Letters To The Editor
Letters from Scott Tillman, Joel Gehman, MacGregor K. Phillips,
Mimbreno Chiracahua, MacGregor K. Phillips on The Attempt to Steal your E-gold Password,
Michael McKibbin, and Jason P Sorens:
• FULL STORY
Why Michael Medved Needs Glasses
by L. Neil Smith
Some years ago, I wrote a column that was an open letter to the just-
diselected southern California congressman Robert K. "B-1 Bob" Dornan.
Dornan was bitterly complaining that he'd lost the election because
there was a Libertarian Party candidate running against him, depriving
him of votes -- in his peculiar view -- that were rightfully his. He
pointed to other races that year where LP candidates had won more
votes than the margin between the winning Democrat and the losing
Republican, and chastised libertarians for failing to recognize and
act for the "higher good" of helping Republicans defeat Democrats, as
if libertarians were somehow the second-string team in the fight for
freedom.
• FULL STORY
Mass. Taxpayers Send a Message Their Masters Can't Understand
by Alan Hutch
Massachusetts voters narrowly defeated Question 1, an initiative
petition to abolish the income tax, by a margin of 45.4% YES to 54.6%
NO. With 1,942,263 total votes, the biggest tax revolt since the
Boston Tea Party might have succeeded had a mere 89,345 NO voters been
able to see the benefits of smaller government and personal freedom.
• FULL STORY
To DMV or Not To DMV?
by Rodney Harris
I just moved recently and, along with informing my friends and the
magazines I subscribe to of my new address, I had the pleasure of
going to the DMV. While standing in a line that went out the door, I
had time to think. (It could be dangerous to let me think too much!)
My first thought was about how the day before I went to AAA (a club I
choose to belong to) to get a map so I could find the DMV. When I
walked in to AAA, the information counter had a big friendly sign (in
neon in fact) to tell me where to start and no line. I asked for a
map, was given one and asked if I needed any thing else, and was out
of there in less than a minute. My second thought at DMV was: WHY? Why
do we have a DMV? Why do we have driver's licenses? Why are the people
in there making me stand out here? Why am I paying them?
• FULL STORY
Your Papers, Please
by Dennis Kabaczy
As reported in the Detroit Free Press on 12 Nov 2002, "Federal agents
will begin randomly stopping traffic today, looking for illegal
immigrants, terrorists and drug or weapon smugglers."
Gee, now we here in Michigan, get to act just like the people in Nazi
Germany, Communist Russia, and southwest Texas, southern New Mexico,
Arizona and California. What�s that you say? How did some southern
states get included in that list? Seems for years the Feds have been
running "checkpoints" within 100 miles of the border with Mexico to,
shall we say, stop illegal immigration. And, in the 13 Nov issue of
the Free Press they are now saying, "Under federal law, the Border
Patrol can set up checkpoints up to 100 air miles from any
international border, or from the shoreline. Within the first 25
miles, federal agents can stop drivers who seem suspicious, and they
can search and conduct surveillance of private property."
• FULL STORY
Happy Now?
by Carl Bussjaeger
The US election season has come and - with a couple of exceptions -
gone. The abandoned campaign signs are getting tattered, and blowing
away in the breeze. As is the US Constitution that some folks still believed in.
Now that their offices are secure for a couple of years, the
politicians are dropping their faux smiles. Just as they're dropping
their pants. And grabbing the Vaseline, and preparing to screw us again.
• FULL STORY
Feminist Urban Legends
by Wendy McElroy
Advocacy research refers to studies and reports produced by people
with a vested interest in reaching a foregone conclusion. PC feminism
is notorious for its advocacy research and for the shoddy methodology
that so often accompanies political bias. Theory is paraded as fact,
anecdotal accounts as hard data. Those who raise contradicting
evidence are slandered in ad hominem attacks.
• FULL STORY
Hey, You! Get Off of My Tube!
by Mark Lamoree
I had thought that television could get no more banal or insipid, that
it could not insult the intelligence of its viewers any more
egregiously. I was wrong. I failed to account for the efforts of our
favorite people, the nannies. Over the past several months, the
airwaves have become indundated with public service announcements
"educating" us on all facets of life. The latest crop shows us an
encounter group type of setting, in which a man addresses the effigy
of a young boy. "I'm proud of you son, you did well on that test," he
intones. Cut to an actor wearing the doe-eyed visage of the typical
"sensitive" twit. He begins clapping, clearly overcome with pride in
his charge. The rest of the group follows suit, and our hero's eyes
moisten with pride. We are left with an imprecation to talk to our
children, or some such twaddle.
• FULL STORY
LibBits/LibBytes
by the Editor
Items of interest:
• FULL STORY
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Back to 2002 Issues Archive
