Recently in the USA,

St. Paul, MN police are still on the lookout for anarchist types, using video footage obtained at anti-RNC actions for evidence. They appear to have ransacked a Macalester dorm room and seized political literature. According to a firsthand account,

The police were extremely thorough, going through every part of my room, every single book and CD. They took a copy of the communist manifesto, a copy of the book Dancing in the Streets, a number of anti-war flyers and stickers, a guide to the organizing behind the Seattle WTO protests, a copy of the rebel workers organizing handbook, and attempted to take an ink drawing before I pointed out that it did not constitute “anarchist material”, and thus not covered by the search warrant. I was given a receipt for these items, and the police left my room in a state of complete disarray.

Elsewhere, some libertarian activists are very offended at a recent Missouri law enforcement agency report that associates them with right wing terrorists, and equates the anti-tax film America: From Freedom to Fascism with the Neo-Nazi novel The Turner Diaries.

In Nevada,

Four members of an anti-government movement, known as the “Sovereign Movement,” have been arrested after a three-year investigation by the Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force on allegations of money laundering, tax evasion and possessing unregistered machine guns.

We might also remember that the government of Pennsylvania considers “anarchists” and “anti-government groups” likely to be terrorists.

Interesting times, to say the least.

H/T Knappster and NoState.

I still think this feline Metallica cover is funny.

I also think you should take a serious look at the Center For a Stateless Society.

The Watchmen movie turned out very well. As a big fan of the book I was worried that too much would be changed, but the spirit of the story and many important details remained intact.

When adapting a book as complicated as Watchmen to film, it should be expected that some things will be changed, as the mediums work in different ways. Of course, Hollywood has a habit of making unnecessary changes. With one possible exception, this is not the case with Watchmen. The concepts of the superhero and costumed adventurer are explored and the feeling is not much different from the book. With the possible exception of Dr. Manhattan, I did not get the feeling that any major character was made substantially more or less sympathetic than their book counterparts. They also look and act much like their book counterparts do. Critical lines, including those that may at first seem minor like “This is what gets you hot” “From themselves” “What I actually said was God exists and he’s American” and “Rorschach dropped him down an elevator shaft” are included.

The Minutemen backstory was explained well enough considering the time constraints. The Black Freighter story did not find its way into Watchmen, but an animated Black Freighter film is set for release, and I think it’s been hinted that the Black Freighter might come up in a director’s cut of Watchmen. The origins of the second generation of heroes are sufficiently explained, though I wish a little more Rorschach was in there.

The film added extra flying fists and fireballs, but it was well done and they didn’t detract from the story. Plus a comic book film needs that kind of stuff. The amount of nudity was good, and I don’t just mean the blue penis they weren’t scared to show.

A stupid, but minor change from the book is that Nite Owl uses a gatling gun instead of a water cannon to put out a fire. But this is almost redeemed by the fact that the flamethrower does get fired accidentally while he’s going at it with Laurie in the hovering owlship. I do wish Nite Owl’s scooters found their way into the film, and it can also be noted that cars in the movie do not appear to be electric yet.

You may have heard that the ending was changed. This is not true. The film closes on Rorschach’s journal on the top of the New Frontiersman’s crank file with its fate entirely in the editorial assistant’s hands. What is different is the method of Veidt’s plot. His motives, and the essential character of his plot are intact however. I’m not really sure whether the movie or book version of his attack is more plausible or interesting. What the change in Veidt’s plot does do is allow for Dr. Manhattan to be read as the great self-sacrificer that we are supposed to view as heroic. However, the film makes it appear that Dr. Manhattan really does not hold any interest in how humanity at large views him, so his sacrifice would appear very small to him.

In short, fans of the comic who understand the different requirements of film and comics will probably like Watchmen, and people who didn’t read the comic but like genre-breaking awesomeness will probably like it also.

In case you were unaware, bicycle helmets are cool thanks to Flight of the Conchords.

Last October, left libertarian Thomas Knapp wrote a blog post advocating that libertarians use “principled populism” to build support.

As Knapp said,

Principled populism pits the productive class against the political class, the awakening masses against the power elites — not the white middle class against the black underclass or some mythical proud parochialism against some equally mythical indiscrete cosmopolitanism.

To put it a different way, any “principled populism” of a libertarian variety is going to have to weigh on the left, not the right, side of the political dichotomy as traditionally understood if it’s going to be successful or if success is even to be a meaningful term with respect to libertarian goals.

Appealing to popular anti-authoritarian tendencies and suspicion of business-government partnership (as opposed to appealing to popular authoritarian values) may be a valuable way to frame advocacy of individual liberty. This is especially true considering the rise of challenges to the status quo (like state sovereignty resolutions, foreclosure resistance and national debt repudiation for example).