Month: August 2002

Libertarian Gubernatorial Candidate Arrested At State Fair. South Dakota Libertarian Party –

Libertarian Gubernatorial Candidate Arrested At State Fair – more
evidence that the first amendment is dead. [kaba] [End the War on Freedom]

bq. Libertarian candidate for governor, Nathan A. Barton of rural Rapid City, was arrested today by security guards at the so-called “Freedom Stage” on the South Dakota State Fairgrounds, at the beginning of a congressional candidates forum which did not include Libertarian candidate Terry Begay of Volin.

Mr. Barton was standing on the side of the audience area and asking in a loud voice, “Where is Terry Begay? There are three candidates on the ballot for US House, where is the third candidate? Don’t we have a right?” when he was grabbed in mid-sentence by two police or sheriffs deputies moonlighting as security for either the State Fair or Dakota News Network (sponsor of the series of three forums, for House, Senate and Governor). All of the forums featured only the Democratic and Republican candidates, and excluded the three Libertarian candidates and one Independent candidate who have made the ballot for the November 5th election for the various offices.

This is nothing new. The main reason why third-party candidates get so few votes is that they are not allowed to participate in debates or receive media coverage. After all, if voters knew they had a real choice they might vote for the greater good instead of the lesser evil, and the Dempublicans certainly don’t want that!

It’s not just Libertarian candidates who are excluded, either. During the last round of presidential debates, Ralph Nader wasn’t even allowed to attend in the audience, even though he had a ticket. The Republocrats want to keep out everyone who doesn’t fit their fake “two party” system.

NYT.  The administration fumbles to find ways to stop the slide in stem cell research due to its restrictions on the number of lines that can be used.  The problem is that the ban went into effect well before there were enough stable, abundant lines in place (with prenegotiated intellectual property rights).  This gaffe has all but stopped stem cell research that is critical to curing diabetes, Parkinsons, and a huge variety of other diseases.  This means the President has just locked-in opposition to his re-election by the millions of families that are impacted by these diseases.  They will likely be one issue voters.
For example:  my father has Parkinsons.  If this ban wasn’t in place he would vote Republican, but now he will probably vote in any Democrat that supports lifting the ban.  So would my mother.  In addition, my daughter has diabetes, so I am absolutely going to vote in any Democrat that would lift the ban.  So will my wife.  I hope that as the election nears the rest of my immediate family is going to to follow the same pattern.  That’s another 8 or so votes spread over electoral swing states. 
The creation of millions of one-issue voters joined in opposition to you,  is like touching the third rail in American politics.  You do it, and you won’t survive long in office. [John Robb’s Radio Weblog]

I’m a little puzzled by Mr. Robb’s comments. He writes of a “ban” on stem cell research, except on specific lines, but in fact there is no ban. The article he links to says this quite clearly in the first paragraph! The article talks about restrictions on the use of Federal research financing–financing which is completely illegal, since the Constitution does not grant the Federal government any power to finance research. There are no restrictions at all on private research.

If Mr. Robb and his immediate family are not satisfied with the current research efforts, perhaps they should consider investing in a medical research company?

Martin Schwimmer: “I’m sorry there have been no blog items since Thursday but I was involved in something very important. Musa al-Mustapha of Nigeria emailed me..”  [Scripting News]

I can’t tell if Mr. Schwimmer is joking, or if he’s actually dumb enough to fall for such an obvious and well-known scam. I’ll keep an eye on his weblog for the next few days, to see if I can figure out which it is.

2 would-be suicide bombers surrender. The Shin Bet revealed Thursday that security forces had captured two would-be bombers one of them a woman who had second thoughts about martyrdom because of fears of reprisal against their families. [Jerusalem Post]

Missing commas make that sentence a bit unclear–the article further explains that both people surrendered because they were afraid their families’ homes would be demolished. Apparently the Israeli policy of demolishing the homes of a bomber’s family is proving somewhat effective. Funny how that part of the story doesn’t make it into non-Israeli newspapers.

