The Humble Libertarian original

From Reason : Man Faces Charges After Defending Himself from a Bear in His Own Yard Richard Ahlstrand, of Auburn, Massachusetts, faces criminal charges after encountering a bear in his back yard and shooting the damned thing to avoid being mauled or eaten. Specifically, as noted at Reason 24/7, he's charged with "illegally killing a bear, illegally baiting a bear, illegal possession of a firearm and failure to secure a firearm." All of these charges, once translated from Massachusetts to American, seem to stack up to outrage that Ahlstrand didn't make his yard completely inhospitable to animals that are rarely seen in the area, and then investigated a suspicious noise with a weapon in hand rather than cower under the bed. Worst of all, he actually defended himself when he encountered danger. According to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Ahlstrand had a 50-gallon drum of birdseed in his backyard, and this appears to be the basis of the "baiting"cha...

The Patriot Act is finally getting some long overdue attention and civil libertarians continue to intensify the pressure on the government. Two still-secret Justice Department documents about legal interpretations of a controversial provision of the Patriot Act may not actually be classified on national security grounds, according to a letter released Friday. If what appear to be Office of Legal Counsel opinions about use of so-called National Security Letters are indeed unclassified, some additional information about them is almost certain to become public and it's at least possible portions of them could be made public. Section 215, also known as the business records provision, allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation to obtain court orders to demand any "tangible thing" from any person, company, local government, or non-profit group in the U.S. for use in an international terrorism or counterintelligence investigation. For years, some critics, most notably fo...

H.T. for the photo: FurIsDead.com From Olympics Fanhouse: In Wake of Threats, Johnny Weir Goes From Fox to Faux Animal rights groups can leave Johnny Weir alone now. Weir will replace the fox on his costume with faux fur after receiving "hate mail and death threats" from animal rights activists, agent Tara Modlin said Thursday. "He's changing it because he needs to focus on skating," she said. To non-violent, peace-loving animal rights activists, let me say that I disagree with you that animals have rights (the assertion is actually incomprehensible to my conception of rights), but that I appreciate your earnestness and respect you for finding creative, humorous, and non-violent ways to spread your message and advocate for your cause. To the violent ones that send people death threats and destroy people's property- let me ask how that is consistent with your non-violent philosophy toward animals? So violence toward animals is bad, but threatening violence t...