.000-04:00

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826)

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...nothing to add...

Take Heart

2005-06-28T16:51:00.000-04:00

In light of recent blows to liberty brought down by the Supreme Court in Raich and Kelo, it is wise to remember the words from the Ballad of Sir Andrew Barton:

'Fight on, my men,' says Sir Andrew Barton,
'I am hurt, but I am not slain;
I'll lay me down and bleed a while,
And then I'll rise and fight again.

Join the Castle Coalition today and rise and fight again.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...still here, still angry...

First They Came For The Smokers...

2005-05-25T16:00:00.000-04:00

...and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a smoker. Now they're coming for the drinkers. (Hat tip to Boozie).

More and more states are considering higher alcohol taxes after years of raising cigarette rates.

This year, Kentucky and Washington state hiked their liquor tariffs. Montana, Indiana and North Dakota rejected higher beer taxes.

Texas is still considering an increase, which would go to help pay for public schools. And Ohio lawmakers must decide what they're going to do before the new fiscal year starts July 1.

Now we at the ALA can understand things like gas taxes going up to support highway repairs, or even property taxes going up to support schools (as long as the money's not wasted). In those cases, the tax increase is related to the service provided. But here, as with cigarette taxes, it's just taxing the minority because they can't fight back.

Excise taxes, sometimes called sin taxes, are a more palatable way to raise revenue for states than a broader tax, said Bert Waisanen, fiscal analyst for the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures.

Part of the reason is the moral message. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based nonprofit, contends that hiking alcohol taxes is a good way to fight alcohol abuse.

"Tens of millions of dollars a year already are spent marketing alcoholic beverages to underage consumers," George Hacker, director of the center's Alcohol Policies Project, said in a statement posted on the center's Web site. "Lower taxes and lower prices will only further entice young people to drink."

"Moral message," my pasty white ass. The neo-Puritans who would turn our country into a place fit only for children should be stopped dead in their tracks. Don't let them splinter the smokers from the drinkers from the gamblers. Sinners of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your persecution.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...avid drinker...

Remember Who The 'Real' Enemy Is

2005-05-19T11:44:00.000-04:00

Over at Liberty For Sale, there's a healthy dose of 'stop bickering about bullshit and start fighting the real enemy' medicine.

Pro-Life Libertarians are not my enemy, Pro-Choice Libertarians are not my enemy, Pro-War Libertarians are not my enemy, Pro-Peace Libertarians are not my enemy, Christian Libertarians are not my enemy, Muslim Libertarians are not my enemy, Jewish Libertarian are not my enemy, Atheist Libertarians are not my enemy.

The list goes on, and on, and on…

Another Libertarian with a slightly different view on an issue than me, is not my enemy.

My enemy is the Democratic and Republican Parties!

Read the whole thing.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...still angry...

Freakin' Lasers!

2005-04-21T18:31:00.001-04:00

Remember David Banach, the New Jersey man indicted for pointing a laser at an airplane?

Banach, 38, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of interference with pilots of an aircraft "with reckless disregard for the safety of human life," a provision of the USA Patriot Act passed following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Now NORAD is planning to setup lasers around D.C. to point at airplanes that enter restricted airspace.

Officials from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said the visual warning system is designed to quickly warn commercial, government and private pilots of planes and helicopters by shining alternating red and green lights at their aircraft.

Private individual endangers a pilot by pointing a laser at his eyes? Go to jail. Government does it? They're protecting D.C. It's insane.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...sauce for the goose...

Why I Quit Playing Video Games...

2005-03-30T15:18:00.000-05:00

...and took up shooting real guns instead. Some dude in Shanghai stabbed another dude after he sold a "dragon sabre" that they won while playing some dame called "Legend of Mir 3."

Virtual economies, such as those in Everquest, Ultima Online, and other MMORPGs are interesting labs for the testing of economic theory, and pretty damn libertarian. That is, until someone stabs you.

Methinks that this is a place where the criminal law has not caught up with the rest of the world. With regard to the stealing of the fictional "dragon sabre," that is. I'm pretty sure that stabbing a dude is illegal. Even in China.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...puzzle pirate...

