Canada Hates Metal

Aaron Wherry has a post on how the Canadian government is preventing American metal bands to tour in Canada. I think we need to ammend NAFTA so that will include letting American metal bands across the border. Canada is now a country providing protectionism to the country's metal rock industry.

Wiggaz.com | Hardcore white kids terrorizing the suburbs

I may be white and from the suburbs but don't expect to see a picture of me at Wiggaz.com anytime soon.

Link via Joey Pinkney

Exclamation!

Patrick Belton mentions a theory as to the origin of the exclamation point.

Frat Houses Are Voluntary

Jonathon David Morris belonged to a frat-house and says the comparisons of Abu Ghraib to frat house antics are just plain wrong.

Torturing The Innocent Does Not Produce Any Relevant Information

Kevin Drum links to this Red Cross report on prisoner mistreatment in Iraq. Among the portions Kevin Drum excerpts are the statement that

Certain CF military intelligence officers told the ICRC that in their estimate between 70% and 90% of the persons deprived of their liberty in Iraq had been arrested by mistake. They also attributed the brutality of some arrests to the lack of supervision of battle group units.

Interrogating prisoners will not do any good if they are innocent and don't know anything.

The Only Good Government Is A Divided Government

Brian Kieffer has a suggestion for John Kerry's campaign that would appeal to libertarians.

Link via The Agitatior

Boyin'?

The Gaurdian has a piece on break dancing that gets a lot of things right. Although I have never heard anyone call it "boyin'" before.

Quote

Quote from Jim Beanan: "But you have to do more than just encourage people to vote, you need to tell them why they are voting and what they are voting for and until people can see that bi-partisanism isn't working they are going to keep on putting the same schmucks in the office until the country is eventually ruined."

End The War On Drugs Now

Deroy Murdock at National Review Online that the federal government should be putting its resources away from the ridiculous war on drugs. QUOTE:

At a time when federal officials should focus obsessively on crushing terrorists, they are expanding the disastrous war on drugs into an even more pointless war on substances. From old bogeymen like marijuana to new "hazards" like Oxycontin, Washington busybodies are knocking themselves out combating compounds that, by themselves, do not threaten public safety.

Scrap The FCC

Jim Beanan argues why America should scrap the FCC and what he learned from imitating the Swedish Chef on The Muppets. Quote:

During the past several months there have been several issues raised about the FCC and the impending doom that is coming upon the sanctity of the First Amendment rights. Most of those articles can be found under the "Mercantile Media" link to your right. Several people have weighed in and shared their opinions about how wrong or right it is for the government to control what is being said on the public airwaves. I have noticed one thing lacking in those discussions though: solution. How are we to stop this from happening.

I have never been too concerned with the HOW so much as the WHAT. In this instance the WHAT or solution comes down to this: eliminate the FCC. That's right I said it. Get rid of it wholesale. Let the industry govern itself. Allow the Networks and Broadcasting Companies worry about what is indecent, what is proper, what does or doesn't belong on the air.

Hip Hop Blogs: In/Out List

Hip Hop Blogs has a post by Hashim with the trends in hip-hop that are coming in, out and never were.

Electing Republicans May Not Bring Smaller Government

Stephen Slivinski points out that the Congress, made up of a majority of Republicans, continues to overspend. Quote:

Republicans in Congress have not been able to resist the temptation to break their own promises of spending restraint. Indeed, the history of the GOP’s broken promises is instructive, and doesn’t bode well for the fate of the current budget blueprint being debated in Congress.

Each year, the budget resolution creates spending “caps” that are supposed to set the upper limit on discretionary spending. So-called “mandatory” programs — which make up over 60 percent of the federal budget and include programs like Social Security and Medicare — are not subject to the caps. Comparing the originally agreed-upon caps to final spending numbers from the White House, it’s easy to see that Congress busted the 2002 cap by $51 billion and the 2003 cap by $44 billion. According to preliminary estimates, the original 2004 cap could be exceeded by $47 billion by the end of this year.

About 62 percent of the budget busting is due to increased defense discretionary spending between 2001 and 2003. But the remaining 38 percent is due to domestic spending bloat.

Perhaps the worst part of all this is that the so-called “caps” have hardly kept Congress leashed to an austere budget. In fact, the caps go up in each new budget resolution. In this way, discretionary caps are often regarded as spending floors instead of ceilings.

Catching Osama

US News And World Report has a piece describing the details behind the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

Link via Winds Of War May 6, 2004)

Gas Prices Are Not That HIgh If You Take Into Account Inflation

Jeffrey Tucker posts a chart showing that gas prices are not at record highs if you take inflation into account.

