The Greatest Collection Of Libertarian Links EVER

A genius called Nobody25864 over at Libertarian Reddit has put together the best collection of Libertarian links that I've ever seen.

It's a monument to unselfish generosity. 

And since there is no such thing as generosity without a recipient, I have stolen it and posted the entire thing here so I can find it later for my own selfish self. 

It would've been the perfect reading companion to fill up the sober moments of my Labor Day weekend, had I seen it sooner. 

Images - Inspirational quotes, cartoons, memes and funny pics

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30 Day Reading List Challenge - A good collection of libertarian articles to get you familiar with theory!

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Principles
The Law by Frederic Bastiat - A fantastic look at the proper place of the law and how it has been perverted into legal plunder, as explained by Bastiat in 1850. Highly recommended.
Anatomy of the State by Murray Rothbard - An explanation of what the state is not, what it is, and how it functions. Highly recommended.
The Science of Justice by Lysander Spooner - Spooner talks of some implications of self-ownership.
The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible - Libertarian morals broken down into kid stories!
The Philosophy of Liberty
The Philosophy of Liberty: Property
The Philosophy of Liberty: Plunder
Pirates and Emperors
George Ought to Help
You Can Always Leave
The Non-Aggression Principle
Make Mine Freedom
Milton Friedman - Greed
I, Pencil
For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto
The Ethics of Liberty.

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Anarcho-Capitalism
The Production of Security by Gustave de Molinari - The first anarcho-capitalist book ever written. Highly recommended.
No Treason by Lysander Spooner - Possibly the greatest argument for anarchy ever written. A scathing attack on the Constitution, Spooner reveals how the Constitution fails all the requirements for a legal contract, concluding that it is a Constitution of no authority. It does presume a bit of familiarity with legal principles though. Highly recommended.
The State is Not Great by Jacob Spinney
The Market for Security by Robert Murphy
The Tale of the Slave by Robert Nozick - Does voting turn slaves into free men?
If You Were King
Law Without Government - Highly recommended.
The Machinery of Freedom: Illustrated Guide - Highly recommended.
Why Libertarianism is Dangerous - The "horrors" of anarchy!
Top 10 Reasons Why the Mafia Would Be Better Than the State
But Wouldn't Warlords Take Over?
Common Argument Topics

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Economics
How an Economy Grows and Why It Doesn't by Irwin Schiff - A comic about cavemen that invent economic interaction, going from there to developing a more modern economy, and how the government messes this all up. Highly recommended.
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt; Video series version (currently ongoing!) - Inspired by Bastiat, Hazlitt explains the economics behind some key political issues.
That Which is Seen and That Which is Not Seen by Frederic Bastiat - The article that inspired the above.
The Candlemaker's Petition by Frederic Bastiat - Bastiat writes a fake petition from the producers of light in France for the government to ban the sun.
Defending the Undefendable - Block looks at different occupations that are frowned upon in society, but are consistent with libertarian principle.
Lessons for the Young Economist by Robert Murphy; a high school textbook for austrian economics.
Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School - Brought in by comment by /u/LetThemEatWar32's suggestion! As the title says, its an introduction to the Austrian School.
Capitalism in One Lesson - An explanation of what capitalism is with tons of resources to learn more.
Praxgirl - A cute girl explains basic praxeology.
Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two (this is a sequel to "Fear the Boom and Bust" a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem)
Deck the Halls with Macro Follies
Trade is Made of Win
The Broken Window Fallacy
-Methodological Individualism
That Mitchell and Webb Look - Football - A comedy sketch explaining what's wrong with the excessive use of the word "we".
Friends - A Selfless Good Deed - A clip from Friends in which Joey explains why all purposeful action is selfish as everyone necessarily acts to complete the goals they value most highly, even when this end is normally dubbed "selfless" or "altruistic".
- Money
What Has Government Done to Our Money? by Murray Rothbard - Rothbard explains what money is, how government messes it up, and gives a brief history of money in western civilization. Highly recommended.
What is Money? by Frederic Bastiat; audio version - Bastiat explains in dialogue form the many evils that come from confusing money with wealth.
The American Dream - A cartoon looking at the problems of the Federal Reserve and fractional reserve banking.
- Austrian Business Cycle Theory
"Fear the Boom and Bust" a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem
The Austrian Business Cycle Explained
America's Great Depression by Murray Rothbard - A bit more lengthy, but definitely worth looking at if you're interested in a simple explanation of business cycle theory and a history lesson on the causes of the Great Depression.
-TEH ROADS?!?!
The Privatization of Roads and Highways by Walter Block
Streets and Roads by Murray Rothbard
- Environmentalism
Law, Property Rights, and Air Pollution
Can Hunting Endangered Animals Save the Species?
Tragedy of the Commons
Ghostbusters Hates the EPA and So Should You
-Intellectual Property
Against Intellectual Property
History of Copyright
- Healthcare
How Government Solved the Healthcare Crisis
A Four-Step Healthcare Solution by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Healthcare as a Right
- Minimum Wage
Edgar the Exploiter
How the Minimum Wage Creates Unemployment
Jeff's Story
Critique of Objectivism
Ayn Rand on Libertarianism
Mozart was a Red by Murray Rothbard
The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult by Murray Rothbard

