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Friday January 23rd, 2015
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Thursday January 22nd, 2015
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The Troops Are Destroying Our Country
posted 01/22/2015, 3:27 PM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
The mindset that is common to U.S. troops serving overseas is that they are all doing it for America, for us, for our rights and freedoms, for our safety and security. They'll all tell you that they are doing it because they love their country.
There's one big problem with that mindset, however. The truth is that the troops, through what they're doing over there, are indirectly destroying our country, our rights and freedoms, our safety and security, and our economic well-being.<... (more) |
American's Fading Love of Freedom
posted 01/22/2015, 3:26 PM (James Bovard)
[Category: Commentary]
Tea Party protesters, some Republicans, and many libertarians perceive the federal government as a vast engine of oppression. But are anti-Obama activists mistaken in presuming that most Americans still care about freedom?
A Gallup poll released in July asked a thousand Americans, "Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what to do with your life?" Admittedly, only 21 percent said they were dissatisfied. But that percentage had more than doubled since the pre... (more) |
Casey vs. Kyle: On Bloodlust, Loss, and Wars of Choice
posted 01/22/2015, 3:26 PM (Cindy Sheehan)
[Category: Commentary]
"I only wish I had killed more." –Navy Seal and "American Sniper", Chris Kyle
“I can’t kill anyone.” –US working-class soldier before his short deployment to Iraq, Casey Sheehan
This is something that I don’t want to revisit—I never want to relive the worst experience of my life. However, with the 11th anniversary of my son’s death in Iraq on 04/04/04 approaching and the new “blockbuster” infecting movie screens around the world, I really must get this off of my ch... (more) |
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Wednesday January 21st, 2015
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The Pretense of the State of the Union
posted 01/21/2015, 1:01 PM (The Freeman)
[Category: Commentary]
 Some people hated it. Some people loved it. Just about everyone seems to miss the real point.
The most disturbing part of the annual “State of the Union” address by the US president does not concern the specifics of the content, or the policies – as wonderful or objectionable as they may be. The core problem is the very strange presumption that one man comprehends an entire nation and its meaning, embodies something like a guiding spirit of a people, and thereby earns the right t... (more) |
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Tuesday January 20th, 2015
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Jacob G. Hornberger on 'American Sniper'
posted 01/20/2015, 11:35 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
Last evening I went to see the new movie American Sniper because I wanted to see how they portrayed American soldiers killing people in Iraq, especially Chris Kyle, the man whose life the movie revolved around.
As Nazi official Herman Goering pointed out, it is easy for any regime to get people to back a war. All that it has to do, Goering said, was to tell people that they've been attacked and then denounce opponents for lacking patriotism and exposing the country to danger.
... (more) |
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Monday January 19th, 2015
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Charlie Hebdo: Report from Europe
posted 01/19/2015, 11:11 AM (Paul Craig Roberts)
[Category: Commentary]
Note: The second video in the URL below has been taken down, but it is the first video which is just prior to the second one, that has the most visual information.
Here is a video of the execution of Amedy Coulibaly. It is a German website with the actual live French video of the police assault on the deli. There are three videos. The first one repeatedly shows Coulibaly with tied hands containing no weapons shot down and killed when he could easily have been captured. It ... (more) |
5 Things Chris Kyle And The 'Full Metal Jacket' Gunner Share In Common
posted 01/19/2015, 11:10 AM (Ingenious Press)
[Category: Commentary]
‘American Sniper’ Chris Kyle and the fictional Helicopter Door Gunner from ‘Full Metal Jacket’ share several disturbing similarities.
This past weekend, millions of Americans shelled out a tenner (or more) to see ‘American Sniper’, the Clint Eastwood directed bio-pic of the deceased military sharpshooter Chris Kyle. Blue Pill Americans, or those who continue to espouse the illusary belief that the United States is the “greatest country in the world”, and that military service memb... (more) |
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Saturday January 17th, 2015
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Friday January 16th, 2015
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Deja Vu In France
posted 01/16/2015, 9:48 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
 I'm getting a big déjà vu feeling in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo killings in France.
The French government is declaring war on terrorism. It's militarizing French society. It's proposing a Patriot Act. It's supporting a mass surveillance scheme. It's advocating killing more people in the Middle East. There is even talk of using military tribunals to try terrorism cases.
Hey, those were all things that U.S. officials did after the 9/11 attacks. No wonder I'm ... (more) |
The Proofiness of the Politically Correct Rape
posted 01/16/2015, 9:46 AM (Wendy McElroy)
[Category: Commentary]
A legion of the politically correct who make a living from the alleged oppression of women were gleeful and almost goofy with proofiness this week. The incident is a window into how statistical myths are created.
