Maybe it's the hippie in me, but this logo is forever fantastic.

The Tropicana Casino & Resort in Atlantic City is in deep doo-doo (does anybody go to Atlantic City anymore?); Home Depot starts its slide downward; and Target can't collect on its credit card loans. So Target is tightening its lending standards (yea, right) and trying to sell its receivables, which these retailers typically do for cash flow purposes. Linens 'n Things is in trouble, too.

On the "bright side," Visteon stock jumped 12% because of a buy recommendation from Mr. Jim Cramer. Some people actually do make money on Jim Cramer picks.... ;--)

American Axle needs to close some plants in order to become a leaner, more competitive business for future years. Ron Gettlefinger, chief of the UAW mob, has called this "an insult." In fact, he has even taken to calling the company "Mexico Axle." That private businesses cannot open, run, or close their plants as they please should be an indication of the basic problem with unions, which are predatory, parasitic, and collectively anti-private property. Let's look at some snippets that tell the story of the American Axle/GM strikes:

GM believes the UAW threats, all against factories that either make critical models for the automaker or supply the parts to build them, are a tactic being used to draw the company into the strike against American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., according to several sources familiar with negotiations. Labor law prohibits the union from striking because of a dispute elsewhere; many think the union is using local negotiations to apply indirect pressure.

...The American Axle strike, in its ninth week, has created a parts shortage that has forced GM to idle or cut production at more than two dozen North American factories. But GM's bottom line has been relatively unscathed since the affected factories produce slow-selling large trucks and SUV that were backing up on dealer lots.

At one point, it seemed the strike threatened production of GM's hot-selling Malibu. Then Bo Andersson, GM's purchasing chief, told reporters that the Malibu was safe no matter what happened with American Axle. Within days, the UAW local representing the Malibu plant in Kansas City threatened a walkout.

Many industry watchers -- and company insiders -- think the move was just one more signal that the union is pushing the automaker to ante up cash so American Axle will offer its workers a richer deal.

So the Malibu plant went on strike, one of two walkouts at critical GM factories. In a real free market, any management team dealing with a group of striking employees could fire 'em all and be done with it.

I am down to 830 emails and hope to be at 400 or less by day's end. Sorting out my persistent email dilemma will go a long way in getting things in order and being more responsive in the future.

You see, I tore a hamstring yesterday, and I have been in dire pain since the event. I was at LA Fitness and I was deadlifting, and that's how it happened. Nothing heavy - I was only warming up. I usually warm up with reps at 95 lbs, and I was going to work up to about 270 or 280 that day. At 185 lbs, on my third set, it popped very loudly. I heard it and felt the vibration from the pop. The day before (Saturday) I had gone mountain biking and did some really hard riding for about 3.5 - 4 hours. That's a lot of miles, a lot of hills, and my speed was excellent, especially considering the fact that I don't have sufficient base miles in yet.

Later that day my legs became very sore, stiff, and tight. Considering my medical history, this is just part of what is and what has long been. So I put on some biofreeze and chill out for the night. In the morning, my legs were fatigued enough that my form was compromised, even in a light deadlift. My legs gave out, my form broke down, I over-engaged my hamstring, and that was that. The pain has been unbearable. Today the chiropractor tells me that the strain had pulled my pelvis and tailbone way out of whack, pinching my nerves, which is why I was in so much pain yesterday, even while just sitting. Today it is much better, thanks to natural medicine. I'll be giving up sprints and deadlifting for awhile it seems.

Then my immune system became compromised, and I came down with a flu last night. So today I'm home sick, feeling like absolute crap, and can't seem to accomplish anything more than eat peanut butter fudge ice cream (good for my swollen throat), Godiva chocolates (very medicinal), Halls throat drops, and fart around at the computer. 'Tis a good day to back up some data, blog, go through old emails, clean up my folders, and just be lazy. All winter the flu bugs went around the office and I avoided them all. The only one who didn't get sick was me. Today I pay.

I've been very lacking in terms of blogging lately, and worse when it comes to getting articles up. Not a bad thing, really, 'cuz I have been busy both working and playing.

