SCOTUS: habeas corpus, or Gitmo prisoners have human rights
So much for ’90s conservative great white hope Antonin Scalia (don’t get played)

Isn’t it ironic that conservatives — who used to embrace the notion of constitutionally limited powers of government, until they got hold of the whip — should fall into the same statist thinking that Scalia did in his dissent? The protection of individual liberty is SUPPOSED to make it more difficult for governments to act. Military commanders, police, and other practitioners of statist force are SUPPOSED to have their hands tied when dealing with the people they like to pretend it is their purpose to protect!

In light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision that prisoners of the American state actually have some natural rights, Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham are actively vowing to do everything they can to make sure that habeas corpus (and most of what remains of the Bill of Rights) will be eliminated from our legal system forever.

Graham and the GOP all want judges like Scalia, of course. Judges that will conclude that the government can kill, imprison, and rob anyone it wants at any time as long as the state has decided it has a good reason to do so.

John Paul Stevens is on his last leg. If he’s replaced by another Thomas or Scalia clone, you might as well start packing your bags for some secret federal cage ASAP.

Words get debased
Humpty Dumpty fashion like inflationary currency (Monopoly, er, fiat money).

If I say I’m liberal people think I’m a socialist who’s for murdering inconvenient babies and not a classical liberal. If I say I’m conservative they think I’m for the rubbish above, beating up homosexuals and murdering Iraqis, not a Burkean or Kirkian. If I say I’m libertarian they think of Ayn Rand (selfishness elevated to a philosophy) and Beltway libertarians. If I say I’m Catholic they think of this. If I say I’m Orthodox they think Jewish (not that being so is the same as the bad stuff above) or, if they’re up on church stuff and have been anywhere near the Internet, anti-Roman bigotry/anti-Westernism.

So this page tries simply to explain a few things.

Me, I avoid using those words [‘conservative’ and ‘liberal’] whenever possible and try to keep plugging away at the whole ‘disciple’ thing.

— The Revd Jane

I can’t stop using a lot of those words but good point.

Just thought about this recently:

Pretending that Germany has the same economy as Greece and Italy was a joke

In a fascinating and ominous development (for the centralizers), Germans are rejecting euro notes from more inflationist countries like Greece or Italy. Will the euro survive the Fed’s global depression? Will any fiat paper currency?

Oh, Canada!
No freedom of speech in HM Dominion

“In a decision that foreshadows the possible fate of Fr. Alphonse de Valk, Canada’s leading pro-life voice among Catholic clergy, the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal has forbidden evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson from expressing his moral opposition to homosexuality.”

In America, despite many threats to the separation of Church and State and the freedom of people to worship, we are still blessed to have relative religious liberty, compared even to our fellow Westerners. This is indeed one of the greatest legacies of the American Revolutionary tradition.

Of course homosexuals have a right to live in peace but so do conservative Christians.

Paul and Barr praise each other
OK, my party’s pick might get my vote

A real great uniter
Echoing the forgotten history of the early libertarianism of the SDS (Carl Oglesby), or the Old Right and New Left could have joined together. Alas.

There was a mix of people and their prospective belief systems that has always been lacking at Libertarian events. Instead of being surrounded by people that seem to want to argue the finer points of existentialism or some other such BS (which is why I never wanted to hang around with other Libertarians in the first place), the people at this event were from all walks of life and from all ethnic backgrounds.

It’s really true: Ron Paul’s message of freedom brings people together. The message is that freedom works. The message is that we want our freedoms and our country back and it is hitting a chord with people from every political preference, ethnic background, gender, and age.

I left feeling like I had been rejuvenated. This 55-year-old man has been recharged by a spunky never give up 72-year-old freedom fighter that has done what no other politician has ever done. He leads by example...

From the LRC blog.