Commentary Failure writes pamphlet,changes American history Strike the Root by George F. Smith

"When Common Sense hit the streets, many colonists privately favored independence, including many members of the Second Continental Congress, but no one had had the nerve to boldly advocate it. To break the dam and release the swelling tide of freedom, it took an Englishman who had recently arrived in the colonies and had refined his views in tavern debates: Thomas Paine." (01/23/03)

http://www.strike-the-root.com/columns/Smith/smith37.html

News Man arrested over police chief sex call Ananova

"An Ohio man accused of dialling a sex chat line says he ended up talking dirty to a police chief because he misdialled." (01/23/03)

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_742771.html?menu=news.quirkies

News Students suspended for toy guns Canada.com

"Three Grade 11 students at a Manitoba high school are suspended for at least six weeks after running through school halls pretending to fire toy handguns at each other." (01/23/03)

http://canada.com/national/story.asp?id=F6FBA0B9-FFA0-4D30-A03E-670F8CD84E16

News Lawmakers, officials at odds over Mexican immigration policy

"The Bush administration's coziness with Mexican President Vicente Fox is causing some members of the Republican Party to express frustration over immigration policy. 'You've got an administration and the two parties that recognize a political advantage to massive immigration and/or economic advantage,' said Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), who chairs the Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus. 'The Democrats see it as a potential source of voters; the Republicans see it as a potential source of cheap labor.'" (01/23/03)

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=\Politics\archive\200301\POL20030123b.html

News Anxiety drives increased Florida gun purchases Daytona Beach News-Journal

"One month after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, about 40,000 people asked the Florida Department of State for an application for a concealed weapons permit, roughly 20 times the norm. And local gun-shop owners say interest spiked last fall surrounding the type of rifle used in the Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks." (01/22/03)

http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Local/areaA3012303.htm

Coimmentary India's nuclear war plans Counter Punch by N.D. Jayarakash

"Two concurrent pronouncements made on 4 January 2003 - one, a major policy decision by the Government of India's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) and the other, a pious wish expressed by the President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam -- are ominous signs of the perilous future that lies ahead .... India's current nuclear war strategy is akin to the senseless policy of Mutually Assured Destruction -- or what was more appropriately called the MAD policy -- that USA and the Soviet Union (now Russia) have pursued." (01/23/03)

http://www.counterpunch.org/jayaprakash01232003.html

Commentary Street legal Moscow Times by Chris Floyd

"Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in the United States last weekend to protest the Bush Regime's planned invasion of Iraq .... Just days earlier, the city council of Chicago, the nation's third-largest city -- a tough, no-nonsense, big-business town -- voted 46 to 1 for a declaration opposing the Regime's "preemptive" aggression .... This was all rousing stuff: mainstream America stirring at last from its long slumber to confront the preening usurper in the White House. Unfortunately, these protests -- and 100 more like them -- won't make a dime's worth of difference to the Regime's calculations for war on Iraq." (01/24/03)

http://www.tmtmetropolis.ru/stories/2003/01/24/120.html

News Journalist free on parole Moscow Times

"Military journalist and whistleblower Grigory Pasko was released on parole Thursday for good behavior after serving more than two-thirds of his term and he said he would seek a full acquittal. Pasko was sentenced to four years in prison in December 2001 for illegally attending a meeting of top military commanders and making notes there." (01/24/03)

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2003/01/24/002.html

Commentary Hang up and get a clue Independence Institute by Jon Caldera

"The Boulder City Council is doing what it does best -- finding more things to outlaw. This time it's cell-phone use in your car. (Somebody really needs to buy these guys some toys so they stop playing with our stuff.) Unfortunately, they are not alone on this one. In 1999, Brooklyn, Ohio, became the first city in the United States to ban hand-held cell-phone use in cars. Today many cities and several state legislatures, including Colorado's, are looking at the idea." (01/19/03)

http://www.i2i.org/Caldara/camera/2003/011903.htm


News NY sufferers plead for medical pot The Daily Star

"Since his 1988 crash, Dunn has tried an array of powerful prescribed medications to relieve his pain. Some drugs simply didn't work. Others left him sick.
Finally, he turned to marijuana. Dunn came to the state Capitol on Wednesday to urge lawmakers to legalize the medical use of marijuana. He was joined by AIDS patients, health professionals and activists who testified before an Assembly Health Committee panel on benefits marijuana can provide to those suffering from cancer and other terminal illnesses." (01/23/03)