A lot of people write me and say, "Hey, I really like your blog, but you need to open up your comments." I address it again because many people bring this up. Against my better judgment, I opened up comments for one week in 2002. Big mistake. A lot of people like to criticize, compliment, and debate using comments, and that's all great. However, the lunatics are drawn to comments and, like Gresham's Law, the bad tends to drive out the good. And for those of you who are too clueless to think that a female libertarian blogger doesn't get any worse crap than a male libertarian blogger, you need to be on the receiving end of my email for about one week. During that one week that my comments were open, hell broke out. It was lunacy, and it surely wasn't worth it. The stalkers, misogynists, anti-Jewish conspiracy theorists, and other undesirables were all over it. I don't have the time to police comments, nor do I have the need/desire to drive traffic to my blog by making it an open bulletin board for discussion. So I have no plans, at this time, to open up comments.

Note that the LewRockwell.com blog does not open up for comments. If that were to happen, the blog would become unreadable.

Hate mail. I respond about 1% of the time anymore. I have little time to respond to the great mail, let alone the hate mail. Once again, the typical scenario is that I get a note of disagreement from an angry reader. Disagreement is great; your hate is not welcome. So I ignore. The reader re-sends the same email or writes another one. They get pissed because I don't respond. I am told that, because I do not respond to their baiting, I "can't handle disagreement" or I am "unable to take them on." So if I write them back in the exact same tone and words, I hear this back: "I can't handle disagreement," or I am "angry" or have "no social skills." Honestly, people like this are lunatics. I do not write them, they write me. I almost never seek people (writers) out to write them, whether I agree or disagree with what they have written/blogged. Once you seek me out to write me, you have entered my private property. And that's fine, but if you decide to berate me, call me names, or get hateful, you have become angry with me - not the other way around. Then you get pissed if I ignore you, you get pissed if I engage you in response. Thus the angry one is you, for writing me. This is so obviously clear, yet people cannot stand that I should say "boo" back to them for their slashing anger directed against me.

The latest involved some dimwit who kept writing me (when I ignored her) because her kid is a cop and she doesn't like my blogs on LewRockwell.com arguing against the police state. Why her boy is perfect and caring, you see, and thus I should never comment on all the bad cops and police state tactics because then I somehow diss her wonderful kid. She repeatedly wrote me, and when I finally wrote back and told her I don't care that she's related to a cop and will never back down on that issue, she went off.

So it goes. She hushed up when I told her to find someone else on the LRC blog to stalk.

Simply put, here's the quick answer for those of you who don't get it concerning Matt Welch's short-but-mischievous reign at Reason magazine (italics are mine):

I believe that Reason has become overly obsessed with its conception of itself as "the most influential libertarian publication in America". This has led the editors at Reason to grant prominent and respectful space to authors promoting overtly statist and anti-libertarian viewpoints. At the same time, many writers at Reason act as if they are the sole arbiters of acceptable libertarian viewpoints. Consider the fact that Matt Welch chose to attack Ron Paul, Lew Rockwell and Murray Rothbard in his first editorial as editor in chief at Reason. This decision, coupled with his willingness to misrepresent the views of Paul, Rockwell and Rothbard suggest that he is more interested in maintaining acceptable liberal credentials than in promoting a principled defense of libertarianism.

Mr. Parfitt is pointing out the bloody problem that I had assumed was so obvious.

This is a fascinating look at Camacari - one of the most advanced auto assembly plants in the world. Its system of supplier integration makes it perhaps the "leanest" plant in the world. Why will there never be any plants like this in the US? Because union thugs run Ford's business in the US and they will never allow such a thing to happen.

As in the United States, assembly workers make more than those employed by suppliers, and the union is eager to ensure that work reserved for the higher paid Ford employees is not being done by lower wage supplier staff.

Labor expert Harley Shaiken of the University of California, Berkeley, said similar concerns are one reason why the Camaçari model is unlikely to be duplicated in the United States. He said the UAW has relaxed work rules at many Ford factories to allow workers to do more than one job, and has even allowed experiments with limited supplier integration.

But he said the UAW is concerned that giving too much on these fronts will just allow the companies to speed up production and transfer more and more work to lower-paid supplier employees.

A 3-year-old Detroiter with a 20-piece, custom drum set, who jams with famous session players and assorted musicians. Julian Pavone started drumming at the age of three months, landed his first contract gig at 15 months old, and has played at the House of Blues. I watched the videos of him drumming ("Brickhouse" and "Smoke on the Water," among other songs) and was stunned. See his videos here.

