**************************************************
* RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST
*
* Volume IV, Issue #1,040
* Wednesday, December 6th, 2006
* Email Circulation 2,062s
*
* Published every non-holiday weekday
* by the staff of Rational Review
*
* On the Web: http://www.rationalreview.com/news
* In cooperation with ISIL: htp://www.isil.org
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In The News:

0) Opening notes
1) Iraq: Mortar attack kills 8, wounds 40
2) MO, IL enter sixth day of blackout
3) Bomber targets contractors in Afghanistan
4) NY: Idiot pols ban trans fats at restaurants
5) House GOP scraps Gulf drilling vote
6) NV: Convention project faces land theft hearing
7) Justices rule against automatic deportation
8) Senate Panel OKs Gates for defense post
9) Family sues US Mint over rare coins
10) Nouri to call for regional meeting
11) World powers fail to reach Iran accord
12) GA: Deportation order lifted for pol's wife
13) Peace Mom goes on trial in Manhattan
14) UK: School or training plan for all under-18s
15) Fiji's military faces sanctions after seizing power
16) PA: Calling citizens to arms
17) Thailand: Schools reopen with armed teachers
18) Gingrich wants to "revise" free speech rights
19) Some US cities grapple with ... too many churches
20) CA: Paying parking ticket now quick as getting one
21) AZ: Pima gets tough about turf
22) Flatulence, not turbulence, forces plane to land
23) TN: State told to "steer cautiously" on toll roads
24) Latin American voters go left, but not that far left
25) SAF lawsuit defends rights of citizens living abroad

Everybody Has An Opinion:

26) Liberaltarians
27) Better to be roadblocks than doormats
28) Authority is the problem
29) Fight terrorism: Legalize heroin
30) Americans vote NO on Bush; impeachment off table
31) Boris Berezovsky and the Bizarro Effect
32) Rifrickindiculous
33) Every knee shall b -- buh ...
34) Another call for libertarian/liberal fusion
35) Roots of Iraq debacle are in neocon ideology
36) The libertarian big tent
37) Live richly or go for the yardage?
38) Last stop for detainee cases
39) Four hopeful signs
40) Somewhere a banker smiles
41) Peekaboo, I'm spying on you
42) Bridge to Nowhere
43) Bush's strategy of wishful thinking
44) Blue Dogs no longer runts of Dems' litter
45) Confronting Britain's teenage wasteland
46) Ask for little, get nothing
47) Perils of soft state paternalism
48) Rating the presidents
49) Two parts hubris, one part paranoia
50) Why Newt is right
51) A right to earn a living?
52) Cold fusion
53) Affirmative inaction
54) Their bodies, our selves
55) The Rumsfeld-Murtha option
56) Techsploitation: This is not progress
57) South Park libertarians
58) Baker-Hamilton can't save us
59) Are more "thumpings" needed?
60) CIA veteran: How Gates cooked the intel
61) The trouble with "just compensation"
62) Time to revisit FCC set-top box rules
63) Will Democrats control Congressional spending?
64) The tradition of American philanthropy
65) Eco-censorship

See No Evil, Hear No Evil:

66) Freedom Rings, 12/11/06
67) Liberaltarianism
68) FMNN eRadio: Smart stocking stuffer
69) Free Talk Live, 12/05/06
70) Freedomain Radio #542

What's Up In The Freedom Movement:

71) Today's events

WaYbAcK:

72) America outlaws slavery (and the draft)

***************
* In The News
***************

0) Opening notes

This week's symposium is on "privatization" and the problems with
trying to have it both ways. Weigh in at:

http://www.rationalreview.com/content/21621

The auction for Rational Review's top banner ad space (for all of
2007) is over -- TheBumperSticker.Com's new ad won't go up until
January 1st, but if you're looking for campaign or other bulk sticker
services, pay them a visit on the web. And if you prefer your stickers
one at a time with pointed political messages, see LibertyStickers.Com!

-----

1) Iraq: Mortar attack kills 8, wounds 40
CTV [Canada]

"A mortar attack killed at least eight people and wounded dozens in a
secondhand goods market Wednesday .... About 25 minutes later, a
suicide bomber with explosives hidden beneath his clothing set them
off aboard a bus in Sadr City, killing two people and wounding 15,
police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said. It appeared to be the first attack
by suspected Sunni Arab insurgents on the large Shiite slum since Nov.
23, when a bombing and mortar attack killed 215 people in the
deadliest single attack since the Iraq war started more than three
years ago. The latest eruptions of Iraq's unrelenting sectarian
violence came hours before the anticipated release of a long-awaited
study by the Iraq Study Group, a blue-ribbon panel headed by former
Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton,
D-Ind." (12/06/06)

http://tinyurl.com/y7px5z

-----

2) MO, IL enter sixth day of blackout
Fox News

"Temperatures rose to above-freezing in Missouri and Illinois Tuesday
as thousands of residents remained without power after a major
blackout caused by the first snowstorm of the winter season. The
number of deaths blamed on the storm that hit Thursday rose Monday to
at least 23, with three more deaths reported in Missouri and one more
in Illinois. The causes included weather-related traffic accidents,
fires, carbon monoxide poisoning and exposure, officials said. The St.
Louis-based utility Ameren Corp. reported almost 190,000 homes and
businesses still without power Tuesday in Illinois and Missouri. The
utility said it would be several more days before power is fully
restored to the region." (12/06/06)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,234438,00.html

-----

3) Bomber targets contractors in Afghanistan
MSNBC

"A suicide bomber on foot walked up to a group of security contractors
in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, blowing himself up and leaving
one American and two Afghans dead, an official and witnesses said. The
bomber hit the men as they came out of the Kandahar compound of the
USPI security company, said Capt. Howard Chafe, a spokesman for the
Canadian troops in the area." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/ybroeb

-----

4) NY: Idiot pols ban trans fats at restaurants
Bridgerland Herald Journal

"New York on Tuesday became the first city in the nation to ban
artery-clogging artificial trans fats at restaurants, leading the
charge to limit consumption of an ingredient linked to heart disease
and used in everything from french fries to pizza dough to pancake
mix. In a city where eating out is a major form of activity -- either
for fun or out of hectic necessity -- many New Yorkers were all for
the ban, saying health concerns were more important than fears of Big
Brother supervising their stomachs." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/y85ugs