Big Brother is Watching What Your Kids Eat

2005-03-10T11:45:00.000-05:00

If you are what you eat, the current generation of kids is going to grow up to be lowfat fruit snacks. The future is, well, bland (but at least we'll all be skinny). I'm tired of reading the newspaper day in and day out only to find that another state has banned 'junkfood' in schools. It appears that Kentucky is the latest state government that is obviously better suited to make nutritional choices than their citizens.

Thanks to many overbearing state government around the county students are being put on a very strict diet. No more sodas or beverages with added sugar. Say goodbye to Hawaiian Punch, the old lunchtime staple, and hello to...more water. Mmm, tasty (if you close your eyes and pretend to be drinking Hawaiian Punch). In addition to water, students will be offered more juice and milk. Now I'm not a dietary expert by any means, but I do know that calories are what make people fat. So let's do some math. An 8 ounce serving of orange juice has 122 calories. An 8 ounce Coca-Cola has 97 calories. An 8 ounce diet Coke has just 1 calorie. If we do the math here, orange juice has 121 more calories than a diet Coke, and 25 more calories than a regular Coke. I'm not seeing how orange juice is really helping children to eat healthier here. Sure, one could argue that the orange juice's calories are outweighed because of vitamin content, but it seems that almost every food is vitamin fortified these days, and a single serving of almost any fruit will give you 100% of your required daily vitamin C. A single 8 ounce serving of orange juice actually gives you more than 2.5 times the recommended vitamin C intake for your 122 calories, and less than 1 gram of fiber. You know, fiber, the stuff that makes you feel full and tells you to stop eating. Orange juice has less than 1 gram of it. Oranges, by contrast, which are up to 85% water, have twice the fiber of orange juice and half of the calories. Even a small McDonald's fries fries, at 230 calories, offers more fiber than orange juice. In fact, the french fries offer triple the fiber of orange juice, meaning that to get the same amount of fiber I'd actually eat fewer fry calories than I would orange juice calories. And french fries taste way better than orange juice.

Any logical person can easily see that eating oranges is nutritionally superior to drinking either orange juice or soda, but you don't see schools investing in vending machines that sell fruit (and I honestly can't see how they'd get an orange to fit on one of those spiral racks traditionally used to hold chips). So instead of offering healthy food choices, like fresh fruits, state governments are offering our children extra calories and a false sense of health, all while cutting physical education programs to include an optional and maximal 30 minutes a day (which, if you include changing into and out of a uniform and the post-workout shower usually end up requiring 10 minutes of exercise). If the state was so worried about student health it would take a look at its own policies and allow students to eat based on their own nutritional needs. It'd be fantastic to have the government encourage students to eat more healthfully, but lying to students about what is healthful does nothing to promote better eating and will eventually backfire when millions of overweight school children grow up into obese adults who can't figure out where they went wrong.

Telling people that french fries are healthy is deceptive, but no one's doing that. Telling people that orange juice is healthy is also deceptive, and the government *is* doing that. People should be able to make their own informed choices about health, but current government programs (as always, it seems) are simply misinformation campaigns that confuse the public. Certainly the government should trust its citizens to be able to make their own choices about what to put in their bodies, but as usual I expect too much out of the government by asking them to leave people alone. It's my choice if I want to Supersize my fries, and if I end up with clogged arteries at least I knew the risks. And I'd rather die a happy fat woman than a skinny bitter fruit snack.

Being skinny does not make people happy. Being able to run 5 miles does not make people happy. Being able to make your own choices about what to do with your life does make people happy. I wish government officials could see this.

Hugs and Kisses,
The Bitter Libertarian

John Gilmore: Angry Libertarian

2005-03-01T11:16:00.000-05:00

Okay, he's not really angry, but he's one hell of a Libertarian. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a good story on Gilmore's struggle to get some really basic questions answered about travel restrictions in this country. Questions like, "What law requires me to show ID before I get on the plane?"

The gate agent asked for his ID.

Gilmore asked her why.

It is the law, she said.

Gilmore asked to see the law.

Nobody could produce a copy. To date, nobody has. The regulation that mandates ID at airports is "Sensitive Security Information." The law, as it turns out, is unavailable for inspection

That's right, we have to obey a law that we can't even read. Truly, the mind boggles at how our country has turned into a Kafka novel.

You're probably thinking, "Hey, what's the big deal? It's for our security, isn't it?" It turns out that the magical secret laws have some other pretty bizarro consequences beyond just keeping hippie Libertarians stuck in San Francisco.

