I Love Being Energy Dependent

"I have a confession to make: I love being dependent on foreign oil. In fact, I love being dependent on domestic oil too. For that matter, I love being dependent on other people for all the other things I purchase in the course of my life."

"Thus, what is the ideal trade policy for the United States (and every other nation)? A unilateral abolition of all trade restrictions on the American people. No negotiated trade agreements or mutual lowering of tariffs with other nations. Instead, simply drop all barriers to trade here in the United States, including all U.S. government-imposed embargoes and sanctions that punish Americans for trading with foreigners. Not only would such action liberate the American people to freely trade with the people of the world, not only would it bring the interdependencies that are the key to rising standards of living and peace, it would also serve as a model for the rest of the world to follow."

I Love Being Energy Dependent

How Hard Could It Be?: Good System, Bad System - Starbucks - company culture

"Isn't it a bit odd that Starbucks had gone to the trouble of paying someone to stand around the front of the shop, getting into squabbles with loyal customers, making people repeat their orders, while not even increasing the total number of Frappuccino Blended Coffees that could be produced per unit of time?"

"But when one of your employees yells, "They're not allowed to give it to you up here!" at a customer, that's probably a sign that the systems you have put in place have become self-defeating."

How Hard Could It Be?: Good System, Bad System - Starbucks - company culture

Tribute to Seven Antiwar Republicans - ToTheCenter

"The real test of courage is to take a principled stand against a popular undertaking and, in the words of our commander-in-chief, stay the course. That is exactly what these seven Republicans have done and this writer believes that time and circumstances have vindicated them."

"Because most Americans are susceptible to the misperception that being antiwar is a characteristic of Democrats, I believe that these Republicans deserve some praise and recognition."

Tribute to Seven Antiwar Republicans - ToTheCenter

Utopian Dreams

A discouraging assessment of big government.

"They didn’t seem to much anticipate people subverting the constitutional framework itself in the way it has happened historically: that the Supreme Court would declare growing food on your own land for your own consumption to be commerce “among the several states,” that vast hordes of sophists would insist that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed” is a reference to the National Guard (established in 1903), that the power to take property for “public use” would encompass seizing people’s homes so that multibillion dollar corporations can have a more profitable store location, that the existence of the words “general welfare” would be taken to mean that the government could do anything whatsoever that is not expressly forbidden by the Constitution, or that the 10th Amendment would just sort of vanish. The supporters of the Constitution understood and feared human ambition, but badly underrated human cleverness."

"Those who believer that a single institution can be given a monopoly on force, the right to be the judge in cases against itself, and the sole right to interpret the laws binding itself, and then be expected to behave because of a piece of paper--they are the ones indulging in utopian fantasies."

Utopian Dreams

Broken Glass Everywhere - Art Carden - Mises Institute

Art Carden writes:

In his classic Economics in One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt applies Frederic Bastiat's "broken window" fallacy. Many still haven't learned the lesson, apparently: this article from the Boston Globe argues that this year's earthquakes in China will be good for Chinese economic growth and that disasters can be good for the economy more generally. Disaster-induced institutional change might lead to higher growth over the long run, but in general the proposition flies in the face of one of economics' simplest ideas: destroying resources makes societies poorer, not richer...

What looks like increased economic growth is often redistribution in disguise...

... if destroying resources made us better off, "Beirut should be one of the wealthiest places in the world."

The art of economics consist in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

Government largesse after the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake was good for some Alaskans, but the resources had to come from the taxpayers. Government largesse after Hurricanes Andrew, Ivan, Dennis, Katrina, and others increased the incomes of some of the recipients of that largesse, but again, the resources had to come from taxpayers.

There is an argument that, by encouraging societies to replace decrepit infrastructure, a disaster can accelerate growth. Yet again, the resources needed to replace that infrastructure must come from somewhere. While we might expect to see robust postdisaster growth along the Gulf Coast and in government-sponsored Gulf Opportunity Zones (GO Zones), it is scarcely clear that this would be economically efficient relative to encouraging people to move elsewhere...

We have an obligation to people, not to places … Given just how much, on a per capita basis, it would take to rebuild New Orleans to its former glory, lots of residents would be much [better off] with $10,000 and a bus ticket to Houston.

Government subsidies mean that there will be more production in the geographic space defined by the GO Zone, but this is not net new production. It is economic activity that would have otherwise taken place elsewhere.

As a fan of innovation and progress, I am somewhat sympathetic to the idea that disasters increase productivity by hastening the switch to more efficient technologies. If the productivity increase from implementing these new technologies were so great, however, private firms would implement them on their own initiative without government prodding...

The back door we installed after our house was robbed is much nicer than our old one. However, the fact that we would have preferred the services rendered by the old door to the services rendered by the new door was revealed in the fact that we had not replaced the old door yet — nor did we have any immediate plans to do so. The new door represents an improvement to our property, but to make that improvement we had to forego the services we otherwise could have enjoyed with the money we spent on the new door. If we hadn't been robbed, we would have the services provided by the old door plus the $400 or so we spent on the new one. Instead, we have only the services provided by the new door, and the old door is nothing but a shattered mess in a landfill somewhere...

In spite of all of this, I am prepared to believe that the long-run consequences of a disaster can be beneficial if they lead to privatization of previously government-owned property as well as institutional reforms more amenable to free markets...

Hazlitt once pointed out that the good ideas in economics have to be relearned every generation, and indeed it seems that a disaster cannot pass without common economic fallacies rearing their ugly heads. The broken-window fallacy seems to reappear every time nature or terrorism causes mayhem and destruction...

Broken Glass Everywhere - Art Carden - Mises Institute

LewRockwell.com Blog: Time for Fascism

"Time Magazine, long (still?) a house organ for the CIA, is pumping for state slavery ("national service") under chickenhawk Rick Stengel. It even uses fascist war propaganda art..."

LewRockwell.com Blog: Time for Fascism

The Greens are Going Crazy -- Intellectual Conservative Politics and Philosophy

"It’s hard to ignore the fact that the Greens are going crazy, not just in the United States, but around the world. They are increasingly frantic over the opposition being voiced against global warming, one of the greatest hoaxes in modern history."

"The Greens have bet everything on global warming as the reason for giving up the use of long established sources of energy such as oil, coal and natural gas. The object has been to slow everything the modern world calls progress."

Intellectual Conservative Politics and Philosophy

Offshore oil drilling -- cleaner than Mother Nature

"Ironically, in terms of oil contamination, Mother Nature is 95 times dirtier than Man. Some 620,500 barrels of oil ooze organically from North America's ocean floors each year. Compare this to the average 6,555 barrels that oil companies have spilled annually since 1998..."

Offshore oil drilling -- cleaner than Mother Nature

Dr. No in the Senate, Too - Mises Economics Blog

"If the only way to get a judiciously negative politician onto Capitol Hill is to elect a doctor, then I guess we need 462 more physicians in Congress."

Dr. No in the Senate, Too - Mises Economics Blog

America - Red, White and Blue Brainwashed | SheeplePeople.com

Let’s keep it simple. Businesses and individuals create jobs. Government can only hire people when they remove capital from individuals and businesses that are the job creators. Government then wastes 70% or more of this capital before finally using it to public benefit.

When the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates to “soften” economic downturns they are also destroying the value of the U.S. Dollar...

Government should stick to protecting the rights of individuals and defending our nation from it’s enemies. When government takes on more, we all suffer.

America - Red, White and Blue Brainwashed | SheeplePeople.com

Save Lives by Doing Nothing | SheeplePeople.com

“Moral imperative” and “duty” are commonly heard call to actions for donating to the less fortunate. Recently these appeals have been raised for the crisis in Myanmar...

By donating to Myanmar, we are propping up a ruthless, violent dictatorship that is responsible for some of the worst atrocities in modern times...

The left and many on the right would rather ‘feel’ like they are doing something rather than doing the right thing, which is nothing. Yes, that’s correct, doing nothing is the best course of action. Sometimes, meddling in the affairs of others only makes things worse.

After sending $500,000,000,000 to Africa over the last 30 years, Africa is experiencing poverty more severe than when the “War on Poverty” started. It’s unfathomable that we continue with the same plan despite obvious indications over many decades that the situation is only getting worse.

Save Lives by Doing Nothing | SheeplePeople.com

Drug Wars - We Hold These Truths to be Self Evident | SheeplePeople.com

"We’re Winning the Drug War..."