-----

5) House GOP scraps Gulf drilling vote
Houston Chronicle

"House Republican leaders dropped plans today to vote on a Senate
proposal to open up more of the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas
exploration. Faced with the daunting prospect of getting two-thirds of
the House to agree to open 8.3 million acres in federal waters west of
Florida to drilling, GOP leaders opted to pull the bill and shop
around for another vehicle. Drilling supporters may try to attach the
provision to a bill to extend some popular tax breaks. But whether the
lame-duck Congress can, in its final days, still pass the
controversial drilling bill remains unclear." (12/05/06)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4380670.html

-----

6) NV: Convention project faces land theft hearing
Nevada Appeal

"Eminent domain proceedings on South Lake Tahoe's proposed $410
million convention center project are expected to get into full swing
in the courtroom Friday. Businesses that have not negotiated to sell
to Lake Tahoe Development Co. are trying to sell off the inventory and
find alternative space to relocate. But the South Tahoe Redevelopment
Agency -- which approved the legal taking of property for public [sic]
use in September -- wants [to steal] the space to roll out its plans
by the groundbreaking on the 12-acre project area due next May."
(12/06/06)

http://tinyurl.com/v2sm5

-----

7) Justices rule against automatic deportation
USA Today

"The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a foreign national living here
legally should not be automatically deported if he is convicted of a
low-level drug offense that would be a misdemeanor under federal law.
The 8-1 decision could affect thousands of permanent legal immigrants,
often known as green-card holders, who, because of certain state
convictions, face deportation without a chance to plead their case
before a judge." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/yjz4ht

-----

8) Senate Panel OKs Gates for defense post
Vail Daily News

"Robert Gates, seemingly clinching confirmation as the new secretary
of defense, said Tuesday the United States is not winning in Iraq and
he's confident President Bush will listen to his ideas about forging a
new war strategy. He won speedy and unanimous approval from the Senate
Armed Services Committee after five hours of testimony, a bipartisan
show of support that suggested how eager many lawmakers are to replace
Donald H. Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. The full Senate could seal Gates'
confirmation as early as Wednesday." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/ydmrfa

-----

9) Family sues US Mint over rare coins
Plattsburgh Press Republican

"A family is suing the U.S. Mint, saying it illegally seized 10 gold
coins that are among the rarest and most valuable in the world that
the family found among a dead relative's possessions. The lawsuit,
filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, accuses the Mint
of violating the Constitution and breaking federal forfeiture laws by
refusing to return the 1933 'double eagle' coins to the family after
it handed the coins over to have their authenticity confirmed." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/ykxl2c

-----

10) Nouri to call for regional meeting
Nevada Appeal

"Iraq's prime minister reversed course Tuesday and said his envoys
will talk with Iraq's neighbors about the possibility of a regional
conference on quelling the violence here, despite opposition to the
plan by some key political allies. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki made
the announcement as more than 100 people were killed or found dead in
and around Baghdad, underscoring the urgency of finding a solution to
the bloodshed." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/yy5pny

-----

11) World powers fail to reach Iran accord
Lincoln Courier

"Six world powers made 'substantive progress' but failed to reach an
accord Tuesday on a U.N. resolution to punish Iran for defying demands
to halt its nuclear program, the French Foreign Ministry said after
talks in Paris. Tehran made a new threat of retaliation if the powers
opted for sanctions. 'We made substantive progress on the scope of the
sanctions targeting proliferation-sensitive activities. There remain
several outstanding issues, upon which we will reflect over the coming
days,' the French ministry said in a statement." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/snmuh

-----

12) GA: Deportation order lifted for pol's wife
CNN

"The Colombia-born wife of a Georgia state senator emerged from hiding
and turned herself in Tuesday to face a deportation order, but an
immigration judge lifted the order and she was expected to be freed.
Sascha Herrera, 28, who had gone into hiding after the order was
issued, arrived at the Martin Luther King Federal Building shortly
before 8 a.m. and met with the judge and attorneys for the Immigration
and Customs Enforcement field office." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/yldmkb

-----

13) Peace Mom goes on trial in Manhattan
Anchorage Daily News

"Peace activist Cindy Sheehan, who protested the Iraq war by camping
outside President Bush's Texas ranch, went on trial with three other
women Tuesday on charges of trespassing at the U.S. Mission to the
United Nations. The women tried to deliver an anti-war petition with
70,000-plus signatures to mission officials on March 6. Prosecutors
said they were arrested after they sat down in front of the mission
building, ignored police orders to leave and locked arms and legs to
make it hard for police to move them." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/ye3ypc

-----

14) UK: School or training plan for all under-18s
Guardian [UK]

"Moves to compel teenagers to stay on in school or training until 18
have been set in train by the government, the Guardian has learned.
Alan Johnson, the education and skills secretary, a strong supporter
of raising the minimum school leaving age from 16, is understood to
have asked officials to begin work on a green paper examining ways to
implement the change, for publication next year.The paper will not
propose forcing pupils to stay in the classroom behind a desk after
16, but is likely to seek to ensure that if they leave school they
move into training, study for a new diploma or take a job with
training and a qualification attached.Mr Johnson has been inspired by
reforms in Ontario, Canada, where children now face a legal
requirement to stay on full-time at school or college or enter formal
training until 18." (12/05/06)

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,1964960,00.html

-----

15) Fiji's military faces sanctions after seizing power
Independent [UK]

"Fiji's armed forces have staged the country's fourth coup in 20 years
after a long-running political crisis. The bloodless seizure of power
-- ending weeks of tension between the military commander and the
Prime Minister -- was played out in a typically leisurely Melanesian
fashion, and resulted in immediate international sanctions. Commodore
Frank Bainimarama said yesterday he had temporarily assumed the
country's presidency and sacked Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and his
ministers, who he accused of bribery and corruption." (12/05/06)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/article2042965.ece

