Friday, March 01, 2002

As part of my ongoing e-gold experiment, I tried buying something--a copy of The State vs. The People, by Claire Wolfe and Aaron Zelman. It's published by a civil rights organization called Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. The cost was a fraction over two grams of gold, and the order process was about as complicated as a credit card order. comment () trackback ()  9:47:29 PM     Angry Argentines Withhold Tax Payments In Protest Against Government [Tax-News.com] Argentines are clearly much smarter than their government, which intends to make up for lost tax revenue by printing more money. comment () trackback ()  2:40:29 PM     Enron and Greenspan's Bubble. Opponents of the market say we have to stop another Enron from happening again. Yet all the government's watchdog agencies completely missed Enron. The system of cronyism in Washington, D.C., made the debacle possible and made it harder for the public to find out what was going on. Existing laws will put Enron executives behind bars, but they won't touch any of Enron's accomplices in Washington. They are too busy devising additional laws that pretend to protect us from fraud, while obscuring the biggest fraud of all. [Ludwig von Mises Institute] Although he doesn't say it in so many words, the author clearly recognizes something which has eluded the mainstream media--Enron was a "dot com." comment () trackback ()  9:52:35 AM     Israeli Troops Advance Into Camps. Moving deeper into two Palestinian refugee camps, Israeli troops killed five Palestinians in gun battles Friday, while commanders defended the assault on the crowded shantytowns ÷ a first in 17 months of fighting ÷ against scathing criticism at home. [AP World News] This appears at the end of the article: Though officially designated as refugee camps, most are made up of concrete-block houses and apartment buildings that have gone up over a period of decades, considered temporary shelter for the refugees and three generations of descendants. I happened to see the coverage of this raid on BBC World last night. There was lots of footage of the refugee camps, and I was quite surprised. They look just like any other city in the Middle East! It turns out that what people have been calling "camps" are really just ordinary permanent residences inhabited by people who's ancestors were originally refugees. This puts the whole subject of "refugees" in a different light, I think. If the people living in those buildings are refugees, we might as well call most of the residents of California (who moved here since WWII) refugees as well! comment () trackback ()  9:12:45 AM     Content Spat Split on Party Lines. The Senate debate on copy protection for digital content is falling out predictably, with Democrats calling for regulations and Republicans hedging. Declan McCullagh and Robert Zarate report from Washington. [Wired News] This is worth pointing out because it shows how the Democrats are lying when they claim to care about the people. In fact, they're just as beholden to special interests as the Republicans. Incidentally, the Repulicans' favorite lie is that they favor smaller government. comment () trackback ()  9:03:44 AM     What Would Jesus Surf?. The Catholic Church gives its blessings to the Internet, saying it’s a 'marvelous technological tool.' But it also says that the 'ideology of radical libertarianism is both mistaken and harmful.' By Farhad Manjoo. [Wired News] You've heard the expression, "the pot calling the kettle black?" Well here we have the pot calling the spotless porcelain black. comment () trackback ()  9:00:39 AM

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