"No, we lost the second it started. It’s unbelievable to me that we would blindly go down this road again. After all, it was just 40 years earlier when we had the slap in the face that Prohibition gave us. We are STILL paying for Prohibition. By outlawing alcohol we created enormous profit margins for criminals. Criminals used those profits to build empires that persist to this day (the Mafia)..."

"Criminals use their profits to build armies. Criminals kill each other and innocent bystanders that get in the way. In the most desperate neighborhoods and countries, druglords are the law..."

Drug Wars - We Hold These Truths to be Self Evident | SheeplePeople.com

Congressman Ron Paul - The Dangers of Neo-Conservative Economic Policies - Texas Straight Talk

"The fiat monetary policy we now follow is the most significant factor contributing to our economic peril, and it is central to the neo-con agenda. As we hear new calls to empower the Federal Reserve Board, we should be aware that underlying all neo-conservative policies is the idea of monetary inflation. Inflation is the technique used to pay for the regulatory-state and the costs of policing the world."

Congressman Ron Paul - The Dangers of Neo-Conservative Economic Policies - Texas Straight Talk

Hi-tech is turning us all into time-wasters | Science | The Observer

"According to new research, one person in five now suffers from the problem so badly that their careers, relationships and health are threatened. Many researchers blame computers and mobile phones for providing too many distractions for people."

Hi-tech is turning us all into time-wasters | Science | The Observer

Report: Banning personal web use actually costs billions : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

Interesting study.

"e-breaks" don't distract employees from their work but rather help them reduce stress while sharpening and focusing their minds for another round of work.

Report: Banning personal web use actually costs billions : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

The Seen, the Unseen, and the Hidden Costs of Statism - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. writes:

This is why the state doesn't want pictures of US wounded or dead circulating in public. The media mostly obey. Did you ever notice that? You are being shown only what the government wants you to see. The state does not want you to see dead soldiers or suffering families of those shot and killed.

Instead the state wants you to believe that the Iraq War is about patriotism, 9/11, national pride, the campaign to make you safer, the administering of justice, manhood and courage, and all the rest of the coverups for what war really is: murder and destruction paid for by you and me and made legal solely because it is the state and not someone else doing it...

But from the government's point of view, it is running the war, and it should control what people know about it to the same extent it controls everything else about the war. As a result, after 4,000 dead soldiers, countless hundreds of thousands of Iraqi dead, millions of wounded on all sides, there are only a handful of bloody pictures to be found anywhere.

Amazing isn't it, just how effective the state can actually be when it cares intensely about something? And why does it care so much?...

... the state is most especially interested in continuing to foster the myth that these kids are dying for their country, and there are no more important people to convince of that than the parents of the dead.

But actually, only the most naïve could possibly believe that this is what the rules are wholly about. They want to protect the rest of us from reality. The Vietnam War lost massive support at home when the military loosened up on photojournalism. The handful of pictures we have from World War II all date from a period after FDR too bowed to public pressure.

At one level, it is pathetic that we need pictures to underscore what war is all about. But since the ancient world, the masses at large have proven susceptible to believing every myth about the grandeur and glory of war. We imagine that we as a people are going abroad to bring justice, truth, and liberty to some unenlightened and threatening foreign tribe. This has been the constant theme since the ancient world.

Then we see the pictures. It turns out that the unenlightened tribe is a collection of individuals pretty much like us. They are made of flesh and blood, have families, worship God, and struggle with pretty much the same issues that all people everywhere have always struggled with. There is no great glory in killing them, nor in being killed by them.

But the state says that sometimes war is necessary. If our masters really believe that, why hide its costs? Let us see precisely what we are getting into here. If it is justified, let us see why and how, and let us observe what we are giving up in exchange for the just war.

The truth is that the state must hide not only its wars but all of its activities. It hides its inflation. It hides the effects of its taxation and its protectionism. It fears anyone who draws the cause-and-effect connection between its activities and their deleterious consequences for the rest of us. It is the most destructive force in our world. Because that truth is so momentous, the state does everything possible to hide the smallest drop of blood.

The state wants us to all go on with our lives, believing it, loving it, and seeing only the pictures it wants us to see.

The Seen, the Unseen, and the Hidden Costs of Statism - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute

Trotsky, Strauss, and the Neocons, by Justin Raimondo

Justin Raimondo's words from 2003 still sound apropos five years later.

"In the Orwellian world of the neocons, where a new form of political correctness frames their every utterance, the language is contracting. Because the goal of totalitarian thought control is to make the expression of political incorrectness impossible, the goal of this Neocon Newspeak is the abolition of many now-common words. In this context, words are used, not to make debating points, but to end all discussion. There are no Straussians, we are told, and even the word neoconservative is to be flushed down the Memory Hole, along with shelves full of books, articles, and even one incredibly boring film detailing their intellectual and political evolution in minute detail..."

"Arnold Beichman was next up at bat, with his own nominee: in any discussion of the neocons and their influence, he wants any reference to Leon Trotsky or the influence of Trotskyism to be strictly verboten. Writing in National Review Online, Beichman is outraged at Jeet Heer's National Post piece detailing the Trotskyist roots of leading neocons, whose cocktail party chatter evidently includes abstruse references to Max Shachtman and the factional history of the Fourth International..."

"The ideas that energize the neoconservative movement have little if anything to do with traditional conservatism. That this suspicion is now widespread among traditional conservatives, as well as journalists, is not to be undone by lame accusations of alleged "anti-Semitism." Paring down the permitted language of political debate is not going to work, either. It is clear beyond the need for further proof that the War Party bamboozled the American public into taking that first fateful step on the road to empire. We know who they are, and what they believe: it is not a "conspiracy," as the detractors of this theory insist, because there is nothing secret about it – and because the same people are urging us onward, to Iran, Syria, and beyond..."

Trotsky, Strauss, and the Neocons, by Justin Raimondo

SchansBlog: more evidence that the GOP continues to be in (deep internal) trouble

"If Ms. Steelman's bid shows anything, it's how determined a wandering Republican Party, both nationally and locally, is to hold on to the bad habits that lost them their reputation. Beware to the reformer."

Perhaps this could be said of Ron Paul as well.

SchansBlog: more evidence that the GOP continues to be in (deep internal) trouble

What is a fool? -- VisionaryDaughters.com

"Avoiding fools certainly does not mean turning a deaf ear to the spiritually needy — the ignorant but teachable — but rather means not casting our pearls before those who stubbornly reject teaching (one of the defining characteristics of a fool)."

VisionaryDaughters.com

Enemy of the State - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute

Great book review of the biography of a great man.

Enemy of the State - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute

KarenDeCoster.com Web Log: Los Angeles To Ban Fast Food Expansion Archives

More bureaucracy and loss of liberty in LA.

"Los Angeles bureaucrats are going to ban the opening of new fast food joints within a 32-square-mile area of the city. Of course, that will promote healthier eating! Surely, that will have people shopping for fresh food, cooking at home, and eating veggies and lean meats as opposed to processed junk..."

KarenDeCoster.com Web Log: Los Angeles To Ban Fast Food Expansion Archives

Look Me In The Eye: More changes to the Look Me in the Eye paperback

"I realized I don’t need profanity to tell a story. The story is built upon my thoughts and actions and experiences and feelings . . . and profanity is not an essential part of that. Some of you (plenty of you, and me too) still swear some in real life, but a book like this is better off without it. I am convinced of that."

I read the hardcover version, but I am glad to see he is offering a "sanitized" version more suitable for younger people.

Look Me In The Eye: More changes to the Look Me in the Eye paperback

VisionaryDaughters.com

"How should a 14-year-old girl interact with boys? Should it be different than how a grown young woman interacts with young men, and if so, how?"

VisionaryDaughters.com

The Demise of Conscience, Part 1

Jacob Hornberger writes:

"After all, can an immoral act be converted into a moral act simply by having the government do it? If stealing is wrong on a private basis, even when the money is used to help others, how is that same act converted into a moral deed when the state is doing it?"...

"Why do Americans continue to embrace the welfare state despite its manifest immorality, damage, and destructiveness? My hunch is that they have lost faith in themselves, a loss that they have replaced with faith in government. They want to be relieved as much as possible of the difficult choices and decisions that life presents them. By delegating the responsibility of making peaceful choices about what they do with their money to the welfare state, they have rendered unto Caesar the things that belong to God, including the exercise of free will. The result has been a demise of conscience..."

"Everyone agrees that neither the Iraqi government nor the Iraqi people ever attacked the United States. Everyone agrees that no Iraqi participated in the 9/11 attacks. There is no question but that in the Iraq War, the United States is the aggressor nation and Iraq is the defending nation..."

