Wendy McElroy as author:
The Prince & Discourse on Voluntary Servitude
Civil Disobedience & The Liberator
Wealth of Nations
On Liberty & Vindication of the Rights of Woman
The Ratification Debates
The Federalist Papers
The Korean War and Vietnam War
The Middle East
Ireland
Ethiopia & East Africa
Nigeria & West Africa
The Philippines

**UPDATED FEBRUARY 26, 2004. To support the site, please go to the PayPal button on this page where you can make a donation or make a purchase from our book list that includes rare letters, modestly-priced used books, audio cassettes, and libertarian ephemera. Also, check out the step-by-step guide to securing your computer privacy that we are pleased to offer you free of charge.

Posted by mac @ 07:35 AM EST [Link]

Cartoon fix! Nick Anderson's "Torture Justified"; Stuart Carlson's "Theory of Relativity" (OUCH, that one's close to home!); and, Ted Rall's "Greater Good"

Sometimes news items leap from the page and slip themselves through the transom of my mind. Like a paragraph from The Economist (May 15th, p.23...I know, I know, its dated) that discusses the war in the Sudan. It reads, "A formal deal ending the war is expected in the next few weeks, possibly sooner. Since President George Bush is widely seen as the architect of peace, he is perhaps more popular in southern Sudan than anywhere else on earth. At the Rumbek sub-chief's election one young warrior called Tuapon leaps frenetically in the air, proudly waving a white Barbie-doll in a pink dress. 'This is a new wife for President Bush. May God grant him many fertile women with firm bodies and a election victory without problems in Flordia'."

Best to all,
mac

Posted by mac at 12:11 PM EST [Link]

For those of you who are interested in definitive background on the e-voting debate and controversy, I am reprinting in full a letter I just received from activist Bev Harris who is bird-dogging the issue. [more]

Posted by mac at 06:46 PM EST [Link]

Cartoon fix! Stuart Carlson's "Avert Your Eyes"; Steve Sack's "Troop Rotation"; Tom Toles' "Odd Advice"; Dan Wasserman's "In With the New"; and, Drew Sheneman's "Ceremonial Duties".

Applause to Claire Wolf - always and everywhere! - but especially for posting this item. Hilarious! [more]

Posted by mac at 10:22 AM EST [Link]

So much to say has accumulated during my hiatus from McBlog that, altho' I love Lewis Carroll's advice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland -- "Start at the beginning, and go until you come to the end, then stop" -- I'd be writing `til midnight if I followed it.

Plunging onward?One rakish fellow offers a novel response to the paperless system of e-voting designed by the Diebold Corporation, which is eliciting cries of "rigged election!" even before a Presidential ballot is cast. (See Electronic Freedom Frontier's archive page for background on the issue.) The fellow has created a page of 18 parody ads that sit above a legal disclaimer, "This page and these images are no way no how affiliated with Diebold Inc., and?are not necessarily representative of the opinions of Diebold's executives, shareholders or worker bees, no, not even in their dark malignant hearts, and did I mention that I hold the legal profession in the highest regard?" [more]

Posted by mac at 03:11 PM EST [Link]

It seems forever since I've ranted about Microsoft and their products. Well, Michael Robertson of Linspire.com (formerly Lindows.com) has saved me the trouble this week. Does this strike too close to home?

It's a sad time when people are afraid of their own computers, but that's where Microsoft Windows users are at currently. It's reminiscent of Hal from Space Odyssey. Computer owners fear that if they launch the wrong program, visit a 'bad' website or simply view an email, they will trigger an unstoppable torrent of emails and virus spewing from their computer. Then comes public humiliation and chastising for not having performed the mandatory daily software and virus update routine (which often times wouldn't have prevented it anyway).

I don't endorse his vague implication that Congress should step in, but I do agree with his main recommendation, which is to buy something else.

More experiments on the email front. Long-time readers will recall that, at the start of this year, I revamped my email addresses, cutting my spam down from 2000 messages a week to about 12 a day. Since then, it's crept back up to 20-30 a day. So much for the loudly touted "Can Spam" Act; it's now reported that 80% of email is spam, and increasing. [more]

Posted by brad at 12:19 PM EST [Link]

After a long absence from blogging, it feels odd and a bit uncomfortable to be back but there is nothing for it but to take a leap of faith and plunge onward in the belief that the old blogging fever will return.

Warning: the following lyrical attack on Rush Limbaugh is not only a long download but also a great deal more vicious an attack than I am usually willing to post. So why is it included? I am outraged at Limbaugh's trivialization of the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, which he has likened to a fraternity prank -- (some fratboys ought to register their disapproval of being linked to the cigarette-dangling, leash-tugging, sado-masochistic Lynddie England). For those with better sense than to listen to Limbaugh, here is a sample of his commentary. "Folks, these torture pictures with the women torturers, I mean Marv Albert looking at those pictures would say, "Hey, that doesn't look so bad." You know, if you really look at these pictures, I mean I don't know if it's just me but it looks like anything you'd see Madonna or Britney Spears do on stage. Maybe you can get an NEA grant for something like this. I mean this is something you can see at Lincoln Center from an NEA grant, maybe on Sex in the City: the Movie. I mean, it's just me." But, if you easily offended, skip down to the next paragraph and avoid the evisceration of Limbaugh.
[more]

Posted by mac at 09:41 AM EST [Link]

A friend sent me this news item about DidTheyReadIt.com, a company which promises to let you know when and where a recipient reads an email you send him. Alarmed? You should be -- but don't worry, it's easy to block. [more]

Posted by brad at 01:13 PM EST [Link]

We are now back from travels. I have a lot of catching up to do on the IT News -- most of the "Sasser" outbreak happened while I was on the road -- but I should now be blogging more regularly.

A digression into programming philosophy today...so feel free to skip it if this subject bores you. A friend has referred me to two Devil's Advocate articles,
Why computer security's so primitive and Design software before you build it, and wonders how these relate to Linux. [more]

Posted by brad at 10:40 AM EST [Link]