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Tuesday August 31st, 2010
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Venus Needs Some Austrians
posted 08/31/2010, 4:05 AM (Mises Institute)
[Category: Commentary]
 During my trip to Haiti, I got into a discussion with my fellow volunteers about the financial crisis. Things were going quite well as we all agreed that the rich investment bankers deserved no taxpayer bailout. However, my hopes were dashed when one of the more intellectual guys suddenly declared the problem was capitalism, and that a "resource-based economy" would relieve the world of scarcity.
Apparently this idea is catching on; a reader emailed me the grandiose description of "the Venus Project." Although the people involved are admirably doing what they can to rid the world of injustice, they lack basic knowledge of economics. In the present article, I'll run over some of the biggest gaps in their proposal.
The Venus Project
According to the website,
The Venus Project is an organization that proposes a feasible plan of action for social change, one that works towards a peaceful and sustainable global civilization. It outlines an alternative to strive toward where human rights are no longer paper proclamations but a way of life.
We operate out of a 21.5-acre Research Center located in Venus, Florida. Resource-Based Economy
For our purposes in this article, the website's section on a "Resource-Based Economy" is much more interesting:
The term and meaning of a Resource-Based Economy was originated by Jacque Fresco. It is a system in which all goods and services are available without the use of money, credits, barter or any other system of debt or servitude. All resources become the common heritage of all of the inhabitants, not just a select few. The premise upon which this system is based is that the Earth is abundant with plen ... (more) |
10 Statist Myths Debunked
posted 08/31/2010, 4:05 AM (Josh Fulton)
[Category: Commentary]
1. Taxes help grow the economy.
Bloomberg:
In a study of 44 large fiscal adjustments in 24 advanced economies since 1975, Broadbent and Daly discovered that reducing expenditures by 1 percentage point a year boosted average annual growth by 0.6 percentage point. Raising the ratio of taxes to GDP by the same margin cut growth by an average ... (more) |
A Culture of Fear
posted 08/31/2010, 4:05 AM (Mises Institute)
[Category: Commentary]
 Upon the collapse of the Soviet Union, Soviet foreign spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov warned the United States, "We have done the most terrible thing to you that we could possibly have done. We have deprived you of an enemy."
For nearly half a century, the elusive threat posed by the Soviet Union formed the basis of American foreign and domestic policy. Much of the United States' political and economic development was in fact a product of the government's exploitation of a supposed S... (more) |
The State's Bad Math
posted 08/30/2010, 12:28 AM (David D'Amato)
[Category: Commentary]
On Friday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered a message that -- for those of us who inveigh against widespread, institutionalized violence -- sounded a lot like a threat, that "much of the work of implementing financial reform lies ahead of us." Fortunately for libertarians, the ciphers of the state, broadcast by its many mouthpieces, are not difficult to decode, transparently glorifying the policies of coercion that begot the "Panic of 2008."
Still, appraisal of the ... (more) |
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Saturday August 28th, 2010
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The Friends of the "Free Market" Are Its Worst Enemies
posted 08/28/2010, 2:35 AM (Kevin Carson)
[Category: Commentary]
In the introduction to Capitalism and Freedom, Milton Friedman complained of the perversion of the word “liberalism,” which early in the 20th century underwent a shift in meaning from a philosophy favoring free markets and individual liberty to a philsophy favoring government intervention to guarantee individual security. He quoted Joseph Schumpeter’s statement that the enemies of the system of free enterprise had appropriated its label.