"How could the killing of any Iraqi be morally justified, given that the U.S. government was going to be the aggressor in the conflict? How could killing people while serving as part of an aggressor force be reconciled with God’s laws? I can’t help but wonder how many U.S. soldiers who were struggling with their conscience before the invasion are bedeviled by it today..."

"Thus, the circumstantial evidence led strongly to one conclusion: The real purpose of the invasion of Iraq was not to protect the United States from a WMD attack or to enforce UN resolutions but rather to simply achieve what the sanctions had failed to achieve throughout the 1990s — a change in the regime governing Iraq."

"So what would be wrong with that? What’s wrong with it is that it’s morally wrong and a violation of God’s laws to kill the people of another nation simply to achieve a change of administrations within their government. The government that is seeking the regime change through an invasion is the aggressor nation. In fact, an invasion for the purpose of regime change is also illegal under the UN Charter, to which the United States is a signatory."

The Demise of Conscience, Part 1

Who's Planning Our Next War? by Patrick J. Buchanan

Pat Buchanan writes:

"Yet, to start a third war in the Middle East against a nation three times as large as Iraq, and leave it to a new president to fight, would be a daylight hijacking of the congressional war power and a criminally irresponsible act. For Congress alone has the power to authorize war."

"Yet Israel is even today pushing Bush into a pre-emptive war with a naked threat to attack Iran itself should Bush refuse the cup..."

"Is it not time the American people were consulted on the next war that is being planned for us?"

Who's Planning Our Next War? by Patrick J. Buchanan

Insatiable Government - Garet Garrett - Mises Institute

"Until about 1910, excepting only the period of the Civil War, the cost of the federal government was met almost entirely by customs duties and the tobacco and liquor taxes; and until about 1910 the cost of state and local government was met by the property tax, supplemented somewhat by corporation taxes, license fees and death duties."

Insatiable Government - Garet Garrett - Mises Institute

Hat tip to Anti-Positivist.

Anti-Positivist: Something to consider

Diminished Expectations: Human Slingshot.

Don't try this one at home!

Diminished Expectations: Human Slingshot.

Top 10 Foods Only America Could Have Invented -- Endless Simmer - A Food Blog

Enjoyed this list.

Endless Simmer - A Food Blog » Blog Archive » The Top 10 Foods Only America Could Have Invented

Hat tip to Diminished Expectations!

Diminished Expectations: The Top 10 Foods Only America Could Have Invented.

Honorable Exit From Empire - HUMAN EVENTS

Pat Buchanan writes:

From 1989 to 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Empire and breakup of the U.S.S.R., America had an opportunity to lay down its global burden and become again what Jeane Kirkpatrick called "a normal country in a normal time."

We let the opportunity pass by, opting instead to use our wealth and power to convert the world to democratic capitalism. And we have reaped the reward of all the other empires that went before: A sinking currency, relative decline, universal enmity, a series of what Rudyard Kipling called "the savage wars of peace."

Yet, opportunity has come anew for America to shed its imperial burden and become again the republic of our fathers.

Honorable Exit From Empire - HUMAN EVENTS

Brutal Assault at a Minnesota Amusement Park

Gary Larson writes, "Reducing black-on-anybody crime, putting an end to “disproportionate” incarceration for black males, starts literally at home. In one-parent black homes (usually, moms) and in single-parent homes of any race, anywhere, teaching Respect for Others, their rights to life, liberty, etc., is paramount, often lacking. Look around. Dads are important to full growth, especially of young males. Irresponsible, mostly father-less parenting, coupled with a popular culture embracing sock-it-to-'em TV and shoot-'em-up video games, rap lyrics celebrating violence, demeaning women ("ho's"), dehumanizing humanity, and a lot more, cause the senseless attacks such as those at Valleyfair and our dark streets."

Intellectual Conservative Politics and Philosophy

Climatic golden age: the weather was warmer than today prior to the advent of the "Little Ice Age" around 1300 A.D., and agriculture and commerce benefited | New American, The | Fi

Contrary to today's global warming alarmism, the earth has been warmer, and life was quite good then.

Michael E. Telzrow explains:

And so it was for nearly five centuries. Fagan writes that it was a climatic golden age--a period of unusually warm summers and mild winters that produced atypical crop success. Thirteenth-century life was generally short and characterized by heavy labor for rural inhabitants, but crop failures were generally rare.

Climatic golden age: the weather was warmer than today prior to the advent of the "Little Ice Age" around 1300 A.D., and agriculture and commerce benefited | New American, The | Fi

TOM UTLEY: Last rites for my dear old mum, a bedside farce and why the rights culture robs us of happiness | Mail Online

Tom Utley writes:

"The paradox is that if you think of life as a series of duties (as she always has) - and of happiness as an undeserved blessing, rather than a right - you are likely to be much happier than if you think happiness is yours by right."

"That's a sense that most of my generation have lost, if we ever had it."

"All the emphasis, since the liberal reforms of the 1960s, has been on replacing Christian duties with human rights."

"In the process, I believe, we have diminished the stock of human happiness rather than increasing it."

TOM UTLEY: Last rites for my dear old mum, a bedside farce and why the rights culture robs us of happiness | Mail Online

Hat tip to "The Other Side of Kim."

The Other Side of Kim du Toit - TheOtherSideofKim Front Page

A Weak and Dependent People

Jacob Hornberger writes, "No one can say though that federal officials are dumb. People who are bailed out are likely to be very grateful to their federal daddy for having helped them out. How likely is it that bailout recipients will ever challenge the government at a core level? Who’s going to bite the hand that feeds him? Oh sure, people will carp about governmental inefficiency or call for reform of this or that government program, but when it comes to questioning such things as torture, wars of aggression, occupations, warrantless searches, and socialist bailouts, the lips of weak and dependent child-adults are likely to be silent or kissing the boots of their federal providers. That’s why Roman officials used “bread and circuses” as they extended the reach of their Empire around the world."

A Weak and Dependent People

Friday Interview: Hayek's Most Famous Book

"One of his major themes was that in times of war, national leaders will use the war to grow the size of government. And it doesn’t have to be a World War II sort of war. You can think of wars on poverty, wars against drugs, wars on terrorism. All of these are wars that the leaders have used to say we need to have more government, bigger government, more government involvement — and particularly if it’s a war that is open-ended. I mean World War II actually came to end. It’s hard to think that the war on terrorism would ever come to an end, or a war on poverty, or a war on drugs for that matter."

Friday Interview: Hayek's Most Famous Book

Hat tip to Mises Economic Blog.

Hayek on Liberty in Wartime - Mises Economics Blog

England vs. the Price System - Henry Hazlitt - Mises Institute

Mr. Hazlitt's words in 1947 appear quite relevant today. Quite applicable minimum wage laws for example -- preventing employees from offering their services freely to the highest bidder and employers from hiring the lowest bidder.

"The underlying assumption beneath the present strangling network of economic controls is that a free market and price system is at best a fair-weather system, a luxury a country can afford only when it is already well off. It is the precise function of free prices, however, to allocate production among thousands of different commodities and services and to relieve the most serious shortages most quickly by providing the greatest profit and wage incentives precisely where those shortages exist."

England vs. the Price System - Henry Hazlitt - Mises Institute

Email: How "EOM" Makes Your Email More Efficient

Looks like a good idea. Put the whole e-mail message in the subject and end it with "EOM" (End of Message).

Email: How "EOM" Makes Your Email More Efficient

D.C. Government Continues Mugging Gun Owners

The Supreme Court has recognized that the primary purpose of the Second Amendment is to establish the individual's right to keep a weapon for self-defense, yet the new D.C. law practically destroys the ability to exercise that right by forcing an individual to load, unlock, or assemble their weapon only after a threat is already present. Advantage, criminal!

D.C. Government Continues Mugging Gun Owners

Template for World "Justice" | The New American

Some background from 1997 on today's stories about Radovan Karadzic.

Template for World "Justice" | The New American

Everyone's Favorite Villain - by Nebojsa Malic

AntiWar.com presents the following non-politically-correct view.

Bosnia was used by the U.S. to establish the Imperial prerogative to intervene in other countries without much regard for the UN or international law. What soon followed were Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. There is no way the Empire will even entertain a challenge to its narrative, as without the Bosnian myth it crumbles entirely. Says Trifkovic:

"Radovan Karadzic will be duly convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, and he will not come out of jail alive. The verdict is already written, but it reflects a fundamental imbalance. It ignores the essence of the Bosnian war – the Serbs' striving not to be forced into secession – while remaining mute about the culpability of the other two sides for a series of unconstitutional, illegitimate and illegal political decisions that caused the war."