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n112/a11.html?397

Commentary Deadly pretense Jewish World review by Thomas Sowell

"It would of course be wonderful to have some way to get criminals, drug addicts, abusive parents and others to change their ways and become better people. It would be great to be able to prevent crimes or drug addiction before they start. But setting up programs with such goals in their titles is dangerous make-believe and self-indulgence, when there is no evidence that these things can be relied on to do what they say they do." (01/23/03)

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell.html

Commentary Seeing beyond Roe, Bush aims at contraception Women's ENews by Caryl Rivers

"While few in the media noticed, American foreign policy has moved towards opposition to condoms and towards promotion of 'natural' birth control methods such as rhythm and abstinence. It has been reported that the White House political arm believes that Bush Pere lost the presidency because it did not pay enough attention to the right wing. What better gift to the right than deep-sixing Roe and going much further by limiting the availability of contraception?" (01/22/03)

http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/1191

Commentary Firefly: It's weird death and potential rebirth Independent Reviews by Victor D. Infante


"Firefly has had one of the weirdest shutdowns in television history, and almost instantly garnered one of the most professional and organized fan efforts to save it of any television show in memory ... to understand the passion a small group of fans hold for this beleaguered show, one needs to look at the show itself. And, in the case of this writer, it helps to have a feel for 19th Century anarchist literature." (01/03)

http://www.theindependentreviewssite.org/v3_i3_tv_hell.html

News More kids caught with guns at school Chicago Sun Times

"A student was accused of carrying a gun inside Gage Park High School Tuesday, bringing the total number of guns confiscated on Chicago public school property so far this school year to 13 -- as many as in all of last school year. The seizure raised renewed fears about high school security and came more than a week after Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan ordered a security inspection of all of the city's public high schools." (01/22/03)

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-gun22.html

News UT gun restriction plan advances Salt Lake Tribune

"A bill paving the way for police to slap convicted violent criminals with a second-degree felony if they so much as offer to purchase or sell firearms moved swiftly through committee Tuesday. It already is illegal in Utah for violent criminals, including parolees, to purchase, transfer, own or use a gun. Surprisingly, as House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Ben Ferry noted, the bill encountered no opposition from gun rights activists in the audience." (01/22/03)

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Jan/01222003/utah/22333.asp

News Nation to get bio-monitors NY Post

"Environmental monitoring devices will be deployed nationwide to help warn against silent bioterror attacks, an administration official said yesterday. The plan is to retrofit existing environmental monitoring stations with new filters to detect biological agents, the official said." (01/22/03)

http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/67192.htm

News State's sodomy law puts lesbian's judgeship in jeopardy CNS News

"A key Republican lawmaker in Virginia has threatened to block the re-appointment of a local judge because, in the lawmaker's judgment, the judge's personal behavior as a lesbian violates the state's sodomy law." (01/22/03)

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200301\NAT20030122b.html

News Homeowner shoots intruder during mid-day break-in Pensacola News Journal

"The homeowner ... was awakened about noon by a banging at the back door of his house .... After hearing the sliding glass door open, he grabbed his .22-caliber handgun from the night stand and went into the hallway.
He saw the intruder ... enter the master bedroom and approached the doorway. The homeowner was startled and accidently discharged his gun, shooting the intruder in the right calf. The intruder lunged at the homeowner, who fired again, this time shooting the man in the lower jaw." (01/21/03)


http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/news/012103/Local/ST007.shtml

News Disabled Man spared jail over self-defence knifing Coventry Evening Telegraph

"A disabled man has been spared jail after stabbing a man who smashed his car windows. Instead, Dean Kilworth, aged 21, of Franklin Court, Nuneaton, was given a two-year community rehabilitation order after pleading guilty to a charge of unlawful wounding." (01/20/03)

http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0125nwarksnews/page.cfm?objectid=12552489&method=full&siteid=50003

News Medical marijuana groups posting roadside billboards
San Francisco Chronicle

"Along with roadside advertisements for beer, liquor and fast-food, California motorists will now see billboards promoting medical marijuana. The 30 billboards, which began appearing Wednesday in San Francisco and across the state, feature an 8-year-old Chico girl whose father, Bryan Epis, is serving 10 years on federal marijuana cultivation charges." (01/22/03)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/01/22/state1816EST0139.DTL