-----

16) PA: Calling citizens to arms
Triubune Democrat

"Statkowski is a councilman in Cherry Tree Borough in Indiana County.
He is proposing -- and borough council is considering -- an ordinance
recommending that households in Cherry Tree have at least one firearm
with ammunition for self-defense purposes. But, Statkowski said, this
is not only a message for residents urging them to take precautions.
This is as much a message to would-be criminals who think Cherry Tree
might be a good place to break into someone's home." (12/04/06)

http://tinyurl.com/y4vgu6

-----

17) Thailand: Schools reopen with armed teachers
People's Daily

"Schools in parts of Thailand's violence-plagued southern province
Pattani reopened Monday. Teachers were allowed to take weapons to
protect their own safety. ... Education Minister Wijit Srisaarn said
he believed self-defense measures, including allowing teachers to
carry guns, will be effective in protecting the teachers. The
educators themselves will also help security officials look after
their colleagues, according to Wijit." (12/04/06)

http://english.people.com.cn/200612/04/eng20061204_328262.html

-----

18) Gingrich wants to "revise" free speech rights
Manchester Union Leader

"Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich yesterday in Manchester
said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet
the threat of terrorism. Gingrich, speaking at a Manchester awards
banquet, said a 'different set of rules' may be needed to reduce
terrorists' ability to use the Internet and free speech to recruit and
get out their message. ... Gingrich spoke to about 400 state and local
power brokers last night at the annual Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment
award dinner, which fetes people and organizations that stand up for
freedom of speech." (11/28/06)

http://tinyurl.com/w8rqb

-----

19) Some US cities grapple with ... too many churches
Christian Science Monitor

"It's rush hour in southeast Orlando -- Sunday rush hour, that is.
About a dozen churches are within a few miles of one another, and more
are under construction. Neighbors venturing out for bagels and other
errands find themselves stuck in traffic, heads bowed not in faith but
frustration. Some complain that the traffic persists all week, as
religious, youth, sports, and other activities draw crowds after work
and school. ... While communities traditionally zone against houses of
ill-repute, not houses of worship, frustrations have grown since 2000,
when then-President Clinton signed the Religious Land Use and
Institutionalized Persons Act. The law doesn't exempt churches from
zoning regulations, per se. But when religious groups say the rules
would create 'a substantial burden,' officials must show a compelling
reason for the limits." (12/05/06)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1205/p02s02-ussc.htm

-----

20) CA: Paying parking ticket now quick as getting one
San Francisco Chronicle

"Something strange is happening at 1380 Howard St. in San Francisco,
home to the Department of Parking and Traffic's customer service
center. There's less fist-pounding, hair-pulling, grumbling and
anxiousness. The department -- responsible for issuing more than 2
million parking tickets a year -- has figured out a way to make paying
and protesting tickets in person more customer-friendly. They hired
more staff to handle walk-in traffic and answer the phones, hired a
new supervisor to run the operation and installed a
take-a-number-and-wait system. There's even a soothing female voice --
albeit an electronic one -- that calls out the numbers and directs
people to the appropriate windows." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/y5pocl

-----

21) AZ: Pima gets tough about turf
Arizona Republic

"Forget the old 'Keep off the grass' signs: In Pima County, if you
can't walk on it, you can't plant it. The county has banned ornamental
turf in new commercial developments, taking the stance that lawns add
value as parks or playgrounds, but as decoration they waste water. The
say-no-to-grass rule, tougher than almost anything on the books in
Phoenix, reflects Pima County's tighter water supply and underscores
the differences in how the state's two largest metropolitan areas
manage resources. The new rules try to build conservation into new
development. Most of the measures do not specifically limit the amount
of water a property owner can use. Instead they hard-wire limited use
into zoning laws, restricting grass to small usable areas, shrinking
the size of allowable water features and requiring rain sensors on
irrigation timers. In a dry state struggling through an 11-year
drought, officials liken the aggressive approach to preventive
medicine." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/ykex2j

-----

22) Flatulence, not turbulence, forces plane to land
Tennessean

"Flatulence brought 99 passengers on an American Airlines flight to an
unscheduled visit to Nashville early Monday morning. American Flight
1053, from Washington Reagan National Airport and bound for
Dallas/Fort Worth, made an emergency landing here after passengers
reported smelling struck matches, said Lynne Lowrance, a spokeswoman
for the Nashville International Airport Authority. The plane landed
safely. The FBI, Transportation Safety Administration and airport
authority responded to the emergency, Lowrance said. The passengers
and five crew members were brought off the plane, together with all
the luggage, to go through security checks again. Bomb-sniffing dogs
found spent matches. The FBI questioned a passenger who admitted she
struck the matches in an attempt to conceal body odor, Lowrance said.
The woman lives near Dallas and has a medical condition." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/y2tlcn

-----

23) TN: State told to "steer cautiously" on toll roads
Nashville City Paper

"Tennessee needs to proceed 'cautiously' with the possibility of
building toll roads, particularly ones that use public/private
partnerships, state Department of Transportation Commissioner Gerald
Nicely said Monday. The possibility of building toll roads has been a
topic of discussion for years. But recently, state Rep. Phillip Pinion
(D-Union City), the chairman of the House Transportation Committee,
said he will propose legislation next year that would enable the state
to construct them. ... One option that other states have chosen is
toll roads that use public/private partnerships. Those deals can work
through a private company developing and building a toll road, at no
cost to the taxpayers. The company would get to operate it and collect
a portion of the tolls." (12/05/06)

http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?news_id=53522

-----

24) Latin American voters go left, but not that far left
Christian Science Monitor

"The landslide victory of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela's presidential
election Sunday caps off 12 elections across Latin America since
November 2005 that, taken together, reveal a broad electoral shift to
the left. The triumph of President Chavez, who rails against the
'imperialist' US and calls President Bush 'the devil,' comes on the
heels of victories by former US foe Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and
Ecuador's Rafael Correa, who called for a 'citizen's revolution.' But
in many ways Venezuela stands alone. 'There is no Chavismo across
Latin America,' says Adrian Bonilla, a political analyst at the Latin
American Faculty of Social Sciences in Quito, Ecuador. 'What we have
is a lot of new governments with different ideological trends. You
don't have a continental leader,' he says." (12/05/06)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1205/p01s03-woam.html

-----

25) SAF lawsuit defends rights of citizens living abroad
Liberty For All

"The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a lawsuit in federal
court in Ohio, challenging the 'sporting purpose' limitation for
firearms sales in this country, and supporting the constitutional
right of American citizens living abroad to legally purchase firearms
while in this country. SAF and co-plaintiff Stephen Dearth of
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, a native citizen of the United States, are
represented by the law firms of Gura & Possessky (Virginia) and
Squire, Sanders & Dempsey (Ohio)." (12/05/06)

http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=408

*******************************************************************
* HEALTH-OF-THE-STATE-O-METER, 12/06/06
*
* Reported Civilian Deaths in Iraq: Min - 49,642 ... Max - 55,048
* (source: www.iraqbodycount.org)
*
* American Military Deaths in Iraq: 2,906
* (source: www.antiwar.com/casualties/)
*******************************************************************

