Tag: freedom

The HOAs of Israel

3:59 pm

What is a West Bank settlement? If you read the press, it is a place where Israeli Jews have moved in and stolen the land of Arabs in order to occupy their land unfairly. It is a place where Arabs are forbidden, where apartheid has been established against the indigenous population.

Not only are these statements false, they actually turn reality on its head.

In my two visits to Israel I have stayed or visited four different West Bank settlements, and in each place my first impression was that I was visiting a typical American gated community, a suburban community run by a home-owner-association (HOA). You enter by driving through a gate where an attendant waves at you as you go by. He doesn’t stop you, because he either knows you or he has profiled you and sees no reason to ask you any questions. Once inside the roads wind about, passing individual homes or apartments. At the center of the community is a recreation center, often with a pool and library, where events are held and people go for entertainment.

Alon Shvut
The gated community of Alon Shvut, south of Jerusalem in the West Bank.

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Staying in the West Bank

3:06 pm

This is my second visit to Israel and the second time I have stayed in a residence in the West Bank. Both times the experience has been quite different than what anyone who reads the modern press would expect. It is nothing like what you think.

Also, I have been delving into the background of both settlements, from this visit as well as my last visit back in 2003. Not surprisingly, the facts have little to do with what the press generally reports. And even when they do report honestly, they simply do not provide the important information that would provide some proper context. I myself have been astonished today with some of what I learned, as it was completely unexpected. For example, do you know that many of the land records for here in the West Bank are still kept in Istanbul, Turkey?

As I mentioned previously, however, it is difficult to post here in Israel. Though the internet service is fine, my laptop is beginning to show its age and to function too slowly for this work. Also, I want to include pictures, and I won’t be able to add them easily probably until I get home.

So stay tuned. It will be worthwhile reading.

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A Colorado county government, joining twelve other state governments and numerous local sheriffs, has passed a resolution supporting the second amendment and pledging not to enforce any federal laws that violate it.

9:00 am

A Colorado county government, joining twelve other state governments and numerous local sheriffs, has become the first county to pass a resolution supporting the second amendment and pledging not to enforce any federal laws that violate it.

This specific resolution is not as interesting as the growing list of defiance, described in the article, to the gun control effort of the Democratic Party.

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Pretend gun control!

10:09 am

Now this is a great idea: Pretend gun control!

What we can do is pass a law banning a bunch of made-up things that sound scary, and many gun control proponents already have great ideas along this line. For instance, I read a column in which Howard Kurtz mentioned a ban on high-magazine clips — we can certainly do without something that nonsensical. And I’ve heard the press before mention armor-piercing hollow points and plastic guns (actually, I think we already banned that made-up weapon in the ’80s). And as long as the NRA and Wayne LaPierre go apoplectic about it (“This ban on sorcerer-enchanted guns is just a slippery slope toward eliminating all witch-hexed weaponry!”), gun control proponents won’t know the difference between this and actual gun control.

Considering the level of ignorance about guns exhibited by every one of the gun control advocates, both politicians and media pundits, I almost think we could get away with this.

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David Gregory will not be prosecuted.

4:19 pm

The law is for little people: David Gregory will not be prosecuted.

This despite the fact that the D.C. Attorney General even admits that Gregory clearly broke the law.

This travesty more than anything demonstrates how pointless these laws are. Gregory waved a high capacity magazine on camera to illustrate the need to ban such items, even though he was doing so in a place, Washington, D.C., where such magazines were already banned. Not only did Gregory prove the law was stupid, the decision not to prosecute him proves that the law exists merely for political reasons. It is used only when it benefits the powers in control. Gregory is on the side of gun control, so of course he gets a pass. Innocent gun owners and supporters of gun rights who happen to be caught traveling in DC with such a banned item, however, can expect jail time.

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Bank of America arbitrarily froze the account of a firearms manufacturer because, in their words “We believe you should not be selling guns and parts on the Internet.”

4:40 pm

Facism: Bank of America arbitrarily froze the account of a firearms manufacturer because, in their words “We believe you should not be selling guns and parts on the Internet.”

