DAILY UPDATE

Lawyer's painting met with calls for removal
Daily Californian

"Conservatives are calling for the removal of a painting by a Berkeley lawyer that hangs in the California State Department of Justice’s cafeteria and depicts the United States getting flushed down the toilet. Local artist Stephen Pearcy’s painting, which below the flushed United States reads “T’anks to Mr. Bush,” is hanging as part of the Sacramento department’s cafeteria art show sponsored by California Lawyers for the Arts. State Republican Party officials and conservative bloggers are demanding that California Attorney General Bill Lockyer remove the piece, which hangs behind a pair of ceramic cowboy boots." (07/25/05)

http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=19055

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The invisible pirate
Strike the Root
by Joe Blow

"This edition includes several easy methods of securing your email. I recommend trying them all. CoolFish and A-Lock allow you to continue to use your normal email client. AnonMail is a good web-based method. The Comodo solution is for those who just want a quick and easy method. The only method below that comes close to being truly anonymous is AnonMail, but all of these methods will provide you with strong (at least 128-bit) encryption to keep your email private, for free. Enjoy!" (07/25/05)

http://www.strike-the-root.com/52/blow/blow1.html

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Washington State University bankrolls vigilante censorship
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

"In a shameful distortion of the First Amendment, Washington State University has morally and financially supported disruptive heckling and threats at a controversial student play. Washington State went so far as to pay for hecklers to attend student playwright Chris Lee's Passion of the Musical. It then allowed the hecklers to repeatedly disrupt the musical through shouts and threats of violence. Washington State's president later defended the hecklers' behavior as a 'responsible' exercise of free speech." (07/18/05)

http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/6106.html

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Don't expand the police state
LewRockwell.Com
by US Representative Ron Paul (R-TX)

"Mr. Speaker, the USA PATRIOT Act and Terrorism Prevention Act (HR 3199) in no way brings the PATRIOT Act into compliance with the Constitution or allays concerns that the powers granted to the government in the act will be used to abuse the rights of the people. Much of the discussion surrounding this bill has revolved around the failure of the bill to extend the sunset clauses. However, simply sunsetting troublesome provisions does not settle the debates around the PATRIOT Act. If the PATRIOT Act is constitutional and needed, as its proponents swear, why include sunset provisions at all? If it is unconstitutional and pernicious, why not abolish it immediately?" (07/24/05)

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul264.html

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What the hell to do now?
The Libertarian Enterprise
by Alan R. Weiss

"I have been reading Butler Shaffer for a long time. I love his writing. However, he is only one of many, many writers who are great at diagnosing the problems -- but hardly anyone has the cure, the fix, the optimal strategy (personal or political). In other words, OK, hey, snaps and props for the diagnosis, professor. Now how do we fix this decline of western civilization? Butler believes it to be unfixable. Oh happy day." (07/24/05)

http://www.ncc-1776.com/tle2005/tle329-20050724-08.html

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Let's get naked!
WorldNetDaily
by Vox Day

"Whereas the wearing of unseasonal or inappropriate clothing can be reasonably expected to have lethal consequences in light of the London subway bombings; And whereas the federal government authorities have deemed it necessary to the security of the national air transport system to thoroughly scan, search and even strip-search passengers prior to airplane embarkation .... Let it be proposed, therefore, that the citizens of this great nation return to their natural state. That is to say, eliminate the business suit in favor of the birthday suit. Nude in the air is tough on terror. Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can take off for your country. " (07/25/05)

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45428

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Because they can, part one
Free Market News Network
by Thomas L. Knapp

"Like most people, I occasionally allow myself to be lulled into complacency by arguments for 'decentralization' and 'local control.' The theory, such as it is, is that the lower the level of government, the closer it is to the people and therefore the more amenable it is to being reined in and kept from getting to big for its britches. It doesn't take much to explode this theory. One need look no further than Kelo v. City of New London -- the basis of a recent, and very bad, Supreme Court ruling -- to get an idea of just how predatory local government can be. But if you really, really, really want to see the whole nauseating spectacle up close and personal, just attend a meeting of your own local governing body." (07/22/05)

http://www.freemarketnews.com/pview/5837/2117/html/index.php

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New Hampshire: Property advocates rally against eminent domain
The Wire


"About a dozen Seacoast residents gathered in Market Square last Tuesday to rally for property rights and protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on eminent domain. “It’s unconstitutional what they did,” said Catherine Van Wyk, holding a sign that read “Bad government, that’s not your property.” “We’re just fighting for the little people, the people that get their property taken just because the government says (it) can,” she said.The property rights rally was one of several held around the state and in parts of Massachusetts as a response to the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Kelo v. New London. The court ruled on June 23 that the City of New London, Conn., could purchase private property from an owner and sell it to private developers to increase economic development." (07/19/05)

http://www.wirenh.com/News/General_News/property_advocates_rally_against_eminent_domain_20050719599.html