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I had an interesting experience at Half Price Books today. Two weeks ago I went to Half Price Books and purchased a book with cash. After determining that the book was not going to be needed I went back today to return the book. I took with me the book, in unopened condition, and the receipt, clearly indicating the cost of the purchase, the amount tendered, and the change given. The clerk asked for my name, a drivers license or equivilant, and my phone number to make the return. I told her no, that cash was used for the purchase,...

Time for Debt Counseling by David Dieteman After the holiday shopping season (well, maybe not after this holiday shopping season), there are those Americans desperately in need of debt counseling. They overspent on frivolous items, and now, unable to pay for such excesses, they need expert help. I am referring, of course, to the federal government. As the New York Times reported on Christmas Day, the Bush administration has asked Congress to increase the limit on the amount of debt which can be incurred by the federal government. This year, the federal government spent a mere $157 billion more than...

WHY THEY CHOSE KISSINGER THE TRUTH AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE GET SCREWED By: John LeBoutillier President Bush’s decision to name Henry A. Kissinger (HAK to his friends) as Chairman of the 9/11 Investigating Commission, is a dirty deal for all concerned. This appointment smacks of all that is wrong ‘inside the DC beltway.’ Let us examine it from all sides: 1) HAK has never been close to the Bushes. Former President Bush had a long and difficult relationship with Kissinger dating back to the Nixon and Ford years. In those days, Bush was Ambassador to the United Nations, US Representative...

The air industry's worst nightmare Just days ago, national security executives met secretly with airline CEOs to warn them that al-Qaida may be planning to fire shoulder-launched missiles at commercial jets in the U.S. There's virtually no defense. By Paul J. Caffera Nov. 22, 2002 | The war on terror took an unsettling turn last week with the resurfacing of Osama bin Laden and the FBI's announcement that al-Qaida is planning "spectacular attacks ... [with] high symbolic value, mass casualties, severe damage to the U.S. economy, and maximum psychological trauma." The FBI identified the U.S. aviation industry as a prime...

THE EYE SEES YOU AS THE PUBLIC IS KEPT BLIND By: SARTRE When will the policy makers step forward and establish an agency for LIBERTY? Well, as any sincere observer of public affairs knows, government doesn’t have the ability to give you what you already possess - your natural rights. Their function is always to strip you from the means to effectively guard and easily exercise your freedoms. The latest, and surely not the last attempt to regiment society under the dominion of the all seeing eye, is exactly what we have in the Information Awareness Office. Under the auspices...

<p>WASHINGTON - A massive database that the government will use to monitor every purchase made by every American citizen is a necessary tool in the war on terror, the Pentagon said Wednesday.</p> <p>Edward Aldridge, undersecretary of Acquisitions and Technology, told reporters that the Pentagon is developing a prototype database to seek "patterns indicative of terrorist activity." Aldridge said the database would collect and use software to analyze consumer purchases in hopes of catching terrorists before it's too late.</p>

Vets finally get go-ahead to show film By Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writer They had survived bombs at Pearl Harbor and torpedoes across the Pacific but say they were nearly sunk by political correctness in the city of Los Angeles. City officials who had barred veterans of Pearl Harbor from commemorating the attack on Dec. 7 by attending a showing of the 1970 film "Tora! Tora! Tora!' at a city-owned movie theater did an about-face Wednesday. Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who Tuesday said "I wanted to be very sensitive to the Japanese-American community,' changed her mind Wednesday in the face of outrage...

FBI warns of attempt by al-Qaida for 'spectacular' attack Fri Nov 15,12:22 AM ET By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The FBI (news - web sites) has warned that al-Qaida is likely to attempt a "spectacular" attack intended to inflict large-scale casualties and damage the U.S. economy. Thursday's FBI warning was circulated to law enforcement officials despite a lack of specific credible evidence. It has not led the U.S. administration to raise the terrorist threat level above code yellow, or "elevated," which is the middle of a five-point scale of risk developed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks....

No Informed Consent to the State by Susan Hogarth Who knew I’d come to feel a kinship with the men of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study? Some may think it presumptuous for a middle-aged, professional white woman to identify with the victims of state experimentation as horrific as letting men die – after spreading the infection to their wives and children – of a terrible and easily-treatable disease, but I don’t think it is at all an exaggeration to say that we all are victims of the government’s continuing insistence on doing ill in the name of good. Let me explain…...

