Big Trouble in Big K

Dutch Government Wants to Sell Flu Vaccines Back To Big Pharma - David Icke Website

2011-09-23T17:14:00.000+09:00

Dutch Government Wants to Sell Flu Vaccines Back To Big Pharma - David Icke Website

Wall Street Aristocracy Got $1.2T in Loans

2011-08-22T13:35:00.001+09:00

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-21/wall-street-aristocracy-got-1-2-trillion-in-fed-s-secret-loans.html

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s unprecedented effort to keep the economy from plunging into depression included lending banks and other companies as much as $1.2 trillion of public money, about the same amount U.S. homeowners currently owe on 6.5 million delinquent and foreclosed mortgages. The largest borrower, Morgan Stanley (MS), got as much as $107.3 billion, while Citigroup took $99.5 billion and Bank of America $91.4 billion, according to a Bloomberg News compilation of data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, months of litigation and an act of Congress.

...

It wasn’t just American finance. Almost half of the Fed’s top 30 borrowers, measured by peak balances, were European firms. They included Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, which took $84.5 billion, the most of any non-U.S. lender, and Zurich-based UBS AG (UBSN), which got $77.2 billion. Germany’s Hypo Real Estate Holding AG borrowed $28.7 billion, an average of $21 million for each of its 1,366 employees.

...

“Why in hell does the Federal Reserve seem to be able to find the way to help these entities that are gigantic?” U.S. Representative Walter B. Jones, a Republican from North Carolina, said at a June 1 congressional hearing in Washington on Fed lending disclosure. “They get help when the average businessperson down in eastern North Carolina, and probably across America, they can’t even go to a bank they’ve been banking with for 15 or 20 years and get a loan.”

The Media Is the Enemy by Justin Raimondo -- Antiwar.com

2011-08-18T09:08:00.000+09:00

The Media Is the Enemy by Justin Raimondo -- Antiwar.com

The media is a reliable instrument of government just as surely as if it were an official agency, like the Voice of America: it is owned by corporate entities entirely dependent on the good graces of government officials, and whose natural inclinations are to cozy up to Power rather than challenge it. That’s why the new internet-based media is so disturbing to these mandarins, whose opinions are no longer automatically elevated to holy writ. Antiwar.com is in the forefront of this new media wave – but we need your help to capitalize on this success and subvert the red-blue media narrative.

Buddy and Sweetie going at it

2011-08-18T07:56:00.000+09:00

The Tale of the Slave - Robert Nozick

2011-08-18T07:52:00.000+09:00

216. Nixon, Gold, and Ron Paul

2011-08-18T07:46:00.001+09:00

216. Nixon, Gold, and Ron Paul

I've been teaching about the Federal Reserve and the fiat currency scam to some university students this week. Maybe it will strike a cord!

Bail by Fred Reed

2011-07-22T15:42:00.001+09:00

Bail by Fred Reed

I once lived briefly in an old one-bedroom trailer set in a patch of pine woods near Farmville, Virginia. A brick barbecue came with it, and a large floppy pooch, apparently a mixture of Irish setter and whatever was around. The place was blessedly quiet. Birds and bugs aren't noise. When it rained I delighted in being almost in the storm, but dry. I think the whole shebang cost the owner five thousand dollars, including a well and septic system.

If you are thinking, “Why...no...I couldn't possibly live that way,” you are probably right. But if I were doing it now, I would have staggering amounts of pirated music on today's monstrous memory sticks, a set of very decent speakers for a few hundred doomed green ones, a Kindle or the free computer version for reading books from Amazon if I had the money or Project Gutenberg if I didn't, and a fairly large flat screen for watching movies donated by uTorrent. Net cost: Under a grand.

Circumstances differ, yes. But you get the idea: Comfort, quiet, music, books, barbecue, undefined dog, storms, friends, for practically nothing. Mutatis mutandis, the principle applies almost everywhere.

Shiva reborn...

2011-07-20T19:42:00.002+09:00

WE WERE RIGHT! Fukushima disasterous. I of II Chernobyl Like Japan FULL...

2011-07-20T19:41:00.000+09:00

Asan volunteers and the ticks

2011-07-17T19:38:00.000+09:00

Was Lovecraft a Statist?

2011-07-17T09:32:00.000+09:00

At the Root
By H. P. Lovecraft

------=-O-=------

To those who look beneath the surface, the present universal war drives home more than one anthropological truth in striking fashion; and of these verities none is more profound than that relating to the essential immutability of mankind and its instincts.
Four years ago a large part of the civilised world laboured under certain biological fallacies which may, in a sense, be held responsible for the extent and duration of the present conflict. These fallacies, which were the foundation of pacifism and other pernicious forms of social and political radicalism, dealt with the capability of man to evolve mentally beyond his former state of subservience to primitive instinct and pugnacity, and to conduct his affairs and international or inter-racial relations on a basis of reason and good-will. That belief in such capability is unscientific and childishly naive, is beside the question. The fact remains, that the most civilised part of the world, including our own Anglo-Saxondom, did entertain enough of these notions to relax military vigilance, lay stress on points of honour, place trust in treaties, and permit a powerful and unscrupulous nation to indulge unchecked and unsuspected in nearly fifty years of preparation for world-wide robbery and slaughter. We are reaping the result of our simplicity.
The past is over. Our former follies we can but regret, and expiate as best we may by a crusade to the death against the Trans-Rhenane monster which we allowed to grow and flourish beneath our very eyes. But the future holds more of responsibility, and we must prepare to guard against any renascence of the benevolent delusions that four years of blood have barely been able to dispel. In a word, we must learn to discard forever the sentimental standpoint, and to view our species through the cold eyes of science alone. We must recognise the essential underlying savagery in the animal called man, and return to older and sounder principles of national life and defence. We must realise that man’s nature will remain the same so long as he remains man; that civilisation is but a slight coverlet beneath which the dominant beast sleeps lightly and ever ready to awake. To preserve civilisation, we must deal scientifically with the brute element, using only genuine biological principles. In considering ourselves, we think too much of ethics and sociology—too little of plain natural history. We should perceive that man’s period of historical existence, a period so short that his physical constitution has not been altered in the slightest degree, is insufficient to allow of any considerable mental change. The instincts that governed the Egyptians and the Assyrians of old, govern us as well; and as the ancients thought, grasped, struggled, and deceived, so shall we moderns continue to think, grasp, struggle, and deceive in our inmost hearts. Change is only superficial and apparent.
Man’s respect for the imponderables varies according to his mental constitution and environment. Through certain modes of thought and training it can be elevated tremendously, yet there is always a limit. The man or nation of high culture may acknowledge to great lengths the restraints imposed by conventions and honour, but beyond a certain point primitive will or desire cannot be curbed. Denied anything ardently desired, the individual or state will argue and parley just so long—then, if the impelling motive be sufficiently great, will cast aside every rule and break down every acquired inhibition, plunging viciously after the object wished; all the more fantastically savage because of previous repression. The sole ultimate factor in human decisions is physical force. This we must learn, however repugnant the idea may seem, if we are to protect ourselves and our institutions. Reliance on anything else is fallacious and ruinous. Dangerous beyond description are the voices sometimes heard today, decrying the continuance of armament after the close of the present hostilities.
The specific application of the scientific truth regarding man’s native instincts will be found in the adoption of a post-bellum international programme. Obviously, we must take into account the primordial sub-structure and arrange for the upholding of culture by methods which will stand the acid test of stress and conflicting ambitions. In disillusioned diplomacy, ample armament, and universal training alone will be found the solution of the world’s difficulties. It will not be a perfect solution, because humanity is not perfect. It will not abolish war, because war is the expression of a natural human tendency. But it will at least produce an approximate stability of social and political conditions, and prevent the menace of the entire world by the greed of any one of its constituent parts.

