Matthew Edgar has decided to take a break from the FDA for the weekend but has decided to explain why he is a deist It is good stuff I completely agree with.

The Israeli Army has begun broadcasting porn over Palestinian television stations On one level it is comical. But on another level it is just wrong. I am all for killing Arafat, anyone associated with Hamas and whoever else Israel needs to kill to stop these suicide bombers. But do they really need to piss off the everyday Palestinians? (Link via Tim Blair

I haven't said anything about the violence between Israel and the Palestinians. I don't have much to say that hasn't all ready been said on the issue. Peace talks are not going to accomplish anything if the two sides do not honestly want peace. The U.S. should get itself out of the business of trying to bring peace around the world. Call me an isolationist if you will but I just don't think the U.S. should be involved in what is close to an internal debate.

I didn't watch all of the Superbowl so I may have missed one of the drug war ads. Anyway, I saw the ad on where they have kids in front of the camera saying things like "I helped blow up a building. I helped kill a federal judge... etc." This is just fucking sick. How are people that smoke pot that they grew on their own property helping terrorists?! I realize that is a small portion of the drug users but the whole thing is such a pathetic straw man argument devoid of any rational argument. It's almost enough to make me start selling drugs just to piss off Ashcroft and the other authoritarians.

On KRS-ONE's albums Sex & Violence and The Sneak Attack, among others, he mentions how the government can be like a religion. He has a point here that in many cases the government goes out of its way to force values upon the citizens such as the California legislature who is considering putting a two cent tax on sodas. Yes that is right people a sin tax on soda. Obesity may be a problem for some of the youth in California but then that sounds like the lunch menus at the school need to be changed. Maybe the gym program isn't working. California obviously does not seemed to be concerned about the hard working soda manufacturers who will be hurt economically by this. (Okay I used a little bit of rhetorical hyperbole but only to show the stupidity of the argument.

As Slate points out Mitch McConnell is beginning to become a big supporter of the First Amendment. McConnell is part of a growing example of how traditional conservatives are picking up the First Amendment banner as some liberals have been derailed in their quest for "equality" and politcal correctness. Too bad more conservatices haven't pitched in. It seems like McConnell is one of a small number that can see the unconstitutionaly of campaign finance reform.

HipHop has made it to Cuba. HipHop in Cuba is serving as the outlet for young people in Cuba to express themselves.The story of Hip-Hop in Cuba is very much like that of Hip-Hop's founding in New York in the 1970's. Instead of turntables and sample machines the Cubans use the musical instruments that are in greater availability in Cuba. As in New York, the artists have to record onto cassettes because they can't afford more modern means of recording.Hip-Hop in Cuba is beginning to provide an oppurtunity for youth in Cuba to express themselves and eventually bring themselves out of poverty. (Link via NextRight

There has been a good discussion on the internet about gay marriage going around. No matter how good the argument are I don't think the two sides will ever agree. It is an example of a clear split of how involved in values the government would be. This is a perfect situation where the libertarian solution might be perfect: Get the state out of marriage. There is no real reaso why government should be in the business of granting marriage liscenses. Marriage is a societal activity and should not be a governmental activity.

ProteinWisdom has been kind enough to permalink me! Cool! I recomend checking out the site. It is full of amusing and obscure stuff.

Jonah Goldberg thinks libraries should have to block porn under a federal law whether they like to or not. A conservative arguing for federal control over local institutions. Surprising. He makes the argument that libraries did not used to subscribe to Playboy or Hustler. This argument does not cut it with me. The library has set up an internet service for its customers. Once they have provided a service they can not be selective how the service is used.

If you haven't heard enough about campaign finance reform, Reason has a good blog style piece on it.

UPDATE: Mike Lynch of Reason has a good piece on Campaign Finance Reform if you want to read more.

The states want to continue the death tax whether or not the federal government is involved. Since the states are not taking as much money as they want they are considering taxing the people more to make up for it. I don't know much about economics but taxing the people more does not encourage growth. I do understand how it would increase the amount of money the state treasury would bring in in a year,

I hate politics. I hate the part of the game that makes the successfull incumbents the ones who can raise the most pork for the district getting reelected. Most of the time the things these stupid pork projects for don't even matter to the people in the district. Both parties are guilty of engaging in pork spending. I hope the Republicans beat Tim Johnson. No, I hope they make sure Tim Johnson never gets elected dog catcher again. Throw the bums out!

