You Don't Own That Tractor

You don't own your tractor and you don't own your car. You're just leasing it, for all intents and purposes from the manufacturer, (even if you've "paid it off"). That's the case that the corporations are making to the Copyright Office, anyway. Since they've managed to put so much software into your modern vehicles, (like your John Deere tractor and your Honda) they are using the DMCA to assert ownership over your vehicle. You're just buying a license to use the vehicle. This kind of nonsense goes a long way towards destroying what little faith people have in the concept of Property Rights and the "intellectual property" movement. I, as a consumer am at the mercy of these corporations and their highly paid lawyers, if I want to attempt to repair my own vehicle. They assert that they, not I, are the real owners of the vehicle, because they wrote a a few pages of code to aid in the operation of the vehicle. Sorry, intellectual property mavens, I don't buy it. I didn't sign a contract or users license when I purchased my vehicle that allowed for anything other than full ownership of the vehicle and its contents, software included. If I want to tinker with it, that's my affair once it's in my hands. This nonsense has to be stopped. At the rate we're going the entire concept of ownership will be destroyed, and with it, our basic rights as property owners.

No Winners In This Go Around

There will be no winners this go around of the election machine. Especially for folks like me, whose ballot would look blank for the most part. It's highly doubtful that any of the folks I would choose to represent me will win their election bids. Some republicrat will likely win and take that victory as a mandate to do as they will to us for another cycle, as opposed to what it actually is. Just a loss by democrats. My prognostication in this arena says we'll see little substantive change, no matter who "wins" or who is retained. Government's going to continue its cancerous growth if the republicrats take the House and/or Senate. Spending may be cut by a $100 billion or so, but that's literally a drop in the bucket with spending in the multiple trillions of dollars.
The wars will continue apace and more people will die, more enemies will be made and more wealth will be squandered.

If there are any "winners" this time around, it will likely be those who didn't vote. They are likely to be in a majority, as usual. Maybe they know something that everyone else doesn't, huh? Even hamsters eventually tire of running in the wheel and slink off to do something better. Maybe we need a cycle where we all just take a time out and no-one votes for anyone, so we can show them how we really feel about them.

After The Iceberg

What are you willing to get rid of to avoid the inevitable catastrophic debt driven crash that is coming due in the next few years? Are you truly willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that your family survives? Even if it means jettisoning your favourite sacred, political entitlement cow? I am. For the sake of my children I will gladly forgo Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the empire building military. It's all a matter of simple math and Jacob G. Hornberger, over at the Future of Freedom Foundation breaks it down into easily understandable parable for us.

Ship Captain: Ladies and gentlemen, the Titanic is sinking, but calculations made by our engineers show that there is still one way to save the ship and all the passengers. That’s the reason I have summoned you to this meeting. All of you have brought with you large suitcases containing your welfare-state benefits of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and your warfare-state benefits of military contracts. Our officials have made careful calculations and concluded that if you will just throw these suitcases overboard, the ship — and everyone on it — will be saved. Therefore, would you please proceed to your cabins, grab your suitcases, and toss them overboard?

We're going to hit that iceberg. It's now inevitable and unavoidable. The only question remains is whether we go down with the ship, make it to a life boat or manage to save the vessel.

The Anniversary Of A Return To Sanity

Today marks the 76th anniversary of the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution of these United States. On this day in 1933 the U.S. returned to sanity and eased the governments grip on the citizenry. Sadly, it did not release its grip and many of the organisations that were created to wage the governments war on people still exist in one form or another today. They still wage a silent war on alcohol via taxation and regulation and use various agencies to enforce their diktats.
We still have unConstitutional prohibition on many other substances, some of which are far less harmful and more useful than alcohol. The new prohibitions have the same effect that the old Constitutional one did. They increase crime, corruption, the powers of the state and decrease liberty and personal freedom. Perhaps, the country still needs another dose of therapy to complete the process. Perhaps government paternalism could finally be laid to rest. Today would be a great day to start that process. Unfortunately, we aren't likely to see that anytime soon. Ah, well. A guy's got to have a dream to aspire to.
Happy 21st Amendment Day!