This is true in a sense which Friedman per... (more) |
The Market as a Redistributor of Wealth
posted 08/28/2010, 2:35 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
One of the primary arguments employed by statists to justify the welfare state is the necessity to equalize incomes. The rich just get richer and richer, and the poor just get poorer and poorer, in a free-market economy, say the statists. To balance things out, they say, the state must take from the rich and give to the poor.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Actually, a free market is a tremendous engine for the redistribution of wealth, one in which the poor become rich ... (more) And yet what is the bailout? It's the government stealing money from the companies and the individuals who produce actual value in their work and handing it over to their politically connected cronies! - Chris |
Anarchy as Order
posted 08/28/2010, 2:35 AM (David D'Amato)
[Category: Commentary]
Given what are widespread and prevailing misconceptions, one could perhaps be forgiven for identifying anarchy with unmitigated chaos and libertarianism with today's corporate avarice. At the same time, Statists -- whose systems have rendered nothing but destitution for those they purport to aid -- enjoy an opposite but related misbelief, namely, that theirs is the philosophy concerned with economic or social justice. Not only, then, do the state and its influential manipulators use brutality to... (more) |
Social Individualism and Solidarity
posted 08/28/2010, 2:35 AM (Darian Worden)
[Category: Commentary]
A functional libertarian political order will rise the strongest from fertile ground. To maximize individual liberty it is necessary to promote the best kind of individualism at all levels.
Controversy over the building of various mosques and the Park 51 Islamic cultural center shows the influence of anti-Muslim sentiment on United States politics. Opponents hold all Muslims responsible for crimes that a few Muslims have committed, and want to exclude them at least symbolically fr... (more) |
Authoritarianism is Self-Defeating
posted 08/28/2010, 2:31 AM (Kevin Carson)
[Category: Commentary]
I got a (simultaneously horrifying and amusing) news item in the latest U.S. Pirate Party newsletter, about a new program in Cleveland to monitor recyclable bins with RFID chips (“Privacy Trashed,” August 24).
“This whole ‘chipping’ of garbage cans began in England and now it is spreading to our shores. Basically, they’re using RFID (radio frequency indentification) chips to ensure that people are recycling. The chips monitor how many times... (more) |
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Wednesday August 25th, 2010
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Breaking the Information Monopoly
posted 08/25/2010, 10:08 PM (Darian Worden)
[Category: Commentary]
With modern information and publishing technologies, it is easier than ever for average folks to actively participate in the spread of information. We can look beneath the official story and create our own narratives that are not based in helplessness, isolation, or politicians' posturing.
To be sure, misinformation is not a solved problem, but the tools are there and the way is easier to find than before.
Everyone knows about Wikileaks now, and the site has even fe... (more) |
The Fatal Cure
posted 08/25/2010, 10:08 PM (Becky Akers)
[Category: Commentary]
Among the premises with which the Feds justify their War on Terror are the hordes of bad guys overrunning the planet. The government wants us to believe that millions of terrorists lurk worldwide, scheming to blow us sky-high. They penetrate our airports and spy on our infrastructure. In their spare time, they form sleeper cells that fiendishly and seamlessly blend into our communities. Indeed, one has probably infiltrated your neighborhood.
... (more) |
Philadelphia: The City of Big Brotherly Love
posted 08/25/2010, 10:08 PM (Stacy Litz)
[Category: Commentary]
According to a recent article in Philadelphia’s City Paper, Philly bloggers report receiving government duns for a $300 “business privilege” tax. The city’s government, operating on the unsafe assumption that these blogs have made raked in some form of income, wants a cut.
The city’s lawyer asserts that if a blog has the potential to make a profit — if, for example, it features any... (more) |
Rotten Eggs and the Regulated Economy
posted 08/25/2010, 10:05 PM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
How come there’s an egg recall due to salmonella poisoning? Don’t we have government regulations and regulators for this sort of thing? Don’t we have government inspectors? Don’t we have a regulated economy so that the government will keep us safe from rotten eggs entering the marketplace?
