People should not fear their governments; governments should fear their people.
Cambodia defies UN over genocide court. Cambodia vows to go ahead with its own trials of former Khmer Rouge
leaders despite UN objections. [BBC News: world]
Good for them! It’s always nice to see someone standing up to the UN for national sovereignty. If the UN bureaucrats don’t like it, they can always move to Cambodia, become citizens, and vote.
It looks like Radio has a memory leak. I’ve been leaving it running on my G4 all day–when I leave in the morning it has 2.5MB free, and when I get home it’s down to around 700K. Frontier 4.2.3a has a memory leak involving outline processing, could this be the same bug?
Campaign Finance Reform: Now or Never….. The day has finally come. Americans will finally have a chance to see their representatives vote on Campaign Finance Reform. I suppose we can thank Enron. Its unfortunate that such a tragedy had to occur in order for a simple vote to commence. [kuro5hin.org]
This proposed “reform” is a blatant violation of the First Amendment, but of course that won’t matter to anybody in power. We can also be sure that the media will support it strongly, because banning political advertising before elections makes the media’s voice the only one which can still be heard.
ANGERED BY SNUBBING, LIBYA, CHINA
SYRIA FORM AXIS OF JUST AS EVIL Bitter after being snubbed for membership in the “Axis of Evil,” Libya, China, and Syria today announced they had formed the “Axis of Just as Evil,” which they said would be way eviler than that stupid Iran-Iraq-North Korea axis President Bush warned of his State of the Union address. [SatireWire]
Lifting Braudel’s bell jar – I (legitimizing hawala) [The Kolkata Libertarian]
A series of informative links and comments on the hawala system.
Interview With Jeff Snyder. Carlo Stagnaro at LewRockwell.com –
Interview With Jeff Snyder – Mr. Snyder wrote the book,
Nation of Cowards. This is long, but very good. Once again, the
non-agression principle is all we need. [lew]
bq.
I do not believe that rights are founded on prudential grounds, nor do
I believe that individuals are entitled by society or their government
to possess or exercise rights only so long as society or the state
judges (whether rightly or wrongly) that the rights confer an
aggregate net benefit upon society or the state as a whole. I have
been concerned in many of my writings to demonstrate this, as well as
the corollary proposition, that rights cannot be defended or justified
on utilitarian grounds, since to undertake such a defense is to imply
that rights require a utilitarian justification, and are therefore
contingent on positive aggregate outcomes.
[End the War on Freedom]
Iran warns Israel against striking at its nuclear reactor
“If Israel attacks Iran, we will respond in a way no Israeli politician has ever dreamed about,” warned Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani. [Omar Javaid: Personal Interests] [Counterpoint]
What would that be, I wonder? Maybe they would suddenly declare enternal peace and friendship towards Israel. I’m sure no Israel politician has ever dreamed about that!
Music Sales Down: Is it Napster? Or is it lack of inspiration?. The latest issue of Rolling Stone Magazine (Printed edition) states that the RIAA has reported a 3% decrease in music sales this past year. 3% may not seem like much, but in the music industry, that is actually enough to cause alarm. The RIAA would like you to believe that Napster, and other similar projects are to blame. I tend to believe otherwise. I blame the decrease in sales on the lack of inspiration, and therefore lack of consumer interest, in current music. [kuro5hin.org]
The RIAA has it half right. It’s true that I haven’t bought many new CDs lately because of Napster. But it’s because Napster is gone! When it was around, I would listen to something a friend or coworker recommended, and buy the CD if I liked it. Now, I can’t listen to it ahead of time, so I’m not going to waste my money. The music industry’s very bad attitude towards customers doesn’t exactly make me want to give them money, either.
Actually, the only new CD I’ve bought lately was Right Now, which independent singer/songwriter Mari Iijima sells through her web site.
ArsDigita Shut Down [Slashdot]
This was inevitable, ever since the venture capitalists took over the company. It’s a shame, really–it might have survived if the founders had gone for the VC funding.
Argentine judges face corruption probe. Argentina’s Congress investigates the Supreme Court over rulings
including lifting a ban on cash withdrawals from bank accounts. [BBC News: world]
Apparently the government of Argentina thinks that allowing people access to their own money is “corruption.” It’s hardly surprising that the economy is in such bad shape, when the rulers have an attitude like that.