Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

When it comes to freedom, Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul seems to think that it all comes down to one thing: Money. He believes that property rights are the foundation of all rights. In other words, Ron Paul believes that, if a person doesn’t own anything, they don’t have any rights.

For this reason, Ron Paul proposes giving special tax breaks to wealthy estates. Paul writes,

“If you truly own your property, you have the right to dispose of it any way you wish. You can sell it, give it away, or direct who will receive it when you die. This control is the essence of property rights. If you can’t control what happens to your property, you don’t really own it. That’s why the estate tax is so destructive”

The problem with Ron Paul’s defense of tax breaks for wealthy estates is that there is no such thing as a legal right for people to spend money however they wish. The Constitution does not contain the phrase “property rights”, and does not establish the concept of general property rights in any language at all. People do not have the right to dispose of their money in any way that they wish. They cannot buy nuclear weapons, for example. They also do not have the right to dispose of hazardous materials they own by just dumping them in the nearest river. In the United States, people may have property, but they also have a responsibility to other people.

That’s why we have government, and it’s why the government has the constitutionally-established right to gather taxes in order to sustain itself. Government is the collective creation of all citizens, through democratic participation and through the contribution of money. Government mitigates between individual desires and the needs of society as a whole, protecting individuals from each other.

Ron Paul’s proposal to abolish estate taxes encourages selfish irresponsibility. Money is not, after all, just property. Money is an embodiment of what people can expect from their government, and from each other. People may own what they buy with money, but society as a whole is what makes money valuable.

What Ron Paul forgets when he defends abolishing estate taxes is that the taxes are not paid by the people who die and leave their estates to their inheritors. Estate taxes are paid by the inheritors. Wealthy people have the right to accumulate massive estates, and to direct certain people to inherit those estates, but once the inheritance takes place, they’re dead, and they don’t get to direct their money as if they’re alive. The dead do lose control of their property. That’s a natural part of death, and there’s nothing Ron Paul and his libertarian supporters can do to stop that.

Inheritance is a form of income, just like wages in compensation for work, and it ought to be treated in the same way. It is unjust to make people who work for their money pay income taxes on that money, while giving people who inherit their money a special loophole that allows them to keep all of their income.

Estate taxes are necessary because the accumulation of the power of property is destructive to society as a whole. If people like Paris Hilton, who gain substantial property just through their luck of being the children of extremely wealthy families, do not have to pay their share to support the government, then non-wealthy citizens have to give a larger share of their own property to keep the government functioning.

(Source: Sierra Times, June 14, 2006)

It seems the Palestinian people want nothing more than statehood.

At the recent Arab economic summit at the Dead Sea, that’s all King Abdullah talked about–statehood for Palestine. The prime minister of Jordan met yesterday with U.S. congressional aides to discuss Palestinian statehood. The Jordan Times has taken to mentioning the subject somewhere in every edition. And this week’s Zogby column is on the subject of Palestinian statehood.

Why then is Palestine not a country already? What is preventing their leadership from declaring independence? It seems that the Palestinian people are being ill-served by their leaders if they truly want independence and their leaders aren’t giving it to them. Why do they continue to cry about it on the world stage but do nothing?

Reminds me of the much-quoted statement of Jordan’s first king, Abdullah I, who in 1937 wrote in a letter to the president of the Young Men’s Muslim Association in Egypt:

O Brother in Islam, the pillars of Zionism in Palestine are three: the Balfour promise; the European nations that have decided to expel the Jews from their lands and direct them to Palestine; and the extremists among the Arabs who do not accept any solution, but simply weep and howl, calling for help from those who cannot do them any good. So behold Palestine, breathing its last!

So is that it? Some sort of national trait that makes the Palestinians eternal complainers who never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity? It seems that with the Hamas takeover of Gaza and the expulsion of Hamas extremists from the West Bank government, one of Abdullah’s pillars obstructing Palestine–the extremist element–has been dealt with. Surely this is another opportunity, if only Palestine’s leadership would wake up in time.

Every successful liberation movement in the world knows this fact: No one gives you your rights; you have to take them.

So what are the excuses being bandied about for not declaring Palestinian independence right now?

It has been said that Palestine could not win a war of independence against Israel. But Palestine has attacked Israel multiple times, fighting several wars and two intifadas without any well-defined objective. They are willing to fight for nothing, but not for independence?