Commentary Hey women, take that ha ha ha San Francisco Chronicle by Mark Morford

"Let us, right here and now, get this very straight. No one wants abortion ... But it is, as it has always been, her choice, and no one else's. Oh yes it is .... It is not yours, not mine, not your God's, not Dubya's, not a lawyer's, not an old misogynist Republican senator's ... And certainly, the choice does not belong to Bible-waving antisex 'pro-family' clusters of self-righteous, two-minute-missionary-position Christians." (01/22/03)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2003/01/22/notes012203.DTL

Commentary Into a legal black hole Counter Punch by Joanne Mariner

"The cases of 'enemy combatants' detained in naval brigs in Virginia and South Carolina, and on the U.S. naval base on Guantanamo, are gradually making their way up to the Supreme Court. One thing about these cases is certain: the courts that rule on them will fill their opinions with inspiring language about liberty, justice, and individual rights .... It comes as no surprise to find the Fourth Circuit invoking the Bill of Rights, due process, and individual freedoms in its opinion in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, issued earlier this month. Like the court's prior ruling in the case, the January 8 opinion pays abundant lip service to the very rights that it fails to protect." (01/22/03)

http://www.counterpunch.org/mariner01222003.html

Commentary The educational minutemen advance Independent Institute by Benjamin Todd DeGrow

"America's education revolution is under way. The bureaucratic redcoats are beginning to tremble at their imminent loss of tyrannical power. The swelling ranks of the movement's minutemen -- parents, grandparents, concerned citizens and legislators -- fighting for the best interests of this nation's upcoming generations have already begun winning crucial battles. The halcyon days of America's mighty educational monopoly are fading fast into the stuff of lore and history books." (01/21/03)

http://www.i2i.org/Publications/Op-Eds/Education/edcoatscoming12103.htm

Commentary Poverty myths Jewish World Review by Walter Williams

"A typical belief among the world's foreign aid agencies is there's a "vicious cycle of poverty" that makes economic development virtually impossible for the world's poor nations .... As popular as the vicious cycle of poverty theory is among economic development 'experts,' it has to be one of mankind's most foolish ideas." (01/22/03)

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams1.asp

Commentary Roe in rough waters The Nation by Jennifer Baumgartner

"The fact that the abortion rate has dropped is that rare thing: good news for both those who wave gory photos of 21-week-old fetuses and those who wave signs that read George, Get Out of My Bush! After all, pro-choicers want women to have the tools that make the need for abortion minimal ... Ironically, though, the downtrend in unwanted pregnancies is poised to be reversed. If successful, the Republican agenda is sure to pave the way for more late-term abortions like Desiree's." (01/22/03)

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030210&s=baumgardner

Commentary SOCOM:The new Waffen-SS? Strike the Root by Joe Blow

"For anyone who reads the news, the parallels are obvious and ominous. SOCOM isn’t quite there yet, but who knows what the future holds for this nation? Much like the Waffen-SS, SOCOM is already the national special operations force, it is growing, it must be prepared for any and all special tasks that may be required, and now the War on Terror is causing massive changes in its structure and purpose." (01/20/03)

http://www.strike-the-root.com/columns/blow/blow8.html

News Few researchers look at men's reactions to abortion
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"Very little research is available on the topic of men and how they emotionally deal with abortion. However, there are experts who assert some men may experience many of the symptoms that women endure in the days and years that follow an abortion." (01/21/03)

http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/epaper/editions/tuesday/features_e3c25e1b9257c07b1010.html

News City may give undiplomas to dropouts The State/AP

"The head of the city's school district wants every potential dropout to have something to remember what could be a short-lived school career: an undiploma.
York [PA] City School District Superintendent Carlos Lopez wants to give the document, which looks like a real diploma, to students who say they want to drop out of William Penn Senior High School." (01/21/03)

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/4996216.htm

News School perv alert New York Post

"The number of school employees arrested for sex crimes jumped 30 percent last year, even as overall arrests were dropping. According to new statistics obtained by The Post, 1,340 school workers -- 344 teachers, 198 janitors, 149 teaching assistants, 114 school aides, 43 bus drivers and even 25 school safety staffers -- were arrested for a range of crimes in 2002." (01/21/03)

