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L. Neil Smith's THE LIBERTARIAN ENTERPRISE Number 194, October 14, 2002 "YOU GOT TO TRUST US"
LibBits/LibBytes
Exclusive to TLE WHO SAID IT? [From the "Height Of Irony" department -- hints and comments thoughtfully provided.] - - - "Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing." [Apparently this included liberty] - - - "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." [And you'll almost always find him wanting; anyone who accepts power over others probably intends to exercise it] ON THIS DATE [Data courtesy of www.historychannel.com] MEET THE NEW BOSS 1066: In England, Anglo-Saxon rule ends and Norman rule begins when William, Duke of Normandy, defeats King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings. - - - ALWAYS REMEMBER: BRING ENOUGH GUN 1912: Progressive Party presidential candidate Theodore Roosevelt is shot by saloonkeeper William Schrank. The .32 caliber bullet is stopped by the bulky manuscript of TR's upcoming speech, folded in the breast pocket of his heavy coat. Schrank's motive, in his own words: "... any man looking for a third term ought to be shot." (Roosevelt was defeated by Woodrow Wilson.) - - - CHART TOPPERS 1961: "Crying" - Roy Orbison IDIOT WIND So James Earl Ray (oops, make that James Earl Carter) has been awarded the NoBull Peace Prize? Well, that makes sense. He was at least as effective as a peacemaker as he was as a president -- which is to say he may have been good-intentioned, but he was a complete moron. Carter's chief contribution to peace came when he held Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin hostage for two weeks in 1978, strong-arming the wildly effective "Camp David Accords", ensuring a lasting peace between Israel and Egypt (and signing Sadat's death warrant as an unintended (?) consequence). Note that Sadat and Begin (but not Carter) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 for the accords. Now is that double-dipping ... or double jeopardy? Note also that Carter managed to totally hose up the Iran hostage situation ... and perpetuate the damage done by Nixon to the domestic economy ... and generally act like a boob. Not to mention the fact that this US Naval Academy graduate may have been a "noo-kee-er engineer", but he couldn't successfully pronounce it. Plus there was that "bunny-bopping" incident ... The source article says, << He helped defuse growing nuclear tensions in Korea, then helped narrowly avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti in 1994, as well as leading conflict mediation and elections monitoring efforts around the world.>> Um, I'm going to have to call "BS" on that, I'm afraid. His contribution to Korean peace is problematical at best, and, as near as I can recall, Clinton's Cadre did invade Haiti in '94. Of course, we have to also consider the source. <<"It should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current administration has taken," Gunnar Berge, chairman of the Nobel committee, said. "It's a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States.">> Oh. So the award was just a way to take a socialist swipe at Dubya (not that he doesn't deserve every swift kick he gets). Well, that's a good use for a "peace prize". Then again, it's also worthy of note that last year's joint winners were the United Nations and its secretary-general, Kofi Annan. So at least there's a certain bizarro consistency at work here. Source: story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=514&e=2&cid=514&u=/ap/20021011/ap_on_re_eu/nobel_peace SPEAKING OF PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ... Source: story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=514&e=1&cid=514&u=/ap/20021011/ap_on_go_co/us_iraq << Congress approved the use of America's military might against Iraq, reinforcing President Bush's insistence that Saddam Hussein's government had no other option but to disarm. "The days of Iraq acting as an outlaw state are coming to an end," Bush said.>> Place your bets, folks. (I've already got "before the end of October" in the Jihad Pool.) << After days of solemn debate, both the House and Senate passed and sent to the White House a resolution authorizing the president to use military force, if necessary, to compel Iraq to get rid of its biological and chemical weapons and disband its nuclear weapons program. ... >> Yeah, right. I'll bet the debate would be a lot more solemn -- not to mention serious -- if they (or even their "fortunate sons") were going to be called up. SPEAKING OF "FORTUNATE SONS" ... Has anyone besides me noticed a disturbing trend in advertising: to wit, an often total misuse of popular music to pimp product? Case in point: Wrangler Jeans (I believe it is) uses CCW's "Fortunate Son" to tout their rags. Of course, in order to do it, they have to limit the sound bite to "Some folks are born made to wave the flag, ooh they're red, white and blue", which sounds, I suppose, sort of patriotic to the whiz kids in the ad department. Never mind that the next lines are, "And when the band plays 'Hail to the Chief', ooh they point the cannon at you." Whatever were they thinking? SPEAKING OF "WHATEVER WERE THEY THINKING?" ... <<Two zookeepers in a small northwest German town have been suspended and put under police investigation for eating the zoo's animals, police said. Source: story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20021011/od_uk_nm/oukoe_crime_germany_zoo Not exactly a very sporting way to bag game, is it? Say, by the way, has anybody checked to see if any small children "went missing"?
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