Saturday, January 8, 2011

Libertarian Party condemns shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords

For Immediate Release
Saturday, January 8, 2011

WASHINGTON - Mark Hinkle, Chair of the Libertarian Party, issued a statement condemning the shooting of Congressional Representative Gabrielle Giffords, and others in Tucson, Arizona. According to reports, federal Judge John Roll and five others were killed in the shooting, and several others were seriously wounded.

“The Libertarian Party condemns the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and others today. We are saddened by the loss of life, the suffering of those who survived the shooting, and the grief and sorrow of their family and friends.

“This shooting was wrong, and is the kind of abhorrent political violence that threatens our freedoms.

"The Libertarian Party opposes the initiation of force and violence whether it is politically motivated or for other reasons. To become a member of the Libertarian Party, people are required to sign a statement certifying that they oppose the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals.

“Regardless of the motives and other circumstances surrounding the killing, the Libertarian Party maintains its steadfast defense of the Second Amendment and the uncompromising right to gun ownership. In a free society, citizens should be free to arm and protect themselves, their families, and their property. Sadly, because of restrictions placed on responsible gun owners by all levels of government, many people avoid carrying weapons that could be used to stop mass shootings.

“Our condolences go out to the victims and their families. We wish them a speedy and full recovery.”



Leno Reports, You Decide

Jay Leno
"In his first speech as Speaker, Boehner thanked his loved ones – tobacco lobbyists, the oil companies, the CEOs."

New Year for TSA

Beware Bipartisan School Reform

If everybody on the Hill is happy, Americans probably shouldn't be.


                                             
 
We are in for a season of grisly partisan bloodletting—or at least some pretty fierce jello wrestling—over health care, budgets, and pork, if the coverage of the opening days of the 112th Congress is any indication of things to come. But when it comes to education policy, politicians and pundits are inexplicably full of sunny optimism.


Patient zero in this epidemic of cheer is Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post this week expressing the hope that people on both sides of the aisle will “do something together for our children that will build America's future, strengthen our economy and reflect well on us all.”

Set off by Duncan, the rest of the political news pack followed with stories about how this year’s anticipated rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—re-christened No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2001—is going to be totally bipartisan and awesome. But any touted bipartisan action by Congress should be regarded with suspicion—the more touting there is, the more suspicion is merited—and education reauthorization is no exception.


Deep thoughts from Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy Fallon
"An escaped prisoner in Alaska was on the run for six hours before he was finally caught near Sarah Palin's hometown of Wasilla. When I think of safe places to run, I think 'the woods near Sarah Palin's house.'"

A Few Words In Defense of the N-Word, in the Novels of Mark Twain

                                                                                                   by Mikhail Lyubansky


Well, here's a piece I never imagined myself writing: A defense of a white man's use of the N-word.


I want to start with a little back-story: I don't use the N-word. Not ever. But I used to, not so long ago. I used it in the context of talking about racism in my psychology of race and ethnicity course and only when quoting the written words of scholars and prominent historical figures. I stopped (about 5 years ago) after several students told me that hearing the word, even in this context, was painful for them. I stopped because it was clear to me that the students were sincere and because I thought I could teach the content just as well by saying "N-word".


I haven't questioned this choice since then, but ever since the Huck Finn story broke, I've been doing just that. See, all of the students who complained that hearing "nigger" in class was painful were white and so it seems is the vast proportion of people who a) kept Huckleberry Finn off the school curriculum and b) like the idea of a "cleaner" version of Mark Twain's novel.


Now I don't want to over-stress this point. The feelings and needs of white people matter too. It's why I switched to using "N-word" in my class. But the source of the discomfort is not irrelevant either. For one, it suggests whose needs are being considered and served by the given act. As far as I can tell, the new (edited) edition of Huck Finn is primarily designed to serve the needs of white conservatives. This too is okay, as long as we acknowledge that this is what's happening and not pretend that this is some kind of racially progressive act that will improve the lives of people of color.

It's more complicated than that, of course. In a recent opinion piece in the New York Times, law professor Paul Butler (who is Black) wrote


"I suffered through Huckleberry Finn in high school, with the white kids going out of their way to say "Nigger Jim" and the teacher's tortured explanation that Twain's "nigger" didn't really mean n-word, or meant it ironically, or historically, or symbolically. Whatever."
No doubt Butler's experiences were not unusual for either his time or today, and I wouldn't wish them on anyone. Student racial insensitivity and teacher discomfort with both our country's racist past and contemporary racial inequity are serious problems requiring thoughtful strategies. I just happen to think that the strategy of removing racially objectionable content cannot possibly be effective in anything other than eliminating discomfort, and I am becoming increasingly convinced that, from an educational standpoint, the elimination of discomfort is counterproductive.


Copyright © 2011 OpEd News

Friday, January 7, 2011

In Depth Political Analysis




"They now say that our national debt will have to be paid off by our children. So thank God for Kate Gosselin and the Octomom."

Jay Leno

Prohibitionists: Leave Us Alone!

