tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38211521388698309502024-03-22T00:17:59.052-04:00The Bitter PatriotDHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.comBlogger1144125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-19310275657990723022012-11-15T23:37:00.000-05:002012-11-15T23:37:28.388-05:00<div align="center">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Secession? Are you Nucking Futz?</span></div>
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Not that I would disagree with leaving the union, but to give your name to the White House as being someone that is ready to vote no confidence? I think your name on a petition for secession will earn you a choice of Hellfire Missle from a drone, or possibly a reserved space on a FEMA train cattle car.</div>
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DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-36216794783191892012012-11-14T21:29:00.000-05:002012-11-14T21:29:27.763-05:00Man, oh man. It's been a long time since I decided to put text to web and talk about what's going on in my little head.<br />
The election didn't go the way that I or 48million others would have liked, actually over 49million. I voted for Gary Johnson, along with 1.32million other Americans. <br />
<br />
I'm curious, how many people out there understand that the Libertarian Party candidate received pretty much one vote per dollar spent? <br />
<br />
Mittens and Obama spent nearly $3Billion dollars on the 115 million votes they received. That's about $26 per vote.<br />
<br />
You want to have government spend your money effectively? Vote Libertarian.DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-15825848097238410862012-05-14T22:38:00.001-04:002012-05-14T22:38:10.935-04:00"My circus train pulls through the night;<br />
Full of lions and trappeze artists.<br />
I'm done with elephants and clowns;<br />
I want to<br />
run away and join the office."<br />
<br />
Mike Doughty<br />
<br />
once again expresses my absolute feeling.DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-6350851820421162072012-04-17T10:13:00.000-04:002012-04-17T10:13:36.395-04:00Despair and The State - Jeffrey A. TuckerDear Reader, <br />
Maybe a dark column is appropriate for tax day, but, I must tell you, it is not my usual way. Nonetheless, there are certain terrible realities in the world, preventable ones, that we must speak about if we expect to end them. <br />
The sad and tragic story of Andrew Wordes -- the chicken farmer who was driven to despair by government harassment and killed himself last month -- continues to haunt me. And it turns out to be just one of millions of cases of similar psychological torment caused by government, directly and indirectly. These are wholly unnecessary events, inflicting terrible loss on the world. <br />
For every one person who these days who dies fighting in U.S. wars around the world, 25 other soldiers kill themselves. Veterans are killing themselves at a rate of one every 80 minutes. There are than 6,500 veteran suicides every year. That's more than all the American soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last 10 years, according to a New York Times analysis. Being a veteran apparently doubles your risk of suicide.<br />
Economic conditions wrought by government policies around the world have contributed to the death toll. Europe is undergoing an epidemic of suicide in countries seriously hurt by the downturn. In Greece, the suicide rate among men increased more than 24% since the disaster hit. In Ireland, male suicides have shot up more than 16%. In Italy, economic-motivated suicides have increased 52%.<br />
The big aggregates reported here do not convey the level of tragedy experienced in the lives of every single individual here. They leave behind shattered families and wrecked communities. There is an unbearably sad story behind every single statistic. <br />
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the same is happening in the U.S and that the broad trend follows economic prospects. The difference between the rising prosperity of a free market and economic desperation caused by government is really a matter of life and death. The desperation and sadness wrought by war -- an extension of domestic policy and carried out with much higher stakes -- is a symptom of the same problem. <br />
These represent both direct and indirect ways that government is spreading misery around the world. The direct way involves war and its psychological effects. Being harassed by regulators is another direct way: The person sees no way out and is thereby driven to desperate measures. The indirect way results from the economic stagnation caused by government policies. <br />
Life is hard enough on its own. Government makes it harder. Its recession-causing policies; its policy responses that do not work; its regulations that makes people crazy; its poverty-inducing taxes and inflation; and, most of all, its wars have driven millions to despair.<br />
Why the state in particular? It all comes down to the sense of having control over your life. The essence of statecraft is the absence of choice and the inability to escape. Many operations of the state try to disguise these features. <br />
Once you develop a nose for this, you see it everywhere. The faces of people in line at the DMV, the sauntering mass in line to be screened by the TSA and even the blank stares you see in the post office lines. There is something about state policy that demoralizes us all. That takes a toll on our health and our outlook on life and even leads to tragedy. <br />
I think back to the old Soviet days, which to me typify what it means for a society to be entirely under state control. The government put out a magazine called Soviet Life, and it was filled with pictures of happy, healthy people who were living fulfilling and active lives. The contrast with reality couldn't have been more extreme. Emigrants told stories of a demoralized population turning to alcohol, drugs and suicide -- anything to escape the toxic combination of sinking living standards and the absence of choice due to despotism. <br />
Today we know that the propaganda was a lie. What we fail to realize is that this human tragedy is not unique to a fully socialized society. We can get there in small steps by growing the state and expanding its reach year by year until it envelops us in all our life activities. We have to turn to the state ever more. We are blocked by barriers. Everywhere we go, we encounter bureaucrats who demand our papers, riffle through our belongings, forbid what we want to do and mandate what we do not want to. <br />
Of course, soldiers in war face this reality every day. They are not their own persons. They must obey orders whether they make sense or not. They see things that no one should have to see and they are ordered to do things that no one should have to be forced to do. It is hardly surprising that people who go through such an ordeal have confused perspective on the value of human life. <br />
To a lesser extent, citizens in every country with an interventionist state face an analogous situation. They may have a dream of starting or growing a business, but they are blocked -- not because of their own lack of vision, but because of the thicket erected by public policy. The state acts as a dream killer. It becomes all the more maddening when there is nothing that the citizen can do about it. There is no real choice. <br />
Oh they tell us that in a democratic system, we can vote and that this is our choice. We have nothing to complain about. If we don't like the system, we can change it. But this is wholly illusory. The government completely owns the democratic system and administers it to generate the types of results that government wants. More and more people are catching on to this, which is why voter participation falls further in every election season. <br />
The great thinkers of the libertarian tradition have always told us that freedom and the good life are absolutely inseparable. I think of Thomas Jefferson, Frederic Bastiat, Herbert Spencer, Albert Jay Nock, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, F.A. Hayek and so many others. Even contemporary authors have addressed the theme. They had long warned that every step away from freedom would mean a diminution of the quality of life. We are seeing these prophecies come true. <br />
Too often public policy debates take place on the wrong level. The core point is not to make the "system" work better or otherwise fine-tune the rules within a bureaucracy. We need to start talking about larger issues about the dignity of the human person, the moral status of freedom and the rights and liberties of the individual in society. The expansion of the state is not just wrong as a matter of "public policy"; it is wrong because it is dangerous to the good life and the quality of life.<br />
To kill freedom is to kill the essence of what makes us human.<br />
Jeffrey Tucker<br />
Executive Editor<br />
Laissez Faire Books<br />
P.S. Write me anytime with thoughts or suggestions!<br />
<a href="mailto:tucker@lfb.org">tucker@lfb.org</a><br />
LFB Facebook @laissezfairebooks; Personal Facebook @jeffrey.albert.tucker;<br />
Twitter @jeffreyatuckerDHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-21877343661550490882012-04-06T09:18:00.002-04:002012-04-06T10:23:32.740-04:00Death By Regulation - by Jeffrey A. TuckerI had previously heard nothing about the tragic and remarkable case of Andrew Wordes of Roswell, Ga., who set his house on fire and blew it and himself up as police arrived to evict him from his foreclosed-upon home. It was <a href="http://5minforecast.agorafinancial.com/trouble-trayvon-and-three-flashpoints">Agora’s 5 Min. Forecast </a>that alerted me to the case, and this report remains one of not too many mentions in Google’s news feed.<br />
<br />
So I got curious about this case, read some of the background, heard an interview with Andrew and read all the tributes at his memorial service and now I realize he was like all of us living under the despotism of our time. He resisted and resisted as long as he could. But rather than finally complying, he decided that a life that is not his own is not worth living.<br />
<br />
It is a dramatic and deeply sad story that should raise alarms about the least-talked-about cost of a state-run society: the demoralization that sets in when we do not control our own lives. (I’m grateful to <a href="http://www.americandailyherald.com/pundits/glenn-horowitz/item/in-memoriam-andrew-wordes-enemy-of-the-state">Glenn Horowitz </a>for his careful reconstruction of the timeline of events.)<br />
<br />
The whole ordeal began only a few years ago, when Wordes began to keep chickens in his backyard. His property was on 1 acre, but it was surrounded by secluded woods. He loved the birds, sold and gave away eggs to people and enjoyed showing kids the animals. He was also very good at this job, and being something of a free spirit, he chose to make something he loved his profession.<br />
The city objected and came after him. In 2008, the zoning department issued a warning about the chickens on his property. This was odd because he was violating no ordinance at all; indeed, the code specifically approved chickens on properties of less than 2 acres. Even the mayor at the time objected to the department’s claim, but the department went ahead anyway. A year later, and with the assistance of former Gov. Roy Barnes, Wordes won in court!<br />
<br />
But then look: The city council rewrote the law with no grandfather clause. It forbade more than six chickens on any lot, and specified that all chickens have to be in a permanent enclosure. He had tried to get approval for an enclosure, but because his house was on a flood plain, the city would not issue an approval. In the midst of this controversy, a flood did come to his house, and he had to use a Bobcat to move dirt around to save his house and his chickens.<br />
<br />
Sure enough, the city then issued two citations for moving dirt without a permit and having illegal, unrestrained chickens. Then, the city refused to submit to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) his request for reconstruction funds after this storm (individuals on their own cannot get money of this sort). Next, the city contacted his mortgage holder, who was a friend and who had carried his mortgage for 16 years, and pressured her to sell the mortgage to stay out of legal trouble.<br />
Do you get the sense from this that Mr. Wordes was being targeted? Absolutely. And he knew it, too. The Roswell Police Department pulled him over constantly and issued as many tickets as possible for whatever reason, tangling him in more difficulties. Police cars would wait in front of his house and follow him. And when he didn’t cough up enough money (he was nearly bankrupt after all this), they would book him and throw him in jail. This happened on several occasions. Meanwhile, the city itself filed several more suits against him.<br />