****************************
* Everybody Has An Opinion
****************************

26) Liberaltarians
Cato Institute
by Brink Lindsey

"[I]f Democrats hope to continue appealing to libertarian-leaning
voters, they are going to have to up their game. They need to ask
themselves: Are we content with being a brief rebound fling for jilted
libertarians, or do we want to form a lasting relationship? Let me
make a case for the second option. Since the late '60s, and especially
the mid-'80s, torrents of words have been spilled urging Democrats to
move toward the center of the political spectrum. Most such efforts,
however, have advanced one compromise or another between
progressivism-as-usual and conservatism-as-usual -- a few more items
from Menu A here, a few more from Menu B there. But the real problem
with our politics today is that the prevailing ideological categories
are intellectually exhausted." (12/04/06)

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6800

-----

27) Better to be roadblocks than doormats
Orange County Register
by Steven Greenhut

"The following column is based on comments I made Nov. 29 to the
Eighth Annual Republican Senate and Assembly Members Caucus, at the
IslandHotel in Newport Beach. My goal was to encourage the delegation
to stick firmly to principles -- and not be too afraid to stick it to
a governor who has abandoned his embrace of freedom-friendly policies.
It's a kinder, gentler Republican era, even though our kinder, gentler
Republican president got the tar whacked out of him during the midterm
congressional elections. But California's Republican Lite governor,
Arnold Schwarzenegger, has handily won re-election, and the
Conventional Wisdom is that Republicans -- including those in the
Legislature -- need to follow his pattern to 'win.'" (12/03/06)

http://tinyurl.com/u7u9c

-----

28) Authority is the problem
Strike the Root
by Alex R. Knight III

"I have a problem with authority?!?! Actually, okay, you're damned
right I do. But that's only because I rather think it's those who
place themselves in that very position who have a really big problem
with it. To the extent, in fact, that none of them should or ever can
be entrusted with it, period." (12/05/06)

http://www.strike-the-root.com/62/knight/knight10.html

-----

29) Fight terrorism: Legalize heroin
Liberty Unbound
by Scott McPherson

"For years, Republicans have been talking up the need to reduce opium
production in Afghanistan. House Speaker Dennis Hastert said in 2001
that 'the illegal drug trade is the financial engine that fuels many
terrorist organizations around the world, including Osama Bin Laden,'
and in October 2003, the Washington Times reported that 'the Bush
administration has talked publicly of ridding Afghanistan of its
lucrative poppy crop that provides 70 percent of the world's heroin.'
'Ridding' is an unequivocal term -- like 'largest ever.' Obviously
things haven't turned out quite the way those in charge planned." (for
publication 01/07)

http://libertyunbound.com/archive/2007_01/mcpherson-heroin.html

-----

30) Americans vote NO on Bush; impeachment off table
Liberty For All
by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

"Mark your calendar. On December 10th, Human Rights Day, Americans
from across the country will meet to discuss the Impeachment of George
W. Bush and Richard Cheney, President and Vice-President of the United
States. The congruence of Human Rights Day and consideration of
Impeachment is curiously appropriate. What better day to begin the
process that is so needed to mend the lives of Americans? While Nancy
Pelosi considers the color of her drapes and tables discussion of an
impeachment sentiment that propelled her and other Democrats into
office Congresspersons ready themselves for oncoming rounds of
business as usual." (12/05/06)

http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=409

-----

31) Boris Berezovsky and the Bizarro Effect
AntiWar.Com
by Justin Raimondo

"When I first put forward my thesis that we are suffering from what I
call the Bizarro Effect -- the inversion of moral laws as well as the
rules of logic -- it was just a hypothetical, a tentative assessment
of the consequences of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I wasn't absolutely
sure that the sheer force of those planes hitting the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon had torn a hole in the space-time continuum
and plunged us into a Bizarro World alternate universe, where up is
down, right is wrong, and Satan sits on the throne of heaven. But the
evidence kept piling up, as the Bizarro Effect spread outward from its
starting points in lower Manhattan and Washington, D.C. It is now a
worldwide phenomenon and spreading fast. Let's take a tour, then, of
the world's hot spots, where the Effect is accelerating beyond
anything yet seen ... First stop -- London, site of the world's first
nuclear terrorist attack, where one Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB
agent turned whacked-out conspiracy theorist, was poisoned with
radioactive polonium." [editor's note: Interesting, but I'm beginning
to wonder if Justin is ever going to drop his Litvinenko chew-toy,
take a break from shilling for Putin, and get back to real issues -
TLK] (12/06/06)

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=10116

-----

32) Rifrickindiculous
Inactivist
by "Alex"

"OK, everybody knows that NYC just banned transfats from restaurants.
Now, I could say all of the things that libertarians always say when a
government bans something, and I would agree with those things, but
let's just stipulate all the usual libertarian stuff and move on.
Here's what I don't get: If there's any city in the US where
exercising and eating well should be easy, it would seem to be NYC. No
other city is more conducive to walking, and no other city has more
stores, restaurants, street vendors, etc. So it's not like New Yorkers
really 'need' any help with eating better and exercising more. So, of
all the places where a government decides to intervene for the alleged
benefit of consumers, it's NYC? WTF?" (12/05/06)

http://inactivist.org/rifrickindiculous

-----

33) Every knee shall b -- buh ...
Unqualified Offerings
by Jim Henley

"Is there really someone in official Washington dumb enough to think
that if we only 'make a deal' with Hakim at the expense of his various
rivals that the Administration will finally have found the guy who can
make it all work out for us? 'The guy' does not exist. Hakim is the
latest in a long line of backup quarterbacks in a town with a losing
football tradition. Nobody knows much about him, but they figure he
can't be worse than the shlump who's starting." (12/04/06)

http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2006/12/04/5682

-----

34) Another call for libertarian/liberal fusion
QandO
by McQ

"In reality, depending on the particulars, [Brink Lindsey's] game plan
isn't a particularly bad one, and, I'm certain, there are those
libertarians among us who would be open to a fusion with
'progressives' if indeed the liberalism talked about were the
traditional liberalism of Hayek and von Mises, and not that of Chomsky
and Pelosi. Of course that's what Lindsey is calling for, but I cannot
imagine the modern Democratic party jettisoning its 'preexisting
left-wing commitments' in favor of a more traditionally liberal
agenda. Because a more traditionally liberal agenda would be more
focused on liberty than egalitarianism, and egalitarianism is the core
of today's progressive agenda. What would be necessary to attract real
libertarians to the Democrats? They would have to do at least two
things. Embrace capitalism and reject populism." (12/05/06)

http://www.qando.net/details.aspx?Entry=5028

-----

35) Roots of Iraq debacle are in neocon ideology
Philadelphia Inquirer
by Justin Logan