The Great Thanksgiving Hoax

As children in school most of us were taught the story of the pilgrims of Plymouth and their bounteous harvest after a period of tough times. This story, like so many we were taught was a fictional account. William Bradford, the colonies governor tells a different story in his "History Of Plymouth Plantation". It's much more inspirational than the fictional tale. Go and enjoy it, courtesy of Mises.org.

Each year at this time school children all over America are taught the official Thanksgiving story, and newspapers, radio, TV, and magazines devote vast amounts of time and space to it. It is all very colorful and fascinating.

It is also very deceiving. This official story is nothing like what really happened. It is a fairy tale, a whitewashed and sanitized collection of half-truths which divert attention away from Thanksgiving's real meaning.

The official story has the pilgrims boarding the Mayflower, coming to America and establishing the Plymouth colony in the winter of 1620-21. This first winter is hard, and half the colonists die. But the survivors are hard working and tenacious, and they learn new farming techniques from the Indians. The harvest of 1621 is bountiful. The Pilgrims hold a celebration, and give thanks to God. They are grateful for the wonderful new abundant land He has given them.

The official story then has the Pilgrims living more or less happily ever after, each year repeating the first Thanksgiving. Other early colonies also have hard times at first, but they soon prosper and adopt the annual tradition of giving thanks for this prosperous new land called America.

The problem with this official story is that the harvest of 1621 was not bountiful, nor were the colonists hardworking or tenacious. 1621 was a famine year and many of the colonists were lazy thieves.

Get thee hence and peruse the rest. And have a happy Thanksgiving, too!

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Thanksgiving, libertarian

A Country Of Illiterates

I'm often left wondering what's wrong in this country. Why do people think the way they do. Act the way they do and, especially vote the way they do. Vin Suprynowicz, noted libertarian, author and editor at the Las Vegas Review Journal provides me with some answers to my questions. In past editorials he has taken teachers, their unions and the American educational system to task for their obvious failures. His detractors amongst the teaching elite, and their supporters are quick to whine and attempt to deflect blame away from themselves. It's difficult to admit when you're wrong. Even harder to admit that you have been responsible for damaging untold numbers of children over the years, too.

"Abundant data exist from states like Connecticut and Massachusetts to show that by 1840 the incidence of complex literacy in the United States was between 93 and 100 percent wherever such a thing mattered. According to the Connecticut census of 1840, only one citizen out of every 579 was illiterate, and you probably don't want to know, not really, what people in those days considered literate; it's too embarrassing. ...

"By 1940, the literacy figure for all states stood at 96 percent for whites, 80 percent for blacks. Notice for all the disadvantages blacks labored under, four of five were still literate. Six decades later, at the end of the 20th century, the National Adult Literacy Survey and the National Assessment of Educational Progress say 40 percent of blacks and 17 percent of whites can't read at all. Put another way, black illiteracy doubled, and white illiteracy quadrupled."

It's hard to argue with things like that, though people have tried to do so. The American "educational system" is broken and agenda driven and may not be able to be fixed at all. I live in a town that has a "good" educational system and even so I have noticed that there are teachers in it who can't spell, punctuate or create a grammatically correct sentence or paragraph. My sons third grade teacher was just such a one. She was, by any standard an example of a teacher who should not be allowed to "teach". Radical change is going to be necessary and it must come sooner rather than later if we are to avoid the inevitable slide into irrelevance as a first world nation.

Those currently in power have no intention, or interest in ever changing things. They are vested in the current system and applaud it's further degradation. It's much easier to rule the illiterate. They are at the mercy of those who can read and think and are much more likely to believe the words of pundits and populists. Just look at the last elections results. It also bodes ill for the literate, as well. When you're surrounded by those who can no longer think for themselves your lives and fortunes are also at risk. Easily manipulatable masses can be made to accept anything by the master manipulators who run politics in this country. We're losing generations of people to the current system and if we don't make changes, (other than throwing piles of wasted tax dollars at it) then we will be facing the direst of consequences, a populace that has lost the ability to think and reason.

