ARTICLES

Letters to the Editor
from Donald Meinshausen, E.J. Totty, Ward Griffiths, and Chris Claypoole
• FULL STORY

There's No Such Thing As "Goodminton"
by L. Neil Smith
Election 2006 has come and gone, uprooting Bible-thumpers, born again warmongers, xenophobes, torturers, and homo-haters, replacing them with what will soon prove to be endless hordes of food fascists, tree huggers, Luddites, energy Nazis, anti-smokers, animal rights (but never human rights) crazies, acid rain, ozone depletion, and global warming hoaxers, Sandalistas, and gun-grabbing victim disarmament zombies.
• FULL STORY

Frying Pans and Fires
by Chris Claypoole
The recently concluded elections across the country have produced another alleged change in who rules us. At the time of this writing, the Dems have re-taken the House of Representatives and the Senate nationally. Here in Maryland, the Dems have re-taken the governorship and added to an already overwhelming majority in both houses of the Maryland Assembly (state legislature). Locally, the voters seem to think that divided government is good for the country, but one-party iron rule is good for Maryland.
• FULL STORY

Dances With Comcast
by Jonathan David Morris
I've had a lot of bad experiences with utility companies. Never in my life have I had one as bad as my recent run-in with cable giant Comcast. After closing on our new house last Friday, my wife and I spent the entire next day sitting around waiting for a cable TV/Internet/digital phone installation that, as of this writing, still hasn't happened.
• FULL STORY

No, We Won't All Be Speaking Arabic Next Year
by Doug Newman
Lies are powerful things. Hitler knew that if you just tell lies often enough—no matter how outrageous they might be—people will believe them. Just keep lying and lying and lying.
• FULL STORY

The Capitalist Manifesto
by Peter Jones
Freedom. The seven letter backbone of our civilization, the supposed the underpinning of all western culture and society. Many millions of people have willingly endured the horrors of war in order to defend this abstract principle. Its emergence and spread has been the dominate geopolitical trend of the past two centauries, a trend which shows no sign of ebbing as we enter the new millennium. Yet what does it mean to be free? No term evoked so frequently is shrouded in a greater cloud of ambiguity. This lack of understanding presents a grave danger to ideology of liberty, as that which is known only through dogmatic acceptance cannot stand the test of time. If the reasoning behind a belief is not known, it is mere inevitability that this creed will soon disappear.
• FULL STORY

What Flags of Our Fathers Forgot
by Scott Kauzlarich
I went to see Flags of our Fathers this weekend and I was expecting a pro-war movie, a Saving Private Ryan in the Pacific type of deal. I'm happy to report that this was not the case. Self-sacrifice was not glamorized; there was no glorious victory. The film was supposedly about the battle of Iwo Jima but in fact, little attention was paid to the battle or its outcome except as the setting for the famous flag-raising picture. The movie spent most of its time recounting the manipulation of the flag-raising soldiers and their families by the government in order to sell bonds. The tone of Flags is decidedly anti-war and anti-state, which is not surprising since it was directed by Clint Eastwood, a self-described libertarian.
• FULL STORY

It's Your Choice
by Lady Liberty
Too many times in too many elections, most of us have felt forced to cast our votes for the lesser evil. It seems that all too often a candidate representing the greater good just didn't exist. Unfortunately, even when such candidates do exist, we find reasons not to vote for them. We worry that we're throwing our vote away because our preferred candidate can't win. We're convinced that voting for our preferred candidate will merely take votes away from the person we consider the lesser evil, allowing the greater evil to win. We're afraid that we might know enough about the candidates to vote wisely, but that too many others haven't even heard of "our" candidate.
• FULL STORY

A Word to the Unwise
by L. Neil Smith
It's time for a big fat "I told you so" to all you Republicans, conservatives, neoconservatives, and neolibertarians who are reeling with surprise and shock over what happened to them the first Tuesday in November. You people screwed up bigtime, and you got it all back, in the shorts, in one long evening in hell you'll remember all your lives.
• FULL STORY

Lawsuit Challenges Academic 'Freedom'
by Wendy McElroy
Does a professor have the right to require his students to comply with a certain political or social view in order to pass a course? Can universities demand that students observe policies that conflict with their religious views or restrict their First Amendment rights? A lawsuit filed by a Missouri college student may soon provide some answers to these questions—with important implications for academia.
• FULL STORY

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