ARTICLES

Letters to the Editor
Curt Howland, Jim Davidson, Alan R. Weiss, and Jake Witmer
• FULL STORY

Merry Chistmas, Mice!
by L. Neil Smith
As many of my readers are aware, I'm a Type II diabetic—just as many of them are, as well. There happen to be something like 16-20 million of us in America. Sometimes it seems as though, if you live long enough, your chances of becoming diabetic gradually approach 100 percent.
• FULL STORY

Loss of Meaningful Rituals = Lack of Responsibility
by Andrew G. Eggleston Sr.
Perhaps I'm off on a tear again but I have something to get off my cerebral cortex, as the title says "Loss of Meaningful Rituals = Lack of Responsibility". This little formula has been kicking around in my brain for some years; I believe it began to take shape in the late eighties when I ran a halfway house for troubled teens (mostly runaways) in the great metropolis of Portland Oregon. The young people who at times seemed to flock to me and mine at a house lovingly referred-to as "The Inferno" after Dante's book of the same name. For many of the same reasons, young people gathered at what was seen as a portal out of hell. Many had been abused (male and female), many had come from intolerant homes, and many were struggling to find a meaning, any meaning, in this life. What we provided most was not food, water or shelter, but a sense of belonging, a sense of structure, and a sense of progression. Those who stayed short-term in turn referred others to our care, some who stayed long-term; stayed from a sense of family and duty to those that came after. As an experiment it would finally fail, but not for lack of anything except money, "ole mighty dollar".
• FULL STORY

Superstate North America vs. Individual Sovereignty
by Dennis Lee Wilson
The Nationalists have been quite busy tossing red herrings to libertarians. To be accurate, it is actually Nationalists within the libertarian movement who are creating red herrings out of the numerous issues raised by Statists. 2006 was particularly active with three major herrings. Early this year (and still ongoing) it was the allegedly "illegal" immigrant threat to the National Welfare System and National Border "sovereignty", followed by a resurgence of the Great Islamic Terrorist Threat. The latest red herring and great threat is Superstate North America aka the North American Union (NAU). All of these fake issues divert "libertarian" thought away from freedom issues and toward the "need" for a strong National (and Socialist or Fascist) State (in German, it abbreviates to NAZI) with more restrictions on an individual's freedom—for our own protection, of course—that will somehow "protect us" from immigrants, Islamic terrorists and from NAU, all issues which the State is suspiciously involved in creating.
• FULL STORY

Your Lawn Looked Stupid This Year
by Jonathan David Morris
Can this be the end of stupid Christmas decorations, please? Can 2006 be the last time we celebrate Christmas with giant inflatable snow globes on our front lawns?
• FULL STORY

Mesopotamian Merriment
by L. Neil Smith
'Tis the season to be whiny. Everywhere you go, what you hear, even above the recorded Christmas Muzak in the mall, are social critics of the self-appointed variety, religious crybabies, and assorted other spoilsports, parasites, and sour apples whimpering over just about every aspect of the winter holidays you can possibly think of.
• FULL STORY

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