The New York Times thinks fun is dead on the web. They don't really prove the point. One of the facts they quote is that average online users is down from 90 minutes in March 2000 to 83 minutes in March 2001. They point out that new media sites like Plastic.com and Suck.com are not as existent as they used to be. These sites are really just blogs that tried to exist as bussinessess. They complain that the "web is not fun." Maybe the web isn't fun anymore. Although I have plenty of fun reading Matt Welch and Ken Layne's sites.

If the web is not fun any more it certainly is informative. Lots of people have set up sites, or blogs, gathering together lots of material from various sources while correcting the mistakes others make. This may not be very fun, but it is damn informative and that is why the New York Times is scared. The Times would like to keep the web "fun" rather than informative; that way the Times does not have to worry about not people's main source of information. It is too late though. The information revolution has begun.

It's time to take the first step on the war on eco-terrorism; revoke PETA's tax exempt status.

Brian Knapp thinks the war on terrorism is comparable to the American Revolution. Just as we won the American Revolution, we will win this war.

When I hear suggestions of discrimination of all Arab looking people it seems irrational to me. One of my friends in high school was from Saudia Arabia. He acted like a normal American kid. There was nothing unusual about him. His sister dressed like a normal American girl. Now I know a college student who considers himself to have Palestinian heritage.

Irrational racism will not solve any problems. I know that being naive is not the answer either. I have flown on three round trips since 9/11 and on each one I contemplate how I would take out each person on the plane.

"More than half the money raised by House candidates comes from individuals. (The percentage is far greater for Senate candidates." - From Congress and Its Members

I would not be surprised if that percentage would not increase as the passed Campaign Finance Reform comes into effect. This statement also makes it clear that soft money is not that big a factor in campaigns.

"Many individual donations are solicited by interest groups, which seek to magnify their influence by collecting and then forwarding these personal check to the designated canditates, a practice known as bundling" Is it possible interest groups could still influence politics?

Attempting to take the money out of politics is damn near impossible and will probably have as small an effect as attempts at taking money out of college basketball.

A Jessie Jackson wannabe has sued three large U.S. companies for reparations for slavery. It sounded like a good idea to me. If a company was involved in slavery, they should be held responsible for their actions. But that is not the case here, this woman seems to have just picked out three old bank companies who have a lot of money and decided to sue.

A lot of people are saying that Halle Berry is not really black so it should be no big deal that she won an Oscar. I understand the argument but I don't agree with it. Halle Berry is black enough that she would have been discriminated against 50 years. How "black" does a person need to betruly "black?" Maybe one day we will reach a point where a person can win an Oscar being the product of two black parents.

HokiePundit has an article saying why he is basically an ascetic. I respect him for doing what he does I just have a little problem with one part of his statement on why he does not drink or do drugs: " To me, if you willingly break the law, then you're a hypocrite if you ever try and use the law to protect yourself or your interests." I don't find this necessary hypocritical if you violate victimless crimes. There is no reason that I can understand why I should not be allowed to have a beer at the age of 20.

College Kids drink a lot. What else is new? A study came out with these results and it is suddenly news. I have heard the claim that it is on an increase, despite the study saying levels are staying the same, due to the lyrics in rap music. To do this you must forget the concious records by artists like Mos Def, Common, Talib Kweli and others. But for the sake of argument let's do that.

Rap music can not be blamed anymore than R&B that is being pushed by the record companies. "The Thong Song" must be remembered as a clear example of tasteless hedonism. Ja Rule and J-Lo's "I'm Real" have contributed to white kids walking around saying the n word. A new R&B artist has a big hit called "Oops!" where the chorus consists of the singer singing "I'm taking off my shirt. I'm taking off my skirt." Rap may be a culprit so is R&B. I think De La Soul described modern R&B best on their album De La Soul Is Dead, "You mean Rhythm and Blues? No, Rap and Bullshit." On the other hand, the direction of R&B is improving as seen by return of the Neo-Soul movement. Yet, I am digressing.

Sure almost every college student could sing the lyrics of all the hits from Dr Dre's The Chronic or from Snoop's Doggystyle album. But modern music has always had sexual undertones in it even though it may not have always been as clear as Sisqo's "Thong Song."

"Fuck The First Amendment!My Speech Was Free The Day My Soul Descended." -Jurrasic 5off of The Quality Control album. (Can't remember which song.)
"Cash Rules Everything Around Me. C.R.E.A.M. It's the money." -Wu Tang Clan "C.R.E.A.M." off of Wu Tang's Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers



The argument has been proposed that the limitations on "issue advocacy ads" that mention a candidate 60 days prior to election might be constitutional under a "living constitution" argument. Once people see the 1st Amendment argument in this case I think people of almost all political persuasions will see the light. I also can not think of 5 members on the Supreme Court that will deem that unconstitutional.