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Comedy
TAKE JURY DUTY!
eEconomics and the rest - A fantastic video series
Be a Cop
Clint Webb
Crack
Pledge of Allegiance
Teachers Union
Moon Bears
Nerf Nuke
- Yes Prime Minister
Leading Questions
If the Right People Don't Have the Power
- Penn and Teller
Corn Subsidies
On the Second Amendment
Wealth Redistribution

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Fiction
Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - The horrors of egalitarianism. For a bit of expansion on it, read Rothbards' Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature
1984 by George Orwell - The ultimate in dystopian literature.
Animal Farm by George Orwell - An allegory for the rise and fall of soviet communism.
Anthem by Ayn Rand - Miraculously, Rand did produce a short fiction story that has a nice look at individualism. A man in a socialist world rediscovers the lightbulb.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein - A science fiction story of the moon revolting against the rule of Earth.
Time Will Run Back by Henry Hazlitt - The world has been taken over by socialism, and the son of the dictator of the Won World Government is suddenly thrust into a position of power in which he accidentally rediscovers capitalism step by step.

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Just the Recommended Ones
The Law by Frederic Bastiat
Anatomy of the State by Murray Rothbard
The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible
The Philosophy of Liberty
The Production of Security by Gustave de Molinari
No Treason by Lysander Spooner
How an Economy Grows and Why It Doesn't by Irwin Schiff
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt
What Has Government Done to Our Money? by Murray Rothbard

The Monica Perez Libertarian Glossary

Several months ago I started getting hits from the Monica Perez website.  Ms. Perez has a lively talk radio show based in Atlanta. 
Go here for videos and livestreams.  It's good stuff. 

This is the Monica Perez glossary of Libertarian terminology, shamelessly copied from here.  We should all be grateful that we live on the same planet as this lady.  Here's Ms. Perez:

There are a few expressions and references I like to use on the air that are not (yet!) in common usage. For your convenience, I define them here. For additional color on the expression, click on the term itself and you will be directed to an outside source.

If you heard me say something on the air you don’t understand or if you know an expression you think I might like, please send me an email so I can define it for you and the other listeners.

Anarcho-CapitalismLibertarian and individualist anarchist political philosophy (also known as “libertarian anarchy” or “market anarchism” or “free market anarchism”) that advocates the elimination of the state in favor of individual sovereignty in a free market.

Austrian EconomicsEmphasizes the spontaneous organizing power of the price mechanism and holds that the complexity of subjective human choices makes mathematical modeling of the evolving market practically impossible. Its proponents tend to advocate the strong protection of private property rights and the strict enforcement of voluntary contractual agreements between economic agents, but otherwise advocate a laissez-faire approach to the economy.

Barry Goldwater Conservative
A traditional American conservative in the model of Senator Barry Goldwater, “Mr. Conservative,” who led the conservative movement in his 1964 Republican Presidential Campaign against incumbent Lyndon Johnson. A traditional conservative believes in fiscal conservatism, personal liberty, respect for the Constitution, strong defense and non-interventionism. This differs strongly from a neo-conservative, defined below.

The Blue Pill
From the movie The Matrix, the blue pill allows you to “believe what you want to believe,” while the red pill opens your mind to reality.

Boiling Frogs
The idea that if you put a frog in unheated water and heat it VERY slowly, it will boil to death before it has the sense to jump out. In the political context, it refers to the genius of incrementalism, whereby policies that could not otherwise be adopted wholesale are adopted little by little until the original goal is accomplished.

Conspiranoid
Seeming paranoid because you believe in a conspiracy theory.

Conspiranoid Mind-Vitamin
A small idea, or seed for your brain, that sounds like a conspiracy theory, but may be true and in any case will get you thinking about something from a different angle.

Controlled Opposition
From Lenin‘s theory that “The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves.” The idea is that people like Alex Jones and Ron Paul who warn us of the power elite and lead movements of dissent are doing so at the behest of the very power elite they denounce. According to this theory, establishment operatives lead protest movements in order to direct the actions of those who would change the system, either by keeping them in line or by breaking them up into factions in order to neutralize them.

Crapitalism
Crony capitalism.

Crony Capitalism
A system in which the dominant force is the mutual relationship between the state and politically well-connected businesses in a mixed economy. As social power is increasingly replaced by state power, collusion between the political class and well-connected business leaders occurs with greater frequency and to a much higher degree.

Deep StateA deep state, or a state-within-a-state, is a political situation in a country when an internal organ, generally from the armed forces, intelligence agencies, or police, does not respond to the civilian leadership. The NSA scandal hints at the existence of a deep state.

Drinking the Fluoride
A popular conspiracy theory holds that fluoride in the water alters people’s brains and increases their docility and susceptibility to control. I use the expression “drinking the fluoride” when I’m trying to explain why someone might accept what is a clearly false or irrational explanation for a political event or position.

