Vox Popoli

A Republican comments on libertarian issues over at the Gargler’s:

We oppose the involuntary treatment for mental health by health officials or law enforcement.

Homeless person bothering you? Tough, he’s got just as much a right to free speech as you.

It will, of course, be interesting to see how Republicans will defend the involuntary mental health treatment of millions of children thanks to George Delano’s Leaving No Child Behind. Furthermore, would anyone seriously wish to argue that a lack of home ownership negates First Amendment rights?

We hold that human rights should not be denied or abridged on the basis of nationality and welcome all refugees to our country.

We don’t need no steenkin borders!

I disagree with the Libertarian party on this issue. Of course, so does President Bush and the entire Republican establishment. So, there’s just not any points to be scored here for either party.

Government control over money and banking is the primary cause of inflation and depression.

Let’s trade seashells instead!

Seashells have more inherent value and retain it better than the valueless paper and digital bits currently used. Bll’s statement demonstrates what should be an embarrasing level of ignorance with regards to economics and monetary reality.

Activities which do not affect anyone but the actor have been criminalized by government on the basis of encoding a particular morality into law.

Woo-Hoo! Kiddy porn for everybody!

So the production of kiddy porn doesn’t affect anyone? That’s an interesting assertion that would appear to border on pedophilia. And then there is the rights violations inherent in using photographic representation of an individual without his consent, especially if the individual concerned cannot legally give such consent.

The repeal of all laws prohibiting the production, sale, possession, or use of drugs, and of all medicinal prescription requirements for the purchase of vitamins, drugs, and similar substances;

And you think there’s a problem with anti-biotic resistant stuff now? And how exactly will you determine if what you’re taking is what you think it is?

The problem with antibiotic-resistant bacteria is that people DON’T take drugs when they should, not the other way around. As for the second point, how do you determine if your Cheerios or your Sam Adams is what you think it is?

End all “no-fault” insurance laws, which deprive the victim of the right to recover damages from those responsible in the case of injury.

Far better to tie things up in court for years.

Considering what judges do when you leave them time to legislate from the bench, yeah, I would say that’s a win-win situation.

We oppose the issuance by the government of an identity card, to be required for any purpose, such as employment, voting, or border crossing.

M’Kay. And you’ll stop election fraud… how?

The same way it isn’t stopped today. Not that it really matters which side of the bi-factional ruling party is in power at the moment, as it’s only a matter of time before those illegal alien votes is worried about will count for seats in the American Parliament.

Children always have the right to establish their maturity by assuming administration and protection of their own rights, ending dependency upon their parents or other guardians, and assuming all responsibilities of adulthood.

So no more child labor laws, etc. Oh, and forget grounding your teenager, that’s infringing on their rights.

So much for reading comprehension. That right only exists if your teenager has emancipated himself – as he can already do – and is no longer dependent upon you. Why would you even think of trying to ground someone who has already moved out and successfully established his own household?

I guess because you’re a neosocialist Republican who believes that control over other individuals is justified as long as you’re exerting it for their own good, that might make sense.

From WND:

According to the theory of evolutionism, Chittick said dinosaurs died out about 70M years ago, long before the first appearance of man on Earth. However, Chittick said he believes there is compelling evidence that dinosaurs existed during the same period as man.

He explained the word “dinosaur” is included in a dictionary for the first time around the year 1841, and before that date, the word dragon referred to dinosaur-like creatures.

In addtion, he said, in approximately 1930, archeologists found human footprints included in stone next to fossilized dinosaur tracks in Glenrose, TX. Though he explained scientists have not determined the origin of the tracks, or whether the human prints occurred at the same time as the dinosaur fossil tracks, archeologists have identified tracks of men and dinosaurs found together in Arizona, Russia and all over the world. Chittick said drawings of dinosaur shapes found in the caves of Europe, and in drawings by the Supi Indians, of the Grand Canyon region, lend credibility to dinosaurs existing during the same period as man.