"Early reports indicate that the Baker-Hamilton commission will
recommend that U.S. troops 'pull back' from the fighting in Iraq,
perhaps cutting the U.S. presence in half. But James Baker and Lee
Hamilton aren't in charge of U.S. foreign policy, and the report
itself can do little more than provide political cover for the
president to change course -- if he wants to. However, as President
Bush said on Thursday: 'This business about a graceful exit just
simply has no realism to it at all.' Part of the problem is rooted in
the neoconservative ideology by which the president is inspired. The
track record of neoconservative thought is not good." (12/05/06)

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/16164905.htm

-----

36) The libertarian big tent
LewRockwell.Com
by Walter Block and Tennyson McCalla

"[W]e are not Randians here. We tolerate disagreement; heck, even
encourage it. In the Objectivist movement, if you disagree with the
higher ups on even the slightest detail, you are summarily booted out
of their movement. The Austro-libertarian movement, at least as
organized through the Mises Institute, is very different. I have had
sharp disagreements in the literature with people such as Murray
Rothbard, Hans Hoppe, Stephan Kinsella and Roderick Long, very sharp
disagreements, and not only is no one purging anyone else, I count
myself lucky to be and to continue to be good friends with all of
them. Heck, I have even published several articles critical of Mises
himself, and the ground has not opened up and swallowed me." (12/06/06)

http://www.lewrockwell.com/block/block67.html

-----

37) Live richly or go for the yardage?
Daytona Beach News Journal
by Pierre Tristam

"The soldiery duty of old age brooks no dodgers, either. Late-age
suicide, which seems to me a perfectly reasonable way to call it a day
on one's own terms, and probably the single-most courageous act in a
life lived to the fullest, is still barely on the fringe of the
acceptable -- even when dignified assistance is available. (Oregon
legalized physician-assisted suicide in 1997 but has averaged just
31cases a year since). It's not the young and virile whom armies
should send into battle, but the old. Give them a last crack at a more
meaningful exit. If it was a choice between assisted living and a war
theater, there's no question which I'd rather be condemned to. Nothing
approaches the conscious vegetative state of assisted living. That, I
think, is what Steinbeck meant when he said that he 'did not want to
surrender fierceness for a small gain in yardage.' His willingness to
live with abandon and take his hangovers 'as a consequence, not as a
punishment' even in his late age would be an affront to the way we're
required to plod toward our inalienable expectancy now." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/y72gak

-----

38) Last stop for detainee cases
Legal Times
by Jason McClure

"With Democrats running Congress, and cases in the courts, detainees'
rights remain in limbo. When the U.S. military began shipping
prisoners from the war on terror to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, one goal was
clear: to keep them outside the reach of the U.S. court system. But
nearly five years later, those cases remain stuck exactly where the
Bush administration didn't want them to be." (12/04/06)

http://tinyurl.com/yxx29c

-----

39) Four hopeful signs
Truthout
by William Fisher

"Amidst the anger, dismay and depression felt by millions of Americans
who see their country's civil liberties being unnecessarily
surrendered in the name of 'The Global War on Terror,' there are
occasional signs that our justice system is still alive and well.
Recent weeks have brought four such signs. Sign One: Khaled El-Masri,
a German citizen, stood up in a US Federal courtroom to challenge the
Bush administration's use of 'extraordinary rendition,' abduction,
detention and interrogation in secret overseas prisons." (12/05/06)

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120506K.shtml

-----

40) Somewhere a banker smiles
CounterPunch
by Joe Bageant

"Consider this: The war in Iraq has been immensely profitable for the
people who make weapons and for the contractors who supposedly rebuild
what the weapons destroy. They profit in either case. And the longer
war goes on the more they will make. Meanwhile, the money for both is
obtained through extraction practiced upon the world's laboring poor.
But the big money, the 'juice' as street people used to say, comes
from squeezing the orange of American society for more work, more
production and tax money. Some of us older oranges are feeling pretty
wrung out these days and are getting hard as hell to get along with.
Yet, the squeeze doesn't seem to bother most Americans at all." (12/05/06)

http://www.counterpunch.org/bageant12052006.html

-----

41) Peekaboo, I'm spying on you
Wired
by Mr. Know it All

"Is getting a nannycam normal, or is it kind of creepy? First off,
recognize that if you install the camera without your nanny's
knowledge, you've entered a gray area. Legal scholars are divided as
to whether your nanny has a right to privacy in your home. Of course,
plenty of parents have used them secretly, and according to Rhyder
McClure of The New York NannyCam Company, surveillance yields results:
'For 20 percent of all the cameras we install,' he says, 'the nannies
are fired the next day.' Yikes. Before you proceed, though, ask
yourself: Why do you want a nannycam? Perhaps you harbor serious
suspicions that your nanny is running a meth lab in the kitchen while
your 1-year-old watches reruns of The A-Team. If you're truly that
uncomfortable with your child's caregiver, forget the camera -- just
fire the nanny." (12/06)

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.12/start.html?pg=7

-----

42) Bridge to Nowhere
The American Prospect
by Matthew Yglesias

"Reading major American newspapers is a bit like trying to decipher an
archeological text written in a dead language. Well-informed reporters
bring you the facts you need to know, but hemmed in by the canons of
objective journalism, they can't quite express what they're trying to
say. Thus the puzzling phenomenon of Peter Baker and Thomas Ricks'
latest analysis of the Baker Hamilton Commission's thinking on Iraq.
'The emerging plan by the Iraq Study group,' they write, 'tries to
find a middle road between President Bush's adamant refusal to leave
Iraq until the job is done and Democratic demands to pull out U.S.
troops.' ... Best of all, 'some military experts say the commission's
plan to pull out combat units by early 2008 and shift remaining troops
into a supporting role may be a logical response to the sectarian
violence.' Good news! But wait. Some experts? Say the ISG's proposals
may be a logical response to the sectarian violence? What kind of
consensus is this that they're reaching?" (12/05/06)