False Flag
In modern usage, a government operation that is made to look like it is done by an outside party in order to justify otherwise unpopular government action. For example, “9/11 Truthers” think the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were a false flag operation conducted by the United States government to justify a more intrusive federal government. There is some evidence that the “Underwear Bomber” incident was a false flag operation.

The Full Rothbard
Many Libertarians are minarchists, which are akin to Classical Liberals, meaning they believe government should be limited to courts, police and national defense. Murray Rothbard claims that this can never happen because government, which is a monopoly, will never in practice limit itself, therefore government itself needs to be a function of competing institutions. Rothbard’s political philosophy is called anarcho-capitalism and arguments based on this theory go The Full Rothbard.

Fusion Center
State, local and regional institutions originally created to improve the sharing of anti-terrorism intelligence among different state, local and federal law enforcement agencies. Their mission has quickly expanded – with the support and encouragement of the federal government – to cover “all crimes and all hazards.” The types of information they seek for analysis has also broadened over time to include not just criminal intelligence, but public and private sector data, and participation in these centers has grown to include not just law enforcement, but other government entities, the military and even select members of the private sector.

Going Galt
Referring to the main character, John Galt, in Ayn Rand‘s novel Atlas Shrugged, “going Galt” refers to the phenomenon whereby the smartest, most productive people get fed up with the injustice and corruption of the existing system and refuse further to contribute to it.

Hippies of the Right
The pejorative expression used by Ayn Rand to describe libertarians, the political philosophy of whom she disapproved.

Internet Reformation
The phenomenon by which the Internet allows users to develop ideas that hone in on the true structure of society similar to the manner in which the Gutenberg press, by allowing a new and powerful form of communication among the masses, spurred the Reformation.

Keynesian Economics
The economic theory established by John Maynard Keynes in his magnum opus The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. This theory is the foundation of current government-run economic policy and in my view serves to justify central economic intervention by using specious arguments. In the Twentieth Century, this theory won out over The Austrian School of Economics much to the detriment of our economic stability.

Liberal Fascist Center
When I lived in California in the early 1990s, I noticed that the liberal politicians were all for the Welfare State as all modern liberals are, but that they had abandoned social liberalism as evidenced by one-time Mayor of San Francisco Dianne Feinstein’s war on the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theatre. Now of course the left has even abandoned it’s anti-war stance as evidenced by Obama’s unilateral decision to bomb Libya. Similarly, the right abandoned its principled opposition to the Welfare State and also abandoned Constitutionally-defined liberty. The parties had become essentially the same, both incorporating the worst of each side (welfare and warfare) and abandoning the best (peace and liberty). I dubbed this compromise position the liberal-fascist center. Later a book came out called Liberal Fascism that focused only on the left, but I believe it is the position of the entire Republocrat Oligarchy (see below).

Limited HangoutA limited hangout, or partial hangout, is a public relations or propaganda technique that involves the release of previously hidden information in order to prevent a greater exposure of more important details. It is possible that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was actually part of a limited hangout.

Neo-Con or Neo-Conservative
The traditional conservative movement was largely displaced by the self-named Neo-Conservative Movement in the 1980s. Unlike traditional conservatives, neo-conservatives do not eschew the welfare state but wish to make it more efficient; advocate legislating social issues; and wish to actively influence other countries using both economic and military means.

New World Order or NWO
Widely considered a conspiracy theory, the term New World Order or NWO refers to the emergence of a totalitarian one-world government through which the power elite aims to rule the world. Many politicians have referred to the New World Order over the past 40 years and have also used the word “Globalism” to indicate the same. Radio host Alex Jones is probably the most outspoken opponent of the New World Order.

Open Your Mind
From the movie Total Recall, a mutant named Kuato allows the main character Quade, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, to understand the underlying reality of his world.

Paulbot
An often pejorative expression used to describe a follower of Ron Paul.

Paulbot Next Door
A segment on The Monica Perez Show in which we play a voicemail from a normal person who likes Ron Paul to dispel the myth that only fringe people can be libertarians.

Permission Living
An expression I coined to describe the phenomenon by which the government conditions you to ask them permission to do things you have every right to do: May I drive a car? May I get on this plane? May I take this job? May I buy a gun? Permits, licensing, registries, universal IDs, security check-points, e-verify are all ways in which the government has us ask permission to do basic things in our everyday lives. For now the government does not usually withhold permission unreasonably, but if they wish to they will have the apparatus and social conditioning in place to control the basic moves of law-abiding citizens.

Power Elite
A closely knit alliance of military, government, and corporate officials perceived as the center of wealth and political power in the West.

Prohibition Drugs
Drugs that arise in response to the incentives of the black market for drugs created by the Drug War. During alcohol prohibition moonshine took the place of softer, safer alcohol like beer and wine because whiskey was more concentrated and moonshine could be made locally. Similarly, meth and crack arise to replace cocaine because they are more powerful and pack more of a punch in a smaller quantity allowing for a higher price for any given quantity transported. Recently synthetic marijuana has been added to the list of prohibition drugs.

