Jim Treacher points how peace signs won't save anybody.

Crime and Guns

Joyce Lee Malcolm writes in Reason that gun control has been far from a solution for London's crime problems.

allsci.com asks Is Terrorism Really That Bad arguing that terrorism may not be that much of a threat compared to auto accidents or other normal threats.

Since the September 11th terrorist attacks, are you afraid of flying in an airplane? Or, when the Bush administration announces that another terrorist attack is likely, are you concerned that your city, or your office building, may be next? Similarly, are you equally frightened of not wearing a seat belt when driving on a highway? Are you equally concerned that almost anyone can walk into almost any Wal-Mart in the U.S. and buy a gun? According to Roger Congleton, an economics professor at George Mason University, you should be more concerned with gun violence and highway safety, not the threat of another terrorist attack.

Of course, this line argument completely ignores the threat that terrorism is an unnecessary threat.

Too lazy to run your own blog? Want to start writing for an already existing blog to write for? I'm looking for interested additional posters.

Sabertooth Journal Looking For New Writers

The Sabertooth Journal is looking for other libertarian writers interested in writing for his blog.

A debate about "fisking" is occuring over in the comments section of Matt Welch's warblog.

Doggystyle; the official position of Islam.Will Wilkinson has the scoop.

NewsMax Satire? GoogleNews thinks so.
Bill Quick points out that GoogleNews has put every NewsMax.com story since October 9th into the News Satire section.

Problems with wind power
Matthew Edgar has a post on the problems with wind power. A few points Matthew didn't mention are that the windmills kill birds and the fact that putting windmills on a piece of land will have environmental effects upon the land. The current biological niche that exists on the presumably unused lands on which the windmills are put will clearly be changed by the addition of windmills.

The Neptunes Going Country
The Neptunes, the two producers responsible for a large portion of today's pop and rap hits want to start producing country music. According to AllHipHop.com, Pharell was interested in doing an album with Faith Hill but Faith had a conflicting schedule. Pharell has also said he wants to work with Bonnie Raitt. In some ways the Neptunes duo are highly talented and may be improving the quality of rap beats. They may actually make current country less pop because I don't think country can get much more pop than it is now.

E-mail Questions: How did you choose the title for your website? What does it mean?

September 11, 2001. A day that lives in infamy for its tragedy. For me it is also the day I discovered InstaPundit via Virginia Postrel. By the middle of October I decided to get myself a blog. That's how I got a blog. It hasn't improved much over the last year or so partly because whenever I come up with something to say someone like Lileks.

What was the question? Oh right how did I choose the title "Where Hip-Hop and Libertarianism Meet?" I thought what are my passions? Politics and music. I've been a hip-hop fan ever since I was a little kid starting with De La Soul's 3 Feet High and Rising Ever since I found out what the word meant I have been a Libertarian. Some aspects of my libertarian thought are effected by political rap such as my view's on abortion and the drug war. So that's how I got my title.

Keith Harris, in the Village Voice credits the Big Tymers with being, well, slackers.

Ted Barlow posts a link on his site to a page he found titled 30 Reasons Eminem is Bad for Music. The problem I have with this list is that most of these are not true.

Bigotry
Eminem is famous for rampant anti-Semitism. His recent hit Without Me complains "...well the FCZ won't let me be," apparently referring to the Founder's Conspiracy of Zionists, a supposed secret jewish mind-control plot often mentioned in Neo-Nazi literature. Why doesn't somebody take him to task on this?

This is blatantly false. If you look at the lyrics to "Without Me" you will see the words are FCC not FCZ. Instead of being anti-Semitic, Eminem is referencing to the temporary censorship of the clean version of his hit single "The Real Slim Shady." Charges 2 - 4 say Eminem needs a therapist. True.

#5. The backwards mask
When played backwards, several of Eminem's songs reveal curse words, including several instances of the word cr*p.

Hello? This is Eminem. There are curse words if you play the music foward. How do you play a CD backwords anyway?

Women are nothing but mindless receptacles for sex in Eminem's world, as evidenced by his current hit Hot in Here where he issues these commands: "It's getting hot in here... so take off all your clothes." In the chorus a female voice responds in submission, "I'm gonna take my clothes off." A terrifying look into a misogynist fantasy.

The author must of been thinking of Nelly's "Hot In Herre." Not much of a "reason" if you are talking about someone else.

If you listen closely to Without Me Eminem threatens another man that "you could get your ass kicked." At best this is a reference to vindictive animal cruelty, at worst it's a curse word and should not be allowed in music. If you interpret it as the latter, replace the "a" above with an asterisk.

Okay. Violence is a pretty good reason to be concerned with Eminem's lyrics.

