The Remnant, New England

N.H. Governor Signs Law Banning Real ID

2007-06-28T14:14:00.000-04:00

South Carolina, Montana, Washington, Oklahoma and Maine also have rejected the federal act.

"Here in New Hampshire, we pride ourselves on being frugal, and here in New Hampshire, we pride ourselves on respecting the privacy of our neighbors," Gov. John Lynch said at the bill signing.

SFGate 6/27/07

Bill Kauffman: Bye, Bye, Miss American Empire

2007-06-26T15:27:00.000-04:00

Orion Magazine July/Aug 2007

Secession talk in New England, cradle of Unionism, bête noire of the Confederacy, source of the “Battle Hymn of the (indivisible!) Republic”? Yet no region of the country has been as fertile a ground for secessionist thought as New England...

If Dick Cheney isn’t a dark alien force I don’t know what is. But a healthy secessionist movement must be founded in love: love of a particular place, its people (of all ethnicities and colors), its culture, its language and books and music and baseball teams and, yes, its beer and flowers and punk rock clubs.

New age town in U.S. embraces dollar alternative

2007-06-21T13:36:00.001-04:00

GREAT BARRINGTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - A walk down Main Street in this New England town calls to mind the pictures of Norman Rockwell, who lived nearby and chronicled small-town American life in the mid-20th Century.
ADVERTISEMENT

So it is fitting that the artist's face adorns the 50 BerkShares note, one of five denominations in a currency adopted by towns in western Massachusetts to support locally owned businesses over national chains.

more...

Legislature votes down Peaks Island secession

2007-05-31T08:48:00.000-04:00

Portland Press Herald 5/31/07

The Peaks Island secession bill died quietly in the House Wednesday, closing another chapter in the turbulent debate over whether the island should separate from Portland.

Portland free to continue plundering.

Ron Paul Selects NH Pro-Life Coalition Chair

2007-05-11T09:55:00.000-04:00

"The Ron Paul campaign is honored to have Barbara Hagan's support" said campaign chairman Kent Snyder. "Barbara is one of the most respected activists in New Hampshire and a giant in the pro-life community. There is no one better to lead our outreach to the right-to-life voters of the Granite State."

5/1/07 Campaigns and Elections

BTW, she was a 1996 Buchanan delegate.

Mr. Buchanan on the Queen's visit

2007-05-08T06:55:00.001-04:00

Last week, Scottish nationalists, many of whom wish to secede, swept past Labor to become the first party of Scotland. Welsh separatists also made gains. Following the Irish, the other Celts want out of the England of Elizabeth II. Is this better, Your Majesty?

continue 5/7/07

News from Celtia

2007-05-05T06:49:00.000-04:00

EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Scottish nationalists committed to independence from Britain became the biggest party in the Scottish parliament on Friday in elections which left a political headache for Prime Minister Tony Blair's successor.

Reuters 5.4.07

Support for secession grows among Vermonters

2007-05-04T13:10:00.000-04:00

Support for secession grows among Vermonters

BURLINGTON — A recent statewide survey conducted by the Center for Rural Studies at the University of Vermont found that the percentage of eligible voters who favor Vermont seceding from the Union States and becoming an independent republic, as it once was between 1777 and 1791, increased from 8 percent in 2006 to 14 percent in 2007.

The 2007 Vermonter Poll was based on a random sample of 599 eligible voters conducted in February.

The 13 percent figure may represent the highest percentage favoring secession of any of the 35 states with secession movements, according to the Second Vermont Republic, the group that advocates for peacable secession.

The secession support is girded by Vermonters' response to a second question: “Has the United States government lost its moral authority?” Of those polled, 74.3 percent agreed that it had.

Of those Vermonters who favor secession, 83.6 percent would like to see the question put before voters on Town Meeting Day. And, of those who favor secession, 93 percent would then like to see the issue considered by the Legislature.

Posted May 3, 2007 Vermont Guardian

BRING BACK THE QUEEN

2007-05-02T08:46:00.000-04:00

Time to come back to earth. Time to call Mother.

FreeMarketNews/Bernie Quigley

Mike Gravel to Obama: 'Who Do You Want to Nuke?'

2007-04-27T10:29:00.001-04:00

Newsmax

Okay, Dems, Gravel is your man. God's Speed.

Muslims Call Ham Sandwich Hate Crime

2007-04-27T08:08:00.000-04:00

Lewiston Maine

John Birch Society

Clearly, administrators in the Lewiston school district, the Lewiston Police, the tolerance Gestapo at the Center for Prevention of Hate Violence and the Maine Attorney General's office have gone off the deep end. Lou Dobbs seems to concur. "Mr. Superintendent," the CNN anchor asked on his broadcast, "do you have any sense of proportion? These are children, you're supposed to be educating and one would hope imparting some wisdom and discipline. This is ridiculous." Ridiculous it may be, but the incident demonstrates the dangers of Orwellian hate crimes laws.