Charles Seife, a journalist and a professor at New York University, coined the term proofiness as a corollary to an earlier term coined by comedian Stephen Colbert: truthiness. Truthiness was defined as "the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, r... (more) |
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Thursday January 15th, 2015
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The Charlie Hebdo Story Simply Doesn't Wash
posted 01/15/2015, 9:41 AM (Paul Craig Roberts)
[Category: Commentary]
 The Charlie Hebdo affair has many of the characteristics of a false flag operation. The attack on the cartoonists’ office was a disciplined professional attack of the kind associated with highly trained special forces; yet the suspects who were later corralled and killed seemed bumbling and unprofessional. It is like two different sets of people.
Usually Muslim terrorists are prepared to die in the attack; yet the two professionals who hit Charlie Hebdo were determined to escape a... (more) |
Free Speech in America? What About Lynne Stewart?
posted 01/15/2015, 9:36 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
In the aftermath of the terrorist attack in France on Charlie Hebdo, U.S. officials are telling the world how committed they are to the principles of freedom of speech.
Really?
How about Lynne Stewart, the New York lawyer who was convicted and sentenced to serve time in a federal penitentiary for doing nothing more than speaking the following words to the press:
I am not withdrawing my support of the cease-fire, I am merely questioning it and I a ... (more) |
Is Ross Not the Dread Pirate Roberts After All?
posted 01/15/2015, 9:35 AM (Jeffrey Tucker)
[Category: Commentary]
The trial of Ross Ulbricht, alleged to be the administrator of the Silk Road website that distributed illicit drugs peer-to-peer, opened with a shocker.
His attorney very quickly admitted that the Silk Road was Ross's idea. He envisioned a free market in the cloud in which people could circumvent prohibitions and restrictions and gain from trade in... (more) |
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Wednesday January 14th, 2015
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Tuesday January 13th, 2015
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Nationalizations in Cuba and the United States
posted 01/13/2015, 8:20 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
Proponents for continuing the Cold War-era U.S. embargo against Cuba, many of whom are Latin Americans, say that as a condition for lifting the embargo, the U.S. government should require the Cuban government to compensate, either with damages or restoration, U.S. companies and even Cuban citizens for the Castro regime’s nationalization of their properties more than 50 years ago.
Really?
Pray tell: What business is it of the U.S. government to right the wrongs that ... (more) |
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Monday January 12th, 2015
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State And Crime
posted 01/12/2015, 6:55 AM (Peter Bistoletti)
[Category: Commentary]
There are three types of "crimes", however two of those should not be considered as such. Let me explain.
1) Crimes against so called natural rights, conferred by natural law. Natural rights are universal ethical rules, developed over thousands of years and e. g. to be found in the commandments of all large religions. These natural rights link the Non Aggression Principle (NAP) to the respect for private property- you shall not kill, steal, covet your neighbor's house, use vio ... (more) |
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Sunday January 11th, 2015
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Conservatives Just Don't Get It on Taxes
posted 01/09/2015, 7:08 AM (Laurence M. Vance)
[Category: Commentary]
Now that the Republicans have regained the control of the Senate that they lost in the 2006 midterm election, conservatives are salivating about the prospect of “real” or “genuine” tax reform.
Conservatives believe that reforming the tax code by making it more efficient, more coherent, more transparent, and more equitable; eliminating the double taxation that discourages saving and investment; eliminating the “rat’s nest” of deductions, credits, and exemptions; broadening the tax ... (more) |
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Thursday January 8th, 2015
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Legalize Drunk Driving
posted 01/08/2015, 3:19 AM (Jeffrey Tucker)
[Category: Commentary]
Most people have been there: a few drinks at a restaurant or bar and then into the car to get home. Am I over the legal limit? Hard to say. Is my driving impaired? It doesn't seem to be. But what if I get stopped? Will I lose my license, go to jail, and be disgraced in front of the community? It's a frightening prospect.
What's especially strange about this is the reason I fear. My arrest and punishment would not be for driving recklessly or for endangering other drivers. It woul... (more) |
Voluntary Exchange vs. Government Mandates
posted 01/08/2015, 3:18 AM (Mises Institute)
[Category: Commentary]
The basic unit of all economic activity is the uncoerced, free exchange of one economic good for another. Moreover, the decision to engage in exchange is based upon the ordinally ranked subjective preferences of each party to the exchange. To achieve maximum satisfaction from the exchange, each party must have full ownership and control of the good that he wishes to exchange and may dispose of his property without interference from a third party, such as government.
The exchange w... (more) |
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Wednesday January 7th, 2015
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Should the State Decide What You're Allowed to Eat?
posted 01/07/2015, 5:55 AM (The Freeman)
[Category: Commentary]
Food has always been political. Throughout history, armies have razed crops and demographics have shifted in response to hunger. Political correctness now drives the civics of food with bountiful nations attempting to dictate what people can eat and how much. Why? For their own good.