210. Producers Strike

2011-07-17T09:26:00.000+09:00

210. Producers Strike

Picture of Scotty's Thr3e Wise Men Polo Dress

2011-07-16T08:26:00.001+09:00

Picture of Scotty's Thr3e Wise Men Polo Dress

Yes, I'm a shallow, shallow man...in my haaaaappy place...

Me and my Gen Con...

2011-07-15T11:55:00.000+09:00

BGM1126895 D&D Adventure Board Game Challenge
D&D adventure board games, any Edition
Thu at 9:00 AM for 2 hrs ICC :: Sagamore Blrm :: RPGA HQ

BGM1118681 Arkham Horror
Arkham Horror, 2005 Edition
Thu at 2:00 PM for 5 hrs ICC :: Hall F : Fantasy Flight :: HQ

LRP1120767 That Which Lurks Below
Cthulhu Live, 3rd Edition
Thu at 8:00 PM for 3 hrs ICC :: 107-110

BGM1126901 D&D Adventure Board Game Challenge
D&D adventure board games, any Edition
Fri at 9:00 AM for 2 hrs ICC :: Sagamore Blrm :: RPGA HQ

RPG1120346 Stolen Lives - Reality's Bite (Round 1)
Dungeons & Dragons, 3.5 Edition
Fri at 1:00 PM for 4 hrs ICC :: Hall K : NASCRAG :: HQ

MHE1118077 Bloody, Bloody Minis Fri at 7:00 PM for 1.5 hr ICC :: 210 :: 1

FLM1128381 Browncoats: Redemption Fri at 8:00 PM for 2 hrs Westin :: Capitol II

ZED1125720 The Legendary DrunkAssParty Fri at 9:00 PM for 2 hrs Scotty's Brewhouse ::

SEM1119616 Writing RIght: Dialog and Dialects Sat at 8:00 AM for 1 hr ICC :: 244

WKS1122341 Terraining for Gaming Sat at 10:00 AM for 2 hrs ICC :: 201

MHE1120468 Freehand Sat at 12:00 PM for 2 hrs ICC :: 211 :: 2

SEM1119630 Writing and Rewriting History Sat at 3:00 PM for 1 hr ICC :: 244

RPG1120507 Lords of the New Empire
Dungeons & Dragons, 1st Edition
Sat at 7:00 PM for 4 hrs ICC :: Sagamore Blrm Open D&D Area :: 9

CGM1124497 Munchkinomicon
Munchkin, Current Edition
Sun at 8:00 AM for 2 hrs ICC :: Hall E : SJG/MIB :: HQ

BGM1123447 Ilium
Ilium, 1st Edition
Sun at 11:00 AM for 1 hr ICC :: Hall E : Blue :: 3

BGM1119721 Arkham Horror
Arkham Horror, 2005 Edition
Sun at 2:00 PM for 2 hrs ICC :: Hall E : Red :: 21,22

2011-07-15T11:23:00.001+09:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/13/fukushima-skilled-veterans-corps-nuclear-offer

Yamada, who helped build power plants as a Sumitomo Metal employee, insists that the skilled veterans corps should be allowed to replace younger plant workers who, over time, are more susceptible to developing cancer.

Unlike the young engineers currently exposing themselves to high levels of radiation at Fukushima Daiichi, Yamada, a cancer survivor, reckons he has, at best, about 15 years left to live.

"Even if I were exposed to radiation, cancer could take 20 or 30 years or longer to develop," he told the BBC. "That means us older ones have less chance of getting cancer.

A what wash?

2011-07-15T11:19:00.002+09:00

this be me

2011-07-14T19:59:00.000+09:00

PIIGS, Presstitutes, and the Global Meltdown by Gerald Celente

2011-07-14T19:11:00.001+09:00

PIIGS, Presstitutes, and the Global Meltdown by Gerald Celente

There was, and is, no "return to recession." As The Trends Research Institute had been forecasting since the onset of the Great Recession and the "Panic of ’08," all those "bold actions" proudly cited by Geithner were no more than financial Prozac – multi-trillion-dollar band aids, palliatives, placebos and cover-ups packaged as TARP, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, QE2, and so on. At best, the "bold actions" merely guided the Great Recession into a brief remission, and that is all.

Global Ponzi It was a cover-up, not a recovery. And while the US may have been the first, it was not the only nation to try to fraudulently finagle its way out of a crisis and into prosperity. Like the US bailouts, the Greek survival package – praised as an important stopgap success only last week – has neither guaranteed keeping the Greek banking system afloat nor guaranteed it won’t default.

VAT on Veterinary Costs

2011-07-14T19:02:00.001+09:00

The 19th-century Anarchist, Lysander Spooner, wrote this: “What is the difference between a highwayman and a congressman? The highwayman doesn’t ask you to call him ‘honorable’.” How does the VAT on veterinary services illustrate the same basic principle? The government is a parasite that helps no one but itself.

There is now a 10% charge for the “luxury” of owning a pet. Since when is it the government’s business how I spend ANY of my money? For that matter, who cares how the congressmen spend their money? I don’t…but then, I don’t have the power to interfere in their personal lives as they do in mine. And bureaucrats don’t care what laws pass, so long as laws are passed that increase power and raise revenues.

First of all, each instance of government intervention makes a claim to virtue, that is, it’s for your own good. However, this brand of self-serving action protects no dog or cat, and certainly does not help either veterinarians or pet owners. The politicians are not doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. These regulations are pure theft to pay off deficit spending.

Second, always ask: Cui bono? What interest groups benefit? I would guess the politicians and bureaucrats in animal services. Watch them: That and related departments will probably expand rapidly, especially to monitor animal rights (probably selectively enforced in favor of corporations) and regulate pet ID chipping (a cancer-causing payoff to companies like Merck).

Third, find out whether the added costs actually provide a service you want, or whether they even accomplish what the bureaucrats claim they will! Are your pets healthier? Nope, you will hesitate to take it in for a checkup. Are the veterinarians making more business? Nope, they will lose business. The principle is this: Tax what you want less of, subsidize what you want more of. I have 2 abandoned dogs and I volunteer weekly at great personal expense at an animal shelter. This tax adversely affects my charitable work. These are the costs that, as Frederic Bastiat once said, are ‘unseen’.

Finally there is the appeal to jealousy: Only the rich own pets. I predict that soon pet owners will be blamed for rising food prices (never mind the implicit inflationary behavior of government fiat currency or competition from government-subsidized bio-fuel). I would also be interested to see whether jealous human health care bodies lobbied for a punitive tax on animal medicine. Think this kind of coercive behavior doesn’t happen? Ask where the AMA came from. If you find yourself hypocritically favoring this agenda-driven coercion, just remember that jealousy is multi-directional: There is always someone who wants or resents what you have.

According to Murray Rothbard, government is: “A gang of thieves writ large.” The people that really need regulation don’t work in animal hospitals but in your congress. Hold their feet to the fire, and demand they serve you by ending this coercive VAT. It is only your cooperation that permits them to tax you, so stop encouraging this behavior.

2011-05-19T06:57:00.000+09:00

http://www.cats4gold.com/

Profile Pictures

2011-05-19T06:48:00.000+09:00

Profile Pictures

The Conspiracy Theory of History Revisited

2011-05-05T08:27:00.003+09:00

This article originally appeared in Reason, April 1977, pp. 39–40.

Anytime that a hard-nosed analysis is put forth of who our rulers are, of how their political and economic interests interlock, it is invariably denounced by Establishment liberals and conservatives (and even by many libertarians) as a "conspiracy theory of history," "paranoid," "economic determinist," and even "Marxist." These smear labels are applied across the board, even though such realistic analyses can be, and have been, made from any and all parts of the economic spectrum, from the John Birch Society to the Communist Party. The most common label is "conspiracy theorist," almost always leveled as a hostile epithet rather than adopted by the "conspiracy theorist" himself.