Analysis: U.S. Public Supports Real ID Law

2007-04-26T14:51:00.000-04:00

But Maine doesn't.

In recent months, five state legislatures -- Maine, Idaho, Arkansas, Washington and Montana -- have voted to oppose the new law.

Post Chronicle 4/24

And neither does Ron Paul.

Bill would authorize Peaks vote

2007-04-26T12:58:00.000-04:00

Peaks trying to secede. Portland gubmint warns that Portland folks will have to cough up the difference from no longer robbing the islanders.

4/25 Portland Press Herald

Paul 2008: Second in New Hampshire Fundraising

2007-04-26T12:44:00.000-04:00

Ron Paul was second among Republicans in itemized New Hampshire contributions with $16,950

Union Leader April 19, 2007

We'd be a more united kingdom with an independent Scotland

2006-09-18T15:22:00.000-04:00

9/17/2006 Sunday Times London

Who cares, really, if the Scots one day choose independence? Would it matter if Wales and Northern Ireland, larger than half a dozen European states, wanted their own government as well as their own football team? It need not alter their allegiance to the crown. Gordon Brown and David Cameron, likely combatants at the next election, last week deplored any “loosening” of the union bond, as if it would jeopardise the security of the state.

Guard families cope in two dimensions

2006-09-01T12:34:00.000-04:00

Guard families cope in two dimensions
`Flat Daddy' cutouts ease longing

Welcome to the ``Flat Daddy" and ``Flat Mommy" phenomenon, in which life-size cutouts of deployed service members are given by the Maine National Guard to spouses, children, and relatives back home.

Boston Globe 8/30

'Hybrid Mutant' Found Dead in Maine

2006-08-17T09:32:00.000-04:00

..."It was evil, evil looking. And it had a horrible stench I will never forget," she told the Sun Journal of Lewiston. "We locked eyes for a few seconds and then it took off. I've lived in Maine my whole life and I've never seen anything like it." For the past 15 years, residents across Androscoggin County have reported seeing and hearing a mysterious animal with chilling monstrous cries and eyes that glow in the night. The animal has been blamed for attacking and killing a Doberman pinscher and a Rottweiler the past couple of years.

More AP/Breitbart

Free Vermont: Going Back To The Future

2006-08-08T15:45:00.001-04:00

...As Americans, we eat fossil fuel energy, as most of our food has been grown with fossil fuel-based fertilizers and pesticides, and has traveled hundreds, if not thousands, of miles to reach our plates. A free Vermont, led by local coalitions of farmers, entrepreneurs, community networks, and educated food consumers, will re-invent itself by embracing “food sovereignty,” working to ensure a safe and adequate agricultural system and food supply to feed our citizens in a post-carbon world.

continue reading at vtcommons.com

Peter Forbes: Start With The Land

2006-08-08T15:45:00.000-04:00

Are we really loyal to our own soil? Let me make a straightforward proposition: all talk of the future of nations and states that doesn’t start with the fundamentals of soil, and our relationship to it, is the domain of armchair revolutionaries.

Continue reading at vtcommons.com

Sweet Purple

2006-07-31T15:11:00.000-04:00

The near-miraculous blueberry.

By Constance Casey
Posted Friday, July 28, 2006, at 2:06 PM ET

The near-miraculous blueberry

We should all stand (or sit, open-mouthed) in awe at the great difference between a cold blueberry and a warm blueberry. Think of blueberry pie. We owe much to the person, probably a native North American in what we now call Maine, who first cooked the fruit.

Goodbye History, Hello Wal-Mart?

2006-07-28T10:28:00.000-04:00

Hartford Courant, WILLIAM MORGAN July 16, 2006

Wiscasset is one of the most attractive towns along the scenic midcoast of Maine. A white-columned meeting house and a brick courthouse overlook a common; narrow streets lined with cottages and Federal period mansions amble down to the banks of the wide Sheepscot River. History is palpable here, where two centuries ago a thriving maritime economy built and sent wooden ships around the globe, briefly making Wiscasset one of the wealthiest towns in America.

Like so many once-prosperous Yankee seaports, Wiscasset's architectural patrimony survived because its economy languished. Jefferson's 1807 trade embargo hurt the New England states so much that they seriously considered secession. By the time the War of 1812 was over, Wiscasset had been mortally wounded. Huge schooners continued to be built on the Sheepscot, but they carried unglamorous cargoes such as lumber to Boston and New York; the mansions built by the West Indies trade remained, but the glory days were gone...

Ed Note: Wiscasset was founded as a Catholic community, the only one in Maine

Secession Meeting Turns Nasty

2006-07-28T10:25:00.000-04:00

PORTLAND, Maine -- The initial round of secession negotiations between Peaks Island residents and the city of Portland turned heated Thursday evening, as secessionists refused to sit at the negotiating table.

