Why am I not surprised this level of intrusiveness is starting in Taxachusetts? One more state to avoid living in...
Boston.com / Business / Taxes / State's new technology gathers information to find tax cheats

Brilliant summary essay - now I want to read the book.

The Myth of the Morally Superior Yankee by Thomas J. DiLorenzo

Worth the read. I've got mixed feelings on the military - I've got great respect for those people who join and fight in it, but I agree with Brad, it's go to go.
Four Reasons We Should Abolish the Military by Brad Edmonds

I caught wind of this story from Vin Suprynowicz, and just now was able to track down the real story in a newspaper. Not scared yet? If you're not, then you're either dead or already brainwashed.

reviewjournal.com -- News: Airlines, hotels ordered to give FBI information

Brilliant - another knuckle-dragging mouth-breather who feels someone owes them some money for their perceived offense. No one gets out of life without some pain, suffering, or offense - get the fuck over it already and move on. By pursuing this, you're just making a bigger deal than it needs to be - I've already seen JJ's breast more times on TV news than I ever would have if it had been ignored.

Herald.com: Miami & Ft. Lauderdale News, Weather, Dolphins & More

Another blow to the First Amendment, this one from a Federal appeals court. Remember this - if you put a frog in boiling water, he'll fight to jump out. If you put him in warm water and gradually turn up the heat, he'll fall asleep and cook to death before he knows what's happenening to him.

The Charleston Gazette - APNews

Interesting article - think I'll read Bork's book. I don't agree with his point of view, but he's working for the same end I am - a return to a self-governing Constitutional form of government.
Phyllis Schlafly: President Bush finally speaks out against activist judges

What a fucking crock - I'm cutting back on my American football viewing from one game a year to zero now.

Apparently, the NFL didn't like the bare breast shot at the end of the halftime show. However, they seemed OK with the diabetic-coma-inducing tripe that happened during the pre-game show, with some unknown singer paying tribute the Shuttle Columbia crew (which reminded me of that scene in “Running Man” where the dancers did a tribute to BuzzSaw – absolute crap, I should have been compensated for having to sit through it.) And I have no fucking clue what either the bare breast or the sugary song has to do with football.

And what does any of this have to do with Liberty in America? Simple - it's a double-standard for men and women. Bare-chested men are common place on TV - bare-chested women not so much. CBS can't take the moral high ground here - ads for their "Two and a Half Men" showed a woman in a thong-like bottom. Neither can the NFL, unless they've stopped selling cheerleader calendars and posters. Apparently the FCC is investigating now - your tax dollars at work, preventing exposed breasts from appearing on the air. Loosely covered, visible through sheer material, barely covered by bikinis - those are fine, apparently (or did I imagine those on the dancers at the halftime show?).

I won't get into the issues of taste and decency - you make your own call. To my mind, the most entertaining part of the half-time show was the bare breast, and that was a marginal call. The rest of it was a bunch of barely-talented idiots who make their living feeding your kids auditory corn syrup doing the same thing to an audience of millions. The NFL was offended by the bare breast - I was offended by the fact that the Super Bowl has become a spectacle, bread and circuses for the masses.

And I've wasted too much of my life ranting about it.


DRUDGE REPORT 2004?