The judgment against Karadzic, writes Trifkovic, "will be neither fair or just, and therefore it will be detrimental to what America should stand for in the world. It will also give further credence to the myth of Muslim blameless victimhood, Serb viciousness, and Western indifference."

Everyone's Favorite Villain - by Nebojsa Malic

Analyzing Global-warming Science | The New American

Interview of Dr. Arthur Robinson by William F. Jasper.

The current temperature is about average for the past 3,000 years...

Moreover, the temperature, which is going up very slowly, is correlated with the sun’s activity, not hydrocarbon use...

Right now the UN claims that they have about 2,500 people involved in this and about 600 scientists seriously involved. This is what Al Gore would point to today. We have more than 22,000 scientist signers of our global-warming petition who’ve looked at the issue and concluded essentially the opposite of these United Nations people...

Science does not depend on polling... The only thing our petition demonstrates is that there is no consensus among scientists in support of the UN claims...

Scientific truth is not determined by polling or by convening meetings...

As you know, climatologists have trouble predicting the weather a week or two in advance. They surely cannot predict climate many years in the future...

We can show that the hypothesis of human-caused global warming is false, however, because we have enough empirical data to falsify this hypothesis. Human-caused global warming is a hypothesis that has failed so many experimental tests that it is clearly without merit...

First, just because the UN has spent an enormous amount of money to convene meetings of 600 mostly self-interested people... to try to determine something that isn’t knowable with current data and techniques, and produce a report, proves nothing.

Moreover, many of these 600 disagree with the conclusions that the UN-IPCC advertises. The scientists are never allowed to approve or disapprove the final report, and many of the comments that they submit for publication in the report are rejected by UN bureaucrats... So this report is not even approved by the people who are claimed to have authored it. This is a fraudulent process.

... they often unethically omit that part of the data that does not agree with their hypothesis. They pick the parts of the data that favor their conclusion and discard the rest. If you play with the data, you can falsify with it. So the UN is picking parts of the data. We are considering it all.

Al Gore also makes a big deal about glacier recession... But he only shows the data for the limited time intervals that seem to support his claims...

The glaciers have been shortening for 200 years. They started shortening a century before significant amounts of CO2 were produced by human activity...

The glaciers started shortening long before we were using significant amounts of hydrocarbons, and, when we increased our use by six-fold, the shortening rate did not change. Therefore, human hydrocarbon use is evidently not the cause of glacier shortening or the mild natural temperature increase that is causing that shortening...

In those curves, the temperature goes up before the CO2 and goes down before the CO2. The CO2 lags the temperature. And the reason it does is that the CO2 rise is caused by the temperature rise rather than vice versa... Gore shows the curves with poor resolution, so that this cannot be seen by the viewer...

If the UN controls, rations, and taxes energy, they will have the power to determine whether you can run a wood stove, whether you can run an automobile, or can use any of the technology that makes our modern life possible...

The power to tax and ration energy is the power to control the world — to have life and death control over every human being on the planet. No government should ever have this power. The United Nations-IPCC process is not about the climate or saving the environment. It is about power and money — lots of it.

Should Gore and the UN succeed, the effect will not only be diminished prosperity in the United States. In underdeveloped countries, billions of people are lifting themselves from poverty by means of hydrocarbon energy. If their energy supplies are rationed and taxed, they will slip backwards into poverty, misery, and death. This fits the population control agenda of the United Nations.

If the misuse and falsification of the scientific method that drives the human-caused global-warming mania succeeds, it will cause the greatest acts of human genocide the world has ever known. It must be stopped.

Analyzing Global-warming Science | The New American

The Bureaucrats Are Running Scared - Mises Economics Blog

"Public schooling is no longer up to the task of producing the next generation of parasitic, wealth-destroying government drones. Something has to be done now or the very fabric of the modern state could start to unravel. "National service" offers today's bureaucrats hope for a better tomorrow. The basic premise is that forcing all young adults to participate in some form of government-directed labor will yield a crop of lifelong bureaucrats. Once the kids realize they don't have to be productive and can rely on taxpayer funds for subsistence, they'll be hooked!"

The Bureaucrats Are Running Scared - Mises Economics Blog

Is It Time to Liberate China from Communism?

"Given that conservatives and neoconservatives understand the importance of not permitting the U.S. government to invade, bomb, occupy, and “liberate” China, Vietnam, and North Korea (as well as East Germany and Eastern Europe during the Cold War) from the brutality of communist control, why do they have such a difficult time getting it when it comes to Iraq, where their invasion and occupation have killed and maimed more than a million people, destroyed the entire country, and sent into exile millions of refugees? "

Is It Time to Liberate China from Communism?

The God Called Democracy by Jim Fedako

"There is nothing ethical about using the power of politics to gain an advantage. And, hiding behind a majority of voters does not make an unethical action ethical"

The God Called Democracy by Jim Fedako

National Servitude - Mises Economics Blog

Jeffrey Tucker writes:

"Several people have sent a link to this post on the Time Magazine effort to push national service. In an addition to violating liberties on a massive scale, this program would be a colassal waste. It will rob young people of their most important years early in life, taking them out of productive work and making them less able to offer anything to the marketplace after: an extension of an already catastrophic system of publicly funded education, which already drains brain power and time. That both the left and right favor this scheme perfectly illustrates the intellectual bankruptcy and state-worshiping mentality of these people. Fear the future under their rule."

National Servitude - Mises Economics Blog

LewRockwell.com Blog: Mao Would Have Probably Loved Tasers

"Because by adding the taser to the state's arsenal of tools of political power, the government can generally more efficiently control its subjects..."

LewRockwell.com Blog: Mao Would Have Probably Loved Tasers

Why No Trial by Jury at Gitmo?

"Who is deciding the guilt or innocence of the accused in the trials being held at Gitmo? U.S. military officials! And who is bringing the charges against the accused? You got it — the U.S. military! In other words, the same organization that is accusing a person of a crime is also deciding whether the accused is guilty of the crime..."

"As the Gitmo proceedings unfold, Americans are going to have the opportunity to witness what America’s federal judicial system would look like in the absence of the Bill of Rights. Hopefully, the Gitmo spectacle will give the American people a renewed understanding and appreciation for why our ancestors were so determined to secure passage of the Bill of Rights."

Why No Trial by Jury at Gitmo?

Mariana Fights Inflation, 1605 - Bart Fuller - Mises Institute

"Whether inflation occurs by easing monetary policy or by removing precious metal from coinage, it is always and everywhere fraudulent and immoral, for it takes from people the fruits of their labor and destroys the value of their past labor that they have stored in their savings. But why don't more of us know this?"

Mariana Fights Inflation, 1605 - Bart Fuller - Mises Institute

Nuclear Waste: Not a Problem | The New American

Excellent analysis of nuclear energy plant waste disposal and dangers.

The low volume of nuclear waste as compared to wastes from coal-fired power production is what attracted the early conservationists...

A 1,000 Megawatt coal-fired power plant produces solid wastes at a rate of 1,800 pounds per minute, waste that includes 19 toxic metals...

A coal-fired plant also produces 50 times the radioactive emissions of an average nuclear power plant... going nuclear even reduces CO2 emissions by 600 pounds per second...

Note that unlike wastes from nuclear power plants, all products of coal combustion are either sent into the atmosphere or into landfills where they remain toxic forever.

Even with that extensive list of negatives, the danger from coal-fired power plants pales in comparison to a far more serious danger — a lack of access to electrical energy...

We see the toll from a lack of energy each time we have a natural disaster where people flee to the nearest place where the comfort, sanitation, and safety provided by electrical power is available. We also see this dramatically in countries where work is performed primarily by human labor and the combustion of wood is a primary source of energy — and the population lives in the squalor that we always see under such conditions. The surest way to a low standard of living is energy poverty.

So why doesn’t the United States, like other countries possessing nuclear power, reprocess its fuel, removing the high-level radionuclides and reusing the uranium and plutonium isotopes? It is owing to the perceived — rather misperceived — dangers of the plutonium in the “spent fuel.”...

High-level wastes give up their energy in a short period of time and then become stable and harmless, while the unused fuel (uranium and plutonium) are so weakly radioactive that their emanations are only dangerous in the minds of those who are dead set against nuclear power...

If we used the same philosophy about naturally occurring radioisotopes as we do nuclear power plant wastes, we would have to dig up, encase, and rebury the State of Virginia because of the large uranium deposits that have been found there...

