UNR Students for Liberty » Stupid Government

Saturday Morning Lulz: We’re Gonna Free You

Barry Belmont — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 18:09:56 +0000

How Copyright Laws, a Judge, and a Bad Decision Have Crippled the World

Barry Belmont — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 03:58:18 +0000

Today, Judge Denny Chin ruled against Google‘s plans to make available some 12 million books in a digital library that could be accessed by anyone with an internet connection. “While the digitisation of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many,” Chin wrote in his decision, Google “simply go[es] too far, [...] giv[ing] Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission.”

More depressing, however, was the fact that the judge rejected the agreement Google reached with the plaintiffs allowing them to continue the digitization and redistribution of books in exchange for an cool $125 million annually. Sounds like a fair deal. But the judge said ‘No’ citing that the ownership (copyrights) of many of the works scanned by Google could not be established.

If you didn’t catch that, I’m going to repeat it, because it is that awful: Since no one is sure who owns the copyright of a particular piece of work, no one is allowed to touch it. What!? Why? That’s like saying you can’t pick up a penny (or a dollar bill) from the street because you can’t properly trace its origins. That. does. not. make. any. sense.

And the judge was able to make this decision so easily because it is not he that will ultimately bear this cost. It’s the hundreds of millions of people who will lack access to tens of millions of books and the vast catalog of information associated with it. This judge’s decision doesn’t just minutely hurt every single human being, it damages the human condition.

What reason could their possibly be to prevent the access to free and open exchange of information? Is the world not better with the internet, with Wikipedia, with knowledge? Cloistering information such that it is not allowed into the hands of others has never been the path of progress and this will be no exception.

It is better to light the world one booklight at a time than to see it cast in darkness as the next chapter of humanity is written.

In God We Trust

Barry Belmont — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:25:13 +0000

If you haven’t yet heard, Representative Randy Forbes (R-Va) has put forth a House Resolution to reaffirm the national motto as ‘In God We Trust’ by posting this motto on many public buildings including court houses, schools, and practically all governmental buildings. The bill has over sixty co-sponsors and is advancing to the floor of the House of Representatives for discussion and a vote. Forbes has declared that he introduced the bill (several times at this point) because:

This sends a clear message to all these government departments and agencies that it’s all right to put up the motto on our buildings and in our classrooms. And I think it will stop the tide of the chilling effect over the past several years.
[...] We’re not forcing anybody to do anything, but at the same time, we want to stand there to protect people who want to say God in a public building. And we don’t want some government agency telling them that they can’t put the national motto in their buildings or classrooms.

This should strike anyone with even a modicum of sensibility as a morbid idea. Not only should the ‘motto’ of the United States not have any religious connotations (whatever happened to the good ol’ E Pluribus Unum?) but there is absolutely no reason for it to be ‘reaffirmed’ except as a means do to some trolling for Christianity. But what about those 34+ million Americans who express no religious affiliation whatsoever? Put even more bluntly, what about those citizens who downright don’t believe in a god or gods, are they to be forced to endorse an opinion they cannot believe simply so they can enter a court of law? [Stay tuned for the article that follows, showing that in quite a few states, said individuals are not even allowed to hold office...]

All this bill does is reinforce the stigma of atheism, play up a religious streak which has no business in politics, and make its co-sponsors look like nuts. However, this stupidly divisive piece of legislation will at least be doing one good thing: wasting the time of politicians that might otherwise be doing other terrible things, like increasing tariffs or mandating healthcare.

Other than that silver lining this bill is still just a turd shaped cloud that’ll hopefully just go away before it makes a real mess of the place…

Breast Milk Ice Cream

Barry Belmont — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:19:35 +0000

Yep, you read right: breast milk ice cream.

While arguing about the more sensible issue of organ donation markets, my debating partner claimed that you are not currently legally allowed to buy or sell human breast milk because the FDA would have no way to regulate it (citing this as a reason why there shouldn’t be markets in organs — analogously, how would one regulate it?). Now, this didn’t sound quite right to me, but lacking knowledge of evidence in my favor I merely conceded the point.

But it turns out that with just a small amount of Googling one can find many sites to both buy and sell breast milk (like this one). In fact I came across this eccentric entrepreneur and his product:

However, with a bit more researching, it turns out it is in fact illegal to sell breast milk. The government has given a writ of monopoly to the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), and made it an entirely donation driven operation. Can you guess what that has resulted in?

It seems to me sad that the government (through this organization) is reduced to begging and pleading on a site that I’m sure few have ever thought of visiting for more people to donate resources of which they have plenty, rather than simply turning over the whole situation to market forces.

Unfortunately for our side, the UK government appears to have shutdown the ice cream entrepreneur, citing the same arguments as were made in the debate I had which prompted the research. Even though many consenting adults wanted to supply, produce, and consume breast milk ice cream, government, as it always does, stepped in and fouled everything up.

It’s a sad day indeed.

Insight Into Abolish ASUN

Barry Belmont — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:49:24 +0000

Insight Magazine just published a story about our recent push to “Abolish ASUN.” The story is so fresh that they haven’t yet uploaded it to their website. However, being the free market innovators that we are, we wanted to present the story to you here (of course, you could always just go find yourself a copy of the magazine as well). Please do enjoy.

Click to Enlarge

It should be noted that we do not own the copyright to this material. All credit goes to Cambria Roth (the author) and the editors of Insight Magazine. If anyone should ask us to take this down, we will comply.

A Bicycle Tax?

Barry Belmont — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 18:54:02 +0000

I know most of us libertarians aren’t much for riding bicycles (I’m looking at you John in your giant ManTruck), but as always, that ambivalence is trumped by a distinct loathing for unnecessary taxes. Introducing, The Bicycle Tax.