It has been said that there are still Israeli settlements in Palestinian areas. So what? There are Palestinians in Israel, some of them even in the Knesset. Palestinians don’t like the Jewish settlers, but neither do the Israelis. The settlers are difficult. Nobody likes them.

And the Jewish Israelis find the Israeli Palestinians difficult, cooperating in private but unleashing barrages of bombastic rhetoric in public. Still Israel attempts to guarantee the rights of the Palestinian Israelis and tries to protect them. Surely the Palestinians can accept a few settlers as citizens, if the settlers would be willing to stay on those terms…

It has been said that Palestinians do not want a two state solution. That’s not what the latest Zogby International poll says, but supposing it was true? How would Palestine declaring independence have any effect whatsoever on the question of statehood for Israel? Preventing Palestine from becoming a nation does not prevent Israel from becoming a nation. It only prevents Palestine from becoming a nation.

With independence secured, Palestine could then go about its other international priority: the right of return. Many say the “right of return” is just a red herring to try to get some compensation from the international community for those who have been displaced. But I say you can have real return. controlled by the Palestinian government. They can set up a department to do nothing but study return. Not everybody all at once, of course. They could start with the businessmen who have been successful somewhere else . The Palestinians have been called the “Jews of the Arab world” for their skill with business. Just as the Jews were once the only religious group that could trade because of Christian prohibitions on charging interest, business leaders from the Palestinian diaspora have become adept at what they do. Surely some of their skills could be harnessed to build a new Palestine.

Palestine has wasted too much time and energy throwing useless stones at Israel instead of tending their own garden. Palestinian leadership needs to get a vision of what they can be. They need to communicate that vision to their people and to the world. And then they need to get off their butts and make a country.

I get so frustrated with these Palestinians. Hey, Palestine: JUST DO IT.

I am sick and tired of hearing the lieberals complain about how President Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s sentence. No, I am worse than sick and tired about it. I am angry about it. Look, you cows, it’s simple:

1. God Speaks Through President Bush. Our President himself said “God speaks through me” during his 2004 re-election campaign, and I do not believe that our Commander in Chief is a liar. Therefore, it must be true.

2. President Bush spoke about the commutations, calling the sentence “excessive.”

3. People who disagree with President Bush’s commutation are calling God a liar.

I always knew that the lieberals in charge of our media hated God, and now I’ve just proved it. If you love God, you’ll never ever vote Democrat.

Forget H5N1, the bird flu. That virus never mutated, as feared. There is another deadly disease, however, that just might.

Mycoplasma ovipneumonia is in the United States right now, lurking, waiting for an opportunity. Call it by its short name: Sheep flu.

Sheep flu is virulent, leading its victims to drown in their own lungs. Currently confined to bighorn sheep in the American West, sheep flu with a few mutations, could make the jump to human beings.

More than half of infected bighorn sheep populations die of sheep flu. Will politicians wait until the same fate befalls the American public before spending the billions of dollars necessary to avert this preventable disaster?

Don’t wait. Call your members of Congress today and ask them what they are doing to save America from the sheep flu!

Damn. It’s Sunday. Okay, call tomorrow.

Subject: Save Salvia in Illinois

Everyone, time to unite. Illinois Governor has the power to line veto anything on a bill, which might just save Salvia. If you go to my website at: https://www.thecountrygoddessshop.com/displayProductDocument.hg?productId=3141 

In the middle of the page, you will see where you can email the Governor and save salvia. I have provided everything, what to email him, the bill number and the line number for salvia. Help us save it. Losing it will not only mean loosing salvia and a loss to the medical, spirtual and shaman community but will mean many jobs lost in Illinois (such as employees working in my store), businesses closing and lost tax revenue. Even if your not from Illinois, still send it, he could help save salvia in other states. 

Please help us save Salvia, Send this email to as many of your friends and customers as you can and ask them to do the same. Please help save Salvia. Also, please email information on the link to the ACLU in Illinois for discrimination against religions and loss of civil liberties.  Thank you for you assistance.  Please also email the ACLU acluofillinois@aclu-il.org, please pass on to friends.  Thank you, we really need all the support we can get. 

Help save Salvia in Illinois, Time is running out fast!!! Email our Governor or better yet fax, if you have a fax machine 

If Fax:  Address Fax to Governor Rod Blagojevich, subject line: Citizens request that you line item veto:  HB0457: page 7 LRB095 04451 RLC 26428 b and remove Salvia from the bill.  Governor at the following fax numbers:  217-524-6262 or 312-814-4862

This is what to fax or email the Governor: (COPY AND PASTE THE BELOW)

Governor Rod Blagojevich:  Citizens request that you line item veto:  HB0457: page 7 LRB095 04451 RLC 26428 b  and remove Salvia from the bill.  

