A Free Press Means No Government Involvement

But that's exactly the opposite of what we're getting. The Federal Trade Commission is currently holding a workshop to explore ways the government might help save the journalism industry.

Make no mistake about it. The government already controls the press. It does so through licensing, enforcing "decency" and "fairness" standards, public funding, restricting access, and granting preferential treatment.

The feds have always been frightened of truly independent news reporting. That explains why we're seeing a strong effort to counter the effect the Internet has had on the mainstream media.

Fort Hood Shooting "Oddities"

The list, compiled by Lori Price of Citizens for Legitimate Government, can be found here.

The Fort Hood Mystery Continues

Michael Gaddy has questions about the "'facts' disseminated by the Army and the state's propaganda wing, sometimes referred to as the mainstream media (MSM)," regarding the Fort Hood shootings:

All too convenient for the Army was the rapid release of negative information related to the alleged shooter. It was said he received a negative evaluation report and that he had caused "red flags" to be raised some months ago concerning emails. Do we know anything this detailed about the "suspects" who were released? The caveat was added that it was unclear as to whether the suspect was the author of those emails. So, months ago, alarms were raised about emails the suspect might have sent, yet, in all those months the Army has been unable to determine who wrote them. Yeah, right. If red flags were in fact raised months ago, why did the Army do nothing? ...

... While it is doubtful we will ever learn the truth of exactly what happened at Fort Hood, we know with a degree of certainty the truth will never be revealed by the Army or the media.

Read the rest here.

The Spin Begins

The Fort Hood tragedy is already being considered a terrorist attack. Walid Phares, Ph.D, writing for Fox News, had this to say:

What happened at Ft. Hood is not about being frustrated by America's foreign policy or exacting revenge for racial slurs. Nor is it about simply being a Muslim-American serving in the military or about being a member of any faith. The murders at Ft. Hood are about the radicalization of individuals by an extremist ideology -- jihadism -- which fuels acts of terror. The main question we should be asking is when did Hasan become radicalized and who indoctrinated him? Everything else will fall in place once we have these answers. Moreover, this would allow us to detect other potential terror acts that may be in the making.

"Who indoctrinated him?" Dr. Phares realizes the shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was trained and employed by the most deadly and efficient killing machine in the world, right?

No matter. For the next few weeks the talking heads will be focusing on the terror angle, especially because of reports like this:

Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" -- an Arabic phrase for "God is great!" -- before opening fire, the base commander said today.

Lt. Gen. Robert Cone said officials had not yet confirmed that the suspected shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, made the comment before the rampage Thursday.

In the end, it won't really matter why this psycho shrink went on a shooting spree. That this might have been yet another example of "spontaneous jihad syndrome" is a seed that has already been planted. The intent is to shift the public's attention away from the horrors of war and their effects on those directly involved. Instead, look for this to be used as an excuse to intensify the "war on terror" both at home and abroad.

Another Anti-Confederate Flag Boycott

The NAACP is at it again, this time threatening a boycott (big surprise) of Florida businesses that display the Confederate flag. From the South Florida Times:

Civil rights groups on Thursday put city and business leaders here on a 30-day notice that unless they meet a list of demands -- including a ban on the display of the Confederate flag at taxpayer-funded events -- they will be subjected to protests and boycotts.

More than 100 people converged on the steps of Homestead City Hall for a press conference organized by clerical, civil rights and community groups who submitted the list of demands.

"We are ready to talk with the city of Homestead and the Homestead Chamber of Commerce concerning our action items. And our issues are with them, and not with the Sons of the Confederacy," said Bishop Victor T. Curry, president of the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP. "If the Sons of the Confederacy want to have their own parade, we are not trying to stifle freedom of speech or freedom of expression. We just don't want to see racism walking down the streets of Homestead, being funded by the taxpayers."

Curry warned business leaders that if their demands are not met by the 30-day deadline, the controversy would escalate to another level.

"We want the mayor and the council, and the chamber, to do the right thing. We hope that we could start this with a positive dialogue. But we're also ready to move from dialogue to demonstration," Curry said.

"We are also prepared to say to the businesses that support the chamber, that if you want to offend the people of this great county and community, then we will seek other places to spend our dollars," Curry said. "We will not pay you to offend us."

It's a wonder the NAACP has any shred of credibility left.

Gun-Toting Student Saves Lives

Here's a little news story you won't see covered in the national mainstream press.

In College Park, Georgia, about 10 college students had gathered inside a friend's apartment for a birthday party when two masked gunmen burst through the door. They separated the men from the women and demanded wallets and cell phones.

One of the guests pulled a gun out of a backpack and fired at the thug guarding the men, who immediately bolted from the apartment. The armed student then ran to the room where the women were being held, shouted for them to get down, and proceeded to shoot and kill the other intruder.

The moral of the story: Guns don't save lives; people with guns save lives.

How Conspiracy Theories Get Started

A top U.N. scientist is saying that the current swine flu virus causing all this panic "possesses certain transmission 'vectors' that suggest that the new flu strain has been genetically-manufactured as a military biological warfare weapon." Just another conspiracy nut, right? Well, even the most outlandish theories have some basis in fact.

Earlier this year it was learned that Baxter International Inc., which has developed a flu vaccine, was responsible for releasing live flu viruses. From the Toronton Sun:

The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. ...

... The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.

Was this a simple mistake?

Then came the story of vials containing a "potentially lethal pathogen" that went missing from a U.S. military lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland. This is the same lab, by the way, to which the deadly 2001 anthrax mailings were traced.

Without drawing any conclusions here, one can certainly see how rumors and conspiracy theories get started.

