Category Archives: Individual Rights

What They Do In Dictatorships

Democracy, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Ethics, Individual Rights, Journalism, Justice, Law, Media, Middle East, Private Property

The courts, stacked as they are with judges who work for the dictator, want to put a brave rebel behind bars for shooting a predator on his property. The rebel shot and killed a wild, extremely dangerous animal that thrives in the dictator’s country. All the tribesman did was to aggressively repel from human habitat a creature that had become brazen, making itself at home near the man’s children as they played. It used to be that these tribesmen instilled fear in encroaching creatures. But thanks to decades of cultural and legal emasculation under the dictator, the queered men folk are no longer licensed to protect home and hearth. If they do, they lose their liberty.

I bet you thought this was Anderson Cooper reporting from Libya, botching the job of journalism, as is his wont.

No, this is about an American, one among many (Jeremy M. Hill, 33), who pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to killing a grizzly bear with a rifle on his 20-acre property near Porthill, Idaho, at the Canadian border.

Jeremy Hill has six kids, ranging in age from 14 years old to 10 months old. At least five were home when the grizzly was killed, Mike Hill said. The bears had gone after some pigs in a pen that the kids had been raising, Mike Hill said.

I wonder how many Libyans have been arrested for shooting wild animals that threatened their families.

If given the choice, I’d choose the right to defend my life and property over the vote, any day.

UPDATED: Home-Free on Facebook? Think Again

English, Individual Rights, Internet, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Media, Political Correctness, Private Property, Racism, Technology, The Zeitgeist

The following is an excerpt from “Home-Free on Facebook? Think Again,” now on WND.COM:

“… certain habitual social meddlers have tried to imply that the Facebook forum is racist.

In particular, a public-spirited ditz named Danah Boyd, who is ‘Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research, and a Research Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.’

A while back, Boyd was given a significant cameo on CNN to discuss a deeply silly ‘research’ paper she had slapped together.

Boyd’s narrative, cloaked in the raiment of ‘research,’ is titled ‘White Flight in Networked Publics: How Race and Class Shaped American Teen Engagement with MySpace and Facebook.’ Sic and sic again: Yes, not even Microsoft’s woefully inadequate grammar and syntax checks have caught up with such linguistic infelicities.

Boyd’s infantile efforts were published by Routledge in the Digital Race Anthology.

The banal Ms. Boyd claims to have smashed our ‘techno—utopian belief’ that the internet has eradicated undesirable divisions. All this was accomplishes not with evidence of rank racism, but with a smashing postmodern word salad—-‘spatial referents,’ ‘taste markers,’ ‘reproduction of social categories,’ on and on.”

Yes, “I am now convinced that American society will collapse upon itself like a black hole under the weight of a young (mostly WASP), idiocracy rising”

The complete column, now on WND.COM, is “Home-Free on Facebook? Think Again.”

My new book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa,” is available from Amazon. The “Temporarily out of stock” notice on Amazon is a function of a “temporary” publisher-printer glitch. This should be corrected shortly. Place your order, and the always-awesome Amazon will ship the book as soon as humanly possible.

Readily available is the lower-cost Kindle copy of “The Cannibal.” And you do not have to own a Kindle to download your copy of “The Cannibal”—all you need is a PC or a hand-held device (iPad or phone). This hyperlink describes the free Amazon software application for these devices. You don’t need a gadget to read “Into the Cannibal’s-Pot” on Kindle.

Help this work’s mission, and raise awareness of the issues covered in depth and detail in the book, by posting your reviews to Amazon. And you need not have have purchased the book from Amazon to review it on the site.

UPDATE (July 29): Kennon Gilson writes on WND’s Facebook thread:
“Thanks for the article. … Statistically, both women and minorities are over-represented in the Libertarian movement.
Like

Ilana Mercer replies: “You offer no proof for your assertion, KG. The lonely plight of libertarian men—at least hard-core libertarians who are strong on self-defense, guns, property rights, and against welfarism—has been a long-standing joke in the community. Of course, ‘Libertarians Lite,’ who conflate liberty with Gaga and Glee: they get plenty of dates.

Dead-End Debt Debate

Debt, Democrats, Economy, Federal Reserve Bank, Ilana On Radio & TV, Individual Rights, Inflation

The following is from “Dead-End Debt Debate,” now on WND.COM:

“The economy is in advanced stages of decrepitude due to debt: public and private. Nevertheless, a just-released ABC News/Washington Post poll revealed that 58 percent of self-identified Republicans believe that if their government doesn’t continue to borrow apace, things will get worse.