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=12275

-----

43) Bush's strategy of wishful thinking
Boston Globe
by H.D.S. Greenway

"America has been consumed by semantic silliness over whether the
catastrophe in Iraq is a civil war. It has been clear for almost a
year that a civil war between Shia and Sunni factions is in progress,
but the White House remains in denial, just as it previously refused
to admit there was an insurgency. There are good reasons for not
admitting to a civil war. During our own internal conflict,
Southerners spoke of 'The War of Northern Aggression.' In the
graveyards of New England, you find monuments honoring those who died
putting down 'The Great Rebellion.' Neither side wanted to admit to
any moral equivalence that the neutral term civil war might imply.
Both sides wanted grander terminologies to justify their losses. In
contrast, the Bush administration wants to minimize Iraq's struggles
because insurgency and civil war spell failure." [editor's note:His
side-comments about "America's French Revolution" aside, this is a
fairly good analysis of the present fiasco -SAT] (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/umxy3

-----

44) Blue Dogs no longer runts of Dems' litter
Fox News
by Greg Simmons

"Now that the results of the midterm election have demonstrated the
strength of moderate to conservative Democrats in swing districts, the
clout of the independently minded Blue Dog Coalition is on the rise,
say political observers, and its bite could match its bark. 'They can
cause fits for the majority leadership,' said Brookings Institution
scholar Ron Haskins. Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi 'is going to have a
lot of trouble holding that coalition together.' Democrats will hold
232 seats in Congress come January; Republicans will have 200, and
three races are still undecided but looking to go to the GOP. With 218
votes needed to pass legislation, and 44 incoming Blue Dogs next
Congress, according to the group, a strong voting bloc could make or
break Democratic-sponsored legislation." (12/05/06)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,234317,00.html

-----

45) Confronting Britain's teenage wasteland
Christian Science Monitor
by Peter C. Glover

"I doubt that self-destruction was quite what Pete Townshend had in
mind when his 'teenage wasteland' lyric hit the airwaves in 1971. If
he were writing today, the lead guitarist for British rock band The
Who could easily have focused on 'teenage waistlines' or any number of
burgeoning youth-culture issues. However Mr. Townshend meant his
words, young people in the West -- and especially in Britain -- are
most definitely not all right. 'On every indicator of bad behavior --
drugs, drink, violence, promiscuity -- the UK was at or near the top,'
BBC news reported Nov. 2, citing the results of a study by the
Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a British think tank.
Whatever cultural tensions led to this unsavory behavior, the demand
for the death of 'Victorian' values plainly ushered in more than the
freedom-loving 1960s generation bargained for." (12/04/06)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1204/p09s01-coop.html

-----

46) Ask for little, get nothing
Tom Paine
by Jonathan Tasini

"Mind-boggling. Cowardly. Tone deaf. When I read what passes for the
economic agenda for 'liberal' Democrats and even progressives, I can't
help but think that they have lost their minds, their imagination or
their spines. And I have judiciously left out the expletives that come
to mind so my editor will let this piece run. Let me remind the
quivering political leaders and think-tank, inside-the-Beltway experts
about the economic insecurity most people face in their daily lives.
... As for the government, it's a fiscal disaster mainly because this
administration, aided and abetted by some Democrats, has blessed a
wholesale raid on the public till by those for whom avarice knows no
limits. Yes, Iraq was central to the election but it's clear that
people voted for Democrats because of a general unease about their
economic futures." [editor's note: The "progressive" pundits claiming
this repeatedly, is reminiscent of Libertarian candidates for partisan
office, proclaiming how they're going to "win this time." It's also
equally delusional: the election was about the war, blatant abuse of
power ... and perhaps restoring a few civil liberties! - SAT] (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/ycum5z

-----

47) Perils of soft state paternalism
Free Market News Network
by Tibor R. Machan

"Jim Holt discusses the recent debate about soft paternalism, in his
essay in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine. His 'The New, Soft
Paternalism' is a fair and pretty thorough account of the debate about
whether people have multiple selves of which some may be wiser than
others and it does a decent job of considering whether the wiser
selves we have ought to get government support, as when states limit
gambling or other easily abused activities by their citizens. Holt
comes out in favor of the government's lending a hand to our wiser
selves in the end." (12/05/06)

http://www.fmnn.com/Analysis/117/6514/tibor.asp?nid=6514&wid=117

-----

48) Rating the presidents
Human Events
by Bruce Bartlett

"In Sunday's Washington Post, a group of historians tried to predict
what history will ultimately say about George W. Bush's presidency.
One said that he is the worst president, ever; a second agreed that he
was pretty bad, but still might redeem himself in his last two years;
and another said that only time will tell, noting that our views of
presidents often change with the perspective of time. Historians have
been playing this game for many years. It makes them feel relevant.
However, the methodology of such efforts never gets above that of a
simple popularity poll." (12/05/06)

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18319

-----

49) Two parts hubris, one part paranoia
Salon
by Cintra Wilson

"There is at least one nice thing one can say about former New York
mayor and current Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani --
besides, of course, his penchant for dressing in drag, his love for
opera, and the fact that he used to share an apartment with a gay man.
On 9/11, all Americans were frightened children, and in a moment of
mythic personal heroism, Mayor Giuliani filled the gaping leadership
void. The president looked like a petrified chimp; Cheney was spirited
to an underground bunker. Only Giuliani could pull himself together
sufficiently to get on TV in the midst of the wreckage and show
America that a grown-up was still breathing. On that terrible day our
reptile brains looked at Rudy Giuliani and said, 'We're OK now.
Daddy's home.' And we forgot, some for a moment, some permanently,
that Daddy was psycho." (12/05/06)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/12/05/giuliani/

-----

50) Why Newt is right
TCS Daily
by Josh Manchester

"Mr. Gingrich proposes a series of actions against our enemies: using
technology to disrupt their internet use; to disrupt their subversion
of free speech; and to stop their recruitment, presumably via the
internet .... Each of these is an inherently defensive method toward
forestalling catastrophe: disrupting internet use, websites, servers,
and such attacks the physical infrastructure of that which has been
identified to be harmful in some fashion. Disrupting the use of free
speech is also reactive and defensive in nature, however it is
performed. Governments and free speech advocates traditionally
perceive such questions as having an either-or polarity: either the
government allows all speech, or it does not, and begins a road down a
slippery slope toward the freedom of speech being defined by the
capriciousness of bureaucrats, judges, or dictators." [editor's note:
The reason such an either-or polarity is perceived is because it's
THERE; either government controls speech or it doesn't - TLK] (12/05/06)