Proxy War
A proxy war is a war that results when opposing powers use third parties as substitutes for fighting each other directly. While powers have sometimes used governments as proxies, violent non-state actors, mercenaries, or other third parties are more often employed. If Saudi Arabia attacks Iran or Syria it will be a proxy war.

Red Herring
A clue or piece of information which is intended to be misleading or distracting from the actual issue.

The Red Pill
From the movie The Matrix, the blue pill allows you to “believe what you want to believe,” while the red pill opens your mind to reality.

Republocrat Oligarchy
Voting in the two-party system is like deciding between whether the Gambinos or the Genoveses are going to run your neighborhood–it’s not going to make much of a difference! The Iron Law of Oligarchy states that this is the inevitable consequence of democracy, according to Robert Michels, who posits that democracy is a façade legitimizing the rule of a particular elite, and that elite rule, which he refers to as oligarchy, is inevitable.

Shamocracy
I use this term specifically to refer to the false choice offered by the oligopoly of the Republican and Democratic Parties in the United States. The two sides appear to offer different philosophies and policies but in the end the march toward an overreaching government that operates above the rule of law at the expense of the citizen continues regardless of who wins a particular election.

Smoking the Kool-Aid
Drinking the Kool-Aid refers to the tragedy at Jonestown where cult followers of Jim Jones, and Jones himself, drank poison-laced Kool-Aid in a mass suicide. I say smoking the Kool-Aid to describe a combination of seeming too high and too fuzzy headed to see the truth combined with a blind willingness to believe propaganda.

Social Engineering
Efforts to influence social behaviors and the social structure on a large scale.

Social Conditioning
A sociological process of training individuals in a society to think, act or respond in a manner generally approved by society overall or forces within society that benefit from the populace being so trained.

Statist
Someone, especially a politician, who promotes the power of the state above all; this transcends any apparent loyalty to left or right, Democrat or Republican.

Stepping off the Grid
Technically, living without dependence on the power grid. Figuratively, this means not being subject to the controls of mainstream society but having to forfeit the conveniences that society has to offer.

Voluntarist/Voluntaryist
The philosophy which holds that all forms of human association should be voluntary. One of the moral principles frequently used to support this philosophy is the non-aggression principle, which prohibits the initiation of aggression or coercion.

Hit the links up top for the Perez website and livestreams.  This is good, good stuff !!! 

The linking genius of Matt Drudge

The genius of Matt Drudge....the man knows how to put together an appropriate collection of links. 

A fresh coat of Whitening goes to Instapundit for the link.
Let's bring everybody back home, ok?  All the soldiers, sailors, pilots, marines.  And Hillary. 

Are you a Libertarian?

Are you a Libertarian? 

Go here to take yet another test. 

(These folks have been promoting their site on just about every message board, discussion group, blog aggregator, and recipe page.  Go there.  It's good stuff, sponsored by George Mason University's Institute For Humane Studies.  The lists of links under "Get Involved" and "Learn More" are worth bookmarking, BTW.)

There. I fixed it.

I started getting complaints a couple of weeks ago about this site taking too long to load. 
I've since gone in and deleted a bunch of the countdowns and widgets that were clogging the blogroll area and I think that has helped.
But many of you were probably relying on these to keep up with upcoming disastrous events. 

So....If you're wondering how long Obama has been a war-monger in the Middle East, he took over that project in January of '09. 

Al Gore predicted that the polar ice caps would melt by 2013.  He better get his ass up there with a blowtorch. 

Our national debt was around 13.5 trillion dollars.  But don't worry, the Republicans are about to raise the debt ceiling to 14 trillion.  Be not afraid, dear flock of Sheeple, they're going to see to it that you get shafted. 

I've also deleted all the little widgets and do-hickeys to TopBlogSites and things of that nature. 
That oughta help. 
There.  I fixed it. 

A few Sunday links

Here's Sam Tanenhouse writing in The New York Times on The Perils Of Textbook Libertarianism. 

I don't always agree with our 2008 Libertarian Vice-Presidential candidate Wayne Allyn Root (although he is a fun person to drink beer with, and keeps his bathtub well-stocked).  But he NAILS it in this editorial for the Las-Vegas Review Journal. 

Here's Jeremy Lott, explaining why the minority faction of the Republicrat/Demoblican regime always tolerates the blatant gerrymandering that goes on every 10 years. 

You can go here to get tickets to hear His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, explain why he's a Marxist and not a Capitalist.  Ticket prices range from $21.50 to $360.00. 

Here's something interesting on the mainstream media's double standard on coverage of He Who Would Save Us From Our Sins. 



 

A few links

Go here to see the understatement of the decade

Go here to see a correlation between the power and prevalence of a certain group and the debt of each state. 

Go here to read about the world's worst White Sox fan. 

Go here to learn why pollsters find that at least 47% of the electorate will support ANY government spending program. 

Go here to read about people who don't have enough rat holes to throw their money into. 

From Fort Worth's largest suburb

I'm on vacation this week, cruising around the Caribbean.


