May 16

Cuban socialism devastated the environment

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Reason Magazine’s cartoonist Peter Bagge recently took a 4-day trip to Cuba.

(Cuba has recently opened itself somewhat to American tourism.)

Bagge reports that Cuba is a filthy island with littered beaches and smoke-filled air. The air pollution is so bad there that Cuba’s weather reports sometimes simply say: “Smoky.”

There are rolling blackouts and bad plumbing. Evidence of racial discrimination, according to Bagge, is everywhere, even while Cuban socialists proclaim their society to be racism-freeSee here.

Bagge reports that the most highly educated Cubans make more money catering to western tourists than they would practicing their professions.

May 15

Next weekend: Join us for a trek into Montana’s Crazy Mountains to ‘chase ice’

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In 2016, Lysander Spooner University will embark on a series of research trips aimed at studying glacier in Montana and the greater Yellowstone region.

Join us this coming Saturday at the sidewalk in front of the ‘MT Cup’ coffee shop in Livingston, Montana at around 8:00 a.m..

After introductions, we will caravan to the nearby Crazy Mountains (estimated drive around 30 miles) where we will begin trekking in search of the Crazy Range’s mountain snowfields.

Be warned: it is early season and there is plenty of snow to navigate through. Bring crampons, snowshoes or skis.

AN ANSWER TO ‘CHASING ICE’?

Several people have pointed us to a film and lecture series called “Chasing Ice” by nature photographer James Balog and Jeff Orlowski. The 2012 film is visually impressive and quite stimulating. It depicts the well-funded ‘Extreme Ice Survey’ project, in which Balog and other activists don expensive state-of-the-art gear and take sequential footage of glacier melts in Greenland, Iceland and elsewhere, in an effort to promote fear over alleged manmade global warming.

“Chasing Ice,” of course, has been met with rave reviews almost everywhere. Critics like Tony Heller, however, point out that what Balog and Orlowski attribute to manmade carbon emissions has actually been happening FOR CENTURIES, meaning that fossil fuels cannot be blamed for all the world’s reduced glaciers.

Blalog will show some pictures from 100 years ago, and compare them to modern pictures, to prove that global warming is making the glaciers disappear. What he won’t tell them is that everything he documents has been going on for centuries, and has nothing to do with human activity.

Lysander Spooner University’s research project is much less well funded and less ambitious. We aim to capture photographs of local Montana and/or Wyoming glaciers from the same vantage points year after year on the same calendar dates.

Join us next weekend!

May 15

Egyptian courts sentence 51 people to two years in jail and 151 others to five-year sentences for participating in “unlicensed protests” against government

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See this story from Yahoo News.

Every government that ever existed ultimately came for all freedom, all property, all money, and to kill all who resist.

Frequently, governments accuse anti-government speakers of such crimes as treason, sedition, undermining the morale of the military, conspiracy to overthrow the government, or plotting terrorism.

Defense lawyers have pointed out that many of those arrested in Egypt were simply grabbed randomly from cafes, stores and sidewalks, in a show of force by the state.

May 14

Venezuelan looters steal flour, chicken and underwear

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Two decades ago, Venezuela was a vibrant but struggling, up-and-coming democracy.

The voters overwhelmingly approved of Hugo Chavez and took the country in a big-government, socialist direction.

Venezuela drove out private businesses, censored the press, and imprisoned dissidents. You know, . . . to help the poor.

Now the poor are poorer than ever.

Mobs in Venezuela have stolen flour, chicken and even underwear this week as looting increases.

Many basic products have run short. See here.

May 12

Government caught adjusting temperature data for Boulder, Colorado to make the past seem colder

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Again and again, data analyst Tony Heller has caught government agencies doctoring temperature data records to make the past seem colder (and the present, therefore, warmer in comparison).

Now Heller has noticed the official NOAA data set for Boulder, Colorado. In one case, the government agency has lowered past temperatures AS MUCH AS 7.8 DEGREES! See here.

NOAA lowered the average temperature for December 1957 by 7.8F, and made the average temperature minimum nearly as cold as the lowest temperature for the month.

“Almost every day of the month was above the adjusted average.”

May 12

Brazil Collapses under Socialism

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Like Venezuela, Brazil has been on a government-growing binge. Government “workers” have been given increasingly favorable pension and payment packages. Many retire young and live as barons at taxpayer expense. See here.

But the socialist trend of the past 15 years is now producing negative returns in Brazil. The economy is collapsing. See here.
Now the legislature is impeaching the country’s powermad socialist president. See here.

May 11

University of Oregon’s Elaborate Thought Control Network

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Government colleges such as the University of Oregon are supposed to be subject to the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment’s protection of free speech and free assembly.

But the universities have mostly become dens of Orwellian pro-government thought control, where dissenting opinions and criticisms of government are not only shunned but punished.

Look at this description of the University of Oregon’s elaborate thought-police network. A team of dozens of paid government officials are in place to investigate and punish all suggestions of political correctness.

Today when one walks away from a government college campus he immediately enters a freer, friendlier, less-expensive world.

May 10

Thousands of pictures of naked defendants found on judge’s computer

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The practice of American law has increasingly departed from its original adversarial model. Over the past century, courts have increasingly favored the state over the citizenry.

Here is a story of an Arkansas judge who apparently got into the practice of demanding that male defendants report to his house for “community service.”

“[The pictures] depict young men, many naked who are in various poses inside the judge’s home and outside in his yard,” the letter states, adding that many of the men had received checks from the judge and had appeared before him as defendants.

Even with this evidence, it is probably an even bet whether this judge will even be criminally charged with any offense.

May 10

New Jersey troopers arrest woman for remaining silent–then advise her of her right to remain silent!

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The inquisitors of the Spanish Inquisition generally began their interrogations with a single question: “Do you know why we’ve summoned you here today?”

The goal behind such questions was to get the hapless subject to admit to heresy or blasphemy.

Nothing has changed since the 1300s

Today it has become customary for troopers who pull over drivers to begin their questioning with the question, “Do you know why I stopped you today?”

The purpose–as always–is to get drivers to incriminate themselves. The officers hope to obtain a response that they can use against the driver in the event the driver challenges the ticket in court.

Here is an amazing story (and video) of New Jersey cops ARRESTING a driver for refusing to answer the question, “Do you know why I pulled you over?”

The driver happened to be a lawyer. She is now suing the New Jersey officers for violating her civil rights. See here.

May 10

Sowell: American schooling delivers uninterrupted worship of the state from kindergarten to grad school

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Thomas Sowell is out with a column describing the sorry state of intellectual intolerance at most of America’s government-supported colleges and universities.

Sowell says that colleges have always leaned “left” (code for pro-government). But a dissenting voice could at least survive on the campuses of the 1950s and ’60s.

Today one can literally go from kindergarten to becoming a graduate student seeking a Ph.D., without ever hearing a vision of the world that conflicts with the vision of the left.