In legislative language, our wily political pitch men have been granted license to lift the debt ceiling! Quick-fix quacks in both chambers can now proceed to borrow by further inflating the country’s fiat money supply.

Duly, two broad plans have been hatched. These schemes are aimed at saving financial face, more than slashing spending or trimming America’s gargantuan government. To listen to this school of scoundrels – represented by statists from different corners of the political boxing ring, from Fox News’ Stuart Varney to MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow – not to raise the debt ceiling is plain unpatriotic. … Needless to say that, “Cross-party consensus results when political expediency trumps principle.” …

The complete column is “Dead-End Debt Debate,” now on WND.COM:

My new book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa,” is available from Amazon.

Please note that you can purchase the lower-cost Kindle copy of “The Cannibal” without having to own a Kindle – all you need is a PC or a hand-held device (iPad or phone). This hyperlink describes the free Amazon software application for these devices. So you do not require a new gadget to read the book on Kindle.

A good way to help this work’s mission, and raise awareness of the issues covered in depth and detail in the book, is to post your reviews to Amazon. You don’t have to have purchased the book from Amazon to review it on the site.

Upcoming Mercer media appearances are here. I’ll be talking with Chuck Wilder of “Talk Back” tomorrow, Friday, July 22, from 12:40PM until 1:00PM Pacific

TSA Goons To Burrow In Your Bone Marrow

Constitution, Government, Homeland Security, Individual Rights, Private Property, Regulation, States' Rights, Technology, Terrorism

How do TSA tormentors consolidate more control over American travelers? They escalate the security threat. It was a matter of time before the home-grown terrorists of the Transportation Security Administration found a ruse to move from using technology that scans the surface of their victims’ bodies to technology that exposes our internal organs by means of medical X-rays.

The ALLEGED reason for rogering and radiating a pathetically pliant American population deeper and more vigorously? Nothing very concrete is needed. A “2005 incident in which Colombian men were accused of surgically implanting narcotics into human couriers.” Yes, the TSA has simply floated a rumor, based on a 2005 memo it has dressed up to appeal to all news outlets, and these outfits have reported it as fact:

Reports of al Qaeda preparing so-called “belly bombs” designed to be surgically implanted in potential terrorists before they board airplanes have already led to increased scrutiny for anyone traveling to the U.S. who appears to have had recent surgery, U.S. officials said.
The Department of Homeland Security recently issued a bulletin warning of renewed interested in the tactic — suspected to be the latest innovation from infamous alleged bomb maker Ibrahim Asiri. According to U.S. officials, a would-be attacker would slip through airport security, board a plane and detonate the bomb using a chemical-filled syringe. …”With proper skill, a surgeon could indeed package a bomb or explosive device [and] it could be implanted inside the abdominal cavity,” he told ABC News. Melrose said that if placed properly, a bomb the size of a grapefruit may not even cause the patient discomfort.

This is the dynamic behind the subjugation at the airports.

And why not? Tea-Party “freshmen” are getting stale. They’ve been doing nothing much about the assaults on citizens who travel by air. Why should they? Sure, there was a bit of a commotion, late last month, over the obviously necessary humiliation of a 95-year-old, gravely ill woman, whose adult diapers TSA trash removed in the course of a securing the nation’s flying public. The protests amounted to meek requests for a TSA apology, no more. None was forthcoming.

Tea party representative have forgotten the little people—with the exception of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), who penned an op-ed in The Hill, today, 07/05/11:

The requirement that Americans be forced to undergo this appalling treatment simply for the “privilege” of traveling in their own country reveals much about how the federal government feels about our liberties. The unfortunate fact that we put up with this does not speak well for our willingness to stand up to an abusive government.
Many Americans continue to fool themselves into accepting TSA abuse by saying, “I don’t mind giving up my freedoms for security.” In fact, they are giving up their liberties and not receiving security in return. Last week, for example, just days after an elderly cancer victim was forced to submit to a cruel and pointless TSA search, including removal of an adult diaper, a Nigerian immigrant somehow managed stroll through TSA security checks and board a flight from New York to LA — with a stolen, expired boarding pass and an out-of-date student ID as his sole identification! He was detained and questioned, only to be released to do it again 5 days later! We should not be surprised to find government ineptitude and indifference at the TSA.
At the time the TSA was being created I strongly opposed federalization of airline security. As I wrote in an article back in 2001:
“Congress should be privatizing rather than nationalizing airport security.

Ditto. The same argument was made in “WHOSE PROPERTY IS IT ANYWAY?,” on June 5, 2002.