"He plays like a 30-year-old with such precision, definition and focus that it's incredible," said Grammy Award-winning guitarist and producer Michael J. Powell.

..."I strapped him in a baby (sling) at 3 months to practice the drums and Julian reached up and grabbed my drum sticks from me and started playing on the tom-tom. By 9 months he could do drum rolls and I knew he had a gift from God."

This kid is too amazing for words. See this article about him and his family.

And I think I may have found a prosecutor that I like. Wait ... before you send me that angry email.

I think it's a bad strategy, and often a statist one, to always be dissing lawyers as shysters and no-gooders and such. Plus we always hear that there are too many lawyers. True, the courts are packed with silly cases and greedy lawyers. But in an era of the drug war, paramilitary police, and political office-seeking, crooked prosecutors, I am glad that law schools continue to turn out "too many lawyers."

Tonight, 60 Minutes ran the heartbreaking story about James Woodard, the man who was locked away for 27 years by a reckless and power-seeking Dallas County prosecutor, Henry Wade, who ditched evidence that would have allowed the defense to successfully defend him. Woodard was convicted of raping and killing his girlfriend and lost all the best years of his life while he refused to admit guilt while in prison in order to have a chance at parole. No victim of Wade has served more time in prison than Woodard and then been released for being wrongly convicted.

Henry Wade is always referred to as "a legend." In fact, Wade was an FBI Special Agent under Hoover, and learned all of his dirty tricks from the Feds. As a prosecutor, he is said to have played dirty in order to win cases. Very dirty. He prosecuted - and probably executed - many innocent people. Since 2001, many innocent men have walked from Dallas County prison, freed because of DNA tests that proved their innocence. Several of them were on 60 Minutes, and they were all intelligent and articulate, and it makes you wonder how good men like that could sustain so many years of the brutality in the government's dungeon. Watching these men talk about their lost lives was painful.

When Wade died, the New York Times ran a sappy story about how Wade was really just a folksy guy who played dominos and puttered on his farm. The Times also celebrated this:

He was district attorney from 1951 to 1987, and during the early years, when his office was relatively small, he often prosecuted cases himself. When he did, he never lost a single one. As a prosecutor in those years, and earlier during three years when he was assistant district attorney, he asked for death sentences on 30 occasions, and got them on 29.

Even the liberal Times celebrates a man who brings death to men when it's the state that is killing them. (See my thoughts on the death penalty here.)

The Innocence Project of Texas is sifting through years of cases - as they did with Woodard's - looking for signs that innocent people may have been wrongly convicted. Law students donate their time to work with the project, and in fact it was a volunteer law student who investigated Woodard's case.

The new Dallas County DA, Craig Watkins, appears to be sincere in his attempt to reform the office that turned into a conviction and killing machine under Wade. (Wade's motto was "conviction at all costs.") He is cooperating with the Innocence Project in regards to investigating old cases and has sworn to make things right as best as he can. Watkins has admitted to uncovering all kinds of shenanigans, including prosecutorial misconduct, and fortunately, he has been able to bring justice to some of the victims of previous prosecutors.

All said, thank goodness for all the aggressive, passionate lawyers who will defend individuals from the state, its injustices, and its execution machine.

I blog about Reason magazine here. Some good, some bad, and much to be perplexed over. Keith Halderman has his own opinion on this thing over at the History News Network blog.

When I first became a libertarian back in the late 1980s I used to love Reason Magazine. On the day an issue appeared in my mailbox it got read cover to cover and the information presented was invaluable to a budding activist trying to convince others that freedom was the correct path. Now, I would not let my dog take a dump on it because it is just not good enough for him.