I've asked several of my favorite Libertarians to fill in for me while I'm away. One of them is a guy named Tim Lebsack.
Tim used to work for me in Dallas. This would've been about 15 years ago.

It was a troubled retail situation, to say the least. Employee theft was through the roof, a major competitor had moved in a mile up the street, and the store manager before me had been discovered underneath a back room receiving table, curled up in a fetal position trying to get away from it all.


Tim stayed with me for about two months, and then moved on to greener pastures, or at least pastures that didn't have a constant Soap Opera going 24/7/365.


We ran into each other again at my first Tarrant County Libertarian Meetup. Among the other things he does for the Dallas County Libertarian Party, Tim runs the Dallas County Libertarian Blog.


Here's a link to a sample post, called Why Do You Believe My Lies? It could also be called Always Question Authority.


Here's what Tim sent in. He does more link collecting than editorial ranting, and I have absolutely no idea how he finds all this stuff.


He spread out the following submissions over the course of a week. Enjoy. If you haven't met Tim yet, go to a Dallas meetup. He's worth the ride.



*********************
Do not for a moment think I don't know what you're up to, Whited.


This ruse about a trip to the Caribbean will never fly. Tell us what you're really up to. Diamond smuggling? CIA training? Working off your debts to the combined DNC/RNC? Survivor Gabon?Your secret's safe with me. I'll see to it that no one in LP Tarrant County or the occasional "lost in the internet web rookie" searching for info on decorating Grandpa's urn doesn't find out about your so-called "Sunny, Warm Christmas in the Islands".

Just to create a diversion while you're away, here are some recent web pages popular with the freedom philosophy and another website less popular but chock full of useful info.


=====================


Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. is president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, editor of LewRockwell.com, and author of Speaking of Liberty.


You want a Toyota and paid for it with your money but your government is now saying that you should have bought a Pontiac, so it is tapping into your bank account to make it happen — and then not even giving you a car for your money! (Pop's '73 Catalina was a runnin' machine for less than 3G's.)

http://mises.org/story/3256

No nonsense, non-compromising Lew Rockwell has more items available than a cruise ship buffet.
======================


Trinity Hall is the best Irish Pub in Dallas. You'll have to ask the 'tender if they sell that Jamaican beer you've come to love so much.

No, that's not the ship rocking.

http://www.trinityhall.tv/


========================


Louis E. Carabini will give you the e-book in hopes that you'll buy a paper copy. http://inclinedtoliberty.com/


========================
Relax by the cruise ship's cement pond. If you don't have a paper copy you can read the e-book on your lap-top from http://www.scribd.com/.


This guys seems to have a chip on his shoulder. Must be straining to your thought process being forced to search the internet for anti-freedom writing.


http://world.std.com/~mhuben/libindex.html


Have fun on the love boat, Cap'n Stubing.


*********************
From a few days later....


Okay Whited, here's more stolen intellectual property. I borrowed it from Michelle Shinghal. Be sure to put it back when your done.

http://ladyliberty.wordpress.com/2008/12/17/how-to-actually-talk-to-atheists-if-youre-christian/

This is excellent to spread around your Church and also to share with your proselytizing libertarian friends.


(This is a very well written post, and is applicable to any form of evangelizing. Political or theological. At the Libertarian Party Election Results Watching Party in November, some of my fellow liberty-loving purists scared the crap out of a couple of bartenders when trying to convince them to go back on the gold standard.)


***********************
From a few days later.....After sending me another plug for Trinity Hall, he provides a picture of [the President-elect] bending an elbow. Perfect for the caption contest.

So that's Tim Lebsack, ladies and gents. Always busy, working hard, and keeping the Dallas County LP going for about twenty years.

Thanks for your help, sir !

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends, Fort Worth Edition

Here are some links from my favorite Fort Worth bloggers, plus one or two from Dallas - our suburb to the east.

Steve-O at The Caravan of Dreams has a post that makes use of the terms "Heineken" and "Proustian memory rush". His office is cooler than mine.

My good friend and grandmother surrogate Dr. Liz briefly wonders how the Southern Baptist Convention can evict Broadway Baptist Church, when they kinda left it about twenty years ago. Dr. Liz's blog, Zbeth Journall, is the authoritative online document covering canine activity at Fort Woof park. I hope she'll start posting a brief review/synopsis of every mystery novel she reads.

Pete at Cowtown Chronicles is offended by the idea of Democrats For McCain. In addition to being a welcome Serial Commenter on this site, he runs something called "Drinking Liberally", a left-wing equivalent to my beloved "Libertarian Meetup".

Ken Shimamoto, The Stash Dauber, in a generous humanitarian gesture, has collected 4 different Youtube clips of The Yardbirds doing the blues classic "Train Kept A-Rollin' ". Ken also runs the I Love Fort Worth blog, where he's got a good list of stuff you can do in The Town Of The Cow for free. Or close to it.

Anton at Deliberate Industries is doing his part to fight Global Cooling. Check out the itinerary. then go forward and backward a few posts. Anton is this interesting kid who wants to be a film maker / director / producer. Somehow, he gets to roam the earth making movies. I stay home and feed weiner dogs. We both probably have the karma we deserve.