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/67096.htm


News Gun group blasts 'anti-gun' prejudice in CA CNS News

"A new state law in California requires handgun buyers to pass a 30-question written test and pay a $25 fee for a Handgun Safety Certificate, which is good for five years. A gun rights group is outraged, saying the new law amounts to a 'literacy test' for would-be gun owners." (01/21/03)

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=\Culture\archive\200301\CUL20030121b.html

News EU bureaucrats ban village's swings Ananova

"A village's children have had their playground swings taken away because EU bureaucrats say they are too high. Children have played on the three swings in Great Somerfield, Wiltshire for more than 25 years. But despite no-one having suffered anything more serious than a grazed knee, the swings have had to be removed to conform with European Union regulations." (01/21/03)

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_742090.html

Commentary The worst thing about pot:you can get arrested for it Orange County Register by Paul Campos

"The idea that something ought to be criminalized because it isn't 'harmless' is a key feature of the authoritarian mindset. It's an idea that allows for the criminalization of just about any imaginable activity, since almost nothing in this world is harmless." (01/19/03)

http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=21304§ion=COMMENTARY&year=2003&month=1&day=19

News Naked defendant outrages judge

"A naturist arrested for walking down a busy street with no clothes on has turned up at court naked .... The judge refused to let the 43-year-old into the dock and police arrested him for an alleged breach of the peace." (01/17/03)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2668951.stm


Commentary McDonald's stock slides as consumers turn to food The Onion by staff

"The McDonald's Corporation announced Tuesday that it will close 175 restaurants and cut nearly 600 corporate jobs, responding to a plunge in stock prices blamed on a depressed economy and rising consumer interest in actual food .... 'This whole non-reconstituted-food craze will pass,' Cantalupo said. 'People have enjoyed our meat-flavored pseudo-patties for decades, and we're not going to be scared by consumers' passing interest in burgers that actually taste like an animal, served on bread that's less than a week old and garnished with ve-ge... ve-ge... ve-ge-tables.'" (01/15/03)

http://www.theonion.com/onion3901/mcdonalds_stock_slides.html

Commentary The guilt-free soldier Village Voice by Eric Baard

" [T]he prospect of a soul absolved by meds remains very real. Feelings of guilt and regret travel neural pathways in a manner that mimics the tracings of ingrained fear, so a prophylactic against one could guard against the other. Several current lines of research, some federally funded, show strong promise for this." (01/22/03)

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0304/baard.php

News Google deletes controversial sites DiscoverRochester.com

"The popular Google search engine has begun deleting controversial sites from its international search engine services serving France and Germany. Originally uncovered by Harvard University's Berkman Center, Google's former listings for pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and conservative Christian web sites have been removed ... Representatives from Google confirmed the deletions, indicating that the Mountain View, California company is attempting to comply with laws passed in the two countries that pertain to "hate speech" or Holocaust revisionism." (01/19/03)

http://www.discoverrochester.com/articles/internet_watch/view.cfm?id=433]

Commentary Pentagon Warlord Time by Mark Thompson and Michael Duffy

"As America prepares for a war that would require 25 times the number of troops deployed to fight the Taliban, Rumsfeld, 70, is on the line as never before in a long and storied career. Afghanistan was a highly unconventional war that relied in part on CIA agents carrying bags of cash to buy the loyalty of anti-Taliban fighters. But taking out Saddam would mean an old-fashioned kind of conflict, with thousands of Marines and G.I.s carrying rifles and grenades. A war, if it comes, would be Rumsfeld's legacy. Win or lose, this would be Rumsfeld's war." (01/27/03)

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101030127/nrummy.html

Commentary The reparations question or where to send my check Strike the Root by Jack Rain

"Now going along with this theory, I’m thinking if the first humanoids and homo sapiens were in Tanzania and nearby regions and then dispersed from there, then my far-off, very distant ancestors came from that region also, and somebody had to have chased my ancestors off their property and out of the area. Or do you think all my ancestors just chose colder climates for the fun of it?" " (01/20/03)

http://www.strike-the-root.com/columns/Rain/rain33.html

News Chilean porn politician promises to flash breasts Ananova

"A Chilean porn star has promised to flash her fellow MPs if her election campaign is successful. Reichel says if elected she will flash her breasts every time rival politicians begin to argue over legislation." (01/19/03)

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_741384.html?menu=news.quirkies