An Assemblyperson in New Jersey by the name of Cleopatra Tucker (D-Essex) introduced legislation a little over a week ago proposing that each and every bicycle (in the entire state!) would be required (by force of law) to pay $10 a year to register their bicycle with the Department of Motor Vehicles.

And if that wasn’t enough, every bicycle would be required to have a license plate hanging off the back end with the failure to do so being a $100 fine for each offense.

Facepalming enough yet? Well don’t worry, it seems that everyone in New Jersey was and Tucker has withdrawn her bill as a result.

The reason I brought this up was the coup de grace: In a statement she made after the fact, the Assemblyperson made the clearest expression of every lawmakers blindness. She said, “My intention was never to impose a burden or additional costs.”

There it is, all pink and naked, the Law of Unintended Consequences. No matter what you do as a rule maker, your rules will necessarily have unintended consequences — they will benefit those undeserving and punish those who have done no visible wrong (like a child riding a bike down the block).

Unintended consequences will always happen so long as rules can be enforced through force. Introducing, Government.

Patriots! – We Give You: PatriotApp

John Russell — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 20:41:46 +0000

Check this out – A new iPhone app developed by ‘Citizen Concepts’ (a company formed by insider DHS employees) calls upon our inner patriot to snitch on our fellow Americans:

For $1.99 from the iTunes store…

PatriotAppTM deputizes your iPhone or iPad! It is the world’s first app that allows citizens to assist government agencies in creating safer, cleaner, and more efficient communities. The easy to use graphical interface allows you to report pertinent information to government agencies and share with others via social networking and blogs, all at your fingertips.…

More>>>> This app was founded on the belief that citizens can provide the most sophisticated and broad network of eyes and ears necessary to prevent terrorism, crime, environmental negligence, or other malicious behavior.
Simply download, report (including optional pictures and GPS) and submit information to relevant government agencies, employers, or publish incident data to social network tools.

Key Features:
• Integrated into Federal Agencies points of contacts
o FBI
o EPA
o GAO
o CDC
• Custom integration with user employers
• Fully integrated with Social Media (Facebook, Twitter)
• Multiple menus and data fields
• View FBI Most Wanted
• Simple graphical user interface
Uses:
• Enable citizens to record and communicate:
• National Security, Suspicious activities, Crime
• Government Waste
• Environmental Crime or possible violations
• White collar crime
• Workplace harassment, discrimination, or other violations
• Public Health concerns
PatriotApp encourages active citizen participation in protecting their families and surrounding communities.

PatriotApp is a product offered by Citizen Concepts.
Support:
• Future updates and features
• Follow us on Twitter (@patriotapps) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=142442229115974)

But this is just a part of a greater effort from the DHS to encourage one another to rat each other out to the government. Check out this public service announcement which can be found playing on ‘telescreens’ in Walmarts across America. Feel safer yet?

The Future of Net Neutrality

John Russell — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 20:15:38 +0000

For those of you who believe that net neutrality is anything more than a government power grab of the internet intended to censor sites that they deem bad, then let me introduce you to a list of websites where this is already a reality. These websites were blocked because they were deemed bad from our overlords… but who or what exactly defines what is bad? The RIAA? The MPAA? The government? Sure, first it’s “piracy sites” or “counterfeit product sites” like the following list, but the natural propensity for governments and organizations to expand by the precedent of history shows otherwise. Soon it could be sites with differing views of political thought, religion, or perhaps sites telling people to pass on TSA gate rapes and screening machines. According to torrent freak, many of these sites only used embedded iframes from other trackers to list search results! … where do we draw the line?

2009jerseys.com
51607.com
amoyhy.com
b2corder.com
bishoe.com
borntrade.com
borntrade.net
boxedtvseries.com
boxset4less.com
boxsetseries.com
burberryoutletshop.com
cartoon77.com
cheapscarfshop.com
coachoutletfactory.com
dajaz1.com
discountscarvesonsale.com
dvdcollectionsale.com
dvdcollects.com
dvdorderonline.com
dvdprostore.com
dvdscollection.com
dvdsetcollection.com
dvdsetsonline.com
dvdsuperdeal.com
eluxury-outlet.com
getdvdset.com
gofactoryoutlet.com
golfstaring.com
golfwholesale18.com
handbag9.com
handbagcom.com
handbagspop.com
icqshoes.com
ipodnanouk.com
jersey-china.com
jerseyclubhouse.com
jordansbox.com
lifetimereplicas.com
louis-vuitton-outlet-store.com
lv-outlets.com
lv-outlets.net
lv-outletstore.com
massnike.com
merrytimberland.com
mycollects.com
mydreamwatches.com
mygolfwholesale.com
newstylerolex.com
nfljerseysupply.com
nibdvd.com
odvdo.com
oebags.com
onsmash.com
overbestmall.com
rapgodfathers.com
realtimberland.com
rmx4u.com
scarfonlineshop.com
scarfviponsale.com
shawls-store.com
silkscarf-shop.com
silkscarfonsale.com
skyergolf.com
sohob2b.com
sohob2c.com
storeofeast.com
stuff-trade.com
sunglasses-mall.com
sunogolf.com
tbl-sports.com
throwbackguy.com
tiesonsale.com
timberlandlike.com
topabuy.com
torrent-finder.com
usaburberryscarf.com
usaoutlets.net

End the War.

John Russell — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 22:15:07 +0000

This is a heat map of every death that was contained within the leaked Iraq documents posted on Wikileaks. … and people wonder why I don’t vote?

FREE TROJES

John Russell — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 22:35:11 +0000