Eminem repeatedly brags about his criminal background, even stating in one early song that he would "rock the mic like a vandal." Is this the role model you want for your children?

Eminem's reference to "rock the mic like a vandal" is a metaphor for being a good rapper. It has nothing to do with violence. I don't feel like going through the rest of the reasons but quickly:
#12 There is no evidence Eminem had anything to with Tupac's murder this is just ridiculous.
#17 Eminem is clearly reffering to Limp Bizkit the band and is not being anti-semetic.
#18 Cop Killer was by Ice-T's punk group Body Count. Cop Killer, if you listen to the lyrics, is a song about police brutality. Eminem had nothing to do with the song.
And Eminem has never had a song called "Mongrel"

UPDATE: I guess I let myself get taken for a hoax. Me and Alex Beam. Ted Barlow informs me its a parody.

Greg Beato suggests Coulter writes a column about the Amish. Read it. It's worth it.

I know it's late but go read Lileks' Bleat from Monday. Here's the money 'graph to ruin it for you:

Where am I going with this? Nowhere in particular. Other than this: Swap stories and save gum wrappers. That’s what you’re hear for. Glean what you can from the day; pass it along. Don’t worry that it’s too trivial or meaningless.

Bush and Oil

Whenever I hear people who don't like the President say "Hey! Bush is an oil man!" My first reaction is So What? What else is new? That was evident when the people elected an oilman for President and Vice President.

If oil was the real reason Bush wanted to attack Iraq was oil wouldn't Bush find an easier way to get oil such as ending sanctions. Wouldn't it also be easier for Bush to avoid going to war with WMD by taking over a country without WMD for oil? Or maybe Bush is not really interested in oil.

For all those people who ask why go to war now I have a simple answer; It's been three years since the inspecters were last in Iraq.

I've always had screwed up handwriting. I guess I don't physically write properly or something. My handwriting has always been slow. Up until high school I was in resource room a division of special education at my local school district. Although, I still had testing modifications in high school I almost always took tests with the rest of the class.

When it came to the SATs my guidance counselor suggested I take the SATs untimed and I refused. My refusal was partly a pride issue, that happens if you read Atlas Shrugged too many times, but I also did not want the asterisk on my record.

Well now the College Board is getting rid of the asterisk. Thus encouraging students to take advantage of the system at taxpayer expense. Great just what Special Ed programs needs more kids that don't belong there. Goodbye meritocracy!

UPDATE: Scott Danahy offers his views on the issue.

Lileks celebrates an old Times Square. And by old I am not reffering to the grity, grimy, porn and shady charachter infested time square that existed before Giuliani replaced them with the type of theme restaurants and corporations that give America a bad name and make you want to throw a brick with some World Bank protestors.

HipHopDX reports that DJ Quik has said he will end his rap career. Quik has been quoted as saying “Yo’ on the real tip…I got something to say…I’m 32 years old and I can’t be singing ‘Sweet Black Pussy’ all my life and especially now that I got a daughter." Quik entered the rap business as a way to get out of gangbanging.

Will O'Reilly live up to claim of being "fair and balanced" and running a "no-spin zone and cover this story?

In reality, probably not. Oliver Willis was right in claiming that O'Reilly's waging a jihad against hip-hop (sorry can't find the link).

The New York Times realizes that pop-stars like Britney will soon become of little importance. Thank Goodness I'm sick of these talentless pop-stars who, besides from being attractive and trying really hard, have no real unique talent.

Radley Balko looks over the 25 years of the Department of Energy.

E. Rush Karskadden makes some good points about the U.N.

Greg Beato tells O'Reilly to take down Aaron Carter for being subversive.

Glenn Reynolds new column on the evil RIAA is up.

Thanks to VodkaPundit for a perma-link! My run for world domination has begun! Don't worry though world domination by me would consist of a libertarian despotic government.

Go read Lileks! Read it Now!

Eugene Volokh examines the partisan nature of the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision. QUOTE:

The only thing remotely approaching a legal rule that comes out from this decision is that other courts must presumably likewise ask "the central question" whether "the dual interests of full voter choice and the orderly administration of an election can be effectuated if the relief requested by plaintiffs were to be granted." Is this a standard that we think judges can fairly apply in future election cases, cases which might be similarly politically laden? Or might the old 51-day bright-line rule, with all its flaws, have been better after all?

The New Jersey decision seems to be the ultimate extension of the idea of a living constitution.

Kyle Still give a thorough prediction of how the Supreme Court may decide in the upcoming cross-burning caseVirginia v. Black. Although, I never understood why one needed to charge someone with a cross-burning charge and couldn't just charge the invader with criminal trespass and arson.