News Picture book for children has gay theme Guardian

"A major publisher has taken the potentially controversial step of releasing a picture book, aimed at young children, about a same-sex relationship. 'Hello, Sailor' tells the story of a lighthouse-keeper and his sailor friend. While the nature of the friendship is not spelled out, Macmillan hopes the book will provoke debate on the validity of gay relationships." (01/20/03)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,878048,00.html

News More jail time for gun crimes Cincinnati Enquirer

"Criminals could spend an average of six times longer behind bars if convicted of gun-related charges under a new Cincinnati program aimed at sending them to federal prison... Project Disarm was launched in late 2001 as a joint effort by Cincinnati police and several federal agencies to crack down on increasing gun violence in the city. The project's first 20 cases reveal a sharp difference in the sentences convicts get in federal versus state court." (01/20/03)

http://enquirer.com/editions/2003/01/20/loc_fedguns20.html

News Man aquitted in shooting death Tampa Tribune

"When a man came to Arthur Adkins' home, threatened to kill him and then attacked, Adkins shot him dead.
For that, Adkins lost his job and his wife and faced spending the rest of his life in prison. But Thursday, a jury acquitted Adkins of second-degree murder and a judge set him free." (01/17/03)

http://tampatrib.com/floridametronews/MGAGIQNP1BD.html

Commentary How the press downplayed the protests Counter Punch by Wayne Madsen

"The Park Police cleverly fenced off a large portion of the Mall closest to the Washington Monument, forcing large numbers of protestors on to Jefferson and Madison Drives. If one were to count the numbers solely on the grassy area of the Mall it would appear that 30,000 or, as the news media is now reporting, 'tens of thousands,' were present. However, if the count were to include those forced on to the periphery of the Mall, the number was well over 100,000." (01/18/03)

http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen01182003.html

Commentary Many are cold but few are frozen Laissez Faire Times by Bill Walker

"Out-of-control government is certainly still a problem, but one reason government is so annoying is that there are so many more cool technologies for them to prohibit. In the 20th century, it didn't really matter if cloning was banned -- now it does. So be realistic: your life may suck right now, but your ancestors' problems were more painful than yours. And there is the distinct possibility that human life may get a lot more interesting, and free, in the near future." (01/27/03)


http://freedom.orlingrabbe.com/lfetimes/cold_frozen.htm

Commentary "Scorched earth, baby" Doing Freedom by Sunni Maravillosa

"Many people seem to think that the fight for freedom is necessarily in conflict with earning a living. And so it becomes easy to rationalize not doing more in defense of liberty. But without freedom, is life worth living? Are you content to consign the rest of your life, your children's lives, and so on, to the thrall of the state because a comfortable middle-class lifestyle was worth more effort than resisting USA Patriot and Homeland Security?" (01/03)

http://www.doingfreedom.com/gen/0103/scorchedearth.html

News Many feet and one message in S.F. San Francisco Chronicle

"Tens of thousands of people marched shoulder to shoulder through downtown San Francisco on Saturday, but it was not your typical Bay Area peace rally. It was focused, and it showed that the voices calling for peace are as diverse as the nation itself. Warehouse workers inched down Market Street alongside executives, grandmothers alongside students, Republicans alongside Democrats, hippies alongside veterans and Jewish activists alongside Palestinian sympathizers." (01/19/03)

Commentary Demand peace Working for Change by Molly Ivins

"Conservatives are fond of pointing out that there are problems in this world that can't be solved by throwing money at them. There are even more that can't be solved by dropping bombs on them." (01/16/03)

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=14366

Commentary A special note to poor starving college students Srike the Root by Jack Rain

"If anything should give hope to the poor child born with next to nothing, to the single parent with mounting debt and yes, to the poor college student and the starving writer, it is this paragraph by Kirzner. It means that you may be a starving writer or a poor college student or someone up to your eyeballs in unpaid bills, but you are in that predicament not because of your current place in life, but because you have not developed the alertness to pick up money that is just sitting there for the taking." (01/15/03)
http://www.strike-the-root.com/columns/Rain/rain32.html

News Court ruling challenges hundreds of Indiana laws Indiana Star

"Legislators are scrambling to find a solution to a constitutional crackdown by the Indiana Supreme Court that threatens 526 laws already on the books and dozens more pending before the Indiana General Assembly. The state's highest court ruled Wednesday that an annexation law that applies only to St. Joseph County violates the Indiana Constitution's prohibition against special or local laws. Legislators routinely circumvent this by writing bills listing only populations, and not the name of the city or county." (01/17/03)
http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/4/016233-4814-092.html


