Also From Blog Critics Magazine:

Barack Obama apparently deftly delivered another bullet to his foot with his recent comments about his "white grandmother." He called her a "typical white person" and the news commentators on radio and TV are lovin' it! The tone of their comments boil down to this: 'How dare he, a black man running for president, use racial stereotypes when racial stereotypes have done so much to hurt civil rights.'

Well take it from a 'typical white person', stereotypes or not, I can certainly understand his grandmother's fear of walking past certain people (be they white, black, Hispanic or other) on any street. WHY? Simply because some of them are very different and different is, to many of us typical white people, not good — in fact it's scary sometimes.

More here.

From Blog Critics Magazine:

On the heels of President Bush demanding that Congress give and/or restore broader presidential surveillance powers over private citizens, a new wrinkle in the story surfaced today. The U.S. State Department Inspector General’s office revealed that contractors connected with that agency had breached security protocols in order to obtain travel records of the three remaining presidential candidates.

The incidents were reported to the Bush administration only yesterday, despite the fact that news of some of the breaches was brought to the attention of officials several months ago. It also came to light that apparently no upper-level personnel within the State Department were notified of the breaches until Thursday, March 20.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s records were compromised in 2007, apparently during a training exercise. The trainee was supposed to enter a family member’s name, but instead he entered Hillary Clinton’s instead. Information was read concerning the senator’s private itineraries, along with other undisclosed and confidential details.

In this video a man tells the police officer he won't sign a speeding ticket until he's shown the temporary speed limit sign, the cop then asks him to get out of the car. When the man points back down the road and insists he was going the speed limit, the police officer tazes him right there on the road. Naturally, the man's pregnant wife freaks the f*ck out.

Listen to the cop's explanation at the end. Was law and order helped or hindered through the actions of law enforcement? Please answer in the comments.

Oh, by the way; You actually have the right to refuse to sign a traffic ticket no matter what the cops may say.

No man has the right, under any circumstance, to initiate force against another man, nor to threaten or delegate said initiation of force. - The Zero Aggression Principle


As Americans we must always remember that we all have a common enemy, an enemy that is dangerous, powerful and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government. -Dave Barry


I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will not live for the sake of another man's life, nor ask another man to live for the sake of mine. - John Galt's Oath from Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged

I have been teaching economics at the university level for twenty-five years. Easily the most often-asked questions relate to monopolies. The questions are often put in the following form: "In an economy free of governmental regulation, wouldn't a firm or group of firms obtain a monopoly over some vital resource or product? And won't the monopoly then exercise its power by raising prices?"

The issues most often revolve around the oil industry and the famous Standard Oil Company antitrust case. The history of Standard Oil, students frequently tell me, proves that monopolies exist in free markets — and that they do raise prices arbitrarily — and that this is precisely why we need antitrust laws.

Are monopolies truly an inherent problem in a free market? And do we need antitrust laws to combat them?

The clearest definition of monopoly is one seller, with the law prohibiting competitors from entering the market. Local telephone and cable-television companies are examples — they are usually provided a monopoly by their local governmental officials — that is, they are made the only provider of the service in a certain locale — and competition is prohibited by the local governing body. Obviously, this is not a monopoly arising in a free market since it is the government not the market that is dictating the number of suppliers. The best way to get competition in these types of activities is to remove the legal restrictions on market entry — which, by the way, is happening in some cable-television markets, which has resulted in a decrease in prices.

Today is a sad day in SF my friends; Arthur C. Clarke died today in his home at the age of 90.


From AOL News:

Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday (remember folks, this is on the other side of the world. They're a day ahead of us over there.) in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.

Co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey," Clarke was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer.

He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.

What can you do to provide yourselves and your families with the promise of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Maybe the Free State Project (FSP) is what you're looking for.

For those of you who don't know, the FSP is an effort to get 20,000 liberty-loving individuals to move to New Hampshire.

They're looking for productive, tolerant folks from all walks of life and of all ages, creeds and colors who agree with the simple political philosophy that government exists at most to protect people's rights and should neither provide for people nor punish them for activities that interfere with no one else.

Here's a quick primer on the FSP:





Get more info about the Free State Project here.

This just in; An interesting article from Forbes.com about those greatest of pop culture icons, superheroes ( yes, those superheroes) and their leadership abilities.

From Forbes.com:

You remember Quasar, the superhero created by artists and writers at Marvel comics back in 1978?

Of course you don't because he didn't have the staying power, so to speak, like many of the superheroes that still are brilliantly being splashed on the pages of their own graphic novels decades after they were first introduced to the world.

These are the ones making it to the big screen and the ones appearing in videogames.

These are the most enduring of all time. But who is at the top of that list? It quite possibly could be, and should be, Superman, who turns 70 this year.