Quite rightly, the owner of the company told them they had “no right to make up their own rules” and that he was going to take his business elsewhere. I think every gun owner in the country should do the same.

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A zoning board and the LAPD have shut down a thirty-year-old successful burger stand, apparently because they think it attracts crime.

10:05 pm

We’re here to help you: A zoning board and the LAPD have shut down a thirty-year-old successful burger stand, apparently because they think it attracts crime.

Watch the video at the link. The result of this brain-dead action will be an abandoned building in an abandoned neighborhood. Good going, California!

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A petition to have the U.S. withdraw from the United Nations Outer Space Treaty has been submitted to the White House.

3:53 pm

Now’s here’s a good idea: A petition to have the U.S. withdraw from the United Nations Outer Space Treaty has been submitted to the White House.

Read it. Mark Whittington, who submitted it, is absolutely right. We get out, we can claim territory on the Moon and thus apply U.S. law to that territory. People and companies could thus own land and have an opportunity to make a profit from their property.

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If you and a friend happen to have $1.4 billion, the new private company Golden Spike wants to take you to the Moon.

3:29 pm

The competition heats up: If you and a friend happen to have $1.4 billion, the new private company Golden Spike wants to take you to the Moon.

Golden Spike’s news release said the venture would make use of existing rockets as well as commercial spacecraft that are currently under development to send expeditions to the lunar surface, with the estimated cost of a two-person lunar surface mission starting at $1.4 billion.

There will be a lot of press stories about this. And it is good, as it illustrates again the increasing shift from government-run space missions to a robust private industry. The idea of a private company doing this is no longer considered absurd but perfectly reasonable.

Whether Golden Spike itself will do it, however, is another thing entirely. Please forgive me if I reserve the right to be a little skeptical at this point.

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Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, will be eliminating healthcare coverage to its parttime employees due to Obamacare.

8:21 am

Finding out what’s in it: Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, will be eliminating healthcare coverage to its part time employees due to Obamacare.

Essentially, the company is trying to avoid the high costs imposed by Obamacare by dropping coverage for anyone working 30 hours or less, and then moving more employees into that category when possible. As I noted before, this idiotic law is forcing us to be a nation of part time workers.

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A North Carolina elementary school removed the word “God” from a poem written by one its students because one student’s parents complained.

8:49 pm

Goodbye freedom: A North Carolina elementary school removed the word “God” from a poem written by one its students because another student’s parents complained.

After fully examining the issue during the BOE meeting, President and Chief Executive Officer Ken Paulson stated the school did in fact have the right to remove the word “God” from the child’s poem. “Courts have consistently held up the rights for students to express themselves unless their speech is disruptive to the school,” stated Patulson according to McDowell News. “When the little girl wrote the poem and included a reference to God she had every right to do that. The First Amendment protects all Americans. She had every right to mention God, (but) that dynamic changed when they asked her to read it at an assembly.” Paulson said that because the students were a captive audience – they were at a mandatory assembly with no place else to go if they didn’t want to attend – administrators had the right to remove the word “God.”

Hey, I thought being “edgy” and offensive was the way to go for truly creative people? Or does being “edgy” and offensive only apply when offending Christians and Jews?

Seriously, if the logic of this school official was taken to its natural limit, it would mean that you could silence any speech you disagreed with by merely complaining that you didn’t want to hear it. Under that logic, there is no such thing as freedom of speech.

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Why state regulation is better than federal regulation

11:09 am

In response to my condemnation of the insane requirement by Obamacare that restaurants and take-out pizza delivery services publicly post on their menus the calorie count for every item, including a calorie count for each of the literally thousands of topping variations for pizzas, regular reader Patrick Ritchie asked me, “What level of super market labeling would you support?”

I replied, “I think the federal government has no business requiring any labeling at all. This is a state matter, pure and simple, both for practical and Constitutional reasons.”

He responded, “Which practical reasons? I’m genuinely curious. What makes a state regulation inherently better than a federal one?”

My response to this last question was quite long, and after reading it Patrick suggested I elevate the comment into a full headlined post. I have decided to do so. Here is what I wrote, edited slightly for clarity:
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