The public debate revolves around whether a particular food choice is healthy or not. The real debate is, “Who should choose: you or someone else?” The defense of food freedom needs to turn on the ri... (more) |
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Tuesday January 6th, 2015
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If the FBI Says It, It Must Be True
posted 01/06/2015, 5:22 AM (Ryan McMaken)
[Category: Commentary]
 As libertarians, we’ve seen it all countless times. A friend or colleague who has been going on and on about how incompetent the government is, will say the exact opposite the second the topic turns to foreign policy. The government can’t deliver the mail on time or treat appendicitis with any sort of reliability or quality control, we are told, but in the next breath, we’re told that “we” must unite to fight the Iranians, or the Syrians, the Iraqis, or whatever other group of people the governm... (more) |
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Tuesday December 30th, 2014
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Cops Can Enforce Non-Existent Laws With Impunity
posted 12/30/2014, 4:38 PM (Wendy McElroy)
[Category: Commentary]
Ignorance of the law is an excuse...if you are a cop. American police no longer need to know what the law says or to enforce it correctly. They can implement a non-existent law with impunity even if it results in the apparent violation of constitutional rights. This may have been apparent to many as a police practice but now it is now officially the law of the land. On December 15, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled on Heien v. North Carolina.
... (more) |
The Sickening Torture Report
posted 12/30/2014, 4:58 AM (Laurence M. Vance)
[Category: Commentary]
 The whole world has now had a chance to read and analyze the redacted 525-page executive summary of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's Committee "Study of the Central Intelligence Agency's Detention and Interrogation Program." The full report, which has only been provided to the White House, the CIA, the Departments of Justice, Defense, and State, and the Of... (more) |
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Monday December 29th, 2014
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Yes, Virginia, There is No Political Santa Claus
posted 12/29/2014, 3:30 PM (Richard M. Ebeling)
[Category: Commentary]
At a time of the year when gift giving and charitable good spirit fills the air, please allow me to be the one who rains on the parade: “Yes, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus!”
I don’t mean the Santa who comes down the chimney with toys for every girl and boy. [...] I mean the Uncle Sam “Santa” that, not just at Christmas time, but year-round, is believed by many people to have the ability to bring them many of the good things they want from a mythical North Pole called Washingto... (more) |
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Sunday December 28th, 2014
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"Protect and Serve?" More like Hate and Fear
posted 12/28/2014, 4:51 PM (Kevin Carson)
[Category: Commentary]
The recent trajectory of events leading up to the shooting of NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, and the nationwide police backlash afterward, have made it clearer than ever how police feel about the public they supposedly protect and serve: they’re terrified of us. For more than twenty years, the Drug War and associated police militarization encouraged an increasing tendency of urban police to see local populations as a dangerous occupied enemy. In Radley Balko’s Rise of the Warrior Co... (more) |
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Saturday December 27th, 2014
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Thursday December 25th, 2014
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A Christmas Gift for My Daughter
posted 12/25/2014, 3:03 AM (Harry Browne)
[Category: Commentary]
 This article was originally published in December, 2002. A previous version of it was published on December 25, 1966, dedicated to Harry’s then 9-year-old daughter.
It’s Christmas, and I have the usual problem of deciding what to give you. I know you might enjoy many things – books, games, clothes.
But I’m very selfish. I want to give you something that will stay with you for more than a few months or years. I want to give you a gift that m... (more) |
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Wednesday December 24th, 2014
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Cop Block Responds to Media "Hit Pieces"
posted 12/24/2014, 1:50 PM (Cop Block)
[Category: Commentary]
In the wake of the shooting deaths of two New York City police officers, it has come to our attention that a number of news websites and even the corporate giant, Fox News, have engaged in defamatory and libelous allegations about the police accountability organization known as Cop Block. While Cop Block is decentralized, based upon groundbreaking, alternative approaches to non-hierarchical leadership, we have agreed collectively to respond to some of the slander that is emanating from fear-mong... (more) |
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Tuesday December 23rd, 2014
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Monday December 22nd, 2014
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UVA and the Faux Rape Case: Bad Journalism – or Deceitful Writing?
posted 12/22/2014, 12:11 PM (LewRockwell.com)
[Category: Commentary]
In the month since Rolling Stone published its infamous "rape of Jackie" story about a University of Virginia student who was brutally raped at a fraternity party, a number of things have come to light. First, the story was false; Jackie was not raped, there was no party at the fraternity house in question the night the assault was supposed to have occurred, and even Jackie's "date" was a work of fiction.
