Yes, we do more “weekend special editions” during our annual fundraiser than at other times of the year.
It’s easy to see why … every year, until we reach our October-December fundraiser goal, I have to constantly yammer at you about money. Think of me as MC Yammer. Yammer Time — c’mon, fund this:
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
Today’s edition is 20 items — five news, ten opinion, five audio/video. Just a weekend taste of what we’ve been bringing you every non-holiday weekday since 2002 as Rational Review News Digest and before that since 1991 as Libernet and then Freedom News Daily. I’m sure I’ll re-tell THAT tale in its entirety before the year ends, but in the meantime please support the freedom movement’s daily newspaper at:
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
Our goal is $5,150 … and when we reach $2,575 we’ll have reached $5,150 thanks to a “matching funds” pledge from supporter GL. At which point Yammer Time ends and you will barely hear about money from us until next October.
We’re $865 short at the moment (as of 5:30am Eastern on Saturday), and need YOU (if you haven’t already) to say “yes, I value this publication and will return some of that value as financial support” at:
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I hope you’re having a great weekend. As for myself, in between bringing you the news and such, I’m learning the hard way about the inner workings of Chinese 50cc scooters. So please help — daddy may need a new CVT variator!
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily
Source: Reason
by CJ Ciaramella
“You know Florida Man. You’ve probably read about him carrying an alligator into a liquor store, or calling 911 to get a ride to Hooters, or hiding boxes of top-secret documents in his bathroom. The Florida Man meme has defined the modern conception of the state as a zoo full of sun-baked party monsters, drunken daredevils, deadly animals, and astoundingly dumb criminals. … the birth of the modern Florida Man meme can be traced to three events. The first was the creation of a Florida tag on the snarky news aggregator Fark.com …. The second was the time a naked Florida man allegedly high on bath salts ate someone’s face in 2012. … The third event was the creation of the @_FloridaMan Twitter account several months after the face-eating incident.” [editor’s note: Actually, it can be traced to one event. The “Florida Man” phenomenon dates to shortly after I moved here – TLK] (for publication 01/24)
https://reason.com/2023/12/03/monkey-herpes-face-eating-and-the-pork-chop-gang-how-public-records-laws-created-the-florida-man/
Source: MSNBC
“A federal inmate charged with the attempted murder of Derek Chauvin told prosecutors that he had been thinking about attacking the former Minneapolis police officer because he was a ‘high-profile inmate,’ according to a charging document. John Turscak, 52, is accused of attacking Chauvin in the law library of a Tucson federal prison on Black Friday. Federal prosecutors allege he used an ‘improvised knife’ to stab Chauvin approximately 22 times, causing ‘serious bodily injury.’ Turscak, who is serving a 30-year sentence for crimes committed as a member of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, initially told corrections officers that he would have killed Chauvin had they not intervened so quickly, according to the document. He later denied to FBI agents that he intended to kill Chauvin.” (12/02/23)
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/derek-chauvin-stabbing-prison-attempted-murder-rcna127751
Source: International Guild of Professional Anarchists
“Politicians ban what they do in their bedrooms.” (12/02/23)
https://alexandersnitker.substack.com/p/unattended-baggage-episode-224-politicians
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“From time to time I come across a pattern of observed behavior that appears inconsistent with my economist’s model of rational behavior. I look for a way of making sense of it that, contrary to the initial appearance, is consistent with, ideally implied by, my model. If I can’t, I try to find a way to make the behavior consistent with the model by adding an assumption neither implied by nor inconsistent with the model. If neither of those works I may have to accept the fact that the model is wrong, that I am observing behavior that cannot be explained as rational. At that point I can either give up on understanding the behavior or switch to an alternative model such as evolutionary psychology, the subject of my previous post.” (12/02/23)
https://daviddfriedman.substack.com/p/explaining-things
Source: ABC News
“Indonesia’s Mount Marapi in West Sumatra province erupted Sunday, spewing white-and-gray ash plumes more than 3,000 meters (9,800 feet) into the air and sending hot ash clouds several miles away. There were no immediate report of casualties, said Ahmad Rifandi, an official with Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center at the Marapi monitoring post. The two routes for climbers were closed after the eruption and villagers living on the slopes of the mountain were advised to stay 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from the crater’s mouth because of potential lava. About 70 climbers started their way up the nearly 2,900-meter (9,480-foot) mountain on Saturday and became stranded. So far, 28 have been successfully evacuated with the rest still awaiting rescue, said Dian Indriati, the acting head of North Sumatra’s conservation agency.” (12/03/23)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/indonesias-marapi-volcano-erupts-spewing-ash-plumes-blanketing-105338005
Source: Freeman’s Perspective
by Paul Rosenberg
It has now been two years since the height of the Covid compulsions, and even though some people are clinging to their rhetoric, almost no one is lining up for each new injection. After all, everyone got the disease regardless. The Covid vaccine (‘You won’t get or spread Covid’) was, in modern parlance, an epic fail. And so I’d like to examine what happened to us, then find a way back to living with each other in decency and in peace.” (12/02/23)
https://freemansperspective.com/the-covid-calculus/
Source: Racket News
by Matt Taibbi
“I know I said I wasn’t going to dwell on this, but some things are too funny. In yesterday’s surreal House hearing on censorship, the Democrats’ witness Olivia Troye denied to North Carolina congressman Dan Bishop something she’d said in her opening statement. It turns out the time between Troye statements a) ‘Instead of continuing to spread conspiracy theories about government censorship’ and b) ‘I’ve never said this was a conspiracy, you have not heard that comment from me’ was exactly one hour. That has to be a first of some kind, although one minute would’ve been more impressive. Just an FYI from the train home.” (12/01/23)
https://www.racket.news/p/lol-before-and-after-in-house-testimony
Source: The Daily Beast
“Newsom Demolished DeSantis Using the One Thing Republicans Hate.” (12/02/23)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ron-desantis-and-gavin-newsom-debate-was-a-win-for-democrat-facts-over-republican-bs
Source: EconLog
by Scott Sumner
“The dire warnings about the effects of pot legalization failed to pan out. But that has not stopped drug warriors from arguing that a soft on drugs approach would be disastrous. … Keep in mind that even if state level drug decriminalization had no effect on aggregate drug deaths in America, you would still expect studies to show an increase in drug deaths in the individual state that decriminalized. That’s because the decriminalization of drugs in a single state will draw drug users from other states. But those external effects are typically not picked up in empirical studies. This means that national drug decriminalization is likely to look even more effective than decriminalization in a single state.” (12/01/23)
https://www.econlib.org/drug-war-propaganda/
Source: CoinTelegraph
“Bitcoin has reached the $40,000 level for the first time since April 2022, climbing around 2% in 24 hours. Bitcoin surged from under $39,500 to strike above $40,000 on Dec. 3 to hit a 19-month high, according to CoinGecko data. It also marks a new year-to-date high for Bitcoin, which is up over 140% since Jan. 1. It’s down around 42% from its Nov. 10, 2021, all-time high of over $69,000.” (12/03/23)
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-price-40000-first-time-since-april-2022-matrixport-eyes-2024