News Libraries split on sharing info Wired

"In the year following the passage of the Patriot Act, librarians' response to law enforcement requests for patrons' records has been sharply divided, according to a nationwide survey... When asked to voluntarily forfeit patrons' records, roughly half the librarians cooperated with investigators without demanding a subpoena or court order, the study found." (01/16/03)
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,57256,00.html



Commentary Identity cards: some brief objections Free Life Commentary by Sean Gabb

"So far, all moves to a national identity card scheme have been successfully blocked. But only for the moment - not in the long term. On present trends, identity cards must come. That we do not yet have them is an aberration. It is like an area of the beach still dry long after the incoming tide has soaked all around it. The central database exists, and it is rapidly filling with new information. The full evil of surveillance will require identity cards, so that we and the information held on us can be conveniently matched. But there is evil enough now without them; and more will inevitably follow." (01/16/03)
http://www.seangabb.co.uk/flcomm/flc087.htm


News Rave-goers achieve victory in Racine Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

"The 440 multi-pierced, electronic-music-loving party-goers who were stung with $968 citations for attending a rave party gained a sweeping victory Thursday. City prosecutors admitted they couldn't prove their case and agreed to dismiss all of the citations." (01/16/03)
http://www.jsonline.com/news/racine/jan03/111280.asp


News Man refused parole as 'danger to burglars' Telegraph

"Tony Martin, the farmer jailed for shooting dead a teenage burglar, had his application for parole rejected yesterday ... A friend of Martin's claimed that it was because a probation report branded the 58-year-old 'a danger to burglars'." (01/17/03)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2003%2F01%2F17%2Fnmart17.xml


Commentary Conscientious objectors abused by the Israeli military Counter Punch by Yigal Bronner

"Yoni is a pacifist and has been one ever since he was twelve. He simply opposes wars. He cannot picture himself bearing arms ... Yoni was one of the organizers of a seniors' letter addressed to Prime Minister Sharon and signed by some three hundred high school graduates, which announced their refusal to be drafted. The group's entire leadership is now behind bars." (01/17/03)
http://www.counterpunch.org/bronner01172003.html


News Couple lashes out at government land grab Arizona Republic

"Kenneth Pillow, 79 and his wife, Mary Ann, 59, raised four children in the little white house on a forgotten Terrace Road cul-de-sac south of Apache Boulevard in Tempe ... But six years ago, Tempe called the neighborhood blighted and, with its power of eminent domain, promised the land to a developer in exchange for new homes. Although the city says it may be considering other options to save the Pillows' home since they went public with their fight, the sides have not arranged a meeting since a brief court hearing last week." (01/16/03)
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0116redevelop16.html


Commentary NV Governor can find nowhere to cut Las Vegas Review Journal by Vin Suprynowicz

"Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn says he has no choice but to raise state taxes in order to meet the "demand" for public services -- with government schooling and free (socialist) health care among his costliest and most untouchable sacred cows... At the same time Gov. Guinn claims to have been asking anyone -- anyone -- to help him find ways to cut state spending, why on earth have state bureaucrats been out beating the bushes looking for more people to drag in, kicking and screaming, to be converted into welfare dependents?" (01/19/03)
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Jan-19-Sun-2003/opinion/20494372.html


News Speak Irish before you build here Times Online

"Britons living on one of Ireland’s most scenic stretches of coastline have condemned as racist a proposed law that would ban non-Gaelic speakers from building new homes in the area ... Tucked away in a seemingly innocuous 126-page development plan for the region is the controversial proposal that all applicants for planning permission, including those for single houses, must be able to speak Irish to a standard to be determined by Galway County Council." (01/18/03)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-546365,00.html


Commentary The happy days ahead The Libertarian Enterprise by William Stone III

"From time to time, I'm asked what kind of world I'm fighting for. Usually the question is accompanied by a disbelieving stare from the questioner, a Statist who can't believe that ANYONE would truly want government utterly and completely out of his life. The answer is simple: Freedom, immortality, and the stars!" (01/20/03)
http://www.webleyweb.com/tle/libe207-20030120-02.html