Knowledge and Freedom

"We are not pieces of chocolate!"

2011-06-26T08:33:00.000-07:00

‎"To hear all these men saying, 'Ah, he [Dominique Strauss-Kahn, accused rapist] is so seductive and just loves women...' Give me a break. This is not 'Ah, we French love food and women.' We are not pieces of chocolate." Nicole Bacharan, political scientist, as quoted in "The Turning Point" by Elaine Sciolino in Time Magazine, May 30, 2011:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2072521,00.html?xid=fbshare

What does Private Property Mean?

2005-06-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

It's time to be very concerned. Ask yourself what does private property mean when the Supreme Court says it may be seized and given to another private entity? Yet another great argument for limited government if you ask me...

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The story below is from the following site:
http://www.globest.com/retail/news/northeast/15412-1.html
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Supreme Court Says Private Property May Be Seized
By Barbara Jarvie
Last updated: June 23, 2005 12:53pm

NEW LONDON, CT-In a 17-page decision, the US Supreme Court has ruled that a local government has the right to use its eminent domain powers to seize private property to transfer it to another private entity. In Kelo v. the City of New London, seven plaintiffs including homeowner Susette Kelo and other property and small business owners, filed suit in December 2000 after New London officials and the New London Development Corp. condemned their Fort Trumbull properties so a number of private development projects could move forward. City officials maintained the projects would bring a great economic benefit to the area.

"The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in an opinion joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. “Promoting economic development is a traditional and long accepted function of government.”

The Founding Fathers

2005-05-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

If we cannot attempt to understand how the founders might view what happens in the present moment (and justifiably this leads to debate, argument, heated words) then we must fully question the value of their effect upon us. What I mean to ask is, "What is the value of learning about the Founders if their issues cannot be brought into the present?" While I study and learn from the past, I do not live in it.

One issue that I feel must be addressed to fully put into perspective how we are living in a different world from the founders is the issue of the speed with which news and events come from one part of the world to another. Remember that in the days of the Founders whole countries could fall before the rest of the (inter-national) world knew anything about it. This also brings into perspective the issue of who, what, why, when and how that information is being brought to us. Question all media, then and now! Someone needs to remind the media that it is their job to enlighten... as in to give spiritual or intellectual insight to; To give information to; To inform or instruct.

“Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppression of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.” (Thomas Jefferson)

Wikipedia/Index of Economic Freedom

2005-04-19T08:22:00.000-07:00

I love Wikipedia for so many reasons but here's a few of the best:

1) Anything I've ever tried to find has always been there.
(This is essential for a wordsmith like me who is constantly being challenged by

[...she tries to think of a word with just enough sagacious subterfuge to inform the intelligent while dumbfounding the dunces and alighting her alliteration at an acceptable appointment...]

charlatans.

(My two most recent triumphs were with the word Yeti and the phrase Pyrrhic victory... but those are stories for another day.)

2) I can actually find something intriguing there... Every day... Every time I look!

This morning I found the Index of Economic Freedom and just had to share it with you avid adventurous anglers after free-spoken phraseology:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Economic_Freedom

(I've put it onto the links page so you can find it later.)

3) It's free and available from any internet-accessible device. (You can assume I would just love anything that promotes knowledge And freedom!)

Thomas Jefferson's Birthday

2005-04-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

As is befitting the date I would like to write a few words about one of the greatest Americans that ever lived. Since however even I have been known to be humble on certain occasions, I feel that a few quotes are in order from the great man himself:

"I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest danger to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our leaders load us with perpetual debt. We must make our choice between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labors and our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy. The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying money for unexplained projects forbids its disposition of public money."

If TJ were alive today I think he would look at the blogosphere and say something akin to what he said in 1813 but perhaps add that in this special case it is designed by Man:

"That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe...seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature...like the air in which we breathe."

2005-03-23T20:32:00.000-08:00

Quotes

2005-03-22T22:25:00.000-08:00

My philosophy in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute. Ayn Rand

If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. Thomas Jefferson

Open Letter to Susan Estrich, et al

2005-03-13T12:05:00.000-08:00

Sat, 26 Feb 2005 03:19:21 -0800 (PST)

Dear Susan et al,
I want to join your organization because I am one of several (women and men) thinkers that has been ignored by the media. I am a Libertarian so obviously I must be a wacko. Well, then they relegate us to the fringe at their own peril because now I'm ready to start the revolution. (I've got some other ideas too but since you've got the ball rolling on this one I'm willing to scream with you to keep the avalanche going! I only want you to give me credit for any of these ideas that you utilize.)