The time is now. Not tomorrow.

Technorati Tags
Education, Libertarian, Politics, Illiteracy

The Shape Of Things To Come III

With the inevitable advent of progressive inspired "health care" legislation in our near future, we can get a glimpse at what is headed our way. The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Washington States health rationing panel and what it has done to people who are using their government inspired "health care" scheme. It's certainly not a pretty sight, but it is what's likely to be foisted on the people who choose to be part of the government plans or those forced into it. I pity those poor folks.

In other words, the Medicare commission would come to function much like the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which rations care in England. Or a similar Washington state board created in 2003 to control costs. Its handiwork isn't pretty.

The Washington commission, called the Health Technology Assessment, is manned by 11 bureaucrats, including a chiropractor and a "naturopath" who focuses on alternative, er, remedies like herbs and massage therapy. They consider the clinical effectiveness but above all the cost of medical procedures and technologies. If they decide something isn't worth the money, then Olympia won't cover it for some 750,000 Medicaid patients, public employees and prisoners.

So far, the commission has banned knee arthroscopy for osteoarthritis, discography for chronic back pain, and implantable infusion pumps for pain not related to cancer. This year, it is targeting such frivolous luxuries as knee replacements, spinal cord stimulation, a specialized autism therapy and MRIs of the abdomen, pelvis or breasts for cancer. It will also rule on routine ultrasounds for pregnancy, which have a "high" efficacy but also a "high" cost.

Currently, the commission is pushing through the most restrictive payment policy in the nation for drug-eluting cardiac stents—simply because bare metal stents are cheaper, even as they result in worse outcomes. If a patient is wheeled into the operating room with chest pains in an emergency, doctors will first have to determine if he's covered by a state plan, then the diameter of his blood vessels and his diabetic condition to decide on the appropriate stent. If they don't, Washington will not reimburse them for "inappropriate care."

If Democrats impose such a commission nationwide, it would constitute a radical change in U.S. health care. The reason that physician discretion—not Washington's cost-minded judgments—is at the core of medicine is that usually there are no "right" answers. The data from large clinical trials produce generic conclusions that rarely apply to individual patients, who have vastly different biologies, response rates to treatments, and often multiple conditions. A breakthrough drug like Herceptin, which is designed for a certain genetic subset of breast-cancer patients, might well be ruled out under such a standardized approach.

It's appalling that so many people will be forced to suffer under such a plan, but it is almost inevitable that this will be the case. The politicians in DC are determined to do something to us, where insurance and "health care" are concerned. Even if it kills us.

Happy Birthday, Internet!

It's hard to believe but 40 years ago today the internet was born. Forty years ago there weren't even any personal computers, now we carry them around in our pockets. The internet has changed the way we do everything, from communicating with each other to ordering a pizza. It has invaded almost every facet of our lives unlike any technology I can think of. When we need the most minuscule bits of information we just hop on our computers and, more often than not that information is retrieved in seconds. This post, and the article that reminded me of this significant day were brought to me via that internet. Amazing, that in my lifetime such a thing has occurred.

It's stretched our boundaries and made our "communities" bigger than they otherwise would be. It's certainly enhanced the freedom movement and brought liberty to many a persons thoughts and actions. The internet has brought diverse communities across the globe together. Warned us and informed us of hope, tragedy, tyranny and freedom. Here's hoping that the next 40 do even more to enhance our lives and promote freedom and liberty. Let the next revolution begin!

Happy Birthday, Internet!

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Libertarian, Internet, Birthday

Climate Change? Whatever.

With the upcoming climate meeting in Copenhagen, (where we'll likely be sold out) there's all sorts of propaganda out there. I rather like this remix of a British commercial. It seems to sum up the true spirit behind the movement. (Not necessarily safe for work).