Citizens request that you line item veto:  HB0457: page 7 LRB095 04451 RLC 26428 b and remove Salvia from the bill.  Salvia is not a plant that should be considered for this bill.  If you make this plant illegal not only will you be eliminating 100,000 of dollars a year in tax revenue to the state of Illinois, you will be shutting down businesses and putting people out of work.  Salvia is currently used in shaman rituals, religious ceremonies and for healing both by lisc. and holistic doctors and practitioners.  The plant has antioxidants, is a natural anti- depressant, is being used and researched to treat bipolar disorder,alzheimer’s (because it unlocks memory and helps recall), is being used to benefit suffers of rheumatism and joint pain, to aid others overcome severe drug additions and treat severe depression (documented in medical studies has been successful where other medications have failed), it has also be used to ease depression related to PMS and new cutting edge research of biosynthesis and medical applications of rosmarinic acid has been held promising. Hundred’s of thousands who could be helped by the benefits of Salvia will be left to suffer.  Medical research is very hopeful about how it can assist in a greater understanding of the brain. The state would also be rejecting alternative religions, cultures and societies that hold this plant SACRED, yes SACRED (American Indians, Shaman faiths, Alternative faiths and societies and peoples who immigrated from South and Central America into the US, use it to Salvia to commune with the Holy Mother and the Divine (God) and many of these people are in the US and Illinois.  It would cost Illinois taxpayers millions to police salvia.  People would illegally grow it, sell it, without the tax benefits going to our schools, roads, hospitals, cities and townships. Press accounts of efforts to ban Salvia often quote law enforcement and government officials who exhibit an inaccurate knowledge of the plant’s effects. Salvia has a nondescript appearance (being in the same genus as cooking sage), can be grown in a small space, has no odor and requires no elaborate lighting set-up. For these reasons, criminalization is likely to affect only the commercial sale of the plant, and not its private cultivation, which would be very difficult to police and extremely costly to tax payers.  

Citizens request that you line item veto:  HB0457: page 7 LRB095 04451 RLC 26428 b  and remove Salvia from the bill.  Salvia divinorum has begun to be researched and documented by a number of companies and universities on the medicinal applications of Salvia.  Including antioxidants, as a natural anti- depressant, use against rheumatism and joint pain, to aid others overcome additions and treat severe depression where other medications have failed (these cases have already been medically documented), to ease depression related to PMS and new cutting edge research of biosynthesis and medical applications of rosmarinic acid.  But if salvia is made illegal, it will greatly reduce the amount of research needed and treatment protocols that may result in ending the suffering of 1000’s of individuals.  Salvia is in no way a stimulant, a sedative, a narcotic, nor a tranquilizer.  Medical research has great hope for this plant. Be cautious about outlawing plants when you have yet to uncover its medicinal value.  For example, we have just found out in newly released medical research of another plant that has been crucified as a drug in the US for decades and is currently illegal in most states, yet NOW been proven by medical research that it slows and even stops the growth of tumors and may be especially beneficial to breast cancer research.  Thousands of women die each year from Breast Cancer and could have been saved had people who did their research, stopped and considered the long-term affects on medicine and society and got informed.  Thousands more could benefit from the treatments using Salvia.  Salvia has never caused anyone harm and does not have 1/10 the negative side affects of cigarettes, tobacco, alcohol or many, many prescription drugs (we know why no one bans them, money and lobbyist).  Thousands upon thousands die from addictions to tabacco and alcohol every year–yet not one tries to band these because it is big business.  Lastly, under the Federal Analogue Act, salvia fails to meet the “chemically similar” criteria and thus is not subject to the analogue act provisions.

SALVIA DIVINORUM should be available for all those over the age of 18. STOP THE WITCH HUNT AND BE THE GOVERNOR OF REASON AND LEAD THE WAY! 

Please also email the ACLU acluofillinois@aclu-il.org, please pass on to friends

CNN is reporting that a squid the size of a bus has washed ashore on a beach in Tasmania.

The size of a bus, huh? Well, not really. The squid was big, but it wasn’t so big as to be particularly newsworthy. It was only three feet wide. Do you know any buses three feet wide?