It is no wonder that usually these realistic analyses are spelled out by various "extremists" who are outside the Establishment consensus. For it is vital to the continued rule of the State apparatus that it have legitimacy and even sanctity in the eyes of the public, and it is vital to that sanctity that our politicians and bureaucrats be deemed to be disembodied spirits solely devoted to the "public good." Once let the cat out of the bag that these spirits are all too often grounded in the solid earth of advancing a set of economic interests through use of the State, and the basic mystique of government begins to collapse.

Let us take an easy example. Suppose we find that Congress has passed a law raising the steel tariff or imposing import quotas on steel? Surely only a moron will fail to realize that the tariff or quota was passed at the behest of lobbyists from the domestic steel industry, anxious to keep out efficient foreign competitors. No one would level a charge of "conspiracy theorist" against such a conclusion. But what the conspiracy theorist is doing is simply to extend his analysis to more complex measures of government: say, to public works projects, the establishment of the ICC, the creation of the Federal Reserve System, or the entry of the United States into a war. In each of these cases, the conspiracy theorist asks himself the question cui bono? Who benefits from this measure? If he finds that Measure A benefits X and Y, his next step is to investigate the hypothesis: did X and Y in fact lobby or exert pressure for the passage of Measure A? In short, did X and Y realize that they would benefit and act accordingly?

Far from being a paranoid or a determinist, the conspiracy analyst is a praxeologist; that is, he believes that people act purposively, that they make conscious choices to employ means in order to arrive at goals. Hence, if a steel tariff is passed, he assumes that the steel industry lobbied for it; if a public works project is created, he hypothesizes that it was promoted by an alliance of construction firms and unions who enjoyed public works contracts, and bureaucrats who expanded their jobs and incomes. It is the opponents of "conspiracy" analysis who profess to believe that all events – at least in government – are random and unplanned, and that therefore people do not engage in purposive choice and planning.

There are, of course, good conspiracy analysts and bad conspiracy analysts, just as there are good and bad historians or practitioners of any discipline. The bad conspiracy analyst tends to make two kinds of mistakes, which indeed leave him open to the Establishment charge of "paranoia." First, he stops with the cui bono; if measure A benefits X and Y, he simply concludes that therefore X and Y were responsible. He fails to realize that this is just a hypothesis, and must be verified by finding out whether or not X and Y really did so. (Perhaps the wackiest example of this was the British journalist Douglas Reed who, seeing that the result of Hitler's policies was the destruction of Germany, concluded, without further evidence, that therefore Hitler was a conscious agent of external forces who deliberately set out to ruin Germany.) Secondly, the bad conspiracy analyst seems to have a compulsion to wrap up all the conspiracies, all the bad guy power blocs, into one giant conspiracy. Instead of seeing that there are several power blocs trying to gain control of government, sometimes in conflict and sometimes in alliance, he has to assume – again without evidence – that a small group of men controls them all, and only seems to send them into conflict.

These reflections are prompted by the almost blatant fact – so blatant as to be remarked on by the major newsweeklies – that virtually the entire top leadership of the new Carter administration, from Carter and Mondale on down, are members of the small, semisecret Trilateral Commission, founded by David Rockefeller in 1973 to propose policies for the United States, Western Europe, and Japan, and/or members of the board of the Rockefeller Foundation. The rest are tied in with Atlanta corporate interests, and especially the Coca-Cola Company, Georgia's major corporation.

Well, how do we look at all this? Do we say that David Rockefeller's prodigious efforts on behalf of certain statist public policies are merely a reflection of unfocused altruism? Or is there pursuit of economic interest involved? Was Jimmy Carter named a member of the Trilateral Commission as soon as it was founded because Rockefeller and the others wanted to hear the wisdom of an obscure Georgia governor? Or was he plucked out of obscurity and made President by their support? Was J. Paul Austin, head of Coca-Cola, an early supporter of Jimmy Carter merely out of concern for the common good? Were all the Trilateralists and Rockefeller Foundation and Coca-Cola people chosen by Carter simply because he felt that they were the ablest possible people for the job? If so, it's a coincidence that boggles the mind. Or are there more sinister political-economic interests involved? I submit that the naïfs who stubbornly refuse to examine the interplay of political and economic interest in government are tossing away an essential tool for analyzing the world in which we live.

Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) was the author of Man, Economy, and State, Conceived in Liberty, What Has Government Done to Our Money, For a New Liberty, The Case Against the Fed, and many other books and articles. He was also the editor – with Lew Rockwell – of The Rothbard-Rockwell Report.

Copyright © 2008 Ludwig von Mises Institute
All rights reserved.

2011-05-04T12:03:00.000+09:00

Ex-ISI Chief Hamid Gul: Bin Laden Hoax to Expand War into Pakistan/Asia 1/2

2011-05-04T06:38:00.001+09:00

S & P as always late to the Party!

2011-04-19T15:20:00.001+09:00

Yup, Peter is right again! "Stable?" Are you serious, S&P?

No progress in Washington to rectify debt and deficit concerns.

US downgraded COLLAPSE PROGRESSING FAST

2011-04-19T15:16:00.001+09:00

"Ere we go, 'ere we go, 'ere we go!"

Jail the Banksters; Libya Lies - Sunday update

2011-04-18T15:49:00.000+09:00

[Editorial] GNP’s denunciation of radiation fears : Editorial : Home

2011-04-18T15:46:00.000+09:00

[Editorial] GNP’s denunciation of radiation fears : Editorial : Home

A Brief History Of The American Dollar

2011-04-18T14:41:00.000+09:00

Runrig. Mod for Rockers. Tir An Airm

2011-04-17T23:23:00.001+09:00

Runrig: a band that was active when I shoulda known about it, but just recently found. The song, Tir An Airm, means Land of Armies or something like that. It tells of a man's determination (in Scottish Gaelic) not to serve London and the Queen in battle anymore. Hard when you are occupied by the Sassenach southerners. A line in the song refers to Stornoway Air Base, reflecting how they are flown over by these occupying forces...as are we here in Korea.

In the Age of the Internet Poor Men Will Have the Wisdom to Not Fight, K...

2011-04-17T23:19:00.001+09:00

Think You’ve Missed the Gold and Silver Rally? Think Again, Says Marc Faber

2011-04-17T21:51:00.000+09:00

Think You’ve Missed the Gold and Silver Rally? Think Again, Says Marc Faber

“If it [gold] were a bubble a lot of people would have gold. The whole world would be trading gold 24 hours a day,” he [Marc Faber] told CNBC’s Joe Kernen. “But I don’t think it’s really a bubble. I think gold is maybe cheaper today than it was in 1999, when it was $252.”

Don't Join the British army

2011-04-17T21:33:00.002+09:00

This of course, applies to all illegitimate, statist, NWO forces including the Canadian and US militaries until such time as they withdraw.

My Thoughts on World Invasion: Battle for Los Angeles

2011-04-17T21:12:00.003+09:00

I saw this flick just before the invasion of Libya. I wonder if it was meant as a recruiting ploy for all the poor schmucks in the USA faced with nothing but a paycheck for murder and no death benefits (didn't ya hear? You vets ain't gettin' it).

I had a very hard time not seeing the parallels between the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and other places in Asia by the NWO forces. References to "I prefer Afghanistan" ring disgusting in light of the recent kill team scandal where the team wiped out and mutilated civilians for trophies.

