...goes to Jonah Goldberg, commenting on a recent decision upholding the Constitutionality of "virtual" kiddie Porn. He made the comment in his column over at NRO:

For some reason the editorial pages, Congress, hordes of academics, and, of course, Hollywood types, honestly, truly believe that the state cannot proscribe images of women getting it on with horses in public libraries for fear we'll skid down the slippery slope to tyranny. At the same time, however, they fervently believe that the federal government can regulate the content of political ads leading up to an election.

The whole column is well worth reading, by the way. It's not just funny, it makes some very important points that not enough people think about.

Think you finished paying your taxes a week or so ago? Nope, you just finished filing your taxes. To actually pay for their combined state, local, federal, excise, property, and other taxes, Americans now work about 117 days per year. That 117th day would be today--April 27th. From now on, you're working for yourself and your family, at least until January 1, 2003. Don't you feel great about it?



There is some good news: last year, Tax Freedom day was April 29th. So it looks like good ol' George W. managed to shave off two days with those "extreme" and "irresponsible" tax cuts of his. Although there is a war on, so I guess we can't complain too much. But I hope that when the smoke clears our masters in Washington and our state capitals find a way to grant us a little more freedom from this burden.



For more information on Tax Freedom day and the history of taxation of the American people, see the Tax Foundation's web site. You might also want to learn a little more about the proposed alternative to the income tax, the Fair Tax, which you can learn about here.

I've said I'd stop commenting on the Middle East, but, as others have pointed out, it's constantly at the top of the news, and hard to entirely avoid. So, for now, I've resolved not to comment on it more than once or twice a week. That being the case, here's something worth looking at:

Larry Miller has a funny and somewhat informative article in The Weekly Standard about the Israeli/Palestine situation. It's worth reading, and I have a response I'd like to make....

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Those of us who used to call ourselves "liberals" thought we were liberal because we believed in the right of minorities, and that the ultimate minority is the individual. We then discovered that many so-called "liberals" were really people who love authority and trust government implicitely, as long as they can elect people who share their vision of How The World Should Be. Once it was called socialism, now it's "communitarianism," but the tune never changes: if it doesn't involve the pelvis, individual freedom is the one thing they are most consistently and predictably opposed to.



In any other era...

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In commoration of Earth Day, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tom Knudson wrote a knockout series on the environmentalist movement last year entitled "Environmentalist, Inc." Knudson documented, in painstaking detail, what more and more people who care environmental issues have noticed: the near-hysterical tone of many so-called "environmentalists," the stridently negative and extreme left-wing agenda many espouse, and the large number of former members and leaders who have left some well-known organizations, disillusioned and disgusted. Not to mention actual damage done to the environment by some (not all!) of these groups.



A year later nothing seems to have changed, except that the propaganda and fundraising appeals have gotten even more strident, mean-spirited, politically partisan and hysterical. Groups like Sierra Club, World Wildlife Federation, Greenpeace, and Environmental News Network seem to have done little to re-examine their methods or goals, or even treat seriously the idea that some of what they tell the public may be scientifically questionable or destructive.



Knudson's series is must-reading for anyone who truly cares about the fate of mankind and the Planet Earth...

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The Pacific Research Institute has published a new Top 10 List of Reasons to Celebrate Earth Day. Great (and somewhat surprising!) reasons to celebrate include:



1. Air quality is improving and is going to continue to improve.

2. The U.S. is not running out of energy.

3. Humans are not facing increasing risks from toxic chemicals.

4. Economic growth is good for the environment.

5. The U.S. is not running out of farmland or open space.

6. Water quality is improving.

7. Weíre getting better all the time at protecting species and habitat.

8. Environmental issues arenít just for experts anymore. Now there is an abundance of user-friendly government information available on the Internet.

9. The most important new environmental initiatives are taking place on the local level and through private action.

10. Environmental improvement in the U.S. is perhaps the greatest public-policy success story of the last generation.



See their Top 10 List of Reasons to Celebrate Earth Day page for more details on the above list! They're a good non-profit group that's worth supporting!