The squid was the length of a bus, if you count the length of the squid as the distance from the end of its main body to the very tip of its long, thin tentacles, when stretched out as far as they go. Saying that this makes the squid the size of a bus is about as honest as saying that women are on average taller than men because they tend to have longer hair.

Squidoo, the build-a-free-lens-about-anything-and-make-money-off-it-web-site, sent out an email to its members today. At first, that message seemed to be celebrating how great Squidoo is. Then, however, it became clear that the message was an apology.

It seems that a bunch of spammers realized that they could use Squidoo to push their scam-riddled schemes online very easily. They created a whole lot of junk sites in a short amount of time - with the kind of content that you get in those nasty unrequested emails.

People complained, and Squidoo’s search enging rankings suddenly plummetted. Now, the Squidoo founders say that they’ve instituted a software solution to keep out spammers, and say that somehow, someday, the Squidoo lenses will enjoy the good Google rankings that they once had.

The message from Squidoo complained that one spammer even created 400 lenses on a single subject. Ooh, can you believe the nerve?

Well, yes, I can. Here’s the thing: I remember messages from Squidoo saying that multiple lenses on the same subject would be all right with them.

What’s the difference between a Squidoo lense and spam?

Maybe Squidoo lenses are not classic spam, but they’re definitely spammish. There’s usually very little original content in a Squidoo lens, just a lot of links for making money, rss feeds, and the like. They’re often topically organized, and that’s better than most spam does, but not much.

The lesson of the Squid: Linking schemes aren’t the best way to get going online. Create original content. Publish. Repeat.

There’s been a big deal made out of the Pope’s recent declaration that Roman Catholic churches would once again have the option to use the traditional Latin prayers, including a Good Friday prayer that urges God to compel “the Heretics”, “Schismatics”, “the Jews”, and “the Heathen” to submit to the authority of the Catholic Church and worship Jesus as the Pope tells them to.

A lot of people are shocked and offended at this move by the Pope. I can understand why people are offended at a call by the Pope for all Catholics to pray for a universal submission to the authority of one church. It’s a nasty, megalomaniacal, theocratic attitude that leads the Pope to insist upon such worldwide obedience.

I can’t understand, however, why anyone would be shocked at the Pope and his church issuing such a call. There’s a long history of Catholic arrogance and insane claims to power from the Pope.

Pope Benedict, or Mr. Ratzinger, or whatever his name is supposed to be these days, believes that he is the earthly representative of the omnipotent supernatural creator of the entire universe, after all. He claims to be absolutely infallible.

That kind of perspective would make anyone’s psychological train run off the tracks. So, the Catholic Church has gone and issued another edict in which the Pope stamps his foot and demands that he be everyone’s master. I’m not shocked. The Pope has always been out of touch and a bit crazy.

It beats me why anyone would follow the Pope, other than to satisfy some immature need to have someone in authority take care of all of the deep thinking required by adult life.

This morning, I read the news of the death of a rare ocelot, and was determined to find out more. Searching for imformation, I came across an ocelot-dedicated page at a site called Change.org.

Change.org is an activist site that is based on the idea of social networking, but around serious causes instead of forms of entertainment like music and television. The idea is that people interested in an issue come together on a page at Change.org and suggest to each other things that can be done to help on the issue. Politicians and nonprofit organizations can be referred to from each issues page, encouraging members to become active, not just curious or informed.

That’s a great idea, and on some issues, it seems to be working. When it comes to the ocelot, however, interest does not seem to have translated into action. There are four members of the Save The Ocelot group on Change.org. Yet, not one of those members has taken action through the Change.org site, or made a donation, or suggested an interested politician, or added a photograph or video, or even started a discussion. The members just seem to have joined the group, and left it at that.

It’s interesting to me that this inaction would happen on a social network dedicated to change through action. The inaction on the ocelot reveals a social barrier to action: People seem more willing to take action on a subject when other people are taking action already. Of course, if everyone waits for someone else to do something on the subject, then nobody ever will.

Activism needs icebreakers, people willing to be the first ones to take action, while others stand back and look at eachother sheepishly.

I encourage Irregular Times readers to become those activist icebreakers. Of course, it would be just perpetuating the problem of social hesitancy in activism if I just asked other people to become icebreakers without doing it myself.

So, this morning, I’m going to be the icebreaker of icebreakers. I’m going to go on over to Change.org and join up, and become a member of the Save The Ocelot group and not leave it at that. I’m going to start something over there.