The movie's premise was that the alien invasion was for resources (water) and this explained the "kill 'em all" policy of the aliens. Perhaps the writer wanted to show that since not all of the Middle Easterners have been (yet) killed that the "Coalition of the Willing" were really there to battle Al Quaeda and find WMD's. Sheer guts, determination, and a laser spotter saves the day, and Independence Day on the ground is settled. The Blackhawk Down callback to where the men went out again (Tom Sizemore) to the aid of their comrades was also not missed. "We already had breakfast..."

I found it intriguing that like District 9, the armory was locked until the slave soldiers of the state were allowed to jack up and get going. The line where the Staff Sergeant tells his command to dig deeper 'cause a civilian (read: disarmed slave) actually picked up a gun and got himself killed to protect them when the aliens had the drop on them, was unmistakable: remember that this movie is gonna be seen by people who live in Chicago, DC and NYC where the serfs have had their rights to self-protection and militia stripped. To a man, this line is incredible.

Were there any good moments? A dog named Glenn and "Who's John Wayne?"

Facebook

2011-02-17T17:09:00.000+09:00

Facebook

The WWII Dresden Holocaust - 'A Single Column Of Flame'

2011-02-15T16:48:00.002+09:00

"You guys burnt the place down, turned it into a single column of flame. More people died there in the firestorm, in that one big flame, than died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined." --Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

http://www.rense.com/general19/flame.htm

There was a three-hour pause between the first and second raids. The lull had been calculated to lure civilians from their shelters into the open again. To escape the flames, tens of thousands of civilians had crowded into the Grosser Garten, a magnificent park nearly one and a half miles square.

How to Survive the Coming Economic Crash - Freedomain Radio Interviews W...

2011-02-13T14:28:00.001+09:00

An awesome interview! Stop the culture of mutual (mostly one-way) theft! Break cronyism.. Refuse the fake fiat currency!

Diet Soda and Sudden Death

2011-02-12T12:33:00.000+09:00

The FTC vs. the FTC - S. M. Oliva - Mises Daily

2011-02-10T15:26:00.000+09:00

The FTC vs. the FTC - S. M. Oliva - Mises Daily

The case of Kim Da Young:

The FTC's motto is "Protecting America's Consumers," but it is consumers who are in need of protection from the commission. Stealing a woman's car for the imagined crime of failing to seek third-party permission to engage in a voluntary transaction does not protect consumers. It simply reaffirms consumers' unwilling dependence on a group of Washington-based lawyers — and those who pay the most to retain their services.

There is no reform here. The only way to truly protect buyers and sellers — and their natural right to engage in peaceful exchange — is to remove the Commission from the equation entirely. Abolishing the FTC would instantly do more to benefit free markets than the agency has claimed to have done over its near-century of existence.

Obama on Auto-Defrosting Refrigerators - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Daily

2011-02-10T15:21:00.001+09:00

Obama on Auto-Defrosting Refrigerators - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Daily

From the mighty pen of Jeff Tucker:

So I was stunned to hear President Obama claim exactly the opposite in a speech to the US Chamber of Commerce. He ridiculed those who predicted disaster from government regulations as far back as 1848. "It didn't happen," he said. "None of these things came to pass." Then he went further to say that government regulations "enhanced" industry and "made our lives better." Regulations "often spark competition and innovation."

What immediately came to mind is a picture of a race in which some overlord is clamping shackles on the runner's feet. No, that does not stop the race. The runners develop innovative ways to keep going. Nor does competition stop; it might even become more intense as runners develop new skills they would otherwise not need. All that's true, and yet we wouldn't look to this race as the one that is going to set new speed records. Everyone would be better off without shackles.

Egyptian Army to Protect People or Gov? What would our Army do?

2011-01-30T22:02:00.000+09:00

Loving the change I can believe in...

2011-01-18T19:06:00.000+09:00

Another Genius Idea from Central Planning - Ralph Reiland - Mises Daily

2011-01-16T23:40:00.000+09:00

Another Genius Idea from Central Planning - Ralph Reiland - Mises Daily

Don't Buy Government Bonds by Frank Chodorov

2011-01-16T23:38:00.000+09:00

Don't Buy Government Bonds by Frank Chodorov

A Letter Between Former Friends by Rev. H. R. Curtis

2010-12-31T13:22:00.001+09:00

A Letter Between Former Friends by Rev. H. R. Curtis

The "She" in the article is Christ's true church. "She" is addressing her erstwhile lover, the State.

From the "letter":

So, at any rate, that is why I'm writing today: I think you should try it, too. Drop the coercion. Give your children the same freedom I had to give mine. I did so, and I found myself. Perhaps if you did so, you would find a new and better self. Stop coercing them for your support. If you are a good father to them, then they will be happy to support you. And if they don't support you – well, I think you will find that poverty of that sort can be good for the soul.

The Dear Leader Calls for Holy War by Eric Margolis

2010-12-29T16:42:00.001+09:00

The Dear Leader Calls for Holy War by Eric Margolis

The article concludes thusly:

There is a growing danger that US naval and air forces could accidentally clash with Chinese units in the strategic, highly sensitive Yellow Sea to Korea’s west, or with Russian air or naval forces just to the north near Vladivostok. China’s province of Manchuria, which borders on North Korea and the Yellow Sea, is a highly strategic military zone and has major military industries. China has warned the US to stay out of the Yellow Sea.

If North Korea were defeated in a war and crumbling, Chinese armies might cross the Yalu River and intervene as they did in the 1950’s. As this column has long been saying, it is most unlikely China would allow North Korea to fall under South Korean and/or US control.

So the stakes are very high in this Korean Christmas–New Year crisis.

I'm really not certain whether to feel comforted or not, given my current geographical location in Asan. I just hope our KROTC facility ain't strike-worthy.

The Death Tax and Barney Frank by Stephen Cox

2010-12-29T16:37:00.000+09:00

The Death Tax and Barney Frank by Stephen Cox

Regarding Barney Franks's position pro-death taxes:

The estate taxes that Mr. Frank supports require more than just surrendering some money that was bequeathed to you. People don’t ordinarily inherit huge chunks of cash; they inherit other forms of property. To pay the taxes on this wealth, they have to sell the property, often at the sacrifice of much of its value. So Frank wasn’t talking just about money; he was talking about farms and businesses and your grandmother’s china and everything else that may have to be liquidated to produce the cash he thinks the government deserves.

Absolutely fallacious, I say. The statists always presuppose they are owed your wealth, property and person.

Soldiers Against War by John V. Denson

2010-12-27T02:02:00.001+09:00

Soldiers Against War by John V. Denson

"A celebration of the human spirit, the Christmas Truce remains a moving manifestation of the absurdities of war. A very minor Scottish poet of Great War vintage, Frederick Niven, may have got it right in his ‘A Carol from Flanders,’ which closed,

O ye who read this truthful rime

From Flanders, kneel and say:
God speed the time when every day
Shall be as Christmas Day. (p. 175)

Merry Christmas, Fellow Libertarians!

2010-12-24T18:14:00.001+09:00

I know many are not what I consider believers, but may the triune God of revealed scripture have mercy on you all, in this life and the next.

Amen.

No Criticism of Bernanke Is Allowed by Gary North

2010-12-24T18:11:00.004+09:00

No Criticism of Bernanke Is Allowed by Gary North

From the article:

Austrian School economists since the 1930s have offered an analysis of economic depressions that is tied to the practices of central banks: first inflating the money supply, then stabilizing it. This creates the boom-bust cycle. This has been denied by Keynesians from the beginning, but it also has been denied by the monetarists, who accept in theory and practice central banking.

The failure of central bankers prior to 2008 to see the looming recession has left them without excuse, except for this one: "Nobody could have seen it coming." But a lot of somebodies did see it coming: Austrian School economists and analysts. The defenders refuse to acknowledge this school of opinion, let alone the analytical framework that let them forecast what did take place.

