Libertarian News and Comments for 10 JUN 2015, #15-23A: Nazgul & Disabilities & More

Posted on 2015-06-10 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Today, I have the commentary in two parts. Enjoy!

Nazgul (Judges) especially in committees

What power does Congress have?  According to a Washington Post article, not much: the Nazgul ruled Monday that the president alone has the power to recognize foreign nations, and it struck down as unconstitutional a congressional attempt to allow Americans born in Jerusalem to list Israel as their birthplace on passports. Now, I don’t see how whether or not Israel, as a nation, has any bearing on whether or not a city in Israel is considered part of Israel or not, but that is the Supremes for you – proof of the IQ of a committee, even if it is only a “majority” of a committee making these things up. Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary on the News | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Libertarian News and Comments for 5 JUN 2015, #15-22B: Religious liberty versus other liberties?

Posted on 2015-06-07 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

The Nazgul decided, 8-1, (as reported by Minnesota Public Radio and elsewhere) that Abercrombie & Fitch violated a woman’s First Amendment rights by refusing to hire her because she wore a headscarf for sincerely held religious reasons, even though she didn’t specifically state that is why she wore it.

Many have pointed out that the SCOTUS is therefore demonstrating its strong support of religious liberty.  According to many “soft” libertarian websites and comments, this both demonstrates the Nazgul hypocrisy on Second Amendment (which 4 of the 8 who voted for 1st Amendment rights constantly vote against) AND sets a precedent for similar upholding of constitutionally-guaranteed rights even in contradiction to upholding other rights.  Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary on the News | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Libertarian Commentary on the News, 2 June 2015, #15-22A: Real versus Dream Worlds

Posted on 2015-06-03 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Wired (and many other sources) report and are outraged that Ross Ulbricht was sentenced to life, “On Friday [Ross] Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in creating and running Silk Road’s billion-dollar, anonymous black market for drugs. Judge Katherine Forrest gave Ulbricht the most severe sentence possible. The minimum he could have served was 20 years.” Gee, what a shocker!  The war on some drugs was so over-rated by all these people, obviously.  The deep desire of the FedGov and other authorities to strike back meant no other result was really likely, no matter what the various states do with cannabis, yet all these people were content to live in a dream world. Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary on the News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

You Can’t Opt Out

Posted on 2015-06-02 by MamaLiberty

By MamaLiberty

Ten years ago I moved to rural Wyoming. So many things were different, of course, but there were some strange things that still defy understanding.

One of those was the delivery of six different telephone books. Some were sent to me in the mail, and some were dropped in my driveway. I have a very large circular driveway around the house, so I usually got two of them. Since the population of the entire county doesn’t go above 5,000 people, that didn’t make any sense at all. We even got a telephone book for a large area in the next state!

Since most entries in the various “yellow pages” require the business to pay for the “ad,” it was even more puzzling, but the bottom line was that most of the small “mom and pop” businesses I would use were not even listed. Put that together with the fact that more and more people use cell phones, not included in the white pages, and even one telephone book was pretty much useless. We won’t even consider that I’m mostly deaf, don’t have a cell phone, and don’t use a telephone much at all. Continue reading →

Posted in Mama's Rants | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Hate and Discrimination

Posted on 2015-05-31 by MamaLiberty

By MamaLiberty

Do you like anchovies? How about girdles, tight neckties, a leak in your shoe? Personally, I hate them, and quite a few other things.

Or is “hate” too harsh a word? Maybe so. What does the word “hate” mean to you?

Hate means different things to individuals, but there is a widespread campaign to impose ever changing and increasingly destructive political correctness on everyone, both with and without the force of law.

So, it seems important to start with definitions. Continue reading →

Posted in Mama's Rants | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Libertarian Commentary on the News, 26 May 2015, #15-21C: European Unity threatened?

