Weekend Update, No. 4

A leaner portion than previously served, but no less satisfying.  Apologies for the late posting time -- just barely squeezed into the weekend.

Health-Care "Reform": It's All About Power, by Sheldon Richman
Makes much the same points as my own article did, albeit in much briefer and IMHO much more mundane fashion.  Nevertheless, the key point is that government is the driver of increasing healthcare costs, and could reduce them in a heartbeat if it truly wanted to.

Rabbit Hole, by Don Cooper
One of my favorite writers at LRC details our society's descent to the level of the Mad Hatter and March Hare, a bizzarro world where up is down, war is peace, ignorance is strength, etc.

If You Believe in IP, How Do You Teach Others? by Jeffrey Tucker
More ammunition to expose copyright as absurd, bringing attention to the actions of professors at Harvard and the University of Texas while contrasting their model with the free, open-source MIT, where all the lectures and classroom materials can be downloaded by anyone with a computer.  Really.

German Chancellor, Ministers Get Special Vaccine Without Soft Kill Ingredients, by Kurt Nimmo
Yes, as we have seen previously, our rulers are not subjecting themselves to the same treatments they force upon their serfs.  The German government and military will be receiving adjuvant-free vaccine (no mercury-containing thimerosal or squalene), while their citizens receive the toxic compounds.  Apparently, the German citizens aren't as stupid as their rulers think.

Government Is Good, Don'cha Know, by William L. Anderson
Explores the ever-deepening depths the literally insane statists will go in their worship of their god government.  Profiles the dead serious website of a professor of political science written in that infamous cradle of liberal thought, Massachusetts.  It's title?  Government Is Good.  I'm not joking.  Anderson's mocking sarcasm guarantees multiple laughs out loud.

A Case for Secession - Introduction, by Patrick Samuels
A well-written, entirely reasonable argument.

Gorbachev and the Most Complete Test in Economic History, by Bill Bonner
Examines data from the former East Germany and Czech Republic.  Guess who has come out on top after the fall of communism, and why.

Shocking Revelations from the Rosenberg Grand Jury Files, by Roger Roots
Details yet another way our federal overlords systematically lie, cheat, write the rules to benefit themselves, and cover their tracks, all to dish out their brand of "justice."

Military Doublespeak, by Laurence M. Vance
A crucial guide for translating the lies about our wars.

The Real Significance of the 'Civil War,' by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
"...The consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it." ~ Robert E. Lee

Cop Tases 10-Year-Old Girl
At the encouragement of her mother.  And the local police defend the officer's actions on the grounds that they were for the poor child's own protection.  Right.  Never, ever call the police for "help."

Kill This Bill, by Kurt G. Harris, MD
Details why the healthcare reform bill is the single worst bill proposed in more than 60 years and how it is an affront to all moral, disciplined, thinking men.

The Myth of the "Old Right," by Jeff Riggenbach
Describes how the terms liberal and conservative became confused with FDR's utter betrayal of classically liberal ideals and his campaign promises as he instituted the New Deal.  While popularly understood as for the benefit of the common man, its provisions in fact were lobbied for by big business and have benefited them greatly.  Classical liberals or libertarians reflexively aligned themselves with the conservatives, in effect diluting their message and leaving no major US political party on the side of freedom and limited government, a situation that remains to this day.  After all, the word liberalism is derived from the Latin liberalis, "of freedom; worthy of a free man."  Not exactly what drives todays liberals.  Like much of history, what we were taught just ain't so.  The solution: seek out materials on historical revisionism, by such authors as Riggenbach and his book linked in the article above.  Also, a key quote coincidentally published at Strike The Root the same day: "The embarrassing truth — the brontosaurus in the broom closet that nobody wants to talk about — is that the Republican Party was never the party of freedom. That Goldwater business in the 1960s was a fluke, immediately snuffed out by "older, wiser heads" in the GOP....The Republican Party was created in the 1850s by northeastern mercantilists just like them, to crush the hopes of poor southerners for individual liberty and independence, and keep them bound in serfdom, paying 80 percent of all taxes collected in America." ~ L. Neil Smith

Did Hitler Inspire the US Post-9/11 Tribunal System? by Jacob Hornberger
Here's one to anger conservatives and Bush-lovers.  Before 9/11 and all the hysteria of trying Khalid Sheik Mohammed in federal court, remember that we as a country have always handled suspected terrorists in this manner.  The whole military tribunal system is a recent invention directly in conflict with our country's laws and principles.

How Did We Get Into This Mess? by James Ostrowski
An introduction from his book.  Another article sure to inflame.  Begins by outlining the rationale for universal public schooling, which was not any educational deficiency in the US population.  Then describes exactly why our public schools are so ineffective: "The basic reason why private schools are superior to government schools is not mysterious, complex, or hard to grasp.  Government schools are coercive institutions; private schools are voluntary."