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=120506B

-----

51) A right to earn a living?
The Free Liberal
by William R. Maurer

"Imagine you own a business that you built from the ground up. You
have satisfied customers, good employees and provide a useful service.
There's just one problem: your competitors don't like that you charge
less while providing better service. Instead of lowering their prices
and working harder, they call their lobbyists and get the government
to make your business illegal. Can they get away with this? According
to the U.S. Supreme Court, the answer is 'yes.'" (12/05/06)

http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/002462.html

-----

52) Cold fusion
The American Spectator
by John Tabin

"Is the old conservative-libertarian alliance, what National Review
co-founding editor Frank S. Meyer called fusionism, dead? Need we
replace it with a new fusion of liberalism and libertarianism? Writing
in the current New Republic, Cato Institute scholar Brink Lindsey
answers yes. He makes some specific suggestion on where liberals and
libertarians might find common ground in economic policy .... But
Lindsey goes further than merely calling for a political marriage of
convenience; he calls for 'a real intellectual movement, with
intellectual coherence. A movement that, at the philosophical level,
seeks some kind of reconciliation between Hayek and Rawls.' The
problem with this idea is that classical liberalism (or
libertarianism) and modern liberalism (or progressivism, or
egalitarian liberalism) are fundamentally at odds philosophically."
[editor's note: Maybe so, maybe not ... but the same argument can be
made concerning libertarianism and modern "conservatism" as well -
TLK] (12/05/06)

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=10714

-----

53) Affirmative inaction
Slate
by Dahlia Lithwick

"In the decades since Brown, school boards around the country strove
to integrate their schools -- sometimes by court decree and sometimes
voluntarily -- with an eye toward undoing the racial segregation that
follows urban housing patterns. Today's cases involve a school
district in Louisville, Ky., that was under a court order to
desegregate until 2000 and thereafter elected to maintain a program of
'managed choice' that strives for between 15 percent and 50 percent
black enrollment from kindergarten to graduation. A second program in
Seattle allocates high-school students to one of their top three
school choices, using race as one of several 'tiebreakers' for
oversubscribed schools. Parents in each district filed suit when their
kids were denied access to their preferred schools, claiming the
school districts' plans unconstitutionally violate the 14th Amendment
because they base admission on race. ... What is rapidly clear is that
these cases are less about doctrine, or even social science, than
about visceral impressions. These plans are, to the justices, either a
noble continuation of the court's fine work in Brown or a vile means
of reducing small children to the color of their skin." (12/04/06)

http://www.slate.com/id/2154853

-----

54) Their bodies, our selves
Reason
by Kerry Howley

"Dr. William Catalona just wants his blood and tissue back.
Internationally recognized for his research on prostate cancer,
Catalona is about as close as one comes to medical celebrity (he's
been called 'urologist to the stars'). Patients and their families
lavish gifts upon him: namely, the use of their blood and tissue,
which he has used to research more effective treatments. 'The Catalona
Collection,' thousands of tissue samples now sitting in freezers in
Washington University in St. Louis, is the sum total of their bodily
donations. It's also at the center of a recent push for Americans to
claim ownership over their bodies and the products derived from them.
Catalona moved to Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
in Chicago in 2003, and he planned to take the Catalona Collection
with him. He sent form letters to his donors, requesting permission to
transport the samples, which he considers theirs, not his. Six
thousand gave the green light. Before he could transfer the
collection, Washington University stepped in, arguing that the donors'
preferences were immaterial." (12/05/06)

http://www.reason.com/news/show/117046.html

-----

55) The Rumsfeld-Murtha option
National Review
by Rich Lowry

"There is nothing much wrong with Iraq that can't be improved by
having fewer American troops there. So contend outgoing Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the antiwar stalwart Rep. John Murtha, and,
apparently, the James Baker-Lee Hamilton-led Iraq Study Group. The
ISG's report won't be released until Wednesday. At first it seemed it
would recommend a steady drawdown of the American combat role
throughout the next year, to end entirely by 2008. Now, it seems the
recommendation will be vaguer, suggesting that President Bush kinda
maybe, if conditions are right, based on the judgment of U.S.
commanders acting with all due diligence, should reduce the U.S.
combat role sometime." [editor's note: Unsurprisingly, Lowry doesn't
agree that fewer US troops, let alone none, are "needed" in Iraq. Also
unsurprisingly, despite the fact that he's still a couple of years
within the expanded eligibility timeframe, he doesn't seem to be in
any hurry to enlist and help keep the US presence in Iraq up to full
strength - TLK] (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/ygx9ak

-----

56) Techsploitation: This is not progress
AlterNet
by Annalee Newitz

"Tech historians have two theories about why the Greeks and Romans
didn't get into gear mechanisms full bore and invent some kind of
clock or computer before the Holy Roman Empire smooshed Europe. First
of all, there was no power source for their gear devices other than
the hand crank. Weight-powered clocks weren't invented until the late
Middle Ages in Europe. So devices like the Antikythera Mechanism
weren't particularly practical unless you were an astronomer or a rich
collector. Plus, who needed to know time down to the minute? As long
as you knew the hours and seasons, you could get by just fine in
classical antiquity. More interesting to me is the theory that the
widespread practice of slavery in Greece and Rome would have prevented
people from trying to create machines that could perform human labor.
It's not that having slaves kept people from inventing gear mechanisms
-- it just kept them from imagining possible outcomes and
applications." (12/05/06)

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/45147/

-----

57) South Park libertarians
Reason
by Nick Gillespie and Jesse Walker

Interview with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone,
conducted at Reason magazine's recent Amsterdam conference. (12/06)

http://www.reason.com/news/show/116787.html

-----

58) Baker-Hamilton can't save us
Cato Institute
by Justin Logan

"Next week, the Baker-Hamilton Commission will make its
recommendations on U.S. Iraq policy, and Congress will begin hearings
on defense secretary nominee and Cold War realist Robert Gates. Both
events will reflect the failings of the Bush administration's policy
in Iraq. But even as a grudging acceptance of reality takes hold in
Washington, the architects of the war are urging that we double down
on the losing bet in Iraq. Amid spiraling sectarian violence, the
leading advocates of invading Iraq seem now to have centered on an
explanation for how their idea has driven that country to blood-soaked
disaster: deposing Saddam Hussein and replacing him with a secure,
stable and democratic government would have required around 400,000
troops -- as well as a willingness to occupy Iraq for many, many
years. But that was never going to happen." (12/05/06)

