News and Politics

With all the bad news talk that becomes the norm during an election cycle, and from most politico’s all the time, Ronald Bailey has posted the following good news items on Reason’s web site:

Pollution Down: Toxic chemicals released into the air in the United States are down by 20 percent between 1998 and 2001, according to the latest report of the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation.

Cancer Down: The National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society released a report that finds “overall observed cancer incidence rates dropped 0.5 percent per year from 1991 to 2001, while death rates from all cancers combined dropped 1.1 percent per year from 1993 to 2001.”

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Well, this is a surprise. The Libertarian candidate isn’t who I expected, in fact I know very little about the guy. But to get the party started, here is the press release from lp.org:

=============================== NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY 2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100 Washington DC 20037 World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org =============================== For release: May 30, 2004 =============================== For additional information: George Getz, Communications Director E-mail: GeorgeGetz@HQ.LP.ORG ================================

Constitutional scholar Michael Badnarik selected as Libertarian presidential candidate

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Here’s an excellent piece from Walter E. Williams slamming these calls for the return of the draft in his usual amusing, dry and economic way:

Last year, Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) introduced bills calling for reinstatement of the military draft. A far more descriptive term for the military draft is government confiscation of labor services, but keeping with the spirit of euphemistic obfuscation, I’ll stick to the term draft. Let’s first ask why a draft would be needed in the first place.

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Cato has filed an interesting friend-of-the-court brief on the subject of whether it is constitutional for a citizen to refuse to talk to a law enforcement officer. Full Brief

[Listening to: Rush Limbaugh 2 - Premiere Radio Networks - (04:46)]

Here’s another good story if not a little nostalgic. Apparently, the inventor of Ctrl-Alt-Delete is retiring after 28 years with IBM.

[Listening to: Please Call Me, Baby - Tom Waits - The Early Years, Vol. 2 (03:42)]

Let’s just say that I haven’t been in the posting mood, but I’ve owed Savrx a reply on his comment on On Being American for the last week. On your first point, you are, in reality, correct but not correct in terms of justice. Yes we have created a great many laws that have endowed our citizens with privileges (a right cannot be granted, only prevented) that are not granted to those without citizenship. However, with the exception of some public official requirements and definitions of responsibilities of the courts, the Constitution makes no mention of the term “Citizen” including the original http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Amend.html. I do not think that this was an accident on the part of the Founding Fathers but a sign of their wisdom. This is why the recent Enemy Combatant rulings are such an atrocious miscarriage of justice. If you want my honest opinion, each time we pass a law that grants special privileges to citizens we lose a part of that identity which has made us so special and great.

I know it’s been more than a day since I made my proclamation that I was reentering the world of political discussion, but honestly it’s been hard to pick my subject after so long. However, I got my blood up last Wednesday and that’s usually all the impetuous I need but the writing took longer. But at long last here’s a little piece on what it means to be an American. Full Story

I was listening to Michael Savage on the radio the other night. I know it’s poor mental hygiene to indulge in such vices, but it’s all that was on the small talk radio circuit down here. For those of you who don’t know, Michael Savage is a self-avowed nationalist who hosts a nationally syndicated talk show called the Savage Nation.

That night he defined a country as a border, language and culture. With this as a basis, he went on to propose ending bilingual education and the complete closing of the borders. I had an instinctual revulsion to this diatribe but like all emotions, they are best consumed when understood. So the question really is what is an American?

It is rare that I am filled with the courage to post a retraction to one of my passionate statements. I know that this one will provide a great amount of hay for many of my readers; my friends Steve and Jim especially. However, to put it succinctly, I was overreaching in my ban on talk of politics. I’ve missed my ability to post. There have been real issues I would have liked to comment on that I have been unable to due to my self imposed ban.

Great and much maligned director Elia Kazan has passed away at 94 . . .

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[Listening to: Over Now - Alice In Chains - (07:03)]