Because millions of voters heard Ron Paul's ideas in the 2008 Presidential campaign, they were alerted to the operations of the FED. Most of them had not heard of the FED in any detail prior to 2008. This was fortuitous. There was a falling economy at the same time that the only Austrian School member of Congress decided to run for President. Then the money rolled in because of the Internet. This stunned the Beltway incumbents.

This combination of events has launched a new phase of Austrian School economics. This has come as an unwelcome surprise to the traditional Republican Establishment, which includes Chicago School economists in the tradition of Milton Friedman. The neoconservatives are also upset. They had enjoyed a near monopoly of opinion within the conservative activist movement. They are not pleased that far more radical critics of the government and the FED have begun to get a hearing.

Gold Stocks in a Failing Fiat Currency by David Galland

2010-12-19T20:39:00.000+09:00

Gold Stocks in a Failing Fiat Currency by David Galland

Gerald Celente on Jeff Rense 09 Dec 2010

2010-12-19T20:36:00.000+09:00

Gen Con Indy 2011 Registration Info

2010-12-19T17:56:00.000+09:00

Key Dates

* Sunday, January 23, 2011, Noon (Eastern) – Badge Pre-Registration begins.
* Tuesday, January 25, 2011, Noon (Eastern) – Housing reservations open.
* Sunday, May 1, 2011, time TBA – Event Registration begins.
* Saturday, June 18, 2011, 11:59 pm (Eastern) – Pre-Registration ends and badge prices go up. All shipping method changes must be requested by this time.
* Sunday, June 19, 2011 – Badge prices increase. All purchases will be Will Call only.
* June 20-July 3 – Fulfillment period. Badges and tickets purchased during Pre-Registration will be printed and mailed to those who chose USPS or FedEx.
* Sunday, July 3, 2011, Midnight (Eastern) – Last day to cancel badges! See our Refund Policy for information.
* Monday, July 11, 2011, (time tbd) – Housing cut-off date, the last day to make new hotel reservations.
* Monday, July 25, 2011, (time tbd) – Last day to make any changes to your existing hotel reservation through the Housing Bureau. After this date, you must contact the hotel directly to make any changes to your reservation.
* Wednesday, August 3, 2011, Noon (Eastern) – Onsite Registration begins.
* Thursday-Sunday, August 4-7, 2011 – Gen Con Indy show dates!

All badges and event tickets will be purchasable online through RUBI (our registration system). We accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express for payment. Checks and Money Orders are not accepted at any time. We do not accept badge or ticket orders over the phone. The Marion County admissions tax will be charged for all badge purchases, in compliance with Marion County laws.

Ron Paul: Fed ‘monopoly’ could be broken if Americans use gold, silver as currency

2010-12-19T17:49:00.004+09:00

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/ron-paul-calls-fed-monopoly-seeks-competitor-dollar-standard/

By Stephen C. Webster of Raw Story

The libertarian-leaning conservative has long been a critic of the US Federal Reserve and central banking as a whole, but this may be a new one: speaking with CNBC recently, Paul said he views the Fed as a "monopoly" that could benefit from the introduction of competition.

"We should start ending the Fed by allowing competition," he said. "I don't like the fact that they have monopoly control. It's a cartel: they print the money. The Constitution really doesn't give them that authority. The Constitution said that only gold and silver can be legal tender. I want to legalize competition and allow individual Americans to use gold and silver in competition, as money. Today if you do that, you can go to jail.

Mental Health Medication Side Effects & Psychiatry, Psychology John Bree...

2010-12-17T18:46:00.002+09:00

From the Psychetruth channel:

Research shows that mental health consumers report adverse events and negative side effects from psychotropic like antidepressants, antipsychotics, anxiety medications and psycho-stimulants drugs (like Ritalin, Concerta, etc.) 200 times more than their psychiatrists. Why is this?

Ron Paul Rides Again by James Antle

2010-12-17T18:32:00.001+09:00

Ron Paul Rides Again by James Antle
From the article:

Ben Bernanke, beware. The 12-term libertarian-leaning congressman from Texas has written a book-length manifesto – titled simply End the Fed – calling for the Federal Reserve's abolition. He will likely call leading Austrian economists affiliated with the Ludwig von Mises Institute to Capitol Hill to testify alongside staid mainstream economists. Fortune magazine recently asked, "Will the Fed be able to survive Ron Paul?"

Legalize Drunk Driving by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

2010-12-17T18:02:00.001+09:00

Legalize Drunk Driving by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Actually written in 2000, prior to news of George W. Bush's' old DUI charges came up.

Bank robbers may tend to wear masks, but the crime they commit has nothing to do with the mask. In the same way, drunk drivers cause accidents but so do sober drivers, and many drunk drivers cause no accidents at all. The law should focus on violations of person and property, not scientific oddities like blood content.

Lieberman calls for Youtube "terrorism" flagging.

2010-12-17T17:57:00.000+09:00

Do You Hate the State? by Murray N. Rothbard

2010-12-13T16:58:00.001+09:00

Do You Hate the State? by Murray N. Rothbard

I couldn't put it better. But the point seems to be the differences between a "mere" pragmatic approach (ie, does it "work") to libertarian principles and principled approaches based on some deduction from first axioms.

Let us take, for example, two of the leading anarcho-capitalist works of the last few years: my own For a New Liberty and David Friedman’s Machinery of Freedom. Superficially, the major differences between them are my own stand for natural rights and for a rational libertarian law code, in contrast to Friedman’s amoralist utilitarianism and call for logrolling and trade-offs between non-libertarian private police agencies. But the difference really cuts far deeper. There runs through For a New Liberty (and most of the rest of my work as well) a deep and pervasive hatred of the State and all of its works, based on the conviction that the State is the enemy of mankind. In contrast, it is evident that David does not hate the State at all; that he has merely arrived at the conviction that anarchism and competing private police forces are a better social and economic system than any other alternative. Or, more fully, that anarchism would be better than laissez-faire which in turn is better than the current system. Amidst the entire spectrum of political alternatives, David Friedman has decided that anarcho-capitalism is superior. But superior to an existing political structure which is pretty good too. In short, there is no sign that David Friedman in any sense hates the existing American State or the State per se, hates it deep in his belly as a predatory gang of robbers, enslavers, and murderers. No, there is simply the cool conviction that anarchism would be the best of all possible worlds, but that our current set-up is pretty far up with it in desirability. For there is no sense in Friedman that the State – any State – is a predatory gang of criminals.

The same impression shines through the writing, say, of political philosopher Eric Mack. Mack is an anarcho-capitalist who believes in individual rights; but there is no sense in his writings of any passionate hatred of the State, or, a fortiori, of any sense that the State is a plundering and bestial enemy.

Perhaps the word that best defines our distinction is "radical." Radical in the sense of being in total, root-and-branch opposition to the existing political system and to the State itself. Radical in the sense of having integrated intellectual opposition to the State with a gut hatred of its pervasive and organized system of crime and injustice. Radical in the sense of a deep commitment to the spirit of liberty and anti-statism that integrates reason and emotion, heart and soul.

Wikileaks is limited hangout propaganda!

2010-12-09T14:50:00.000+09:00

2010-12-09T14:37:00.002+09:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/8148055/Wesley-Snipes-ordered-to-serve-three-year-jail-sentence.html?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4ce713c9a2a6f2bf%2C0

Nooo! They can't hold Blade for long! Where are the South Korean protests?

I can see that his role in US Marshals didn't entirely prepare him....must've contracted Dog to bring him in.

Jealous pants slaves probably think he owes them money in taxes when no one should be paying for the wars and abortions.