Pete Geniella is a pro photographer. Check out the image from inside the shower, which I chose more or less at random. Pete knows his stuff.

Dr. Ralph is getting busier and busier at The Journal of Post Ralphaelite Thought. He's got Bob Barr on The Colbert Report. Like Dr. Liz, he's got some interesting commentary on the Southern Baptists kicking out the Broadway Baptists for providing a welcome sanctuary for the Gay and Lesbian Baptists. The Good Doctor also takes excessive delight in the city of Dallas struggling with Cesar Chavez Boulevard.

Suzette at Morning Coffee, Evening Wine generally raises hell and rolls stumps under it. All the time. East Fort Worth is a better place with her living here. I'm not even bothering to link to a specific post. Suzette grabs an issue, writes emails, takes pictures, picks up the phone, and changes things. Hit that link a year from now, and she'll be doing the same thing about a different problem.

Durango Texas attacks one of our mutual pet peeves in this post, which is a relatively calm attack on corporations getting tax breaks and other Free Lunches. D.T. explains that Cabela's is a company that specializes in tax breaks. That is all they do. Any rumors of them being a sporting goods company are just that. Rumors.

Fort Worth Hole In The Wall likes to eat.

Francis at Food and Fort Worth has a eulogy on the untimely passing of Tim Russert.

And let's close this with a tribute to the late Steve Buckellew, who passed away this April. Steve and I were just beginning to correspond when he left us. He wrote some funny stuff.

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends - The Watchers Council Edition

Watcher of Weasels (love the name !) runs something called "The Watchers Council".
It's a group of a dozen bloggers who, every week, submit their best piece of writing to the rest of the council. They use a complicated Watcher of Weasels-like percentage vote on who did the best job, and the winner gets lots of links and web traffic to whatever he/she wrote.

They also nominate one blog post apiece written by someone from the outside.

Wolf Howling, who has been in the blogroll to your right from day one, took a liking to this thing I wrote about Blog for Human Rights Day. Mr. Howling threw it in the ring for consideration by the Watchers Council.

These people, out of all the stuff blogged about last week, out of all the millions and millions of worthwhile blog entries out there....they decided that my Human Rights Day thing was the best. So now I'm getting traffic from here and here and here and here and here and here and here and about eight other places.

If I were a Democrat, I'd say that I'm humbled by the recognition.

But that's a total misuse of the word "humbled", isn't it? If people throw rotten vegetables and eggs and dead animals at you, and then say you're a total idiot, then you're humbled. How did we ever start using the word "humble" incorrectly? Any time someone gets an award or recognition, they say they're humbled. In my opinion, when you don't get an award, or win the game, or finish the marathon....you're humbled.

Instead of saying "I'm humbled", I should say that I'm pretty dang proud to get some recognition from The Watchers Council.

In the name of LinkLove, here are my picks for the best things written by the Watcher's Council:

The Education Wonks have an interesting post on the recent gang warfare in the Los Angeles Public School System. Read this, and tell me if any parents in their right minds would consider sending their kid to these schools. One thing that would've been an interesting side note.... No real teaching is going on in these places, since they're Gladiator/Gangsta Training Academies, and students risk their lives by showing up. So what's the biggest news in education from California these days? The teachers union is lobbying the state to outlaw home schooling. The mind recoils.

The Glittering Eye is running a series of editorials that Gittering Eye's father wrote for The Saint Louis Post-Dispatch. The first one, Adolph The Great, is about students at Yale (and Time magazine) nominating Hitler as "Man of The Year" due to his turnaround of Germany's economy. There are several other pieces by his father in there - just keep hitting the "father's editorial" links.

Rhymes With Right takes one of my least favorite politicians to the metaphorical woodshed. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin recently claimed that John McCain's family having four generations of military service somehow makes McCain unfit for Presidential leadership. Mr. Rhymes With Right has some harsh words for Senator Harkin, and says he should be ashamed of himself. I agree, but for totally different reasons.
Tom Harkin, the senator from Archer Daniels Midland, should be ashamed of himself because he's a whore for the ethanol industry. A worn out, pimped out, used up, totally bedraggled slut. John McCain has proven that he can take care of himself.

Done With Mirrors takes a look at the problem we Christians know as "theodicy". Prompted by the historical and theological explorations of Reverend John Hagee, Done With Mirrors asks, as an outsider, how can monotheists reconcile the idea of an all-knowing, all-powerful God with some of the totalitarian outrages of the previous century. (The short answer: We can't.)

Joshuapundit specializes in deep lengthy posts about the Middle East, almost all of which are worthwhile. But I've got to give you a link to this YouTube parody of an academic sensitivity training session. Funny stuff.

SoccerDad is another blogger who focuses on Jewish issues, Israel, and the Middle East. He's got so much interesting stuff in there that my head hurts. I look forward reading all these people in the future. If I have to settle on just one post to highlight, it would be "What Makes A Pro-Israel President?"