<br />
It gets worse. The city planners came up with a “Roswell 2030 Plan” that posited a parks area exactly where his home was. Hearing of this, Wordes offered to sell his home to the city, but the city refused. They clearly planned to drive him out of it with this legal barrage. It didn’t matter that Wordes won every legal challenge or managed to get the suits thrown out in court — that only made the city angrier. Eventually, the city managed to a get probated sentence, setting up a tripwire that would eventually destroy his livelihood.<br />
<br />
He posted on his Facebook account that he was going to be a attending a political event. While he was gone, his chickens were poisoned. Also poisoned were the baby turkeys, 10 of which were actually owned by the mayor, who was a friend. At this point, he had lost his means of support. While panicked about what to do, he missed a probation check-in. He was ordered to serve the remainder of his probated sentence in jail for 99 days.<br />
<br />
While in jail, his home was ransacked and looted. Of course, the police did nothing. In fact, they probably approved it. Also while in jail, the new mortgage holder foreclosed on his home. His entire life was now in shambles.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="alignright" height="373" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/o3b5TXGPIaBq7mgQ2IuDOt12NslWboNWwWISJwosK1wmwOBSnnperpayLpZy1SJPCt1XmAl_1dkPzRdkRU_MnqqV1S3MTFViSq6DRsvQLWqUPjZVGcM" width="316" /></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div>The final episode came on March 26 this year. The police had come for the final eviction. Wordes locked himself in the house for several hours. He then came out and told all authorities to step far away from the house. He lit a match, and the gasoline he had doused all over the house created a gigantic explosion. Wordes’ own body was charred beyond recognition.<br />
<br />
Maybe you think that Wordes was some sort of freak who couldn’t somehow adjust to normal life with neighbors. Well, it turns out that he was just about the greatest neighbor one could ever have. At his final service, person after person testified how he would come to anyone’s aid at a moment’s notice, how he fixed things and gave away eggs and was incredibly generous to everyone around him. I listened to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=D0Md7aIudZE">an interview with him</a> and found him extremely well-spoken and intelligent.<br />
<br />
I tell you, if you can listen to this interview without tears welling up, you have no heart. This man was the heart and soul of what made this a great country. The law hounded and hounded him, mainly because some bureaucrats had made a plan that excluded his home. They carried out that plan. He became an enemy of the state. Demoralized and beaten down, he finally had no way out. He ended his life.<br />
<br />
Note, too, that he had the support of the high-ranking members of the political class, including the current mayor and a former governor. Bear in mind what this signifies: The political class is not really running things. As I’ve written many times, the political class is only the veneer of the state; it is not the state itself. The state is the permanent bureaucratic structures, those untouched by elections. These institutions make up the real ruling apparatus of government.<br />
<br />
It is hard to say that Wordes made the right decision. But it was a courageous one — at least I think it was. It is a difficult moral choice, isn’t it? When the police come to take all you have and are determined to cut out your heart and soul and reduce your life to nothing but a sack of bones and muscle, without the right to choose to do what you love — and you really see no way out — do you really have a life? Wordes decided no.<br />
<br />
The rest of us need to think hard about this case, and perhaps you can also spare a few thoughts in memory of his good life, and even a prayer for his immortal soul. May we all long to live in a society in which such people can thrive and enjoy “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”<br />
<br />
<a href="http://lfb.org/today/author/jeffreytucker/"><img alt="Author Image for Jeffrey Tucker" src="http://dailyreckoning.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/5/files/2011/11/Tucker-Head-Shot.jpg" width="80" /></a><br />
<div class="authordata authordata-114702"><div class="authorbio authorbio-114702"><h3 class="authorname authorname-114702"><a href="http://lfb.org/today/author/jeffreytucker/">Jeffrey Tucker</a></h3>Jeffrey Tucker is the publisher and executive editor of <a href="http://lfb.org/">Laissez-Faire Books</a>, and the author of <a href="http://lfb.org/shop/philosophy/bourbon-for-breakfast/"><em>Bourbon for Breakfast: Living Outside the Statist Quo</em> </a>and <a href="http://lfb.org/shop/economics/its-a-jetsons-world-private-miracles-and-public-crimes-copy/"><em>It's a Jetsons World: Private Miracles and Public Crimes</em></a>, among thousands of articles. Write him at<a href="mailto:tucker@lfb.org?subject=From%20LFB.org"> tucker@lfb.org</a>. </div><div class="authorlink authorlink-114702">View <a href="http://lfb.org/today/author/jeffreytucker/" rel="author">articles by Jeffrey Tucker</a></div></div>DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-36230463495978081002012-04-05T15:35:00.000-04:002012-04-05T15:35:53.874-04:00CNN Enhances Zimmerman 911 Call Again — And Reporter Now Doubts Racial Slur UsedAs reported in The Blaze - <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/cnn-enhances-zimmerman-911-call-again-and-reporter-now-doubts-racial-slur-used/">CNN manipulated the 911 call</a> to make it sound like the Trayvon Martin shooting was racially motivated. I'm sure it was at the direction of DOJ or even the White House.DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-42023628499566697522012-04-05T11:07:00.000-04:002012-04-05T11:07:51.791-04:00Food Inflation or Fiat Currency Inflation?As expected with ever expanding the volume of Fiat Currencies, like the Dollar, Euro and Yen, prices are rising on commodities very quickly. Of course, as Reuters reports below, the reason for rising prices is blamed on other commodities instead of the money supply.<br />
I believe that before anyone should be allowed to report on economics or inflationary results, they should be required to read Von Mises, Rothbard and Friedman, to name a few.<br />
<br />
By Svetlana Kovalyova<br />
<span id="midArticle_3"></span>MILAN, April 5 (Reuters) - World food prices are likely to rise for a third successive month in March, and could gain further beyond that, with expensive oil and chronically low stocks of some key grains putting food inflation firmly back on the economic agenda.<br />
<span id="midArticle_4"></span>Food prices grabbed world policy makers' attention after hitting record highs in February 2011 and stoking protests connected to the Arab Spring wave of civil unrest in some north Africa and middle eastern countries.<br />
<span id="midArticle_5"></span>Prices later receded, but an upturn which began in January, initally seen as a pause in the overall downtrend, has persisted.<br />
<span id="midArticle_6"></span>The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) will update its monthly Food Price Index on Thursday and the organisation says prices could rise more in the short and medium term as grain supply tightens and energy prices stay high.<br />
<span id="midArticle_7"></span>"You can see prices in the near term rising even further," FAO's senior economist and grain analyst Abdolreza Abbassian told Reuters ahead of the index update.<br />
<span id="midArticle_8"></span>High crude oil prices have fuelled the upward pressure on inflation since the start of this year. Consumer prices in the 17 nations sharing the euro were up 2.6 percent in March from a year ago, despite stumbling economy.<br />
<span id="midArticle_9"></span>"The food price index has an extremely high correlation to oil prices and with oil prices up it's going to be difficult for food prices not to follow suit," said Nick Higgins, commodity analyst at Rabobank International.<br />
<span id="midArticle_10"></span>Energy prices affect the production of fertilizers as well as costs related to food distribution and farm machinery use.<br />
<span id="midArticle_11"></span>"We really saw the (food index) declines in Q4 2011 as being anomalous and related more to sell offs from the threats posed by the European macroeconomic situation rather than agricultural fundamentals," he added.<br />
<span id="midArticle_12"></span>The FAO index - which measures price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy products, meat and sugar - rose in February and January.<br />
<span id="midArticle_13"></span>A U.S. government report last Friday with its lower than expected estimates of grain stocks and falls in soybean and wheat plantings, added to concerns about global grain supplies and fuelled a rally in U.S. and European grain futures.<br />
<span id="midArticle_3"></span>Corn and soybeans are set to be the major drivers on world grain markets until new crops are harvested with strong price swings prompted by weather changes in major producing countries, Abbassian said.<br />
<span id="midArticle_4"></span>More price volatility could come if U.S. farmers decide to plant more soybeans lured by high prices, he added.<br />
<span id="midArticle_5"></span>U.S. soybean futures rose about 7 percent in March and gained about 17 percent in the first quarter of this year spurred by concerns about tight supplies as drought hit South America and smaller U.S. plantings were expected.<br />
<span id="midArticle_6"></span>On the physical markets, whose prices FAO uses to calculate its food index, the average monthly price of U.S. soybeans jumped to $519.43 a tonne in March from $487.31 a tonne in February, the FAO's database showed.<br />
<span id="midArticle_7"></span>But FAO's Abbassian said prices could still fall in the second half of this year with new crops easing market tension and driving full-year average prices below record levels of 2011.<br />
<span id="midArticle_8"></span>The FAO is also expected to update its world crops view on ThursdayDHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-66660620506379960782012-04-04T23:25:00.000-04:002012-04-04T23:25:00.469-04:00Just Not Sure AnymoreIt seems that every day the news brings another story of yet one more of my personal liberties has been stolen. What do we do?DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-47188990632786511782012-02-09T22:47:00.000-05:002012-02-09T22:47:37.143-05:00"Proponents of Gold Standard May Be Violent Extremists; Report ALL Suspicious Activity To the FBI"From Mac Slavo of SHTFPlan<br />
If you support returning the United States monetary system to sound money backed by the gold standard and believe that our country is bankrupt as a consequence of out-of-control spending and fiat money printing, then you may soon receive a visit from your local DHS/FBI office.<br />
<br />
This morning your family, friends and neighbors were alerted by representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation that you and those who share similar ideas as you are potentially dangerous extremists that could threaten the national security of the United States:<br />
<br />
"Anti-government extremists opposed to taxes and regulations pose a growing threat to local law enforcement officers in the United States, the FBI warned on Monday.<br />
These extremists, sometimes known as "sovereign citizens," believe they can live outside any type of government authority, FBI agents said at a news conference.<br />
"The extremists may refuse to pay taxes, defy government environmental regulations and believe the United States went bankrupt by going off the gold standard.<br />
Source: <a href="http://clicks.whiskeyandgunpowder.com//t/AQ/AAlbjw/AAlsOA/AAXT0g/AQ/An5meQ/7Hu7">Reuters</a><br />
<br />
Whether you like it or not, if you promote the ownership of gold, reject the notion that forced taxation is your patriotic duty and prefer to live in a country with limited government interference, you have now been stereotyped and grouped in with the handful of criminals who have recently turned violent against law enforcement officials. And, chances are that those close to you, who may not necessarily share your views, have now been alerted to your volatile nature and potential for violence against local law enforcement officials and the free people of the United States.<br />
<br />
"Routine encounters with police can turn violent "at the drop of a hat," said Stuart McArthur, deputy assistant director in the FBI's counterterrorism division.<br />
"'We thought it was important to increase the visibility of the threat with state and local law enforcement,' he said.<br />
"In May 2010, two West Memphis, Arkansas, police officers were shot and killed in an argument that developed after they pulled over a "sovereign citizen" in traffic.<br />
