Global lying
by Thomas Sowell
The campaign to stampede the federal government into drastic action to counter "global warming" has never let honesty cramp its style. The most recent ploy has been the release of a study from the Environmental Protection Agency which concluded that human actions were responsible for rising temperatures and that government restrictions on those actions were necessary to prevent various disastrous scenarios from unfolding. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell1.asp
Global Warming Blamed for Melting Everest Glacier
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020606/sc_nm/environment_everest_dc_1
FL: 'Robin Hood' Rule Takes on Bike Owners
You better have a ticket to ride if you want to bicycle through Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Since 1999, the city council has required riders to cough up cash and register their bikes with police, who have the power to stop a cyclist and ask for their two-wheel registration. Those who don't have one could be subject to seizure.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,54799,00.html
Green Party Worries Maine Democrats
Democrats in Maine, where voters have shown an independent streak, worry that the Green Party candidate for governor could spoil it for their man, the front-runner in the race.
Hate-crime bill's effect on terrorism war eyed
Some lawmakers want to make sure that federal and state hate-crimes laws - and efforts to expand them - do not hamper the war on terrorism. "If 'hate crime' is interpreted to include picking people out allegedly because of their race and taking some kind of discriminatory action against them, then clearly we've got a problem," said Sen. Jon Kyl, Arizona Republican.
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020607-467536.htm
Bush Seeks Eradication of Estate Tax
PA: Charges dropped against man who talked for too long
A Pennsylvania man will not go to jail for speaking for too long at a public meeting. A judge ruled criminal charges against Jim Barbe should be dropped because he had the right to take part in the political process.
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_603502.html?menu=news.quirkies
Debate over anthem surprises principal
Poudre High School's decision to play the World anthem for its graduation ceremony sparked an angry reaction from a parent who wanted to hear the national anthem and stirred a dust-up on talk radio this week.
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=ANTHEM-06-07-02&cat=LS
The man who would sue America's junk-food industry
... Banzhaf has other strategies up his sleeve for exerting pressure on the Government. One is to push for higher health insurance premiums for the overweight, which would act as an incentive for people to shed some kilos and would also shift healthcare costs towards the people who incur them. Another is to push for higher taxes. After all, if one of junk food's principal attractions is that it is cheap, taxation is a simple way to ensure that it does not stay that way. ... "As a lawyer, I have two choices," he says. "I can litigate on behalf of whoever brings the buck into my office. Or I can look around and ask what kinds of problems I can attack through legal action. I find the latter much more interesting." Banzhaf has no illusions about the fact that what he is doing is profoundly political. "What we are seeing is a large number of groups that might not previously have had much in common, coming together - vegans, Muslims, Hindus, conservative Jews, scientists, physicians, animal-rights groups, children's rights groups, sports organisations, and so on," he says. "Once they start joining forces, lawyers are going to smell the money and legal action will gain ts own momentum."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=2045543&thesection=news&thesubsection=world
In Terror War, Privacy vs. Security
Search for Illicit Activities Taps Confidential Financial Data
In the amorphous war on terrorism, government officials believe they have a new weapon: the growing number of financial institutions that use powerful technology to monitor confidential customer activity and report suspicious behavior to law enforcement and intelligence officials. Driven by little-kown provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the anti-terror legislation that was approved after Sept. 11, banks, securities firms and other companies are deploying computer systems that draw together millions of transactions, sometimes automatically, in searches for money laundering, terrorist financing or other unusual patterns.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49323-2002Jun2.html
Homeland Insecurity: Hi-tech security flaws exposed
... A series of exposes and tests have exposed the shortcomings of systems that use face recognition, iris scanning and fingerprints to improve security. Experts have found that the systems can be fooled using very simple techniques. ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2016000/2016788.stm
Homeland Insecurity: Abuse of wiretaps isn't a good sign
Over the course of a wiretap warrant obtained 13 months ago, 10 FBI agents listened in to more than 5,000 phone calls, producing over 200 pages of transcripts. The eavesdropping continued before, during and afterSept. 11. And the target of this heavy-duty federal probe? A popular local brothel. Prostitution is a state and local crime and often not much of one, usually a misdemeanor, and according to a Washington Post story on the case, the local legal community is baffled by the feds' intense interest in a garden-variety crime. One criminal attorney told the paper, "The whole thing is an incredible waste of federal resources."
http://www.jacksonvilledailynews.com/Details.cfm?StoryID=5302
Medical Privacy Lost
The new regulations allow government employees claiming an undefined "national priority" purpose to look at your most private medical information without your consent or even your knowledge. A tiny, paperwork fig leaf in the earlier rules hid the government's desire to completely ignore your desire for privacy. The new rules rip off even that fig leaf.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27870
Whose property is it anyway?
Violation of property rights by government hardly raises objections. If it did, the appropriate reaction to the banning by John Magaw of firearms in the cockpit would be: "Whose property is it anyway?" U.S. airlines are, ostensibly, privately owned. Why, then, is the transportation secretary's minion not allowing rightful owners to defend their property? The dangers for commercial aviation of such a prohibition, arguably, have a lot to do with turning ownership - in this case airline ownership - into conditional tenure.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=27846
-- -- Johann Opitz <johannp@earthlink.net> RKBA!
When you disarm your subjects you offend them by showing that either from cowardliness or lack of faith, you distrust them; and either conclusion will induce them to hate you. -- Niccolo Machiavelli, "The Prince"
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