Technorati Tags:
Climate Change, Al Gore, Libertarian

Hat Tip to The Flea

Taxing Our Hearts And Valves

Because they wouldn't play ball with him Obama plans to tax manufacturing jobs out of existence in Indiana. At least those manufacturers who make medical devices. That's some hope and change, there. Chicago politics at its best. Hope the people of Indiana remember this come 2012. Especially those folks who need prosthetics of one sort or another. From The Hill comes this bit of news concerning the people who refused to play ball with the Capo di Tutti Capo now in the White House.

The more the fiscal details of the healthcare bills emerge, the more appalling they seem. The Senate Finance Committee bill includes a broad provision taxing all manner of medical devices. This tax includes such frivolous luxuries as pacemakers, stents, artificial heart valves, defibrillators, automated wheelchairs, mechanized artificial limbs, replacement hips and knees, surgical gurneys, laparoscopic equipment and the like.

President Obama is planning to reduce the cost of medical care by taxing it!


The most recent Gallup Poll reflected that 49 percent of respondents said they believed that the ObamaCare plan will increase their healthcare costs. Only about 20 percent said it would lower them. It is taxes like these that substantiate this kind of concern.

The origins of this new medical device tax are troubling as well.

The medical device industry had its day at the White House, as did the insurance industry, the drug makers, the nurses and the doctors. In turn, each group heard the White House request that it come up with voluntary cuts in its healthcare costs and support Obama’s proposed changes in return for assurances that Congress would not impose deeper cuts (or, in the case of the doctors, that it would actually rescind cuts already scheduled under current statutes).

But, unlike all these other groups, the medical device industry refused the deal. This posture enraged the tyrants in the White House, who vowed to punish the industry with cuts imposed by Congress. The result was a decision by the revenue-hungry Senate Finance Committee to extract billions in funds from the industry.

For those of you that thought he'd be a breathe of fresh air....feh. There's no such thing in Chicago. What we had foisted on us was gangster government at its finest. And now we'll all pay for your mistakes.

Technorati Tags
Taxation, Healthcare, Gangster Government, Libertarian

You Talkin' To Me?

I was always taught that there are no such things as stupid questions. Apparently, Nancy Pelosi never learned that at her mothers knee. When a CNS reporter asked her where Congress got the authority to force people to buy health insurance, she had no answer. Just derision. Typical of the ruling elite.

CNSNews.com: “Madam Speaker, where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority to enact an individual health insurance mandate?”

Pelosi: “Are you serious? Are you serious?”

CNSNews.com: “Yes, yes I am.”

Pelosi then shook her head before taking a question from another reporter. Her press spokesman, Nadeam Elshami, then told CNSNews.com that asking the speaker of the House where the Constitution authorized Congress to mandated that individual Americans buy health insurance as not a "serious question."

no doubt, when the rest of us were learning politeness and the basics of civil discourse she was learning Rules for Radicals and the doctrines of Marx and Lenin.

On a related note: Forcing people to buy broccoli.

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Pelosi, Healthcare, Libertarian

Yes, As A Matter Of Fact They Are Watching You

From Wired comes the news that the government has bought a stake in a company which makes its hay looking at blogs and categorizing their contents. No doubt this will be for our own good and will not be used to create profiles of people who choose to speak out against government policies they find abhorrent. There's no way they'd ever create an enemies list. Right?

America’s spy agencies want to read your blog posts, keep track of your Twitter updates — even check out your book reviews on Amazon.

In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the flood of TV shows, newspaper articles, blog posts, online videos and radio reports generated every day.

Visible crawls over half a million web 2.0 sites a day, scraping more than a million posts and conversations taking place on blogs, online forums, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and Amazon. (It doesn’t touch closed social networks, like Facebook, at the moment.) Customers get customized, real-time feeds of what’s being said on these sites, based on a series of keywords.

“That’s kind of the basic step — get in and monitor,” says company senior vice president Blake Cahill.

It was bad enough when a private company was doing it. Now that the government has a stake in it? Yeah, that's worse.