A majority of islanders voted last month to sever ties with the city, but the City Council voted against the plan, opting instead for mediation.

Rest of the article: News 8 WMTW 7/21/2006

eXile: Why Britian Should be banned from the G*

2006-07-19T07:31:00.000-04:00

July 2006

38. Even the Welsh want out of UK England's clearly on the decline when even Wales has got an independence movement. You heard us: the Welsh don't want to be associated with the English. That's like if Tula tried to secede from Russia. The Brits thought setting up a National Assembly in the 90's would placate them, but they wuz wrong! Plaid Cymru, the biggest single Welsh political party, wants to break free of England's change and form a new country. If they manage, that'd leave Prince Charles without a realm to rule over. Now's the time to do it, too. What with the British Armed Forces tied down in Iraq, it'd be up to the Territorial Army to try to stop 'em.

LRC: SVR mention

2006-07-19T07:25:00.000-04:00

7/19/2006 LRC
The Left Is Pro-Empire
by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

...There were once some people on the left who were genuinely skeptical of the federal government and favored political decentralization. A few can still be found – Kirkpatrick Sale, for example, and some of the people behind the Second Vermont Republic. But they are a small minority. If radical decentralization is off the table, what does the rest of the left suggest? From what I can see, the left’s plan is to keep the federal government as powerful and irresistible as it is now, but just hope it behaves responsibly in foreign affairs....

LRC to the North: The case of Canadian 'libertarians'

2006-07-17T11:07:00.000-04:00

LRC, Michael Cust, 7/17/06

Canada, by contrast, was slower to develop its welfare state. During the Great Depression, Conservative Prime Minister R.B. Bennett attempted a Canadian version of Roosevelt’s New Deal, including a minimum wage, a maximum number of working hours per week, unemployment insurance, health insurance, an expanded pension programme, and grants to farmers. The provinces fought him legally on his changes arguing that welfare is a matter of property and civil rights and hence as per section 92 of the British North America Act – Canada’s constitution – provincial jurisdiction. The case made it to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England, at the time Canada’s highest court. The court agreed with the province’s argument and struck down most of Bennett’s welfare programs. This is not to say that Canada did not have a welfare state, it did. There were a few welfare benefits, a monopoly wheat board, and several crown corporations (government-owned businesses). This welfare state was expanded upon in the 1940s and 1950s.

Our own Lee Shelton on antiwar.com:

2006-07-10T09:40:00.000-04:00

July 3, 2006

'Conservatives' Condemn Freedom of the Press

by Lee Shelton

The folks at the Weakly Substandard have joined the ranks of "conservatives" calling for a crackdown on journalists who "leak" national security "secrets." In an essay entitled "Leaks and the Law," Gabriel Schoenfeld tries to make "the case for prosecuting the New York Times":

Exiles Eternal, Bill Bonner

2006-07-08T10:23:00.000-04:00

LRC July 8, 2006

...Ol' Cap'n Earl used to live out on a pier in the West River. He had built himself a rickety cabin over the water to get away from his wife. He would sit outside, drink his beer and throw the cans into the water. In the summer, after work, when the river smells rose up so strong they were almost overpowering, men would gather out on the pier with him. They would talk. And drink. Sometimes they would pull a crab up out of the water. And the hours would pass.

But then some agency showed up. His cabin was condemned by about 12 different government agencies. Cap'n Earl, an old man by that time, was moved onto dry ground and died soon after. And then, the sailboats came, owned by Washington lawyers. They were soon so thick on the river that you could walk from one bank to the other, hoping from boat to boat...

Study sees decline of young, educated workers in N.E.

2006-07-07T10:37:00.000-04:00

By MARK JEWELL, Associated Press
Thursday, June 29
BOSTON -- ...Most New England states can expect declines in the percentage of young workers holding bachelor's degrees or higher, with the steepest drops expected in Massachusetts and Connecticut, researchers conclude in a study commissioned by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation.

The "New England 2020" report attributes the decline primarily to population growth among young minorities outpacing gains by majority whites, and a widening education attainment gap between minorities and whites, who are more likely to complete college continued...

Gasp! Anti-road press from The Economist?

2006-06-29T07:34:00.000-04:00

…[H]ighways began expanding rapidly after President Dwight Eisenhower, 50 years ago this month, signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 which committed the government to invest heavily in a national network of interstates.
…[T]he network that he authorised was often referred to as the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. The generals thought that better roads would make it easier to move military convoys around in case of attack, as well as to evacuate big cities in a hurry. The overpasses were made high enough so that ballistic missiles could be transported beneath them. Though the atom bombs and invaders never came, life in America would never again be the same. continue...