The government has no business attacking caffeinated alcoholic drinks
By John Stossel

Sometimes I drink Scotch and then, to wake myself up, I drink coffee. So what? Many people consume mixtures of caffeine and alcohol in drinks like rum and Coke. Again, so what?

But recently some college kids started drinking pre-mixed combos of alcohol and caffeine with names like Four Loko and Moonshot '69. Moonshot '69 is a pilsner beer with less than a coffee cup's worth of caffeine. Until recently, Four Loko contained 12 percent alcohol—about the same as wine—and as much caffeine as a cup of coffee. A few students, after drinking Four Loko, landed in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. Naturally, hysterical news reports followed.

A new bogeyman was born: caffeinated alcoholic beverages.

As night follows day, the Food and Drug Administration in November ordered beverage companies to lose the caffeine or shut down. The FDA called caffeine an "unsafe food additive." Phusion Products says it will now produce only noncaffeinated Four Loko. Moonshot '69 is off the market for now, which is bad news for Rhonda Kallman, who founded the company that makes it, New Century Brewing.

"There is nothing new about adults combining caffeine and alcohol," Kallman writes on her company website. "Who hasn't enjoyed a rum and Coke, Irish coffee, Kahlua or espresso martini? ... Moonshot '69 is a beer for beer drinkers that has been enjoyed by craft-beer lovers since 2004."

Her online petition states: "We the undersigned support the right of responsible adults to choose the beer of their choice. We support Moonshot69 and the rights of craft brewers across the country to produce new and innovative offerings for the beer drinking public. ... We call on the federal government to adhere to responsible regulation of alcoholic beverages that allows adults to enjoy the beer of their choice."

Unfortunately, Kallman tries to separate her product from higher-alcohol FDA targets, but Nick Gillespie of Reason magazine argues that the FDA has no business limiting the sale of any of the alcohol/caffeine combos.

"This has been going on for as long as there have been colleges and universities," he said. "You can go back to the Middle Ages, and booze and students go together like, I guess, beer and caffeine.

Aren't some drinks more dangerous than others?

"I don't think so. But when we raised the drinking age to 21 ... we told young people ... you can vote, you can enter a contract, you can go to war, you can die for your country, but if you want to drink and you're going to college, you better go off campus into a basement apartment somewhere and chug like there's no tomorrow because you don't know when you're going to be able to get drunk again."

He points out that by forbidding pre-21 adults from drinking openly around their elders, we deny them the chance to be exposed to responsible drinking.

About the ban on caffeinated alcoholic drinks, he added, "You can't minimize the overreach by the FDA."

Read more Reason by Stossel






In Depth Political Analysis




"Why is it no human being can withstand more than two years as a presidential press secretary? There must be an organ somewhere in the body that can only filter two years worth of heavy duty bullsh*t."


Jon Stewart on Robert Gibbs' retirement

Thursday, January 6, 2011

In Depth Political Analysis




"Congress was broadcast live on Facebook for the first time in history. Now you can waste time and not get work done by watching Congress waste time and not get work done."

Jimmy Fallon

Interesting Analysis




"
This weekend in Arkansas, thousands of dead birds dropped out of the sky and there were 100,000 dead fish in the rivers. Also, McDonald's is having a special on Chicken McNuggets and Filet of Fish
."

Jay Leno

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

In Depth Political Analysis




"Airports are considering dumping TSA and hiring their own security. You see these TSA guys just standing around with their thumbs up our asses."


Jay Leno

Economic Catastrophe




There is a saying that "forewarned is forearmed." It is my contention, and has been for some time, that our national fiscal direction can only end one way; in disaster. Debt, spending, quantitative easing (printing money), trade imbalances, unfunded liabilities, pensions and a host of other issues are, in the words of most politicians and economic experts, unsustainable. The question is, what happens when it actually ceases to be sustained?

In other countries like Chile, Zimbabwe and Germany after World War 1 where these fiscal policies have been followed, hyperinflation was the result, which is the total collapse of the currency and, by extension, the economy. Inflation is already rearing its ugly head as we head toward $5 a gallon gas and other commodities, like food, rise to a degree that really puts a pinch on most consumers. If the Federal reserve finally starts to recognize the inflationary pressure we are under, interest rates will rise, suppressing even more economic activity and sending housing down even farther.

The decisions that have brought us here have been made, and will continue to be made, at the national level, primarily by unelected officials we have no control over. Debt, unfunded liabilities and the creation of gobs of fiat money have pushed us over the edge, we are only awaiting the inevitable collapse of an unsustainable system.

In an attempt to educate the community about these issues and encourage preparation for what’s coming, I have developed a seminar titled "Surviving the Coming Economic Catastrophe" which I will be presenting at the West Side Community Center in Bivalve on Wednesday January 19 at 7PM. I would like to personally invite you to come and educate yourself about our current fiscal situation, its causes and coming consequences, what we can do as individuals and communities to prepare and what we must do to come out on the other side of this coming crisis reestablishing our freedom as Americans and ensuring that our best days are still ahead.

