Switch to Firefox

To my internet-connected friends and acquaintances:

I've been telling a lot of people about a new internet browser called Firefox, and I want to recommend to everyone that you ditch Microsoft Internet Explorer and start using the Firefox browser. Your initial period of adjustment will be amply rewarded with better functionality, security, and ease of use. "Tabbed browsing" is a great feature not offered by IE, which greatly improves webbrowsing efficiency. Give Firefox a try and I don't think you'll be sorry. Versions are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Of course, it's 100% free, and open-source.

Sincerely,
Dan Bowden
Tuscaloosa, AL

Below I have listed where to get the program, as well as where to get extensions and which ones I consider essential.

**************************

You can download Firefox here. The latest version as of this writing
is version 0.9.3 . I have experienced no major bugs with it. It
crashes much less often than IE.

http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/

Extensions are small programs that integrate into Firefox and add features. Firefox is simple and small by design--you add what you want and leave out what you don't need, unlike bloated programs such as IE.

The extensions page for the latest version of Firefox is here, and is
also available under the Tools:Extensions menu in Firefox:

http://update.mozilla.org/extensions/?application=firefox

Download and install Firefox first, then get the extensions you want.

There are other, older extensions pages. Some of these extensions
will not work with the latest version of Firefox, and some will. You
may have to experiment.

Other extensions pages:
http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/
http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/

This is a list of the extensions I use, and consider essential. Most
are available on the first page listed above. The others are
available on the older pages. If you have trouble getting them to
auto-install, try going to the "homepage" link for the extension and
installing from there. Hundreds of other extensions are available,
so you have lots of options to choose from. If you find something
really good that I have overlooked, please let me know.

*********************************
Dan's Must-Have Extensions:

Dictionary Search - highlight words and get definitions with a few mouse clicks. Many useful options, such as Wikipedia search and translation options.

Googlebar - adds Googlebar search and highlighting capability

Bug-Me-Not - bypass annoying registration pages on websites, including web newspapers.

Tabbrowser Extensions - Adds many options. Drop-down history of closed tabs very useful. I think this extension is better than "Tabbrowser Preferences." You may have to go to an older extension page to find it, but it does work with 0.9.3

Create Shortcut - Allows you to create a shortcut icon on the desktop.

Sort Bookmarks - Sorts your bookmarks folder alphabetically.

Single Window - Forces new pages to open in a new tab instead of another window.

Adblock - blocks pop-ups and internet ads. Essential.

BlogThis - Allows posting directly to your blog (useful if you use Blogger). Another extension is available for LiveJournal.

Sage - RSS and Atom feed aggregator. Simple to use. If you don't know what these terms mean, start learning. This tech makes it a lot easier to keep up with the changes to your favourite blogs and websites, if they offer an XML feed.

Mini-T - allows tabs to be rearranged by dragging and dropping.

All-In-One Gestures - allows page navigations via simple gestures with the mouse. No hunting and clicking buttons.

Plain Text Links - allows any web address to be highlighted and opened in a new tab, even if it is not formatted as a link. For example, you could open "lewrockwell.com" in a new tab--no cutting and pasting.

TinyURL Creator - Allows use of TinyURL service to shrink giant URL's into manageable size. Very useful when sending links to friends and posting to lists.

Add Bookmark Here - Adds a menu option to each bookmark folder to add the current page as a bookmark in that folder.

Show Old Extensions - shows extensions you have on your system for versions of Firefox before 0.9.3. Useful since some of these will still work, and newer versions are not yet available.

Allow Right Click - enables right-click menu functionality, even if web page tries to disable it.

Tab X - adds a close button on each tab.

Focus Last Selected Tab - Changes focus to last tab used when closing another tab. Without this, default is usu. to the last tab on the right. Useful when following links and opening lots of tabs.

WebmailCompose - Essential if, like me, you use YahooMail or a similar webmail service. Without this, clicking on an email address will open IE (thanks to the evil machinations of Microsoft). This causes the link to open in Firefox.

Always Remember Password - causes your computer to store and auto-fill password info for sites that normally won't let you do this, such as Yahoo Mail.

Barbour County "enhancing" revenues with asset forfeiture

I'm from Barbour County, and I hadn't heard about this until I stumbled across it online.

Consultants present downtown renewal plan to skeptical residents

"Thirty million dollars in federal and local public funds would pay for the renovation of the remainder of the downtown area into a combination of townhouses, an urban park and mixed residential, retail and office space. About $5 million in federal funds have already been allocated through the Federal Highway Administration for the renovation and another $3 million will likely be allocated soon through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Walker said."

This is just another example of eminent domain abuse, with private property being taken and given to developers. The courthouse is just thrown in to make it all look like a "public use."

Read the story here. (The expensive hired "consultants" are from New York, by the way.)

H.K Edgerton warned against "trespassing" on public property

A quote from the editorial:

"While Edgerton claimed he came to UT simply to view the Confederate statues that adorn the campus, the fact that he was carrying the rebel flag as he did it shows he was really trying to bring attention to the opinion he's been defending for years.

