Defending the Blackmailer - Walter Block - Mises Daily

Defending the Blackmailer - Walter Block - Mises Daily: "With the gossip, all is lost; with the blackmailer, one can only gain, or at least be no worse off. If the price requested by the blackmailer is lower than the secret is worth, the secret-keeper will pay the blackmailer — this being the lesser of the two evils. He thus gains the difference to him between the value of the secret and the price of the blackmail. When the blackmailer demands more than the secret is worth, his demand will not be met and the information will become public."

"Many actions in the public arena qualify as acts of blackmail, but, instead of being vilified, they have often attained a status of respectability! For example, the recent lettuce boycott is a form of blackmail. Through the lettuce boycott (or any boycott), threats are made to retailers and wholesalers of fruits and vegetables. If they handle nonunion lettuce, the boycotters assert, people will be asked not to patronize their establishments. This conforms perfectly to the definition: a threat that something, not in itself illegal, will take place unless certain demands are met."

"In addition to being a legitimate activity, blackmail has some good effects, litanies to the contrary notwithstanding. Apart from some innocent victims who are caught in the net, who does the blackmailer usually prey upon?

In the main, there are two groups. One group is composed of criminals: murderers, thieves, swindlers, embezzlers, cheaters, rapists, etc. The other group consists of people who engage in activities, not illegitimate in themselves, that are contrary to the mores and habits of the majority: homosexuals, sadomasochists, sexual perverts, communists, adulterers, etc. The institution of blackmail has beneficial, but different, effects upon each of these groups.

In the case of criminals, blackmail and the threat of blackmail serve as deterrents."

"Legalizing blackmail would thus allow anticrime units to take advantage of two basic crime fighting adages at the same time: "divide and conquer," and "lack of honor among thieves." It is quite clear that one important effect of legalizing blackmail would be to diminish crime — real crime, that is."

"In reflecting on the old aphorism, 'the truth shall make you free,' the only 'weapon' at the disposal of the blackmailer is the truth. In using the truth to back up his threats (as on occasion he must), he sets the truth free, very often without intent, to do whatever good or bad it is capable of doing."

Our View: When government is too big, who is keeping an eye on the wallet? | Hudson Star-Observer | Hudson, Wisconsin

Our View: When government is too big, who is keeping an eye on the wallet? | Hudson Star-Observer | Hudson, Wisconsin: "Any time government grows too large, following close behind is cheating, fraud and waste. Unless someone puts on the brakes and re-evaluates the current situation, the taxpayers lose."

FOXNews.com - Court: University Can Expel Student Who Opposes Homosexuality

FOXNews.com - Court: University Can Expel Student Who Opposes Homosexuality: "Judge Steeh said the university had a rational basis for adopting the ACA Code of Ethics.

“Furthermore, the university had a rational basis for requiring students to counsel clients without imposing their personal values,” he wrote in a portion of his ruling posted by The Detroit News. “In the case of Ms. Ward, the university determined that she would never change her behavior and would consistently refuse to counsel clients on matters with which she was personally opposed due to her religious beliefs – including homosexual relationships.”

Ward’s attorneys claim the university told her she would only be allowed to remain in the program if she went through a “remediation” program so that she could “see the error of her ways” and change her belief system about homosexuality."

FOXNews.com - Lying for sex _ Arab's conviction raises charges of Israeli racism and legal intrusiveness

FOXNews.com - Lying for sex _ Arab's conviction raises charges of Israeli racism and legal intrusiveness: "'If she hadn't thought the accused was a single Jewish man interested in a serious romantic relationship, she would not have cooperated,' Judge Zvi Segal wrote in sentencing Qashor. The court must protect the public from 'sophisticated and slick-tongued criminals who would lead innocent victims astray, at the unbearable price of the sanctity of their bodies and souls.'"

FOXNews.com - White House predicts record $1.47 trillion deficit this year, 9 percent unemployment next year

FOXNews.com - White House predicts record $1.47 trillion deficit this year, 9 percent unemployment next year: "New estimates from the White House on Friday predict the budget deficit will reach a record $1.47 trillion this year. The government is borrowing 41 cents of every dollar it spends.

That's actually a little better than the administration predicted in February.

The new estimates paint a grim unemployment picture as the economy experiences a relatively jobless recovery. The unemployment rate, presently averaging 9.5 percent, would average 9 percent next year under the new estimates.

