• "David Corn, left, of Mother Jones and James Pinkerton of Fox. Captain Capitulation, eye of the storm (2010-11-06). "David Corn, left, of Mother Jones and James Pinkerton of Fox News challenge Obama to cure Alzheimer's." a nice formulation! i would think the skills he picked up in law school would help a lot here. i challenge obama to save my immortal soul, or to predict the weather in… (Linked Saturday 2010-11-06.)

• No Happy Meals, Only Happy Pills. cherylcline, der Blaustrumpf (2010-11-05). I don't mean to romanticize my own childhood, and I suffered plenty in the K-12 public school system, but it seems kids really do have it even worse today. Though I spent a lot of time outdoors, I've never been a very outwardly energetic person.  I vividly recall a childhood… (Linked Sunday 2010-11-07.)

• Opportunities & Announcements... James Tuttle, On ALLiance (2010-11-02). Dear Friends, ALLies and Fellow Workers, Enrollment for C4SSdotorg!!!@@e2;20ac;26;#x2122;s Stateless University is open until November 8th.  I will be the ombudsman for Introduction to Anarchism, Bravo Section.  Check it out! If you are a member of Students for Liberty, then you have the opportunity to earn a Stateless U. scholarship. … (Linked Thursday 2010-11-04.)

• just one more time: people like ben bernanke and bill clinton. Captain Capitulation, eye of the storm (2010-11-04). just one more time: people like ben bernanke and bill clinton have no place as writers on an op-ed page. the first thing i'd ask fred hiatt or david shipley: are you satisfied that the person whose name is on the article actually wrote it? and second, if you want their point of view… (Linked Thursday 2010-11-04.)

• He ordered the torture. Marja Erwin (2010-11-04). He quibbles about whether the word applies, but brags about giving the order. All this shows that when the rulers commit atrocities, they have impunity.The ruling class is above the law.The scapegoat classes are below the law.The system creates corruption. It creates monsters. And it deflects anger away from itself… (Linked Thursday 2010-11-04.)

• Evictions or Occupations? lilprole, Modesto Anarcho (2010-10-13). People in Merced Protest eviction of homeless squatters.In Merced today, police and city workers began the eviction process of a homeless encampment that has existed for several years. Where will these people go? Many will simply go to other camps, or find shelters to go into. According to the City… (Linked Thursday 2010-11-04.)

• The Media Aren’t Liberal. Radley Balko, Radley Balko: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-11-01). For the last few months, my colleague Matt Welch has been tracking the positions of California's newspapers on Proposition 19, the ballot measure that would legalize marijuana for recreational use. At last count, 26 of the state!!!@@e2;20ac;26;#x2122;s 30 largest dailies (plus USA Today) had run editorials on the issue, and… (Linked Thursday 2010-11-04.)

• Comic Book !!!@@e2;20ac;2dc;Pirated!!!@@e2;20ac;26;#x2122; On 4Chan, Author Joins Discussion... Watches Sales Soar. Stephan Kinsella, Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom (2010-11-01). A TechDirt post by Mike Masnick: Comic Book !!!@@e2;20ac;2dc;Pirated!!!@@e2;20ac;26;#x2122; On 4Chan, Author Joins Discussion... Watches Sales Soar from the connect-with-fans dept Paul Watson points us to yet another example of how engaging with fans of your work (even if, technically, they infringed on your copyrights) can lead to pretty happy… (Linked Thursday 2010-11-04.)

• Customs Officials Protect America from Wealthy Canadian Who Wanted to Spend Money Here. Radley Balko, Radley Balko: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-11-02). Canadian poker pro Terrence Chan has twice been turned away at the U.S. border by customs officials. He describes the first time, a week ago Thursday. After an hour of waiting, I made it to the front, where I was asked the usual questions. Where do I live? What do… (Linked Thursday 2010-11-04.)

• Sacramento Police Kill As More Information on Modesto Police Brutality Comes Forward. lilprole, Modesto Anarcho (2010-11-03). In a situation mimicking police murders in Stockton, Modesto, and Bakersfield, Sacramento police are coming under fire for the shooting death of a 28 year old man on October 28th. Officers stopped a man on parole, and when he “reached into his waist band,” officers claim he was reaching for… (Linked Thursday 2010-11-04.)

I’ve never opposed voting on moral principle. Of course, I oppose government on moral principle, but, Patriotically Correct mythology to one side, the notion that casting a vote has any meaningful relationship to controlling the apparatus of government is one of the more ridiculous lies that representative democracies — that is, elective oligarchies — such as the United States government love to promote. Defensive voting is not immoral; it’s a strategy. But strategies may be foolish. And if the last few election cycles have proved anything, they’ve proved that this is a strategy with no pay-off. No matter how many times you change out the party in power, the interests of power remain the same, and even when you win, you lose.

