Monthly Archives: September 2007

Ron Paul raises over $1 million in 7 days!

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In 2004, Libertarian Presidential candidate Michael Badnarik raised a little over $1 million for the entire election cycle. Now, Ron Paul has raised the same amount in a week, all from grassroots supporters, with the same Libertarian message–but with a lot more national attention.

Now do you see why they work so hard to keep Libertarians off the ballot? Now do you see why they try to exclude us from the debates and marginalize us in the media? Dr. Paul has experienced this; several Republicans said he shouldn’t be in the debates, the mainstream press still calls him a marginal candidate (when by any objective measurement he’s the frontrunner of frontrunners), and Sean Hannity still claims his support comes from a few online “spammers.”

They don’t believe this. They never believed this. They know full well the truth, which should be obvious to anyone by now: Libertarians are a threat. We’re a threat to big government and corporations who have been sucking off the teat of the people for far too long now. But when people are exposed to the Libertarian message in a forum where the voice is given equal time, look what happens.

One million dollars in one week–all from regular voters, without one penny of big corporate or special interest money.

The Ron Paul Revolution is happening…regardless of whether or not it’ll be televised.

The Evil Creationist Kent Hovind

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There’s just no way around it. Kent Hovind, of Creation Science Evangelism (one wonders how it can be science when it’s evangelism), is evil. If the fact that he pretends to have a doctorate degree that he didn’t earn isn’t enough, and if the fact that he’s currently spending ten years in Federal prison on multiple charges isn’t enough, this certainly should be:

He’s silencing his critics by having their YouTube videos critical of him taken down. He’s also had entire accounts pulled, including that of the Rational Response Squad. How has he done this? He’s claiming copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This, after years of saying his videos aren’t copyrighted. See for yourself:

Why is Kent Hovind now claiming copyright infringement? For no other reason to silence his critics. That, and he’s a liar.

Don’t blame YouTube for this. Once the complaint is made, they by law have to take down the videos until the controversy is solved (can anyone say, “guilty until proven innocent?”). The blame rests squarely on Hovind and the people running CSE. They’re a bunch of liars. I would say they’re a bunch of creationist liars, but that would appear to be redundant–I’ve never met a creationist yet who wasn’t a liar. Really, it’s the only way they can pretend their insane ideas have any legitimacy.

And while you’re at it, you might also blame the politicians who passed the disgusting piece of corporate protectionist trash known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. I and many others said at the time that the DMCA would be used for exactly this purpose–to abuse the law and virtually eliminate Fair Use.

See, the thing is, even if Hovind’s videos were copyrighted, what these users have done would still be legal as Fair Use under Title 17 Section 107 of the United States Code. The DMCA gives corporations, not to mention liars like Hovind and the rest of the CSE, a legal battleaxe to wield against the legitimate rights of others.

Fight evil Hovind, fight the evil CSE, fight the evil creationists (at the very least, send them a copy of the Ninth Commandment; it’s obviously missing from their Bible), and fight the evil DMCA.

And to everyone at the Rational Response Squad, as well as RabidApe and the other users who have had videos removed or accounts suspended, stay strong. You are in the right.

Another town ditches traffic lights

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As I’ve blogged about before, traffic engineers are starting to doubt the effectiveness of traffic lights. First, the town of Drachten in the Netherlands experienced great success with removing their traffic lights; now, Bohmte, Germany is doing the same thing:

From September 12, all traffic controls will disappear from
the center of the western town of Bohmte to try to reduce
accidents and make life easier for pedestrians.

In an area used by 13,500 cars every day, drivers and
pedestrians will enjoy equal right of way, Klaus Goedejohann,
the town’s mayor, told Reuters.

"Traffic will no longer be dominant," he said.

This is following on the success in Drachten:

Monderman’s ideas have already been implemented in the town
of Drachten in the north of the Netherlands, where all stop
lights, traffic signs, pavements, and street markings have
gone.

"It’s been very successful there," Goedejohann said, adding
that accidents in Drachten had been reduced significantly.

But then, of course, there are those who want to cling to the old ways, fearful of change and progress:

"Just because it worked in the Netherlands doesn’t mean it
will work here," said Werner Koeppe, a road specialist at
Berlin’s Technical Traffic Institute.

Gee, how often have we heard that before? And I’ll bet you anything that’s what the politicians here in America will say the same thing when it comes time to try the initiative here.

One more expression to watch out for whenever you hear a politician utter it–it’s almost never true. Yes, there are cultural differences, but human behavior isn’t that different.