Wikileaks and global winnipeg: Tracking the Tweets!

2010-12-09T13:46:00.012+09:00

http://www.globalwinnipeg.com/story.html?id=3934919

Apparently I fall into the category of people who talk most about Wikileaks...the few who oppose the NWO are in my age/profile, women being the weaker vessel.

If the majority of tweets (and I don't tweet) and other social media comments are neutral to negative (a silly analysis, as the majority could just as well be neutral to positive, but hey, Winnipeg bright ain't), may I offer at least two explanations? The guilty hate to be exposed (and are busy circling the wagons, as after climategate), and most people are just busy repeaters (ie, my near-entire family).

Get off the TV and fluoride, most of you lot. You are not in fact made more intelligent by parroting the bought-off media (MSNBC and others having received illegal stimulus money from both Bush and Obama: Why oh why don't you see?), and in any case, why is no one having a problem with this Trevor Jonas guy casually gaining access to 2 million private tweets and other communications? Methinks I smell hypocrisy:

http://sysomos.com/products/overview/sysomos-map

I'll tell you the outcome of this, whether or not Assange is a psy-ops, as Webster Tarpley has recently suggested here: . We are going to see the pubic "spontaneously" calling for Internet "safety" to shut down whistle-blowers.

See Stefbot's video below for related behaviors regarding shooting the messenger, rather than the murderer.

True News: The Truth About Wikileaks

2010-12-09T12:58:00.000+09:00

South Korea South Korea push to build 'military fortresses'

2010-12-08T15:36:00.003+09:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/07/south-korea-build-military-fortresses

Useless make-work tax-payer-borne depression project on the table:

The president of South Korea vowed today to turn five islands along the tense border with North Korea into "military fortresses", with jobs for permanent civilian communities, including those destroyed in a North Korean artillery attack.

Privatizing Air Security - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily

2010-12-08T12:10:00.001+09:00

Privatizing Air Security - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily

It only gets better after this:

In order to justify the invasive scans and provocative pat downs, Thiessen naturally brings up the specter of terrorism:

If a passenger who is supposed to be seated near us on our next flight has a bomb in his underwear, I suspect most of us would prefer that the explosive be uncovered when he tries to get through airport security — not when a Dutch tourist sees the passenger in the row ahead of him try to set it off and dives across the plane to stop him, as happened on a flight to Detroit last Christmas.

Now, before we continue, let's note just what an odd defense of the TSA this is. Remember, the TSA was established in November 2001. So Thiessen is justifying its current procedures — which many Americans find repugnant — by reminding us that the TSA totally failed to prevent the "underwear bomber" from getting into position on a plane above Detroit. According to Thiessen's own story, even though the TSA had been in place for eight years at that point, it took a vigilant member of the private sector, i.e., the Dutch tourist, to avert catastrophe.

A Tale of Brutality, Theft, and Judicial Misconduct by William L. Anderson

2010-12-08T11:47:00.003+09:00

A Tale of Brutality, Theft, and Judicial Misconduct by William L. Anderson

A follow-up/prequel to the article below.

When I did my graduate work at Auburn University, I became close friends with an economics instructor there, John Sophocleus, as well as his wife Theresa. Part of the friendship was based upon our mutual interest in economics, but also I took an interest in an ongoing issue that began to dominate their lives.

John and Theresa lived on U.S. 280 just outside of Auburn, and before they bought the house, they asked the Alabama Department of Transportation if the place was in danger of being taken as part of a highway-widening project. The Alabama DOT said it was not, so they purchased it and soon John built a spacious garage/work area so he could pursue his work of restoring classic cars.

As one might expect, the DOT double-crossed him and the Sophocleuses were told their property would be taken by eminent domain. And, as one might expect, the DOT offered him a price that would have been about a third of the fair market value. Naturally, John and Theresa appealed the low-ball appraisal to the courts, but that did not sit well with the authorities.

Libertarians, Power, and the Message of Freedom by William L. Anderson

2010-12-06T16:45:00.002+09:00

Libertarians, Power, and the Message of Freedom by William L. Anderson

From the paper:

People who believe in liberty are in a minority, and it is a minority that few of us really can comprehend, as for the most part, libertarians cannot grasp the real costs that they will be facing in the coming years. Those of us who have spoken out against the abuses committed by those in power no longer will be ignored by those who control the police and "justice" apparatus, and we will be on the radar screens of those who believe they have the power to silence us.

This is coming home to roost, for me. Some of my relatives are statists and are aware of my libertarianism. They are also long-time government (on-again, off-again) employees, and would I think, have no problem narcing me if the price was right, or the propaganda convincing enough. They are also applying for the Canadian equivalent of the TSA...lovely conflict, there.

What may prove interesting for those not yet on board are the following left-right paradigm-breaking observations:

The economics department where I teach, Frostburg State University, shares office space with the political science department, and like so many other Poli Sci departments across the country, it is a repository for Democratic Party activists. These are the Progressives who believe that every regulatory agency and every government department is forever protecting us from those evil corporations that seek to impoverish all of us, make us eat poison, foul our waters and air, and turn our temperate climate into something akin to what is experienced in summer in the Mojave Desert.

And....

They hardly are alone, and the political viewpoints, or should I say the political viewpoint, of the rest of the faculty pretty much mirror what I hear every day in conversation in our hallways. That is the reality of teaching in a secular state university, although I doubt that I would hear a much different set of values if I were on the faculty of, say, Calvin College, a Christian institution, in Michigan, except that the faculty at Calvin would "Christianize" the statism.

Likewise, if I were on the faculty at conservative Cedarville College, a Baptist institution in Ohio, I would hear a different version of statism, one that supported the police, prosecutors, and the U.S. wars overseas. Most people there actually believe that we have freedom of worship in this country because of those very soldiers fighting overseas. There might be a paean to free markets, but overall, the American state would be seen as fundamentally good and even exceptional.

Some advice for folks like me, who work in a putatively private university which drools ever more for tax-payer dollars:

Except for perhaps the faculty at Grove City College, a person with views like mine would be in a minority and a distinctive minority at that, and if a libertarian cannot coexist in such an atmosphere, I would recommend that person find another line of work. To be a libertarian – and especially a Christian libertarian – in an atmosphere where hardcore statism is the unofficial but dominant religion is to understand a bit what it is like to be a Christian in a land governed by the Muslim Shari'ah.

leaks mirror sites

2010-12-06T16:39:00.001+09:00

http://wikileaks.info/

The People on the Move - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Daily

2010-12-06T16:38:00.002+09:00

The People on the Move - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Daily

This relentless push to fulfill the demands of individualism is the driving force of human history.

When you first observe the K-cup that Keurig uses, your thought might be: this is ridiculously inefficient...History is not about some outsider's view of what is or is not efficient according to some preset calculus. History is about the ideas and preferences of real human beings.

South Korea Begins Live-Firing Drills That North Korea Says Threaten War

2010-12-06T16:15:00.003+09:00

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-04/north-korea-condemns-u-s-japan-south-korea-military-alliance.html

China last week criticized the exercise as an obstacle to easing tensions that have increased since the March sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan. An international panel blamed the incident on a North Korean torpedo, which Kim Jong Il’s regime has denied.

I find it telling that Alex Jones and other sources doubt the North Koreans sank the Cheonan-ham (Living in Cheonan, this is a bit too close to home.) USS Maine, anyone?

The North also denies they sank it, but freely admit to the protracted shelling of Yeon-Pyeong Island (a site our college students cannot find on a map). This speaks volumes to me, although it would be harder to deny one than the other, obviously.

"Our military is bolstering our readiness to respond sternly to any further provocation," Kim said in a nationally televised statement. The government will spend 30 billion won ($26.5 million) to help Yeonpyeong residents rebuild after the attack, Kim said.