Many states besides Virginia... have ore deposits that are sufficiently concentrated for commercial mining, without harm to the population or causing radioactive pollution of the groundwater. And, for the record, these naturally occurring ores aren’t vitrified, encased in stainless steel, or stored in a dry environment...

The underlying cause of the nuclear-waste “problem” is an exaggerated fear of radiation. We have been conditioned for many years to accept the premise that even the slightest bit of radiation is dangerous — a premise that is not borne out by any experimental evidence.

It is certainly true that high doses of radiation can sicken or kill, and lower but still very substantial exposures can increase one’s propensity for developing cancer. But contrary to “common knowledge,” examination of the data shows that low levels of ionizing radiation often have a beneficial effect on human health known as hormesis...

Radioactivity surrounds us. Human beings and all we come into contact with contain radioisotopes. Uranium in the soil will still be radioactive in 10 billion years when our sun runs out of hydrogen. It is a natural part in our universe. To fear it is like fearing the warmth of a fireplace just because fire can also burn down the house. Yet people are still paralyzed with fright because few in this country understand anything about the measurement of radiation or its effects. Until we do we are defenseless against the posturing of radical environmentalists and destined to eventually lose the most incredible source of clean, safe, and reliable energy that man has ever been fortunate enough to enjoy.

Nuclear Waste: Not a Problem | The New American

The vicious lie behind the global warming scare - Mises Economics Blog

"As should be clear by now, environmentalism is not actually opposed to global warming - ending the "threat" posed by global warming is the last thing on their agenda. Their real goal is to use the global warming scare to bully the developed world into reverting into the pre-industrial, pre-civilized age."

The vicious lie behind the global warming scare - Mises Economics Blog

The Minimum Wage Hurts the Poor

"Actually, it’s the exact opposite. The minimum wage can play a vital role in keeping hard-working families below the poverty line by preventing them from working..."

"Thus, if one wants to help the working poor the best thing he can do is to repeal minimum-wage laws to ensure that they all can work."

"How can workers be assured of being paid the highest possible rate? Through the virtues of competition. They look around and see what other businesses are paying workers, and if they are paying more, employees ask for a raise or leave for better pay. Therefore, it is in the interests of the working poor to have a marketplace where there are multitudes of businesses opening up, successfully serving consumers, and competing for workers."

The Minimum Wage Hurts the Poor

Sampson and the Philistines -- Mike S. Adams :: Townhall.com

Mike S. Adams wrote:

"A black female co-worker at IUPUI decided to charge Sampson with racial harassment. This matter should not have been hard to resolve since the book, which Sampson checked out from the IUPUI library, was objectively anti-Klan and anti-racist. The only difficult part of the case should have been deciding the fate of Sampson’s accuser. Had she intentionally leveled the false claim of racial harassment, she should have been fired. Had it been accidental, she should have been sent to sensitivity training to get over her obvious prejudice against white people."

"But, of course, this happened in a university setting, which means that common sense never had a fighting chance..."

"In case you didn’t understand it, here’s what she said: Sampson may have been a victim of intellectual rape but he was wearing too short of a skirt..."

Mike S. Adams :: Townhall.com :: Sampson and the Philistines

Power Line: Rethinking Climate Change

"Most people do not realize that the U.N.'s IPCC report was a political document, not a scientific one. As such, it explicitly refused to consider any of the recent scientific work on carbon dioxide and the earth's climate. That work seems to show rather definitively that human activity has little to do with climate change, which has occurred constantly for millions of years."

"This would be an appropriate occasion for John McCain to announce that, in view of the fact that the claim of a scientific "consensus" has now unraveled, he is rethinking his own position on the regulation of carbon emissions."

Power Line: Rethinking Climate Change

Hat tip to Barney Quick at Bent Notes.

Bent Notes » Blog Archive » Will McCain back off the cap-and-trade thing now? And happy birthday to a Bronx homeboy

GOP Asks Net For Advice, Paulites Answer the Call ... and Answer, and Answer | Threat Level from Wired.com

"When the Republican Party issued a clarion call last week for its grassroots supporters to submit ideas online to build the party's platform, Republican National Committee officials probably weren't expecting a concerted push for the dismantling of the Federal Reserve and a return to the gold standard."

"But Ron Paul supporters have made themselves at home on the the GOP platform site, sounding many of the themes that turned the Texas congressman's doomed run for the Republican presidential nod into an internet cause célèbre."

GOP Asks Net For Advice, Paulites Answer the Call ... and Answer, and Answer | Threat Level from Wired.com

Hat tip to The LRC Blog.

LewRockwell.com Blog: The GOP Platform Is Irrelevant

Americans die in Iraq from ‘electrocution,’ shocks reported by troops ‘almost daily’ | War On You

"Among the seemingly innumerable scandal-worthy stories which have so marked the war in Iraq is one growing tragedy which has been largely ignored: shoddy electrical work by U.S. contractors at military bases leading to numerous electrical fires, troops receiving painful shocks, and even death by electrocution."

Americans die in Iraq from ‘electrocution,’ shocks reported by troops ‘almost daily’ | War On You

Oppose H.C.R. 362 and S.R. 580: Bills to Blockade Iran from Importing Refined Petroleum.

"House Concurrent Resolution 362 and similar Senate Resolution 580 , express the sense of Congress concerning Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. In addition to economic, political, and diplomatic means to pressure Iran into suspending nuclear enrichment activities, both the House and Senate bills strongly urge the President to lead an international effort to blockade Iran’s importation of refined petroleum in order to crush its economy."

"Bear in mind that prior to America’s official entry into World War II, the U.S. blockaded Japan’s oil imports. Japan considered that an act of war, prompting retaliation at Pearl Harbor."

"Congress shirked its Constitutional duty to decide war on Iraq and is now moving toward allowing and urging the president to lead a program of sanctions against Iran that arguably includes an act of war."

Contact Congress

Rands In Repose: The Quirkbook

I identify with a few of these -- not saying which ones. :-)

Rands In Repose: The Quirkbook

One Million Terrorists? - by Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts writes:

The Bush Regime's "terrorist" protection schemes have reached the height of total incompetence and utter absurdity. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, a private organization that defends the US Constitution that inattentive Americans neglect, there are now one million names on the "terrorist" watch list...

What confidence can we have in a regime that is incapable of differentiating an Assistant US Attorney General from a terrorist? ...

"Hundreds of thousands of people" on a watch list that they have no business being on?

And this is America, not Nazi Germany?

How can Airport "Security" possibly protect anyone when the idiots cannot differentiate a high level American government official from a terrorist?

How can there possibly be 1,000,000 terrorists and America still be in one piece? If there were 1,000,000 terrorists, America would be in ruins...

One million terrorists could bring America to its knees, and they wouldn't need to fly on airplanes to accomplish this.

What we are witnessing with the one million person "watch list" is bureaucracy run amok. One Million Terrorists makes the danger seem overwhelming. Such overwhelming danger rationalizes the aggressive behavior of the bullies and thugs attracted by the power of confiscating your toothpaste and bottled water and riffling your belongings in your luggage...

Don't complain about being searched without a warrant or you will miss your flight. You might be arrested, handcuffed, kicked and otherwise abused – the fate of many American citizens...

The "watch list" has not apprehended a single terrorist, but thousands of American citizens have been inconvenienced and arrested...

What the "watch list" or "no-fly list" is doing is training Americans to submit to warrantless searches, to abandon their constitutional rights, and to submit to humiliation by thugs and bullies. A Gestapo is being trained to have no qualms about searching and intimidating fellow citizens, using any excuse to delay or arrest them. Americans are being taught to use arbitrary power and to submit to arbitrary power. In the false name of "safety from terrorists," Americans are being made the least safe people on earth.

One Million Terrorists? - by Paul Craig Roberts

Getting Out of Iraq - by Ron Paul

My favorite Congressman is Dr. Ron Paul. He makes some excellent points about the troops in Iraq.

What will it take to get our troops out of Iraq? The roughly 70 percent of Americans who are firmly against the war often ask this question. Those in power are reluctant to give conditions, but when they do and those conditions are met, the goal post is quietly moved...

Eventually our troops will leave Iraq. The overwhelming will of the people, in both countries, can't seem to get them out. Things going well can't get them out. Things going badly can't get them out. Iraqis telling us to leave can't get them out. Perhaps not even the UN can get them out. My hope is that it does not take the complete collapse of our financial system, but if we don't leave under any other circumstances, economic chaos is inevitable, and will make it impossible to fund the war, even through debt and inflation.

We have been financing this war through inflation, and attempting to paper over reality with misleading economic indicators. The government has changed the methodology of calculating things like CPI and GDP to hide the bad news. They won't even publish M3, the total money supply statistic anymore. But reality is hitting the American people at gas pumps and grocery stores, sending more Americans into foreclosure and unemployment lines. More are hurting while Washington keeps forgetting its promises. Eventually, this will all come to a head.

Perhaps an even greater fear is that even if our financial trouble doesn't get our troops out of Iraq, moving them over to fight a new war in Iran, will. Washington should be crystal clear on this very important point – just getting the troops out of Iraq means nothing. Bringing them HOME means everything, and that is what the people in both countries demand.

Getting Out of Iraq - by Ron Paul

The Hoosierpundit: JLT: Collective Bargaining Is "God-Given Right"

"For the record, union monopoly bargaining is not even a constitutional right, but rather just a controversial statutory privilege granted by certain legislatures."

The Hoosierpundit: JLT: Collective Bargaining Is "God-Given Right"

KarenDeCoster.com Web Log: Once in a While a Politician Says Something Sensible Archives

"But no, it turns out socialism is alive and well in America. The Treasury Secretary is asking for a blank check to buy as much Fannie and Freddie debt or equity as he wants. The Fed's purchase of Bear Stearns' assets was amateur socialism compared to this."

KarenDeCoster.com Web Log: Once in a While a Politician Says Something Sensible Archives

They Didn’t Attack Switzerland by Bill Walker

"Our Founding Fathers studied the Swiss when they designed our system of government. Maybe it would pay us to study the long Swiss peace again... before it's too late."

They Didn’t Attack Switzerland by Bill Walker

ice storm photo

Very cool ice storm photo. Also courtesy StumbleUpon.

geneve.jpg (JPEG Image, 1280x960 pixels) - Scaled (58%)

11 Things to Know When Arrested

Good advice. StumbleUpon link.

11 Things to Know When Arrested

Albert Jay Nock -- on Education

"The State preferred to train citizens rather than to educate individuals who might dissent."

Albert Jay Nock -- on Education

LewRockwell.com Blog: Stop Me Before I Print Again

"In other words, the Fed - the government agency created to inflate, and the only source of inflation - is keeping an eye on the wayward private sector, in case foolish people wake up to the Fed's schemes, and realize they have engineered very high inflation indeed, at the same time as they have engineered a global depression, and prices zoom as the economy falls of the edge. In that case, it will be essential - from DC's standpoint - to blame business people and consumers, so as to divert attention from their criminal selves. It is our job not to let them get away with it."

LewRockwell.com Blog: Stop Me Before I Print Again

The Myth of the Voluntary Military by Jeffrey A. Tucker

Can't remember if I made note of this before or not.

Jeffrey Tucker writes (March 2003):

The British defense secretary, Geoff Hoon, claims that the coalition armed forces are made up of "men and women who made a free choice to serve their country," whereas Iraqi forces "are motivated either by fear or by hatred." It's hard to say what motivates Iraqi forces (perhaps the desire to repel invasion?) but what he says about coalition troops is simply not true.

The men and women now fighting initially agreed to be in the employ of the military. The US is not yet conscripting people. And yet how many of these would leave Iraq if they could? What if Donald Rumsfeld announced that anyone now fighting in Iraq is free to leave without penalty? What would become of the US armed forces now attempting to bring about unconditional surrender in Iraq?

It's an interesting question, as a pure mental experiment, because it highlights the essentially forced nature of all modern military service. To leave once the war begins would amount to what the government calls desertion. This word sounds ominous but, in fact, it merely describes what everyone in a civilized society takes for granted: the right to quit...

Both North and South claimed they were fighting in order to abolish a form of captivity – the right to self government in one case, and the right to not be employed against one's will in the other – but the ability of the military to imprison and kill fleeing soldiers was never questioned. It is not often questioned today...

Both scenes underscore a reality hardly ever discussed: all modern armies are essentially totalitarian enterprises. Once you sign up for them, or are drafted, you are a slave. The penalty for becoming a fugitive is death. Even now, the enforcements against mutiny, desertion, going AWOL, or what have you, are never questioned.

This is remarkable, if you think about it. Imagine that you work for Wal-Mart but find the job too dangerous, and try to quit. You are told that you may not, so you run away. The management catches up to you, and jails you. You refuse to go and resist. Finally, you are shot. We would all recognize that this is exploitation, an atrocity, a crime, a clear example of the disregard that this company has for human life. The public outrage would be palpable. The management, not the fleeing employees, would be jailed or possibly executed.

Murray Rothbard frames the question nicely: "In what other occupation in the country are there severe penalties, including prison and in some cases execution, for 'desertion,' i.e., for quitting the particular employment? If someone quits General Motors, is he shot at sunrise?" ...

The slave-like nature of the military commitment has no expiration date. Yes, there are contracts, but the military can void them whenever it so desires. Predictably, it desires to void these contracts (through so-called stop-loss regulations) when the enlisted most want to leave: when they must kill and risk being killed. All branches of the military have implemented these stop-loss regulations because of the war on terror. This amounts to the nationalization of human beings.

Still, one wonders how much the ranks of the militarily employed would shrink in absence of anti-desertion enforcement. If modern presidents had to recruit the way barons and lords recruited, and if they constantly faced the prospect of mass desertions, they might be more careful about getting involved in unnecessary, unjust, unwinnable wars, or going to war at all. Peace would take on new value out of necessity. When going to war, they might be more careful to curb their war aims, and match war strategies with those more limited aims.

In the meantime, US officials would do well to stop complaining that Iraqi soldiers are being forced to serve and forced to kill. A press release from the Air Force announcing its new stop-loss rule says: "We understand the individual sacrifices that our airmen and their families will be making…. We appreciate their unwavering support and dedication to our nation."

One might even have a greater appreciation for their sacrifice (even if not their mission) if one knew that it were undertaken willingly.

The Myth of the Voluntary Military by Jeffrey A. Tucker

An Iranian Dissident's Experience Provides Lessons for Americans

Jacob Hornberger writes:

The Batebi experience provides a roadmap for the future direction of the United States:

(1) Send the message to the people of the world that the beacon in the Statue of Liberty has been relit, enabling anyone suffering tyranny, oppression, and starvation to freely come to the United States without fear of being repatriated.

(2) Rein in the federal government in overseas affairs by prohibiting it from meddling in the affairs of other countries, which by necessity would entail closing all U.S. military bases overseas and stopping the U.S. government’s policy of regime change in foreign countries.

(3) The American people should strive to restore our country to its rightful place in the world — a free and prosperous society. A good place to start would be a constitutional amendment stating, “U.S. officials are prohibited from inflicting cruel and unusual punishments … and this time we mean it.”

An Iranian Dissident's Experience Provides Lessons for Americans

Inflation Illustrated - Mises Economics Blog

Manuel Lora writes, "Seeing the dollar lose its value reminds me of growing up in Perú during the heavily inflationary 80s and early 90s."

Inflation Illustrated - Mises Economics Blog: "Seeing the dollar lose its value reminds me of growing up in Perú during the heavily inflationary 80s and early 90s"

Albert Jay Nock: A Gifted Pen for Radical Individualism| The Foundation for Economic Education: The Freeman, Ideas on Liberty

"Despite the onslaught of wars and the relentless expansion of government power, individualism endures as a living creed, and Albert Jay Nock deserves considerable credit. He expressed fundamental issues of liberty with blazing clarity. He withstood withering criticism. He defied censors. He helped revive glorious names like Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Herbert Spencer. His moral conviction, cosmopolitan scholarship, elegant prose, and steadfast devotion inspired others to join the epic struggle for liberty."

I am enjoying my first read of anything by Albert Jay Nock, "Memoirs of a Superfluous Man".

Wish I would have had the chance to meet him.

Albert Jay Nock: A Gifted Pen for Radical Individualism| The Foundation for Economic Education: The Freeman, Ideas on Liberty

The Old Right by Murray N. Rothbard

Interesting history.

By the 1960 GOP convention, Barry Goldwater had become the political leader of the transformed New Right. By 1960, too, the embarrassing extremists like the John Birch Society had been purged from the ranks, and the modern conservative movement was in place. It combined a traditionalist and theocratic approach to "moral values," occasional lip service to free-market economics, and an imperialist and global interventionist foreign policy dedicated to the glorification of the American state and the extirpation of world Communism. Classical liberalism remained only as rhetoric, useful in attracting business support, and most of all as a fig leaf for the grotesque realities of the New Right... In a few brief years the character of the right wing had been totally transformed: Once basically classical liberal, it had become a global theocratic crusade. Such is the lack of acumen and memory among the right-wing masses that few even noted that any shift had occurred.