"Some would say he got what he was asking for when the University issued him a criminal trespass warning for displaying the Confederate flag near the South Mall. But the University's treatment of Edgerton illustrates a major flaw in the administration's free speech policy."

Read the article here.

Buff Bulls

Here is a fascinating column from the NYT (registration required) about the possibility for genetic enhancement of humans. While bio-luddites want to prevent any improvement in human genetics, I look forward to the eradication of disease and infirmity (and being ripped without having to exercise would be cool too!).

The Crime Wave That Wasn't

The Crime Wave That Wasn't. Christopher Westley of the Ludwig von Mises Institute examines the aftermath of the defeat of Bob Riley's tax plan. Somehow, the end-of-the-world scenario painted by the tax-pushers didn't happen. An important factor for the lack of a crime wave is that many of the people in Alabama's overflowing prison system are there for non-violent drug offences, and never committed any real crimes in the first place.

Mises and Hayek in League With Nazis?

This is pretty funny. Some lefty with a perfectly rational dislike of George W. Bush lets himself go off the conspiratorial rails by trying to connect Bush and the Nazis with Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, who were apparently funded by the Rockefellers! Gee, no wonder Austrian economics is dominant in American academia!

"In essence, the Rockefellers maintain a monopoly on economic theory. To understand how they gained such control brings us back to the 1920s. During the 1920s, two economists rose to prominence: Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich A. Hayek. Both were helped by Rockefeller money. Von Mises toured the United States in 1926. The tour of American Universities was sponsored by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Foundation and was greatly successful in promoting the views of the Austrian School of Economics. Hayek tutored personally David Rockefeller in economics.

"In 1950, von Hayek was brought to the United States to teach at the University of Chicago. He didn't teach economics, he was actually made a professor on the Committee on Social Thought. This was an exceptionally dangerous position for a man that held the views von Hayek did. In 1945, von Hayek's The Road to Serfdom was published. This poorly written book was an attack on the concept of the nation-state. In it, von Hayek argued that the nation-state was a hindrance to peace, and socialism led to totalitarian systems, which treated their citizens as serfs. In place of the nation-state von Hayek proposed a supra-national authority or world federation consisting of the financial elite.

"This elite would then be free to rule the world according to their own interest. In 1947, von Hayek created the Mount Pelerin Society, made up of the financial elite of Europe, as a first step toward his supranational authority. In the years since, the Mount Perlin Society has been influential in creating numerous "conservative" think tanks, which promote free market economic policies for the Establishment."

See this article by Gary North for a more accurate account of Mises' and Hayek's positions in U.S. academia.

A Letter to the Shriners

Sent to the officers of the ALCAZAR SHRINE:

Dear Officers of the Alcazar Shriners:

I was recently informed via an email circulated to the members
of the Alabama League of the South, of which I am a member,
that our organisation was not welcome at the Alacazar Shrine in
Montgomery, which the League had previously reserved for our
annual meeting in October, and that the League would be denied
the use of the facilities.

I am very disappointed, for two reasons. Firstly, I was looking
forward to seeing the Alcazar Shrine building, and perhaps
meeting some Shriners. I am not a member of the Shriners or a
Mason, but recent study has lead me to an interest in
Freemasonry, I have been trying to learn more about both
groups.

Secondly, I was disappointed because I expected the Shriners, of
all groups, not to take seriously the smears that certain
organisations (notably the Southern Poverty Law Center) have
made against the League, accusing it of being a racist “hate
group.” The Freemasons and Shriners have long been the
subject of innumerable wild allegations and conspiracy theories,
so I would hope that you would not take such charges at face
value. I note that on your internet homepage
(http://www.webruler.com/shriners/alcazar.htm), there is a
picture of a pin for past Potentate Sir Horace J. Russell which
features a Confederate Battle Flag. Some people would call that
a sign that the Shriners are also harbouring secret “hate,” but of
course any reasonable person would realise that such a leap of
logic is spurious and unjustified. The main criteria for being
designated a “hate group” by the SPLC seems to be that THEY
hate YOU.

The members of the League are good, upstanding people who
love their state and only want to make it better. Contrary to
what some people might have you believe, no LS members I
know wear sheets, burn crosses, or spend their time obsessing
over racial issues.

I ask that you please reconsider your decision and re-invite the
League to hold its state meeting at the Alcazar Shrine. You will
be hosting a group of fine people, and you might attract interest
in your organisation from potential new members, as well as
demonstrating that you will not be mislead or bullied into
following a tyrannical PC agenda which is quickly tending
towards making any display of Confederate symbols a “hate
crime.”

Sincerely,
Daniel V. Bowden, J.D.
past chairman, Tuscaloosa League of the South (2002-2004)

Carpetbagger Packs His Bags

Lee Warner, the carpetbagging chairman of the Alabama Historical Commission, foe of all things Confederate, and handmaiden of the SPLC/civil rights crowd, is now the former chairman. I feel sorry for the folks in whatever state he winds up in.