Hawthorne family reburied next to author

2006-06-27T14:06:00.000-04:00

AP

By Ken Maguire
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tucson, Arizona Published: 06.27.2006

CONCORD, Mass. — It was a Hawthorne family reunion, for the dead and the living.
About 40 descendants of Nathaniel Hawthorne gathered in Concord on Monday to watch as the remains of his wife and daughter, buried for more than a century in England, were interred in the family plot at the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery alongside the author.
"It's greatly significant to see the family reunited," said Alison Hawthorne Deming, 59, of Tucson, Hawthorne's great-great-granddaughter.

"It's also great to get together different parts of the heritage. It's a beautiful celebration for us," said Deming, a professor of creative writing at the University of Arizona. "It's not something we imagined happening. These people have never all been together."

Hawthorne, author of "The Scarlet Letter" and "The House of the Seven Gables," died in New Hampshire in 1864. His wife, Sophia, moved to England with their three children and died there six years later. She and their daughter Una were buried at Kensal Green cemetery in London.
Hawthorne's daughter Rose returned to the United States and started a Catholic order dedicated to caring for cancer patients. The Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, based in Hawthorne, N.Y., had paid to maintain the Hawthorne graves in England.

But when cemetery officials told the nuns that the grave site needed costly repairs, the order arranged to have remains reburied in Concord.

On Monday, one modern casket containing the remains of mother and daughter was put on a horse-drawn 1860 wooden hearse and carried through the town center to a church for the memorial service.

The burial, which was private, took place in the section of the cemetery known as Author's Ridge, not far from where writers Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson are buried.

Feingold hedges on Peace...time to look to the antiwar Right again?

2006-06-26T07:49:00.000-04:00

antiwar.com 6/26/06

Not even Russ Feingold believes – or says – U.S. troops ought to get out of the region entirely. Speaking on Meet the Press Sunday, an otherwise admirable performance by Sen. Feingold, a putative presidential candidate, was marred when he assured Tim Russert that he had no objection to leaving a substantial force of American soldiers behind in Iraq, and that of course we would have to go back in force at the first sign of real instability.

Peaks Island votes to Secede!

2006-06-14T16:31:00.000-04:00

June 13, 2006
PORTLAND, Maine --Residents of Portland's most populous island voted Tuesday to secede from the city and make a go of it on their own.

Final post on ReactionaryRadicals Blog

2006-06-09T13:13:00.001-04:00

I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together…by Bill Kauffman

...Our America– the ragged prophet/volunteer fire department/sacrifice bunt America—ain’t dead yet. The late great Edward Abbey used to say “Up with Spring/Down with Empire! Now there’s a war cry you could win elections with.”

Still could, Ed.

Chesterton told us that the patriot never, under any circumstances, boasts of the largeness of his country, but always, and of necessity, boasts of its smallness. Dorothy Day spoke of the Little Way. Or little way. As the anti-American Empire crumbles into unlamented dust, patriots of the little America, on their front porches and in their backyards, will reclaim our country. Read back through this discussion. Our side is fiddles and poetry and baseball and country churches and the local beer. Their side is bombs and tanks and television. How can we lose?

Note from Mr.Kauffman

2006-06-09T13:13:00.000-04:00

Dear Mr. Bowen--
Great essay. I'll drink, too, to the Old Republic, and our ancestral memory of it, and its return.
Sounds like you've made a good home in Maine. I like New England very much. Small enough, sometimes defiant still. The Second Vermont guys hit the right notes.
Drink up!
Best,
Bill

Spanish American War tax finally sunsetted....

2006-05-30T12:37:00.000-04:00

May 25, 2006
Mises Blog
Phone Tax Finally Sunsetted...

After 108 YearsTim Swanson
Several months ago Ted Roberts wrote an article discussing the tax on international phone calls that was originally levied to finance the Spanish-American War back in 1898. Today, MSNBC and others are reporting that effective July 31, this tax will finally disappear. In addition, consumers can file for a refund on this tax from March 2003 through the present - this is expected to be approximately $13 billion when the dust settles.
While much can be said on the topic of coerced philanthropy, this should serve as a clear illustration of how when the State gains the authority to do something, it is reticent to relinquish the authority. One down, thousands more to go.

How many secessionists are there?

2006-05-18T17:21:00.000-04:00

May 12, 2006

How many secessionists are there?

By Thomas Naylor

posted May 12, 2006

The 2006 Vermonter Poll recently conducted by the Center for Rural Studies at the University of Vermont indicates that the percentage of eligible Vermont voters who favor secession from the United States could very well be the highest in the nation....