Is Candy the Next Target in the War on Drugs?

The ever vigilant mainstream media is warning us of a new threat to our children: candy abuse. No, it doesn't have anything to do with obesity. It seems kids are snorting and smoking the stuff. CBS reports:

It sounds bizarre -- even impossible. But kids grind up pieces of candy -- like "Smarties" -- and they actually inhale the fine candy powder then blow it out like cigarette smoke.

"Eventually, as I got better at it, you know, it was just a cool thing to do," Froncek said.

And that's what has parents and drug counselors so concerned. A quick search on YouTube shows dozens of how-to videos created by children of all ages. Some clips even show children snorting the sweet stuff.

"Before I was sent the YouTube videos, I had never heard of smoking and snorting Smarties," drug safety expert Peggy Sapp said.

Sapp was alarmed that kids are mimicking such dangerous and illegal habits, but said kids often do what's "in" to fit in.

OK, wait for it...wait for it...:

Experts also worry that this trend could spark interest in real cigarettes or illegal drugs.

Yes! There you have it, folks. Looks like the DEA is going to have its hands full.

Pelosi on Guns: "We Want Them Registered"

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi admitted this in a recent interview on ABC's Good Morning America:

ROBIN ROBERTS: Under the Bush administration, you pretty much said the ball was in their court when it came to reinstating the [assault weapons] ban. Now, it's a Democratic President, a Democratic House. So, is the ball in your court where this is concerned?

NANCY PELOSI: Yes, it is. And we are just going to have to work together to come to some resolution because the court, in the meantime, in recent months, the Supreme Court has ruled in a very -- in a direction that gives more opportunity for people to have guns. We never denied that right. We don't want to take their guns away. We want them registered. We don't want them crossing state lines as this legislation would do in the District of Columbia. We wouldn't tell any other state what to do. But Congress wants to tell the District of Columbia. So, in any event, there's tremendous work ahead on this. And we have to rid the debate of the misconceptions that people have about what gun safety means.

(See video of the interview here.)

Note that Pelosi wasn't talking about the assault weapons ban in particular. She brought up the D.C. case, which dealt with handguns.

Here's my question: Why bother registering guns if the government has no desire to confiscate them in the future? It simply doesn't make sense. Sure, there currently may be no "official" plan for confiscation, but if it ever came to that, you and I both know that it's the registered guns (i.e. those belonging to law-abiding citizens) that will be targeted first.

Atlas Shrugged Finally Headed for the Silver Screen?

It seems so. From Risky Biz Blog:

After decades in development hell, Ayn Rand's capitalism-minded "Atlas Shrugged" is taking new steps toward the big screen -- with one of the film world's most prominent money men potentially at its center.

Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media is circling the Baldwin Entertainment project and could come aboard to finance with Lionsgate, which got involved several years ago.

Rand's popular but polarizing book -- it's derided by many literary critics but has a huge public following -- tells the story of Dagny Taggart, a railroad executive trying to keep her corporation competitive in the face of what she perceives as a lack of innovation and individual responsibility. ...

... "This couldn't be more timely," said Karen Baldwin, who along with husband Howard is producing, with film industry consultant John Logigian advising on the project. "It's uncanny what Rand was able to predict -- about the only things she didn't anticipate are cell phones and the Internet." Baldwin may be on to something -- love it or hate it, "Shrugged" is seeing a resurgence, with book sales spiking as debates rage in Washington and around the country about the government's role in a faltering free-market economy.

Burt Blumert Passes Away

Burton S. Blumert, author and publisher of LewRockwell.com, has passed away. He is remembered by Lew Rockwell and Antiwar.com's Eric Garris. He will be missed.

Cops with Nothing Better to Do

The infamous photo of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps taking a hit on a marijuana pipe has since led to eight arrests, seven for drug possession and one for distribution. Remember the good ol' days when cops went after real criminals?

But I guess since Richland County isn't exactly a hotbed of violent crime (PDF), they need to do something to look busy in order to keep the taxpayer dollars rolling in.

Obama's Politics of Fear

Forget the message of hope Barack Obama preached during his campaign for the presidency. He's in the White House now, which means he can let his true colors begin to show. So, it was no surprise when he used his first press conference to spread a message of fear.

And what a dismal picture he painted. People can't pay their bills. They aren't spending, and businesses are being forced to lay off workers as a result. He drew attention to the fact that last month we lost 598,000 jobs (or 500 million, according to Nancy Pelosi). Everywhere you look it's doom and gloom.

But wait...there may be hope for the economy after all. Why not let the government kiss it and make it better? The president didn't mince words, saying that "at this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life." Oh, yay. We're saved.

Interestingly, no mention was made about what these "resources" are or where the nearly $1 trillion will come from to pay for this pork-filled spending package. That's because the federal government has no resources of its own. It produces nothing. It must borrow the money from foreign sources and increase the national debt, print more money and further devalue the dollar, or simply steal it from productive citizens, which defeats the whole purpose of trying to get people to consume more.

The fact of the matter is that this "stimulus" package is nothing more than a wealth redistribution scheme, the largest in our nation's history. But it will sell because people are gullible when they're afraid.

Just as Dubya frightened people into thinking that it was a good idea to send teenage girls overseas to keep us safe from the Axis of Evil, Obama is scaring people into believing that spending money we don't have (i.e. doing exactly what got us into this mess in the first place) will actually prevent economic collapse. Either our new president is pitifully ignorant, or he thinks we are. But one thing is certain: you can count on him exploiting our fears for as long as he can.

Best and Worst of 2008

Chuck Baldwin reflects on the past year.