The Old Right by Murray N. Rothbard

Times Change, Principles Don't - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute

"Americans are coming to their senses, and the libertarian theory of society and government is pointing the way. The times change, but the enduring principles that help us to interpret and understand the world do not. It remains true now, as then, as in the future, saecula saeculorum, that government provides neither an effective nor a moral means for solving any human problem."

Times Change, Principles Don't - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute

Jonah Goldberg and the Meaning of Rights

Jacob Hornberger wrote (June 2001):

Many decades ago, Republicans had a clear, well-defined vision of the nature of morality and rights and a strong commitment to liberty. Unfortunately, as public opinion started to move against them, they threw in the towel and accepted the premises of the socialistic welfare state and regulated society, primarily in the quest for "legitimacy" and political power. The only difference between conservatives and leftists today is that conservatives continue to cloak their approval of socialism in the garb of "free markets, private property, and limited government."

What vexes conservatives so much is that libertarians have maintained our commitment to the principles of morality and liberty above all else. The primary reason conservatives wish that libertarians would go away is that we remind them of what they once were and still should be.

Jonah Goldberg and the Meaning of Rights

Libertarianism, Conservatism, and All That - Jude Blanchette - Mises Institute

Good bibliography on conservatives versus libertarians.

Still trying to figure out exactly where I fall. Reared conservative, but leaning libertarian / paleoconservative I think.

Libertarianism, Conservatism, and All That - Jude Blanchette - Mises Institute

The War Prayer, by Mark Twain

Never heard of this short story before. Supposedly too radical to put into print while Mark Twain was still alive.

The silent, unspoken prayer.

"Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth into battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended in the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames in summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it --

For our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimmage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!

We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

The War Prayer, by Mark Twain

The Anti-Imperialist League and the Battle Against Empire - Thomas E. Woods - Mises Institute

"States have successfully managed to persuade their subject populations that they themselves are the state, and therefore that any insult to the honor of the state is an insult to them as well, any questioning of its behavior or intentions a slap in their very own faces. It becomes second nature for many people to root for their state in a way that does violence to reason and fact. They will defend the most contorted, ludicrous claims — claims they themselves would have dismissed with scorn had they come from Saddam Hussein or the 1980s Soviet Union — if necessary to vindicate the honor of the men who rule them."

The Anti-Imperialist League and the Battle Against Empire - Thomas E. Woods - Mises Institute

No Place Like Home - Center for a Just Society - where faith, law and policy meet

Good article on home schooling.

While reading "Memoirs of a Superfluous Man" today, I wondered if Albert Jay Nock might not have put his finger on one objection some have to home education.

Mr. Nock wrote (1943):

"Coercive collectivism was on its way throughout the Western world, and logically the first thing for the coercive collectivist State to do... would be to shut down firmly on all instruction which did not bear intensively on conditioning its children and young people to an unquestioning _ex animo_ acceptance of the State's will; and this would of course do away with even the sleaziest sort of education." [as opposed to what Nock called "training"]

No Place Like Home - Center for a Just Society - where faith, law and policy meet

No More Blank Checks for War - HUMAN EVENTS

Patrick J. Buchanan writes:

President Bush must step up to the plate.

If he believes sanctions are not succeeding and Iran's nuclear program must be halted, he should go to Congress for authority to neutralize the facilities. If he has not so concluded, he should tell Israel it is not to start a war that U.S. airmen, sailors, soldiers and Marines will have to finish.

America needs to restore that absolute freedom of action in matters of war and peace she once had, before entering the skein of entangling alliances that now encumber the republic.

No ally, no client state, should ever be allowed to drag America into a war she has not chosen, constitutionally, to fight.

No more blank checks for any nation.

No More Blank Checks for War - HUMAN EVENTS

Problem of Ignorance

Walter Williams writes:

"Right now Congress tells each American how much should be set aside out of his weekly paycheck for retirement. How can they have the information to know what's the best use for the $70, or so, taken from you and put into Social Security? Might you benefit more by saving that money to start a business, purchase tutoring lessons for your children, or putting it in a private retirement plan? Unlike congressional control of traffic signals and supermarkets, the effects of Social Security aren't apparent because we don't have the information about what people would have been able to accomplish if they were able to keep more of their earnings."

"You might argue that saving for retirement is important, but so is saving for a home or your children's education. Would you want Congress to force us to put money aside for a home or our children's education?"

Problem of Ignorance

Hat tip to the Liberator Online.

Liberator Online - July 10, 2008

Matthew Henry on Numbers 22:22

"The sin of sinners is not to be thought the less provoking to God because he permits it. We must not think that, because God does not by his providence restrain men from sin, therefore he approves of it, or that it is therefore not hateful to him; he suffers [allows] sin, and yet is angry at it."

Numbers - Chapter 22 - Matthew Henry Complete Commentary on StudyLight.org

The Old Cause by Joseph Stromberg

Good stuff here from December 1999 I came across when following links about Felix Morley -- paleoconservative, born four years after my grandfather.

Makes me want to delve into my old copy of "Freedom and Federalism".

Already in World War I, Morley had noted the way in which modern war centralizes power in the state and promotes socialism, whatever the flag under which it sailed...

Morley... saw attempts to justify the atomic bombing of Japan – in our day ritually defended by "conservatives" every August like clockwork – as "the miserable farce put on by those who try to reconcile mass murder of 'enemy children' with lip service to the doctrine that God created all men in his image." The atomic bomb was appropriate to a totalitarian order with no fixed moral standards...

A year later, Morley stated that "the so-called isolationists were essentially right. They knew that American can run its own affairs reasonably well. They knew that in pontifically declaiming on the world stage we would be likely to prove ourselves blundering fools." Our system rested on "foregoing the path of empire, on developing those private ventures in which the American genius is brilliant…."

It was a bitter thing to realize that "during the past few years, [America] has led the world in smashing the fabric of civilization"; we had dismantled German factories but also "the whole structure of American ideals."

In a speech before the Conservative Society of Yale Law School in November 1954, Morley developed several themes. For the American constitution to function properly, we must shrink back from an activist foreign policy, which necessarily strengthened executive power...

My point is that the vanishing bourgeois elite justified its existence precisely by producing people like Felix Morley who understood the old republic, the constitution, peace, and free markets, as well as their opposites, empire, lawless rule, war, and generalized statism. Of course it was other members of that same elite who pursued the Open Door and set us on the path of empire. If Morley's analyses hold true, it was these clever fellows who began, however unintentionally, the unraveling or deconstruction of authentic American life. Their descendants pursue the good work intentionally. You can't have everything. Yet one shudders at the prospect of being ruled, even for a week, by the sort of "elite" which current US "education" might produce...

Through it all, Morley – an educated man who knew how to educate others – could see the centrality of real education. He once shocked the dean of a journalism school by recommending that the students study mathematics and the classics: "The Dean came hotfoot to Washington to see if I were crazy…. He talked a lot about… 'relevance' in education and didn't like it when I said that what he meant was vocational training, which will never maintain a threatened culture."...

Still writing in his eighties, he noted that "[t]here has been a direct and causal connection between the increasing exaltation of the state and the increasing demoralization of society."

The Old Cause by Joseph Stromberg

Workaround to Sudden Loss of Internet Access Problem

I experienced this issue with Microsoft KB9501748 and / or KB195748 on about 5 computers with XP Home and ZoneAlarm yesterday.

I slid the Internet Security setting from High to Medium until I get a chance to try the ZoneAlarm update.

ZoneAlarm SmartDefense Research Center

Corporate Taxes Suffocate Growth - Sterling T. Terrell - Mises Institute

"by definition, corporations do not pay taxes — people pay taxes. A corporate tax is either a tax on shareholders of the firm, customers of the firm, or employees of the firm. Less corporate tax means more innovation, capital savings, and spending by these groups — also known as economic growth."

"These are examples of what can be seen. As Frédéric Bastiat reminds us, however, it is imperative to also account for what cannot be seen. What would the wealth of our nation be today if the corporate tax rate had always been 10% or less? What creature comforts would have been innovated? What new technologies brought to market? What diseases cured?"

"Due to a history of high corporate taxes these answers are not known, and we are worse off because of it."