2nd Amendment Caucus Created In The U.S. House

The Colorado Freedom Reports the congress will create a 2nd Amendment caucus. Quote:

Washington, DC: Today, Congressmen Marilyn Musgrave (CO-04) and Virgil Goode (VA-05) announced the creation of the Congressional Second Amendment Caucus. Comprised of 38 Members of Congress, this caucus is solely dedicated to the right of lawful individuals to own firearms as granted in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

"As lawmakers in our nation's highest legislative body, we must fight to preserve the Constitutional right for individual citizens to keep and bear arms," said Musgrave. "While many in our nation's capital seek to chip away at the right of firearm ownership and possession, the 2nd Amendment Caucus is committed to defending lawful gun owner's constitutional rights in our nation, without compromise. Their voice will be heard in Congress."

Link via Free-Market.net

What Economics Will Teach Us About Prostitution

Andrew David Chamberlain discusses the economics of prostitution.

UPDATE: In related prostitution news the Adam Smith Institute Blog has information on how Germany may be increasing prostitution due to a recent regulation.

Iraq: Things Will Get Better now leave

A USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll reports Iraqis are optimistic but also want us to leave immediately aftter the June 30th transfer of power. Maybe the Iraqis have more faith in the positive outlook of the security conditions once the U.S. military leaves the country.

Other news reported in this poll is most "Shiites and Sunnis say women should have less freedom than they had under the Saddam Hussein regime, and 42 percent of all Iraqis would back a government-mandated dress code for women." If this poll is at all accurate, our ousting of the Saddam regime may make things worse for women instead of liberating them.

Neoconservatism Versus Libertarianism- by Justin Raimondo

The speech that Justin Raimondo made at the New York Libertarian Party Convention is on the internet for anyone interested in a libertarian anti-war position.

Saudi Weddings

The Religious Policeman describes weddings in Saudi Arabia.

IMF-World Bank Protest

Brian Kieffer tells his story of going to an IMF-World Bank Protest.

Link via The Agitator

Hatred of Camels Quote

Glenn Reynolds on camels: "My secretary once rode a camel across much of Mali, and has retained a deep hatred for camels ever since. As has just about everyone I know who has ever had much to do with camels."

Ralph Nader Is Good For Something

Field Of Schemes is a blog started by Ralph Nader that keeps track of all the sports owners' attempts to spend taxpayer money on new stadiums and the like.

Link via Hit And Run

The New York Times > Arts > Music > Playlist: 'Goodbye, Lenin!,' the Bada-Bing and the Britney

DJ Danger Mouse is writing for The New York Times.

Link via Oliver Wang

Marines Tighten Iraq-Syria Border

AP Reports the Marines are tightening the Iraq-Syria border. Quote:

WASHINGTON (AP) - By putting a bigger force along Iraq's border with Syria, the U.S. Marines have been able to slow the infiltration of foreign fighters, a senior U.S. general said Friday.

U.S. officials have frequently cited the Syrian border as a source of foreign extremists who make their way east to the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, and in some cases to Baghdad, and attack U.S. forces.

Maj. Gen. John Sattler, the director of operations for Central Command, said in a telephone interview with Pentagon reporters that the Marines have at least one-third more troops along the border than did the 82nd Airborne, which turned over the operation to the Marines last month.

Link via Winds Of Change

New York's Population To Blame For Crappy Radio Stations

Julian Sanchez speculates as to why New York radio sucks. Sanchez writes that enough people are in New York to consume bland pop stations. Rather than try something original they "stick with plucking that low-hanging mass-market fruit." As bad as New York radio is it could be much worse.

Condoleeza Rice thinks she is married to Bush

According to New York Magazine Condoleeza Rice referred to President Bush as her husband. Quote:

At a recent dinner party hosted by New York Times D.C. bureau chief Philip Taubman and his wife, Times reporter Felicity Barringer, and attended by Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Maureen Dowd, Steven Weisman, and Elisabeth Bumiller, Rice was reportedly overheard saying, “As I was telling my husb—” and then stopping herself abruptly, before saying, “As I was telling President Bush.”

Link via Wonkette

Peeing In A Cup Isn't So Bad

Jacob Sullum points out that hair sample drug tests are more invasive than peeing in a cup. The hair tests find people who have used drugs as long ago as three months. What prospective employers, including the government, should be most concerned with is people who have used drugs recently. Recent drug users are more likely to have job performance potentially affected than someone who took a hit off of a joint three months.