EDITORIAL MATTERS:

L. Neil Smith informs us there is an online review of the new e-book version of his Tom Paine Maru at

http://www.allscifi.com/Topics/info_1434.asp?BSID=9513708

You can download your own copy of Tom Paine Maru from http://payloadz.com/go/sip?id=137991 for just $5. It is a PDF file, 1,845,243-bytes in size.

Scott Bieser reports that he has added his "U.S. Out of New Orleans!" bumper sticker design (see last issue) to his Cafe Press site, bumper-stickers, tote-bags, t-shirts, and other items, all with the design:

http://www.cafepress.com/libartworx/821804

Well, enough of that, here for your reading pleasure, the 336th edition of TLE.

Ken Holder
editor@ncc-1776.org
Editor

ARTICLES

Letters to the Editor
from E.J. Totty, Lady Liberty, and Lewis Carroll (via E.J. Totty)
• FULL STORY

A Moment of Epiphany
by L. Neil Smith
The Associated Press headline read: "To the estimated 10,000 residents still believed to be holed up in this ruined city, the mayor had a blunt new warning: Get out now or risk being taken out by force." The ruin, of course, is the late, great city of New Orleans, the mayor, some politico named Ray Nagin. And naturally, the Associated Press is only doing its job, the primary function of the American mass media being to convey government lies and threats (especially threats) to productive class herds that exist only to shut up, shell out, and comply.
• FULL STORY

Military Occupation in America and the Prospects for Liberty
by Anthony Gregory
The government response to Katrina, aside from being riddled with error and incompetence, has been downright cruel—forcing people to leave their pets and property behind, keeping charity out of the city, turning away private volunteers and assistance, treating people who might only be scavenging for abandoned and rotting food like dangerous criminals, disrupting private transportation and burdening flights out of the city with ludicrous post-9/11 security measures, expropriating private property, separating families and forcefully corralling human beings onto buses and into buildings without adequate fresh air, water or plumbing. Reading the news reports, we see the government reacting with a mixture of ineptitude and martial law, appearing to do everything it can to prevent civilization from surviving and rebounding after the flood.
• FULL STORY

Cold Shutdown and Don't Re-Start!
by Michael Bradshaw
It is my observation that the Constitution of the United States is dead as a door-nail; and has been at least since 1933. Welll... maybe 1938, but I won't give you 1939! I hope it never returns, because it was a dismal failure. As Lysander Spooner told us, it either authorizes what we have now or has been powerless to prevent it. In Lady Liberty's idiom it was "Freedom 1.0"—and the Microsoft version, at that!
• FULL STORY

'Blogger Favors Freedom First
by Lady Liberty
There's little question that free speech is endangered in America today. Witness, for example, those protesters at both the Democrat and Republican national conventions who were relegated to "free speech zones." Consider hate speech laws that are often broad and, as a result, even more broadly interpreted. Remember that we now know that protesters in California were the subject of surveillance by the National Guard, and that the FBI, too, has been monitoring those who would speak out. There have been noises made that Internet 'bloggers should, perhaps, be subject to campaign finance reform laws (which, as they currently exist, are effectively free speech curbs). And then take note of the fact that an Ohio prosecutor recently referred to a 'blogger as a "paper terrorist," and you'll begin to get an even clearer picture as to just how endangered our First Amendment rights have become.
• FULL STORY

Katrina: Worst Hyperbole Ever?
by Jonathan David Morris
I'm just going to level with you. I feel awful for the thousands affected by Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans looks like a post-apocalyptic nightmare, the way water and lawlessness have flooded its streets. People are comparing the Big Easy to Pompeii now. They're tossing around terms like "Lost City." I feel awful about that. I feel so bad for the people going through this. But part me of hopes it happens. Part of me hopes the city is lost. And I know I'm not alone here—though I'm probably the only one with the balls to admit it.
• FULL STORY

Twenty-Three Freedoms
by L. Neil Smith
If there's one thing conservatives, Republicans, the Bush Junior Administration, and Curious George himself talk about constantly these days, it's freedom. They speak endlessly of bringing freedom to the rest of the world, to Afghanistan, Iraq, possibly Iran, Syria, North Korea, and France—at gunpoint, if need be—whether folks in those countries want to trade their sovereignty for it (and their oil) or not.
• FULL STORY

Paternity Case Marks Progress for Defrauded Fathers
by Wendy McElroy
On Aug. 31, a small but precedent-setting case was decided in the Superior Court of New Jersey. The plaintiff discovered he was not the biological father of his eldest 'son', now in his 30s. The court affirmed the duped dad's legal right to sue the natural father for the cost of raising the 'child' and removed some limitations imposed by a lower court.
• FULL STORY

Help Support TLE, click on our advertisement and affiliate links even if you don't buy anything ... some of them will pay us for that!

Back to 2005 Issues Archive