Michael Calpino

Monday, January 3, 2011

An Iraq War Veteran’s Quest for the True Meaning of Liberty and Patriotism

by Andrew Mason

Going into high school in 2001, I had no idea what the future held for me. Then 9/11 happened. I had the Bushian mentality (being raised in a staunch Republican household) of "let’s go get some," and since he had said that I could either be "either with the terrorists or against the terrorists," I wanted to be against the terrorists like every other American. My motivation and will to live were at their highest they had ever been after I enlisted in the Marine Corps. I thought to myself, "I am going to make a difference in this world. I am going to fight for our freedom!" I graduated from high school a semester early in January of 2005 to attend Marine Corps Basic Training. I deployed twice to the killing fields of Iraq, and I was completely oblivious to the fact that the war was based on total lies. I had friends who were maimed and murdered all in the name of nothing genuinely patriotic. I wish more of them were able to read the articles at lewrockwell.com and campaignforliberty.com before they made the fateful choice of enlisting.

I barely made it out of my first deployment alive, after a few close calls with IEDS and mortars (I was a M1A1 tank driver and later a gunner), which in turn lead to the collapse of my morality. I guess it is a little difficult to keep your morals when you witness the carnage most of us have faced there, like children running out in the streets getting their heads blown off, and suicide bombers blowing themselves up and killing my mentors. I came back from the war a soulless degenerate. I started hating Muslims for what I thought they stood for from my experience in the Middle East. While on my post deployment leave I would drive past the local mosque and look with pure disgust. I would think to myself, "Look at all of these terrorists," as I held a death grip on my steering wheel. It is amazing what war and war propaganda does to the mind. Man, was I wrong.

At that point, my morality had sunk into the abyss. I started drinking heavily to help numb my hatred towards life itself, which helped pass the time until my next deployment to Iraq. My next deployment consisted of wondering around the desert aimlessly looking for "bad guys." This was kind of a metaphor for what was going on in my mind. I felt completely lost about everything, and I thought to myself, "What the hell are we doing here?" I was discharged, somehow honorably, in 2009 and I still felt completely lost. I moved back to Ohio with my family, and I started praying like my parents always told me I should. I thought I might go into law enforcement like many veterans do, so I moved to Southern California to scope out a potential career.

After a few months of praying and cleaning up my act, I started finding answers. I was living in San Diego, where I was going to school at the time, and I wanted to work in the security industry for some extra cash. I was speaking to a Vietnam veteran who was giving a class for those who wish to get into the security industry, and he completely opened my eyes to a fact that had not been brought to my attention in the Marines. He said to all of us, "The reason the U.S. has so many enemies is because we create them by not minding our own business." Right then and there it was like the veil of deceit had been ripped from my eyes. I went home and started searching for all things related to foreign policy, which is how I found Ron Paul on YouTube. I watched Dr. Paul’s famous "What If?" speech, and I could not help but become furious. It was not because the Congressman offended me, but because he had enlightened me about just how wrong I was. I knew, as soon as I was done watching his speech, it was not a "What If" speech but a "What Is!" speech. After watching the "What Is!" speech, I was led to Web sites like campaignforliberty.com, antiwar.com, and lewrockwell.com. I started to become even more outraged after realizing that I had been lied to my entire life by my government, the media, and my history teachers. I really took a hit in the face while watching our former fearless leader President Bush jokingly say in front of the elite media "Those weapons of mass destruction gotta be somewhere." I wonder if the thought of my fellow veterans blood-curdling screams or the children of the Middle East getting blown to smithereens in the name of protecting us from those non-existent weapons ever crossed his mind. Probably not, just like the real sounds of war haven’t entered the mind of our current chicken-hawk-in-chief, Barack Obama.

Veterans Day is no longer a holiday I will celebrate, unlike most Americans who thank our service members for "defending our freedom." I can only hope that someday all of the flag-wavers and veterans marching in the parades realize that the people of the United States have been manipulated into every war of the past hundred years, and are continuously being bombarded with propaganda to continue the wars today. Will my fellow Marines ever come to know that Major General Smedley Butler is not just the name of a war hero whose words we had to memorize by heart? Will they ever come to realize, as General Butler realized, that we are and were nothing but "musclemen" for the criminal corporate and banking cartels, and servants for the Corporatists who are perpetuating the destruction of the very idea they claim to be fighting for. I have come to this realization.

I wrote this article to give some truth to the concluding statement in Mark Crovelli’s article "Kiss Honor and Morality Goodbye in the U.S. Armed Forces." In his concluding statement, Mr. Crovelli said, "May God protect us all from this group of people whose allegiance is to secrecy, immoral war, and lying politicians, instead of to defending the people of the United States." I believe that some sort of divine intervention, in combination with a good conscience, has indeed shown me the light towards real morality and real patriotism through articles like the ones found at this Web site and other liberty-loving websites. Furthermore, I see that many more veterans have and will come to see the light of truth. My goal is to help highlight the fact that they, like myself, have sworn to "uphold and defend the Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic," and that our greatest threat comes from the state itself; not the Middle East. As long we continue to educate all of those who are and were serving in the military about the constant stream of lies our government spews, they will join the true patriots and the actual fight for the restoration of liberty.

January 3, 2011

Andrew Mason is a former corporal in the U.S.M.C
.

Copyright © 2011 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.