Well, what’s the point of a regulated economy if it’s not going to work? Doesn’t it just lull people into a false sense of security, even while vesting ever-growing power in the hands of govern... (more) |
The War on Food: Eggsactly What Is Going On Here?
posted 08/25/2010, 10:05 PM (Mac Slavo)
[Category: Commentary]
Reading this week's headlines about the egg salmonella crisis may leave one with the impression that we need more government control and we need it now. The feeling one is left with after listening to mainstream pundits and FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg is eerily familiar – almost as if the same crisis template that was applied to the financial crisis is now being used to further progress centralized control of the country's food production capacity... |
Goods, Scarce and Nonscarce
posted 08/25/2010, 10:05 PM (Mises Institute)
[Category: Commentary]
Everyone who is serious about ideas now has to deal with the issue of "intellectual property," especially given the advent of digital media and the state's war on the supposed violators of the intellectual rights of others. The situation has at once become very hopeful, with more sharing of ideas than ever before in history, and extremely grim, with the federal government pressuring every Internet-service provider to act as proxy enforcers of an unjust law — and twisting the arms of developing c |
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Tuesday August 24th, 2010
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The Bush-Obama Lies on Iraq
posted 08/24/2010, 11:59 PM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
 President Obama’s announcement that all combat troops have exited Iraq, while 50,000 combat troops remain in Iraq, is fitting. Since the war began with a lie, the “end” of the war might as well be based on a lie as well.
Interventionists continue to maintain the sweet delusion that Iraq is better off as a result of the U.S. invasion. However, when they make that claim, they’re always referring to the Iraqis who are alive. They never refer to the Iraqis who are dead as a result of... (more) |
Buy First, Think Second, Sue Third
posted 08/24/2010, 11:58 PM (S.M. Oliva)
[Category: Commentary]
“Too many ‘free’ offers come with strings attached,” warned David Vladeck recently. Who is David Vladeck? Why, he’s the person in charge of protecting you from unscrupulous businesses. Vladeck is director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, and his warning came in a press release last week about acai berry supplements -- aka “colon cleansers” -- which Vladeck and his minions have declared a scam.
... (more) |
I-Dosing: Another Excuse for Government Control Over Our Lives
posted 08/24/2010, 11:58 PM (Infowars)
[Category: Commentary]
I don't know about you, but I am not about to run out and experiment with the latest fad, known as "i-dosing," a gimmick that supposedly uses binaural tones to create euphoria. "Simply put, i-dosing is the attempt to achieve a perceived drug 'high' from listening specially-engineered sounds and music," reports Psychology Today. "Is it a real drug? Probably not."
... (more) |
Glenn Beck Is a Statist, Not a Libertarian
posted 08/24/2010, 11:58 PM (J.H. Huebert)
[Category: Commentary]
At the beginning of his show this morning, Glenn Beck started ripping into the imam that all the talk-radio hosts love to hate, because the imam has (correctly) pointed out that the U.S. has killed many more innocent non-Muslims than al-Qaeda has.
Beck went on to defend the U.S. embargo against Iraq that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people during the 1990s, argued that we should have fought the Iraq war “full on” from the beginning (meaning we shouldn’t have been so sq... (more) |
What Is Libertarianism?
posted 08/24/2010, 11:58 PM (David Gordon)
[Category: Commentary]
Libertarianism Today • By Jacob H. Huebert • Praeger, 2010 • Vii + 254 pages
Jacob Huebert's outstanding survey of libertarianism ranks as the best work of its kind since Murray Rothbard's For a New Liberty. Huebert navigates successfully difficult waters. Many people, when they first hear of libertarianism, dismiss ... (more) |
And Real Criminals Go Unpunished
posted 08/24/2010, 11:58 PM (Darian Worden)
[Category: Commentary]
Michigan State University student Ahlam Mohsen is in jail with bail set at $250,000. She faces up to five years in prison. She was arrested for throwing an apple pie at US Senator Carl Levin's face.
The "Support Ahlam Mohsen" Facebook group says that Levin was chosen for the insult because he chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, and thereby holds significant influe... (more) |
Government is not a Friend to Protect the Internet
posted 08/24/2010, 11:57 PM (Ross Kenyon)
[Category: Commentary]
Al Franken has just released another video regarding his take on net neutrality, which he has dramatically called "the First Amendment issue of our time." This may or may not be true, but the trust proponents of net neutrality are placing in government to ensure that corporations do not dominate the internet is completely unmerited.
