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January 05, 2009

Libertarian Commentary on The News 28 December '08 - January 03, 2009
By Nathan A. Barton © 2009

Liberty's year! Welcome to 2009.
We are now at day D-17 in the "Countdown to Tyranny" - to that day, 20 January 2009, when a man still not proven to be eligible to be President of the United States in accordance with Section 1 of Article 2: "No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States." Please note, this is NOT a criminal charge: it is not a matter of Mr. Obama being "innocent until proven guilty." Just as he must prove that he is 35 or older, just as he must prove that he has been a resident within the United States for the last 14 years, he must PROVE that he is "a natural born citizen." Failure to do so means that each and everyone of us who has taken an oath to defend and protect the Constitution must ask ourselves some very specific questions regarding whether any oath that Mr. Obama takes is worth the air it took to speak it; whether he can give ANY lawful order, and whether those Electors who recently cast their vote for him and his running mate are anything other than traitors. His race, claimed or otherwise, is a moot point; his votes (either for his Electors in the general election or for him and Biden in the Electoral College) matter not, if he is not eligible.
(Read the rest here)

Running Out of Water?
By Nathan A. Barton TM and © 2009

Water: Ethanol's Achilles Heel
by Robert Glennon - AlterNet

I don't know Robert Glennon, but he obviously has either bought into the propaganda from the environists about water, or is himself using its propaganda value. Knowing just a wee bit about AlterNet and Huffington Post, I suspect it is intentional propaganda.

Yes, it takes tremendous quantities of water to produce ethanol, and to grow corn. But very little of that water is "converted" into ethanol. Assuming we are producing denatured ethanol, C2H6O, and that water, H2O, is the ONLY source of the hydrogen and oxygen (not true, but I am trying to explain for ordinary people here), each molecule of ethanol would "consume" 3 molecules of water and release an oxygen molecule. If I remember my chemistry calculations, 46 grams of ethanol uses 54 grams of water. So a gallon of ethanol (6.5 pounds) requires about one gallon of water (8 pounds). BUT when that ethanol is burned (C2H6O) with oxygen (O2), we have C2H5OH(g) + 3 O2(g) ? 2 CO2(g) + 3 H2O(l); (?Hr = -1409 kJ/mol[19]) or, duh, all three molecules of water have been recreated! Net ZERO consumption of water. (Read the rest here)

Drum Roll! The Winner of the 2008 Award for Political Incorrectness is…
By Carey Roberts

This year’s award goes to an unassuming university professor who has devoted his career to the understanding and remedy of family violence. He has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and was elected president of the National Council on Family Relations and the Eastern Sociological Society. Needless to say, his resumé is lengthy and impressive.

When he began his research in the 1970s, the public was well-acquainted with the stereotype of beer-swilling men who bullied their wives. That was the good professor’s assumption, as well. But when he published his research findings in 1975, everyone was amazed -- women were just as likely as men to engage in partner violence. (Read the rest here)

External Articles
California’s Bad Santa exposes complete & utter failure of gun control laws
by Chad Baus - Buckeye Firearms Association

“News of a man dressing up in a Santa suit and murdering nine people in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve dominated cable news headlines for days after the event. News reports suggest Bruce Pardo took as many as four handguns and a homemade flame-thrower to the home of his ex-wife’s parents, where at least 25 people were enjoying a Christmas Eve party. Pardo shot at partygoers and burned down the house, murdering at least nine people before committing suicide hours later. Damage from the flames has thus far prevented officials from determining how many of the victims were shot to death, but hasn’t stopped the gun ban lobby from attempting to capitalize on the tragedy. … Indeed, there is much to be learned from this tragedy, which occurred in a state that has passed every conceivable form of gun control the gun grabbers have promoted, all in the name of reducing the violence.” (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)

On Being an Israeli Arab
by Charles H. Featherstone

Antiwar.com quotes Arab members of the Israeli parliament as being warned by Israel’s intelligence agencies, "There is a limit to democracy." Opposition to Israel’s current Gaza onslaught by Israel’s own Arab citizens will not be allowed, and that senior Arab political and religious leaders in Israel will be held responsible for all unrest they may encourage or provoke. Any who stoke unrest risk their positions and possibly even their liberty and lives.

And here, for years, we’ve been told by apologists – umm, sorry, spokespeople and defenders – for Israel that "their Arabs" have the same right as all Israeli citizens. When the Israeli state starts threatening Jewish Israelis this way (and maybe it is, who knows?) then we’ll see some real equality. (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)

'Some people simply shouldn't have guns'
by David Codrea - Gun Rights Examiner

I've said for years anyone who can't be trusted with a gun can't be trusted without a custodian.

Thing is, we're surrounded by all kinds of people who can't be trusted with all kinds of things.