Last year, an extremist in Texas opened fire on a police officer during a traffic stop. The officer was not hit."<br />
<br />
The narrative is clear: If you share the same ideas as someone who has made a personal choice to turn to violence in the past, then you too must be an equal threat. Furthermore, the FBI is actively instructing businesses in your local area to be on the look-out for suspicious activity which may be precursors to anti-government activities.<br />
In a related story from Infowars, Paul Watson reports that FBI advisory aimed at Internet Cafe owners instructs businesses to report people who regularly use cash to pay for their coffee as potential terrorists.<br />
<br />
"The flyer, issued under the FBI's Communities Against Terrorism (CAT) program, lists examples of "suspicious activity" and then encourages businesses to gather information about individuals and report them to the authorities.<br />
...<br />
"Indeed, the flyer aimed at Internet Cafe owners characterizes customers who "always pay cash" as potential terrorists.<br />
"Of course, the vast majority of people who visit Internet Cafes use cash to pay their bill. Who uses a credit card to buy a $2 dollar cup of coffee? A lot of smaller establishments don't even accept credit cards for amounts less than $10 dollars.<br />
"Other examples of suspicious behavior include using a "residential based Internet provider" such as AOL or Comcast, the use of "anonymizers, portals, or other means to shield IP address" (these are routinely used by mobile web users to bypass public Internet filters), "Suspicious communications using VOIP," and "Preoccupation with press coverage of terrorist attack" (this would apply to the vast majority of people who work in the news or political blogging industry)."<br />
Source: <a href="http://clicks.whiskeyandgunpowder.com//t/AQ/AAlbjw/AAlsOA/AAXYNA/AQ/An5meQ/GSso">Info Wars</a><br />
Also See: <a href="http://clicks.whiskeyandgunpowder.com//t/AQ/AAlbjw/AAlsOA/AAXYNQ/AQ/An5meQ/09Aw">FBI CAT - Potential Indicators of Terrorist Activities Related to Internet Café</a> <br />
<br />
In a coincidental stroke of good luck and timing for the national security apparatus of the United States, the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) allows for the rounding up and detainment of of these potential extremists without charge or trial, because the last thing we need is for courts, juries, and evidence to be involved in ensuring the security of American citizens.<br />
Be warned fellow Americans. No one will be immune to the violative laws, policies and regulations of the police state which is quickly and forcefully embedding itself into all aspects of American life and culture.<br />
In the new America, every man, woman and child is a suspect, person-of-interest and potential terrorist.<br />
--Mac Slavo, <br />
<a href="http://shtfplan.com/">SHTFPlan.com</a>DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-50861137567479446182012-01-30T23:33:00.001-05:002012-01-30T23:34:58.635-05:00Stefan Moleneux and Jeffrey A. TuckerJeffrey Tucker is, by far, one of my all time favorite writers. He combines a unique southern wit with a permanently optimistic free market libertarianism that make everyone want to go out and buy a smart phone that can connect with the world, while eating home made ice cream, just before getting into a really hot, hi flow shower!<br />
I had the fortune to book Jeffrey Tucker to speak at the Libertarian Party of Georgia 2012 State Convention, Feb 25th. <br />
I also had the luck to secure an address to our group by Stefan Moleneux. After booking both of these fine gentlemen to take part in the liberty movement of Georgia, I ran across an incredible gem. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/StefanMolyneuxOfFreedomainRadio/posts/238612112876554">Stefan Moleneux reading Jeffrey Tucker's "It's a Jetson's World..."</a><br />
I cannot begin to tell you how excited I am to have both of these men participating in our convention. Jeffrey Tucker says of Stefan, "He is one of the top three intellectual Libertarians of our generation, along with Hoppe and Kinsella"<br />
I have to admit, I thought he was going to say "along with Lawrence W. Reed and Jeffrey Tucker"....DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-33807172996463250612012-01-29T10:03:00.000-05:002012-01-29T10:03:30.539-05:00If the TSA will detain a US Senator, what will they do to you?On Monday, U.S. Senator Rand Paul was detained by the TSA for about two hours at an airport in Nashville. By doing so, TSA officials directly violated the U.S. Constitution and they demonstrated once again why the rest of the world is coming to regard us as a bunch of disgusting, arrogant "pig people". Do we really want to get such a bad reputation that virtually nobody will ever want to visit this country? We are going to absolutely destroy our tourism industry with this nonsense. Yes, we all want to fly safely, but other countries get the job done without their security officials running around acting like a bunch of Nazi prison guards. The TSA should be shut down, but if Congress wants it to continue to exist it should be given a dual mandate. It should be directed to protect the dignity of the American people first, and the safety of the American people second. If those running the TSA don't believe that this is possible, then they should be immediately replaced, because there are a whole lot of good people out there that could get the job done. Right now, TSA officials are treating American citizens like they aren't even human. The truth is that Rand Paul got off easy compared to what has happened to many other Americans. As I have written about previously, some elderly Americans have been strip-searched, some have had their adult diapers removed, and some have even been left covered in urine by invasive TSA searches. If the TSA will treat Senator Rand Paul like a scumbag, and if they will brutally strip-search elderly women, than what do you think they are going to do to you when the time comes?<br />
<br />
I don't know about you, but I did not sign up to live in North Korea.<br />
<br />
I signed up to live in America.<br />
<br />
But the country we are living in does not look much like America anymore.<br />
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It is as if the U.S. Constitution does not even matter anymore.<br />
<br />
When TSA thugs detained Senator Rand Paul, they directly violated the U.S. Constitution, and nobody in the mainstream media seems upset by this.<br />
<br />
Fortunately, many in the alternative media have taken note of this constitutional violation. The following is from an article by Steve Watson....<br />
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The Constitution specifically protects federal lawmakers from being detained while en route to Washington DC.<br />
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Article I, Section 6 states:<br />
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“The Senators and Representatives…shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same….”<br />
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Rand Paul was travelling from his home in Louisville to attend a session in the Senate today.<br />
<br />
The TSA is publicly saying that "normal procedure" was followed during the episode involving Senator Rand Paul. He was detained in a small cubicle for approximately two hours after he inadvertently set off a scanner alarm.<br />
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A Daily Caller article described what happened to Senator Paul when he attempted to leave the cubicle that he was being held in....<br />
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“I tried to leave the cubicle to speak to one of the TSA people and I was barked at: ‘Do not leave the cubicle!’ So, that, to me sounds like I’m being asked not to leave the cubicle. It sounds a little bit like I’m being detained.”<br />
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That is how TSA agents are trained to behave. They are trained to bark orders at us. It doesn't even matter if you are a U.S Senator apparently.<br />
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TSA agents on the scene wanted to subject Senator Paul to an "enhanced pat-down" during which his genitals would be touched. Understandably, Senator Paul did not want to submit to such a humiliating inspection....<br />
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“For an hour and a half, they said ‘absolutely, I would have to [accept a pat-down],’” Paul said. “And, because I used my cell phone, they told me I would have to do a full body pat down because you’re not allowed to use your cell phone when you’re being detained.”<br />
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Thankfully, Senator Paul was eventually allowed to go back through the original scanner and it did not beep the second time through.<br />
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Other travelers have not been treated so nicely.<br />
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When informed about this incident, the Obama administration was quick to defend the TSA.<br />
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White House press secretary Jay Carney said the following about the incident....<br />
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"I think it is absolutely essential that we take necessary actions to ensure that air travel is safe."<br />
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Of course that is a bunch of nonsense. Dozens of other countries have a far better air security record than we do and yet they do not subject their citizens to this kind of abuse.<br />
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Rand Paul's father, presidential candidate Ron Paul, issued a statement which strongly condemned the actions of the TSA....<br />
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"The police state in this country is growing out of control. One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities. The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe."<br />
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Hopefully this will become a major issue during the race for the Republican nomination.<br />
<br />
Instead of spending all of our time discussing Mitt Romney's taxes or Newt Gingrich's "skeletons", we should be spending a lot more time talking about how the United States of America is rapidly being transformed into a totalitarian police state.<br />
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It is absolutely disgusting what some Americans are being forced to endure just to get on a flight.<br />
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During a Congressional hearing in 2011, Senator Paul expressed outrage over the fact that TSA agents are feeling up the private areas of little girls in the name of "national security"....<br />
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"You’ve gone overboard and you’re missing the boat on terrorism because you’re doing these invasive searches on six-year-old girls."<br />
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And you know what?<br />
<br />
What the federal government does sets an example for the rest of the nation.<br />
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Over in Stark County Ohio a couple of years ago, it was documented that police strip-searched female suspects until they were fully naked, recorded them on video and then left them naked in their cells for up to six hours.<br />
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Of course all of that was done in the name of "keeping us safe", right?<br />
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Some example we are setting for the rest of the world, eh?<br />
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Our country is going downhill so fast that it is hard to find words to describe it.<br />
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A lot of us are not flying anymore because we don't want the TSA examining our private parts, but now the TSA is bringing its own special brand of "security" to thousands of other locations across the United States as the Los Angeles Times recently detailed....<br />
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The Transportation Security Administration isn't just in airports anymore. TSA teams are increasingly conducting searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and other mass transit locations around the country.<br />
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"We are not the Airport Security Administration," said Ray Dineen, the air marshal in charge of the TSA office in Charlotte. "We take that transportation part seriously."<br />
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The TSA's 25 "viper" teams – for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response – have run more than 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year. Department of Homeland Security officials have asked Congress for funding to add 12 more teams next year.<br />
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Who ever thought that we would see the day when "VIPER teams" were running around all over America setting up internal security checkpoints?<br />
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Even if you just sit home all day there is still a good chance that you will get the attention of the Department of Homeland Security.<br />
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The Department of Homeland Security has announced that it is now diligently watching the Internet.<br />
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According to a recent Fox News article, the Department of Homeland Security has decided that it is important for them to keep an eye on "forums, blogs, public websites and message boards"....<br />
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Though still in development, DHS is looking to establish a system for monitoring "forums, blogs, public websites and message boards." The idea is to gather and analyze publicly available information, and then use that information to help officials respond to disasters and other situations.<br />
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In case you were wondering, yes, they will probably read this article. Hopefully it will shame some of them into cleaning up their acts.<br />
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This country is being run by a bunch of psychotic control freaks that are obsessed with watching, monitoring, tracking and controlling virtually everything that we do.<br />
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Sadly, most Americans have bought into the lie that unless they give up huge chunks of liberty and freedom none of us will be safe.<br />
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But when we give these un-American control freaks an inch, they just keep trying to take a mile.<br />
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With our children, they are starting very early. As I have written about previously, most of our public schools are being turned into indoctrination centers and prison camps. Millions upon millions of Americans children are being trained to be good little slaves and most parents have no idea what is going on.<br />
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America is supposed to be about freedom and liberty.<br />
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It is supposed to be a place where we don't have control freaks on our backs 24 hours a day.<br />
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But instead we are becoming the exact opposite of what America is supposed to be.<br />
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No matter how much liberty and freedom we give up, the world is always going to be a very dangerous place.<br />
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In the future, there are undoubtedly going to be some very bad things that happen in our world.<br />
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But having TSA thugs touch the private parts of our women and our children is not going to prevent any of it from happening.<br />
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Instead of being an example for the rest of the world, we are becoming a bad joke.<br />
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Please wake up America.<br />
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Reprinted with permission from End of the American Dream.DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-68613033303730987232012-01-16T23:06:00.000-05:002012-01-16T23:06:32.974-05:00Ron Paul Is The Man For Our Time<object style="height: 390px; width: 440px;"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jSVi45vfA6o?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jSVi45vfA6o?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="440" height="360"></object>DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-38757173197939923442012-01-03T23:08:00.000-05:002012-01-03T23:08:57.638-05:00Big Bank Whores Leading In IowaAt the time of this writing, all I can think is either the people of Iowa are crazy or the votes have been manipulated somehow. No one in their right mind would be voting for Rick <a href="http://spreadingsantorum.com/">Santorum</a>. Mitt Romney, at least I understand how the <a href="http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-10-13/news/30293901_1_romney-spokeswoman-andrea-saul-mitt-romney-obama-lite">bank whore</a> is tied for first place.<br />
Ron Paul is on the rise! So, he has come in third after the GOP made it very clear that they had <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQXVB9buAmc&feature=share">no intention of letting Ron Paul win.</a><br />
As Sarah Palin said today, <a href="http://www.therightscoop.com/palin-gop-better-not-marginalize-ron-paul-and-his-supporters/">"The GOP better not marginalize Ron Paul or his supporters", </a>and she's right. The government is out of control and the message is clear, Freedom Is Popular! DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-26568708192876553622011-12-19T20:36:00.000-05:002011-12-19T20:36:55.932-05:00War, Peace and the Stateby Murray N. Rothbard<br />
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This article, which first appeared in The Standard for April 1963, is collected in Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays.<br />
<br />
The libertarian movement has been chided by William F. Buckley, Jr., for failing to use its "strategic intelligence" in facing the major problems of our time. We have, indeed, been too often prone to "pursue our busy little seminars on whether or not to demunicipalize the garbage collectors" (as Buckley has contemptuously written), while ignoring and failing to apply libertarian theory to the most vital problem of our time: war and peace. There is a sense in which libertarians have been utopian rather than strategic in their thinking, with a tendency to divorce the ideal system which we envisage from the realities of the world in which we live. In short, too many of us have divorced theory from practice, and have then been content to hold the pure libertarian society as an abstract ideal for some remotely future time, while in the concrete world of today we follow unthinkingly the orthodox "conservative" line. To live liberty, to begin the hard but essential strategic struggle of changing the unsatisfactory world of today in the direction of our ideals, we must realize and demonstrate to the world that libertarian theory can be brought sharply to bear upon all of the world's crucial problems. By coming to grips with these problems, we can demonstrate that libertarianism is not just a beautiful ideal somewhere on Cloud Nine, but a tough-minded body of truths that enables us to take our stand and to cope with the whole host of issues of our day. <br />
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Let us then, by all means, use our strategic intelligence. Although, when he sees the result, Mr. Buckley might well wish that we had stayed in the realm of garbage collection. Let us construct a libertarian theory of war and peace. <br />
<br />
The fundamental axiom of libertarian theory is that no one may threaten or commit violence ("aggress") against another man's person or property. Violence may be employed only against the man who commits such violence; that is, only defensively against the aggressive violence of another.1 In short, no violence may be employed against a non-aggressor. Here is the fundamental rule from which can be deduced the entire corpus of libertarian theory.2 <br />
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Let us set aside the more complex problem of the State for a while and consider simply relations between "private" individuals. Jones finds that he or his property is being invaded, aggressed against, by Smith. It is legitimate for Jones, as we have seen, to repel this invasion by defensive violence of his own. But now we come to a more knotty question: is it within the right of Jones to commit violence against innocent third parties as a corollary to his legitimate defense against Smith? To the libertarian, the answer must be clearly, no. Remember that the rule prohibiting violence against the persons or property of innocent men is absolute: it holds regardless of the subjective motives for the aggression. It is wrong and criminal to violate the property or person of another, even if one is a Robin Hood, or starving, or is doing it to save one's relatives, or is defending oneself against a third man's attack. We may understand and sympathize with the motives in many of these cases and extreme situations. We may later mitigate the guilt if the criminal comes to trial for punishment, but we cannot evade the judgment that this aggression is still a criminal act, and one which the victim has every right to repel, by violence if necessary. In short, A aggresses against B because C is threatening, or aggressing against, A. We may understand C's "higher" culpability in this whole procedure; but we must still label this aggression as a criminal act which B has the right to repel by violence. <br />
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To be more concrete, if Jones finds that his property is being stolen by Smith, he has the right to repel him and try to catch him; but he has no right to repel him by bombing a building and murdering innocent people or to catch him by spraying machine gun fire into an innocent crowd. If he does this, he is as much (or more of) a criminal aggressor as Smith is. <br />
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The application to problems of war and peace is already becoming evident. For while war in the narrower sense is a conflict between States, in the broader sense we may define it as the outbreak of open violence between people or groups of people. If Smith and a group of his henchmen aggress against Jones and Jones and his bodyguards pursue the Smith gang to their lair, we may cheer Jones on in his endeavor; and we, and others in society interested in repelling aggression, may contribute financially or personally to Jones's cause. But Jones has no right, any more than does Smith, to aggress against anyone else in the course of his "just war": to steal others' property in order to finance his pursuit, to conscript others into his posse by use of violence, or to kill others in the course of his struggle to capture the Smith forces. If Jones should do any of these things, he becomes a criminal as fully as Smith, and he too becomes subject to whatever sanctions are meted out against criminality. In fact, if Smith's crime was theft, and Jones should use conscription to catch him, or should kill others in the pursuit, Jones becomes more of a criminal than Smith, for such crimes against another person as enslavement and murder are surely far worse than theft. (For while theft injures the extension of another's personality, enslavement injures, and murder obliterates, that personality itself.) <br />
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Suppose that Jones, in the course of his "just war" against the ravages of Smith, should kill a few innocent people, and suppose that he should declaim, in defense of this murder, that he was simply acting on the slogan, "Give me liberty or give me death." The absurdity of this "defense" should be evident at once, for the issue is not whether Jones was willing to risk death personally in his defensive struggle against Smith; the issue is whether he was willing to kill other people in pursuit of his legitimate end. For Jones was in truth acting on the completely indefensible slogan: "Give me liberty or give them death" surely a far less noble battle cry. 3<br />
The libertarian's basic attitude toward war must then be: it is legitimate to use violence against criminals in defense of one's rights of person and property; it is completely impermissible to violate the rights of other innocent people. War, then, is only proper when the exercise of violence is rigorously limited to the individual criminals. We may judge for ourselves how many wars or conflicts in history have met this criterion. <br />
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It has often been maintained, and especially by conservatives, that the development of the horrendous modern weapons of mass murder (nuclear weapons, rockets, germ warfare, etc.) is only a difference of degree rather than kind from the simpler weapons of an earlier era. Of course, one answer to this is that when the degree is the number of human lives, the difference is a very big one.4 But another answer that the libertarian is particularly equipped to give is that while the bow and arrow and even the rifle can be pinpointed, if the will be there, against actual criminals, modern nuclear weapons cannot. Here is a crucial difference in kind. Of course, the bow and arrow could be used for aggressive purposes, but it could also be pinpointed to use only against aggressors. Nuclear weapons, even "conventional" aerial bombs, cannot be. These weapons are ipso facto engines of indiscriminate mass destruction. (The only exception would be the extremely rare case where a mass of people who were all criminals inhabited a vast geographical area.) We must, therefore, conclude that the use of nuclear or similar weapons, or the threat thereof, is a sin and a crime against humanity for which there can be no justification. <br />
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This is why the old cliché no longer holds that it is not the arms but the will to use them that is significant in judging matters of war and peace. For it is precisely the characteristic of modern weapons that they cannot be used selectively, cannot be used in a libertarian manner. Therefore, their very existence must be condemned, and nuclear disarmament becomes a good to be pursued for its own sake. And if we will indeed use our strategic intelligence, we will see that such disarmament is not only a good, but the highest political good that we can pursue in the modern world. For just as murder is a more heinous crime against another man than larceny, so mass murder – indeed murder so widespread as to threaten human civilization and human survival itself – is the worst crime that any man could possibly commit. And that crime is now imminent. And the forestalling of massive annihilation is far more important, in truth, than the demunicipalization of garbage disposal, as worthwhile as that may be. Or are libertarians going to wax properly indignant about price control or the income tax, and yet shrug their shoulders at or even positively advocate the ultimate crime of mass murder?<br />
<br />
If nuclear warfare is totally illegitimate even for individuals defending themselves against criminal assault, how much more so is nuclear or even "conventional" warfare between States! <br />
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It is time now to bring the State into our discussion. The State is a group of people who have managed to acquire a virtual monopoly of the use of violence throughout a given territorial area. In particular, it has acquired a monopoly of aggressive violence, for States generally recognize the right of individuals to use violence (though not against States, of course) in self-defense.5 The State then uses this monopoly to wield power over the inhabitants of the area and to enjoy the material fruits of that power. The State, then, is the only organization in society that regularly and openly obtains its monetary revenues by the use of aggressive violence; all other individuals and organizations (except if delegated that right by the State) can obtain wealth only by peaceful production and by voluntary exchange of their respective products. This use of violence to obtain its revenue (called "taxation") is the keystone of State power. Upon this base the State erects a further structure of power over the individuals in its territory, regulating them, penalizing critics, subsidizing favorites, etc. The State also takes care to arrogate to itself the compulsory monopoly of various critical services needed by society, thus keeping the people in dependence upon the State for key services, keeping control of the vital command posts in society and also fostering among the public the myth that only the State can supply these goods and services. Thus the State is careful to monopolize police and judicial service, the ownership of roads and streets, the supply of money, and the postal service, and effectively to monopolize or control education, public utilities, transportation, and radio and television. <br />
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Now, since the State arrogates to itself the monopoly of violence over a territorial area, so long as its depredations and extortions go unresisted, there is said to be "peace" in the area, since the only violence is one-way, directed by the State downward against the people. Open conflict within the area only breaks out in the case of "revolutions" in which people resist the use of State power against them. Both the quiet case of the State unresisted and the case of open revolution may be termed "vertical violence": violence of the State against its public or vice versa. <br />
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In the modern world, each land area is ruled over by a State organization, but there are a number of States scattered over the earth, each with a monopoly of violence over its own territory. No super-State exists with a monopoly of violence over the entire world; and so a state of "anarchy" exists between the several States. (It has always been a source of wonder, incidentally, to this writer how the same conservatives who denounce as lunatic any proposal for eliminating a monopoly of violence over a given territory and thus leaving private individuals without an overlord, should be equally insistent upon leaving States without an overlord to settle disputes between them. The former is always denounced as "crackpot anarchism"; the latter is hailed as preserving independence and "national sovereignty" from "world government.") And so, except for revolutions, which occur only sporadically, the open violence and two-sided conflict in the world takes place between two or more States, that is, in what is called "international war" (or "horizontal violence"). <br />
<br />
Now there are crucial and vital differences between inter-State warfare on the one hand and revolutions against the State or conflicts between private individuals on the other. One vital difference is the shift in geography. In a revolution, the conflict takes place within the same geographical area: both the minions of the State and the revolutionaries inhabit the same territory. Inter-State warfare, on the other hand, takes place between two groups, each having a monopoly over its own geographical area; that is, it takes place between inhabitants of different territories. From this difference flow several important consequences: (1) in inter-State war the scope for the use of modern weapons of destruction is far greater. For if the "escalation" of weaponry in an intra-territorial conflict becomes too great, each side will blow itself up with the weapons directed against the other. Neither a revolutionary group nor a State combating revolution, for example, can use nuclear weapons against the other. But, on the other hand, when the warring parties inhabit different territorial areas, the scope for modern weaponry becomes enormous, and the entire arsenal of mass devastation can come into play. A second consequence (2) is that while it is possible for revolutionaries to pinpoint their targets and confine them to their State enemies, and thus avoid aggressing against innocent people, pinpointing is far less possible in an inter-State war.6 This is true even with older weapons; and, of course, with modern weapons there can be no pinpointing whatever. Furthermore, (3) since each State can mobilize all the people and resources in its territory, the other State comes to regard all the citizens of the opposing country as at least temporarily its enemies and to treat them accordingly by extending the war to them. Thus, all of the consequences of inter-territorial war make it almost inevitable that inter-State war will involve aggression by each side against the innocent civilians – the private individuals – of the other. This inevitability becomes absolute with modern weapons of mass destruction. <br />
<br />
If one distinct attribute of inter-State war is inter-territoriality, another unique attribute stems from the fact that each State lives by taxation over its subjects. Any war against another State, therefore, involves the increase and extension of taxation-aggression over its own people.7 Conflicts between private individuals can be, and usually are, voluntarily waged and financed by the parties concerned. Revolutions can be, and often are, financed and fought by voluntary contributions of the public. But State wars can only be waged through aggression against the taxpayer. <br />
<br />
All State wars, therefore, involve increased aggression against the State's own taxpayers, and almost all State wars (all, in modern warfare) involve the maximum aggression (murder) against the innocent civilians ruled by the enemy State. On the other hand, revolutions are generally financed voluntarily and may pinpoint their violence to the State rulers, and private conflicts may confine their violence to the actual criminals. The libertarian must, therefore, conclude that, while some revolutions and some private conflicts may be legitimate, State wars are always to be condemned. <br />
<br />
Many libertarians object as follows: "While we too deplore the use of taxation for warfare, and the State's monopoly of defense service, we have to recognize that these conditions exist, and while they do, we must support the State in just wars of defense." The reply to this would go as follows: "Yes, as you say, unfortunately States exist, each having a monopoly of violence over its territorial area." What then should be the attitude of the libertarian toward conflicts between these States? The libertarian should say, in effect, to the State: "All right, you exist, but as long as you exist at least confine your activities to the area which you monopolize." In short, the libertarian is interested in reducing as much as possible the area of State aggression against all private individuals. The only way to do this, in international affairs, is for the people of each country to pressure their own State to confine its activities to the area which it monopolizes and not to aggress against other State-monopolists. In short, the objective of the libertarian is to confine any existing State to as small a degree of invasion of person and property as possible. And this means the total avoidance of war. The people under each State should pressure "their" respective States not to attack one another, and, if a conflict should break out, to negotiate a peace or declare a cease-fire as quickly as physically possible. <br />
<br />
Suppose further that we have that rarity – an unusually clear-cut case in which the State is actually trying to defend the property of one of its citizens. A citizen of country A travels or invests in country B, and then State B aggresses against his person or confiscates his property. Surely, our libertarian critic would argue, here is a clear-cut case where State A should threaten or commit war against State B in order to defend the property of "its" citizen. Since, the argument runs, the State has taken upon itself the monopoly of defense of its citizens, it then has the obligation to go to war on behalf of any citizen, and libertarians have an obligation to support this war as a just one. <br />
<br />
But the point again is that each State has a monopoly of violence and, therefore, of defense only over its territorial area. It has no such monopoly; in fact, it has no power at all, over any other geographical area. Therefore, if an inhabitant of country A should move to or invest in country B, the libertarian must argue that he thereby takes his chances with the State-monopolist of country B, and it would be immoral and criminal for State A to tax people in country A and kill numerous innocents in country B in order to defend the property of the traveler or investor.8 <br />
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It should also be pointed out that there is no defense against nuclear weapons (the only current "defense" is the threat of mutual annihilation) and, therefore, that the State cannot fulfill any sort of defense function so long as these weapons exist. <br />
<br />
The libertarian objective, then, should be, regardless of the specific causes of any conflict, to pressure States not to launch wars against other States and, should a war break out, to pressure them to sue for peace and negotiate a cease-fire and peace treaty as quickly as physically possible. This objective, incidentally, is enshrined in the international law of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, that is, the ideal that no State could aggress against the territory of another – in short, the "peaceful coexistence" of States.9 <br />
<br />
Suppose, however, that despite libertarian opposition, war has begun and the warring States are not negotiating a peace. What, then, should be the libertarian position? Clearly, to reduce the scope of assault on innocent civilians as much as possible. Old-fashioned international law had two excellent devices for this: the "laws of war," and the "laws of neutrality" or "neutrals' rights." The laws of neutrality are designed to keep any war that breaks out confined to the warring States themselves, without aggression against the States or particularly the peoples of the other nations. Hence the importance of such ancient and now forgotten American principles as "freedom of the seas" or severe limitations upon the rights of warring States to blockade neutral trade with the enemy country. In short, the libertarian tries to induce neutral States to remain neutral in any inter-State conflict and to induce the warring States to observe fully the rights of neutral citizens. The "laws of war" were designed to limit as much as possible the invasion by warring States of the rights of the civilians of the respective warring countries. As the British jurist F.J.P. Veale put it: <br />
<br />
The fundamental principle of this code was that hostilities between civilized peoples must be limited to the armed forces actually engaged.... It drew a distinction between combatants and noncombatants by laying down that the sole business of the combatants is to fight each other and, consequently, that noncombatants must be excluded from the scope of military operations.10 <br />
<br />
In the modified form of prohibiting the bombardment of all cities not in the front line, this rule held in Western European wars in recent centuries until Britain launched the strategic bombing of civilians in World War II. Now, of course, the entire concept is scarcely remembered, the very nature of nuclear war resting on the annihilation of civilians.<br />
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In condemning all wars, regardless of motive, the libertarian knows that there may well be varying degrees of guilt among States for any specific war. But the overriding consideration for the libertarian is the condemnation of any State participation in war. Hence his policy is that of exerting pressure on all States not to start a war, to stop one that has begun and to reduce the scope of any persisting war in injuring civilians of either side or no side. <br />
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A neglected corollary to the libertarian policy of peaceful coexistence of States is the rigorous abstention from any foreign aid; that is, a policy of nonintervention between States (= "isolationism" = "neutralism"). For any aid given by State A to State B (1) increases tax aggression against the people of country A and (2) aggravates the suppression by State B of its own people. If there are any revolutionary groups in country B, then foreign aid intensifies this suppression all the more. Even foreign aid to a revolutionary group in B – more defensible because directed to a voluntary group opposing a State rather than a State oppressing the people – must be condemned as (at the very least) aggravating tax aggression at home. <br />
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Let us see how libertarian theory applies to the problem of imperialism, which may be defined as the aggression by State A over the people of country B, and the subsequent maintenance of this foreign rule. Revolution by the B people against the imperial rule of A is certainly legitimate, provided again that revolutionary fire be directed only against the rulers. It has often been maintained – even by libertarians – that Western imperialism over undeveloped countries should be supported as more watchful of property rights than any successor native government would be. The first reply is that judging what might follow the status quo is purely speculative, whereas existing imperialist rule is all too real and culpable. Moreover, the libertarian here begins his focus at the wrong end – at the alleged benefit of imperialism to the native. He should, on the contrary, concentrate first on the Western taxpayer, who is mulcted and burdened to pay for the wars of conquest, and then for the maintenance of the imperial bureaucracy. On this ground alone, the libertarian must condemn imperialism.11 <br />
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Does opposition to all war mean that the libertarian can never countenance change – that he is consigning the world to a permanent freezing of unjust regimes? Certainly not. Suppose, for example, that the hypothetical state of "Waldavia" has attacked "Ruritania" and annexed the western part of the country. The Western Ruritanians now long to be reunited with their Ruritanian brethren. How is this to be achieved? There is, of course, the route of peaceful negotiation between the two powers, but suppose that the Waldavian imperialists prove adamant. Or, libertarian Waldavians can put pressure on their government to abandon its conquest in the name of justice. But suppose that this, too, does not work. What then? We must still maintain the illegitimacy of Ruritania's mounting a war against Waldavia. The legitimate routes are (1) revolutionary uprisings by the oppressed Western Ruritanian people, and (2) aid by private Ruritanian groups (or, for that matter, by friends of the Ruritanian cause in other countries) to the Western rebels – either in the form of equipment or of volunteer personnel.12 <br />
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We have seen throughout our discussion the crucial importance, in any present-day libertarian peace program, of the elimination of modern methods of mass annihilation. These weapons, against which there can be no defense, assure maximum aggression against civilians in any conflict with the clear prospect of the destruction of civilization and even of the human race itself. Highest priority on any libertarian agenda, therefore, must be pressure on all States to agree to general and complete disarmament down to police levels, with particular stress on nuclear disarmament. In short, if we are to use our strategic intelligence, we must conclude that the dismantling of the greatest menace that has ever confronted the life and liberty of the human race is indeed far more important than demunicipalizing the garbage service. <br />
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We cannot leave our topic without saying at least a word about the domestic tyranny that is the inevitable accompaniment of war. The great Randolph Bourne realized that "war is the health of the State."13 It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society. Society becomes a herd, seeking to kill its alleged enemies, rooting out and suppressing all dissent from the official war effort, happily betraying truth for the supposed public interest. Society becomes an armed camp, with the values and the morale – as Albert Jay Nock once phrased it – of an "army on the march." <br />
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The root myth that enables the State to wax fat off war is the canard that war is a defense by the State of its subjects. The facts, of course, are precisely the reverse. For if war is the health of the State, it is also its greatest danger. A State can only "die" by defeat in war or by revolution. In war, therefore, the State frantically mobilizes the people to fight for it against another State, under the pretext that it is fighting for them. But all this should occasion no surprise; we see it in other walks of life. For which categories of crime does the State pursue and punish most intensely – those against private citizens or those against itself? The gravest crimes in the State's lexicon are almost invariably not invasions of person and property, but dangers to its own contentment: for example, treason, desertion of a soldier to the enemy, failure to register for the draft, conspiracy to overthrow the government. Murder is pursued haphazardly unless the victim be a policeman, or Gott soll hüten, an assassinated Chief of State; failure to pay a private debt is, if anything, almost encouraged, but income tax evasion is punished with utmost severity; counterfeiting the State's money is pursued far more relentlessly than forging private checks, etc. All this evidence demonstrates that the State is far more interested in preserving its own power than in defending the rights of private citizens. <br />
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A final word about conscription: of all the ways in which war aggrandizes the State, this is perhaps the most flagrant and most despotic. But the most striking fact about conscription is the absurdity of the arguments put forward on its behalf. A man must be conscripted to defend his (or someone else's?) liberty against an evil State beyond the borders. Defend his liberty? How? By being coerced into an army whose very raison d'être is the expunging of liberty, the trampling on all the liberties of the person, the calculated and brutal dehumanization of the soldier and his transformation into an efficient engine of murder at the whim of his "commanding officer"?14 Can any conceivable foreign State do anything worse to him than what "his" army is now doing for his alleged benefit? Who is there, O Lord, to defend him against his "defenders"? <br />
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References:<br />
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1 There are some libertarians who would go even further and say that no one should employ violence even in defending himself against violence. However, even such Tolstoyans, or "absolute pacifists," would concede the defender's right to employ defensive violence and would merely urge him not to exercise that right. They, therefore, do not disagree with our proposition. In the same way, a libertarian temperance advocate would not challenge a man's right to drink liquor, only his wisdom in exercising that right. <br />
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2 We shall not attempt to justify this axiom here. Most libertarians and even conservatives are familiar with the rule and even defend it; the problem is not so much in arriving at the rule as in fearlessly and consistently pursuing its numerous and often astounding implications. <br />
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3 Or, to bring up another famous antipacifist slogan, the question is not whether "we would be willing to use force to prevent the rape of our sister," but whether, to prevent that rape, we are willing to kill innocent people and perhaps even the sister herself. <br />
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4 William Buckley and other conservatives have propounded the curious moral doctrine that it is no worse to kill millions than it is to kill one man. The man who does either is, to be sure, a murderer; but surely it makes a huge difference how many people he kills. We may see this by phrasing the problem thus: after a man has already killed one person, does it make any difference whether he stops killing now or goes on a further rampage and kills many dozen more people? Obviously, it does. <br />
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5 Professor Robert L. Cunningham has defined the State as the institution with "a monopoly on initiating open physical coercion." Or, as Albert Jay Nock put it similarly if more caustically, "The State claims and exercises the monopoly of crime.... It forbids private murder, but itself organizes murder on a colossal scale. It punishes private theft, but itself lays unscrupulous hands on anything it wants."<br />
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6 An outstanding example of pinpointing by revolutionaries was the invariable practice of the Irish Republican Army, in its later years, of making sure that only British troops and British government property were attacked and that no innocent Irish civilians were injured. A guerrilla revolution not supported by the bulk of the people, of course, is far more likely to aggress against civilians. <br />
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7 If it be objected that a war could theoretically be financed solely by a State's lowering of nonwar expenditures, then the reply still holds that taxation remains greater than it could be without the war effect. Moreover, the purport of this article is that libertarians should be opposed to government expenditures whatever the field, war or nonwar. <br />
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8 There is another consideration which applies rather to "domestic" defense within a State's territory: the less the State can successfully defend the inhabitants of its area against attack by criminals, the more these inhabitants may come to learn the inefficiency of state operations, and the more they will turn to non-State methods of defense. Failure by the State to defend, therefore, has educative value for the public. <br />
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9 The international law mentioned in this paper is the old-fashioned libertarian law as had voluntarily emerged in previous centuries and has nothing to do with the modern statist accretion of "collective security." Collective security forces a maximum escalation of every local war into a worldwide war – the precise reversal of the libertarian objective of reducing the scope of any war as much as possible. <br />
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10 F.J.P. Veale, Advance to Barbarism (Appleton, Wis.: C.C. Nelson, 1953), p. 58. <br />
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11 Two other points about Western imperialism: first, its rule is not nearly so liberal or benevolent as many libertarians like to believe. The only property rights respected are those of the Europeans; the natives find their best lands stolen from them by the imperialists and their labor coerced by violence into working the vast landed estates acquired by this theft. <br />
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Second, another myth holds that the "gunboat diplomacy" of the turn of the century was a heroic libertarian action in defense of the property rights of Western investors in backward countries. Aside from our above strictures against going beyond any State's monopolized land area, it is overlooked that the bulk of gunboat moves were in defense, not of private investments, but of Western holders of government bonds. The Western powers coerced the smaller governments into increasing tax aggression on their own people, in order to pay off foreign bondholders. By no stretch of the imagination was this an action on behalf of private property – quite the contrary. <br />
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12 The Tolstoyan wing of the libertarian movement could urge the Western Ruritanians to engage in nonviolent revolution, for example, tax strikes, boycotts, mass refusal to obey government orders or a general strike – especially in arms factories. Cf. the work of the revolutionary Tolstoyan, Bartelemy De Ligt, The Conquest of Violence: An Essay On War and Revolution (New York: Dutton, 1938). <br />
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13 See Randolph Bourne, "Unfinished Fragment on the State," in Untimely Papers (New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1919). <br />
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14 To the old militarist taunt hurled against the pacifist: "Would you use force to prevent the rape of your sister?" the proper retort is: "Would you rape your sister if ordered to do so by your commanding officer?"<br />
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Reprinted from <a href="http://mises.org/">Mises.org</a>.<br />
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Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) was the author of Man, Economy, and State, Conceived in Liberty, What Has Government Done to Our Money, For a New Liberty, The Case Against the Fed, and many other books and articles. He was also the editor – with Lew Rockwell – of The Rothbard-Rockwell Report, and academic vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-66206276932923157002011-11-15T11:50:00.000-05:002011-11-15T11:50:37.403-05:00Classical+Liberals+in+the+Classic+City+for+the+2012+Annual+Convention<a href="http://www.lpgeorgia.com/blog.php?article=229">Classical+Liberals+in+the+Classic+City+for+the+2012+Annual+Convention</a>DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-27689978048271931112011-11-15T10:54:00.001-05:002011-11-15T11:01:27.023-05:00A new respect for Justin TimberlakeI know, I'm ususally all economic doom and gloom, Big Brother looking over your shoulder, sh*t's gonna hit the fan around here, but today I wanted to spread a little good news.<br />
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I remember reading a few months ago that a young female Marine Corporal had send a letter to Justin Timberlake, asking him to escort her to The Marine Corps Ball. Much to her surprise, he graciously accepted. <a href="http://www.justintimberlake.com/news/my_night_at_the_marine_corps_ball">Here is his account of the evening.</a><br />
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Add that to his efforts to raise money for Shriner's Hospitals For Children through his <a href="http://www.jtshrinersopen.com/">"Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open"</a> Golf Tournement and I'd have to say, he's just a stand up guy.<br />
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My hat's off to you sir.<br />
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<br />DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-27644281789574688952011-11-13T14:37:00.001-05:002011-11-13T14:40:08.598-05:00TSA Bribes Passengers To Give Up Personal Info<br />
(NaturalNews) The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has launched a new pilot program that bribes air travelers to "voluntarily" surrender personal and other information in exchange for an expedited and less-invasive screening experience at the airport. And the program has reportedly been so successful at the first few airports in which it was tested that the Obama Administration is planning to expand it to many more airports.<br />
Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International, Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County, Dallas Fort Worth International, and Miami International Airport all participated in the TSA's PreCheck program which was unveiled last month. The program offers certain American Airlines (AA) and Delta Air Lines (DAL) frequent fliers the "opportunity" to avoid full-body pat downs and naked body scans by agreeing to provide the TSA with information about themselves.<br />
Lest anyone forget, these heinous TSA "enhanced" security protocols, which were unveiled just over a year ago, are a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution. And throughout the past year, we here at NaturalNews have covered numerous incidents of abuse involving these protocols by TSA agents against passengers.<br />
But instead of scrapping these illegal invasions of personal privacy, the TSA is now using them as a deterrent to persuade the public into surrendering personal information instead. The TSA obviously knows its "enhanced" screening requirements are excessive, unreasonable, and felonious, which is why it is now offering incentives to travelers to bypass them.<br />
In a press release announcing PreCheck, the TSA specifically states that the surrendering of personal information in exchange for faster and less-intrusive screenings is "voluntary," because it knows that it cannot technically force this information out of travelers. Using its illegal screenings as a way to extort information is basically the same thing -- it is just far less obvious to most travelers who will be more than willing to "voluntarily" concede to this TSA extortion racket.<br />
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The federal government has absolutely no business mandating that travelers comply with unwarranted search and seizure in the first place, which is exactly what the TSA screening process at US airports truly is. But the agency's PreCheck "alternative" is just an extension of this government takeover designed to manipulate the public into capitulating to tyranny.<br />
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Learn more: <a href="http://www.naturalnews.com/034134_TSA_airport_screenings.html">Here</a>DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-46075560320671862652011-11-09T17:10:00.000-05:002011-11-09T17:11:13.958-05:00Elections Have Consequences - Are you Happy Now?Do you remember, back in 2008, when President Obama said we have to "fundamentally change" the United States of America?<br />
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For those 53% of America who voted, are you happy now?<br />
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Take a good look at the "Occupy" crowd. You know, the ones sexually assaulting women, defecating in bank buildings and police cars, setting fires to condominiums, rioting against police, marching with Neo-Nazis, Communists and anti-Semites.<br />
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This is your change, America.<br />
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Obama said back then that "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."<br />
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Since our mainstream seems so efficient at digging up innuendos, rumors and any bit of dirt they can on Conservative blacks and women, perhaps one of them should have inquired what, exactly, Mr. Obama meant.<br />
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It goes without saying that the media spent more time and energy vilifying Herman Cane in one day than they spent connecting the then-future President to his strong ties to radical Marxists, Islamists and unrepentant terrorists.<br />
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Do you recall when Joe Biden said, "Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy"?<br />
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So let's count up the "international crisis" that have transpired under Obama...<br />
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Iran - Obama ignored the "Green Revolution" and instead sided with the Mullahs (in the interest of his insistence that we could be "friends" with these maniacs. Had Obama offered support for the protesters, the likelihood that we would now be facing a nuclear Iran is at best minimal.<br />
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Iraq - During his campaign, Obama repeated called the Iraq War a terrible mistake and voted against the surge that secured what should have been a victory. However, he has now gone against his military experts (who know a thing or two more that he does) and has idiotically announced a complete withdrawal of military personnel in the Iraq theater. Thereby basically allowing Iran to fill the void left by American withdrawal. Like in Vietnam, we are basically leaving those who needed us that they are on their own. No wonder the world hates us.<br />
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Russia - One of the first decisions Obama made as President was to renege on President Bush's promise to Poland to build a missile defense shield program. He did this in order to "reset" relations with Russia. However, aside from the fact that under President Bush, Russia and the US got along fine, it was a total betrayal to Eastern Europe and leaves them at the mercy of both a more aggressive Russia and a psychotic Iran.<br />
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Egypt - Whether or not Hosni Mubarak was good for Egypt or not, the way Obama handled the situation was nothing less than incompetent. His calling for Mubarak's dismissal, after saying he should stay - and ignoring the ultimate outcome of a power vacuum that is being filled by the murderous Muslim Brotherhood, set the stage for the massacre of the Coptic Christian population, as well as Egypt's severed peace with Israel.<br />
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Libya - This was another terrible mess. Obama completely overstepped his authority in bombing the Hell out of Libya. Again, losing Gaddafi was not a terrible outcome. However, Obama sided with our sworn enemies of Al-Qaeda in order to accomplish this feat. Now, with Gaddafi dead, Libya has accepted Sharia law to the strictest. I guess the liberation of Libya wasn't also for women, Christians or Jews. Nice Job.<br />
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Syria - See Iran.<br />
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Forget for a moment that under Obama, the economy is in the toilet, unemployment is still around 9% (under employment estimated around 20%), the US is $15 trillion in debt and the President's signature legislation - ObamaCare is a complete disaster that is just as unpopular today as it was when it was forced down the nation's throat. Forget the fact that while Obama promised to have the "most ethical, transparent administration, the scandals that are currently plaguing the White House makes the Nixon administration jealous.<br />
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Forget all that for a moment and answer this - how do you possibly re-elect Obama at a time when his incompetence on the world stage is so glaring?<br />
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I give credit to the man for hunting down and killing Osama Bin Laden. I'll even give him credit for Gaddafi's demise. But neither of these accomplishments were his alone and they are terribly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.<br />
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I do want to point out that this is not a comparison between President Obama and President Bush. There were a number of issues where Bush failed as well. I am simply stating the truth about Obama. This is also not an endorsement of any of the Republican candidates in the race. Obviously, there are questions regarding which one of them is the best option for 2012.<br />
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All this is is a condemnation on the record of President Obama and a rational reason why he should be soundly defeated next November. <br />
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<a href="http://shayneblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/is-this-what-you-wanted-america-do-you.html">Is This What You Wanted America? Originally Published Here</a>DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-21920043294482412562011-11-08T19:19:00.000-05:002011-11-08T19:19:26.554-05:00Election Day - Nov 8, 2011I'm optimistic for the chances of Libertarians running in Georgia. The Libertarian Party of Georgia has 3 local candidates running. Amanda Swafford is running for Re-Election in the Flowery Branch City Council race, Lance Lamberton for Austell City Council and Doug Craig for Griffin City Council. Good Luck!<br />
In Athens, I'm not so optimistic.<br />
We have an Education SPLOST vote going on today. Athens Clarke County spends the third highest amount per student in the state, and has the third lowest graduation rates.<br />
Not only that, but the SPLOST was created to lower the millage rate for our property taxes. Today our millage rate is at the maximum allowable by law in the county and the SPLOST is just icing on top of the big ole tax cake.<br />
The only thing that wasn't on the ballot locally, Sunday Sales of Alcohol. One of our county commissioners is even on record as saying the issue would not be on the ballot because she was afraid pro Sunday Sales voters would be anti-SPLOST voters.DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-4245215129304966472011-11-02T14:03:00.000-04:002011-11-02T14:19:27.523-04:00Papers Please, Hotels Pimp DHSThe Department of Homeland Security is recruiting hotel guests to join the fight against terrorism.<br />
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Starting today, the welcome screens on 1.2 million hotel television sets in Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton, Holiday Inn and other hotels in the USA will show a short public service announcement from DHS. The 15-second spot encourages viewers to be vigilant and call law enforcement if they witness something suspicious during their travels.<br />
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During the PSA, which starts with a woman exiting a yellow taxi in front of a train station, a narrator says, "Maybe you see something suspicious. Can you be sure? If you see something, say something to authorities."<br />
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The PSA, which will be interspersed with other messages on the welcome screen, will be the same in all 5,400 hotels that LodgeNet serves. It ends by telling viewers to contact "local authorities."<br />
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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says that reaching the "millions of guests that stay at hotels and motels each year is a significant step in engaging the full range of partners in our Homeland Security efforts."<br />
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The federal government gained access to hotel TV sets by forming a partnership with the hotel industry's largest association — the American Hotel & Lodging Association — which connected DHS with LodgeNet, the industry's largest TV-content provider.<br />
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By entering hotels at a time when the hospitality industry is on the rebound, the government has the power to tap a growing, captive audience. Recent research from LodgeNet says 98% of hotel guests turn on their hotel TV, and the average guest keeps it on for more than three hours per day.<br />
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Ann Parker, a LodgeNet spokeswoman, describes the PSAs as "well done and professional" and says the decision to air them was not difficult.<br />
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"It's about everyone doing their part to help keep each other and the country safe," she says.<br />
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But critics of the campaign point out potential pitfalls. Josh Meyer of the Washington-based National Security Journalism Initiative predicts it will generate "a huge amount of potentially baseless tips that will inundate local, state and federal law enforcement authorities."<br />
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DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard, however, cites successful citizen interventions, such as the May 2010 incident in which two street vendors helped thwart a car bombing attempt in New York City's Times Square by noticing a smoking vehicle and reporting it to police.<br />
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In the last two years, DHS has formed partnerships with a variety of groups including Amtrak, the U.S. Tennis Association, the National Football League and the Mall of America to enlist public support.<br />
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<a href="http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/story/2011-11-02/Hotel-guests-recruited-with-Homeland-Security-TV-spots/51032602/1?loc=interstitialskip">Read The Rest Here</a><br />
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<br />DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-2436512062229901282011-10-31T21:11:00.001-04:002011-10-31T21:11:07.940-04:00Gunwalker<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvr9VsnfZ5Sp_OnSXj9s64EMx_o6J4LCzCJny_fyhASKd8uQio4vmShCOUTbhoj02XJdJypSlPsMva4ywAU7mCAY1lZ5RzSBqvVIG61oGFh0nvqtKz-upsScdaqBbR1ciTuMLDMhhYdgA/s1600/Gunwalker.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" ida="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvr9VsnfZ5Sp_OnSXj9s64EMx_o6J4LCzCJny_fyhASKd8uQio4vmShCOUTbhoj02XJdJypSlPsMva4ywAU7mCAY1lZ5RzSBqvVIG61oGFh0nvqtKz-upsScdaqBbR1ciTuMLDMhhYdgA/s400/Gunwalker.png" width="400" /></a></div>DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-87654136892687740822011-10-31T19:55:00.000-04:002011-10-31T19:55:44.501-04:00When Nationalism Becomes A Little FrighteningThis past weekend, The Bitter Patriot took a few days off from the busy schedule of pissing people off and ventured to our neighboring State of Florida. I went to witness the annual debauchery formerly, officially known as "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" or The Annual Georgia - Florida Football Classic. I am happy to report the victory of the UGA Bulldogs. Goooo Dawgs!<br />
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While I am excited that The United States of America will soon only be involved "officially" in 6 military conflicts instead of 7, after this year end's scheduled withdrawal from Iraq. I am reminded that we are only currently involved in 2 that had a minimum of Congressional approval and 0 with a formal Declaration of War. (After we withdraw from Iraq it will only be the Afghan conflict with approval from Congress) But I digress.<br />
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The opening moments of the Football Festivities in Jacksonville were marked by a few strange new trends. First, and unbeknownst to me ahead of time, we we all frisked before being allowed entrance to the stadium. All 84,000 of us were felt up, not by the Transportation Security Adminisrtration, but by the stadium's private security force. Obviously, none of them had any sort of Law Enforcement training, or they would have found the myriad of liquor bottles I stepped over in the restroom. I wonder how many weapons they missed? Had I known that I would have to allow myself to be felt up by the Rent-a-cops on my way into the stadium, in ways that would otherwise merit a sexual assault charge, I would have stayed at the tailgate and watched it on TV.<br />
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Still not to the most bizarre new twist to college football. <br />
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Now, prior to the traditional singing of the National Anthem, the entire stadium is encouraged to participate in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of The United States of America. <br />
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This would not have bothered me 10 years ago, but today with American involvement in no less than 7 military conflicts around the world, the Department of Homeland Security conducting the 4th Amendment-violating screenings at airports, DHS checkpoints on the highways, security cameras on every corner, well, I start thinking the whole Nationalism is getting to be a bit much. <br />
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None of this is for the "security" of the "homeland". DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-69456133454225178852011-10-23T21:32:00.000-04:002011-10-23T21:32:10.131-04:00ALERT: Final Implementation Phase of Obama Formal Dictatorship has Begun<a href="http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/41597">ALERT: Final Implementation Phase of Obama Formal Dictatorship has Begun</a>DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-19677526483166700132011-10-23T00:21:00.001-04:002011-10-23T00:22:01.555-04:00Man, I've been busy.Over the last couple of weeks, I've been running a little ragged.<br />
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It started with helping out with a float for the Atlanta Pride Parade. The Libertarian Party of Georgia made its third annual appearance in the parade and also hosted an outreach booth in Atlanta's Piedmont Park. The parade was on Sunday and took about 12 hours out of my weekend. Totally worth it, though. We gathered a few hundred new subscribers to our weekly online newsletter "Georgia Libertarian Online". The LP Float had the world's largest QR code on either side that took the scanner directly to the LP Georgia sign up page. I think we had about 125 people scan the code while we eased on down the road.<br />
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Monday morning following the Pride weekend, I hopped on a flight from Atlanta to Harrisburg, PA to visit a customer. The outbound airport experience was nothing out of the ordinary. I fly so much that I know most of the TSA agents by name, all 300 of them.<br />
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I ended up working in my client's manufacturing plant about 70 hours over the next 4 days. My feet and back are still sore a week later.<br />
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My return trip started out ok, but as I approached the TSA screening area, the agents stopped using the magnetometer (walk through metal detector) and fired up the Microwave Oven Naked Body Scanner. Now, I have no use for the security theater that goes on in airports these days and have no intention of having my DNA scrambled in a Jiffy Pop popcorn cooker, so I "opted out" and had an "enhanced pat down".<br />
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This was no "pat down". I am a former Federal Law Enforcement Officer and have been trained in the art of searching suspects as part of an arrest. I truly thought a cavity search was coming. I asked Barney Fife how he liked poking and prodding the genitals of complete strangers. That got a smirk. I then recited the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution to him.<br />
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"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."<br />
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This only pissed him off. He attempted to tell me that it didn't apply, since I was not under arrest. Hmm, I think he confused that pesky Constitutional Amendment with the Miranda Act. Obviously, pointing out his mistake led to a little Constitutional Convention of our own with the TSA agent, his supervisor and local law enforcement. I offered all of the participants a parting gift from my briefcase (Campaign for Liberty Pocket Constitutions with a foreword by Congressman Ron Paul) and made my way to the gate.<br />
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The following Saturday, I was honored to take part in a round table discussion for television on "We Speak". The subject matter for the show: Constitutional Powers - Expressed Vs. Implied. It was a ton of fun teaching the Executive Director of the GA Democratic Party a few things about why her interpretation of the General Welfare clause is just plain wrong, but that will have to wait for another post.<br />
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I spent this week catching up, so I apologize for my absence.DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3821152138869830950.post-89812553641322335352011-10-11T23:12:00.000-04:002011-10-11T23:12:46.954-04:00Information Flow.Maybe it's just me. <br />
I dunno. I kinda do things by feel more than my statistic. I really don't have the time or energy to analyse web traffic data, day in and day out, but something lately just feels wrong.<br />
As a creature of habit, I look at the same several websites daily and lately, it seems that the flow of information is really slowing down. I've written on this subject before, and at that time, I was receiving a whole lot more information than I am today.<br />
Like I said, it may just be me. Or maybe, Big Brother doesn't want me to reach YOU.DHarmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15391470804335085774noreply@blogger.com0