If the word revolution scares you then just think about this…
it isn’t about tolerating different political parties, its about promoting community
it isn’t about tolerating different religions its about promoting spirituality
it isn’t about tolerating diversity and different opinions, it’s about promoting individual rights and liberty.

I tried to tell them why Arnie was going to win but they wouldn’t print my opinion either so let the system fall from its own decaying infrastructure. However, don’t waste your time beating a dead horse when the train station is right around the corner. Time to get out of Dodge!

We don't need the LA Times anymore we've got the new free press in the blogosphere and the world wide web. That filthy rag doesn’t even deserve to be mentioned by name in my rant except that you’ve shown me through your letter that the first place to start the exodus is from the media.

Premise: Start realizing that every $ you spend is not just about buying the service or product you want but a transaction in the market. Every place you spend your money is a support of that entity whether it is a person, business, organization, whatever. You are promoting and giving further life to whatever you spend your money on. So stop spending it on things you don't support and start spending it on only those things you do support. I am not telling you what to support; I’m saying stop dissipating your power. It’s time to remind people they can change the system by using the free market power ($$$) they have already.

Application: The Media
If you can't get the LA Times to print your articles then start printing your opinions on the blogosphere or on the world wide web. Secondly, pool together and start your own media outlet (Magazine, TV, Satellite Radio?). There are a lot of people out there waiting to support an outlet that truly tries to inform the electorate not sway them with their disguised agendas.
[Start up can be expensive but I'm sure a bank would be more willing to loan to someone who had one hundred and fifty letters, each one saying what the signer could contribute to the venture in terms of money or labor/time, barter, etc.] There is a huge resource of women and other disenfranchised people that would come on board, they are just waiting to find the station.

Restated, start an alternative media outlet and then the exodus from the existing media could happen like this: Contact whatever publication you find is doing something you think is very wrong and call them. If you can't talk to a real person who cares what you think then send a letter to the company and tell them why you are switching to a competitor and that you will boycott their outlet/channel/publication and you will start boycotting the advertisers they use also. Then send a letter to those advertisers and say you are boycotting them because they have put their advertising on that outlet/channel/publication. (Don’t forget to cc all your friends so that they know what is getting your goat and they can come on board if they want.)
If there is any sign that the advertiser is being hurt then you can call the advertiser back and see if they’d like to save their ass and advertise on your outlet before they go down in flames. Offer to give them good rates if they commit to more issues and tell them you will in turn do additional promotion for them elsewhere for free.

I have recently been brainstorming with a lot of women about starting a website that has as its mission To speak candidly about the experiences that have had an impact on who we are. Your list of writers can do this. They can start something that the rest of us can subscribe to. I for one am willing to come on board and I can give you some of the reasons others will too because this is what we’ve been talking about lately:

We want a venue that cuts through the bullsh*t and devisiveness and promotes real women’s practical solutions to their problems such as how to get the jobs and careers we want (whatever they are), how to make relationships work (whomever they are with), how to be better citizens (whatever place we live), how to be better individuals and role models (no matter what we call ourselves).

There are women out there including yourselves that have solved these problems and the answers are not being disseminated to others except through our personal relationships. Its time to use the information superhighway to share our solutions, pool our resources and truly liberate all individuals. Let’s not forget that while we can promote real women role models, we can also promote real men role models! (You know we don’t all agree with what those are but we can agree it is such a small percentage of what we are seeing out there now that it’s time for a change. Our differences are our strengths, if they won’t see that then we can take our strength elsewhere and build something new. We can embrace our differences and create a forum that promotes our solutions, that promotes us, that promotes us defining who we are!)

You know what real women are like; they don’t seem to be what we see in the media. Time for a new outlet. Start something we can subscribe to and the word will spread. The information superhighway is a different kind of underground railroad and we're waiting to get on it with you.

P.S. I won’t even go into how much it really sucks that my local paper (the Burbank Leader) is owned by the LA Times.

Dennis Miller

2004-10-07T17:54:00.000-07:00

Dennis Miller is really starting to grow on me and not just because he justifies the existence of cnbc.

Says Dennis: "I'm not a liberal, I'm a pragmatist. Which means I think everyone who isn't me is an *ssh*l*."

Freedom Is

2004-09-25T13:57:00.000-07:00

That which we hold without hands
That which envelops us without arms
That which leads us without reins
That which feeds us without food
That which leads us without head
That which is elemental without body
And that which provides us the maximum opportunity and minimum legislation for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Links

2004-09-20T07:27:00.000-07:00

The Cato Institute:
http://www.cato.org/

Index of Economic Freedom:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Index_of_Economic_Freedom

Some of the Columns of Tibor Machan:
http://szatyor2693.wordpress.com/

Find your State's Official Libertarian Party:
http://www.lp.org/organization/states.html