The State In Action. Austro-Athenian Empire (2010-05-04):

Forty years ago today, Ohio National Guardsmen murdered four unarmed students at Kent State and wounded nine others, permanently paralysing one. (CHT Making Light for the reminder.) The students' crime? Protesting the invasion of Cambodia (or, in some cases, walking nearby while others were protesting it). "That is government; that…

Happy Sunday, y’all. And I hope you had a happy May Day. I was away from writing opportunities all day yesterday, but in belated honor of International Workers’ Day, I’m pleased to announce that Fair Use Repository is now home to Black Friday of 1887, a commemoration of the Haymarket martyrs which was published in November, 1914 in Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman’s Mother Earth.

There will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!

–Last words of August Spies (1887-11-11), immigrant, anarchist, and Haymarket martyr

I’m announcing it here partly to take notice of the article itself; but also because this article is the first of several heretofore unwebbed articles from Mother Earth which will be appearing over the next several days. (I hope to have the entire November 1914 issue of Mother Earth available online by the end of the coming week.)

And what about y’all? What have you been up to this week? Write anything? Leave a link and a short description for your post in the comments. Or fire away about anything else you might want to talk about.

• The Dialethic Right. Roderick, Austro-Athenian Empire (2010-04-28). Two things conservatives like to say: Our constitutional rights aren't granted to us by government. Our rights come from God, and the Constitution simply recognises them. Illegal immigrants and terrorist suspects don't have constitutional rights because they're not American citizens. (Linked Wednesday 2010-04-28.)

• Remembering Corporate Liberalism. rechelon, Invisible Molotov (2010-04-24). "Remembering Corporate Liberalism" by Roderick T Long "During the first half of the 20th century, there was a widespread perception that big government and big business were fundamentally at odds. Free-market individualists generally regarded themselves as defenders of peaceful business interests against the rapacious state. Those on the left saw… (Linked Thursday 2010-04-29.)

• XKCD “Hell” implemented in flash. Hacker News (2010-04-29). Comments (Linked Thursday 2010-04-29.)

• Anarchism 101. You, Anarchoblogs (2010-04-16). I love how people who would barely pass an 11th-grade civics test like to taunt anarchists with the ever-so-damning, irrefutable line "But how would you prevent a warlord from rising to power, in Anarchy?" and then act as if that is such a complete and well-thought-out argument that it pre-empts… (Linked Thursday 2010-04-29.)

• trying to find embeddable video, but rachel maddow – who, Captain Capitulation, eye of the storm (2010-04-15). trying to find embeddable video, but rachel maddow – who, actually, i like to watch – is incessantly touting her show on timothy mcveigh: it's all about the dangers of "anti-government violence." i guess really they focus-grouped the phrase "anti-gov" and now use it as a synonym for insanity. but… (Linked Thursday 2010-04-29.)

• Insert “Won’t Get Fooled Again” Reference Here. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-04-29). Charlie Savage reports: The Obama administration is seeking to compel a writer to testify about his confidential sources for a 2006 book about the Central Intelligence Agency, a rare step that was authorized by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. The author, James Risen, who is a reporter for The… (Linked Thursday 2010-04-29.)

For those who have been following some discussions elsewhere, this one goes out to dukemeiser. Because Axe Cop is the world’s greatest defender of the Bush–Obama doctrine of surveillance and Homeland Security:

What I like about the comic is that it really does seem to be a pretty accurate representation of how War on Terror-hawks think the world ought to work. Why shouldn’t it? To hell with courts and civil liberties and all those other chickenshit liberal axe-blocks. Since the government has a list of ALL THE BAD GUYS, wouldn’t you want them to chop their heads off?

And I’ve got to say, the kind of police-state and assassin-state policies that they insist on as simple common sense really do sound like something that you get when some bright policy wonk comes up with some legal verbiage and precedents to trick out an idea which, at its core, is something that he got from the ideas and fantasies of his 5 year old little brother.

Hot Pursuit. Daily Brickbats (2010-04-27):

San Antonio, Texas, police say Officer Gabriel Villareal has been suspended indefinitely, but they refuse to say why. However, a woman, who was not identified by local media, says he showed up at her door one day saying he was responding to a 911 call. She said she hadn’t called….

In which Officer Gabriel Villareal, stalker in uniform, uses his powers as a police officer to hunt down a San Antonio woman’s address, barge in on her unannounced, and harass her in her own home. If you or I used our own private resources to pull a stunt like that, we’d be prime candidates for a restraining order and might well end up arrested on stalking or menacing charges. When Men In Uniform use their own far more extensive resources, as well as the implicit threat of their legal and physical powers, to inflict their unwanted attentions on unwilling women, suddenly it’s a private administrative matter, to be handled behind closed doors by the Department.