Was Maureen Down drunk or on drugs when she wrote today's column. A 2nd grader could write better than her latest column.

Jesse Walker questions how armed and powerfull Saddam really is. Quote:

In the October 14 edition of National Review, Ramesh Ponurru surveys libertarian opinion on the war. For the most part, the piece is objective and well-reported, but Ponurru's biases flare up from time to time -- for example, when he encounters Harry Browne's suggestion that the U.S. should emulate Switzerland. "This might even make sense," Ramesh writes, "if America were somehow able to stop being the most powerful country on earth." As the old saying goes, What the hell? If you're that powerful, it means you have less to fear from not sticking your thumb in every pie around the globe. Most people won't want to fight an opponent so tough, unless you've gone out of your way to aggravate them."

Hell just read the whole damn thing it's good.

The Sabertooth Journal examines the split between libertarians over war since the attacks of September 11th. As a party member, I am dissapointed by the statements made by Harry Browne, who is not a member of the Libertarian Party, on war with Afghanistan and the party's release on Iraq.

Within the party, there seems to be a large portion of dissent so I would say this is more than a big L-Libertarian against small l-libertarian.

Radley Balko takes apart Selig's small market teams don't have a chance theory.

Fox News is announcing Torricelli is going to drop out of the Senate. This may be harder for Forrester going up against any other Democrat who will probably be harder to beat than Torricelli. The Democrats do not have a replacement as of yet.

LL Cool J And The Future Of Black Politics

Last Monday it was generally anounced that P. Diddy has endorsed Carl McCall in New York's gubernatorial contest. Now, LL Cool J has stepped in and endorsed Pataki. LL Cool J endorsed Pataki for stepping up after September 11th and doing great thinks for Queens.

LL Cool J is the first rapper to endorse a candidate outside of the Democratic Party. As of yet, most hip-hop political activism has consisted mostly of artists supporting the status quo Democratic candidate. The entrance over competition for endorsements can only help the inner city community that has been largely taken advantage of by the Democratic Party.

Comments are back!

Messed with the template. Okay I'm not sure what I did but it will be fixed soon. If your link is not back by Monday or you want your link added; tell me.

Funkmaster Flex lays the smack down on Steph Lova
The New York Daily News reports that Funkmaster Flex, a deejay on New York's Hot 97 rap station, was arrested for 3rd degree misdemeanor assault after hitting, choking and scratching Steph Lova, a deejay on competing Power 105, last week. How has radio competition come to this? It is bellieved that the violence was related to the competion between the two stations and the ongoing beef between Nas and JAY-Z. This is getting ridiculous Flex needs to learn how to act like an adult. You can't just go around beating people. That is not how bussiness is done.

CEOs have rediscovered Atlas Shrugged.
(Link via Radley Balko

Jeb Bush has anounced new voting plans after recent voting problems.
In response to Janet Reno's complaint about voting machines not working recently, Jeb Bush has come up with the latest in vote counting technology.

Chris Matthews and P. Diddy
P. Diddy plans to endorse Carl McCall In New York's Governor's race. Chris Matthews reported this on his show Hardball tonight. Chris Matthews quoted P. Diddy as saying "I do vote, I do have kids, and I do have a duty as a citizen to be politically conscious." Matthews then for some reason thought it was appropriate to mention that P. Diddy had recently been acquitted of weapon possesion charges. Was that really necessary of Matthews to mention? If treatment like that is necessary he should provide it to every person his show deals with such as asking Al Sharpton, who was next on tonight's show about cocaine or Tawana Brawley, or Ted Kennedy about Chappaquiddick or John McCain about the Keating 5. Matthews doesn't continue to bring those up charges. Partly because everyone knows about them, but also because politics isn't jus about ad hominems. Technically Matthews is also right in his claim that P. Diddy is the first rapper to endorse a candidate but Russell Simmons, a competing hip-hop mogul, has been endorsing Democratic candidates for years.

Al Barger gives a celebration of Ray Charles on Charles' 72nd birthday.

Anyone who thinks that U.N. inspectors will succeed at this point is being naive. If Saddam had any intention of giving the inspectors unfettered access he would not have forbidden access to his Presidential Palaces. Quote From the LA Times:

WASHINGTON -- After agreeing last week to allow U.N. weapons inspectors unconditional access, Iraq reversed course Saturday and said it would not abide by any new U.N. resolution allowing monitors entry to key presidential compounds

Mickey Kaus continues to make the connection between welfare and terrorism.

SOHH.com reports that Jurrasic 5 has scheduled October 8th for their new release Power In Number. Power In Numbers will features guest appearances by Nelly Furtado, Big Daddy Kane and the JuJu of the BeatNuts.

Punditwatch is up.