Chittick said dinosaurs started life by hatching from an egg and continued growing as long as they were alive. Therefore, some were huge giants, though most were the size of a sheep or a German Shepard dog. Scientists describe dinosaurs as cold blooded, he said, though the triceratops was a mammal.

He also said references in historical literature often include dragons and there is scientific evidence that a sudden global event decimated the dinosaurs’ large population, which had ranged all over the world, including the Antarctic, prior to that event.

Chittick said, according to an article in Science News Week, dated March 26, 2005, scientists recently discovered dinosaur bones with soft tissue still attached, including blood vessels, and Chittick explained this modernizes the existence of dinosaurs to less than 10,000 years, because blood cells cannot exist longer than that.

I’m curious about this. What is true? Is this guy a sham scientist or does the evolutionist faith have a basis in genuine experimental science on par with Scientology? According to contemporary science, do blood cells live longer than 10,000 years? If not, and if it is true that blood vessels from dinosaurs have been discovered, then how can anyone possibly claim that dinosaurs died out billions and billions of years ago?

Wait a minute, that’s Carl Sagan. Anyhow, I became skeptical about the conventional story of our origins long before I became a Christian, so if we can spare the usual “science is too complex to be required to provide reasonable answers to religious nuts” sideshow, I’d appreciate it.

I sort of hope this guy is wrong, though. I find the Darwinian faith rather more palatable than the notion of thirty-inch spiders with six-foot long legs.

From HCS and Gen’s Pad:

“I have to admit, it wasn’t something I had planned on,” Alderman Joe Baldi said of his competition. Mr. Baldi was one of three board members who voted in January to reduce the residency requirement to one year. Ms. Dougherty vetoed the motion.

The matter found its way to court when Mr. Young sued the city in an attempt to overturn the three-year requirement. He said the requirement, which would have barred him from a spot on this year’s ballot, was unconstitutional.

The courts agreed.

“The Judge said “no residency requirement” is most appropriate despite the wishes of the residents,” Ms. Dougherty wrote in an e-mail. “It will be up to the people to decide who is best able to manage the City’s issues, if the Judge allows that.”

Mr. Baldi said he hadn’t expected the matter to go this far. “Reducing the residency requirement was what I had in mind,” he said. “It never occurred to me that you’d have somebody who is not a resident applying (to run for mayor). I don’t even know what to call that.”

If it’s “inappropriate” to insist on a three-year residency requirement, why would a one-year requirement be any more acceptable? This is a small scale example of what we are seeing on a national level. Naturally, this concept of using the Constitution against the concept of citizenship and sovereignty begs the question of how there can even be such a thing as a constitution if the entity for which the constitution supposedly provides a foundation is deemed, on a fundamental level, to not exist.

The mental gyrations which the constitutional revisionists in the judiciary are willing to engage in order to justify their movement seldom cease to astound me.

Chuck Baldwin sees the light:

Let’s get real. The political battle between conservatives and liberals is no longer an issue worth discussing. Except for rhetoric, there is little substantive difference between them. The hype, scare tactics, and fear mongering used by both sides is merely for the purpose of raising money and electing people to positions of power. However, neither side has any real plans to change public policy or the overall direction of the country.

How long have we voters heard Democrats and Republicans warn us of the imminent dangers of the other party while assuring us that they and they alone can be trusted to save the country? It’s the same redundant message every two years, and has been for as long as I can remember.

However, the grim reality is, no matter who we elect, no matter which party controls Congress or the White House, the direction of the country doesn’t change. Fundamental liberties continue to be lost, the federal government continues to burgeon, and America continues to evolve into a socialist-Fascist society.

Furthermore, that people call themselves Christians also matters little. The Religious Right moves in lock-step with the socialist- Fascist direction of the country along with the godless left. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether a politician claims to be conservative or liberal, Christian or unbeliever (which, of course, hardly any politician claims to be). Nothing changes.

What Americans must come to understand is that there is really only one issue that counts today: will America be an independent, sovereign nation or will it become part of a global empire complete with global government and a global economy?