The Kings Largess

Obama is relishing his role as anointed saviour for the Democrats. Now come this story of his largess, otherwise known as vote buying to the rational sector.

WASHINGTON — President Obama urged Congress on Wednesday to authorize a second $250 stimulus check to be sent early next year to an estimated 57 million Social Security recipients, veterans and people with disabilities.

In effect, the payment would be in lieu of a cost-of-living increase for Social Security beneficiaries next year. The White House request, and receptive statements from Congressional Democratic leaders, anticipated an announcement on Thursday from the Social Security Administration that there would be no cost-of-living adjustment for 2010 because the inflation rate has been negative as the recession has driven down prices.

By contrast, a year ago the cost of living adjustment was 5.8 percent, reflecting strong inflation and high energy prices.

White House officials put the cost of the checks at $13 billion. The first $250 checks went out in May as part of the $787 billion two-year stimulus package. As with that package, the officials said Mr. Obama would not ask Congress to offset the cost with other savings because the checks were intended to stimulate the economy, and budget cuts or tax increases would defeat that.

The money would go to all Social Security beneficiaries, regardless of their income, as well as disabled veterans, those eligible for railroad retirement payments and people who receive federal and state government pensions instead of Social Security.

This is a blatant attempt on his part to buy votes. With soaring deficits and out of control spending from Congress, the fact that he would even think of spending more money is mind boggling.Then again, nothing this man does surprises me any more. His complete lack of understanding about the economy and spending is monumental. He and his cohorts in Congress see a rough time ahead, as we he get into the 2010 elections. Here's a chance to target likely voters and buy some votes, which they'll likely need. The fact that we, and our kids, shall have to pay for his vote buying scheme only adds to the issue. Maybe he could use some of his Nobel money to fund this? Naw. Bet that never occurs to him.

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Obama, Stimulus, Libertarian, Voting

Something For Nothing

As may happen quite often I return to the trio from the Great White North for inspiration and commentary. They say it much better than anyone else.



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Rush, Libertarian, Taxation

Uprising

via PSM comes the original inspiration to post this tune by Muse. It's been getting a lot of airplay lately and I can see why. It appeals to the revolutionary in us all.



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Muse, Libertarian

Vermont Gets It Right

In a perfect world the government would be forbidden from interfering in the rites of marriage. So would fundamentalist bigots and their ilk. Until that day comes we shall have to rely upon people of courage in state legislatures to do the right thing by the people of their state. That's exactly what has occurred today in Vermont as they have legalised gay marriage and shunted aside the petty compromise of civil unions.

DUXBURY, Vt. — After 17 years together, Bill Slimback and Bob Sullivan couldn't wait another minute to get married. So they didn't.

With Vermont's new law allowing same-sex marriage only a minute old, they tied the knot in a midnight ceremony at a rustic lodge, becoming one of the first couples to legally wed under a law that took effect at midnight Monday.

Dressed in suits, saying their vows under a large wall-mounted moose head, the two Whitehall, N.Y., men promised their love, exchanged rings and held hands during a modest 17-minute ceremony. Moose Meadow Lodge co-owner Greg Trulson, who's also a Justice of the Peace, presided.

"It feels wonderful," said Slimback, 38, an out-of-work Teamster who is taking Sullivan's last name as his own. "It's a day I've been long waiting for, and a day I truly honestly thought would never come."

Slimback said he and Sullivan, 41, have long wanted to cement their relationship with a wedding, but since they couldn't legally marry in New York they chose to wed even before Vermont's gay marriage era officially dawned.

Vermont is one of five states that now allow same-sex couples to marry. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others. New Hampshire's law takes effect Jan. 1, 2010.

Even though government is still involved in the issue, at least they came down on the side of rights for individuals, rather than the bigoted side of rights denial. Someday's you actually think there's some hope for this country and the people who inhabit it. Of course, tomorrow's another day. But, for today I'll "hold some faith in the goodness of humanity".

