The Plug Nickel Times is proud to bring you website links to select opinion articles that you may not find through your local media. All links are offsite unless otherwise noted - followed links should open in another browser window. Links can become dated or otherwise fail to function, for this reason we quote the actual headline of an article. This may allow you to find an alternate copy of the article through a news index or search engine. Some sites we link to may require a registration process to view an article - this website may be useful to you in those instances. Comments, corrections and submissions are welcome - an email link is at the bottom of the page.
January 2006
January 30, 2006
The War on Citizens by Mark Davis
"As long as people get to 'choose' between a warden that promises more affordable cells and more recreation time and another warden who promises better food and friendlier guards in a 'free election,' they consider their prison to be a free society."
Unfathomed Dangers in Patriot Act Reauthorization by Paul Craig Roberts
"A provision in the 'Patriot Act' creates a new federal police force with power to violate the Bill of Rights. You might think that this cannot be true as you have not read about it in newspapers or heard it discussed by talking heads on TV.
Go to House Report 109-333 USA PATRIOT IMPROVEMENT AND REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2005 and check it out for yourself. Sec. 605 reads:
'There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the "United States Secret Service Uniformed Division".'
This new federal police force is 'subject to the supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security.'"
A clear and present danger to America by Doug Thompson
"I believe with all my soul that George W. Bush and the Republicans who rubber-stamp his actions represent a clear and present danger to the peace and security of the United States and all must be removed from office immediately if this nation is to survive.
And those are words I never, ever, thought I’d write about a President or other elected officials of this country. And I wish, with all my heart that I did not have to write them now.
But those who love this country and put patriotism above politics must act. America, if it wishes to remain America, must remove the cancer that threatens to destroy it."
The Commissar Vanishes from Laura Rozen
follow her first hyperlink - the significance of the post becomes more apparent.
The Libertarian's Legitimate Litmus Lessons by Garry Reed
"In the not-distant past I've tried to help Liberals become better liberals by offering them a study outline I called 'The Collectivist's Culturally Correct Curriculum.'
Then, after noting that a public outcry for a similar benefit for conservatives failed to materialize, I made available a very sensible learning guide entitled 'The Conservative's Socially Suitable Syllabus.'
Since that offering bombed as well, it's only natural that I press forward with my current contribution to the culture, 'The Libertarian's Legitimate Litmus Lessons.'"
January 19, 2006
Altered State of the Union by Bill Bonner
"We have never seen a line of people we wanted to join. In the investment world, crowds cause you to lose your money. In the rest of the world, they cause you to lose your dignity, and occasionally, as illustrated by the recent news from Mecca, your life.
The 'crowded trade' is one you want to avoid, because if it is too popular, the profit has already been taken out by the people who go there before you. They've bid up the price so you're no longer getting a bargain. And if your side of the trade is crowded, who is left to take the other side? If there are no fools ready to buy what you are selling, or sell what you are buying, then you are the fool."
We see that we are not the only ones who carry a mouse in our pocket!
Hahaha! It's not IF gold will go up, my DLML... by The Mogambo Guru
The Proposed Iranian Oil Bourse by Krassimir Petrov, Ph. D.
'Duke' of Deception by Laura Rozen
"The overlooked security implications of the Cunningham scandal."
How the Grinch Stole Nanotech and More by Michael S. Rozeff
"Growth in GNP is not the same as individual well-being. Investments in pyramids, space centers, moon voyages, and nuclear arsenals do not equate to greater happiness, progress in human well-being, or even take-home pay. The truth is the opposite of what the Rand report says. Force, taxes, subsidies, bureaucracies, races to get grant money, academic castles with moats, gold-plated laboratories, and distorted incentives - none of these are progressive institutions. Freedom is the condition that encourages more ideas, more valuable ideas, more useful ideas. Only freedom can encourage the expression of thoughts and actions that an individual values and that give value and meaning to others. The motivations that stimulate an individual to produce valuable ideas or actions are highly various, very diverse, deeply buried inside people, and hard to discern by the person himself or others. Outsize government grants and free lunches paid for by taxpayers divert and distort these motivations. They undermine creativity and value creation. They corrupt individuals and steer them away from themselves. They channel thought and activity into pathways that give outsize gains to a few and losses to many. Like any robbery, they harm the victim and the robber produces nothing productive."
The Nature of Political Parties by Butler Shaffer
"Only when people break out of their high-school-civics-class mindset that competing gangs of thugs will ever have an incentive to protect the lives, liberties, or property interests of individuals, will real change occur."
How Bush Makes Fiction of Us All by Tom Engelhardt and Ariel Dorfman
"The lesson is simple enough: The Bush administration's actions since 9/11 have outstripped anyone's ability to parody them; or, put another way, nothing in our world now is too absurd, too far-fetched to seem plausible.
...
The sad truth about my story is that it comes straight out of the trepidation and terror of September 11th, 2001. Before that date I would not have concocted my chronicle in this manner, not here anyway. I would not have thought about making it up because, quite simply, most Americans would not have understood what I was talking about, because nobody would have found it even slightly realistic."