The New York Times has a surprising story involving a major gap in privacy laws that may concern more people thank you think...The New Scientist has a story on an upcoming global event that could have catastrophic effects...Global Warming scares are looking more like voodoo every day, but Riverdeep Current's Asteroid Watch has a good article on an indisputably real threat that we pay too little attention to, even if the odds are only 5,000 to 1...Larry Elder has done a pretty good expose on who pays taxes in the US...Jewish World Review has two great columns, one on the Bush Administration's long-term war strategy that I think is probably right on the money, and one on the biggest financial scandal in the USA (hint: it ain't Enron)...Webmasters may find inspiration at this creative, often hilarious 404 error site...and finally, the world's leading alternative news source reveals the most exciting new political movement in the USA, coming out of Nevada of all places. When oh when will the mainstream press catch up with these guys?

David Brooks has written a lengthy but truly thought-provoking article on Bourgeoisophobia -- the fear, loathing, and contempt of middle class American values that pervades elite European and radical Arab society, as well as certain segments of America's own cultural elites. He also ties this in fairly effectively with the increasing prevalence of anti-Semitism on the political Left, and suggests rather startlingly that anti-Semitism and Bourgeoisophobia are essentially two sides of the same coin. While at first I thought the latter was a little unlikely, the more I read the article, particularly some of the stuff in Part 2, the more I found myself agreeing with him.



The article is rather long and in two parts. It's more for the cerebro-geek types like me who are into lengthy discussions of political theory. If that's up your alley, however, I think you'll find his article as fascinating as I did. It can be found at the following links:



Among the Bourgeoisophobes: Part 1

Among the Bourgeoisophobes: Part 2

Anybody who's spent much time reading what I have to say about the Middle East knows that I'm no Israel-basher. I've always been a pretty strong supporter of Israel, if not exclusively or blindly so; I think they could sometimes do better by the Palestinians and have frequently said as much. But Israel is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East, and for generations they have faced hateful foes who simply want to destroy most of the Jews living there. In the end, Israel deserves our moral support. Besides which, Yasser Arafat is clearly a terrorist and a thug.



One thing I've often heard said over the years is that Zionism is racism. I've always thought that was hysterical malarky. But the other day, I was shaken a bit. For the first time, I began to wonder seriously if there wasn't a kernal of truth to the accusation, for at least some of America's Zionists...

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2,660 physicists, geophysicists, climatologists, meteorologists, oceanographers, and other environmental scientists (so far) have signed a petition saying that global warming hysteria is pseudoscientific baloney. They've been joined by an additional 5,017 chemists, biochemists, biologists, and other life scientists, and over 10,000 other scientists, attached to major universities and research organizations around the world. Yet if you went by what "environmental" activist groups like Greenpeace, Sierra Club, or the so-called "Environmental News Network" tell you, you'd think this petition, and others like it, never existed.

The Oregon Petition reads, in its entirety, as follows...

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If you go through life forming and sharing opinions, it is a rock-solid certainty that you will be wrong about something. The more opinions you have, the more that will happen. The bigger the issue, the more spectacularly wrong you're likely to be.

In my mid-20s, I stumbled on a brain teaser that, literally, changed how I viewed the world. As melodramatic as it sounds, I haven't been the same since. And, as with so many other things in this world, it's all Jerry Pournelle's fault...

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This is funny: New Credit Card Ad.

It has not been my intention to run a web site about the Israel-Palestine conflict. It's just that, with such a difficult issue, it's nearly impossible to say one thing without saying ten other things. There's simply too much history involved.



I will say that I think about the most insightful commentary I've seen on the 'net has been by Jerry Pournelle. A recent online exchange he had on the matter is both educational and fair-minded to all sides. It;s long, but if you're a student of history you will probably be surprised by how insightful much of it is. And I think Pournelle's analyses are, essentially, on the money. I've rarely seen a smarter student of history or political affairs than Pournelle.

Zionists can be forgiven for being high strung these days. Israel, the only true liberal democracy in the Middle East, has been under a terrible seige. Women, old men, and children are being targeted by suicide-murderers. The Palestinian Authority has until recently done little about this, and some evidence suggests that they have been giving aid to the terrorists.