The Colossus Of Rhodey has some commentary on a Mark Steyn piece about John McCain vs. The Democratic Party . Senator Tom Harkin, who is shaping up nicely as the villain of this post, also comes in for some well-deserved abuse. But not nearly enough.

Bookworm Room liked the new Indiana Jones movie even less than I did. She's correct when she states that Cate Blanchett looks fabulous. She's mistaken when she states that (the fight scenes were) "like a Rock ‘em Sock ‘em robot, only the heads stayed attached at the end," because Cate Blanchett's head doesn't. But that's trivial. The movie was not good.
BWRoom also has a link where like-minded commenters can recommend their favorite books.

Cheat Seeking Missiles has a discourse on the lowered height requirement in the North Korean Army. (It's now 4'3". That's four feet, three inches tall.) Cheat Seeking Missiles believes this is due to systemic malnutrition in the Socialist Paradise of North Korea.
Well, there's a perfect control group of people with identical ethnicity in the Raging Capitalist Hellhole of South Korea. I wonder how the two nations compare? Can someone let me know if the South Korean military has to admit 4'3" recruits? I think not.

Wolf Howling, who was good enough to get me into all this, has a post on Oil, Gas, Supply & Demand. He talks about the belief that supply and demand have nothing to do with cost and price. He's also the 3rd or 4th one of these folks to post the YouTube video of Rep. Maxine Waters threatening to nationalize the oil companies.
As a small "l" libertarian, I think Maxine Waters' statements are mildly comical. (Imagine what The U.S. Postal Service could do for UPS. Imagine what a V.A. hospital could do for Harris Methodist hospital in Fort Worth. Imagine what the Department of Motor Vehicles could do for Toyota.) The Watchers Council apparently thinks this video is knee-slapping, rolling in the floor laughing, blow-your -drink-through-your-nose funny.
If you can imagine Maxine Waters and her minions taking over an oil company....yeah, it's pretty funny.
Also, while you're in there, check out the various wolf pictures above each blogroll category. The first time I saw the one he picked for "The Left", I laughed for hours.

Hillbilly White Trash has some marketing advice for the Republican party in "Rebranding The G.O.P." One explanation that may be needed for those with other belief systems....RINO stands for "Republican In Name Only".
The Hillbilly has the largest blogroll I've ever seen. He also did 2,200 posts in 2007. The Hillbilly is committed to his cause.
In his leisure time, he runs something called The Hillbilly Ecosystem. (Go ahead and click the link.... it's a blog traffic ranking system using redneck stereotypes as the hierarchy categories.) By one of his standards - blogrolls - I'm a Heavily Armed Moonshiner. By another - hits and comments - I'm a Heavily Armed Saloon Keeper.

Perhaps if all these good folks keep sending traffic my direction, I'll achieve a solid "Heavily Armed Saloon Keeper" status by the end of summer.

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends

Here are a few things that I couldn't put anywhere else:

Patrick at Lone Star Liberty has a rare good word for Senator John Cornyn. Senator Cornyn has figured out that ethanol subsidies might be killing people.

Adamant has some unbelieveable before and after cyclone satellite photos of Burma.

Marko at The Munchkin Wrangler has an interesting concept called "Search Term Safari". Whatever search terms people key into his blog (see the top left search field on this page), he tries to write about every Monday. I would try that, but I think I've written enough already about Brett Younger, Is There A Hell?, and Ethanol Subsidies.
He's got another good post about his site being hit by a splog. If I hadn't read about it, I would've never known what was happening to my site the last few days. A legit blogger that I've linked to (most splogs aren't legit) is apparently logging in here and going back and forth between my site and his a few dozen times (we've linked to each other) about once an hour. He's got a reciprocal link thing going with a few other sites and he's doing it to them also. It's to get his advertising revenue up. Kinda pitiful.
I like getting hits the old fashioned way. By writing about Brett Younger, Is There A Hell?, and Ethanol Subsidies.

In honor of D.G. at T.C.U., here's a rare link from The Whited Sepulchre to Greg Mankiw to Paul Krugman. It's a good analysis of why politicians bring up a red herrings like the gas tax holiday.

Robb Allen, filling in for Hazel at The Line Is Here, has a post that would've fit well in the rant I did yesterday. Let's see if we can fill in the blanks....
"In the face of [Motorcycles popping wheelies], Florida Representative Carlos Lopez-Cantera has urged [a Florida legislature with lots of time on it's hands] to [ mandate two wheels on the pavement at all times ] in order to [ prevent Darwinian laws of natural selection from going into effect ]."
I love that formula. It's like Mad Libs for cynics.

Mississippian Gus Van Horn, who presides over the best objectivist blog on earth or any other planet, provides us with this abomination. Here's Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson taking a few moments away from fleecing their flocks to warn us of the evils of Global Warming, NO ! Climate Change, NO ! the weather changing.

Mr. Van Horn ordinarily writes deep philosophical posts about self-interest as it relates to the good of the rest of our species. The video above is due to a rare lapse in taste.

The great Alan K. Henderson has three consecutive posts about wooden heads, plants, and Ann Coulter. As if there's a difference.