The Story of John Henry: Spy against the New England Republic

2006-05-18T17:18:00.000-04:00

After retiring from the Army, he relocated to northern Vermont to farm and study law (presumably falling asleep during the ethics part of the curriculum). Also to write anti-republican diatribes. Let’s not forget that. In 1809, after reading some of his work, Sir James Craig, the British governor of Canada hired Henry to spy on the Federalists. It was well known in Great Britain that the New England Federalists were unhappy. Many Boston essays and pamphlets found their way to England where they enjoyed a life renewed in British newspapers (for example, Massachusetts Senator Timothy Pickering’s [the leader of the so-called Essex Junto] letter to Governor James Sullivan was more widely circulated in British newspapers than in American newspapers). John Henry was sent to Boston to measure their unrest and to ascertain if secession was likely (and if it was likely, to help shepherd the wayward states back into the Empire’s fold).

story

Look Homeward, America - new Bill Kauffman

2006-05-17T13:33:00.000-04:00

Look Homeward, America
In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists
By Bill Kauffman

INTRODUCTION

I am an American patriot. A Jeffersonian decentralist. A fanatical localist. And I am an anarchist. Not a sallow garret-rat translating Proudhon by pirated kilowatt, nor a militiaman catechized by the Classic Comics version of The Turner Diaries; rather, I am the love child of Henry Thoreau and Dorothy Day, conceived amidst the asters and goldenrod of an Upstate New York autumn. Like so many of the subjects of this book, I am also a reactionary radical, which is to say I believe in peace and justice but I do not believe in smart bombs, daycare centers, Wal-Mart, television, or Melissa Etheridge’s test-tube baby.

“Reactionary radicals” are those Americans whose political radicalism (often inspired by the principles of 1776 and the culture of the early America) is combined with—in fact, flows from—a deep-set social “conservatism.” These are not radicals who wish to raze venerable institutions and make them anew: they are, in fact, at antipodes from the warhead-clutching egghead described by (the reactionary radical) Robert Lee Frost:

With him the love of country means

Blowing it all to smithereens

And having it all made over new

Look Homeward, America

Affections for a country not their own in MA

2006-05-16T10:48:00.000-04:00

Massachusetts has real problems including an "opposition candidate" like this in the 4th District running against Barney Frank who recently (scroll down) voted for "war" against Iran.

The 51st state: Israel and America
By Charles A. Morseweb posted May 15, 2006

Chuck Morse is the Republican Congressional candidate for the Massachusetts 4th district.

Romney Nearly Drops Panel

2006-05-16T10:46:00.000-04:00

Boston, MA High Culture? Romney "nearly" drops panel?

Gay-Lesbian Group Survives Parade Incident
May 13, 2006By STEVE LeBLANC, Associated Press

BOSTON -- Gov. Mitt Romney flirted with abolishing a state advisory commission on gay youth for promoting a parade today featuring a cross-dressing master of ceremonies and embracing transgender teens, a spokesman said Friday.

Cops told Pat K was at watering hole before crash

2006-05-12T13:54:00.000-04:00

Boston Herald

By Dave WedgeFriday, May 12, 2006 - Updated: 04:28 AM EST

Capitol police in Washington, D.C., investigating U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s early-morning car wreck have been told by witnesses that the Rhode Island congressman was at a Capitol Hill bar before the crash, the Herald has learned.

Now Is the Time for a Left-Right Alliance

2006-05-10T13:05:00.000-04:00

Read The Article Here: May 10 Antiwar.com
A rebel alliance already exists that could stop Bush administration attacks on the Constitution
by Thomas R. Eddlem

Thomas R. Eddlem is a native of the Boston area of Massachusetts and a graduate of Stonehill College. He is a radio talk show host in Southeastern Massachusetts and is a frequent contributor to The New American magazine.

Wartime explosives still turning up

2006-05-08T20:32:00.000-04:00

Wartime explosives still turning up

NANTUCKET, Mass. - An excavator working in the area of a former Navy base found what the Inquirer and Mirror called an "ordnance" and took it home. Someone realized it was a hazard and called fire and police, who called the state police bomb squad, which arrived by helicopter, carried the World War II shell to a site near the airport and detonated it with what the newspaper called a "loud explosion."

Also note, this Block Isalnd paper is highlight Maine Island Secessionist news...

New microbrewery to open in Milford (NH)

2006-05-08T20:28:00.001-04:00

Jewett is planning to market what he calls a "firehouse ale" series with a portion of the profits to go to local police, fire and emergency medical providers. He also plans to make a Vienna-style lager featuring the names of different locomotives.

We here at the Remnant, do not support Continental Lagers, however, it seems like this is a sort of local thinking that can and should be supported.

New Policy???

2006-05-03T20:57:00.000-04:00

Illegals to be banned from jobs in Milford restaurants

MILFORD -- In response to what the Board of Health sees as a growing health crisis, local restaurants may be banned from employing illegal immigrants as a condition of their food serving licenses.

The policy will go into effect this summer.

The board plans to notify restaurant owners and managers of the new policy in a letter to be mailed in June. According to a draft, the move comes in response to a growing concern "with the resurgence of some serious infectious diseases nationally and locally."