Technorati Tags
Libertarian, Vermont, Gay Marriage

Even A Broken Clock Gets It Right Sometimes

Colour me surprised that some anonymous blogger at Kos managed to actually get something right where libertarians are concerned. These guys are wrong on almost everything that comes out of their pie holes and on the one subject that is anathema to their little, stunted collectivist souls they are normally so off base that it would be pathetic. If I felt anything about them, other than contempt.
In a post titled "Top 10 Signs You Might Not Be A Libertarian" the poster manages to correctly call out many of the new crop of people who dare to call themselves libertarians. (Avoid the comments section, there's real world lunacy going on in there). I've met a few of these people over the years and frankly, I'm surprised it took a Progressive collectivist to call the mark on the issue. Libertarians should have been calling it out long ago, instead of welcoming the infiltration. I find it distasteful that it took a collectivist to make this call.

10. If you think Ron Paul isn't conservative enough and Fox News is fair and balanced, you might not be a Libertarian.

9. If you believe you have an inalienable right to attend Presidential townhalls brandishing a loaded assault rifle, but that arresting participants inside for wearing a pink shirt is an important public safety precaution, there's a chance you're dangerously unbalanced, but no chance you're a Libertarian.

8. If you think the government should stay the hell out of Medicare, well, you have way, way bigger problems than figuring out if you're really a Libertarian.

7. If you rank Anthonin Scalia and Roy Moore among the greatest Justices of all time, you may be bug fuck crazy, but you're probably not a Libertarian.

6. You might not be a Libertarian if you think recreational drug use, prostitution, and gambling should be illegal because that's what Jesus wants.

5. If you think the separation between church and state applies equally to all faiths except socially conservative Christian fundamentalism, you're probably not a Libertarian.

4. You're probably not a Libertarian if you believe the federal government should remove safety standards and clinical barriers for prescription and OTC medications while banning all embryonic stem cell research, somatic nuclear transfer, RU 486, HPV and cervical cancer vaccination, work on human/non human DNA combos, or Plan B emergency contraception.

3. If you think state execution of mentally retarded convicts is good policy but prosecuting Scott Roeder or disconnecting Terri Schiavo was an unforgivable sin, odds are you're not really a Libertarian.

2. If you argue that cash for clunkers or any form of government healthcare is unconstitutional, but forced prayer or teaching old testament creationism in public schools is fine, you're not even consistent, much less a Libertarian, and you may be Michele Bachmann.

And the number one sign: if you think government should stay the hell out of people's private business -- except when kidnapping citizens and rendering them to secret overseas torture prisons, snooping around the bedrooms of consenting adults, policing a woman's uterus, or conducting warrantless wire taps, you are no Libertarian.

It's time to take a look at what's been going on. Not everyone who claims to be a libertarian is. Glenn Beck and Neal Boortz aren't libertarians, no matter how much they'd like us to believe they are. They're both self admitted Conservatives, a philosophy that is incompatible with libertarianism's core values.

Conservatives who are disenchanted with their chosen party have deserted it in record numbers, some have decided that their philosophy is somehow compatible with ours. Boy are they in for some disappointment. Unfortunately, too many people are willing to extend a hand to them, hoping they'll bring in votes for political candidates. This is not a winning policy, unless you're willing to burn down your house to gain a few votes in an already rigged electoral system. Personally, I'm not. Most will never be able to pass the litmus test. And that's fine with me.

Technorati Tags
Libertarian, Daily Kos

Ratchetting Up The Fear Factor

Well, the powers that be have decided that they need a distraction from the looming deficit, the spectre of hyperinflation and an the impending takeover of the American health care system. So, what have they done? They've trotted out their old buddy H1N1, the Swine Flu, again.

Aug. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Swine flu may hospitalize 1.8 million patients in the U.S. this year, filling intensive care units to capacity and causing “severe disruptions” during a fall resurgence, scientific advisers to the White House warned.