Like I said, this is a postage stamp...I doubt there was enough damage to justify spending third-party money to the tune of 26.5 million dollars...we know war is the health of the state, though...bet more military installations are built up there than civilian stuff.

The U.S. sent the USS George Washington to join South Korean naval forces in an exercise in the Yellow Sea at the end of November and the aircraft carrier is now taking part in drills with Japan involving about 400 aircraft and 60 warships. More than 40,000 Japanese and U.S. military personnel began a weeklong exercise on Dec. 3.

Could this be a new coalition of the willing?

Wayne Madsen Reports Why South Korea Ship Attack was a False Flag Event ...

2010-11-29T18:10:00.000+09:00

Dr. Bernanke Gets a Phone Call by Gary North

2010-11-29T18:08:00.000+09:00

Dr. Bernanke Gets a Phone Call by Gary North

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, If He Had Been More Honest by Gary North

2010-11-29T18:01:00.000+09:00

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, If He Had Been More Honest by Gary North

In Flanders Fields

2010-11-23T15:08:00.004+09:00

"No leader can ever do it without the 'Willing unknowns'..."

A quotation from a Facebook friend, who shall remain nameless, on the occasion of November 11th.

I prefer just to exchange "willing unknowns" with "useful idiots."

Come on, man the First World War was a corporate and political land grab on all sides. The entry of the USA was to make Wilson feel better about himself, pay off JP Morgan and secure their loans to the Allies, at US taxpayer expense, and topple several monarchies in Europe (enabling the rise of both Stalin and Hitler.)

Just kick back like the Koreans and have a pepero.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below,
...
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields......

......the willing unknowns

Ron Paul: The Revolt Against TSA

2010-11-22T20:35:00.000+09:00

Bernanke: Wealth for Wall Street, Poverty for the People by Charles Goyette

2010-11-17T17:46:00.006+09:00

Bernanke: Wealth for Wall Street, Poverty for the People by Charles Goyette

From Charles' pen (incidentally, he has been a truth-teller versus both left and right for a very long time. Expect to be wowed.):

It was just two years ago, a wealth transfer so brazen as to leave one breathless. The $700 billion Bush bailout met with so much hostility from the public that one congressman said his calls were running 50-50: 50 percent "no," and 50 percent "Hell no!"

Determined not to let it happen again, people across the country began linking arms in activism and tea parties. By last week they had changed Congress. Dozens of bailout supporters from the house and the senate had been turned out of office. So you'd guess that would pretty much put a lid on bailouts and wealth transfers, at least for now, right?

Wrong.

And why?

All this for the sake of another wealth transfer to Wall Street from the taxpayers of America who will bear the cost in lower living standards.

Geraldo Rivera Does 911 Truth Segment About Building 7

2010-11-15T11:00:00.000+09:00

The War Party’s Jihad in Oklahoma by William Norman Grigg

2010-11-15T10:47:00.002+09:00

The War Party’s Jihad in Oklahoma by William Norman Grigg

An interesting point is the inconsistent application of 2nd amendment rights to non-Muslims only worldwide, and certainly in America.

Apparently, American Muslims have the burden of proving that they are not secretly stockpiling weapons in anticipation of waging a war of extermination against the infidels. Just to be safe, preemptive action of some kind might be necessary. On that subject, Rev. Abraham endorses a course of action much more assertive than Rex Duncan's legislative "preemptive strike":

"The best example I could give you is from the battle for Fallujah in April 2004 when the Marines went into a mosque and killed everyone in the mosque. The liberal media and the Muslim community in the West cried out…. If those are honest worshipers, what are they doing with bazookas and other weapons?"

The answer to that question, which should be obvious to any honest observer, is this: Those people were exercising their God-given right to defend their homes, families, and places of worship against criminal aggression by a foreign army that occupied their country without legal or moral authority of any kind.

And it's good to see that the Neo-cons have their priorities in order:

Duncan is a polyester Pharisee, an embodiment of punitive populism. Like many contemporary "law and order" conservatives, Duncan holds forth at considerable length and with great passion about the evils of government power, except when it is exercised in its purest and most malignant form by way of the State's apparatus of regimentation and destruction.

Duncan has consistently pressed to expand the reach and power of the domestic police state. His enthusiasm for the Warfare State was displayed a few years ago when he sponsored a measure creating a specialty state license plate memorializing the "Global War on Terrorism."

An Evening with Statists

2010-11-14T12:24:00.009+09:00

Just shut up and take the air strikes, all you lot in Gaza! Just put up with TSA! Put up with the war in Afghanistan!

Last night was very educational for several reasons.

The first is that the libertarian is a lonely number...the statists are everywhere, and even friends can be a fifth column when you argue too clearly and passionately about freedom versus totalitarianism. Especially when you are right and refute them they hate your certainty...Canadians MUST be PC, because, as we all know, the middle of the road is always best; just as we count heads to get justice and even truth. Tomorrow, a different head count will reveal the next big truth.

I learned also that the same tired arguments, recycled with refutation ever faster and faster, will always have to be dealt with, starting from the denial that taxation is coercion to the stupid assertion that all action is coerced anyway, to I'm okay with coercing you to pay my health care...the ugly core of the statist is progressively revealed until, at last, there is no more veneer, just the naked truth of their servitude and their desire for yours as well.

Even when you offer them the moral way out...they do not take it. Because, I think, that is the point of indoctrination; even if the man thinks he is free, we know that Leviathan's state schools have mind-wiped us very effectively. And, despite my detractors' assertions to the contrary, I am not myself indoctrinated by the Misesians and other libertarian organizations, with whom I agree with much, but not every philosophical inference they make...words, like coercion and propaganda and liberal have had certain meanings and there are consequences to these meanings. No one put a gun to my head.

But the "man" in the school system and the bought-out media won't ever give you both sides. The Internet is the only reason I can spread these ideas. Voluntarism is a sign not of coercion but of human responsibility...something of which I think the statists are too afraid, so afraid, in fact, that they can't be anything but narcs and useful idiots.

We'll see what the friends I was suggested turn out to be. I think they were less offended, let alone embarrassed, by the evening than the friend who introduced us was.

This is worth another posting:

We Must Stop TSA Tyranny Now by Paul Huebl

2010-11-12T17:34:00.001+09:00

We Must Stop TSA Tyranny Now by Paul Huebl

This just says it all:

The cargo side of airline security is not seen by passengers and accordingly is largely ignored. The TSA administration has equated the public perception of their job performance by how much aggravation passengers can be put through.

To date the TSA or their predecessors have not stopped a single terrorist incident.

171. Putting Bernanke On Trial

2010-11-12T17:33:00.001+09:00

171. Putting Bernanke On Trial

Ron Paul in conversation with Lew Rockwell

THE INFLUENCE GAME: Shippers fought cargo controls By SHARON THEIMER

2010-11-10T12:41:00.001+09:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101109/ap_on_bi_ge/us_mail_bombs_cargo_lobbying%3B_ylt%3DAmveOOXC5UFxIjajHsWIXVKs0NUE%3B_ylu%3DX3oDMTFlNmZ1a3U5BHBvcwM3OQRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX3BvbGl0aWNzBHNsawN0aGVpbmZsdWVuY2U-

And this could affect MY life..thanks a lot, guys.

Intelligence officials around the world narrowly thwarted an al-Qaida mail bomb plot last month, intercepting two explosive packages shipped from Yemen with UPS and FedEx.

But it was a tip from Saudi intelligence, not cargo screening, that turned up the bombs before they could take down airplanes. Company employees in Yemen were not required to X-ray the printer cartridges the explosives were hidden inside. Instead, they looked at the printers and sent them off, U.S. officials said.