The government has been so unyielding on disclosure that men with the name David Nelson suddenly found themselves ejected from flights. Somewhere in the system, the name came up on the newly created "No Fly" list. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., found himself in the same dilemma. When baggage screeners were caught pilfering, prosecutions were dropped because a trial would require a discussion of "Sensitive Security Information."

That's right, TSA baggage screeners who stole from unsuspecting airline passengers were not prosecuted for their crimes because of this stupid secrecy bullshit. WTF?

John Gilmore, we salute you.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...freedom fighter...

Roadkill has feelings too.

2005-02-25T13:24:00.000-05:00

You'd think that the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals had plenty of important work to do, with cockfighting being legal in all of 3 states these days and my neighbor dressing her dog up in ridiculous sweaters, but apparantly they don't. Recently the SPCA has taken to fighting people who promote cruelty to animals instead of people who are actually cruel to animals. Recent target: Kraft Foods. Upon hearing this most people would think that perhaps Kraft had done something actually cruel, like forcing chicks to watch as hens were plucked for dinner, but apparantly this is no longer cruel. Kraft committed a much graver crime: They marketed a fruit snack shaped like road kill. (Dramatic pause for effect).

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- Animal rights activists are disgusted by a new candy from Kraft Foods Inc. that's shaped like critters run over by cars -- complete with tire treads.

The fruity-flavored Trolli Road Kill Gummi Candy -- in shapes of partly flattened snakes, chickens and squirrels -- fosters cruelty toward animals, according to the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

"It sends the wrong message to children, that it's OK to harm animals. And that's the wrong message, especially from a so-called wholesome corporation like Kraft," said society spokesman Matthew Stanton.

The society is considering petition drives, boycotts and letter-writing campaigns to get the candy pulled from the market, Stanton said.

After receiving a complaint from the NJSPCA Wednesday, Kraft officials pulled an animated advertisement from Trolli's Web site that featured car headlights and animals.

No other decisions on changes have been made, said Kraft spokesman Larry Baumann.

"If you look across the Gummi category we certainly have many products that are offbeat, and that's what we were doing in this case," Baumann said. "We didn't mean to offend anyone."

That's right folks, Kraft had the nerve to market a candy shaped like roadkill. Apparantly roadkill have feelings, too, and the SPCA is there to prevent injury. Apparantly allowing children to eat things (vegetarian things, nonetheless) shaped like roadkill is more damaging than actually eating roadkill (empirical data from West Virginia is forthcoming). How eating roadkill shaped candy encourages children to run over animals is beyond me, given that most children who still enjoy fruit snacks are five to ten years away from driving. Perhaps the modern Power Wheel has more power than I thought.

If the SPCA has nothing better to do than attack a candy for promoting animal cruelty, maybe the SPCA has been so successful as to work itself out of a job? No, strike that, the SPCA still has plenty of work to do: my neighbor is still knitting dog sweaters, I smashed a cockroach in my office this morning, and rumor has it that my boss is currently thinking about running over a snake on his way home.

Hugs and kisses,
The Bitter Libertarian

First they came for the fat guys

2005-02-23T12:45:00.000-05:00

...and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a fat guy. The Sun reports that the UK government has decided to lock up a fat guy for, well, being fat.

SOBBING 31-stone [434 lbs. -Ed.] Chris Leppard was dragged off to a mental hospital against his will by meddling social workers and police.

Chris, 23, has been forcibly detained for a month because he cannot stop eating.

The authorities used powers normally used to detain mentally ill people who might harm themselves or others.

They locked him up despite the fact neither he nor his family wanted him to go. Last night Chris’s furious mother Anne said he has no mental problems and was winning his fight against the rare illness that compels him to eat.

Ain't National Health grand? Also contained in this little gem of an article is the impetus for this blog.

Angry Libertarian Alliance spokesman Dr Sean Gabb said: “What on earth justifies the intervention of the police and compels him to have medical treatment?”

Now I'm pretty sure that Dr. Gabb is merely the angry spokesman for the Libertarian Alliance and that the Sun's copy editor should be summarily fired, but it got me and a few other angry libertarians thinking, "There ought to be an Angry Libertarian Alliance."

And now there is.

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...angry libertarian-in-chief...