Indecision 2006?

Ah, I just can't wait for the elections in the fall. Watch as the masses keep voting for people who "lack a clear plan":

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- By a large number, most Americans lack faith in the ability of Democrats or Republicans to solve the nation's problems, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Wednesday indicates.
Sixty-eight percent of people surveyed February 9-12 said Democrats had no clear plan for the country, while 67 percent said Republicans lacked one.

Nevertheless, most of the respondents -- 52 percent -- said things are going very or fairly well in the country, a statistically similar response (49 percent) to the last time the question was asked in November.

Sic friatur crustum dulce.

Quote of the day/month/year....

Yeah, no posts for a while, but this has got to be the new banner quote if I ever redesign the site:

"There are four boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt

Says it all, for me. So when I ramble on to my friends...just remember I'm only on the first box. :)

6 Types of Libertarians....

Poll time from my favorite podcasters, FreeTalkLive....how liberty-minded are you, really? Libertarians broken down based on what level of force you think is allowed against others:

• Limited Government Libertarian
• Minarchist
• Free Market Retributionist
• Free Market Reparationist
• Self Defense Libertarian
• Pacifist

...scroll to the 2nd post for the full defs. The "Limited Govt. Libertarians" is how it needs to be sold to Americans to make it palatable, as it's far better than our current system, but I think I'm in with either the Free-Market Retributionists or Minarchists. I need my revenge factor...for example: someone kills your cat, and the Retributionists say that you can only get the monetary value of your cat back. I want his ass beat. but not sure if the option to have it done privately (non-gov't force) is best, which isn't allowed under Minarchism.

Bitter rant...part 3? Yeah, it's still going on.

Told you that search engines other than Google were evil. Your surfing gets you jail time in China. Good thing our own government isn't spying on you in secret in America.

...Yahoo! provided Chinese authorities with personally identifying data on yet another of its customers in China. Li Zhi, a 35-year-old resident of Sichuan province, used what he believed to be an anonymous Yahoo account to express his opinions on message boards and chatrooms, and was accused of communicating online with overseas dissidents.

The data Yahoo gave authorities led to his imprisonment for eight years, -- that would be the second such case involving Yahoo in less than a year (Shi Tao, the Chinese journalist jailed for ten years with Yahoo's help).

Holo-rific!

Was commenting to a co-worker the other day about how "yeah, PDAs are getting smaller, but like laptops, the screen is now the limiting size and we need that holographic crap like in Star Wars....'Obi-Wan, you're my only hope' and all that".

Once again, reality is right on the heels of sci-fi:

A new device developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology uses lasers to project "real" 3D images into the ether. A special projector can cast three-dimensional shapes of white light between 2 and 3-meters into the air -- previous devices only tricked the eyes into thinking the image was 3D. The images are created by blasting the nitrogen and oxygen in the air at fixed points resulting in glowing plasma emissions which hang-out just long enough to etch an ephemeral image.

Now we just need Emperor Palpatine to show up and execute Order 66.

Guess you should stick with the plain t-shirt next time?

Yep, at last night's State of the Union speech (which I refused to watch live, lest I throw a rock through my nice HDTV), people supporting BOTH sides of the view on Iraq were kicked out becuase of their t-shirts.

Anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan wore a shirt with the message, "2,245 Dead. How many more?" -- a reference to the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq.

Beverly Young, the wife of 18-term Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Young of Florida, wore a shirt that read, "Support the Troops."

Both women's shirts resulted in their owners being ejected from the House chamber before President Bush's State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

See why I push for a smaller government? Too many cooks in the kitchen. Vote for big government parties, and you get.....yep, big government in your life.

Are you happy knowing almost half the money you're at work for today is for your government? We spend 40+ hours a week working.....how much is an hour a week of e-mailing or writing your legislators (here and here) or signing some petitions for reform?

Quote of the week....

I'm blogging a blog of a post from another site, too many degrees of separation? From the cool guy at Alphecca.com comes the quote of the week, at the end.

Maybe that's why "Stand Your Ground" bills are becoming popular in various state houses here in the U.S. Last week I reported on one introduced in Alaska that is under consideration. Naturally there is opposition to it including (besides the usual Brady Bunch) trial lawyers. From the Fairbanks News-Miner:

The senator said the law would act as a deterrent to criminals. Melissa
Fouse, executive director of the Alaska Association of Trial Lawyers, disagreed.

"Nobody has ever proven that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime," Fouse said.

She describes the bill as a "boutique immunity bill" designed to deprive people of their right to sue over wrongdoing.

"We don't think that's right," Fouse said. "Besides, why would you shoot somebody over a car?"

Well, as one commenter to my post said, "Because it's my car!"

Bitter rant...part 2?

An update from Wired about Google being the only company so far to fight the search engine subpoena.

I never understand people who say "if you have nothing to hide, what's the problem?" Well, my personal privacy for one, which I value above almost every other inalienable right that I have as a human being in this world. I am not a terrorist, dammit. I will not let my privacy be violated without due cause. This is exactly what "unreasonable searches and seizure" is.

So...since other search engines have already bowed to the subpoena, I respectfully ask that you and everyone you know stop using any web search engines except for Google, who is the only one I know so far to fight back. That means no MSN search, Yahoo, AOL. Hell, Microsoft is in the government's pocket anyway.

As a free citizen, what you search for on the web is NOT the government's business. Guard your privacy....it's another part of your personal liberty they are trying to take.

Your resident libertarian,
Kris

Bitter rant....strangely involving porn.

Need I say anything about invasion of privacy on this one, that hasn't already been said about the current Bush administration?

The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on
what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.

Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period

Given the most recent (blatant) abuse of executive power, I'm surprised they even BOTHERED to ask a court for the subpoena. And just watch the Democraps whine ineffectively from the sidelines. Our 2 parties are a shambles...corruption and endless bickering everywhere, while a third of your paycheck is squandered away.

TAKE IT BACK. If you don't help break the political stranglehold on this country by voting for a Big Change, then you deserve the crap country we are turning into. Don't come running to my house when they start tagging your kids with chips to track them and tax you into poverty so you can wait in line for more "entitlement" programs from your OH-SO-LOVING GOVERNMENT.

Hey, it worked SO well in Soviet Russia, right? Apathy leads to liberty for none.

Hypno-chickens?

Ending the year with some random stuff:

"A chicken can be hypnotized, or put into a trance by holding its head down against the ground, and continuously drawing a line along the ground with a stick or a finger, starting at its beak and extending straight outward in front of the chicken.

If the chicken is hypnotized in this manner, it will remain immobile for somewhere between 15 seconds to 30 minutes, continuing to stare at the line. "

More? Of course! See you in 2006!