In spite of my 'sometimes good, sometimes bad, often terrible' opinion of Reason and my partial praise of the magazine/website in general, I do agree that Reason is lowering itself to the point of becoming a persistent platform for gossip, trash, and Soviet-style guilt by association. The attempt at trash journalism is so bad that people have taken to using sources such as no-name bloggers with empty profiles and "open secrets" (whatever that means) of certain sects of the libertarian movement. The magazine's attitude of "political correctness or else" jives with the appointment of Matt Welch as the magazine's mouthpiece-in-chief. The Postrel years were awful, but under Welch Reason has become worse than awful - it is a launching pad for loose cannons that claim the glorious high mantle of anti-bigotry as they endlessly launch hyper-emotional, crazed rants at those who have dared to "just say no" to The Kochtopus. The loose cannons scrambled from one venue to another - including The Economist - in order to launch their attacks from various platforms in order to make it appear as if those few people engaged by The KochtopuSS were actually many people who all shared the same sweet goal: take Lew Rockwell and his one-man "empire" down because he, and all associated with him, are guilty of not living up to the various moral codes of the state that will be enforced by Beltway "libertarians" and Kochtopus. Well, the offensive lacked any heavy artillery, and in fact it launched wet noodles and promptly fell off the radar map of the blogosphere. The loose cannons keep trying to revive interest in their pc garbage journalism, but the comments underneath the blog threads tell us that, in general, people are sick of the constant pc policing and phony do-goodism.

Prior to the Welch era, I don't believe this would have happened. But hey, I could be wrong. And lastly, thank goodness for Justin Raimondo, whose pen is mightier than any rubber sword offered up by the agents of the Beltway at Reason or elsewhere.

Insanity here is defined as $542,000, a blast-resistant body, rotating roof hatch, ten gun ports, a battering ram, a video camera with night vision, and the capability to go 75mph.

Perhaps the most amazing thing is that the local media justified this massive monster because, a couple of weeks ago, there was a standoff in a community near mine wherein this thing was used to "knock down the front door." That's like justifying the use of an ax to cut sewing thread. Under the guise of Homeland Security, states and localities are provided the funds, so Michigan police are going crazy bulking up their police state.

In Metro Detroit, law enforcement agencies are excited at the prospect of using these 12-ton behemoths on wheels.

Warren's GPV Sergeant 4X4 used in the Capac shooting is the first of three Metro Detroit will receive through a $1.6 million grant from Homeland Security. The other two are expected to arrive at the Southfield Police Department and the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office in coming weeks.

The vehicles will be available to other agencies for police work or firefighting.

Law enforcement agencies said the Sergeants ensure public safety by allowing them to deploy their personnel safely.

One more thing worth noting.

It can be used in everything from hostage situations to delivery of warrants to fighting terrorism, officials said.

Delivering warrants?

On a similar note -- many years ago, a cop was a guy who strolled the neighborhood on his "beat," chatted up folks at the barber shop, and was thought of as a friend by many of the locals. Generally speaking, cops used to be guys who really did want to do some good for the community, and bring peace through a little neighborhood security. Good guys - for the most part - used to become cops. Confident, strong men used to become cops so they could hold a respected position in the community and provide leadership. Now, the bad, the bullies, the insecure, and the ugly become cops so that they can control, intimidate, militarize, and rule.

This article on Taki's site takes on libertarians and their criticism of the War on Drugs. Mr. Roach sounds very authoritarian, especially when he notes that a militarized police state fighting the drug war tends to "gather up society's trash" in a way that benefits us all. He even uses the argument that one committing a crime is likely to commit another, thus we should lock them up when we have the opportunity to nab them on drug charges. He somehow - and this is never explained - links people who are convicted of drug crimes to other, more serious crimes such as burglary, rape, and murder, and since the state often cannot gain enough evidence to convict them of these hard crimes, the state should throw away the key by way of drug convictions. Says Roach: "Drug convictions are analogous to punishing Al Capone for tax evasion." He says nothing about the zillions of peaceful users and small-time sellers who spend decades - or their whole life - behind bars. Perhaps he hasn't seen this story.

Finally, he appeals to Ron Paul, and other drug war critics like him, to address "how they would continue to suppress violent crime that the drug war is now tamping down quite effectively." Of course, this is a false statement and therefore need not be addressed by Ron Paul or anyone. Libertarians would not define drug use or voluntary transactions between willing parties, with drugs as the good, as a "crime." It is the state's laws making drugs illegal that have brought rise to the drug-related violence in the streets.

When your five minutes of fame are over, you need to find something else to write about. The creep Weigel is still trying to keep alive his one claim to "fame." Justin Raimondo wastes no time in jumping on it.