There are two models for government action at work here. The first one is endorsed by supporters of net neutrality legislation and those who employ ... (more) |
Ron Paul: Demagoguing the Mosque
posted 08/23/2010, 10:51 PM (Ron Paul)
[Category: Commentary]
 Is the controversy over building a mosque near ground zero a grand distraction or a grand opportunity? Or is it, once again, grandiose demagoguery?
It has been said, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.” Are we not overly preoccupied with this controversy, now being used in various ways by grandstanding politicians? It looks to me like the politicians are “fiddling while the economy burns.
The debate should have provided the conservative defenders of property rights wit... (more) "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary." - H. L. Mencken |
Glenn Greenwald on the Mosque Controversy
posted 08/23/2010, 10:51 PM (Glenn Greenwald)
[Category: Commentary]
Opponents of the Park51 Islamic community center held a rally yesterday in Lower Manhattan, and a 4-minute video, posted below, reveals the true sentiments behind this campaign. It has little to do with The Hallowed Ground of the World Trade Center -- that's just the pretext -- and everything to do with animosity toward Muslims. I dislike the tactic of singling out one or two objectionable people or signs at a march or rally in order to disparage the event itself. That's not what this video i... (more) Perfect illustration for why conservatives are NOT libertarians. These socialists LOVE the government when it's used to violate people's property rights who they have some vendetta against. They're in no way anti-state or anti-government, they revel in the raw exercise of power by the mob over the individual. - Chris |
The State's 'Inception' Fails
posted 08/22/2010, 12:12 AM (Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.)
[Category: Commentary]
Two years ago, the economy was seriously dragged down amidst an amazing banking crisis that spread throughout the world. The illusion created by loose credit – that housing could go up in price forever and we could enjoy permanent prosperity due to monetary expansion – was shattered by events. Reality had dawned. We found ourselves in the midst of an economic depression.
At that point in policy, we were at a fork in the road. The wise direction was to let the... (more) |
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Saturday August 21st, 2010
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The Anti-Fed Revolution
posted 08/21/2010, 4:23 AM (Anthony Gregory)
[Category: Commentary]
Through his 2008 presidential campaign, Ron Paul managed to make monetary policy a national political issue. For nearly a century it had been a relatively obscure topic, and throughout my lifetime respectable opinion considered it a fringe inclination even to be interested in it. Certainly, those who questioned the necessity of even having a central bank had long been relegated to the kooky periphery of political discourse.
This all changed with Paul’s campaign... (more) |
US Announces Second Fake End to Iraq War
posted 08/20/2010, 12:36 AM (Antiwar.com)
[Category: Commentary]
 It was another of those great TV moments. Embedded reports filming as the “last” brigade of American troops in Iraq cross the border into Kuwait bringing over seven years of unhappy conflict to its final, conclusive end. America was, at last, at peace.
But like so many other great TV moments, this one was a scripted fantasy, a fake exit done purely for political gain by an increasingly unpopular president trying to look like he is keeping at least one campaign promise.
... (more) |
We Are Not the Government
posted 08/20/2010, 12:36 AM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
A common mistake by many Americans is when they use the pronoun “we” to conflate the U.S. government and the American people (i.e., the private sector). The error is most often manifested when it comes to foreign policy. “We stand for freedom and free markets around the world” or “We’ve done more to help the world than anyone else.”
Actually, however, the federal government and the private sector of American people are two separate and distinct entities. Our American ancestors un... (more) |
No War But Class War!
posted 08/20/2010, 12:36 AM (Thomas L. Knapp)
[Category: Commentary]
Frédéric Bastiat nailed it when he defined the state as “the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.”
If that was as far as it went, political government would pretty much be a wash. We’d all get back about what we put into it, less the “friction” of transaction costs and such. Eventually we’d presumably notice that the state is a hamster wheel and get... (more) |
A Politician's Promise
posted 08/20/2010, 12:35 AM (Darian Worden)
[Category: Commentary]
Barack Obama is declaring "Something Accomplished" in Iraq. Behind the television smiles, 50,000 US military personnel will remain, the State Department is increasing the size of its contractor army, and the largest embassy in the world will serve as an imperial outpost. An Antiwar.com editorial by Jason Ditz pretty well sums up the story in its title: “US Announces Second Fake End to Iraq War.”