Finally, it seems that most of the off-Broadway commentariat is beginning to understand the genuine issue of the day. The mainstream media won’t touch this yet, not until they start openly cheerleading for a continental American superstate, but it will be interesting to see which “conservatives” will defect to the nationalist cause and who will remain in the anti-American globalist camp.

From Drudge:

Italy should consider leaving the single currency and reintroducing the lira, Welfare Minister Roberto Maroni said in a newspaper interview on Friday.

Maroni, a member of the euro-skeptical Northern League party, told the Repubblica daily Italy should hold a referendum to decide whether to return to the lira, at least temporarily.

He also said European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet was one of those chiefly responsible for the “disaster of the euro.”

The euro “has proved inadequate in the face of the economic slowdown, the loss of competitiveness and the job crisis,” Maroni said.

Unlikely, but definitely cool. I still have a few lira that were accidentally tucked away in a drawer a few years ago. The Euro has been a disaster, significantly increasing expenses in Italy while doing almost no one any good except the European Central Bank and their cronies.

According to Prechter, third waves lead to the dissolution of treaties and alliances, so this may only be the first sign of the impending doom of the monetary union.

I was perusing the Original Cyberpunk’s Ranting Room – a must-follow blog for anyone interested in the fiction business – and the discussion of reviews came up. Being a former video game reviewer, it should come as no surprise that I rather enjoy reading reviews and writing them.

That being said, there’s an awful lot of reviews that are simply terrible, barely worthy of the name. In the game world, such reviews usually focus on whether the graphics are better than they were in last year’s games, which is why the magazine reviews are all too often a collection of superlatives. In the book world, the lousy ones frequently focus on one minor aspect of the novel that the reviewer has somehow managed to get hopelessly wrong.

For example, when one of my books was reviewed by a sci-fi site, the reviewer concluded that demonic possession was tantamount to removing all responsibility from a character for his actions. Never mind the small fact that the character actually suffered severe and lasting consequences, the reviewer decided that her self-manufactured divorce of action and responsibility was the central message of the book and spent half her review criticizing that. For me, as a writer who has done more than his share of reviews, it was very strange and more than a little annoying.

As you’ve probably seen, I prefer a structure review format that specifically covers what I consider to be the four main elements of a novel: characters, creativity, story and style. But every reviewer needs to develop his own style; here’s a review of THE WAR IN HEAVEN from writer and VP regular Cris Naron:

Back in November, I wrote a piece about how conservatives and Christians need to take the creative professions more seriously, and the author responded, basically saying that he was doing exactly that. [X] is no conservative, mind you; he’s a raging libertarian. He is also a Christian and a writer who takes fiction seriously. That’s what sets him apart from most Christian writers. Most of the works of fiction you’ll find in Christian book stores are watered down, unrealistic visions of a world that the Christian religion itself strives to paint as hopelessly depraved and fallen. So my problem with “Christian Fiction” has always been with the Ned Flanders depictions of this fallen world. No one in “Christian Fiction” ever does or says anything that equates with the depravity the Bible describes. A glaring example would be Tim LaHaye’s and Jim Jenkins’ Anti-Christ, Nicolae Carpathia, in the Left Behind series. The book version of the character is slightly more evil than J.R. Ewing or C. Montgomery Burns. The movie version is less frightening than a Kennedy even after we learn he’s the devil.

[X]’s characters have dimension, and that means they’re dark, mean and ugly….

Go there to read the rest of the review. And by the way, Chris, where’s that SHADOW review?

The NYT hits the recruitment problem:

Some of that opportunity was provoked by the very law that was supposed to make it easier for recruiters to reach students more directly. No Child Left Behind, which was passed by Congress in 2001, requires schools to turn over students’ home phone numbers and addresses unless parents opt out. That is often the spark that ignites parental resistance.

Recruiters, in interviews over the past six months, said that opposition can be fierce. Three years ago, perhaps 1 or 2 of 10 parents would hang up immediately on a cold call to a potential recruit’s home, said a recruiter in New York who, like most others interviewed, insisted on anonymity to protect his career. “Now,” he said, “in the past year or two, people hang up all the time.”

