Double Birds

I forked over the 10 bucks and switched to www.DoubleBirds.net .  The blog may do wonky things for the next few days.  I apologize for that. Send your complaints to upyours@doublebirds.net .

The Morality Police shot and killed a man for being drunk .  Keep that in mind next time you pop open a cold one. I admit, the guy looks like a dumbass .  But last time I checked, being a dumbass was not a crime. His drivers license ID is also a mugshot.  It saved him time. The contents of our bodies should not be criminal.  Americans should be free to eat, drink, and smoke whatever they like. Being drunk while driving should not be illegal. Driving hazardously, or endangering others with your driving should be illegal.  If someone is swerving recklessly through lanes of traffic—or speeding faster than the flow of traffic, or driving slower than the flow of traffic, or stopping erratically—they should be hauled off the road, and have their driving privileges revoked temporarily. (Edited by Double Birds) Which brings us to the morality police.  There is a difference between criminality and immorality.  The government does not have authority to enforce morality. Thomas Jefferson w

Why don't people stop whining and pay their taxes?  Aren't taxes the price we pay for civilization ? And yet many people we consider heroes have been willing to die, rather than pay taxes. Jefferson wrote that " a two-penny duty on tea, unjustly imposed " was enough to spark the American Revolution. The irony pisses Jefferson off. Many of the rebellions you read about in history were tax revolts.  Freedom was equivalent with not paying taxes.  In ancient Rome, free citizens were exempt from most taxes, while their conquered subjects paid them.  The early Islamic empires exempted fellow Muslims from taxes, while their subjects paid. Jesus equated tax-exemption with freedom when he said that the children of kings are free .  Everyone else is subject to the king.  Or, rather, subjected by the king.  Alexander the Great conquered the world, and subjected its inhabitants.  Their subjugation meant that they would pay him taxes, or tribute.  He was willing to allow their

Awkward—When someone waves to you.  You wave back.  Then you realize they were waving to the person behind you. More awkward—When the person waving to you is a total dumbass .  And there's nobody behind you. A few weeks ago, Lindsay Lohan tweeted something anti-Federal Reserve ( it turned out to be a robot ).  I thought, cool, someone famous knows about the inflationary central bank.  At the same time, I don't want people to think her and Ron Paul mingle in the same circles . Ron Paul attracts all kinds, including some awkward endorsers I would rather you not know about . Along these lines, I'm kind of embarrassed that Mel Gibson was the first to introduce me to the idea of freedom.   Braveheart moved me, and made me wonder what freedom meant, and why some jerks took it away. With that in mind, here's another shout out to Ron Paul: Ron Paul does not endorse Mel Gibson's Jew-hating. (edited by Double Birds) I'm also totally embarrassed to admit that I want to

Obama says us bombing Libya isn't a war because : 1.  There are no "ground troops." and 2.  No "exchanges of fire with hostile forces." Using this logic, it's not a fight if you: 1. Are in the air. and 2. Do not get hurt. So if you're Super Man, you can punch anyone you want, and it's not a fight. Imma kick your a**, son. This is also not a fight: Next time you want to punch someone, jump first.  I think Obama just created the Superman Doctrine. Go ahead. (edited by Double Birds)

Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee, and Sarah Palin have called for Assange to be tried for treason, or simply executed without trial . Ron Paul defends him of course. Assange has the right to free speech.  The Constitution protects this right for U.S. citizens.  But the Constitution does not give us that right.  We inherently posses the right to free speech, because we are human beings.  Nature's God has given us reason, and we can practice that reason without permission from any man. Anyone notice the trend that the government spies on everything we do , but wants to keep everything it does a secret ? They've probably read Madison: "T he right of freely examining public characters and measures , and of free communication among the people thereon, which has ever been justly deemed, the only effectual guardian of every other right. ”  Assange's birdie finger contains more honesty than  Rupert Murdoch 's entire empire.  (emphasis added by Double Birds) See Also: Boy Who

A prototype for the Star Trek replicator has been developed.  It could completely change how our society works. But some big corporations want to use the government to strangle the replicator  while it's still an infant. Trekkies! Get out of your mom's basement and save the replicator! See also: The Economics of Star Trek George Lucas Strikes Back BoingBoing.net on 3d Printers

Go check out the Economics of Inception over at FilmEcon . (Picture slightly related). Dreams are sometimes better than reality. (Fartzilla from FilmDrunk ) (Edited by Double Birds)

Thomas J"effers"on.  Even his name is an insult to tyrants. According to the Declaration of Independence, our own founding document, Iraqis  (and people in many other countries around the world) have every right to declare independence from the United States, and overthrow the puppet governments that we have installed.  Let's see if you put together the pieces in the same way: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed " "whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government," "when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Objec