Author Archive

"In a free society, an individual must be permitted to state that they personally dislike any group, whether its composition be racial, religious or otherwise, and must be free to criticize aspects of that group, including expressing personal opposition to its beliefs and practices. The law should not be able to intrude into matters of personal opinion, whether or not that opinion is soundly based. Secondly, a person should not be able to claim that they have been discriminated against by virtue of another expressing a simple dislike of any group to which they belong or for which they feel a particular solidarity. To reduce discrimination to a matter of mere offence is to demean genuine cases of racial and religious hatred that do not just involve words, but acts." (05/12/13)

"Breaking news of DOJ surveillance of the AP brought a welcome fighting back, a rare display of calling Obama on his running roughshod over civil liberties and here freedom of the press. The Holder-DOJ record so tarnishes the Constitution, all with Obama’s knowledge and blessing, as to erase any real distinction between the two major parties weighing all things considered. What ever happened to Harvard Law, the descent into the gutter from the days of Pound, Cox, Griswold, now to Obama, one convinced he can act with impunity with his transgressions of the rule of law." (05/14/13)

"But what does this have to do with Dante Alighieri, the Divine Comedy, and free-market economics? I would like to suggest the need for a new discipline -- a new playground -- for revisionism. Just as many libertarian scholars are gradually re-writing historical interpretations from a libertarian perspective, it is perhaps time to do the same for literary interpretation." (05/14/13)

"Some observers are verging on blaming a whole rundown neighbourhood for Ariel Castro’s horrific crimes." (05/14/13)

"Americans live in the infinite now. They are happy not to be burdened with the knowledge of their past or the long-term future. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, says that Americans are totally ignorant of the world around them. America’s leaders are not much better. He is right. The United States of America’s priorities are distorted. 'We the People' seems now an oddball concept. It’s the threat era: China, Cyber, Climate, Terror, Drugs, Sequester, Avian Flu, Shooters and Insecurity." (05/11/13)

"Yet I'm here with you today to tell you how to beat Santa Claus and the birth rate, too. I'm here to tell you five things Republican can do -- provided they have the moral fortitude, the intelligence, sanity, and courage -- to defeat the Democrats and socialism and throw them on the garbage heap of history where, I'm sure we all agree, they belong." (05/12/13)

"Taken on its own, the KOMO 4 News report below out of Seattle paints a stark and frightening picture of police battling 'angry parents' in a simulated shooting at a school. The practice of police training to take on everything from homeschoolers to patriots and constitutionalists -- 'rightwing extremists' in government parlance -- is anything but a rarity. Such exercises are now a prominent feature of the expanding police state." (05/11/13)

"Back in the 1990s, the Clinton administration tried to snuff out PGP using the very same obscure regulation it's wielding against Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed now.Yes, PGP was (and IIRC, still is) a 'munition.' The regs didn't change; the fedgov just knew that was a battle it was going to lose so it backed off. Encryption is everywhere and Phil Zimmerman is a free man. But nothing's new under the sun reeking pall of Mordor. Now a new generation of regulators -- and a new anti-gun president who has vowed to take covert action against firearms if he can't get his way in the legislature (whimper, whine) -- wants to use absurdly complicated ITAR once again to stop the unstoppable." (05/10/13)

"Every Yewtree arrest generates anti-celeb sneering. But an arrest does not equal guilt, at least not in civilised societies." (05/08/13)

"A corporate culture of brutality and fear is the perfect recipe for creating the kind of paranoid, hushed behavior that characterized civilian life during the Nazi regime or the subsequent plight of East Germany (and increasingly the USSA). It has been called 'the German look' or der Deutsche Blick. People with der Deutsche Blick always look to each side and behind them before talking -- just to make sure that unwanted ears are not listening. So how will the Human Resources Department and the Legal Department manage the unfriendly workplace that they are creating with this 'hire the vet' policy?" (05/06/13)