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.
July 2006
July 19, 2006
Quote of the Day
"Talk all you want about the cattlecars, Lickspittle - in time some will march."
some old greaser
US hawks smell blood by Jim Lobe
"Seeing a major opportunity to regain influence lost as a result of setbacks in Iraq, prominent neo-conservatives are calling for unconditional US support for Israel's military offensives in Gaza and Lebanon and 'regime change' in Syria and Iran, as well as possible US attacks on Tehran's nuclear facilities in retaliation for its support of Hezbollah."
Neocons Resurrect Plans For Regional War In The Middle East by Joseph Cirincione
Israel Readies for Iran Showdown by Attacking Lebanon by Trita Parsi
"As the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah persists, an Israeli strategy of enlarging the conflict seems to be crystallising."
Orwell in Iraq: Snow Jobs, Zarqawi and Bogus Peace Plans by Dahr Jamail
"Col. Snow take note, because if you really want to know what you are attempting to hide from people in the US, you should ask Napoleoni. According to her, the reason why Zarqawi and the few terrorist groups operating in Iraq are given so much media attention is because the Cheney administration 'needs to personalize the enemy and needs to have a dichotomy between good and evil. This has been, very much, the Bush [Cheney] administration's policy right from the beginning. His [Bush's] first speech after 9/11 was "You are either with us or you are against us." So he clearly stated there is nothing in between. So al-Zarqawi had to be an evil individual the same way that Saddam Hussein was portrayed as an evil individual because, you know, there is a moral battle here.'
Col. Snow and other gullible US citizens should heed her conclusion about why the myth of Zarqawi was blown so large and wide. 'Of course this [moral battle] is the umbrella under which the economic battle and the hegemonic battles are taking place,' she said."
US 'could be going bankrupt' by Edmund Conway
"The United States is heading for bankruptcy, according to an extraordinary paper published by one of the key members of the country's central bank.
A ballooning budget deficit and a pensions and welfare timebomb could send the economic superpower into insolvency, according to research by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff for the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, a leading constituent of the US Federal Reserve."
The paper this article refers to can be found here in PDF format.
Washington Babylon by Judy Bachrach
"California Republican congressman Randy 'Duke' Cunningham traded military contracts for $2.4 million in antiques, cash, and other booty. He is now in jail, but his case exposed a world of bribery, booze, and broads that reaches into the Pentagon, the C.I.A., and Congress. Washington is wondering: Who's next?"
Why Free Markets Succeed and Governments Fail by Michael S. Rozeff
"One cannot mix these two methods of organizing human activity and expect something new and better to emerge. Mixing fire and water produces nothing but lifeless ashes. The idea that government is necessary for a free market to work, or that it helps a free market work, or that a mixed economy of free markets plus government is superior to a free market economy is, for all practical purposes, entirely faulty. If 99.9 percent of the government’s laws were removed from the books today, this would end an enormous amount of government intrusion that destroys wealth. Value creation in free markets would rapidly accelerate. All that would remain would be laws against crimes. And Bruce Benson and others make the excellent case that there is no aspect of maintaining laws that has not in the past and cannot now or in the future be handled and handled better by a free people than a government."
The Fraudulent Meaning of Elections by James Bovard
"The 'debate' in Congress illustrated how elections are now about consecration, rather than representation. Elections have become something for rulers to shroud themselves in, rather than leashes used by the people. Politicians are obsessed with maintaining the imagined dignity of their class, not in resolving doubts about honest vote counting."
The Forgotten Man by Timothy P. Carney
"The Forgotten Man is an abstraction, but in researching some big ripoffs for The Big Ripoff I came across a man whose name is now immortal among lawyers, but who still is fairly called 'The Forgotten Man.'
His name is Pennington: James Pennington. In the field of anti-trust, that name is now synonymous with the collusion between big business, big government, and big labor. Lest his story be forgotten, I will tell it here."
Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America by Radley Balko
"This paper presents a history and overview of the issue of paramilitary drug raids, provides an extensive catalogue of abuses and mistaken raids, and offers recommendations for reform."
Can Adult Break CP Link? by Rodger Jacobs
"Irvine believes that the government knows what child pornography is and where it comes from, and yet the Justice Department and politicians are constantly attempting to link the production and marketing of child porn with the legitimate adult industry.
'Members of Congress and the attorney general go around repeating the phrase 'obscenity and child pornography' as if just putting the words next to each other in the same sentence make them the same thing,' Irvine says.
From local news broadcasts to the 24-hour information networks such as CNN and Fox, anchors and reporters are breathlessly commingling the words 'child pornography' and 'obscenity' while warning viewers that an Internet predator is just one MySpace page away from snatching your children."
fwiw - probably not a 'work safe' link.
States to ban mind-destroying "book" scourge by Garry Reed
"Note: While preparing this article, concern was expressed that some young people might be discomfited at the suggestion that self-serving government busybodies should be watching their every move at all times. However, it was decided that the likelihood of youthful citizens ever seeing this article was effectively zero."
Obligatory global warming scares of the day by Garry Reed
"When scientists at the Golden State Global Warming Detection and Advanced Warning Center in Palo Alto detected a sudden, sharp increase of .0013 degree Celsius in the Global Warming Temperature Index (GWTI), they immediately initiated a Warming Alert, which caused all of the Warming Warning sirens in coastal Southern California to go off and emergency alerts to be broadcast over all media including XM radios, cell phones and iPods. Many drivers panicked and hit their brakes, causing a multi-car smashup that went on for thirteen minutes. No fatalities were recorded, but first-responders reported thirty-two cases of airbag deployment facial burns and at least seven incidents of hyperventilation. Most victims were treated at the scene and released back into their SUVs."