Maybe someone else will pick up on that action and join along. Maybe I’ll just be the equivalent of the only person dancing at a party.

There are bigger stakes than just getting a groove on, though. The extinction of a species is a serious enough issue for me to give it a shot.

There’s news today that some people are accepting as a confirmation of global warming. Others of us, however, are willing to look beneath this superficial interpretation, and see what’s really going on up at high altitudes.

Experts say that the Aletsch glacier in Switzerland is retreating, and fast. For example, Laudo Albrecht of the environmentalist group Pronatura says, “It should retreat, but not so fast. The glacier is in rapid retreat.”

These environmentalists purport to have some explanations about why the glacier is retreating, but I never hear them really ask the question that would provide a reasonable description of what’s going on. Sure, the Aletsch glacier is retreating, but these so-called experts never ask what the Aletsch glacier is retreating from.

If these people would look at the map of the region around the glacier, they would see the answer right away. Look at the map yourself, and you’ll see, clearly marked, the word “Munster”. As everyone knows, munster is the Swiss word for monster. The Aletsch glacier is retreating from a monster. Well, wouldn’t you?

What is this monster like? We can’t say, because the environmentalists are keeping it secret from us. They’re afraid that if the world knows what is really causing the Aletsch glacier to retreat, they’ll realize that global warming is just a conspiracy theory dreamed up to conceal the presence of monsters lurking below glaciers around the world.

July 17, 2007 - Tuesday

1571 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3616
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 26695

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 67265
(MAXIMUM): 73611
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $443,907,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

There are many people alive today who still accept the old religious belief that humanity is at the center of the universe, and that all of the Cosmos is just a creation upon which a divine being intended human beings to be the dominant players.

The people who still believe that would do well to consider the implications of this video, which shows the size of Earth relative to other planets, and then to the sun and other known stars. It reminds me of a short animated spot that used to run on Sesame Street years ago, with the lyrics, “That’s about the size, where you put your eyes, that’s about the size of it.” The idea has also been discussed well in Carl Sagan’s book Pale Blue Dot.

Theists need to explain this, and never have: If people are the special creation of a divine ruler of all the universe, what is everything else, the immense vastness of the non-Earth universe, there for?

July 18, 2007 - Wednesday

1572 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3618
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 26695

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 67265
(MAXIMUM): 73611
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $444,187,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

I’m in New York City: It’s a 20 inch steam pipe. There is a geyser of steam and mud.

It’s near Grand Central Terminal.

It’s a mess but no panic.

#4, #5 AND #6 subway trains are bypassing Grand Central, but service is not interrupted.

Probably, commuter trains are halted and incoming trains are halted.

RED DAVE

July 19, 2007 Thursday

1573 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3623
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 26806

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 67265
(MAXIMUM): 73611
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $444,476,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small percentage of the true figure. Les Roberts, author of the Lancet Report, believes the actual number may now be as high as 1,000,000.

RED DAVE

Okay, so it’s not Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but here’s another fantastic title I’m thinking of tonight: George W. Bush and the Cut and Pasted Soldiers.
I’m thinking of this title after seeing a really scary little page of a graphic used by the George W. Bush for President campaign, which shows how the Bush campaign cut and pasted pictures of soldiers in an audience before Bush so as to make it appear that there were more soldiers than appeared in reality.

http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/maat/images/georgewbush.jpg 
It seems that soldiers aren’t individuals, as far as George W. Bush is concerned, just props, one the same as the next, all just tools to further his own ambition.

What a sicko.

On July 23, there will be a debate of the presidential candidates live on CNN. It’s at 7 o’clock PM — watch it! If you’re a Hillary Clinton supporter, you can go to a Hillary Clinton House Party near you. And if you want to submit a question, go to Youtube and send in your video. I love democracy in action. Wahoooooooooooooooo! (Go Clinton.)

July 20, 2007 - Friday

1574 days into the war

U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 3628
U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 26806

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS
(MINIMUM): 67265
(MAXIMUM): 73611
(LANCET ESTIMATE) 600,000

COST OF THE WAR SO FAR (ROUNDED TO THE NEAREST MILLION): $444,759,000,000

Please note that the above figures, from the IBC website, are NOT estimates of total Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the US invasion and its aftermath. Rather, they are a count of Western-reported verifiable violent deaths, and likely to be a small per