President Bush believes the Campaign Finance Reform that was pased posed some "legitimate constitutional questions, but he plans on signing it anyway. I guess Bush doesn't take his Constitutional oath very seriously. Maybe Bush should read his oath in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution sometimes.

It is a rare event that I find myself agreeing with the European Union, but I find myself agreeing with a lot of the statements made by Carlo Trojan, the E.U.'s senior trade negotiator in Geneva, in Wednesday's New York Times:

the European Union's senior trade negotiator in Geneva, Carlo Trojan, did not mince words in a letter to his American counterpart, Linnet Deily, saying the United States had "blatantly failed to respect" the group's rules. He called President Bush's decision to impose the tariffs "bad for the U.S. economy, bad for the international steel market and bad for the world trading system."
The European Union moved swiftly to contest the tariffs after they were announced on March 5, raising the possibility that without an agreement of some kind, retaliatory tariffs could be imposed on a host of American exports. Europe is already threatening $4 billion in retaliatory tariffs in another dispute with the United States, a disagreement over tax breaks for exporters.

The great article continues:

Mr. Trojan responded that no amount of protection would enable older steel mills to become internationally competitive, and he accused the United States of trying "to shift its problems to foreigners rather than accepting the responsibility of confronting tough domestic choices."

Great not only do U.S. citizens have to pay more for products with steel, but now U.S. taxpayers will also have to pay a $2 billion fine to the W.T.O.

With the continued violence between Israel and the Palestinians it seems pretty clear that a number of the Palestians do not want peace. It makes sense as long as the violence continues a peace process will keep coming up where the suggestion of land being given to the Palestinians by Israel will continue to be brought up. Arafat has nothing to lose.

Imagine U.S. troops stationed permanently where no in the U.S. wanted them to be. Imagine those U.S. troops now in a country where the people on the two sides of a battle in the country do not want them to be. Sounds kind of like Vietnam? right? Actually that is the way I look at what I viewed the scenario in Tom Friedman's last column in the New York Times. Friedman would like the U.S. to enforce some sort of Swiss Cheese border between Israel and the Palestinians.

From Wednedsay's OpEd in the New York Times by Adam Lioz: "While playing lip service to reform, the current McCain-Feingold bill actually boosts the clout of wealthy donors and their candidates. Congress and the American people should reject this unfair compromise."

Sure getting rid of soft money might be constitutional. (That doesn't mean it's right. The Supreme Court upheld the practices of the U.S. Government against American citizens with Japanese background.) One aspect of this bill to me that does seem unconstitutional is the prevention of ads by interest groups in favor or against a candidate 60 days before an election.

According to the first Amendment: "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech,... or the right of the people to peacefully to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." In other words, Congress can't do a thing about what someone says. In other words, I could constitutionally say Bush shouldn't be President for any reason. I see no reason why my speech is then restricted 60 days before an election when I am speaking as a group whom I chose to associate with.

Part of the reason why Campaign Finance Reform passed through both houses of Congress this year was the Enron/Arthur Anderson scandal. The fact is as The New York Times reported today, Enron and Arthur Anderson's contributions would not have been effected by the new campaign finance law. In fact, one could argue since Enron would be able to give twice as much Enron would be able to have more influence on government. Daschle even admitted today that without soft money candidates will have to spend more time campaigning. Great. I thought the whole point on campaign finance reform was to get money out of politics, not into politics. The New York Times points out that influence will now be in bundlers, or people who can put together groups of individuals who can gather the legal limit.

From a strategic perspective, Campaign Finance Reform was a really stupid move by the Democrats. The Democrats have finally caught up to the Republicans in recent years in the amount of soft money raised and what to do they do: They ban soft money. To give themselves another kick in the ass Democrats doubled the amount of hard money that could be given to a candidate. You have to be stupid to hurt yourself and help your opponent at the same time. (Campaign Finance Reform sucks and I will go into some of that in later posts.)

One thing I don't like about the New York Times, or at least the national addition, is there is so little amount of reporting on New York. The "New York Report," you know the slimmed down version of The Metro Report, is buried in the middle of the C section today after the agricultural commodities prices. There is news about New York in the Op Ed though, Bob Herbert reports that Bloomberg wants to take over NYC Schools I don't really have a problem with Bloomberg doing this but I am wondering why this is not covered in the New York Report. Besides from the fact that the writers are based in New York, there seems to be nothing New York left of the New York times.