Who voted for War on Iran?

2006-04-28T14:21:00.000-04:00

BILL TITLE: To hold the current regime in Iran accountable for its threatening behavior and to support a transition to democracy in Iran

For War:
Maine (Allen, Michaud), Vermont (Sanders), Massachusetts (Neal, Meehan, Frank, Tierney, Markey, Lynch, Capuano, Delahunt), New Hampshire (Bradley, Bass), Rhode Island (Kennedy, Langelin)

Against:
For New England:
Massachusetts: McGovern, Olver

For President:
Paul, Duncan

Secede: Maine islanders want to go their own way

2006-04-28T14:18:00.000-04:00

4/21 Boston.com

...Dismayed by steeply increasing property taxes that threaten to push lower-income families off the island and frustrated by their lack of a voice in city affairs, Peaks Island voters will decide on June 13 if the island should secede from Portland and become a self-governing town. They are not alone in their push for independence.

Seaboard pork plant to close for immigration rally

2006-04-27T09:18:00.000-04:00

Factory farm in Oklahoma supports cheap labor...check out that kill ratio and I suppose Americans wouldn't want to do that job either.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Seaboard Corp. said it will close its Guymon, Oklahoma, pork plant on Monday to allow workers to attend rallies planned for that day in support of immigration reform, the company said.

The plant has a daily hog slaughter capacity of about 16,000 head, the company said.
On Tuesday, Cargill Inc. said its five beef plants and two hog plants will be closed on Monday for the rallies.

LRC: No More Government Roads

2006-04-25T07:09:00.000-04:00

What if I could propose a solution that would clean up our air, reduce our dependency on foreign oil, save energy, reduce urban sprawl, lower taxes, and alleviate traffic congestion, all in one fell swoop?

No, this isn't a fantasy. It's actually quite simple: get the government out of the business of building roads and highways.

-David Woods

Entire Article

LRC: Patriots Day

2006-04-25T07:07:00.000-04:00

-Jim O'Keefe

...After nearly forty years removal from my home state, it has been quite some time since I’d thought of Patriots Day, truth be told. It’s not an official holiday of any kind here. The daily routine of life and business tunes out many of the old pleasures and memories.

Then I found myself today, the 19th of April, 2006, at the Hawaii County Police Department, filling out the firearms permit application, to renew my long gun permit. In effect, to ask for permission to be able to purchase firearms – only long guns, and only after a two-week wait for the permit to return, and only during the twelve-month period for which the permit is valid. Pistol permits are even more restricted, limited to one specific firearm for only a ten-day period subsequent to a two-week wait.

Full Story.

SVR: Poll

2006-04-24T15:36:00.000-04:00

POLL SHOWS VERMONT INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT
LEADS THE NATION

How Many Secessionists Are There?

The 2006 Vermonter Poll recently conducted by the Center for Rural Studies of the University of Vermont indicates that the percentage of eligible Vermont voters who favor secession from the United States of America could very well be the highest in the nation.

Secession is nothing new to Vermonters. On January 15, 1815, less than twenty-five years after Vermont became the fourteenth state, it joined other New England states in signing the report of the Hartford Convention in opposition to the proposal of the Secretary of War to implement a military draft for continuing the badly mismanaged War of 1812 with England. This report was nothing less than a declaration of the right to secede.

They really don't like Real ID

2006-04-24T15:34:00.000-04:00

Concord NH
They really don't like Real ID
Protest of national identification card draws mock Nazis, Constitutionalists

Congress passed the Real ID Act last year, and New Hampshire and Kentucky were offered $3 million grants to test the program. All states must comply by 2008.
But the New Hampshire House voted last month to refuse to do so, calling the program "contrary and repugnant" to the Constitution. Now it's up to the Senate to decide whether to take the federal grant money and overhaul the state's licensing system or not.

The Pulitzer Farce

2006-04-19T13:02:00.000-04:00

...The central project of the Pulitzer Prize committee is always to perform that function, only this year the need was more pressing than usual. 2005 was a bad year for the New York Times, dominated by steady disclosure of its important role in manufacturing and then disseminating lies designed to plunge the nation into war in Iraq. ....cont...

-Alexander Cockburn

Oh, to be in England

2006-04-19T07:46:00.000-04:00

TD is the best of the Brits...

What is Poverty?
Theodore Dalrymple (Spring 1999)

do we mean by poverty? Not what Dickens or Blake or Mayhew meant. Today, no one seriously expects to go hungry in England or to live without running water or medical care or even TV.
What do we mean by poverty? Not what Dickens or Blake or Mayhew meant. Today, no one seriously expects to go hungry in England or to live without running water or medical care or even TV. Poverty has been redefined in industrial countries, so that anyone at the lower end of the income distribution is poor ex officio, as it were—poor by virtue of having less than the rich. And of course by this logic, the only way of eliminating poverty is by an egalitarian redistribution of wealth—even if the society as a whole were to become poorer as a result.

cont.