Hindu Terrorism Neglected by Obama by Raja Mujtaba

2010-11-10T12:39:00.001+09:00

http://www.opinion-maker.org/2010/11/hindu-terrorism-neglected-by-obama/

According to a report of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), “in one of the events, in March, 2008, more than 150 intolerant nationalist Hindus stormed two Easter Sunday services and beat at least 16 Christians including two pastors in Bangalore and in Shimoga district…before almost every assault, the mob of the Hindu extremist of RSS, VHPand Bajrang Dal, armed with bamboo poles, sticks and rods, while beating drums shout slogans in Hindi—he “who talks in favour of only Hindus will rule the nation.”

Nevertheless, assaults on Christians and their property have continued by the Hindu mobs in Orissa, Assam, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. Even the recent past witnessed a number of incidents of religious intolerance. In this respect, at least 60 Christians have been assassinated in the recent past by Hindu fundamentalists in Orissa.

Welcome To India, Obama Sahib by Eric Margolis

2010-11-10T12:34:00.000+09:00

Welcome To India, Obama Sahib by Eric Margolis

Eric Margolis is a writer and journalist I respect a great deal. Pull no punches! A Hazlitt of these latter days. May the Long Defeat be reversed at last!

While the western media fulminates against Taliban’s or Iran’s treatment of women, a leading British medical journal reports an estimated 40,000 Indian women are burned alive each year by their in-laws to grab their dowries. Infanticide of female children is endemic. But few in the west seem to care.

India will follow its own strategic and diplomatic interests – which are not synonymous with those of the United States.

A Challenge to Tea Party Elected Officials by James Ostrowski

2010-11-08T20:34:00.001+09:00

A Challenge to Tea Party Elected Officials by James Ostrowski

From the article:

So, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the acid test which will allow us to know if these tea party officials are serious or are just a bunch of egotistical politicians seeking a DC diversion from life "down on the farm."

The agency that they should abolish or at least de-fund is HUD. I could write a book about the damage HUD has wrought in its history and prominent libertarians James Bovard and Thomas DiLorenzo have exposed its failure in many articles over the years. A panoramic review will suffice here.

And what a view it is! I'd suggest washing it doen with this chaser from Jeff Tucker,
Power and Ideology in D.C.
:

http://mises.org/media/2856

The Collectivist Dogma - Ludwig von Mises - Mises Daily

2010-11-04T10:56:00.003+09:00

The Collectivist Dogma - Ludwig von Mises - Mises Daily

From my hero's own pen (no wonder he was forced to teach for nearly nothing in both Europe and America...the collectivists, and the Leviathan they worship, are not tolerant nor forgiving).

Collectivism transforms the epistemological doctrine into an ethical claim. It tells people what they ought to do. It distinguishes between the true collective entity to which people owe loyalty and spurious pseudo entities about which they ought not to bother at all. There is no uniform collectivist ideology, but many collectivist doctrines. Each of them extols a different collectivist entity and requests all decent people to submit to it. Each sect worships its own idol and is intolerant of all rival idols. Each ordains total subjection of the individual; each is totalitarian.

The issue of inappropriate analogies is dealt with, too:

The arithmetical metaphor:

Is society, people asked, merely a sum of individuals or is it more than this and thereby an entity endowed with independent reality? The question is nonsensical. Society is neither the sum of individuals nor more nor less.

The organismic metaphor:

the biological evolution that resulted in the emergence of the structure-function systems of plant and animal bodies was a purely physiological process in which no trace of a conscious activity on the part of the cells can be discovered. On the other hand, human society is an intellectual and spiritual phenomenon. In cooperating with their fellows, individuals do not divest themselves of their individuality.

Can you imagine any of your teachers saying these things and keeping their jobs?

The collectivist philosophers fail to realize that what constitutes the state is the actions of individuals. The legislators, those enforcing the laws by force of arms, and those yielding to the dictates of the laws and the police constitute the state by their behavior. In this sense alone is the state real. There is no state apart from such actions of individual men.

Entitlements and Guaranteed Bankruptcy by Gary North

2010-11-03T17:51:00.001+09:00

Entitlements and Guaranteed Bankruptcy by Gary North

Saudi Arms Deal Is About Iran by Ron Paul

2010-11-03T13:31:00.001+09:00

Saudi Arms Deal Is About Iran by Ron Paul

Some will argue that these arms deals are international trade which we should encourage and applaud. Sadly, the United States does not build much that we can export these days. But the fact is that the US weapons industry is underwritten by the American taxpayer. From research and development to acquisition by the US military, the costs of the US arms industry are borne by American citizens. But, as so-called “private” companies, the enormous profits they make selling weapons to countries like Saudi Arabia are of course privatized. So the costs are socialized and the profits are privatized. There is a word for this arrangement and it is not “capitalism.”

Canadian who killed man taught in Seoul for 2 years - INSIDE JoongAng Daily

2010-11-02T17:48:00.001+09:00

Canadian who killed man taught in Seoul for 2 years - INSIDE JoongAng Daily

“We were shocked to hear that the murderer, with no teaching license, had been an English teacher.” Really? I mean, really? That really shocked you? More than the actual killing?

Bullying! by Stefbot

2010-11-02T15:12:00.002+09:00

Brilliant: some profanity.

An Open Letter to the Walt Disney Company by Arthur M.M. Krolman

2010-11-01T20:41:00.001+09:00

An Open Letter to the Walt Disney Company by Arthur M.M. Krolman

Cute...too bad they already zapped me.

FDA Claims Seafood safe to Eat...Trust 'em if you want!

2010-11-01T20:36:00.002+09:00

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/29/business/la-fi-fda-seafood-20101029

The same FDA that approved of aspartame and Vioxx?

No thank you.

See this little baby: I assume it really is oil, that crude, black stuff.
http://rense.com/general92/bpfish.htm

What Ants do to Aspartame: Freaky

2010-11-01T20:32:00.002+09:00

http://www.relfe.com/2010/aspartame_ant_cockroach_poison.html?ref=nf

Check out how they first die, then learn, and finally barricade off any aspartame they find.

Intro to the Austrian Economics Blog (Australia)

2010-11-01T20:31:00.000+09:00

Silver Investment: $100oz is a "No Brainer" - Mike Maloney on CNBC April...

2010-11-01T20:27:00.000+09:00

Interview with Dan & Buddy

2010-10-29T15:55:00.000+09:00

Buddy and I interviewed!

My Debate Challenge to Paul Krugman - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily

2010-10-29T13:34:00.001+09:00

My Debate Challenge to Paul Krugman - Robert P. Murphy - Mises Daily

Why, oh why, does this seem to echo the problem with Al Gore and global whatever-the-heck-is-to-justify-global-taxes? Lord Monkton continuously invites the Gore-meister to debate, and...crickets continue to chirp. Hey the guy is too busy buying up beachfront property in Florida to worry about riding oceans.

http://www.thebigquestions.com/2010/05/13/from-an-eternal-perspective/

Firefighters Fiddle While Roseville Burns by Steven Greenhut

2010-10-25T16:33:00.000+09:00

Firefighters Fiddle While Roseville Burns by Steven Greenhut

From the article:

I hear endlessly from firefighters who typically earn pay and benefit packages of $175,000 a year here in California that they are heroes who put their lives on the line to keep us and our property safe. Yet, so often when tragedy strikes, these heroes act in ways that certainly are not heroic.

French Fight Back, Google Slapped Down, Pilot Stands Up - New World Next...

2010-10-22T08:14:00.000+09:00

Screw you, Goggle!

Video para un Estatista ( Handout for a Statist ) por Stefan Molyneux

2010-10-21T11:16:00.000+09:00