Posted on 2015-05-29 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Four stories this week point out that the European Union is showing definite signs of cracking up. Among other stories, the Global Economic Analysis Blog discusses the defeat (“Heavy regional losses”) that angry voters handed Spain’s ruling party, voting for a variety of “new parties,” and no doubt making Madrid wonder if they shouldn’t have let Catalonia hold its vote on independence recently. The Spanish economy will supposedly grow at three percent. The bad news is Spanish unemployment is well over 20 percent and is also expected to stay that way. Polish voters elected a Eurosceptic as president, as disenchantment with Brussels spreads, according to the Blog. Andrzej Duda outed president Bronislaw Komorowski, the pro-Brussels incumbent centrist Civic Platform party president, in an election over the weekend. Komorowski was expected to win.  Also according to the Global Economic Analysis Blog, one way or another the crisis in Greece is highly likely to come to a head in June. The country’s interior minister says that Greece will default on the June IMF repayment, and this further heightens the likelihood that Greece will split off. Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary on the News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Extra Gnome

Posted on 2015-05-27 by MamaLiberty

By MamaLiberty

Linda loved her garden. The entire back yard was planted to roses and other perennials, beds of bulbs and annuals in their seasons, herbs and berries and some vegetables in rows at the rear. A small square of carefully maintained lawn in the center showcased a few brightly painted cement statues. The brown and white doe with two fawns was the oldest, and a full antlered silver stag had been added just the year before, but the new one was already her favorite. A whimsical gnome holding a rake and shovel had tickled her fancy just the last week when she visited the big nursery down the hill, and she’d taken delivery of it only that morning.

But now after lunch, there seemed to be two of them…. Continue reading →

Posted in Mama's Rants | 1 Comment

Institutions of the State ARE Institutions of Slavery

Posted on 2015-05-27 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

It is increasingly obvious that all the institutions of the state, from the smallest special district’s organizations to those at the state and federal level (and increasingly at the international level), are nothing but institutions of slavery: organized gangsterdoms that exercise control over people to some degree similar to that of traditional slavery in America before 1865 and in societies throughout ancient history.  Stories this week demonstrate this.

No liberty in state-run higher education:  The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports that Ohio’s Youngstown State University leads censorship of “Straight Pride” posters in a bizarre example of trampling on people’s liberties in the name of “diversity.” “Last month, flyers advertising ‘Straight Pride Week’ were posted at Youngstown State University (YSU) in Ohio, asking students to celebrate thusly: ‘Just … go about your day without telling everyone about how ‘different’ you are.’ Reporting at the time indicated that the Student Government Association got in touch with administrators in order to receive permission to take the posters down, but email correspondence recently obtained through a public records request suggests that the YSU administration initiated the censorship itself.” Continue reading →

Posted in Nathan's Rants | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Libertarian Commentary on the News, #15-21A: Weather and other odd things

Posted on 2015-05-26 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

Just whom do we believe?  Nearly every day I read some mainstream media news story, or something from a variety of special interest groups (especially but not only environist and liberal-political and government sites), to say nothing about the awful pronouncements by the guy squatting at 1600 PA, about how we are now beyond hope regarding manmade global warming (or climate change) and how the seashores are going to drown and every odd weather circumstance (such as the recent raining and flooding across the Great Plains, now moving east into the Old South, including the Hill Country of Central Texas which got ten inches of rain so far) is all due to carbon-dioxide and methane and other greenhouse gas emissions.  But at the same time, now and then I read an article like Matt Vespa’s recent summary in Townhall, which points out that all the indicators cited five to twenty years ago as “proof” global warming was going to destroy the world as we know it have turned out to be wrong.  Whom do we believe?  Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary on the News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Libertarian Commentary on the News, #15-20C: Poor News Reporting and Commentary

Posted on 2015-05-22 by TPOL Nathan

By Nathan Barton

By now, you’ve probably read or heard a lot about Jade Helm 15, and the hype about it.  But now we see more things popping up, such as this video at Freedom Outpost.  This strikes me as bogus and obviously faked: amateurs pretending to be FBI agents and two guys obviously well-scripted to present their views on this operation.  Supposedly this took place in Colorado, but there is just a lot that doesn’t feel or smell right. Is Jade Helm real, hyped, or the severe threat that so many groups claim it is?  I don’t know, but watching either the mainstream media or the “independent media” and trying to learn the truth is getting to be harder and harder.  Don’t believe anything either side is telling you without proof. Much of what I see available about Jade Helm comes from such suspect sites as PrisonPlanet.com and InfoWars.com, and then is endlessly quoted by the alternative media. Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary on the News | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment