Bin Laden Wants "Anybody But Bush"? I Don't Think So!

"The view of al Qaeda is 'anybody but Bush.'" Those are the key words in this story from the Washington Times claiming that al Quaeda is planning a program of assassinations to affect the U.S. economy and election. Well, maybe so, but I doubt the "anybody but Bush" sentiment is accurate. Bush is the poster boy for their recruiting efforts. Why would they want to see him go? This looks to me like a planted quote to stir up support for Bush. The Washington Times is a Bush paper, after all. Note the the quote is attributed to "unnamed officials."

Tennessee DOE bans LRC!

It was only a matter of time, I guess. You can't burn works published on the internet, but I guess you can block them from being seen. Tennessee's Ministry of Education has banned LewRockwell.Com!

LRC: Banned in Tennessee!

Property Rights Protect the Poor

Stephen Greenhut writes about the horrible legacy of the recently-overturned Poletown decision. Though there hasn't been much in the news about it recently, the Tuscaloosa Downtown Project is still in the works. Thanks to Sen. Richard Shelby, the politically-unconnected businesses in downtown are getting the boot so that the land can be given to private developers to put in high-rent offices and shops. Greenhut is right--property rights are most important for the poor and those without political pull. When property rights are not secure, the rich and powerful can use government to take what they want from everyone else. There is no difference between "property rights" and "human rights." Without property rights, you have no rights at all.

Bad Vibrations

Alabama doesn't actually keep legislative history records, but courtesy of this clever piece at Slate Magazine, you can read the "transcript" of the debate over the enactment of Alabama's infamous vibrator ban.

NB: Supreme Court Justice Scalia doesn't believe in the use of legislative history in interpreting statutes. He prefers looking to the "plain language" of the statute, and if interpreting a statute that way has effects the legislature didn't intend, he believes that it is up to the legislature to fix the problems. Unfortunately for Alabamians, because of budget cuts, the legislative printing office had to reduce the size of the orientation manual given to the legislators. They only had room in the shortened edition to explain how to pass laws and create problems, not how to repeal laws and solve them, so it looks like we are stuck. ;)

China in Africa: Business is Business

"What China is perhaps not anticipating is how, when you embrace these terrible regimes, you eventually get tainted for it."

This from a pointy-headed pseudo-intellectual in California, regarding China's new trading interests in African countries. Apparently, China takes the position that "business is business," that that how other countries are run is none of its concern. How novel! Sounds like a policy Washington and Jefferson would have supported.

In any case, I don't think that a regime which killed between 20 and 60 million of its own citizens during the 20th Century is going to be worried about being "tainted" because they are buying oil from some penny-ante African strongman.

NYT link here (may require registration): China in Africa: All Trade, With No Political Baggage