But the problem with "gun control" laws is, the ones who are impacted by them, the ones who obey them, are the "law-abiding," that is, the people who aren't the problem. Anybody who tells you prohibiting the keeping and bearing of arms works had better be prepared to explain Murder Capital USA to you... (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)

Offsets revisited: voluntary vs. mandatory
by Garry Reed

This is a libertarian column. Libertarians do not find voluntary ventures verboten. Libertarians love a live-and-let-live liberality. That's freedom in its true sense - do as you desire as long as you don't coerce, intimidate or defraud others (or as some would say it, refrain from initiating the three F's: force, fear and fraud.)

That doesn't mean people of the libertarian persuasion like everything or accept everything or condone everything that qualifies as non-coercive occurrences. (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)

The Future of Freedom Foundation
Madoff Scandal Exposes Government Failure
by Sheldon Richman

Any system that permits a scam artist like Madoff to deceive not just widows and orphans but also sophisticated investors, like Fairfield Greenwich Group’s Walter Noel and Hollywood’s Jeffrey Katzenberg, isn’t a market at all; it’s a shooting gallery.”

The last sentence is a tip-off that something is wrong with this outlook. Financial regulation is usually proposed to protect the unsophisticated. People knowledgeable about finance and securities presumably can take care of themselves. But what makes the Madoff scandal so noteworthy is that the most sophisticated types were taken in, even though several experts sounded alarms. Why? The other thing to note about Rutten’s position is that there has been no relevant financial deregulation to speak of. (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)

The Independent Institute
Lame Duck Bush Administration
Continues to Inflame Islamist Terrorism for Its Successor

Ivan Eland

After 9/11, the Bush administration—in contradiction to everything that Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders have written—claimed that al Qaeda had attacked the U.S. because of its freedoms. Tragically, the American public, self-servingly oblivious to the real causes of the attacks, eagerly bought into this implausible hooey, thus allowing the administration a free hand to make the problem worse.

You don’t have to condone the monstrous murders of 9/11, cheer for their heinous perpetrators, blame the innocent victims, or be “unpatriotic” to have asked intelligent questions about the contributions of a shadowy third party to the entire episode. Not Saddam Hussein—the U.S. government. The inevitable conspiracy theories aside, bin Laden has clearly and repeatedly stated that his main reason for waging war against the United States has been this nation’s continuing occupation and intervention in Muslim lands with non-Muslim forces. Even temperate Muslims detest such non-Muslim meddling in their affairs. (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)

From The Ludwig von Mises Institute
The Crisis in 10 Points
by Robert Stewart

The 2007–2008 financial crisis had its genesis in the United States housing markets, but it rapidly spread to other economies, first to the United Kingdom, but then almost everywhere else, including such unlikely spots as Iceland whose banking system collapsed.[1] Because events in the United States triggered the crisis, this essay will concentrate on the US causes although they had their many counterparts elsewhere.

There are at least three long-standing background influences that contributed to the financial debacle that dominated the US economy in 2008: (Read the rest here) (Read the entire article at the source website. Use the back button to return.)


Our Right To Defend Ourselves
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This page is designed to help readers find resources and information to help them educate their neighbors, refute the gun-haters among them, and find new inspiration and hope in their fight to maintain a free society. Please send me anything you think might fit on this page. I will do my best to obtain permission to use it, if such is required, or will link to it here with a brief description.

Ghost Troop Captain Eric H. May Anthem Contest! Win $500.!
Deadline extended to Feb. 28, 2009

We are looking for talented composers and musicians to write and record our official Ghost Troop Anthem! Please use the sheet music provided on the Ghost Troop website link . Create the harmony to Captain Eric May's melody, record your song and send it to us on a CD in MP3 format. It's that easy! Please send your CD postmarked by December 31, 2008 to the address on our website. Captain May will choose the composer of his favorite harmony. Thank you and good luck! Entry form and details, click here.

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Features From The Last Issue

Libertarian Commentary on The News (Dec/29/08)
By Nathan A. Barton © 2008

External Articles
En Route to Military Rule
by William Norman Grigg

A wanted man and 'a true success story'
by David Codrea, Cleveland Gun Rights Examiner

Stupid Politician Tricks: worst of 2008
by Garry Reed, Dallas/Ft. Worth Libertarian Examiner

The Future of Freedom Foundation
Madoff Scandal Exposes Government Failure
by Sheldon Richman

The Independent Institute
Government Spending Makes Recessions Worse
By Dominick T. Armentano

From The Ludwig von Mises Institute
Free-Market Education
by Briggs Armstrong

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Jews For The Preservation of Firearms Ownership
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More from David Codrea:
Do you have friends or family who aren't quite sure about this Second Amendment business? Of course you do, we all do. My friend Aaron Zelman at Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership has produced a wonderful video that is one of the best presentations on the right to keep and bear arms I've come across, and I've come across my share. You can read my review here.

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