“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” – Thomas Jefferson

And sometimes it can be refreshed simply by asserting one’s natural right.

As noted by my friends Difranco and Mark (and a few other sources) the Lakota nation has declared its independence by withdrawing from treaties with the United States.

Congratulations to the Lakota. Maybe they will inspire more Sovereign Nations to reach for their own freedom?

My favorite conspiracy theory is the one that says the world is being run by a handful of ultra-rich capitalists, and that our elected governments are mere puppets. I sure hope it’s true. Otherwise my survival depends on hordes of clueless goobers electing competent leaders. That’s about as likely as a dog pissing the Mona Lisa into a snow bank.

From Scott Adams’ (aka the Dilbert guy) blog post – Secret Society.

I don’t agree with Free Libertarian that the “true home” for libertarians is the Libertarian Party. Most people seem to think that the only way to change society is through political means, i.e., through party politics. That only shows that most of us are addicted to politics. What is needed for a free society is the elimination of political influences on our lives. Politicization of decision-making in all areas of life is the collectivist way of running a society.

Joining the Libertarian Party is joining the political process. As in all parties, the end result will be political careerism and political deal-making. Capital-L Libertarians are not necessarily different from any other political operatives. They are subject to (and many will acquiesce in) the pressures on all politicians to keep their jobs and take money for favors.

Relying on the political process to free us from the corrupting and anti-liberty consequences of the political process is a fundamental mistake and a contradiction of libertarian principles.

I’m still learning my way through all this nonsense, but I can always count on Mark to codify something that I’ve been thinking about. Now he just needs to post about the meaning of life and I’ll be set.

It’s been a long time since I learned about this and I would never have remembered the details. So it surprised me to re-learn that, after the fourth batter in the lineup, (President Pro-Tempore of the Senate), the job falls on the shoulders of appointees starting with the Secretary of State and finishing up with the “lesser” Secretaries.

That just bothers me…

If you’re familiar with the Blackberry handheld email doohickeys, you’re probably already familiar with this issue. Due to a patent dispute (over a potentially about-to-be-overturned patent that probably shouldn’t have been awarded in the first place – different issue) Research In Motion (RIM) the manufacturer and provider of Blackberries and their services may be forced to turn off the service.

The government’s response? Well, in their rush to shut down RIM, they’ve decided that the service is so important that government officials should be exempted from the shutdown. Private businesses and consumers, on the other hand, would lose their service if this happens.

Apparently, government work is more important and/or vital than yours.

Read Judi’s post. She’s far more eloquent than I am and she provides a nice quote from CNN Money that sums everything up nicely.

But something Nick doesn’t touch on is that I’d also like the ability to turn the suggestion completely off.

I like the fact that, currently, every Google search I make starts fresh. There is no (to the best of my understanding) existing bias that will pre-refine my search for me. Just because I was searching for Barney junk for my niece last week doesn’t mean that I want info about purple dinosaurs this week.

It’s funny that Nick cites Amazon as an example of your attention data at work for you because I’ve yet to get a useful suggestion from that site. I once ordered a textbook for my wife for one of her business classes. Now whenever I login, I get suggestions related to college texts and business books. I don’t want it, but I can’t for the life of me figure out how to make it quit using that as suggestion criteria. I view everything on the Amazon homepage as advertising and basically ignore it.

So, yeah, let me make use of my attention data, but don’t forget to give me the option to decide when it’s used on my behalf.

No longer will he be singing “C is for cookie, that’s good enough for me!” Instead, he’ll be singing about how “A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food.”

Sesame Street has always done good by kids. Heck, I’m pretty sure I learned my letters and numbers from watching it. But childhood obesity has nothing to do with Cookie Monster and everything to do with parenting. It’s not up to The Children’s Television Workshop (or the government, for that matter) to take the lead on these issues. Parents need to remember that they’re in charge and that they have the responsibility to teach their children healthy habits.

This is yet another sign that parental abdication has simply gone too far.

Scott Kurtz sums it up best in the April 8th strip from his online comic, PvP.

Glad to see there are still people in the world who want liberty bad enough to do something about it.

Mortgage rates remain low by historic standards despite an economic recovery, a fact that leads economists to use words such as “confounding” and “mysterious” to describe the trend.

As both of you know, I really hate the government’s attempts at social engineering with the help of The Fed and our tax system, so this story really amused me. Even Greenspan is confused by the finance sector’s reluctance to heed The Fed’s beck and call.

I really appreciate lenders paying attention to the market and ignoring all the gloom and doom. Heck, I just might have to show my appreciation by refinancing.

I’ve got no idea what to do with this news, but I figured posting would put it on Mark’s radar. I’m sure he’s got a rant he can use on this. I just hope he hasn’t dropped from his news aggregator, yet. ;)