http://www.dailypaul.com/…

As flu season approaches, many New Jersey parents are furious over a first-in-the-nation requirement that children get a flu shot in order to attend preschools and day-care centers. The decision should be the parents’, not the state’s, they contend.

Hundreds of parents and other activists rallied outside the New Jersey Statehouse on Thursday, decrying the policy and voicing support for a bill that would allow parents to opt out of mandatory vaccinations for their children.

“This is not an anti-vaccine rally — it’s a freedom of choice rally,” said one of the organizers, Louise Habakus. “This one-size-fits-all approach is really very anti-American.”

New Jersey’s policy was approved last December by the state’s Public Health Council and is taking effect this fall. Children from 6 months to 5 years old who attend a child-care center or preschool have until Dec. 31 to receive the flu vaccine, along with a pneumococcal vaccine.

The Health Council was acting on the recommendations of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has depicted children under 5 as a group particularly in need of flu shots. But no other state has made the shots mandatory for children of any age.

“Vaccines not only protect the child being vaccinated but also the general community and the most vulnerable individuals within the community,” New Jersey’s Health Department said in a statement. It has depicted young children as “particularly efficient” in transmitting the flu to others.

I don’t know that these people would be out protesting other freedom of choice issues… like government truancy laws, drug prohibitions, etc.  Check out the Oct. 16th FTL for a particularly retarded instance of that. It’s better than nothing though.

The cameraman is pretty annoying. I saw a lot of protesters lately in the subway… no one seemed to be beat up. I don’t know what the hell led to all this but I have no doubt the NYPD overreacted.

• The attack on the US embassy has resulted in the death of one person who’s burned body was found. I’ve yet to hear any identifying info.
• Russia is threatening to use “force to resolve the dispute over Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia if NATO forces breach the terms of their U.N. mandate.”
• While watching CNN this morning report on rallies in Kosovo I saw 2 or 3 individuals wearing Che Guevara t-shirts. The city is 50/50 serb/albainian and there are great fears that it could turn violent. Let’s hope it doesn’t and those Che supporters aren’t the rock throwing types.
• Serbs have cell phones

• They only have US flags to burn in order to keep warm

• Foreign-owned shops were vandalized, Serbian police did nothing about it.
• Russia and China still oppose the declaration of independence and Spain is afraid that official recognition will encourage other secessionist movements… like the Basques in their north.
• Given that… blog of bile fully supports the people of Kosovo’s choice in becoming independent of Serbia and recognizes Kosovo as a nation. Don’t throw rocks at the Serbs unless they throw first.

• 10:00AM Sharon Harris from Advocates for Self-Government gave the opening speech this morning. She talked about how the liberty movement needs to start working toward honing our delivery of the freedom message. Libertarians, especially those who are active in the movement, tend to be more abstract thinkers. More logical progression of ideas whereas the majority of people are more emotional “think with the heart” types. We talk about abstract rights and wrongs and less practical examples but we need practical real world examples for those who aren’t generally like us.
• Chris Lawless informs us the hotel doesn’t want us to open carry.
• We ran into Glen Jacobs very briefly. He is better known as Kane from the WWE. He’s fairly well known as a libertarian and recently publicly supported Ron Paul for President. I believe he is also a member of the FSP. We unfortunately didn’t get an opportunity to get a photo with him but if he’s still around tomorrow or Sunday we surely will.
• 12PMish xyz and I checkin to the hotel and while walking out to the car we see the John McCain’s campaign bus. While walking in we discuss stopping Mr. McCain and telling him that after his argument with Romney over whether or not water boarding is torture we decided to try it out ourselves and agreed with him that it indeed torture. As we walk through the automatic doors into the lobby and are talking about this I nearly run into McCain as my head is turned talking to xyz behind me. I got out of the way in time however and diverted my knocking over of a 72y/o presidential candidate which would have been picked up on the camera which was following him.
• 1:00PM xyz and myself attend Gardner Goldsmith’s presentation on immigration. I listen to his radio show so little was new but it’s very enjoyable to interact with fellow Liberty Forum attendees in asking questions and whatnot. Robert Schulz of We the People Foundation also gave a very good lecture I heard. xyz and I did however get a chance to talk with him while waiting in line for dinner.
• 2:30PM I attended Don Gorman’s lecture on Becoming an Effective Activist but it effectively was a sales pitch for the FSP and how easy it is to participate in politics and protest in NH. xyz attended Peter Bagge’s presentation on his work for Reason Magazine and his art in general.
• 4:00PM Thomas Eddlem gave a lecture on how the current administration has been disobeying the Constitution. Particularly the 4th, 6th, and 8th Amendments. He however blew things out of proportion a bit in describing how it could be used against the average citizen. While it’s certainly an issue to say that it’s just as probable that I would be locked up and the key thrown away without trial is the same as some guy picked up who has the same name as a known terrorist and himself has a criminal record is ridiculous.
• Chatted with another Libertarian Party presidential candidate: Michael P. Jingozian. Reminded him that I believe he was invited to the Manhattan LP’s Annual Convention. He said he forgot to look into whether he could attend and took some contact info. We’ll see.
• Nearly had dinner with Gardner but it turned out the table we picked already was filled besides the two chairs we picked. However, those who had reserved those seats were people we had previously had discussions with during the cocktail hour. Including Ed Hudgins from The Atlas Society. Talked about hard money.
  
• The keynote speaker for the evening was Bernard von NotHaus of the Liberty Dollar. He came out dressed as the ghost of a Revolutionary solder, Capt. Roughseas, who was sent by the Founding fathers informing us to take care of this fiat money system that’s corrupted the US. Complete with sabre. It was a bit odd but generally entertaining. Nothing that probably more than half of them in attendance hadn’t heard before.

Dave Ridley’s Ridley Reports from the first night: