The Associated Press: Ron Paul followers gathering for own convention

"Paul, a Texas congressman who failed in a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, considers the rally a celebration of traditional Republican values of limited government — and a poke in the eye of the GOP. They don't plan to crash the Republican party, but to show they and their Campaign for Liberty are not going away."

The Associated Press: Ron Paul followers gathering for own convention


Hat tip to Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty blog.

Ron Paul’s Campaign For Liberty » Blog Archive » Two Wire Stories in One Day!

DHS raids homes of Minneapolis RNC protesters | Daily Newscaster

Very sad day for the freedom of assembly in these United States.

DHS raids homes of Minneapolis RNC protesters | Daily Newscaster

EconLog, My Campaign-Season Pledge, Arnold Kling: Library of Economics and Liberty

Great list.

EconLog, My Campaign-Season Pledge, Arnold Kling: Library of Economics and Liberty

Hat tip to Cafe Hayek

Cafe Hayek: A Cacophony of Claptrap

LewRockwell.com Blog: What a police state looks like

Ryan McMaken writes, "In Denver, we're so afraid of unarmed civilians, we send 2 cops for each protestor. This is undoubtedly what St Paul will look like next week also. Just imagine the Ron Paul supporters in that little group in the middle"

LewRockwell.com Blog: What a police state looks like

Mother Jones - Military Bases

Very cool. I hope this helps to raise awareness of the massive reach of the U.S. empire.

Mother Jones - Military Bases


Hat tip to Lew Rockwell blog.

LewRockwell.com Blog: U.S. Military Presence Worldwide

Glassbooth - Quiz to help you choose best 2008 presidential candidate

Very cool site that helps you assess which current and inactive presidential candidates have views closest to yours.

Not surprisingly I found myself in 91 percent agreement with Congressman Ron Paul, 52 percent with John McCain, 41 percent with Ralph Nader, 37 percent with Barack Obama.

Too bad they don't include Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin. Would be interesting to see how they stack up.

Glassbooth - Quiz to help you choose best 2008 presidential candidate


Hat tip to Kittens and Sunshine blog.

KITTENS & SUNSHINE: Another Political Litmus Test

LewRockwell.com Blog: Are they reading LRC?

James Ostrowski writes, "McCain skipped over several neocons to pick someone who I am hearing from all over is a "libertarian." Maybe they realize the importance of the libertarian swing vote after all. I'm not saying she's a libertarian but Andrea Mitchell is."

LewRockwell.com Blog: Are they reading LRC?

LewRockwell.com Blog: Downer Cows

"State bureaucracies will never be about protecting the citizens, and can never react as quickly as the free market to solve real problems. State bureaucracies provide a double-whammy: they encourage the availability of less safe products and the complacency of a less-informed citizenry."

LewRockwell.com Blog: Downer Cows

LewRockwell.com Blog: It's All Over

Lew Rockwell writes, "Sarah Palin is smart, articulate, attractive, pro-life, and pro-gun, and was even a Buchananite in 1996. Her political career has been based on fighting Republican corruption. Her ratings as Alaska governor are very high. She has a compelling life story, as they say. Her husband is one-quarter Yupik Eskimo. They have five children, including one with Down's syndrome, whom they refused to abort. Palin will bring the whole Republican base home, and some Independent and Democratic women. Palin even blunts Hillary for 2012."

LewRockwell.com Blog: It's All Over

McCain Picks Palin for VP | Elections | U.S. News

Good Palin background.

"There may be much to like in Palin — her social conservatism, her pro-family background, and her faith — but like McCain, she doesn't seem to offer much to those who would like to roll back the size of government."

McCain Picks Palin for VP | Elections | U.S. News

LewRockwell.com Blog: More on Sarah Palin

Ryan W. McMaken writes, "My wife informs me that if Palin actually were to campaign while wearing a baby, such an act would be both subversive and revolutionary, since, of course, the reigning orthodoxy is that motherhood and "success" are incompatible. Of course, here on LRC we don't consider politicians to be successes, but you get the idea. It remains to be seen just how atrocious her foreign policy views are. On domestic issues, she's actually quite good. As a private person, she's hard to dislike. She's like the anti-McCain, which I'm sure is what he was going for."

LewRockwell.com Blog: More on Sarah Palin

Kristol: Gingrich on the Power of Authenticity -- The Weekly Standard

I don't find myself quoting Newt Gingrich very often either. Mr Gingrich writes, "By any practical standard she has done far more in the real world with much more spontaneity and practicality than Barack Obama. And there is something deeply real and courageous about John McCain ignoring most of his advisers and all of the "insider wisdom" to reach out to a younger woman whose greatest characteristic is undaunted courage and a willingness to clean out the corruption in her own party."

The Weekly Standard

Will Palin court the special needs vote? -- United Liberty » Blog Archive

Michael O. Powell writes, "As a parent of a child with Down Syndrome, Sarah Palin is the first politician I have seen who has a direct interest in making sure special needs children are treated humanely. She consciously decided to go through with carrying a disabled child to term despite learning of his disability during the pregnancy. Palin’s background makes her look extremely friendly to the cause of disability advocates. Whether or not this would translate into a McCain administration and to what degree is definitely in question, but for now she is definitely worth considering."

United Liberty » Blog Archive » Will Palin court the special needs vote?

S.E. Cupp on Palin -- United Liberty » Blog Archive

Would it have mattered if Palin were not a pretty woman?

United Liberty » Blog Archive » S.E. Cupp on Palin

YouTube - Naughty Alaskan librarian

I remember coming across this a few months ago, never dreaming that this lady would be the first GOP candidate for vice president of the United States.

YouTube - Naughty Alaskan librarian

Let Palin Be Palin

Bill Kristol (I don't quote him too often) writes, "Palin will be a compelling and mold-breaking example for lots of Americans who are told every day that to be even a bit conservative or Christian or old-fashioned is bad form. In this respect, Palin can become an inspirational figure and powerful symbol. The left senses this, which is why they want to discredit her quickly."

Let Palin Be Palin

Palin, Obama, and the Experience Issue--Stuntz (Less than the Least)

William Stuntz writes on Governor Palin's qualifications for vice president of the U.S., "Which brings me back to Palin. Clearly, her résumé is thin, maybe disqualifying. Perhaps the jobs she has held are too small to count in a national presidential campaign. But that isn't obvious, not yet anyway. What matters more, to me and I bet to more than a few others, is what she's done in those jobs. The fact that her approval rating among Alaskans is in Mark Warner territory suggests that she might be the kind of governor Warner was in Virginia. If so, that should count for a lot--even if she hasn't had much time in office. Because time-serving won't count for much in the offices these four candidates are seeking."

Palin, Obama, and the Experience Issue--Stuntz (Less than the Least)

How Palin Got Picked

Interesting background on "the pick."

How Palin Got Picked

Are You Experienced? -- The Weekly Standard

Good commentary on the Palin VP nomination by my brother.

The Weekly Standard

Why I’m going to Minneapolis? « Doug Wead The Blog

Excellent manifesto by Doug Wead. Hard to decide which quote is best!

He writes, "I’m going to Minneapolis to help nudge the country in the right direction. And what is the right direction? Toward liberty."

Why I’m going to Minneapolis? « Doug Wead The Blog

Police raid headquarters of RNC protesters - CNN.com

Love living in a police state.

Police raid headquarters of RNC protesters - CNN.com

Hat tip to Lew Rockwell blog.

LewRockwell.com Blog: Will police also raid the Ron Paul supporters?

Bill Anderson writes, "The police of St. Paul already are engaging in the smashmouth tactics against protesters, raiding the headquarters of the protesters with the usual goon-squad tactics of brandishing firearms and intimidating people with death if they resist. I cannot help but wonder if the Ron Paul supporters are going to be treated in the same way. Will police raid Ron's headquarters, too? Will they intimidate people who attend Ron's rally on Monday night?"

Palin is the Right Choice for Republican VP -- MWC News - A Site Without Borders

I pretty much agree with this assessment. Ironically, I find myself a bit taken aback that he made such a good choice, from my perspective.

"Palin’s the perfect spit-shine; She fishes. She hunts. She started her career as a sportswriter. Her eldest son Track enlisted in the army on September 11, 2007, and, in a perfect media moment, will be deployed to Iraq on September 11, 2008. Her husband is a champion snowmobile racer, and is often referred to in Alaska as First Dude. Lastly, as an added bonus for those who are worried that McCain would lose the evangelical flock, Palin is a conservative Christian who opposes abortion."

"In short, for all her inexperience, Palin brings some formidable qualities to the table. Her selection is a nod to the reality of the American electorate in some key states and, once the dust clears, I think it’ll be apparent that McCain made the best of his limited options."

MWC News - A Site Without Borders - - Palin is the Right Choice for Republican VP

Liberator Online - August 29, 2008

Good pro-liberty thoughts, including the following.

We're happy to report that the girls and their father are fighting back, circulating a permission to let the girls reopen their stand. The story is receiving national attention, and of course most decent and sensible people are on the side of the kids.

But few of these same people will bother to think about the fuller implications of the story. How many *adults* see their business plans and entrepreneurial dreams burdened or destroyed by red tape and bureaucratic control -- by occupational licensing laws, zoning laws, permit requirements and countless other authoritarian measures?

There's seldom a word written about these tragedies, which occur constantly nowadays -- an outrage in a country founded on the ideals of entrepreneurship and free enterprise...

So why do these laws exist? Liberator Online readers will not be surprised to learn that the push for such laws comes exclusively from established industry leaders, such as the American Society of Interior Designers.

These organizations, quite simply, want to keep out competition and thus enrich themselves. And they're succeeding. According to the free-market Foundation for Economic Education, these laws have already put thousands of would-be interior designers, mainly middle-aged and elderly women, out of work...

Today, an incredible one in five Americans must secure the government's permission to pursue their occupation -- a figure that has risen from about one in 20 in the 1950s...

Frequently the War on Marijuana is defended as necessary to keep drugs out of the hands of young people.

But judged by that standard, the War on Pot is a farce and an extraordinary failure...

A recent survey by the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University has some stunning news: 46 percent of government (public) school teachers support education tax credits -- and just 41 percent oppose them.

Yes, that's right: more government school teachers support education tax credits than oppose them...

Tax credits would open up a world of educational options and alternatives for kids now stuck in dead-end, failing government schools. In addition, tax credits would save states billions of dollars.

When government school teachers support the idea in such large numbers, there is great hope for genuine education reform...

"If you took all the fraud out of politics, there might not be a lot left." -- libertarian economist and syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell.

A tax cut is a pay raise.

A tax hike is a pay cut...

And property taxes amount to, in practice, a kind of "rent" you have to pay the government each year to be allowed to keep living on your own property!

In a libertarian society, government couldn't take your land by eminent domain. There would be no zoning boards. Deed restrictions, which you would be aware of when you bought the property, would be the only limitations on what you did with your property. Deed restrictions would protect your property rights, and also protect your neighbor's property rights, far more fairly and effectively than zoning laws...

If you like the idea of having the freedom to do any peaceful thing you wish on your own property, you just might be a libertarian...

Liberator Online - August 29, 2008

A STRATEGY FOR THE RIGHT

Interesting analysis of the Old Right by Murray Rothbard in 1992.

Very early, I concluded that the big danger is the elite, and not the masses, and for the following reasons.

First, even granting for a moment that the masses are the worst possible, that they are perpetually Hell-bent on lynching anyone down the block, the mass of people simply don't have the time for politics or political shenanigans. The average person must spend most of his time on the daily business of life, being with his family, seeing his friends, etc. He can only get interested in politics or engage in it sporadically.

The only people who have time for politics are the professionals: the bureaucrats, politicians, and special interest groups dependent on political rule. They make money out of politics, and so they are intensely interested, and lobby and are active twenty-four hours a day. Therefore, these special interest groups will tend to win out over the uninterested masses. This is the basic insight of the Public Choice school of economics. The only other groups interested full-time in politics are ideologists like ourselves, again not a very large segment of the population. So the problem is the ruling elite, the professionals, and their dependent special interest groups.

A second crucial point: society is divided into a ruling elite, which is necessarily a minority of the population, which lives off the second group – the rest of the population...

Calhoun pointed out that the very fact of government and of taxation creates inherent conflict between two great classes: those who pay taxes, and those who live off them; the net taxpayers vs. the tax-consumers. The bigger government gets, Calhoun noted, the greater and more intense the conflict between those two social classes...

If a minority of elites rule over, tax, and exploit the majority of the public, then this brings up starkly the main problem of political theory: what I like to call the mystery of civil obedience. Why does the majority of the public obey these turkeys, anyway? This problem I believe, was solved by three great political theorists...

They pointed out that, precisely because the ruling class is a minority, that in the long run, force per se cannot rule. Even in the most despotic dictatorship, the government can only persist when it is backed by the majority of the population. In the long run, ideas, not force, rule, and any government has to have legitimacy in the minds of the public...

But we still haven't solved the mystery of civil obedience. If the ruling elite is taxing, looting, and exploiting the public, why does the public put up with this for a single moment? Why does it take them so long to withdraw their consent?

Here we come to the solution: the critical role of the intellectuals, the opinion-molding class in society. If the masses knew what was going on, they would withdraw their consent quickly: they would soon perceive that the emperor has no clothes, that they are being ripped off. That is where the intellectuals come in.

The ruling elite... are in desperate need of intellectual elites to weave apologias for state power. The state rules by divine edict; the state insures the common good or the general welfare; the state protects us from the bad guys over the mountain; the state guarantees full employment; the state activates the multiplier effect; the state insures social justice, and on and on. The apologias differ over the centuries; the effect is always the same... If the ruler is God, few will be induced to disobey or question his commands...

So, to sum up: the problem is that the bad guys, the ruling classes, have gathered unto themselves the intellectual and media elites, who are able to bamboozle the masses into consenting to their rule, to indoctrinate them, as the Marxists would say, with "false consciousness."

The thing to do is to convert the top philosophers to the correct ideas, they will convert the lesser, and so on, in a kind of "trickle-down effect," until, at last, the masses are converted and liberty has been achieved...

Of course, ideas and persuasion are important, but there are several fatal flaws in the Hayekian strategy. First, of course, the strategy at best will take several hundred years, and some of us are a bit more impatient than that. But time is by no means the only problem. Many people have noted, for example, mysterious blockages of the trickle...

More generally, the Hayekian trickle-down model overlooks a crucial point: that, and I hate to break this to you, intellectuals, academics and the media are not all motivated by truth alone. As we have seen, the intellectual classes may be part of the solution, but also they are a big part of the problem. For, as we have seen, the intellectuals are part of the ruling class, and their economic interests, as well as their interests in prestige, power and admiration, are wrapped up in the present welfare-warfare state system...

It is important to realize that the establishment doesn't want excitement in politics, it wants the masses to continue to be lulled to sleep. It wants kinder, gentler; it wants the measured, judicious, mushy tone, and content, of a James Reston, a David Broder, or a Washington Week in Review. It doesn't want a Pat Buchanan, not only for the excitement and hard edge of his content, but also for his similar tone and style...

And so the proper strategy for the right wing must be what we can call "right-wing populism": exciting, dynamic, tough, and confrontational, rousing, and inspiring not only the exploited masses, but the often shell-shocked right-wing intellectual cadre as well. And in this era where the intellectual and media elites are all establishment liberal-conservatives, all in a deep sense one variety or another of social democrat, all bitterly hostile to a genuine right, we need a dynamic, charismatic leader who has the ability to short-circuit the media elites, and to reach and rouse the masses directly. We need a leadership that can reach the masses and cut through the crippling and distorting hermeneutical fog spread by the media elites...

Whenever liberals have encountered hard-edged abolitionists who, for example, have wanted to repeal the New Deal or Fair Deal, they say but that's not genuine conservatism. That's radicalism."

McCarthy was able, for a few years, to short-circuit the intense opposition of all the elites in American life: from the Eisenhower-Rockefeller administration to the Pentagon and the military-industrial complex to liberal and left media and academic elites – to overcome all that opposition and reach and inspire the masses directly. And he did it through television, and without any real movement behind him; he had only a guerrilla band of a few advisers, but no organization and no infrastructure...

And how did the conservative movement get into its present mess? Why does it need to be sundered, and split apart, and a new radical right movement created upon its ashes?

The answer to both of these seemingly disparate questions is the same: what happened to the original right, and the cause of the present mess, is the advent and domination of the right wing by Bill Buckley and the National Review. By the mid-1950s, much of the leadership of the Old Right was dead or in retirement...

And so the purges began. One after another, Buckley and National Review purged and excommunicated all the radicals, all the non-respectables. Consider the roll-call: isolationists (such as John T. Flynn), anti-Zionists, libertarians, Ayn Randians, the John Birch Society, and all those who continued, like the early National Review, to dare to oppose Martin Luther King and the civil rights revolution after Buckley had changed and decided to embrace it...

And so the neocons have managed to establish themselves as the only right-wing alternative to the left. The neocons now constitute the right-wing end of the ideological spectrum. Of the respectable, responsible right wing, that is. For the neocons have managed to establish the notion that anyone who might be to the right of them is, by definition, a representative of the forces of darkness, of chaos, old night, racism, and anti-Semitism. At the very least...

The only other point worth noting on the purges is Buckley's own passage on exactly why he had found it necessary to excommunicate the John Birch Society (O'Sullivan said it was because they were "cranks"). In a footnote, Buckley admits that "the Birch society was never anti-Semitic," but "it was a dangerous distraction to right reasoning and had to be exiled. "National Review," Bill goes on, "accomplished exactly that."

One of the authors of the Daniel Bell volume says, in horror and astonishment, that the radical right intends to repeal the twentieth century. Heaven forfend! Who would want to repeal the twentieth century, the century of horror, the century of collectivism, the century of mass destruction and genocide, who would want to repeal that! Well, we propose to do just that...

A STRATEGY FOR THE RIGHT

Recalling the Anti-Imperialist League by Stephen Bender

Good analysis of the parallels between the appetite of America's political leaders for empire in the Philippines at the dawn of the 20th century and in Iraq today. Stephen Bender writes:

A large standing army is repugnant to republican institutions and a menace to the liberty of our own people. If we annex the Philippines, we shall have to conquer the Filipinos by force of arms, and thereby deny to them what we claim to ourselves – the right to self-government."

We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been our glory to be free. We regret that it has become necessary in the land of Washington and Lincoln to reaffirm that all men, of whatever race or color, are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We maintain that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. We insist that the subjugation of any people is 'criminal aggression' and open disloyalty to the distinctive principles of our Government...

We deplore the sacrifice of our soldiers and sailors, whose bravery deserves admiration even in an unjust war. We denounce the slaughter of the Filipinos as a needless horror. We protest against the extension of American sovereignty by Spanish methods...

We urge that Congress be promptly convened to announce to the Filipinos our purpose to concede to them the independence for which they have so long fought and which of right is theirs...

A self-governing state cannot accept sovereignty over an unwilling people. The United States cannot act upon the ancient heresy that might makes right...

The real firing line is not in the suburbs of Manila. The foe is of our own household...

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government, but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government – that is despotism...

Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in us. Our defense is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in all lands. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God cannot long retain it...

Then, as now, the argument justifying war started as a matter of self-defense, then morphed into a war for "freedom," and finally stood naked as a political and economic power grab...

Jay Garner, the first proconsul of Iraq, made explicit the parallels. He said Iraq would serve the same purpose as the Philippines in that it would be an outpost for American troops and a place where resources could be exploited, just as the Philippines were a vital "coaling station.

Admittedly, for present-day critics of Empire, the legacy of the Cold War has made conjuring from history a convincing vision (or memory) of a non-interventionist America dramatically more difficult...

Critics of the "War on Terror" then should spend at least as much time arguing that the neocon drive for Empire will actually encourage and expand the threat of terrorism as they do pointing out its all too tragic moral costs...

those who repeat the "support our troops" line may simply be expressing the hope that their friends and relatives don't get killed "over there." Parents, friends, and relatives who "support the troops" aren't necessarily uncritically swallowing the rah-rah propaganda. Rhetoric that continually makes no distinction between state policy and the country, between individual Americans and their leaders, and between democracy and Empire, will almost certainly fall flat...

The sending of hundreds of thousands of young men and women off to kill and be killed – in order to occupy a country that did not threaten us – was based on a pack of lies perhaps unique in the unsavory history of the American government's justifications for war...

But the war didn't end with the fall of Baghdad, as we know all too well. A look back at the Anti-Imperialist League offers a guide to moving forward today – if we're prepared to work together.

Recalling the Anti-Imperialist League by Stephen Bender

What I Learned From Paleoism

Words of wisdom from Lew Rockwell in 2002.

Leaders are rarely as ideologically sound as followers...

Private intellectuals have more freedom to speak out; politicians, as a part of their job description, have to seek a broader appeal...

Even before the 104th Congress met in official session, however, hope was lost when old-timers like Newt Gingrich subverted the revolution, consolidating power and persuading the radicals that it was their civic duty to betray every election promise they had made...

do not place your hopes in politics as an instrument of social change. After all, libertarians believe in a completely depoliticized society...

Strategic thinking is essential, but no matter what the political moment seems to demand, libertarians must never be drawn away from the first principles of liberty and private property. Never permit yourself the slightest compromise with those two principles, and check every political position you hold against them...

Never underestimate the power of bad ideas. They must be refuted again and again...

The primary goal of intellectual outreach to other camps cannot be to convince others, ... but rather to learn from others and improve your own understanding. The movement grows not by leaps-and-bounds, but step-by-step...

Always focus on the long-term, while doing what’s right day-to-day. Someday you will see, and maybe sooner than we think, that all your efforts on behalf of liberty have helped reap huge rewards for civilization. When that day comes, however, you will not receive any credit, and that is fine because the point is not institutional or personal aggrandizement. Others will jump in to grab the spotlight and attempt to subvert the movement, and our job will begin all over again.

What I Learned From Paleoism

William F. Buckley's 'God and Man at Yale.' What Have Rich Parents Learned Since 1951? Not Much. by Gary North

Good review by Gary North of a classic book. Makes me want to read it.

When Massachusetts' Horace Mann in the 1830s began to proclaim the concept of the public school as an agency of personal virtue and social redemption, his timing was perfect. The state of Massachusetts had abandoned tax support of Congregational churches in 1833. The public school soon became America's only established church...

The common creed of the public schools was Unitarian and moralistic: salvation by good public works...

the defense of academic neutrality is a myth. Faculties screen themselves. For example, they do not hire defenders of Aryan racial supremacy...

The researcher requires freedom of inquiry because he does not know what his research will produce. But when he supports himself as a teacher, he cannot legitimately claim the same kind of immunity from those who fund his teaching. Yet he does make this claim...

Men want to receive money with no strings attached. This includes the faculty members of every institution of higher learning...

The critics did for God and Man at Yale what a later generation of critics did for The Passion of the Christ. They turned it into a phenomenon by means of their preposterous accusations and off-the-wall rhetoric. Their strategy backfired...

Anyone who seeks to call into question the legitimacy of the alma mater is calling into question the reflected glory on its alumni. This is a futile effort...

Buckley established his conservative bona fides with God and Man at Yale. Never again did one of his books have an impact to rival this one...

William F. Buckley's 'God and Man at Yale.' What Have Rich Parents Learned Since 1951? Not Much. by Gary North

Francis Wayland: Preacher-Economist - Laurence M. Vance - Mises Institute

Francis Wayland wrote (1837), "Of all the modes of national expenditure, the most enormous is that of war. In the first place, the expense of the munitions of war is overwhelming. In the next place, the most athletic and vigorous laborers must be selected for slaughter. Of these the time and labor are wholly unproductive. The operations of industry, in both belligerent nations, are thus greatly paralyzed. The destruction of property, in the district through which an army passes, is generally very great. All this must be taken from the earnings of a people; and is so much capital absolutely destroyed, from which multitudes might have reared, and have lived in prosperity."

Laurence M. Vance writes, "His emphasis on property, capital, entrepreneurship, and above all, his commitment to human action and not government action, makes his long-forgotten work on economics worthy of a revival."

Free scanned PDF copies of Wayland's books are available from Google Books.

Francis Wayland: Preacher-Economist - Laurence M. Vance - Mises Institute

World War II Was Not a Good War

Jacob Hornberger writes:

Pat Buchanan has done a masterful job in challenging the many myths surrounding both World War I and World War II. His book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the moving our nation in the direction of the non-interventionist, non-militarist, anti-empire philosophy of America’s Founding Fathers...

Despite the fact that America’s Founding Fathers had warned against U.S. involvement in Europe’s endless wars, President Wilson intervened in the war with two objectives: to make the world safe for democracy and to end all future wars. After the war was over, it increasingly became clear to the American people that neither of these goals had been achieved...

Of course, some people argue that victory in World War II brought freedom to Great Britain and France. But Great Britain and France were free before the war. Don’t forget: It was Great Britain and France that declared war on Germany, not the other way around.

In fact, Buchanan destroys another long-held myth — that Hitler intended to conquer the world, including the United States. As Buchanan carefully documents, Hitler was looking east, not west for expanding the German Empire...

Some people argue that World War II was necessary because the world could not have survived Hitler and the Nazis. Nonsense. If the world could survive Stalin and the communists, it could have survived Hitler and the Nazis because Stalin and the communists were worse, or at least as bad, as Hitler and the Nazis...

With respect to the Holocaust, Buchanan documents how it was the war itself that brought it about. Prior to the war, Hitler’s objective had been to evict the Jews from Germany. Once Hitler realized that he was going to lose the war, he implemented his Final Solution.

World War II Was Not a Good War

LewRockwell.com Blog: Depression? Let's Destroy Property!

Lew Rockwell writes, "The return to economic and social reality that is a recession or depression must be allowed to proceed unimpeded for recovery. Meanwhile, the lower prices benefit the poorest and most vulnerable in society, and indeed most of us. Herbert Bush is following the same strategy when it comes to housing--try to stop prices from falling with bailouts, subsidies, and other damaging interventions. It doesn't work in the long term, though it can do great damage by delaying the clearing of the market. There were too many houses built during the Fed's boom, and their prices soared artificially. It is necessary and appropriate that prices fall - probably by 50% and more in some areas."

LewRockwell.com Blog: Depression? Let's Destroy Property!

EconLog, Charles Murray and the Dilemmas of Education, Arnold Kling: Library of Economics and Liberty

"To the extent that education produces higher income, it is a private good. Subsidizing people to get an education is like subsidizing people to dress well for job interviews and show up on time for work. I mean, we have gotten to the point where it would not shock me to have government get involved in how people dress for interviews and in reminding them to go to work on time, but those are not what are classically considered public goods that government should provide. It could be argued that learning a core curriculum that makes you a better citizen is a public good. However, I have my doubts on that one. The politically correct citizenship education strikes me as a public bad."

EconLog, Charles Murray and the Dilemmas of Education, Arnold Kling: Library of Economics and Liberty

What about the Ossetians?

Sheldon Richman writes:

When it comes to separatist movements, the American and Russian governments have no principles whatever. They take whatever side advances their political interests at the moment. When ethnic Albanians in Kosovo sought to break from Yugoslavia, the Russians sided with ally Serbia and opposed independence, but the United States backed the separatists and unleashed its bombers. Something similar happened when the Bosnians did the same thing. (The United States gave mixed signals when the Russians moved against separatists in Chechnya.) Yet when the Ossetians and Abkhazians want to be free of Georgia, the big-power roles are reversed.

If you hold your breath waiting for a sign of integrity from any government, you will turn blue...

Do Americans really want to be in the middle of this conflict? While decent people wish the Georgians well in their efforts to stay free of the Russians, we should balk at supporting Georgian President Saakashvili — who is no defender even of the Georgians’ liberties — and his determination to hold the breakaway regions against their will.

Enough big-power politics, client states, and cynical Orwellian lies! Innocent people have suffered too much to let this go on another moment. Bush presumes Americans will take him at his word, not bother to do any fact-checking, and support his provocative agenda in the South Caucasus. If they do, more injustice will be committed in America’s name.

The moral alternative to Putin is not Bush or Saakashvili, but rather condemnation of all the governments involved. Freedom should always take precedence over “territorial integrity.” Secession is the indispensable check on government power.

What about the Ossetians?

Why not recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia? -- Western Standard Shotgun Blog

Excellent comments from Matthew Johnston.

Putting aside the issue of Russia’s broken promise to Sarkozy, the EU and the UN Security Council, which is no doubt serious, what is wrong with recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia? Do people not have the right to democratically secede?
...
No nation has a permanent claim on its citizens, not even for geopolitical expediency.

Ludwig von Misses wrote in Omnipotent Government that “A nation, therefore, has no right to say to a province: You belong to me, I want to take you. A province consists of its inhabitants. If anybody has a right to be heard in this case it is these inhabitants. Boundary disputes should be settled by plebiscite.” He also wrote in Nation, State, and Economy that “No people and no part of a people shall be held against its will in a political association that it does not want.”

It appears that in both the case of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the people have expressed a desire through democratic processes to change their political association. The concept in international law that demands that a secessionist movement, in order to be legitimate, must first be recognized by the nation from which it hopes to secede is like demanding bi-partisan agreement before a divorce is recognized. Unilateral secession must be allowed after it can be demonstrated that there is a genuine will among the people to separate...

In an interview for this post, Dr. Jason Sorens, founder of the Free State Project and expert on international secessionist movements, said “It is difficult to defend Russia's conduct of the war with Georgia, but it is equally difficult to defend the willingness of the U.S., Canada, and other NATO governments to recognize Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence while ruling out future recognition for Abkhazia and South Ossetia. If independence for minorities is ruled out from the start, then they have no alternative but to turn to violence. Independence with security guarantees for ethnic Georgians should at least be on the negotiating table.”

As I stated in my previous post on this matter, Russia should stay out of Georgia, and Georgia should stay out of South Ossetia (and Abkhazia). Let me add that the international community should also be less reluctant to recognize independence movements.

Sorens thinks we can learn something else: “The other lesson from this whole episode is that NATO expansion is foolish. Bringing Georgia into the security guarantee would entail that our soldiers could end up dying in a war against Russia while helping Georgia crush the legitimate aspirations of its ethnic minorities. Is that what we really want?”

Western Standard

The Importance of School Choice -- United Liberty » Blog Archive

"Picture this: Each family in America has the ability to choose which school their child attends, public, private, charter, parochial, home, whatever. The family shops for the school that best fits what they want for their child. A successful school will offer more programs that their customers want. A successful school will offer a learning experience that their customers want. A successful school will attract their customers’ money."

I like that picture. A free market in education would be a great gift.

United Liberty » Blog Archive » The Importance of School Choice

What children truly need for school, By Sharon Randall

Excellent column. Ran in our local paper today.

Sharon writes:

Last year in a column, I listed what I think children need for school. Many of you requested a reprint of that list. So here again, thank you, are "20 things children truly need for school."

1. A No. 2 pencil and a willingness to erase.

2. A respect for themselves and others, especially their teachers.

3. An awareness that the world does not revolve around them and that they alone are responsible for their actions.

4. Parents (or grandparents) who teach by example a love for reading, learning and life.

5. An assurance that school is a good, safe place; their teachers will like them; and their parents won't leave town without them.

6. An understanding that school is their "job" and no one else can or will do it for them.

7. A system for exchanging communication between school and home; a backpack for notes; an emergency phone number that always answers; a quiet place and time to do homework; a daily chance to read aloud and to be read to.

8. A plan for getting to and from school on time.

9. A pet to care for.

10. A public library card.

11. Someone to welcome them home; laugh at their jokes; answer their questions; listen to what they say and don't say.

12. The power of knowing how it feels to give anonymously and sacrificially to help someone less fortunate.

13. The encouragement to try new things; the freedom to fail; and the chance to try again.

14. The gifts of being well fed, well rested, well mannered and well covered for medical, dental and after-school care.

15. The confidence to deal with bullies (stand up straight, look them in the eye, don't start a fight, but don't back down); how to ask questions (raise your hand and wait to be called on); and to never stop asking questions, especially "why?"

16. To be the best or at least pretty good at something; and to know that it's OK not to be good at everything.

17. To spend more time with humans and less with machines.

18. To have nothing to do once in a while but daydream.

19. To have someone love them unconditionally, regardless of their grades; someone to "beam" at them, to light up when they walk into the room.

20. Finally, they need to know that school won't last forever, but learning is a lifelong process.

Scripps Howard News Service

Time to lower the drinking age? -- HoosierAccess » Blog Archive

"According to Newsday.com, “In 1984, Congress voted to penalize any state that set its legal drinking age lower than 21 by rescinding 10 percent of that state’s federal highway funding.” Whether setting the legal minimum at 21 is a good policy or not, it should be set by the states, not the federal government. In a nation of 300 million people that stretches from one end of the continent to another, the drinking age should not be set by 535 legislators in one city on the East Coast. Blackmailing states with threats of funding cuts if their internal policies are not what Congress deems appropriate is in direct opposition to the spirit of the Tenth Amendment."

He gets this part right, but goes on to water it down with his recommendation.

HoosierAccess » Blog Archive » Time to lower the drinking age?

Destabilizing Iraq, Broadly Defined - washingtonpost.com

Just heard of this. Sounds like it runs a risk of conflicting with our First Amendment right to free speech.

"However, the text of the order, if interpreted broadly, could cast a far bigger net to include not just those who commit violent acts or pose the risk of doing so in Iraq, but also third parties -- such as U.S. citizens in this country -- who knowingly or unknowingly aid or encourage such people."

As Thomas Jefferson said, "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then."

Destabilizing Iraq, Broadly Defined - washingtonpost.com

We Need Privacy From the Government by Bob Murphy

Bob Murphy writes:

What Crovitz doesn’t discuss is that there is a tremendous difference between private businesses knowing selected bits of your personal habits, versus a government agent having access to all of your personal information. In a related context, Friedrich Hayek pointed out in The Road to Serfdom that it makes the difference between tyranny and liberty when central planners "merely" accumulate in one group of bureaucrats all of the power that had previously been dispersed among thousands of CEOs and other decision-makers in the private sector...

The free market has mechanisms to ensure the optimal amount of privacy is provided, consistent with the tradeoffs between other objectives. The real privacy danger comes not from business, but from government.

We Need Privacy From the Government by Bob Murphy

Media Blackout: The Armada in the Gulf by Gary North

Gary North writes:

The most important news for the month of August was the fact that President Bush has quietly sent the largest armada into the Persian Gulf since the Iraq war began in 2003, when there were six carrier groups. This is a huge number of ships to be concentrated in one location in peacetime. This story has been completely ignored by the news media all over the West

There is no question that this is a major military show of force in the region. President Bush has decided to make this show of force. He has done so without informing the American media regarding the reason for this show of force. If the reason has nothing to do with Iran, he should say so. If the reason has something to do with Iran, then he should publicly discuss the question of the supply of oil exported from the Middle East. He should discuss how he intends to enable Iran to continue to export oil to the West, yet at the same time persuade the Iranians to change their policy on nuclear development. What is it that five carrier task forces in the Persian Gulf can do to persuade the Iranians to change their policies, other than by interdicting oil trade with Iran? If this armada does this, how will Iranian oil exports not be affected? If these carrier forces are to interdict goods coming into Iran, what motivation does Iran have for continuing to export its most vital commodity, when Iran will not be able to use the proceeds from the sale of this commodity in order to buy Western goods?

Media Blackout: The Armada in the Gulf by Gary North

VDARE.com: 08/26/08 - War With Russia Is On The Agenda

Paul Craig Roberts writes:

The failure of the American media is again evident in the coverage of the Georgian-Russian conflict. The US media presented the conflict as a Russian invasion of Georgia, whereas in actual fact the American and Israeli trained and equipped Georgian military launched a sneak attack to kill and to drive the Russian population out of South Ossetia, a separatist province...

This action by Saakashvili, elected with money from the neoconservative National Endowment for Democracy, an election-rigging tool of US hegemony, was a war crime. In truth, the Russians should have hung Saakashvili, as he is far more guilty than was Saddam Hussein. But it is Russia, not Saakashvili, that the US media has demonized.

Americans have become perfect subjects for George Orwell’s Big Brother. They sit stupidly in front of the TV news or the New York Times or Washington Post and absorb the lies fed to them. What is wrong with Americans? Why do they put up with it? Are Americans the nation of sheep that Judge Andrew P. Napolitano says they are? Americans flaunt "freedom and democracy" and live under a Ministry of Propaganda...

These Americans have no realization that there was no more reason for the US to be fighting in Vietnam 40 years ago than to be fighting today in Iraq and Afghanistan or tomorrow in Iran.

VDARE.com: 08/26/08 - War With Russia Is On The Agenda

Anti-Positivist: Röpke's warning

"we -- the defenders of Liberty -- must speak out, in the various media, against our current situation and likely path, lest we suffer the condemnation of our posterity."

Anti-Positivist: Röpke's warning

Anti-Positivist: Regulations are ruining America

"In Louisiana it is illegal to sell and arrange flowers without permission from the government. Aspiring florists must pass a subjective licensing exam that is graded by existing florists, who have a direct incentive to keep new competitors from entering the market. Thus the failure rate is higher than that of the Louisiana bar, which results in hundreds of well-qualified would-be entrepreneurs being denied the ability to work in their chosen profession. No one can honestly believe that Louisiana's flower cartel is necessary to protect consumers from renegade flower sellers. Rather, it is a classic case of protecting favored groups at the expense of consumers and entry-level entrepreneurs."


Anti-Positivist: Regulations are ruining America

KarenDeCoster.com Web Log: The Culture of Not Planning Ahead Archives

"The American dream is a worn and bullshit cliche that is used to describe high time preferences (gotta have it NOW), screwed-up priorities, and atrocious decisions based not on what is, but what people want, wish, hope it to be. People have become very good at creating a world of illusions with which to surround themselves, and they live based on some really warped perceptions of their wealth and ability to fund a high-flying lifestyle. They don't think to tomorrow or next week, let alone 3, 5, or 10 years from now. That isn't today, so who cares? Today I have approval for a mortgage and another newer, bigger house with the pond, waterfall, built-in Bose speakers, and custom everything, and that is what matters."

KarenDeCoster.com Web Log: The Culture of Not Planning Ahead Archives

The American Conservative » We are all South Ossetians!

"If any of us had known that victory in the Cold War was supposed to mean a permanent humiliation of Russia, the cause would have never seemed attractive. So, Long live the autonomous Republic of South Ossetia!"

The American Conservative » We are all South Ossetians!

The Economics of War (Georgia Edition) - Christopher Westley - Mises Institute

Christopher Westley writes:

In recent years, the United States has been providing military aid and advice to an increasingly militaristic Georgia, whose military budget has increased 30 fold since 2003 (much to the chagrin, I am sure, of the Georgian taxpayer). US intelligence services played a fundamental role in the 2004 election of its pro-Western president, Mikheil Saakashvili, who, in turn, has been aggressively courting Georgian membership in NATO.

None of these developments have been exactly welcomed by the Russians, who share a huge border with Georgia and run important natural-gas pipelines through the region. To understand why, Americans should consider how the US government would react if (say) Texas declared its independence and received massive amounts of military aid and advice from the Russians, all while the Texas president feted his Russian counterpart at state dinners in Austin and promoted Texan membership in a post–Cold War Warsaw Pact that had already expanded greatly in the previous 15 year...

First, what of the incredible human and physical cost of such activities? Those tanks and men we see slogging between towns and villages carry huge opportunity costs. War materiel and the troops who operate it have alternative uses in the market, and it represents a tremendous social failure when they are employed for destructive purposes. This applies to all military activities and is uniquely engineered by governments...

But more than this, the loss of human life is the greatest cost. What activities and contributions are foregone when a small child dies after a Russian or Georgian bomb slams into the side of an apartment building?
...
Given the recent and not-so-recent history of US military interventions on foreign soil, there is little objection that our government can make when other governments invade countries, kill scores of innocent people, upend families, destroy homes and businesses, and contemplate regime change.

What game theorist in the Pentagon thought that the United States could intervene so heavily in the political and military affairs of Georgia without some eventual response from the Russians?
...
In all of this analysis, it is important to separate the governments involved from the people who suffer from their actions. The people do not have a dog in this fight — and they suffer the most from its being waged. As the US government has "freed the hell out of Iraq" — to quote a popular bumper sticker — Russia is freeing the hell out of South Ossetians and Georgians. In both cases, state violence hinders mutual cooperation and the development of peaceful institutions in society that characterize civilization itself.

The Economics of War (Georgia Edition) - Christopher Westley - Mises Institute

Sex, Violence, and the Culture War - Art Carden - Mises Institute

Interesting research.

"The relationship between pornography and crime illustrates the fact that in an imperfect world with limited resources — and, therefore, tradeoffs — seemingly black-and-white moral issues are more complex than they first appear. These studies suggest that legislative battles against pornography are likely to be counterproductive."

Sex, Violence, and the Culture War - Art Carden - Mises Institute

American Empire Project: The Past Destroyed: Five Years Later

"In the five years since the initial looting and pillaging of the Iraqi capital, thieves have stolen at least 32,000 items from some 12,000 archaeological sites across Iraq with no interference whatsoever from the occupying power. No funds have been appropriated by the American or Iraqi governments to protect the most valuable and vulnerable historical sites on Earth, even though experience has shown that just a daily helicopter overflight usually scares off looters. In 2006, the World Monuments Fund took the unprecedented step of putting the entire country of Iraq on its list of the most endangered sites. All of this occurred on George W. Bush's watch and impugned any moral authority he might have claimed."

American Empire Project: The Past Destroyed: Five Years Later

Anarchism, the New Atheism

Interesting discussion.

As a Christian, I believe that God calls us to obey the governing authorities unless they call us to disobey a direct commandment of God Himself.

However, I also believe that God allows people to be saddled with a monarchy when they are not up to keeping a better form of government.

Anarchy In Your Head » Archive » Anarchism, the New Atheism

The Fannie-Freddie Fraud by Ron Paul

Ron Paul statement before the US House of Representatives on HR 3221 July 24, 2008, on the proposed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout.

Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, instead of ending the prior interventions in the housing market that are responsible for the current crisis, Congress is increasing the level of government intervention in the housing market. This is the equivalent of giving a drug addict another fix, which will only make the necessary withdrawal more painful.

The provision giving the Treasury Secretary a blank check to purchase Fannie and Freddie stock not only makes the implicit government guarantee of Fannie and Freddie explicit, it represents another unconstitutional delegation of Congress’ Constitutional authority to control the allocation of taxpayer dollars.

The Fannie-Freddie Fraud by Ron Paul

Stop Voting! by Russell D. Longcore

Russell D. Longcore writes:

The worst possible candidates from the Republican and Democrat parties have floated to the top, much like what you see when you glance down into a toilet bowl...

The "political system" virtually guarantees that the most corrupt, the best liars, the most compromising, becomes the presumptive candidate. Both candidates are also the politician of their party most willing to violate the Constitution by continuing an unlawful war, and by initiating and approving the highest amount of unconstitutional Federal spending...

Think about it. The political system in America is populated with men and women who give lip service to the Constitution, but then go on to vote for every unconstitutional spending bill presented to them. They talk about the virtues of our constitutional republic, and then act to subvert and violate that very system of government.

A pure constitutionalist has no place, and no political base, in America in 2008.

Stop Voting! by Russell D. Longcore

Daniel Webster opposes the draft

I just ran across the following quotation again in "Ain't My America" by Bill Kauffman.

During the War of 1812, Daniel Webster eloquently made the case that a military draft was unconstitutional: " Where is it written in the Constitution , in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents, and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war, in which the folly or the wickedness of Government may engage it? Under what concealment has this power lain hidden, which now for the first time comes forth, with a tremendous and baleful aspect, to trample down and destroy the dearest rights of personal liberty? Sir, I almost disdain to go to quotations and references to prove that such an abominable doctrine had no foundation in the Constitution of the country. It is enough to know that the instrument was intended as the basis of a free government, and that the power contended for is incompatible with any notion of personal liberty. An attempt to maintain this doctrine upon the provisions of the Constitution is an exercise of perverse ingenuity to extract slavery from the substance of a free government. It is an attempt to show, by proof and argument, that we ourselves are subjects of despotism, and that we have a right to chains and bondage, firmly secured to us and our children, by the provisions of our government."

http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2002/cr0321b02.htm

Who’s Conservative? by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

Professor Thomas E. Woods, Jr. writes:

Burke is often referred to as the father of modern conservatism. It hardly requires much imagination to figure out what he would think of the neoconservatives’ imperial program of global democracy. To appreciate Burke’s arguments, though, one would have to shut off Rush Limbaugh and learn about conservative thought by reading actual books...

Although followers of the War Party tend to be more familiar with the conservatism of Sean Hannity than that of John C. Calhoun, whom they’ve never read, it is Calhoun whose wisdom is especially valuable here. Calhoun warned that majority rule, which can be justified only on the basis of convention and utility rather than on any strictly moral foundation, can work only in places where there exists a basic commonality of interests among the people. Otherwise, majority rule becomes just another form of tyranny, as interest groups with mutually exclusive goals use their electoral strength to oppress each other...

It is simply not true that any moral obligation exists for those fortunate enough to live under politically stable regimes to spend their blood and treasure from now until the end of time to bring liberty to the peoples of the world...

Anyone responding that the spread of democracy is more important than dollars and cents has simply taken leave of his senses, taking up residence in the Never Never Land of liberalism where there are no constraints and anything is possible if you simply wish hard enough...

No conservative, whose hallmark is a disposition toward stability, would risk his own country’s well being, both financial and moral, in a ceaseless crusade of visionary schemes. A real sense of history, as well as an appreciation of what is possible in this fallen world, should sober us up from the utopian fantasies of liberalism. Great American statesmen of the past understood this: we can be an example to the world, but beyond that we dare not go. No mother should ever have to be told that her sons died trying to straighten out the political situation in Nigeria. As Lord Byron said, "Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow."

Who’s Conservative? by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

The wisdom of Henry Clay

We could use more politicians today with the wisdom of Henry Clay.

In 1852, Henry Clay declared, "By the policy to which we have adhered since the days of Washington. . . we have done more for the cause of liberty in the world than arms could effect; we have shown to other nations the way to greatness and happiness. . . . Far better is it for ourselves... and the cause of liberty, that, adhering to our pacific system and avoiding the distant wars of Europe, we should keep our lamp burning brightly on this western shore, as a light to all nations, than to hazard its utter extinction amid the ruins of fallen and falling republics in Europe."

Quoted by Bill Kauffman in "Ain't My America".

American Foreign Policy -- The Turning Point, 1898-1919, Part 1

Who’s Conservative? by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

LewRockwell.com Blog: Obama's Heroic Capitalist Brother

"So here we have one half-brother who spends his time actually delivering useful products and services to people in the private sector, especially low-income people, and another half-brother who parasitically feeds off the private sector for personal gain while at the same time seeking to strangle that sector with ever-increasing state power. It's not surprising that the first half-brother has little time for 'the meaning of racial identity', as he is an active participant of the private sector which brings all races together in peaceful cooperation, while the second half-brother must constantly divide the world up based on skin color, so he can heal the world and provide 'hope' with redistribution via the barrel of a gun."

LewRockwell.com Blog: Obama's Heroic Capitalist Brother

Congressman Ron Paul - Freedom is Golden - Texas Straight Talk

Ron Paul writes, "Central planning will tell you that you are entitled to many things. Liberty tells you that you are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; to whatever you earn, and nothing that you don't. While it may seem harsh to some, we must look to basic economic truths and to history to see which model is cruel and which model is kind. The truth is that central planning cannot provide for economic success like freedom can. Central planning makes promises it cannot possibly keep. We live in a world of unlimited wants and limited resources. If you put a massive and powerful government in charge of distributing those resources, it is not a surprise that government and those in bed with government are first in line for those resources. The poor and the middle class – the most hopeful and trusting – are hurt the most, as the state always underestimates their needs and overestimates their ability to pay taxes and absorb inflation."

Congressman Ron Paul - Freedom is Golden - Texas Straight Talk

Crunchy Conned - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Institute

Good book review.

Murray Rothbard wrote, "It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance."

Crunchy Conned - Jeffrey A. Tucker - Mises Institute

Bill Kauffman: American Anarchist by Laurence M. Vance

Wendell Berry writes:

How many deaths of other people’s children by bombing or starvation are we willing to accept in order that we may be free, affluent, and (supposedly) at peace? To that question I answer pretty quickly: None. And I know that I am not the only one who would give that answer: Please. No children. Don’t kill any children for my benefit.

Bill Kauffman writes:

War devastates the homefront as surely as it does the killing fields. Soldiers are conscripted, sent hither and yon to kill and maim or to be killed or maimed; their families relocate, following the jobs created by artificial wartime booms. War is the great scatterer, the merciless disperser.

The cost of war might be measured not only in body bags, in returning boys without legs, arms, eyes, faces, but also in divorce, dislocation, novels never written, children not fathered. During the Second World War, the divorce rate more than doubled, normal patters of courtship were disrupted, Daylight Saving Time was imposed nationwide over the objections of rural America, and the subsidized daycare industry was born via the Lanham Act, which sponsored 3,000 daycare centers in incarcerate the neglected children of Rosie the Riveter.

Almost every healthy manifestation of local culture was smothered – terminated – strangled – by U.S. entry into the Second World War...

The best reason to oppose the military-industrial complex is the most intimate: because it can kill your son or brother or cousin, and its social and economic fallout can destroy your town.

Bill Kauffman: American Anarchist by Laurence M. Vance

2blowhards.com: A Week With Bill Kauffman, Day Four

"WWI was probably the single worst intervention in the warfare history of the U.S. There was absolutely no American interest involved. And on the homefront -- my concern; I consider the domestic consequences of any foreign intervention first -- Wilson sought, with a success limited only by the vestigial American Don't Tread on Me spirit, to impose a militarized police state on what had been, theretofore, a decentralized republic. His Espionage and Sedition Acts make the Patriot Act look as mild as the resolution declaring National Administrative Assistants Day."

2blowhards.com: A Week With Bill Kauffman, Day Four

2blowhards.com: Bill Kauffman, An Introduction

"Bill Kauffman's an inspired loose cannon with a full-blown vision of his own, something like a combo of Camille Paglia, Christopher Lasch (whom Kauffman studied with at the U. of R.), Sinclair Lewis, and a 19th century newspaper editor."

I'm slogging my way through "Ain't My America". I can't remember the last time I had to look up such a high percentage of the vocabulary in a dictionary.

2blowhards.com: Bill Kauffman, An Introduction

Abetting Police Aggression: The "COPS Effect by William Norman Grigg

"For decades prior to the introduction of the militarized police units called SWAT teams forty years ago, street officers and detectives routinely tracked down and arrested dangerous murder suspects, and I'm sure that this is still done today, at least in some jurisdictions. But now that practically every community is occupied by a federally subsidized SWAT outfit, it has become common to use those teams for routine missions – not just arresting potentially violent suspects, but serving warrants and other non-crisis situations."

Abetting Police Aggression: The "COPS Effect by William Norman Grigg

It’s Never Too Late by Chris Clancy

I am in hot pursuit of Mr. Clancy on the same wide-eyed journey of discovery of some of the important perspectives I missed in my public education, two college degrees, and many years of living and working since then.

It’s Never Too Late by Chris Clancy

LewRockwell.com Blog: A Great Libertarian Song

Good, classic, anti-war ballad, from before I knew which side I wanted to be on.

LewRockwell.com Blog: A Great Libertarian Song

Socialism and Medicine, Part 1

William L. Anderson teaches economics at Frostburg State University in Maryland. He writes (in Part 1 of 4):

Government intervention into nearly every aspect of our lives is so common that people often lose sight of how things would operate absent the intervention. Furthermore, people seem to be convinced that government really is the answer when it comes to medical care...

Until the post–World War II era, medical services were pay-as-you-go affairs. Those who could not afford the best care depended on charity hospitals or doctors who were willing to stretch out the payment structure. In other words, people purchased medical care the way that they purchased most other goods: directly and in close relationships with those people who provided the services...

... during World War II, when the government had strict wage-price controls... could not offer higher pay in order to attract workers. Thus, they turned to providing tax-free “benefits” such as health insurance... For the most part, employers offered insurance plans... to provide protection from catastrophic illnesses or accidents. The idea at that time that an insurance company would pay for regular doctor visits and the like was seemingly far-fetched...

... health insurance as a means of increasing de facto income without increasing tax liability became increasingly popular...

Socialism and Medicine, Part 1

Selected Gems of Judge Learned Hand

Judge Learned Hand wrote in 1944.

"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. And what is this liberty which must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty, and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check upon their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few; as we have learned to our sorrow..."

"The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest. And now in that spirit, that spirit of an America which has never been, and which may never be; nay, which never will be except as the conscience and courage of Americans create it; yet in the spirit of that America which lies hidden in some form in the aspirations of us all; in the spirit of that America for which our young men are at this moment fighting and dying; in that spirit of liberty and of America I ask you to rise and with me pledge our faith in the glorious destiny of our beloved country."

Learned Hand

China's Demographic Time Bomb -- The Weekly Standard Blog

"However impressive the country looks right now, the Chinese are sitting on a demographic time bomb which cannot be defused."

The Weekly Standard

Foreign aid not constitutional -- Letter to the editor

From: "Bill Starr"
To: "Bob Gustin"
Cc: editorial at therepublic.com
Subject: Letter to the editor: Foreign aid not constitutional


The letter to the paper today from Gene Arnholt seemed to call out to me for a dissenting opinion.

Mr. Arnholt sings the praises of Indiana's U.S. senators and Bartholomew County's two representatives for their bipartisan support of the Lantos-Hyde Act pledging $48 billion of U.S. taxpayer dollars for foreign aid. This averages about $455 per household, based on 2000 U.S. Census Bureau figures.

I would have been proud to hear that my congressmen stood with Representative Ron Paul in principled opposition to all foreign aid. Unlike many in Congress today, Dr. Paul actually takes seriously his oath to measure all proposed legislation against the yardstick of the Constitution, without acting as if the general welfare or interstate commerce clauses give the federal government a blank check to do anything it wants.

Dr. Paul writes, "I certainly encourage every American concerned about HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria overseas to voluntarily provide assistance to help alleviate the problem. But I do not believe it is appropriate – nor is it Constitutional – to forcibly take money from American citizens to send abroad." (http://tinyurl.com/6plcg6)

If you harbor any illusion that your "contribution" to this cause is not forcibly taken from you, just try withholding your household's $455 from your payment to the IRS and you will likely find out soon enough that it was not voluntary after all.

I am happy to give to charitable causes. I just believe that I and my fellow Americans should each be free to decide for ourselves to whom and how much we give, instead of Congress deciding those things for us.

I have no problem with members of Congress who wish to support worthy charitable causes. I just think they ought to dig into their own wallets, instead of mine and those of my fellow taxpayers. Congressman Davy Crockett concurred with this view in his article titled "Not Yours to Give" (http://tinyurl.com/not-yours).

Mr. Arnholt also writes "This money represents the U.S.’ share of the resources needed to turn these diseases back... For years America has lagged far behind other rich nations in the percentage of Gross Domestic Product spent on foreign aid."

What he neglects to mention is that U.S. citizens voluntary charitable giving more than makes up for any perceived stinginess of the U.S. government (which only has our money to give away anyway).

In an article on 29 April 2007, the Washington Times reported that "U.S. private donors coughed up an estimated $95.2 billion in 2005 -- nearly four times the $27.6 billion spent in official foreign aid -- for schools, orphanages, medical clinics, supplies and other development programs in Africa, Latin America, Russia, Eastern Europe and Asia." (http://tinyurl.com/5qvwae)

So it is not as if private charity does not work, especially if the government would just stop insisting on doing our charitable giving for us.

As Albert Jay Nock wrote, "Once we might have been inclined to give a quarter to a beggar. Now, however... we might tell him that the State has confiscated our quarter for his benefit, and that he might as well go to the State about it."

Sincerely,
Bill Starr
Columbus, Indiana
Wed, 20 Aug 2008, 9:29 pm EDT


You have my permission and encouragement to publish this as a letter to the editor.

cc: Senator Bayh, Senator Lugar, Representative Pence, Representative Hill (delivery failed; accepts no e-mails from out of his district), Representative Paul


*****
The Republic, Columbus, Indiana, Page B4, Wed, 20 Aug 2008

From: Gene Arnholt
Columbus
Received: Aug. 18

Congress has just passed a historic bill, the Lantos-Hyde U.S. Global Leadership against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Act of 2008.

It authorizes an unprecedented $48 billion over the next five years to fight three diseases which are killing 5 million people annually.

This money represents the U.S.’ share of the resources needed to turn these diseases back.

For years America has lagged far behind other rich nations in the percentage of Gross Domestic Product spent on foreign aid.

This time Congress has taken an important step toward the restoration of our standing as a just and caring nation, with the wisdom to invest in our collective future.

Thank you, Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., Rep. Baron Hill, D-Ind., Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., for voting for this bill, and thank you especially, Senator Lugar, for your leadership in working out the compromise that enabled passage in tne Senate. You make us proud of you and of our country.

Wal-Mart University: No More Boola-Boola by Gary North

Great ideas from Gary North.

"The free market is perfectly capable of providing a college-level education program for millions of students. There is nothing that the average college offers to the average undergraduate that an online college education program could not offer at half the price..."

"You can learn history, political science, sociology, psychology, philosophy, business, and most of the other disciplines through today's Internet technology..."

"The difference will be, Wal-Mart University will be offering an equally good education for less money than the tax-subsidized State University will be offering..."

"Wal-Mart University will be granting degrees for education; the state universities will be granting degrees in order to recruit semi-professional athletes, half of whom will not graduate, to entertain the voters. The voters deserve to know this..."

"Why should we believe that the free market, which delivers the vast bulk of the services and goods that we consume, is somehow incapable of delivering higher education at competitive prices? Why should we believe special-interest bureaucrats who claim that higher education is of necessity a nonprofit venture and usually a tax-funded venture?"

"That revolution has begun: the University of Phoenix. The model already exists. It is a highly profitable model. It will take only one major American corporation entering this field to prove that the existing model of tax-funded, nonprofit higher education is inefficient. That model belongs to the past..."

"Students will initially resist this. They want their parents to give up half of their retirement portfolio in order to send them off for four years of partying, and four years of delaying making a judgment about what to do when they grow up. University administrators will also resist this, because they want the students to show up on campus, and they want the parents to write the checks. But, at some point, it is going to become obvious to hundreds of thousands of parents that there is a better way. That better way is distance learning. The technology exists. The model exists: the University of Phoenix. All it will take is the marketing..."

"The free market is better able to deliver high-quality education than the state is. The state has used its power to license and accredit colleges and universities to preserve an educational cartel. That cartel can be broken, and it will be broken. It is just a question of time..."

Wal-Mart University: No More Boola-Boola by Gary North

The Realities of a Flu Epidemic -- LewRockwell.com Blog

"Among many of the things that we are supposed to fear, and therefore dedicate large sums of taxpayer money towards, is a flu epidemic. It turns out that during the 1918 pandemic, most people died from pneumonia infections, not the flu virus itself. Pneumonia, a bacteria, is now treated with antibiotics that were not yet discovered in 1918."

LewRockwell.com Blog: The Realities of a Flu Epidemic

blogINDIANA 08 - Vox

Indy Jane writes, "maybe I should leave the blogging to those more skilled."

Naaah. I think blogging is like bluegrass music -- too important to be left to the professionals.

blogINDIANA 08 - Vox

Softening the Message of a Hard Truth -- Anarchy In Your Head

"Because it’s part of the hard truth that people aren’t ready to accept. Any order you resist, from a seizure of private land to a parking ticket, can ultimately escalate to serious violence including incarceration or even death if you continue to resist the orders or the punishments they impose on you. All punishments by government are for disobeying. The so-called little things demonstrate this particularly well. When the authority of government ultimately rests on nothing more than the threat of violence, any deviation from strict adherence cannot be tolerated or the illusion is threatened."

Anarchy In Your Head » Archive » Softening the Message of a Hard Truth

American Fascism in the Ascendant by Michael S. Rozeff

Michael S. Rozeff writes:

According to dictionary.com, a fascist State has such features as a dictator with great powers, the suppression of criticism and opposition, regimentation of business, etc., and aggressive nationalism. I give us a high grade, almost an A...

We have fascism because that is what we have wanted and now want. We have voted for it, time and again. Both major parties, and no other parties are worth mentioning, are fascist and have promoted fascism. Votes cast for either major party are votes for fascism and fascist policies.

And why have we wanted fascism? Because we have wanted the government to solve problems that we (mistakenly and falsely) thought it could solve...

Government is our master. It has the power to be our master, and we have given it ever more power to be our master, such as by amending the Constitution so that the income tax became legal, or such as by allowing legislation to set up the central bank we call the Federal Reserve System...

We thought we could limit its powers. We thought wrongly. For we ourselves went ahead and decided to give it even more and greater powers to solve problems that we personally should have been solving...

As master, Government does not serve us. It does not solve those problems that we hope it will. Instead, it acts on its own behalf. It acts in such a way as to secure its own power and longevity. It acts so as to increase its powers. Its aims are not our aims. Therefore its deeds only by coincidence solve the problems we delegate to it...

We have fascism because we blundered. We erroneously thought we had found a low-cost solution to our many problems, in the form of a servant called Constitutional Government...

We are asking for an impossibility, which is that government solve problems that only we can solve. And that impossibility takes concrete shape in the form of a fascist system in which the master has dictatorial power, suppresses dissent, regiments us, and involves us in an aggressive nationalism. Who knows what other heinous facets of fascism will be revealed to us next?
...
The only way out of this trap is not to attempt the impossible, not to grant government such powers, not to ask it to solve our problems, and instead to assume the responsibility for solving our own problems. The stark choice is between slavery and freedom. And fascism means slavery. The present course is slavery and will bring more slavery, without satisfactory solutions to any of our problems. And the amazing thing is that the moment we abandon fascism and powerful government, we will discover that the problems that government is now exacerbating and making worse will suddenly become tractable and manageable...

It is illusion to think that we control the daily machinations of Government by our votes. We do not. The only way to control this Government is to cut its legs off at the hip. Nothing less than fundamental changes like ending the income tax and ending the Federal Reserve will do.

American Fascism in the Ascendant by Michael S. Rozeff

How Foreign Policy Affects Gas Prices - Texas Straight Talk -- Congressman Ron Paul

Congressman Ron Paul explains high prices at the gas pump.

But since oil is otherwise exclusively traded in dollars, this means that oil producers have vast amounts of assets held in dollars. Especially since the War on Terror and the PATRIOT Act, many oil-producing nations and banks are concerned the US government may freeze assets based on flimsy pretexts. This fear contributes to dollar weakness, and therefore also high oil prices.

Recently I and other members of Congress spoke out against H Con Res 362 and exposed this seemingly innocuous bill for what it really is – a call for a blockade and a build up to war with Iran. Thankfully it has not come to the floor for a vote as I had fully expected it would. But to even propose legislation like this, and get an alarming 261 cosponsors, makes the oil markets jittery and encourages more capital flight from the dollar. We only isolate ourselves on the world stage with actions and attitudes like this. After all, how can it be wise for the rest of the world to bank on America, when we tend to freeze assets and blockade entire countries for no good reason?
...
The best policy is always free trade with all and entangling alliances with none, but instead we isolate ourselves by picking sides and making enemies out of our friends or potential friends. In the recent conflict with Russia and Georgia, it appears that once again the administration is going to pick sides and send taxpayer money, when we are in a deep recession here at home. There is no good reason for us to put a dog in every fight around the world...

However, our interventionist mindset when it comes to foreign policy never ceases to get us into sticky situations, for which we pay a premium at the gas pump.

Congressman Ron Paul - How Foreign Policy Affects Gas Prices - Texas Straight Talk

LewRockwell.com Blog: The War on Substances Terrorizes Another Familiy

"... police proceeded to strike her epileptic husband in the head with the butt end of a shotgun and point shotguns at her young children before admitting their mistake and then raiding the right apartment.

The husband had to receive medical attention for a dislocated arm and other injuries.

Says the chief of detectives: “We can say comfortably that over 1,100 search warrants were executed last year and 580 to date this year and that, with such a high volume and such a fast-paced environment, it is understandable that mistakes could happen.”

How easy to excuse your crimes. You're just too good a law enforcer!"

LewRockwell.com Blog: The War on Substances Terrorizes Another Familiy

War in Georgia Shows U.S. Foreign Policy Is a Bust

Wise words from Sheldon Richman.

The tragic events in the nation of Georgia show that U.S. foreign policy is a bust. In particular, NATO must go. This may seem counterintuitive, but this relic of the Cold War has nothing to contribute to peace. On the contrary, it is a destabilizing tool of America’s provocative imperial foreign policy...

Considering that NATO was ostensibly created to counter the Soviet Union in Europe, how could expanding the organization up to the Russian border not be provocative? What was the point, except to show the Russians who’s boss?
...
the Bush administration’s words and deeds almost certainly emboldened the Georgian government with respect to South Ossetia and Russia, encouraging it to take measures it probably would not have taken otherwise...

The Bush administration, then, made implicit — and perhaps explicit — guarantees to the Georgian government it was in no position to back up. Thus the American imperium is revealed as a costly, provocative, but in essential ways impotent force in the world. For this the taxpayers are coughing up hundreds of billion dollars a year. And people are dying.

The message of Georgia is clear. We need a top-to-bottom rethinking of American foreign policy. The American people’s interest lies in peace and free trade. Let others work out their own problems. Most of all, let’s keep the U.S. government from making the world’s problems worse than they already are.

War in Georgia Shows U.S. Foreign Policy Is a Bust

The NSA & FBI admit they listen to your cell phone on or off | Daily Newscaster

"Fox News reports that the FBI now admits to listening to citizens via their turned off cell phones. Cell phones are now tracking and monitoring devices so the state can keep track you your whereabouts, you conversations and who you associate with."

The NSA & FBI admit they listen to your cell phone on or off | Daily Newscaster

A New (but Old) Official Enemy

"Instead, year after year U.S. officials have used NATO to provoke and antagonize their old Cold War Official Enemy. For example, while U.S. officials are today claiming outrage over South Ossetia’s attempt to secede from Georgia, NATO forces were used to separate Kosovo from Serbia knowing the humiliation that this would produce for Serbia’s longtime ally Russia..."

"Whatever else might be said about U.S. officials, they certainly are not dumb. By the skillful use of foreign policy, they’ve not only managed to revive their old Cold War Enemy, they’ve also succeeded in adding new Official Enemies to the batch. Hopefully, Americans are paying attention not only to what is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, Georgia, Russia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America but especially to foreign policy that has been emanating from Washington for the past 18 years."

A New (but Old) Official Enemy

Basic Premises by Charley Reese

Pretty good premises.

1. Government is inherently incompetent, and no matter what task it is assigned, it will do that task in the most expensive and inefficient way possible.
2. The American government is corrupt from top to bottom.
3. If you rely on the mass media to inform you about your community, state and nation, you will, with rare exceptions, be woefully ignorant of what is really going on.
4. The universal franchise is a bad idea. The notion that the destiny of the nation should be put in the hands of ignoramuses, parasites, boobs, party hacks and idiots is absurd on its face.
5. Public education in America is a failure and is so flawed it cannot be reformed.
6. Not much has changed in the past 5,000 years of human history.

Basic Premises by Charley Reese

A Familiar Enemy - by Alan Bock

Great commentary on Georgia by Alan Bock.

"I rather like a simplified version of the distinction, to the effect that patriotism is love of one's own country or place while nationalism is hatred of or hostility toward some other country or place. Some might also link patriotism to responsibility, in that a patriot loves his country enough to recognize and want to correct its shortcomings, while a nationalist either recognizes no faults (and insists that anyone who does is a traitor) or constructs elaborate justifications for whatever his or her government has done in his or her name. One might note also that patriotism is peaceful until forced into defending oneself, while nationalism is forever spoiling for a fight..."

"it isn't all that clear who the bad guys or aggressors were here. Just as Georgia sees Russia as the neighborhood bully, the smaller separatist provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia see Georgia as the neighborhood bully, and for reasons rooted in history and ethnicity, among other factors, they prefer (at least significant majorities do) to be more closely associated with Russia, perhaps even to be part of Russia..."

"However, who rules South Ossetia is hardly a core U.S. interest, so there was no sensible reason for the U.S. to intervene – and besides, it had no way to do so. All the blustering without any concrete way to punish Russia only made Bush and McCain (and to some extent Obama) look silly and exposed how helpless a giant the overstretched imperial power is. And to have the invader of Iraq moralizing about invading sovereign countries? I suspect Bush is so self-righteous he didn't even notice a contradiction..."

A Familiar Enemy - by Alan Bock

Neocon Crybabies by Steven LaTulippe

Steven LaTulippe writes:

it’s hard to garner much sympathy for the Georgians. The Russian counteroffensive merely gave the Georgians a stiff dose of precisely the same medicine they were planning to give to the Ossetians.

All in all, it was a humanitarian tragedy, but hardly a heartrending tale of Georgian victimhood.

But America long ago ceased to analyze events with anything remotely resembling an objective moral standard. Nowadays, the only yardsticks our imperial elites understand are power and self-interest...

But from all the whining in the media, you’d think it was the Russians who actually started the war...

In truth, each and every one of these principles has already been embraced – and even glorified – by the very neoconservatives who now so viciously denounce Putin...

Given recent history, the rest of the world must be watching Washington’s anti-Russian hissy fit with slack-jawed disbelief...

Putinism – as he defines it – IS a dangerous and destabilizing ideology. But he needn’t go all the way to Moscow to find it.

Neocon Crybabies by Steven LaTulippe

Masson’s Blog - A Citizen’s Guide to Indiana » Pandora in trouble

Sad report here. I really like Pandora.

Masson’s Blog - A Citizen’s Guide to Indiana » Pandora in trouble

Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure by Murray N. Rothbard

Great financial analysis from Murray Rothbard in 1969, just as much needed and relevant 40 years later.

Banks can only expand comfortably in unison when a Central Bank exists, essentially a governmental bank, enjoying a monopoly of government business, and a privileged position imposed by government over the entire banking system. It is only when central banking got established that the banks were able to expand for any length of time and the familiar business cycle got underway in the modern world...

So now we see, at last, that the business cycle is brought about, not by any mysterious failings of the free market economy, but quite the opposite: By systematic intervention by government in the market process. Government intervention brings about bank expansion and inflation, and, when the inflation comes to an end, the subsequent depression-adjustment comes into play...

What is the governmental role in the cure of depression? In the first place, government must cease inflating as soon as possible. It is true that this will, inevitably, bring the inflationary boom abruptly to an end, and commence the inevitable recession or depression. But the longer the government waits for this, the worse the necessary readjustments will have to be. The sooner the depression-readjustment is gotten over with, the better. This means, also, that the government must never try to prop up unsound business situations; it must never bail out or lend money to business firms in trouble. Doing this will simply prolong the agony and convert a sharp and quick depression phase into a lingering and chronic disease. The government must never try to prop up wage rates or prices of producers' goods; doing so will prolong and delay indefinitely the completion of the depression-adjustment process; it will cause indefinite and prolonged depression and mass unemployment in the vital capital goods industries. The government must not try to inflate again, in order to get out of the depression. For even if this reinflation succeeds, it will only sow greater trouble later on. The government must do nothing to encourage consumption, and it must not increase its own expenditures, for this will further increase the social consumption/investment ratio. In fact, cutting the government budget will improve the ratio. What the economy needs is not more consumption spending but more saving, in order to validate some of the excessive investments of the boom...

Thus, what the government should do, according to the Misesian analysis of the depression, is absolutely nothing. It should, from the point of view of economic health and ending the depression as quickly as possible, maintain a strict hands off, "laissez-faire" policy. Anything it does will delay and obstruct the adjustment process of the market; the less it does, the more rapidly will the market adjustment process do its work, and sound economic recovery ensue.

The Misesian prescription is thus the exact opposite of the Keynesian: It is for the government to keep absolute hands off the economy and to confine itself to stopping its own inflation and to cutting its own budget...

The Coolidge crisis had become the unprecedentedly prolonged Hoover-Roosevelt depression.

Ludwig von Mises, alone armed with a correct theory of the business cycle, was one of the very few economists to predict the Great Depression, and hence the economic world was forced to listen to him with respect.

The time is ripe – for a rediscovery, a renaissance, of the Mises theory of the business cycle. It can come none too soon; if it ever does, ... we would see a massive retreat of government from the economic sphere. But for all this to happen, the world of economics, and the public at large, must be made aware of the existence of an explanation of the business cycle that has lain neglected on the shelf for all too many tragic years.

Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure by Murray N. Rothbard