It's no wonder that an administration struggling to maintain political dominance o... (more) |
Government Roid Rage Returns
posted 08/20/2010, 12:35 AM (S.M. Oliva)
[Category: Commentary]
A federal grand jury indicted former Major League Baseball pitcher Roger Clemens today for lying about his alleged personal use of anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, and vitamin B12. In addition to perjury and false statements charges, the grand jury also accused Clemens of “obstruction of Congress.” What does that mean? Did he stand in front of Congress and prevent it from legislating? Did he steal Nancy Pelosi’s gavel?Basically, it means he’s accused of making false statements while t ... (more) |
Government Subsidies for Bloggers?
posted 08/20/2010, 12:33 AM (Jeff Harding)
[Category: Commentary]
 I almost choked when I read Lee Bollinger's op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal advocating public financial support of the mainstream media. This is the Lee Bollinger who is the president of Columbia University and was recently named deputy chair of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The article says more about the writer and the mainstream media than it does its subject matter. It is unbelieva... (more) |
Smearing Bradley Manning
posted 08/20/2010, 12:32 AM (Justin Raimondo)
[Category: Commentary]
The smear campaign against Bradley Manning took off the moment he was arrested, with professional snitch Adrian "I Have Asperger’s Syndrome" Lamo detailing how he supposedly ensnared Manning in his web and adding that the young intelligence analyst was merely vying for "attention" by "vacuuming up" all the secret data he could just for the hell of it. |
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Thursday August 19th, 2010
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None Dare Call It Tyranny
posted 08/19/2010, 12:36 AM (Sheldon Richman)
[Category: Commentary]
If you want to know what tyranny is like, look around.
The national government — specifically the executive branch — can do pretty much what it wants. It could bomb Iran tomorrow without a declaration of war from Congress. It can — and does — conduct secret wars and covert operations against countries that have done nothing to us. Of course, they are secret only to the ignorant taxpayers who must finance them and perhaps suffer when the provoked retaliation occurs. It can hav... (more) |
The Mystery of the 48 Pages
posted 08/19/2010, 12:34 AM (S.M. Oliva)
[Category: Commentary]
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed two months ago, the Federal Trade Commission refused to disclose 48 pages of documents related to the agency’s exclusive contract with an outside company to handle funds and customer data obtained in so-called consumer protection cases. The FTC indicated it was reviewing additional documents related to the outside firm -- Analytics, Inc. of Chanhassen, Minnesota -- that may al... (more) |
Porno for Pessimists
posted 08/19/2010, 12:33 AM (Revolt of the Plebs)
[Category: Commentary]
The very fact that you are reading this may indicate that you suffer from a psychosis characterized by delusions of grandeur, coupled with feelings of euphoric bliss, at the prospect of being clued in to terrible events and conspiracies that may be contributing to the end of civilization as we know it. |
Germany and Its Industrial Rise: Due to No Copyright
posted 08/19/2010, 12:32 AM (Jeffrey Tucker)
[Category: Commentary]
I had known that copyright killed music in Britain in the 18th and 19th century and that the absence of copyright laws in Germany had encouraged its remarkable artistic culture. I had not known that the same is true of books generally. But this article details remarkable new research showing that this was indeed the case. The author of the research in question is Eckhard Hoffner and his book is Geschichte und Wesen... (more) |
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Wednesday August 18th, 2010
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The Essence of Government
posted 08/18/2010, 3:06 AM (Doug Casey)
[Category: Commentary]
 "The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitable he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is apt to spread discontent among those who are."
- H.L. Mencken
I give... (more) |
You Don't Own Other People
posted 08/15/2010, 12:26 AM (Center for a Stateless Society)
[Category: Commentary]
Laws against peaceful, consensual activity always seem to be in the news. Dianne Feinstein takes a hardline stance against marijuana law reform. Raids on raw milk distributors are a regular occurrence. Every little while a story breaks about another “family values” politician soliciting a prostitute who turns out to be an undercover cop.