One can also forgive Palestinians and their friends for being emotionally overwrought. After all, Palestinian civilians...

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It seems like the income tax is simply an unavoidable fact of life. But, in truth, we've had an income tax for less than a century. It should be obvious to any true liberal that the income tax is a fundamentally un-American system: it is intrusive, it is unjust, and it is certainly economically harmful. It is most especially harmful the poor and disenfranchised. It's also the source of most of the "corruption" in Washington D.C. that campaign finance reform advocates complain about.



As you fill out your 1040 this year, I invite you to contemplate why we must report to the government who we work for, what we do, and how much we make. And why we must go to jail if we refuse to do this. And whether or not it's really fair that the average American now pays about half of what he makes to the government.



There is a better way. It's called the Fair Tax. You can learn about it from Americans for Fair Taxation. Think they can't win? In the polls, support for eliminating the income tax is at an all-time high, and the number has been growing every year. This, despite the fact that many Americans are unaware of this political movement. I'm hoping to spread the word by posting about it here, and that others will do the same.



You may also want to encourage people to tune in to see Congressman John Linder on the "O'Reilly Factor" with Bill O'Reilly on Friday, April 12th at 8 p.m. on the Fox News Channel . Linder is a major advocate for the Fair Tax and deserves support.

Bibi Netanyahu spoke to the US Senate today, again outlining why Israel's war on terror should be encouraged not restrained by the US.



Predictably, terror apologists were skeptical...

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Conventional wisdom seems to be that, by making incursions into Palestine, the Israelis are provoking further violence from terrorists. In other words, even if you don't play shallow games of moral equivalence (by suggesting that there's no difference between destroying terrorists and terrorism itself, for example), it should still be "obvious" that Sharon's recent Palestinian invasion will only incite further terrorism.



But as Jonathan Chait notes in The New Republic, quite correctly, there has been a very sharp reduction in terrorism against Israeli civilians in the last week. One wonders if people who throw up their hands and say all is hopeless, or who cluck their tongues at Israeli actions, are really thinking clearly about human nature and history. (I think Chait's also right about the future of female suicide bombers.)

The best line of the week was recently uttered by noted pundit Ara Rubyan:

"If you ask me, Colin Powell is a man of integrity and ethics. Therefore he is vastly out of his league in the Middle East."

Rubyan runs the Postmodern Politics site. He's also a pretty good guy, even if he is a Democrat. :-)

At times it seems to me like the worst enemy of the Palestinians are the people who claim to be their advocates....

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US forces recently captured a top al Qaeda operative named Abu Zubaydah. Without question, this man has information that would be useful to us. A friend of mine recently sent me a couple of emails implying that it might be morally acceptable, under strictly defined circumstances, to use torture to get information out of him. Call me a bleeding heart if you want, but...

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Philip Stott runs one of the better debunking sites on eco-hysteria, called Anti-Ecohype. He most often sets his sights on global warming hogwash and anti-biotech luddism. Stott's site is a little primitive-looking, but the information is top-notch stuff from a real professional scientist: He's Emeritus Professor of Biogeography at the University of London and editor of the Journal of Biogeography published out of Oxford. Two of his better articles can be found at Tech Central Station:



Global Warming Myths vs. Empericism.



Damage caused by Kyoto.



The first is on global warming nonsense in general, and the second is on specific environmental and economic problems that the Kyoto protocols are already wreaking on the UK.

David Horowitz is one of the most incendiary, but most interesting, political commentators of our time. His book RADICAL SON was probably the best political autobiography since The Autobiography of Malcolm X--and a book of equal importance for what it will say to future generations.



A less intense and less broad-scoped document is his book THE ART OF POLITICAL WAR...

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Last weekend I had a chance to talk to a friend with family in Palestine. His sister, along with her husband and children, live in Bethlehem. They tell me she's learned one trick, and that's to open your windows when the explosions start nearby--the windows are more likely to shatter if they're closed....

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