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6818

-----

59) Are more "thumpings" needed?
The American Conservative
by Pat Buchanan

"While the losses were not large for the sixth year of a sitting
president the significance of Nov. 7 is huge and the consequences will
be historic. But it is crucial to sift out what the nation was saying
and what it was not saying. This election was a referendum on George
W. Bush, the Iraq War, and the Republican Party, and undeniably a
repudiation of all three. Tuesday's rout is what happens to a
hubristic party that leads a nation into an unnecessary and unwise war
and presents that nation with a congressional face of self-indulgence
and corruption. But the nation that rejected Bush and the Republicans
did not reject conservatism. To the contrary, it seemed to want to
punish the prodigal sons for abandoning the faith of their fathers."
(12/04/06)

http://www.amconmag.com/2006/2006_12_04/buchanan.html

-----

60) CIA veteran: How Gates cooked the intel
Mother Jones
by Daniel Schulman

"Intelligence cherry-picked for ideological purposes; the claims of a
single, unreliable source treated as fact and stovepiped straight up
to the White House; a National Intelligence Estimate riddled with
dubious claims; efforts made to connect an enemy regime with
international terrorism. Echoing the prelude to the Iraq War, these
are, in fact, a sampling of the allegations directed at Robert Gates
15 years ago, when the Senate Intelligence Committee considered Gates'
nomination to be the director of Central Intelligence." (12/04/06)

http://tinyurl.com/ynd6dx

-----

61) The trouble with "just compensation"
Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Anthony Gregory

"Ever since the Kelo decision, activists around the country have
pushed for Eminent Domain reform. They've pushed ballot initiatives
and legislative efforts to curb the despotic power of the state to
seize private homes, businesses, land, and other assets. Most of this
legislation restricts or disallows the taking of private property for
another's private use, since this is what the Supreme Court permitted
states and localities to do." (12/05/06)

http://www.mises.org/story/2379

-----

62) Time to revisit FCC set-top box rules
Heartland Institute
by Randolph May

"A decade ago, Congress decided cable companies and their competitors
should allow consumer electronics manufacturers to make 'plug and
play' set-top equipment that would work with any cable or direct
broadcast satellite (DBS) service. Rather than leasing it, consumers
could buy such equipment from multichannel video program distributors
as well as retailers unaffiliated with cable or DBS service
operators." (12/06)

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=20219

-----

63) Will Democrats control Congressional spending?
Frontiers of Freedom
by Greg C. Reeson

"When Democrats take control of the House and Senate in January, they
will have the opportunity to push through Congress the many
legislative promises that they campaigned on in the run-up to the
midterm Congressional elections. Of course, those legislative promises
have to be paid for, and the problem for Democrats is that they also
promised there would be no new deficit spending. So how can
Representative Pelosi and Senator Reid advance their social agenda for
the lower and middle classes without engaging in the deficit spending
that has become a trademark of Washington politicians? Two options:
raise taxes or cut current federal spending programs." (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/tm9za

-----

64) The tradition of American philanthropy
Foundation for Economic Education
by Larissa Price

"The holiday season is a time when we are reminded of the importance
of charitable giving, particularly in the United States. It's when
Americans, even more than usual, give generously both of their time
and money to many private institutions, including churches, homeless
shelters, and food banks. This tradition is not new; from colonial
times to the present, Americans have made it possible for hundreds of
thousands of voluntary organizations to exist." (12/05/06)

http://www.fee.org/in_brief/default.asp?id=959

-----

65) Eco-censorship
Competitive Enterprise Institute
by Iain Murray

"Eppur si muove -- 'and yet it moves' -- was supposedly Galileo's
final statement after being forced by the Church to retract his
revolutionary cosmological theories. He had run up against the
overwhelming consensus of his time -- that the Earth was the center of
the universe and that saying otherwise was detrimental to the public
good, not to mention Galileo's health. For centuries, the scientific
method has been an antidote to such persecution." (12/04/06)

http://www.cei.org/gencon/019,05642.cfm

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66) Freedom Rings, 12/11/06
Freedom Rings

Open line libertarian talk radio with Kenneth John. 9AM CST on WRMN
1410 AM, Elgin, Illinois, or via webcast. [Live radio or stream]
(12/11/06)

http://www.freedomrings.net/

-----

67) Liberaltarianism
Cato Institute

Cato daily podcast, featuring Brink Lindsey. [MP3] (12/05/06)

http://tinyurl.com/uva7a

-----

68) FMNN eRadio: Smart stocking stuffer
Free Market News Network

"How can a person be protected against this 'Grinch' economy? Find out
with Jim Willie." [MP3 or stream] (12/05/06)

http://www.fmnn.com/eRadioLaunch.asp?rid=822

-----

69) Free Talk Live, 12/05/06
Free Talk Live

"NYC passes trans fat ban: screw your propery rights / Docile
Americans / Persuading Liberals / Bong Hits for Jesus / More evidence
against the 'gateway drug' theory / Cops arrest 12yr old who opened
xmas present early! / Freedom of the press under attack / Myspace,
Teens, and Pervs / Gene vs the IRS / Why don't we invade Vietnam
again? / Delegating Authority: Can you get it back? / Minimum Wage."
[MP3] (12/05/06)

http://ripple.radiotail.com/357/FTL2006-12-05.mp3

-----

70) Freedomain Radio #542
Freedomain Radio

"Bomb. James Bomb: The criminal media." With host Stefan Molyneux.
[MP3] (12/04/06)

http://www.freedomainradio.com/Traffic_Jams/FDR_542_James_Bomb.mp3

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* What's Up In The Freedom Movement
*************************************

71) Today's events

Check our sidebar calendar for this week's Thomas Szasz Awards
ceremony and other upcoming freedom movement events. Don't see your
event? Drop us a line at info@....

http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=info%40rationalreview.com

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* WaYbAcK
***********

72) America outlaws slavery (and the draft)

Details, and the "quote of the day," from Leon's Political Almanac at:

http://perspicuity.net/cgi/hypercal.cgi

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Thomas L. Knapp ..... Publisher
Mary Lou Seymour .... Editor
Steve Trinward ...... Editor
R. Lee Wrights ...... Editor
Brad Spangler ....... Editor