Brimelow Trip back to 1965

2006-04-14T13:58:00.000-04:00

Peter Brimelow writes [04-13-06]: This is what Senator Edward Kennedy said when he was piloting the 1965 Immigration Act.

“First our cities will not be flooded with a million immigrants annually. Under the proposed bill, the present level of immigration remains substantially the same…Second, the ethnic mix of the country will not be upset…Contrary to the charges in some quarters, [the bill] will not inundate America with immigrants from any one country or area, or the most populated and deprived nations of Africa and Asia”

To the North: PM wants to see more missions like Afghanistan

2006-04-14T13:23:00.000-04:00

Harper's other major goals include a new child care entitelment...at some point the (Real?) Left is going to have to acknowledge that these sorts of "conservatives" are fellow travelers.

PM wants to see more missions like Afghanistan

ALLISON DUNFIELD

Globe and Mail Update

Prime Minister Stephen Harper continued to show strong support for the Canadian military Thursday, attending a military graduation ceremony in Alberta and saying that he believes that Canada can make a difference globally by taking a "more visible role" in international missions.

continued...

LRC: Did Romney Win a Victory for Free Markets?

2006-04-14T09:58:00.000-04:00

Did Romney Win a Victory for Free Markets?
by Michael S. Rozeffby Michael S. Rozeff

The Investor’s Business Daily (IBD), reliably Republican in its opinions, embraces Romneycare as "a victory for market-based reform." The recent Massachusetts legislation that mandates health care insurance for everyone in the state is "a big step forward." They fancy "that the plan relies on consumers in a market, undeveloped as it is, rather than seeking to replace private insurance and dictate private care through government fiat."

As I showed in my previous article on this subject, IBD’s assessment is wildly inaccurate. What the IBD applauds is a thorough government entanglement with health care businesses that leaves intact a few empty shells that suggest a "market." A reasonably accurate term for this procedure is fascism. There is no market reform in this because there is no market left standing. When the IBD says that "Mittcare" is "a far cry from Hillarycare," it is saying that fascism is preferable to the communism it sees in Hillarycare, namely, health care owned and operated by state enterprises.

IBD is so certain that health-care fascism is a good thing that it advocates it as a "rough model for market-based, consumer-driven reform of health care nationwide." While some of this is a knee-jerk "us versus them" (Republican vs. Democrat) attitude and some part of it is the IBD’s liking for fascism per se, a good part of it is driven by plain old errors of economic thought. IBD really does erroneously believe that the market needs reforming and that Republicans (and government bureaucrats) are just the engineers to oil and tune up the market machine.

Continued...

Nation of Immigrants and Emigrants I

2006-04-13T15:43:00.000-04:00

Chronicles
Hard Right!
April 13, 2006
Dr Thomas Fleming

I consider myself lucky to have been in Mexico during both rounds of the Mexican demonstrations that have been staged to protest any enforcement of US immigration law. I was in Mexico gathering impressions: I thought it might be nice to know what lies in store for all of us. My extended observations on immigration, I shall save for the Chronicles issue and the book we are putting out. But since I have been away so long, not only from the office but away from my computer (I didn’t fancy hauling my laptop with it’s “STEAL THIS” sign around Mexico on a bus), I really should sketch out a few preliminary observations on this issue. continue reading

LRC: Why We Need More 'Uninsured' Americans

2006-04-13T14:51:00.000-04:00

Carla Howell

Socialized medicine’s true believers – who dominate the ranks of mainstream news reporters and politicians – try to bludgeon us into believing that the lack of medical insurance is a crisis, a disaster, and a never-ending emergency.

Here’s an example of how a news report typically casts the "uninsured":

"The number of uninsured or underinsured people in the United States is estimated to be about 46 million... they sit on the edge of catastrophe." (Journal Times, Wisconsin, February 27, 2006)

But "uninsured" Americans are usually nowhere near "catastrophe." They have plenty of access to urgent care when they need it.

Moreover, they save themselves a boatload of money by steering clear of one of America’s biggest money pits: health insurance.

We don’t need more insurance in America. We need much less.

LRC: Universal Health Mess in Massachusetts

2006-04-13T06:51:00.000-04:00

Universal Health Mess in Massachusetts

by Michael S. Rozeff

Insanity in health-care legislation

As if to prove that its state’s democracy is just as authoritarian as New York’s or Minnesota’s, the Massachusetts legislature has passed a health care bill that establishes a democratic dictatorship over health care. Democrats, Republicans, and the Republican governor, Mitt Romney, alike support the bill. Bi-partisanship signals that the legislation achieves a new bear market low in the replacement of free markets for health care with health care by government fiat.

