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.
September 1-15, 2005
September 14, 2005
Twenty-Three Freedoms by L. Neil Smith
Nonsense and Sensibilities by Becky Akers
"'I don't believe that you will see National Guard soldiers actually physically forcing people to leave,' said Major General James Ron Mason with the Kansas National Guard.
Au contraire, Jimmy. Troops from the Oklahoma's Guard invaded a home in the Lower Garden District, one of New Orleans' wealthiest neighborhoods, and stole the family's guns. Then they handcuffed them for good measure."
Jose Padilla and The Death of Liberty by Mike Whitney
"Americans seem unaware of the great loss we've all suffered by the Padilla verdict. If the President is allowed to arbitrarily decide who has 'inalienable rights', than those rights become the provisional gifts of the government rather than a reliable shield against the abuse of state power. It means that every American citizen is as vulnerable to the same violation of human rights as the men currently imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay. It also means that the legal wall that shelters the citizen from the random violence of the political establishment has been reduced to rubble."
The Collapse of Political Correctness by Garry Reed
"The lawlessness, looting, loss of civility and disintegration of civil society have all been documented day by day ad nauseam in the wake of the wake that washed over the Crescent City and transformed it into a virulent Venice of the South. What has gone grievously underreported, however, is the shocking collapse of Political Correctness that threatens to shred our civilization."
September 12, 2005
September 8, 2005
Refusing Rescue by Becky Akers
"Thanks, but you can keep your idiots. I'll look after myself in an emergency. The last thing I'd do is trust the cops, FEMA, or the National Guard to care for me. Jesse Jackson and Calvin Butts aside, I doubt they'd do any better by this white girl than they did with their black victims last week in New Orleans.
It's estimated that about 10,000 folks in New Orleans agree. These are the hardy, self-reliant souls who know the person most concerned with their welfare and best able to judge it is the one they see in the mirror each morning. They rode out the hurricane and, even more impressively, survived everything the state unleashed on them afterwards."
Who Really Hates Our Freedom by Marc Stevens
No Thanks, Leviathan by Becky Akers
"Leviathan rages and destroys, like the hurricane itself. Neither force can rebuild or repair, help or heal. But at least the hurricane does not prevent charitable volunteers from succoring its victims in the aftermath."
The latest falsehood: The U.S. is in Iraq to stabilize it by Kevin Zeese
Will the New National ID Track Your Movements? by James Plummer
"REAL ID gave the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the sole right to issue 'design requirements' for driver’s licenses, needing only to 'consult' (that is, ignore) state officials and the Department of Transportation. Though the official publication of the design requirements is still some months off, DHS is expected to make an internal decision on one of those requirements, regarding 'machine-readable technology' standards, by early fall. And there is a lot of pressure on DHS from the surveillance-technology industry to make radio-frequency identification (RFID) microchips the required machine-readable technology."
Stop the Madness! by The Mogambo Guru
"Go Fuck Yourself, Mr. Cheney!" - Catch-phrase of 2005?
"In Mississippi, during a press conference, after telling the press that what needs to be done, gets done. A resident walked up to the gaggle and said this:
'Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney!! Go fuck yourself!!!'
Cheney looked pissed. Really pissed.
A reporter then asked him, 'Do you get that a lot, Mr. Cheney?'
He replied, 'That's the first time I've heard it. Must be a friend of John er.. uh.. never mind.'
It sounded as though he was pushed away (probably by the secret service). CNN would not show this guy."
You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin' a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement. And that's what it is , the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come's around on the guitar.
Arlo Guthrie
September 7, 2005
"The US Army can drop a bomb with pinpoint precision overseas within an hour of receiving the mission, and they’re telling me it took our leaders THREE FUCKING DAYS to drop food and water on our own soil?" *
When Beelzebub Reigns by Tim Case
"Are you wondering about the anger of the people in Louisiana? Are you dumbfounded by the ineptness of state and federal agencies who are suppose to be helping those in need? Are you concerned about the death of those who cannot help themselves? Are you puzzled by the crime of man against man in the form of rape and senseless murder? Then look no further than the welfare state and the kismet of social engineering. It is there that we found the misconduct in public office by scoundrels who have laid the foundation for social chaos."
Roberts & the 'Apex of Presidential Power' by Nat Parry
"What’s at stake with the Supreme Court confirmation of John Roberts, especially with George W. Bush poised to name a second justice, is not only how the United States deals with abortion and other social issues but whether the President will be granted broad authoritarian powers over the nation’s future and the civil liberties of people worldwide."
Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf of Arabia
End of the Binge by James Howard Kunstler
"The exhaustion of our energy supply may end affluence as we know it."
The Great Prison Panty Rebellion of Alabama by Loretta Nall
Life, Liberty, Property Member on Iraq's Anti-LLP Draft Constitution
SnooperChips and ToasterTaps by Garry Reed
"The digital stalkers are already Spybotting and SnooperChipping and RFIDing us to death with every imaginable manner of electronic Tinker Toy. Got a black box in your car? Like the black boxes on aircraft (or EDR for 'event data recorder') the devices are digital deep moles implanted in the innards of your automobile that record your basic operational actions such as speed, brake application, and that favorite of all police force profit-makers, seatbelt usage."
September 2, 2005
Updates will resume in a couple days - I just don't have any enthusiasm right now for throwing stones.
Your editor suspects that the issue of US refinery capacity is now very relevant - early reports indicated that appx. 10% of US daily usage (1/4 down on page under 'Consumption' heading) was affected - and current news reports don't seem enthusiastic. It doesn't matter how many barrels of oil are released from the US strategic reserve, or reallocated by the International Energy Agency, if the refinery capacity is incapable of making domestic fuel of it.
