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Index for this page...(Be aware some links below may have expired.)
All The Following Items Were Posted On September 1, 2004 The Washington Post notes one way that federal bureaucrats have been able to grow their numbers -- they simply create more titles. In the past few decades, Uncle Sam has accumulated untold numbers of these: "deputy associate deputy secretary," "deputy assistant assistant secretary" and "principal deputy deputy assistant secretary." Source: Insider Report from NewsMax.com (If you are not an e-mail subscriber, get Insider Report and other breaking news alerts by Clicking Here.) Bureaucrats Bust Another Kids' Lemonade Stand There's something about that symbol of pure, unregulated free enterprise -- a kid's lemonade stand -- that seems to drive some bureaucrats crazy. This time it happened in St. Louis. Mim Murray, 10, and Marisa Miller-Stockie, 12, have been selling lemonade together for three summers in their front yard stand. They hope to make enough money to buy laptop computers for school. However, in early August a city health inspector paid them a visit. It turns out their seemingly innocent lemonade stand was a grave menace to health, law and order. The girls lacked -- gasp! -- business licenses. Further, they were using ice cubes purchased from a store -- horrors! -- and that didn't conform to city health standards for temporary commercial food establishments. They were told to meet city standards -- impossibly expensive for the girls -- or shut down. And that would have been the end of the story. Except the girls didn't just submit meekly to bureaucratic tyranny. Mim's mother called a local television station. The public got angry. The family's pastor paid a visit to the mayor. At that point it was a no-brainer, even for regulation-crazed politicians. Earnest and cute kids selling lemonade, trying to earn money for school, shut down by heartless city bureaucrats? A public relations nightmare was imminent. The city health commissioner hurriedly declared that it had all been a mistake -- children's lemonade stands are supposed to be exempt from the licensing laws, she said. The commissioner publicly apologized to the girls for the mistake, and even gave them $3 for a 25-cent cup of lemonade. (And it turns out there was more to the story. A neighbor had complained that the stand was blocking her walkway, something the girls deny. The attempt to shut down the stand came immediately after her complaint to the city government.) So the lemonade stand was back in business. The girls took in a whopping $112 the day of the mayor's apology. And the girls say they've learned something important. "You don't have to sit there and take it," Mim told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Added Marisa: "We learned to stand up for ourselves." It's a lesson a lot more people could stand to learn. Source: Associated Press at http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/weird/story/1565204p-9151842c.html (Thanks to James W. Harris of the Advocates for Self-Government and The Liberator Online for the above information. If you would like a free subscription to the Liberator Online, visit: http://www.self-gov.org/liberator/maintain.html.) At a Boston breakfast with the host of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," Ted Koppel got into an out-of-the-ordinary discussion with the Comedy Central character. As the "Nightline" host began to interview Stewart, the comic-anchorman sounded a bit like Bill O'Reilly. He lamented the pseudo-objectivity of news media figures today. He used a hypothetical, pretending to be a news anchorman who was moderating a debate on health care and insurance. He ended up taking on all of the roles and giving the following performance: "I have with me Donna Brazile and Bay Buchanan. Let's go. Donna. 'I think the Democrats really have it right here. I think that this is a pain for the insurance companies and the drug companies and this is wrong for America.' Bay. 'Oh no, what it is ...' And then she throws out her figures from the Heritage Foundation, and she throws out her figures from the Brookings Institute, and the anchor -- who should be the arbiter of the truth - says, 'Thank you both very much, that was very interesting.' No it wasn't! That was Coke and Pepsi talking about beverage truth. And that game has, I think, caused people to think, 'I'm not watching this.'" Koppel pointed out that on Stewart's own show he "can use humor to say 'B.S., that's a crock,'" but added that he himself "can't do that." Stewart disagreed, "No, but you can say 'that's B.S.' You don't need humor to do that because you have what I wish I had, which is credibility and gravitas. This is interesting stuff, and it's all part of the discussion, and I think it's a good discussion to have, but I think it's important to take a more critical look. You know, don't you think?" Koppel replied with one word -- "No," and stated: "I've had enough of you. You're finished." Then he smiled and ended the discussion. The Left Coast Report thinks even if we don't always get the best information from him, it's great to have a guy on TV who elicits a chuckle: Ted Koppel. (Thanks to The Left Coast Report by James L. Hirsen and the staff of NewsMax for the above information. If you would like a free subscription, please visit http://NewsMax.com/email.shtml) PETA Targeting Kids With Violent Propaganda Many of you might be familiar with the antics of the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). What you may not know, is how PETA is targeting American children with its destructive messages. PETA prides itself on attention-grabbing publicity stunts, but handing out graphic and violent propaganda materials to kids as young as six years old is extremely inappropriate. In some cases, PETA camps out in front of schools, intercepting small children as they walk to and from classes. Examples of PETA's grotesque activism includes a comic titled "Your Mommy Kills Animals" (see right). Another PETA brochure, called "Question Authority," shows a hand holding a bloody knife. PETA activists also distribute stencils for spray-paint vandalism, stickers with obscene messages, and buckets of fake "blood" meant to scare kids away from eating meat. Shock tactics like these can scar children for life, and few parents realize their young ones are being targeted. Some of it is even done inside the schools, through the help of misguided teachers. This is one of the most disgusting things we have ever seen from PETA. Source: http://www.townhall.com "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- Benjamin