Governor Romney will sign the bill (or most of it). He pushed for it. He contributed to it. He called it "exactly what we’d hoped for." What he hoped for is a vile and morally reprehensible piece of legislation. As a rule, is legislation ever anything else?

House Act No. 4850 begins with a preamble that an "emergency law" is "necessary for the immediate preservation of the public health and convenience." This is a lie. The same sentence says that the "purpose" is not an emergency but to "expand access to health care...increase the affordability of health care products, and enhance accountability of our state’s health system..." This is a second lie. Funneling health care through new state bureaucracies will diminish access, raise costs, and make health care less responsive and accountable to its customers...

LRC: Freedom Rings for Wrong Reasons

2006-04-12T16:20:00.000-04:00

Blaine Amendments to save us from a complete federal take over of education?

Freedom Rings for Wrong Reasons

...Elsewhere, Establishment libertarians condemn Blaine Amendments, because they're allegedly the product of bigotry (that most heinous of all possible crimes, which we all know is worse than statism) against Catholics. And that is, to an extent, true. The man who inspired them, James Blaine (1830–1893), fought for a similar amendment to the United States constitution. The proposed federal amendment failed, but most of the states subsequently passed "Blaine Amendments" of their own. And in some cases, the Amendments were supported by anti-Catholic evangelical Protestants.

Well, so what? If Catholic schools were, in fact, trying to get their hands on government money, well, then – though I have little but admiration for the Catholic Church – thank God for Blaine Amendments.

Music, Americana

2006-04-12T16:15:00.000-04:00

Mary use to have a restaurant, the Dixie Kitchen, in Boston.

“…My church and my country could use a little mercy now
As they sink into a poisoned pit
That's going to take forever to climb out
They carry the weight of the faithful
Who follow them downI love my church and country, and they could use some mercy now
Every living thing could use a little mercy now
Only the hand of grace can end the race
Towards another mushroom cloud
People in power, well
They'll do anything to keep their crown
I love life, and life itself could use some mercy now…”

Mary Gauthier's "Mercy Now" scored #12 on Harp's 50 Greatest Albums of 2005! "Nashville-based Gauthier combines a twangy world-of-hurt voice with vivid songwriting worthy of Lucinda Williams' 'Car Wheels on a Gravel Road'. Gurf Morlix's sinewy, seductively slow bluesy arrangements should make Tony Joe White smile."

The Federal Schools:Girl, 5, Forced To Apologize For Hugging Classmate

2006-04-12T16:07:00.000-04:00

Girl, 5, Forced To Apologize For Hugging Classmate
Parents Looking For New School For Girl

MAYNARD, Mass. -- A family in Maynard is outraged after their 5-year-old daughter was forced to write a letter denouncing hugging after a classmate embraced her.

2006-04-12T16:06:00.000-04:00

You do not know and will never know who the Remnant are, or where they are, or how many of them there are, or what they are doing or will do. Two things you know, and no more: first, that they exist; second, that they will find you.

Albert J Nock

Website: ForgottenBoston

2006-04-12T15:56:00.000-04:00

ForgottenBoston

Carver Street, Edgar Allan Poe's birthplace

From Providence: Anti-war protesters interrupt Hillary Clinton's speech at university

2006-04-12T15:54:00.000-04:00

Anti-war protesters interrupt Hillary Clinton's speech at university
PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (AP) - Anti-war protesters interrupted U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's speech at Brown University by heckling the New York Democrat for four solid minutes before police escorted them out of the auditorium...

LRC: Banned Near Boston

2006-04-12T15:52:00.000-04:00

Banned Near Boston
More chicanery from the underworld of family law.
by Stephen Baskerville

...On March 24, Kevin Thompson received an order prohibiting distribution of his book, Exposing the Corruption in the Massachusetts Family Courts. The court also impounded the records of Thompson’s custody case, reinforcing the secrecy in which family courts like to operate.

The standard justification for secret courts is the one Judge Manzi now extends to censorship: "privacy interests of the parties' minor child." Thompson’s son has already been forcibly separated from his father, and his life is now under the total control of state officials. What "privacy" does this child have left? Thompson understands that the true reason for the secrecy and censorship is not to protect privacy but to invade it with impunity: "The only interests that are protected are the interests of the racketeers and hypocrites who invade ‘family privacy’ by removing loving fathers from the lives of their children against their will and without just cause to fill their pockets."...

To the North: Ottawa stops funding One Tonne Challenge

2006-04-12T15:51:00.000-04:00

Ottawa stops funding One Tonne Challenge
By MARTIN MITTELSTAEDT
ENVIRONMENT REPORTER; With a report from Bill Curry in Ottawa
Saturday, April 1, 2006, Page A7
The new Conservative government in Ottawa has abruptly stopped funding groups across the country that have been promoting the One Tonne Challenge, the quirky program to persuade Canadians to do their bit to help the environment by cutting their greenhouse gas emissions.