The good folks at The Pheisty Blog, who I've been neglecting lately, once again force me to trot out The Formula that I posted yesterday.....
"In the face of [some home foreclosures ], Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has urged [the people who spend your taxes ] to [bail out a lot of people with bigger houses than mine ] in order to [ stabilize house prices in neighborhoods with lots of bigger houses than mine ]."
I think that summarizes Bernanke's statement nicely.

Back To The Drawing Board explains the difference between rights and entitlements. There is one.

According to Saint Albert, The Goracle of Music City, the recent tragedy in Burma was due to our failure to contribute to The Saint Albert retirement/pension fund. Compliments of Counting Cats. The Cat Counter has another one here, about how people and organizations tend to become what they hate.

Rex Flex alerts the nation to a legislative scheme that would send every Mississippi restaurant into bankruptcy. I'm tempted to apply The Formula to it, but as a potential target of this legislation, it's too depressing.

Munzenberg, who co-blogs with my sorta online friend Jay at Soobdujour, takes a Michael Gerson speech and breaks it down into the rhetorical devices used. (Rhetorical questins, irony, hyperbole, metaphors, parallelism, etc.) Has anyone ever done a complete book of speeches this way? Or is that what you find in every Rhetoric textbook? If so, is there one that's considered the standard? Munzenberg, please advise....

Law, Legislation, and Lunacy encourages Bill Maher to visit Clues "R" Us, in hopes that he will purchase one.

Andrew Ian Dodge, of Dodgeblogium, posts the infamous picture of Obama associate and convicted terrorist William Ayers wiping his feet on the United States flag. I've heard all about it, but this is the first time I've seen it.

Either my site is running slower because of all the links on this post, or I'm running slower because of all the links I've done on this post.

Good Night !

People Worth Reading, Part 2

A couple of months ago, I started posting links from Zebby's Libertarian Blog Place.
Here are a few more. My goal is to have all of these folks linked and into the blogroll within a year.
It ain't gonna happen. Oh well. That's why God invented the year after next.

The Austrian Economists are a group of living and breathing economists who know what they're talking about, and they've written the books to prove it. (The 1920's and 30's Austrian School of Economics, and this is a gross simplification, believed that government should stay out of the economy lest we get into situations like....the one we're in now. If I'm mistaken, I'm sure one of the five contributors to the AE site will soon beat me about the head and shoulders with a Clue Stick.)
Many of the articles go about 6 inches over my head. Almost everything in the comment fields goes over my head, because it's mostly students of these people trying to show off.
My favorite posts are the ones that Chris and Steve have done in defense of Wal-Mart. I've attempted that myself a few times, and it's lonely work. But these guys explain why Wal-Mart is like the Coast Guard instead of FEMA. They offer yet another rationale for Wal-Mart's eligibility for the Nobel Prize. And the next time I get into an argument about the merits of that particular company, these guys are getting a call.

Back To The Drawing Board is an interesting place, and I wish the author would put up an extended "About Me" link. After looking around there for a while, you want to know more about who put it all together.
You may have heard of Pascal's Wager - mathematician Blaise Pascal's theory that we should believe in God because we have everything to gain from that belief, and nothing to lose. Mr. Back To The Drawing Board makes a comparison to Pascal's Wager and Global Warming. Worth your attention. He's got an entire category devoted to Climate Change Skepticism.

Next is the Brit who runs Blognor Regis, who makes fascinating comparisons between Winston Churchill's warnings against the Fascist State and current problems with trash collectors. This would be funny if it weren't so typical. And I haven't watched it yet, but he links to a video of Mark Steyn speaking on multiculturalism. (Steyn is the journalist who got Canada's "MacLean's" magazine in trouble with the despicable Alberta Human Rights Commission.)

It's April, and I'm not even through browsing the sites that begin with a "B".
For the True Believers out there, Zebby's Libertarian Blog Place is like too much candy.

People Worth Reading

Sometime before the Iowa Caucuses, I emailed Zebby's Libertarian Blog Place and asked if my typing was adequate for their purposes.
Sometime after the Wisconsin primaries, they declared me worthy. (They'll let anybody in. They're just busy.)

Here are some of the new sites I've found in there:

Adamant, the Russell Seitz blog, has a good post about Hell freezing over. Mr. Seitz also posts on Taki's Top Drawer. And unhhh....look at this one in The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Seitz has firm opinions on the causes of Global Warming, and whether or not Al Gore can do anything about it.

Radley Balko's site, The Agitator, features an article that Radley has wrote for Fox News about recreational drug prohibition.

Cameron Clark at An American Front Porch has a Christian perspective on trying to reconcile God and Science. And Alan Gable from the same site trots out one of my favorite Hobby Horses, the minimum wage, for some well-deserved abuse. Alan's cartoon from this post will be stolen and used here sometime soon.

Russ Nelson at The Angry Economist has something to say about OSHA that many of us in manufacturing have long suspected. Go ahead. PLEASE hit the OSHA link. Please.

The aliens from Area 417 take one of Mike Huckabee's proposals to the logical extreme....

That's just the ones beginning with the letter "A".