<p>It was James Q. Wilson who championed what has become known as "the Broken Window theory." He, along with the police and social psychologists, noticed that a broken window in a building, unless repaired, led to the rest of the windows being broken. It's verification of the old saying, "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile."</p>

The English Crime Disaster and the Nature of the State by Gene Callahan Joyce Lee Malcolm, a professor of history at Bentley College and a senior adviser to the MIT Security Studies Program, has recently published an important new book, Guns and Violence: The English Experience. (The book received a very positive review from David Gordon in the Fall 2002 issue of The Mises Review.) For those who want to read a succinct summary of Malcolm's work, Reason Magazine has done us the service of publishing her in article format. Because of the importance of Malcolm's findings, I will quote...

Repeal Seventeenth Amendment By John MacMullin With respect to states' rights, it should be readily apparent to all that state governments cannot exert any meaningful influence or control over the federal government, judiciary, or any other federal institution.<.u> Let us state the problem precisely. At the present time, there are no checks and balances available to the states over federal power or over Congress itself in any area. However, in the history of our country, it was not always this way. In the original design by the Framers of the U.S. Constitution, there was an effective check on Congress through...

Pregnant pigs on Florida ballot Animal-rights groups launch national effort against hog industry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: October 16, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Diana Lynne © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com The state that made election history in 2000 is at it again, as Florida voters prepare to decide next month whether pregnant pigs should have constitutional rights. A proposed amendment to Florida's constitution seeks to limit the "cruel and inhumane confinement of pigs during pregnancy." The ballot initiative would specifically outlaw caging pigs in gestation crates on so-called "corporate factory farms." Gestation crates are metal enclosures that measure two feet across and prevent...

New element discovered - Governmentium Investigators at a major research institution have discovered the heaviest element known to science. This startling new discovery has been tentatively named Governmentium (Gv). This new element has no protons or electrons, thus having an atomic number of 0. It does, however, have 1 neutron, 125 deputy neutrons, 75 supervisory neutrons, and 111 team leader neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by a force called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since it has no electrons, Governmentium is inert. However, it...

So You Think You’ve Got a Trust Fund With Your Uncle Sam . . . by John Attarian One of Social Security’s greatest myths is that benefits are paid from a trust fund accumulated from taxes held in trust. True, there exist an "Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund" and a "Disability Insurance Trust Fund," usually referred to together as "the Social Security Trust Fund." Sure it’s a trust fund. Why, it says so right here on the label! Or is it? The original Social Security Act created an "Old-Age Reserve Account" in the Treasury. Each year, an amount deemed...

Werewolves of Sheepledom by Bob Wallace "Without metaphor we cannot understand, we cannot comprehend, we cannot know ourselves, or others." ~ Ray Bradbury I'll have to admit I got the idea for the title from Warren Zevon's song, "Werewolves of London." I've alway liked his music, which is a combination of humor and horror ("Werewolves of London" and "Excitable Boy"), and at time deals cynically with politics ("Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money"). Unfortunately, Zevon only has about two months left because of lung cancer. As far as I'm concerned, better all the rappers in the...

Moore: Saving Private Ryan... from the Horror of War By Jim Moore - Ether Zone My re-hab instructor, an unshakable sort of lady, has served in the armed forces as a jet aircraft mechanic and technician. She might consider frills clean coveralls and a Timex watch. In conversing with her, I asked her offhandedly if she had seen the movie Saving Private Ryan. I was surprised when she answered, "No, from what I heard about it, I don't think I could handle it." I knew what she meant. There have been only a few movies that revealed anything close to...

THE EVIL THAT MEN DO... INSIDERS WORK TOWARD SOCIALISM By: Albert V. Burns As a prelude to the main theme of this article, I feel it necessary to deal with two items which have been brought to my attention. The first is that in several of my articles I have mentioned that the country was being moved to the left, etc. I believe that I have been remiss in failing to properly define my political spectrum. The vast majority of Americans, indeed people all over the world, have been carefully indoctrinated with the idea that the existing political spectrum has...

The Road to Iraq Does President Bush have the constitutional authority to commit the country to war? By Louis Fisher Legal Times In planning war against Iraq, advisers to President George W. Bush have concluded that he has the authority to launch military operations without seeking congressional approval. With all due respect to the White House's legal analysis, current statutes and constitutional provisions confer no such authority. Supporters of the administration's position look to the president's constitutional role as commander in chief and to three statutes -- the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the Iraq Resolution of 1991, and the...

The New American Way?"...The old adage about the love of money being the root of all evil is literally true. And long booms provide the money for such things, as huger and huger, if I may be permitted the use of such a stupid-sounding word, amounts of money per recipient accrues from the magic of compounding. And all along the way things were done, mistakes were made, and favors were granted, bribes were paid, and one thing led to another, and now there are so many bodies and so many skeletons in so many closets that are known to so...