Month: June 2002

Arafat Said Ready to Accept Plan. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is prepared to accept a Mideast peace plan put forward by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton in December 2000, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Friday. [AP World News]

The “peace plan” in question sounds pretty much like the Israeli surrender that Barak offered, and which Arafat rejected. I guess Arafat has realized that the Israelis won’t be giving him the unconditional surrender he wanted any time soon. Who knows, give him another 100 years or so and he might even realize that it’s his side that lost.

I had a pleasant surprise today. Last night I had ordered a copy of Money, a book about the history of money in the US, by James Ewart. It cost me just over five grams of e-gold, including shipping.

When I came back to my desk from a trip to the vending machines, there was a message in my voice mail from the author thanking me for the order, telling me when I could expect my copy to arrive, and asking where I had heard of the book. This is by far the best customer service I’ve ever encountered!

Focus on Somalia. What if someone were to tell you that right now there’s an entire nation that lives with solely economic government? That a land with plenty of opportunity and no state at all was here on Earth right now?

It’s an intriguing thought that perhaps a place that we’ve been told is a war zone might actually be something quite different. To that end Economic.net brings you this focus on Somalia, three articles from Graham Green, who lives in East Africa and is working to build a freeport on the Somali coast. [Economic.net]

A very interesting series of articles about the current situation in Somalia. This is a very interesting place, which has been largely ignored by the mainstream media. Given the extreme statist beliefs of most journalists, this isn’t too surprising. Graham Green was the pen name of Michael van Notten, who recently died of heart failure.

EU Releases Aid to Palestinians. European Union lawmakers voted Wednesday to release $17.7 million in aid to the Palestinians that had been held up over accusations some of the money was going to fund terrorism. [AP World News]

bq. Patten argued that by preventing the financial collapse of Arafat’s “legitimate” administration, which was established under earlier peace accords, the EU “has prevented even greater chaos and anarchy” by helping to ensure the continued delivery of health, education and other services.

Gee, it’s so nice of those Europeans to spend that money on health (ambulances to transport suicide bombers), education (teaching hatred of Jews and Americans), and other services (such as administration of the Jenin terrorist, excuse me, refugee) camp.

Home Depot stops doing business with federal government. The Post-Dispatch checked with managers at 38 stores in 11 states. All but two said they had received instructions from Home Depot’s corporate headquarters this month not to take government credit cards, purchase orders or even cash if the items are being used by the federal government. [STLToday.com]

I am honestly surprised to see a major company take such a principled stand. The top executives who made the decision may well end up in some Alaskan gulag, but in the meantime I encourage everyone to shop at Home Depot.

New York Times – free registration required Police May Search Bus Riders, Minus the Speech. The Supreme Court ruled today that in conducting random searches for drugs or weapons on buses, the police need not advise passengers that they are free to refuse permission to be searched. [Privacy Digest]

This was a foregone conclusion. The Fourth Amendment makes this kind of search completely illegal, but when did the Supreme Court ever let a little thing like the Constitution stand in their way?

Apartheid Victims to Sue Banks. Standing at the site where apartheid police killed her brother decades ago, Lulu Petersen said Monday she hoped a class-action lawsuit against foreign companies that dealt with the racist, white regime would finally bring her family justice. [AP World News]

This attempt at looting through the courts won’t exactly encourage investment in South Africa by the various large wealthy banks the looters are targetting. Will their front woman’s family really get justice by pushing South Africa more rapidly down the path of Zimbabwe?

Hong Kong Falun Gong Trial Starts. Sixteen Falun Gong practitioners went on trial Monday in a case that has raised concern Hong Kong is slowly squeezing the freedoms it promised to uphold when it reverted to Chinese rule five years ago. [AP World News]

Well, of course! Did anyone seriously believe that the authoritarian rulers of a basically Communist country would keep their promises?

NYPD’s Kelly Rejects Armed Patrols. NEW YORK -The police commissioner says New York doesn’t need armed bands of citizens to protect its neighborhoods, flatly rejecting a proposal by a Jewish group to begin patrols next week.
‘The department will not tolerate anyone brandishing weapons under the guise of protecting others,’ Commissioner Ray Kelly said Monday. ‘Anyone attempting to patrol the streets armed with weapons will be arrested.’ [FirearmNews.com]

If Commissioner Kelly really means that, he will now go out and arrest any NYPD officer he finds. I won’t hold my breath waiting, though.

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Expires. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, long the centerpiece of nuclear equilibrium between the United States and the Soviet Union and a strong deterrent to other nations with nuclear aspirations, is being officially put to rest. [AP World News]

Good riddance. It was always a bad idea to have a treaty requiring that the American people be defenseless in case of missile attack. This is particularly true when the treaty was signed with a country which didn’t particularly care about the lives of its own citizens. Now, although we’ve wasted 30 years, it will at least be possible for the US to develop defenses.