Reason is fast losing subscribers and readers over this. Take a look at the comments attached to Weigel's post: they sure have Weigel's number. Almost to a man (and woman) they are wondering: whose side is Reason on? Why are they bringing up this tired old "controversy"? Who benefits -- the friends or the enemies of liberty? So intent are these would-be commissars on purging the movement of anyone who doesn't kowtow to their PC gods that they lose sight of the fact that Ron Paul is a bestselling author who has done more for the cause of liberty than Reason could ever hope to.

Justin is right, of course. And he adds:

Yeah, well screw you, Weigel, and screw Reason magazine - Ron Paul is the future of the libertarian movement, and you are yesterday's flotsam.

Personally, I don't write off all of Reason magazine. There's much good there - disagreement or not - and several excellent writers: Gillespie, Walker, Sullum, Doherty, etc. Some of the newer writers of the "free mind" capacity don't even make it on my radar map, but that's okay. There's nothing wrong with the variety that Reason offers its readers. But some very unlibertarian types at Reason - Welch, Bailey, and Weigel, for instance - draw the ire of many libertarians who don't see what value these types add to the understanding and furtherance of libertarianism. Then there are a couple of other ex-Cato staffers who joined the hate & blame Ron Paul/Lew Rockwell bandwagon so as to make the right friends in the Beltway and mainstream media. And none of those people matter a bit. However, I can certainly sweep that flotsam under the rug and enjoy the interesting libertarians at Reason who still carry on with some excellent work. But I commend Justin for his tireless efforts in terms of setting things straight. I don't know what the libertarian-o-sphere would do without him and his tremendous passion for saying it as it really is.

Eric Englund on the economic shitstorm created by state intervention:

The Fed lowers interest rates, inflation is raging, and precious metals get hammered downward while bonds remain in a bull market. All the rules have changed. There was a time where inflation was bullish for precious metals and death on bonds. Today, up is down, right is wrong, black is white, and smart is dumb. Just buy stocks and all will be well.

Via Dr. Mercola, I came across this. This statement is mind-boggling:

"Like discrimination based on race and gender, genetic discrimination is based on the unchangeable and -- because the information must be sought out by the offender -- is equally offensive,'' Snowe said (Senator Olympia Snowe).

Senator No-Swim said this bill is "'the first major new civil rights bill of the new century." The message is that private companies like health insurers and employers will have to abide by federally-mandated equality decrees. I understand the health insurance companies supported the bill. Free market, not.

Of course, the most notable aspect of this debacle will be how "genetic disease" will be defined.

This is the kind of story that leaves you hating the state and its insane system of mass lockup. Her crime was escaping a hellhole known as the Detroit House of Corrections in 1976, along with family who assisted her. Of course, at 19, any average girl - who was not a product of the street - would not have survived the harsh, gang-infested environment of a women's prison. Her "crime" that landed her in a Detroit prison? She was caught with heroin and given a maximum sentence of 20 years. No violence, no destruction of property, and no aggression against any others.

LeFevre said she agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and violation of drug laws in hopes of winning leniency, but received the maximum sentence of 10 to 20 years.

Instead, some puppet enforcers for the state tossed a 19-year-old kid behind bars for 20 years. Upon her escape from hell, she had moved to California, changed her name, married, raised children, and was committing the other crime of leading a life of financial security with a husband who made a fine living. The hairspray crew on FOX this morning kept sniping that she was "driving a Lexus" and "living in a $2M home." How dare she! One commentator even commented that she was, "doing nothing.....she was just a housewife, walking around and doing nothing...." ???

But as a Department of Corrections spokesman says, "She has a prison sentence to fulfill," Marlan said. "We can't, even if we wanted to, negate that prison sentence. What kind of message would that send to 50,000 other prisoners in Michigan? If you escape and live clean, you can have your sentence dropped if you're caught?"

Thus it's not about being peaceful and not committing crimes, for that's not what the state actually desires in the end, though its propaganda will tell us otherwise. It's all about falling into line with the rest of the herd and setting a good example for acquiescence to the state and its collective prescriptions for determining how you will live your life.

It always makes me wonder what kind of people - unfortunately, the majority of people - can hear this stuff and believe that a lifetime lockup from the government is some kind of logical solution?