Corporate Taxes Suffocate Growth - Sterling T. Terrell - Mises Institute

Will power cycling my LCD screen burn it out? : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

"In other words, turning your TV or monitor on and off by pushing the power button 30 times a day is no problem, but 3,000 times a day might actually break the button clean off. The LCD itself would probably be just fine."

Will power cycling my LCD screen burn it out? : Christopher Null : Yahoo! Tech

GETLIBERTY.ORG | Are Americans Losing Faith in their Democracy

"There is today, simply and solely, the “Governing Party.” There are those with power, and then there is everyone else. Conservatives understand this as we have been sold out time and again on everything from tax cuts to illegal immigration to the size of the Federal budget. And the Hard Left is quickly finding this out as the presumptive Democrat nominee, Barack Obama, moves his politics to the center to curry the favor of moderates, waffling one key issue after another—like NAFTA, public campaign financing, and the death penalty."

GETLIBERTY.ORG | Are Americans Losing Faith in their Democracy

Time To Celebrate Business - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute

"... the wine business is not exactly new. It dates to the ancient world, and survived and thrived for many centuries without a Tax and Trade Bureau. These people are not necessary for the world of wine, and their only contribution to wine production is to harm producers and raise the price for consumers. So it is in every sector of economic life."

Time To Celebrate Business - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. - Mises Institute

What's Wrong with Selling Your Vote? -- MWC News - A Site Without Borders

H.L. Mencken understood, "Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods."

MWC News - A Site Without Borders - - What's Wrong with Selling Your Vote?

War Powers Act needs fixing, bipartisan panel says - CNN.com

"The Constitution makes the president the commander in chief of the armed forces, but gives Congress the power to declare war and approve military budgets."

War Powers Act needs fixing, bipartisan panel says - CNN.com

Congressman Ron Paul - Real Change - Texas Straight Talk

Great advice from Dr. Paul.

"Working toward a less intrusive, less expensive federal government focused on defending against overt actions of force and fraud, is the means to bringing about real change. As we hear the repeated claims of those who wish to cast themselves as agents of change, we will do well to recall that more federal meddling is not a change in direction at all, but just “more of the same.” We should be repealing programs, not proposing costly new bureaucracies."

Congressman Ron Paul - Real Change - Texas Straight Talk

Welcome to My Tea Party: This is for the Record...Just in case

Pretty eye-opening claims here.

Welcome to My Tea Party: This is for the Record...Just in case

Music Review - Cherryholmes - Cherryholmes Offers Family Harmony in Madison Square Park - Review - NYTimes.com

Good review of one of my favorite family bluegrass bands. Just heard them live at Bean Blossom a couple of weeks ago.

Music Review - Cherryholmes - Cherryholmes Offers Family Harmony in Madison Square Park - Review - NYTimes.com

Hat tip to Bluegrass Blog.

The Bluegrass Blog » Cherryholmes in the NY Times: bluegrass music news

KarenDeCoster.com Web Log: Patriotism Defined Archives

How do you define patriotism?

KarenDeCoster.com Web Log: Patriotism Defined Archives

No evidence needed under terror profiling plan | War On You

Sounds like someone needs a refresher course on the Fourth Amendment here.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

FindLaw: U.S. Constitution: Fourth Amendment

No evidence needed under terror profiling plan | War On You

KarenDeCoster.com Web Log: Brits: We Want Government to Plan Our Childrens' Lives Archives

Question: if the federal government has been "addressing nutritional deficiencies and encouraging physical fitness since the 1930s," and we find that nutrition, obesity, and health "crises" have become more prevalent in those 75 years (according to the alarmists), how do the planner-bureaucrats justify a further increase in federal government intervention?

KarenDeCoster.com Web Log: Brits: We Want Government to Plan Our Childrens' Lives Archives

C. S. Lewis on Liberal Arts Education by Gregory Dunn

If those who possess the inclination and leisure for the life of the mind refuse to enter the arena of ideas--"not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground"--then they will place those who have no such inclination and leisure at the mercy of proponents of bad ideas.

C. S. Lewis on Liberal Arts Education by Gregory Dunn

WALL-E: Economic Ignorance and the War on Modernity - Gennady Stolyarov II - Mises Institute

Interesting movie review.

"WALL-E is an assault on modern civilization, borne of deep economic and historical ignorance. The film shamefully betrays the efforts of countless heroic individuals who have raised humanity out of the muck of barbarism. Its antitechnological, anticapitalist message needs to be exposed and countered by all thinking individuals."

WALL-E: Economic Ignorance and the War on Modernity - Gennady Stolyarov II - Mises Institute

The Free Market: The Ordeal of Hoppe

I just became aware of this man's story after following a series of thoughts launched by the story of Senator Jesse Helms death yesterday.

"At stake is more than the reputation of an individual scholar, or the standing of a university that has failed to live by its by-laws which promise to protect the freedom to teach "even when topics are politically, socially or scientifically controversial." What is at stake is the integrity of the university learning environment itself. The incident politicizes the classroom environment to the point that neither students nor teachers can pursue science and truth without fear of political reprisal."

The Free Market: The Ordeal of Hoppe

What Independence? --- A Call for a New (Stateless) Liberty via Secession - Vox

"When a businessman fails he then suffers a loss and perhaps disappears. He has the guide of profit-and-loss. This promotes correct allocations. However, when the government fails nothing directly happens. There is nothing that helps divert resources into productive uses. So allocations of the government, with no pricing signals, will always have to be arbitrary and wasteful."

"This makes the growth of government, which is a restrictor and parasite of liberty, and the growth of a free market enterprise, which is an expression of free man and groups of men voluntarily working together for mutual ends, inversely related. They are antithetical to each other."

What Independence? --- A Call for a New (Stateless) Liberty via Secession - Vox

The Income Tax: Root of all Evil, by Frank Chodorov

"This measure [repeal of the federal income tax] should be supported by the governors and legislators of all the states. Every state in the Union now contributes in income taxes to the federal government more than it gets back in grants-in-aid; this is inevitable, because the cost of maintaining the huge federal machinery must come out of the taxes before the citizen can get anything. With the abolition of income taxation the states will be better able to serve its citizens, and because the state governments are closer and more responsive to the will of the people, there is greater chance that the citizens will get their full dollar’s worth in services."

"However, the principal argument for the repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment is that only in that way can freedom from an interventionist government be restored to the American people."

J. Bracken Lee, Governor of Utah, 1954

The Income Tax: Root of all Evil, by Frank Chodorov

Lynching Jesse

Jesse Helms, RIP. I did not follow the senator's career very closely.

Daniel McCarthy wrote on 4 September 2001 (one week before "9/11"),

Jesse Helms has not been the best friend a constitutional conservative or a libertarian could have, but he's done better than most. He opposed forced integration, a federal MLK holiday, and countless socialist treaties and international accords. Best of all he's never apologized for any of it. In a collectivist America increasingly intolerant of dissent from "respectable opinion," that makes Helms a hero despite his faults – or perhaps because of them.

Lynching Jesse

Matthew Henry on the danger of "great men"

I like these words of wisdom from Matthew Henry, from his commentary on the 16th chapter of the book of Numbers in the Bible. They seem just as alive and relevant for our country and world today as when he penned them about 300 years ago.

"Note, The pride, ambition, and emulation, of great men, have always been the occasion of a great deal of mischief both in churches and states. God by his grace make great men humble, and so give peace in our time, O Lord! Famous men, and men of renown, as these are described to be, were the great sinners of the old world, Gen_6:4. The fame and renown which they had did not content them; they were high, but would be higher, and thus the famous men became infamous."

White House says ruling could free detainees in US - Yahoo! News

This claim by the White House is so bogus. If our government has convincing evidence that the detainee has committed a crime, then the courts will keep them detained. If not, they should never have been held this long to begin with.

White House says ruling could free detainees in US - Yahoo! News

Believe Me, It's Torture: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com

"Good" first-person report on waterboarding.

Believe Me, It's Torture: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com

Ron Paul’s Campaign For Liberty » Blog Archive » Something Big is Going On | The Revolution Continues

"Restoring a free society doesn’t eliminate the need to get our house in order and to pay for the extravagant spending. But the pain would not be long-lasting if we did the right things, and best of all the empire would have to end for financial reasons. Our wars would stop, the attack on civil liberties would cease, and prosperity would return. The choices are clear: it shouldn’t be difficult, but the big event now unfolding gives us a great opportunity to reverse the tide and resume the truly great American Revolution started in 1776. Opportunity knocks in spite of the urgency and the dangers we face."

Ron Paul’s Campaign For Liberty » Blog Archive » Something Big is Going On | The Revolution Continues