BBC News | EUROPE | France upholds 'right not to be born' - one scary item from Socialist France. I still feel that such a "wrong" should be righted rather than compensated for.

Got this from someone's .sig:

The right of self-defense is the first law of nature: in most
governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right
within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies
are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear
arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited,
liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of
destruction."
-- Henry St. George Tucker (in Blackstone's Commentaries)

Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments - loads of fun.

Reason magazine describes the dystopian fearmongering of the neo-luddites in this 29-Aug-2000 article.

Denver Post.com - Colo. to 'map' faces of drivers - so Colorado owns your face. But should they?

Lost freedoms are almost always traded in for a promise of safety. The loss is real, and the promise is usually empty. Colorado's face-mapping scheme is going to be very much the same.

The best way to fight this will be with property rights law. The legislature should state that you own your face, and you can license the state to use it for specific purposes -- but not for any old thing the government wants to do. The same protections would cover private imaging and face-capture activities as well. The mall operator can use your image only if you're seen stealing something -- otherwise they should not retain the image or sell it.

The Secret to Software Success - APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT - CIO Magazine Jul 1,2001 - a cool examination of failing software methodologies and efforts to improve things - well written and fun. Appropriate for CIOs.

washingtonpost.com: Woman Goes on Trial In Ambush Shooting - dunno how long the link will last - the heartwarming story of a "Million" Mom who, bent on revenge, shot the wrong man. The MMM org is standing behind her, and her four handguns.

Walter Williams describes the case against trade protectionism.

A Historical Perspective on Electric Utility Regulation - just what I've been looking for: a sweeping examination of the long run-up to today's electricity mess. Informative.

Positive Atheism's Big List of H. L. Mencken Quotations -- loads of fun.