Second, UVA officials acted in typical Pavlovian style when RS published the... (more) |
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Wednesday December 17th, 2014
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Tuesday December 16th, 2014
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What America Wannabe?
posted 12/16/2014, 11:18 AM (LewRockwell.com)
[Category: Commentary]
What does it really mean when someone says "All I ever wanted to do is be a cop?"
Thomas Shea told reporters that back in 1974 after getting fired by the NYPD for shooting a ten year old in the back. Officer Walter Scott was also at the scene and was heard over the radio telling the kid to "Die, you little bastard."... (more) |
Judicial Deference to the Torturers
posted 12/16/2014, 11:18 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger )
[Category: Commentary]
In case anyone is wondering whether any of the CIA's torture victims will be able to recover damages from CIA torturers, the answer is an unequivocal no. The federal judiciary decided a long time ago that it would not permit lawsuits brought by victims of the CIA or, for that matter, the U.S. military.
Among the best examples are two cases that came out of the Chilean military coup of 1973, a coup that was secretly engineered by the U.S. government, operating primarily through the... (more) |
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Monday December 15th, 2014
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Ross Ulbricht Should Be Freed in a Fair Trial
posted 12/15/2014, 9:22 AM (Jeffrey Tucker)
[Category: Commentary]
The criminal trial of Ross Ulbricht, the man alleged to be the "Dread Pirate Roberts" who started the darknet's Silk Road website, is coming up soon. As might be expected, the prosecution in the case are engaging in shady tactics, such as not permitting the jury to hear about Ross's own political views.
The website was started with a driving motivation of creating a free marketplace for people to use to exchange peacefully. If Ross shares this view, why is this not a relevant fact... (more) |
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Friday December 12th, 2014
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Thursday December 11th, 2014
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I Love Loosies and the People Who Sell Them
posted 12/11/2014, 6:01 AM (Sheldon Richman)
[Category: Commentary]
The cops who ganged up on Eric Garner, got him into a chokehold, and mashed his face into the sidewalk didn't intend to kill him. They intended only to show him who's boss on the streets of Staten Island -- and show him in a way he would never forget.
As a Facebook friend of mine put it, instead they showed him in a way he will never remember.
This pretty much explains the cops' reckless disregard for Garner's life that day, and it is what makes the grand-jury sham ... (more) |
Make the CIA Release Its Chile Torture Files
posted 12/11/2014, 5:57 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
With the long-awaited release of the U.S. Senate's Torture Report, it would be tempting to believe that the CIA's torture regime began after 9/11 2001.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Let's not forget the torture regime in Chile that began on 9/11 1973 and continued for years after that.
From 1970 to 1973, the CIA did everything it could to bring about a military coup in Chile, one designed to oust the democratically elected president of the country, Salvad... (more) |
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Tuesday December 9th, 2014
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The Century of the Self: The Untold History of Controlling the Masses Through the Manipulation of Unconscious Desires
Operation Gladio: The Hidden History of U.S. Sponsored False Flag Terrorism in Europe
The New American Century: The Untold History of The Project for the New American Century
Khaled al-Qazzaz wants to know why U.S. officials were silent during the time he was incarcerated by the military dictatorship that rules Egypt. An engineer and educator, he had joined the government of democratically elected Mohamed Morsi as foreign relations secretary. According to 
“If I don’t have my black robe on, I’m just like anybody else,” Oregon District Judge 
Legal recreational cannabis/marijuana/pot is almost one year old in Colorado. The Denver Business Journal recently published a retrospective containing 
If Americans were honest with themselves they would acknowledge that the Republic is no more. We now live in a police state. If we do not recognize and resist this development, freedom and prosperity for all Americans will continue to deteriorate. All liberties in America today are under siege.
This week's internet-fueled Outrage of the Week is 
Man Follows Speeding Cop, Finds Out He Was Speeding To Buy Peanuts
Mission Creeps: Homeland Security Agents Confiscate Women's Panties For 'Copyright Infringement'
Cop Shoots Couple's Dog, Threatens Jail For Trying To Save Dog's Life
SWAT Team Shoots Teen Girl & Her Dog During Pot Raid On Wrong Home
Durham, NC Cop Testifies Faking 911 Calls To Enter Homes Is "Official Policy"
Indiana Sheriff Says US A "War Zone" To Justify New MRAP Military Vehicle
Tampa Cops Surveil Pot Dealer, Catch Him Selling Pot, Raid His Home & Kill Him
"You Just Shot An Unarmed Man!": Witness Says Police Shot His Friend With His Hands Up
Cop Receives 'Silver Valor Award' For Shooting Man With Cell Phone He Mistook For Gun
Anonymous Cop Pens Bizarre Editorial Calling for 'End of Anonymity on the Internet,' Says All Internet Posters Should be Forced to Register with the Government for 'Public Safety'