In Defense of Liberty
Just for the record, I am a Libertarian. It has come to my attention that many people don't know what "Libertarian" means. I am often treated to the joke (I think it's from a Dennis Miller routine) "I'd vote Libertarian but I like roads." (racous laughter on soundtrack)
Here's a nice essay on contractualization and tolerance which explains more than I can.
Our Friend, Junk Science
Well the DHMO debate rages on. I apologize, it was a joke! For more junk:
- Everything You Know Is Wrong (EYKIW)
A cleansing mental enema. - JunkScience.com
All hail the all-seeing, all-knowing and all-debunking Eye. - Junk Science in the Courtroom
This one's scary. - The Skeptic's Refuge
Careful here, this site is designed to sell books, but there's a lot of good essays too.
Interesting...
As a show of support for my fellow bloggers, I direct your attention these two Blogs of Note:
- Commentariat
Interesting and topical. - This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow
Good stuff. Ponder privacy, weep with the Sad Kitten.
Stay tuned! More to come!
DHMO: Pro and Con
Perhaps you've seen the warnings, perhaps not. The issue of DHMO in the environment is too big for me to ignore.
Read, and decide for yourself.
Remember the Fallen, Honor the Brave
You may be asking "What will replace World Trade Center?" IMHO a twin memorial. One section left in ruins, like the memorial in Hiroshima, and one section a park dedicated to the Fireman, Police, Paramedics and all other Emergency Personell who daily put themselves in harm's way.
Liberty Alert!
Like I said before, people, we are at war. Take your stand on the front lines:
I am so glad I'm not alone in my stance for a reasoned response and against the childish posturings of rhetoric and revenge.
Warning Signs
You know, we were warned about this day. I'm not talking about Nostradamus, I'm talking about Thomas Jefferson:
The spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless... From the conclusion of this war [for independence] we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and thier rights disregarded. They will forget themselves in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for thier rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of theis war, will be heavier and heavier, till out rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.
--Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia
Our liberty is under assault, both from without and within. Those who love liberty are constantly under attack, fighting a war of thoughts and words. Every day, every 24 hours, each one of us is called on to claim our individual responsibility for defending our personal liberty. Each one of us who faces the resposibility squarely, who asks the questions and challenges the authorities, brings the benefits of liberty closer to all of us.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
--Ephesians 6:12:: NKJV
The struggle for liberty is not against "flesh and blood," but against the irrational fears and the philosophies based on those fears that hold us in slavery. These are the shackles that Jefferson spoke of. We must face the fact that every day brings a new tyrant, a new prince, a new power, a new ruler of the darkness, with a new philososphy of fear, a new absolute authority, a new host of wickedness.
It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear.
--Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Speech May 15, 1951
We must not submit to fear. We must not submit to the philosphy of fear that demands obedience to an immaterial ultimate authority and calls for death to unbelievers. We must not submit to the propaganda of fear that demands obedience to a corporeal, temporal authority and calls for posturings of power and strength and unreasoning retribution.
Obedience,
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame,
A mechanized automoton.
--Percy Bysshe Shelly, Queen Mab
Why We Fight
Eternal Vigilance is the Price of LibertyYesterday I spoke against war, but the truth is, we are at war. This is not a new war. This war began when a human mind first conceived of liberty. Every human who desires to live with the benefits of liberty must stand as a warrior to defend that liberty. For liberty to survive this war, it must be liberty for all, and only when each one of us stands to defend our individual liberty will we truly have liberty for all.