As a further illustration of how evil the terrorists are, consider this quote from the article:

bq. Damaj was contacted two weeks later and was reportedly informed that she would be given the opportunity to carry out an attack holding a baby as a disguise. In the event, the attack was not perpetrated.

Perhaps the baby’s parents had a sudden attack of humanity. Still, that the Islamic Jihad would even suggest using a baby as a prop for a mass murder–one in which the baby would also die–shows how utterly, irredeemably evil they are.

Whoever the baby was, he or she was probably not related to any of the leaders of the terrorist groups. The wives of terrorists think it’s just swell for other families to make mass murderers of their children, but it’s another story when someone suggests they send their own children off to blow themselves up.

Judge orders Feds to release names of 9-11 secret detainees [Politech]

Sadly, this doesn’t mean the names will actually be released. Sure, that would be illegal, but then “disappearing” people is illegal too. Somehow I doubt that a government which has shown itself to be completely lawless will suddenly decide to do what a judge tells them.

Afghans Protest U.S. Operation [AP World News]

bq. Hundreds of people marched on a provincial center Saturday to protest what they said was a U.S. helicopter attack that killed one Afghan and the U.S. military’s detention of five others from the same village, local officials reported.

The U.S. command in Afghanistan has denied the helicopter attack took place, but has said five men were detained around that time in that area, about 75 miles south of Kabul.

About 500 people traveled 20 miles from the Zormat district of Paktia province to the provincial capital, Gardez, to protest outside the governor’s building, said Abdul Matin Husainkhil, commander of Afghan forces in Zormat.

Those people went to a lot of trouble to peacefully protest. If we keep treating Afghanistan like a conquered puppet state, that won’t last.

LA: Governor Advises Women to Buy Guns. Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster reminded women Thursday that they can pack a gun to protect themselves from a serial killer who has slain three women in the capital in the past 10 months.

[…]

The families of the victims have refused to rely solely on the police, sharing information among themselves to see if there’s some small connection between the victims. [FirearmNews.com]

It’s pretty rare to hear of a politician who actually cares about the welfare of his constituents–most of them seem to care only about advancing their socialist agenda. If this serial killer were active in California, I’d expect Governor Davis to call for more gun control, just to be sure that no peasants were able to defend themselves.

The news that the relatives of the victims are working together to catch the killer is also good news. Apparently the people of Louisiana don’t suffer from the unhealthy dependence on government that so many others do.

Apple to Slam Lid on Mac OS 9. A tweak to new models in its Macintosh line of desktop and portable computers will prevent booting into Mac OS 9, sources said, leaving the Unix-based Mac OS X as the sole operating system. [eWeek]

This is just a rumour, which may be false, but it’s certainly the kind of thing that user-hostile Steve Jobs would pull. Since I have no interest in OS X, I wouldn’t buy a computer that couldn’t run the Mac OS. Fortunately, I don’t have to–the Macs I have now are still working just fine.

The author of the article had an analogy which pretty accurately describes my opinion of OS X:

bq. Nevertheless, the rate of users converting to Mac OS X as their primary operating system reportedly has not matched Apple’s projections. And many users, especially in the Mac’s cornerstone marke–enterprise-level publishing–anticipate the OS X-only future as happily as vegetarians would approach dinner at a Texas barbecue joint.

Israeli Tanks Move Into Nablus [AP World News]

bq. The commander of Israeli forces in the West Bank region, Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Eitan, signed orders to expel to the Gaza Strip two relatives of Palestinian attackers.

“It should be emphasized that the two are not being expelled outside the country’s borders, but that their residence is being limited to the Gaza Strip,” the military said in a statement.

I don’t see the point of expelling them to Gaza. Why not kick them out of Israel entirely? That would make it harder for them to follow in the footsteps of their terrorist relatives, I would think.

Newton MP2x00 Display Upgrade

Replace the touchscreen and backlight of your Newton for $146. Assembly is required, but apparently there are people in the US, Spain, and Germany who can do it for you. This could be useful for people who have scratched up screens or worn-out backlights on Newtons which are otherwise in good shape.