Franklin. (Also attributed to Thomas Jefferson.) Some interesting & provocative articles on other websites Fascism in a Stetson, by Edward Cline: Leading the campaign against the smaller manufacturers in these smoke-free legislative chambers is Philip Morris. The Conservative Case Against George W. Bush, by William Bryk: Theodore Roosevelt, that most virile of presidents, insisted that, "To announce that there should be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American people." With that in mind, I say: George W. Bush is no conservative, and his unprincipled abandonment of conservatism under the pressure of events is no statesmanship. The Republic would be well-served by his defeat this November. American Muslim Council Founder Heads to Jail, by Daniel Pipes: Summary: Individual Islamists may appear law-abiding and reasonable, but they are part of a totalitarian movement, and as such, all must be considered potential killers. Liberalism is a Psychology, by Eric Alan Beltt: Many conservatives are absolutely perplexed by the question of what motivates liberals to take the patently wrong political positions they do. It's difficult to explain it without believing such obviously wrong ideas like "liberals are just stupid", or "they want to destroy our country", but sometimes we resort to those explanations out of pure frustration. But what is the explanation? Why do seemingly good, intelligent people take positions that cause so much harm in the face of all the facts? I've finally stumbled upon the answer, and it's so stunningly simple, yet profound in its implications, that it's absolutely mind-boggling. Liberalism isn't a political ideology; it's a psychology - the psychology of self-satisfaction to be precise. There's an Ill Wind Blowing From Washington, by Nicholas Von Hoffman: Some people are saying with apprehension that after George W. Bush is re-elected, he will bring back the draft. Those people usually have draft-age children. Others are saying it with approval. Those people don't have draft-age loved ones, unless they assume, perhaps unconsciously, that like the shirker Presidents - Mr. Bush and Bill Clinton - their kids will be able to leave the military service to somebody else. The Trouble with Talk Radio, by Christopher Westley: A recent article of mine on a public sector scandal, this one in Milwaukee, brought several e-mails from friends and strangers telling me that it was read and discussed on WTMJ-AM in that city by its weekday morning host, Charles Sykes. WTMJ is Milwaukee's highest rated talk station, and while I appreciated the plug, I was not sure if that is the sort of station that friends of liberty need to be associated with. Strict Construction Or Trendy Political Correctness?, by Randall Nunn: Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has recently given us all a lesson in how important the selection of Supreme Court justices is to the country. Justice O'Connor, appointed by President Reagan, has generally been considered to be somewhat conservative and a justice who follows the Constitution rather than "creating" law where the Constitution is silent. We're losing standards of logic; irrationalism on the rise, by Molly Ivins: "I know there's no evidence that shows the death penalty has a deterrent effect, but I just feel in my gut it must be true.' A very, very high-ranking Texas public official. WELL, good buddy, let's go with your gut; why bother with the evidence? Leftists Pretend To Be Indifferent About America, by Bruce Walker: Leftists pretend to be indifferent about America. When bad things happen to America, Leftists pretend to be dismayed and when America does bad things, Leftists pretend to be disappointed. Leftists pretend to be indifferent about America, but Leftists hate everything that America represents and they rejoice in its pain and in its flaws. The death of Canadian scouting, by Hans Zeiger: Big Canadian real estate is on the market. A rather sizable chunk of Lord Robert Baden-Powell's Empire is available for investors, homebuilders, fishing resort prospectors, or blacktop barons. Scouts Canada is pounding in "for sale" signs at the entrances of a number of Scout camps across the country, including at least twenty camps in Ontario. But don't worry. No Boy Scouts will mourn the loss of their summer camps, for the Boy Scouts of Canada no longer exist. The Bi-Partisan Origins of the Total War on Drugs, by ALEXANDER COCKBURN and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR: In 1930 a new department of the federal government, the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, was created under the leadership of Harry Anslinger to carry out the war against drug users. Anslinger, an avowed racist, was an adroit publicist and became the prime shaper of American attitudes about drug addiction, hammering home his view that this was not a treatable addiction but a deviant urge that could only be suppressed by harsh criminal sanctions. The Real Deal - How a philosophy professor with a checkered past became the most influential Catholic layman in George W. Bush's Washington, by JOE FEUERHERD: Editor's note: Deal Hudson announced Aug. 18 that he would be giving up his position with the Republican National Committee in reaction to questions posed by "a liberal Catholic publication." In recent days, NCR has tried repeatedly to meet with Hudson to get his response to questions about his departure from Fordham University in 1994 following allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship with a freshman female student. The university said Hudson "surrendered" his tenure. He also paid a settlement of $30,000 to terminate a lawsuit that the student brought against him on the basis of these allegations. ID, I Don't - When should the government be able to demand our papers?, by Brian Doherty: America's Quixote of air travel is back in the fight: John Gilmore, whose legal fight against airline identification (ID) requirements was detailed in a Reason cover story ("Suspected Terrorist," August/September 2003), has appealed the district court decision to dismiss his case. Decline and free fall in France: [August 28, 2004] THIS week marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Paris, but the champagne corks were flying beneath clouds of French despair. AS the Government of Jacques Chirac tries to mend chronic flaws in the country's social fabric -- highlighted by a rise in racist and anti-Semitic violence -- the French intelligentsia is lamenting the nation's loss of diplomatic clout and cultural authority.
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