Swine flu, also known as H1N1, may infect as much as half of the population and kill 30,000 to 90,000 people, double the deaths caused by the typical seasonal flu, according to the planning scenario issued yesterday by the President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology. Intensive care units in hospitals, some of which use 80 percent of their space in normal operation, may need every bed for flu cases, the report said.

Swine Flu is the new terrorism for the current regime. "Advisers" making predictions such as this are doing nothing more than pimping fear in the populace. Oh, No! There's not enough vaccine. Someone save us! There won't be enough health care people to care for the ill. Oh. My. God! What about the children?

Fortunately, the same article has a ray of sunshine and a voice of reason. Too bad he wasn't an adviser.

‘Overblown’ Estimates

The estimates seem “overblown,” Gross said, given that swine-flu outbreaks in 1968 and 1957 failed to cause as many deaths, even with medical technology and disease surveillance less advanced than today.

“Influenza, you can make all the predictions you want, but it’s more difficult than predicting the weather,” Gross said yesterday in a telephone interview, after the advisory report was made public. “If influenza was a stock, I wouldn’t touch it.”

Rumour and fear around this subject are everywhere. They ignore the facts of this influenza. Extremely few people have died from it. The majority of people have had no serious symptoms. The government speaks and people panic. Can't say that I blame them, given governments past efforts in virtually every arena. Talk of mandatory vaccination of children and others runs through some quarters. The use of troops to quell unrest, in the event of a plague has been put forth. More and more scare tactics, every day to keep people reeling. It's time to take a step back. Take a breath and learn something from our comrade in arms, BW. Refuse to be afraid. (Download his ebook while you're at it!). Ignore the government. Refuse to play their game. There's time enough to resist when we actually know what they intend, if anything. We can always refuse them, that's what liberty and freedom are all about. And, now a few words from Frank Herbert.

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

Technorati Tags:
Fear, H1N1, Obama, Libertarian

.Gov Giveth And .Gov Taketh Away

Got an older vehicle that the new Left and their ilk might consider a clunker? Heard about their "Cash For Clunkers" deal? You know, the one where the taxpayers subsidize you purchase of a new car, if you trade in your old one? Well, maybe you shouldn't be so fast on the pedal there. Seems like the bureaucrats running things changed the very definition of clunker before they allowed all those stolen dollars to be given out. From Jalopnik comes this bit of news.

EPA Secretly Changing MPG Numbers Ahead Of Cash For Clunkers, Screwing Consumers

Consumers hoping to trade in their old "clunkers" for new vehicles through the Cash for Clunkers (or CARS) program are discovering the EPA changed fuel economy numbers for some cars last week, making it impossible to trade them in!

New Jersey resident Jeff Chase was considering trading in his 1989 Mazda 929 for a new car and checked the government's FuelEconomy.gov website and it said it met the 18 MPG threshold to be considered a gas-guzzling clunker. He went back later to buy the new car only to discover the numbers had been changed and the combined mileage was now 19 MPG and therefore disqualified from the discount.

"The dealer that I wanted to do business with had started to write sales orders for cars but were not delivering them until the final CARS rules were set," said Jeff Chance. "They are finding out that cars that they thought were qualified as trade-ins are no longer eligible. Now these people will not be able to purchase a car."

Ah, the government. They get some peoples hopes up then dash them on the rocks of bureaucratic reality. Now, that some Hope and Change for you. Things only mean what the government says they do.

Technorati Tags:
Cars, EPA, Libertarian, Obama

Want A Free Book? It's Yours!

J. Neil Schulman has made his best work to date available as a free download. That's right, "Alongside Night", quite possibly one of the best libertarian and anarcho-capitalist novel written, winner of the Prometheus Award, is now available free. Get thee hence, download it and read it. If you haven't read it before you're in for a treat. If you have read it before, now you have a new electronic version to peruse. If you've lost access to television, due to the digital switch, now you've got something to occupy your time. If you still have TV, take the time to read a good book! You won't regret it. This one's a winner and well worth the time.

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Libertarian, Alongside Night, Free Book, Anarcho-Capitalism