The Russians have told OPEC they plan on cutting production but its not clear that the Russians are knowingly lying to OPEC about cutting production. It's good we have people like the Russians on our side making us less dependent on OPEC and the whole Middle East.

First Bush angers Brazil, China and the EU among others with his steel tariffs, but now for good measure the commerce department has put tarrifs on Canadian Lumber Hello? Anybody home? Tariffs do not make sense economically. This is like two kids hitting each other: "He started it." If the canadians wat to subsidize their lumber. Fine. The canadian government will just keep losing money as they have to subsidize their wood untill they realize it is bad economic policy.

Government has the tendency to get themselves involved in areas where they really do not need to be. Take, for example, the English Parliament who has gotten it involved in determining the percentage of head in a pint of beer. As my roommate said when the story appeared on CNN: "What is the government getting itself involved in this for? If the people want more or less head in their beer, they can just tell the bartender."

"Iron Man" of Pundit21Jump Street posted a comment on my site arguing that "Bush is a Republican with Republican programs," thus Bush is the anti-Clinton. There is a major differince between Bush and Clinton in that Bush does know what to do with the military. Bush is not the all perfect Republican President. Bush is willing to do things that are politically popular and put the Democrats in a bad position.

It looks like campaign finance reform has the possibility of passing in the Senate tomorrow. The Republicans seemed to have come up with an interesting strategy: The Republicans are going to bring it to vote as soon as possible. Is this some kind of trick? Maybe, the Republicans have realized that none of the Democrats really want to make CFR the law anyways.

	You are Kermit! Though you're technically the star, you're pretty mellow and don't mind letting others share the spotlight. You are also something of a dreamer.
Take the What Muppet Are You? Quiz!

(via The DailyDose

The New York Times had a good article in the Magazine section on the future of digital music with the point that some kind of music industry will exist out of necessity for a distribution system for whatever the music product will become.

Kyle Still added a comment on to Alex Knapp's blog basically arguing that invading Iraq, and toppling Saddam, would be good for the Middle Eastern region. This does not seem to be a clear reason for doing something. Government involvement should not be based on the fact that getting rid of the entity may be better for the whole community. The War on Terrorism should only be spread as far as global networks of terrorism against the United States.

The NY Times has an article about how the music industry is upset because they aren't making any money. They must be really dissapointed that the consumer is not going to spend every last dollar on some music that they would not want to hear or see in person. At least they are admitting they have angered the consumers.

Hillary Rosen, president and chief executive officer of the Recording Industry Association of America adleast is willing to admit "Record companies have been trying to serve to many masters other than the consumer." It hasn't been a good strategy. Good. The market is working. If an industry ignores the consumer and angers their labor, they deserve to be hit hard at the bottom line.

Some people in the record industry still sound like Chicken Little though. "Miles Copeland, president of Ark 21 Records, warned that the CD business could be destroyed entirely in three years by the availability of free music on the Internet. "We have a serious problem with the industry," he said. "We don't have a way to solve it. They're grasping at straws." He also complained about greedy musicians, saying that if they insist on getting a larger share of their profits on hit recordings, recording companies will have less to invest in struggling bands." This guy sure is grasping at straws. I don't think artist profits are what is hurting the record sales and the labels do not invest that much in struggling bands.

Perry de Havilland as an excellent post about how U.S. steel tariffs are going to cost the U.S. steel tariffs dearly. I believe Perry is adressing the concerns of those who said Bush's motivation was just internal politics. Internal politics in the form of protectionism was Bush's motivation here.

Bush 43, unlike his father, knows how to play politics. I don't think President Bush is really any differint from Clinton other than the fact he is a Republican with some Republican programs and knows what to do with the military.

The people that are complaining about being "groped" while being screened at airline security have no say considering all the searches are consensual.

I watched the begining of Conan's show last night on NBC. Conan pointed out that Geraldo had been tear gassed while reporting recently and the crowd cheered. These people are screwed up if they are going to clap loudly for a reporter being attacked while covering war torn areas.

Okay I know how I just kind of dissed Hot 97, but they have to be given credit for this article praising my favorite rap group, De La Soul.

DaveyD.Com REPORTS THAT NEW YORK HAS A NEW HIP-HOP STATION. Clearchannel has flipped 105.1 which has been known as "Jammin 105" to "Power 105" a hip-hop station. Dr. Dre and Ed Lover, of YO! MTV Raps fame, will be hosting the morning show. A lot of DJs that hot 97 doesn't put to use except for from around 3-5 AM and on odd hours at the weekend will probably be moved over from Hot 97 since they are both owned by Clear Channel corporation.