'Democracy' Brings Bleak Days by Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
"Many Iraqis see dismal days ahead in the face of rising violence and the decision by the U.S. administration not to seek any further funds for reconstruction."
The Registry That Never Happened by David Codrea
Spy vs Spy vs Spy vs Spy by Garry Reed
"It's gotten so difficult to tell the players apart that typical Districtcrats finally called for a typical bureaubrain solution to the problem of bureaucracy bloat - don’t deflate, create yet another supercratic überagency to rule them all. Thus was born, on December 8, the Director of National Intelligence, sort of an Office of Homeland Security for spookworks.
Of course, libertarians understand that the logic behind ever-expanding spy programs is to spawn ever more political power bases so well-connected career cronycrats can build their personal empires, feel important, and rub shoulders and buttocks with name brand politicos while sucking up six-figure salaries and bloated bennies and sweetheart pensions plucked from taxpayer paychecks.
Which may yet produce positive scenarios for us unwashed American multitudes in the short run. Political rivalry creates animosity, envy, jealousy, greed, infighting, power struggles and turf wars. So many spydroids will be spying on each other that the rest of us, while largely impoverished by forking over our taxbucks to the snoopercrats, can otherwise go about our personal business."
January 8, 2006
New Year In Guad by Fred Reed
"All right, then. Here is Cosmic Truth: Each year is more comedic than last. We’re all idiots. Life’s a sitcom. There is no hope. Now you know.
Being in Mexico adds perspective, at least if you watch the great booby hatch to the north. I especially like the Warn Terr, the preferred toy of the latest Bush. Down here we read all about how the feddle gummint is keeping terrace out of the US so everyone will be safer than probably lots of them want to be. (I’d rather be in danger. Just leave me alone.)
...
Things look strange to the North, very strange. That curious little man in the White House persists in his hobby of blowing up High Rackies, a sport which he seems to regard as a sort of video game. We should have bought him a codpiece instead. He probably couldn’t have figured out the straps."
The Quiet Death of Freedom by John Pilger
Open Letter From an Iraqi from Dahr Jamail
"I recently received this letter from an Iraqi friend who lives in Baghdad. It is written as an open letter to Mr. Bush."
More "Collateral Damage" by Mike Tennant
"Three men are spotted, engaged in suspicious, potentially murderous activity. They are followed to a house, which they enter. What should government agents do?
If they are agents of the U.S. government in Iraq, they bomb the house, killing as many as 14 people, including at least 2 children--all this to catch 3 men who may or may not have planted a roadside bomb."
Sorry, Wrong House Number by Mike Tennant
"Oops! The "precision-guided" bomb that killed up to 14 people in Iraq the other day - you know, the one that was dropped by U.S. forces in an attempt to kill 3 men who had allegedly planted a roadside bomb some distance away - 'missed its target by 65 feet (20 meters) and hit the wrong home, military officials said.'"
US Propaganda vs. Iraqi Reality by Dahr Jamail
"Meanwhile, the reality in Iraq is the opposite of that generated by the Cheney administration as the carnage and chaos in Iraq worsens each day. A quick look at foreign media outlets yields the following developments that were either not reported or under-reported in the US:"
Bombers Can't Banter by Becky Akers
"This fascist watching of passengers will infect 40 more airports this year as the TSA continues to train screeners in 'behavior analysis.' Goons who can't tell bosoms from bombs without a hands-on analysis will be quick studies, I'm sure."
National Security Is Ignorance by Butler Shaffer
Skirmishes in the Information Wars by Mike Whitney
"There are only two weapons in the imperial tool-chest; force and deception. The brutal colonial occupation of Iraq has provided us with a lavish example of the former, but the twin-axel of deception is more abstruse and difficult to pin down. Sure, there’s the flagrant propaganda that floods right-wing radio and political talk shows, but that tells us little about the state-sponsored disinformation-programs that permeate every area of American life."
Are Iraq and the War on Terror Going Just as Planned? by Vache Folle
The Big Fix 2006 - Is Abramoff Getting Away with Murder? by Daniel Hopsicker
"Tom DeLay's on trial, Randy Cunningham's going to jail, the Republican Party is mired in corruption and cronyism, Sun Cruz Casino 'Mob Boy' Adam Kidan's already cut a deal, and Jack Abramoff’s plea agreement with federal prosecutors is expected to result in the biggest Congressional housecleaning in decades...
Yet, appearances to the contrary, 'The Big Fix 2006' may already be in on the Republican big money scandals.
The show may be over before it began."
Immigration and racism by Brad Spangler
"As I've explained above, immigration opponents often claim to be motivated by economic injustice (as they perceive it) - but their response to it is to call for still more injustice. They cite economic difficulties they face and then call for policies that will make those difficulties worse. Clearly, that's not rational. Speculation about their true motives then becomes fair. The only alternative I can see is to assume they're merely stupid."
Bush Nominates Computer for Supreme Court by Garry Reed
"Out of sheer desperation, President Bush nominated a computer as his 17th and most recent candidate to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
With only two months left in his second term, it's now or never for a Bush nominee to make it onto the highest court in the land."