That sounds like a little Law of Unintended Consequences action happening there. How ironic… and it just couldn’t happen to a more appropriate administration. And what a surprise, that helpful Federal government is protecting the children by giving out their telephone numbers and home addresses to the military.

Of course, the government military has a perfect right to make its pitch for voluntary service in the government schools. It’s just bitterly amusing that that’s the one thing that parents find objectionable.

From the Sports Guy’s mailbag:

Q: I was watching the final of “The Contender” when my wife made the observation, “Jesse Brinkley is way too hot to be married to that chubby girl.” Without even thinking I blurted out, “Well, she probably didn’t look like that when they got married.” Somehow my wife took that comment to mean that I think she is getting fat. Are all women irrational or is it just my wife?

Here’s a suggestion. If you want people to talk to you, don’t go out of your way to take offense at every word they utter.

Seriously, some people – usually, but not always women – make me wonder if they think they’re scoring bonus miles every time they manage to take umbrage at a perceived slight. Then again, considering how little I know about purchase-related reward plans, maybe they are.

The Sports Guy’s response:

SG: Nope. It’s not just your wife. During Monday night’s “Miss Universe” telecast, I had the following exchange with the Sports Gal:

Me: Wow, between Miss Venezuela and Miss Peru, I think we need to take our next vacation in South America.

Her: Very funny.

(Ten-second pause where you can hear their wheels turning as they slowly became angry.)

Her: “You know, you’re enjoying this show WAY too much. I wish they had these shows with guys.”

Me: “Yeah, but there’s one difference.”

Her: “What’s that?”

Me: “I wouldn’t watch a Mr. Universe show with you. In fact, I would rather kill myself.”

(Five-second pause as they’re totally flustered by a flawless, logical statement, followed by the obligatory obscenity.)

From WND:

Somewhere in America, a woman is raped every two minutes, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, and one-in-two rape victims are under age 18. In a national survey, 27.7 percent of college women reported a sexual experience since the age of 14 that met the legal definition of rape or attempted rape. To what can we ascribe such a shocking increase in violence against women?

That’s easy. A broad redefinition of the rape crime to include ex post facto regrets and a failure to provide written assent, combined with a reduced sense of responsibility on the part of young American women.

Only a completely clueless space cadet would say: “I think I should be able to get drunk and pass out at a fraternity and have nothing happen.” I’m sure Israeli parents think their kids should be able to board public transportation without worrying about it blowing up too. Some people are good and will not harm you no matter what provocation you offer them. Some people are bad and will prey upon you the first chance they get. Accept the concept and behave accordingly, depending on the situation.

The Rabbi also happens to leave out the minor fact that a sizeable percentage of criminal rape reports are false and are confirmed by the supposed victim to be have been manufactured by her.

From Drudge:

The Pentagon on Wednesday postponed by more than a week the release of military recruiting figures for May, as the Army and Marine Corps struggle to attract new troops amid the Iraq war.

The military services had routinely provided most recruiting statistics for a given month on the first business day of the next month. Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the May numbers for the active-duty and reserve components of the all-volunteer military will be released on June 10.

“Military recruiting is instrumental to our readiness and merits the earliest release of data. But at the same time, this information must be reasonably scrutinized and explained to the public, which deserves the fullest insight into military performance in this important area,” Krenke said.

Translation: our numbers blow, so we need some time in order to spin this into something that combines positivity with credibility. What is worrisome is that the damage that is now being done to the recruiting effort will probably last longer than most people can imagine, and threatens to create a vicious circle where falling enlistments cause more stop-losses, which causes enlisting to look less and less desirable.

Such a vicious circle is likely how a draft would come about.

Now, it’s true that no general ever has enough troops. The McClellan syndrome is a legitimate concern. But when the military message that there are not enough troops to do the job is repeatedly overridden by the civilians in charge, the chances that the Law of Unintended Consequences will find an application rise dramatically.