Month: August 2002

Ed Cone: “What is success for a neophyte Libertarian against a GOP heavyweight — 20%? Would 30% be shocking? The last Libertarian got 9% to Coble’s 91%. The successes of Grubb’s campaign, and its implications for the Weblog nation, will most likely be incremental, not monumental. But in the real world, that’s impressive enough.” [Scripting News]

Carla Howell got 12% in 2000 when she ran for Senate against Ted Kennedy. There was a Republican candidate in that race, who got 13%. As far as I know it’s the best a Libertarian Party candidate has ever done (Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is a libertarian, but he runs as a Republican).

Gadaffi To Head Human Rights Body. Libya is to be elected chair of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights – despite its links with terrorism and torture. [Sky News]

This is an unusually open admission by the UN of what they really think about human rights. Gadaffi’s only qualification for the post seems to be his hatred of America, which no doubt endears him to the sort of people involved in the UN and international “human rights” groups.

This story comes from a news site in the UK. I haven’t seen anything about it in the US news yet.

Musharraf Grants Self Broad Powers [AP World News]

A careful reading of this article certainly leads me to believe that Musharraf is just another dictator who likes to make noise about democracy as window-dressing for his behavior. Consider these key lines from the story:

bq. …President Gen. Pervez Musharraf unilaterally amended the Pakistani constitution Wednesday, granting himself sweeping powers

I think I’ve seen the future. I think I’ve seen the future, or a small part of it, regarding weblogs. Two things:

1. If you’re not syndicating your site as RSS it might as well not exist.

2. If you don’t include a tag in your home page that points to your RSS feed, then you might as well not be syndicating your site, and therefore it might as well not exist. [inessential.com]

I don’t think this is true. This weblog has both an RSS feed and a tag pointing to it, but it has many fewer readers than weblogs which have neither–for example, InstaPundit.com.

LP’s medical marijuana ads play role in defeat of U.S. Rep. Bob Barr: The “worst drug warrior in Congress” has lost his
seat, and the Libertarian Party appears to have played a small role in
making it happen.

U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, a four-term incumbent, lost the Republican primary
in Georgia’s 7th District on Tuesday night to fellow Republican John
Linder, 67 percent to 33 percent.

Queers settle Berkeley – ‘God gave us this land’. Resistance comes on many fronts. A group of queer — and that’s on all levels — activists have “settled” a Starbucks coffee shop in Berkeley in the style of the Israeli colonists. (Starbucks is owned by a right-wing, rabidly pro-Israel jewish American.) The group erected palm trees to “make the concrete bloom” and enacted 24-hour curfews for straights — enforced, thankfully, with Super Soakers rather than American assault rifles. [kuro5hin.org]

This is mostly just another story illustrating why California is the “granola state” (because it’s full of nuts and flakes). However, it also happens to contain one sentence answering a question I’ve been wondering about: what do liberals have against Starbucks? The answer is, “Starbucks is owned by a right-wing, rabidly pro-Israel jewish American.”

my brother and the deputy. The Jackson’s at Liberty Round Table –

my brother and the deputy – a true story, sadly. [smith2004]
bq.
Scott had parked the truck about a quarter mile from where he was working,
and was up in a tree with a chain saw when he suddenly realized that a
sheriff’s deputy (hereafter known as Rocket Scientist #1) was standing
under the tree pointing a gun at him.

“Put your hands up!!” called the Rocket Scientist.

Scott assessed the situation and replied, “I intend to cooperate, sir,
but if I do that the chain saw will land on your head and I will fall
out of the tree. What do you want me to do?” [End the War on Freedom]

This story is pretty funny, in a disgusting sort of way. The deputy, who was trespassing on private property without a warrant, had decided that some random bush on the property was marijuana.

I saw something rather interesting on the way home from work today. A few stops after I got on the bus, a middle-aged, overweight Latina woman got on. I immediately noticed that she was wearing a “Bill Simon for Governor” t-shirt!

So much for the conventional wisdom on Republicans being a bunch of rich white guys, and Democrats having a lock on the Latino vote.

From a Libertarian Party press release:

bq. Featured speakers at the event, organized by the Millions for
Reparations Committee, included Louis Farrakhan, head of the Nation of
Islam, and U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), who has introduced
legislation to study the reparations issue. The crowd roared in
approval when Rev. Farrakhan declared that black Americans “cannot
settle for some little jive token” from the U.S. government and are
entitled to a large cash payment for past injustices.

That’s a most unwise choice of committee name, since it immediately reminds me of the famous saying, “Millions for defense, not one cent for tribute!” Surely not the sentiment the “reparations” crowd wants to be reminding people of.

Rebel Fire Suspected in Russia Crash [AP World News]

The Russian media is reporting the helicopter crashed in a minefield, making it harder to rescue people. A Russian officer denied it, but the Russian military doesn’t have too much credibility left after the Kursk. The article makes a big deal about how overloaded the helicopter was, but I’m dubious as to whether that really mattered.

The article says that the helicopter can carry 80 “combat-equipped” troops, but had 147 people on board. But, exactly how much equipment do Russian troops carry going into combat? If they carry 100 pounds of gear each, then the “overloading” would have been much less severe than it sounded.

Also, the article mentioned that the crash took place outside a Russian military headquarters. That means it must have been either taking off or landing nearby–which would make even an unloaded aircraft very vulnerable to missile fire.