So I am boycotting the election today. I hope that you will too. I will not vote for any candidate for political office, Democrat, Republican, or other, no matter what promises they make, and no matter what party they come from. I do not support them as candidates, and I do not support the oligarchical political machine they represent. If the last few election cycles prove anything, they prove that power-plays beat promises every time. It’s not just a few radicals who have noticed that something is deeply wrong; it’s not just a handful of malcontents who know that we need a radically different direction, away from the insane and destructive Beltway consensus — away from this government’s wars, this government’s bail-outs, this government’s secret surveillance, corporate health-insurance cartels, PATRIOT Acts, runaway police powers, catastrophic economic policeis, shameless fear-mongering and constant, unremitting power-grabs. But people have HOPEd and parties have CHANGEd and if it all accomplished anything at all, it was only to prove that we’re never going to get anything but more of the same as long as we maintain a false hope in electoral politics. If what you want is social progress, there is no shortcut around principled agitation, grassroots social movements, community organizing, civil disobedience and direct action. There is no low-calorie political substitute for D.I.Y. social transformation. Elections and party politicking are no way to make a revolution. They’re not even a way to make small change.

No matter who you vote for, the winner is always the government.

• Season of the Regulator. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-10-29). If you're a kid, Halloween is a time to be scared of witches, werewolves, and the undead. If you're an adult, it's a time to be scared of child snatchers, serial killers, and easily offended members of the PTA. When children get frightened, they squeal, scream, or huddle under the… (Linked Saturday 2010-10-30.)

• No More Users. ongoing by Tim Bray (2010-10-30). I just wrote a little piece about how to write software, and it contained a few references to the humans who carry the mobile devices on which the software runs, and who interact with it. I found myself referring to these individuals as "users" or "the user". Gack; I hate… (Linked Saturday 2010-10-30.)

• Chart of the Week: Inflation in the Real World. Gold Prices, Gold Prices (2010-10-26). By Jake Weber, Editor, The Casey Report As is often the case, there is a big difference between what the government statistics are reporting and what's going on in the real world. According to the most recent inflation reading published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), consumer prices grew… (Linked Saturday 2010-10-30.)

• Grammar as Virtue. Neverfox, Anarchoblogs in English (2010-10-25). Seen today on Facebook: [My] #1 grammatical pet peeve: when people say "literally" and it's not, such as: "walking into my room is like walking through a minefield, literally." Calling Hyacinth Bucket! To quote Charles Johnson at length (from another Facebook conversation in which he took me to task for… (Linked Saturday 2010-10-30.)

• TSA Says 11-Inch MacBook Air Can Stay in Bag at Security Check. Daring Fireball (2010-10-31). “Wire: ‘The Transportation Security Administration told CNN that the 11-inch Air, like the iPad, can stay inside bags when passing through the checkpoint. However, the TSA hasn’t yet determined whether the 13-inch air can stay inside a bag or must be removed.’ How can anyone argue this makes sense?” (Linked Sunday 2010-10-31.)

• feministhulk: HULK DRESS UP AS “REFUSAL TO ACKNOWLEDGE COMPLICITY BETWEEN PRIVILEGE AND OPPRESSION.” SCARIEST THING HULK CAN THINK OF. Twitter / feministhulk (2010-10-31). feministhulk: HULK DRESS UP AS “REFUSAL TO ACKNOWLEDGE COMPLICITY BETWEEN PRIVILEGE AND OPPRESSION.” SCARIEST THING HULK CAN THINK OF. (Linked Sunday 2010-10-31.)

• The IP-Industrial Complex (and how to fight it) David Koepsell, Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom (2010-10-27). When I began law school, the term for copyright protection was a mere life-of-author plus 50 years.  The term for patents was 17 years.  By the time I graduated, copyright terms were extended an additional 20 years, and patents an additional 3.  The ongoing efforts by industry to extend their… (Linked Thursday 2010-10-28.)

• The President With Two Faces. Jesse Walker, Jesse Walker: Reason Magazine articles and blog posts. (2010-10-28). The Advocate reports: When it comes to same-sex marriage, President Barack Obama acknowledged Wednesday that "attitudes evolve, including mine" during an interview with five progressive bloggers…. On the question of marriage, President Obama began by clarifying that he wasn't going to "make big news" at that particular moment. But his… (Linked Thursday 2010-10-28.)

• Obamacare Fosters Oligopoly. Sheldon Richman, The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty (2010-10-27). Well, now. It seems Obamacare is increasing concentration in the medical industry. From yesterday's Wall Street Journal: The turn toward consolidation among insurance companies is not new, and neither is it among doctors, hospitals and other providers. Yet the health bill has accelerated these trends, as all sides race to… (Linked Thursday 2010-10-28.)

• Screw Tolerance. Marja Erwin (2010-10-28). Tolerance is when the straight man *chooses* not to hurt the lesbian womon.Liberation is when the straight man *can’t* hurt the lesbian womon.Or the same on myriad other axes of oppression: class, race, religion, sexual congruence, disability status, and so on. (Linked Friday 2010-10-29.)