Competition is always good for bussinesses. Now Hot 97 will not be able to deliver the same old stagnant material and expect to have full control of the audience. Corporations tend to get too large and then take the consumer for granted. This is one of the great reasons why competition helps the consumer. There sure deserves to be competition in the hip-hop that is played on the radio in New York. New York is where it started after all.

When the CIA doubts there is any connection between Iraq and Bin Laden, Why is the Pentagon planning to go to war against Iraq? Making sure that Al-Queada members are caught and prevented from causing any more terrorism should be the military's main goal. It is too bad Bush is more concerned with keeping his ultra hawkish base happy instead of his free trade base.

Alex Knapp thinks the administration has not really given a reason for why we need to go to war with Iraq. He is right. If we were going to go to war with Iraq, doing it at another time when troops are not positioned in several countries.

Allen Keyes argued on MSNBC that the celebrity boxing last night where Vanilla Ice and Paula Jones got their asses kicked shows how debased our society is. One word: Bullshit! No one better than a bunch of has been losers deserves more to be beaten up if they so choose. But, I guess Allen Keyes probably is more on the side of predestination than free choice anyway.

The New York Times has an article saying how the entertainment companies are trying to pressure computer and technology companies to make there computers and burners incapable of copying copyrighted material. This is a herendous idea.

People are not stopped from copying a movie or off of the radio and there is no reason why computer technology should be treated in a seperate manner. The VCR and the tape player did not kill the entertainment industry despite the industry's dire predictions

It is generally a common practice that corporations are not responsible for illegal and improper use of the products. There is no reason computers should be treated any different.

It appears Brazil has joined in the trade war that Perry de Havilland predicted by calling for comparative steel tarrifs. I just love it when the government gets into screwing over the consumer multiple times.
(See the comments selection on my steel posts below plus his article at Libertarian Samizdata )

Glenn Reynolds makes a good argument that Americans may not have become more patriotic but are more willing to wave the flag. Most people out of the reach of the big cities do not seem to have been changed by September 11th as those within reach of a major city.

The Onion doesn't seem that far off with its story on Gulf War II.

Bush thinks the terrorists must have gotten the idea the U.S. was weak from watching Jerry Springer. They were probably watching Baywatch a program that is popular worldwide. Osama Bin Laden also did not predict a big response due to the U.S.' failure to react adequately to terrorism at U.S. embassies in the past.

HokiePundit makes some mistakes on the arguments on MP3s.

- Music is only protected as long as the patent applies as determined in Congress. Patents and copyrights, thankfully, do not last for perpetuity. If patents and copyrights did last for perpetuity, descendents of authors and inventors who invented stuff as early as the nation's founding would be receiving royalties for the use.

-My father has pointed out from me that a large portion of the songs that he downloads are MP3s of songs which he has purchased in another format, i.e. vinyl and tapes. He could go through them using the computer's capabilities and copy them to the computer for use as MP3s. Thus, not all use of MP3s requires "stealing."

-The main reason people are not buying new music is because most of it is not great. The good new stuff is hidden and does not get major promotion. This is clearly shown by the fact that in the last year that the series of pop music "Now That's What I Call Music Vol#" has been at the top of the charts in several weeks within the last year. Recently in Los Angeles, Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam records, complained about how the music being put out was overproduced and had brought lower sales, so even the record executives know there is a problem.

Nelly Furtado is planning on doing colaborations with The Roots and Jurrassic 5. Those are some collaborations that I am definitly looking foward to hearing.

HipHopDx.com reports Malik B of the Roots has left The Roots temporarily to go to rehab, Rakim is getting ready to release a new album titled "The Aftermath" and Slum Village is now signed to Virgin Records.

New York is back! Well, at least as far as real estate in NYC is concerned.

Alex Knapp points out that instead of trying to find terrorists the DOJ has been searching for teenagers' parties where drugs may be present. The DOJ is not going to find any Al-Quaeda members at any teenage parties. (Nothing positive can come of this. This reminds me of when the NYPD arrested members of the Zulu Nation who were trying to be mentors to teenagers. This incedent did nothing but hurt public perception of the NYPD.)

SpinTechMagazine.com has a good article on blogs. It even mentions my site for several sentences!

The New York Times has an article on civilian casualties in Afghanistan.