The Office of Management and Budget report has ominous news for President Barack Obama should he seek re-election in 2012 — a still-high unemployment rate of 8.1 percent. That would be well above normal, which is closer to a rate of 5.5 percent to 6 percent. Private economists don't think the unemployment rate will drop to those levels until well into this decade."

FOXNews.com - Va Sen. Jim Webb says in column that government racial diversity programs should be ended

FOXNews.com - Va Sen. Jim Webb says in column that government racial diversity programs should be ended: "'The injustices endured by black Americans at the hands of their own government have no parallel in our history, not only during the period of slavery but also in the Jim Crow era that followed,' he wrote.

Immigrants from Asia, Latin America and Africa in recent decades knew no such discrimination from the government, he wrote, 'and in fact have frequently been the beneficiaries of special government programs. The same cannot be said of many hardworking white Americans, including those whose roots in America go back more than 200 years.'"

FOXNews.com - Slovakia Pays Innocent Flier Planted With Explosives in Failed Security Test

FOXNews.com - Slovakia Pays Innocent Flier Planted With Explosives in Failed Security Test: "A policeman slipped 3.4 ounces of plastic explosive into the check-in luggage of an unsuspecting passenger at Poprad-Tatry Airport in a sniffing dog test in January.

But instead of being detected, the small package ended up on a flight to Dublin.

Passenger Stefan Gonda, who had not known of the explosives, was detained by Irish police for several hours."

Obama's Jobs Errors | Daniel J. Mitchell | Cato Institute: Commentary

Obama's Jobs Errors | Daniel J. Mitchell | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The White House last year released a supposedly scientific analysis that claimed to show that adopting the 'stimulus' bill would cut unemployment. Indeed, the report specifically estimated that the unemployment rate today would be down to 7.5 percent.

Something obviously went wrong. The actual unemployment rate is 9.5 percent, a statistic that doesn't include the millions who've given up looking for work or can only find part-time jobs. What were President Obama's biggest mistakes?"

"businesses are not charities. They only create jobs when they think that the total revenue generated by new workers will exceed the total cost of employing those workers."

"If a worker is only worth $6.50 per hour, then a required wage of $7.15 is a one-way ticket to the unemployment line."

"Obama supported these and other Bush economic policies, so the 'mess he inherited' is also a mess he helped to make."

FOXNews.com - Legacy of 1969 underground nuclear blast in Colorado lingers amid modern oil and gas rush

FOXNews.com - Legacy of 1969 underground nuclear blast in Colorado lingers amid modern oil and gas rush: "In 1969, the government detonated a subterranean nuclear bomb to break loose natural gas deposits from tight sandstone formations more than 8,000 feet below ground on a Colorado mountain. The bomb was twice as powerful as the one that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.

The scheme worked — to an extent. The gas was unlocked by the blast but was deemed too radioactive for commercial use."

Clowns or Killers in al Qaeda | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary

Clowns or Killers in al Qaeda | Gene Healy | Cato Institute: Commentary: "The notion of 'savvy and sophisticated' Islamist supervillains is 'wildly off the mark,' Brookings' Daniel Byman and Christine Fair write in Atlantic magazine.

Many Afghan suicide bombers 'never even make it out of their training camp,' thanks to the jihadi tradition of the pre-martyrdom 'manly embrace': 'the pressure from these group hugs triggers the explosives in suicide vests.' (Theological question: Do you get fewer virgins for an own-goal?)

On the American home front, al Qaeda and its sympathizers often don't look much brighter:

• In 2006, an FBI sting rolled up the 'Liberty City Seven,' whose ringleader, the Washington Post reported, 'wanted to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago, which would then fall into a nearby prison, freeing Muslim prisoners who would become the core of his Moorish army. With them, he would establish his own country.' Sounds like a plan!
  
• 2007 saw the arrest of six Islamists who planned to launch an armed attack on New Jersey's Fort Dix, but were rounded up after they 'asked a store clerk to copy a video of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad.'
  
• In 2003, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed associate Iyman Faris went to jail on charges involving a plan to topple the Brooklyn Bridge by severing its suspension cables with a blowtorch.
  
• The 2005 Jose Padilla indictment revealed that some Islamic terrorists haven't quite mastered speaking in code. One of Padilla's co-defendants insisted he was just talking about sporting goods on the surveillance tapes, but couldn't explain why he'd asked his co-conspirator if he had enough 'soccer equipment' to 'launch an attack on the enemy.'"