A sizable share of people in the criminal justice system is made up of those who ran afoul of some law commanding “Touch not, taste not, handle n... (more) |
The War Party's New Torchlight Parade
posted 08/15/2010, 12:25 AM (William Norman Grigg)
[Category: Commentary]
The most powerful patron of radical Islam is not Iran, Iraq, or Saudi Arabia. It is the government headquartered in Washington, D.C., which for more than a half-century has diligently cultivated Islamic terrorism. Yet millions of Americans are suffering what amounts to a collective loss of bladder control over the purported threat embodied in the proposed Cordoba House -- the Islami |
Poor Alvin Greene
posted 08/15/2010, 12:25 AM (Lew Rockwell Blog)
[Category: Commentary]
Alvin Greene, who won the SC democratic senatorial primary on his own, and therefore is hated by the entire establishment, has now been indicted on trumped up, ridiculous charges to eliminate him as a candidate. Democracy, in the US and its colonies, means a power elite candidate winning, not an “unknown.” Any such result must be undone. It is why Chris Matthews et al. keep attacking Greene so viciously and pe... (more) |
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Thursday August 12th, 2010
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Death and Desensitization
posted 08/12/2010, 10:20 PM (Center for a Stateless Society)
[Category: Commentary]
If they won't charge him with treason, they ought to charge him with murder," said Congressman Mike Rogers in a recent interview concerning Bradley Manning, the infamous discloser to Wikileaks of the Iraqi war video Collateral Murder and, allegedly, about 90,000 Afghan War documents.
In that simple declaration, Rogers showed that he faced no moral dilemma in condemning a man to death for releasing information to the war-funding public — information on the death of innocent childre... (more) |
Another Demonization Campaign
posted 08/12/2010, 10:18 PM (Lew Rockwell Blog)
[Category: Commentary]
Pro-government entities like the Southern Poverty Law Center, the AP, the ADL, and Huffpo are worried by Americans who consider themselves “sovereign citizens.” These are “U.S. residents who declare themselves above state and federal laws. Many don’t register children’s births, carry driver’s licenses, or recognize the court system.” Their numbers have increased “thanks to the recession, the foreclosu... (more) |
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Wednesday August 11th, 2010
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Wave Goodbye To Brand Obama
posted 08/11/2010, 4:06 PM (Prison Planet)
[Category: Commentary]
 Administration spokesman Robert Gibbs' angry retort that left-wing critics of President Obama ought to be "drug tested" because they are "crazy" marks a crucial benchmark in the accelerating evisceration of Obama's public support, even amongst liberals who, having exalted Obama as some kind of savior, are now realizing that he is merely a servant to the banking elite.
Gibbs' meltdown occurred during an interview with The Hill newspaper, in which he slammed the ... (more) |
Government to Regulate Your Whole Life. Again.
posted 08/11/2010, 4:05 PM (Karen De Coster)
[Category: Commentary]
I’m receiving lots of emails from folks on the Food “Safety” Bill that’s been making a splash on the 'net. In short, I have not spent a ton of time doing a deep dive on it because I thought it was a lot of hot air, though it clearly is yet another hushed attempt at federalizing one of the more intimate aspects our our lives -- the food that we choose to grow, buy, or eat. The bill is over a year old, and it has show little sign of emerging intact. But now its cheerleaders are getting restless.... (more) |
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Tuesday August 10th, 2010
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The Real Activist Divides
posted 08/09/2010, 5:20 PM (Free Keene)
[Category: Commentary]
If the government people aren’t taken seriously, it is a major hit to their legitimacy – something they grasp dearly to maintain as they only rule by threats, force, and brainwashing. Naturally, they want to obscure that coercion as much as possible, else people start to catch on and get fed up with it all. |
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Saturday August 7th, 2010
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Darian Worden on Practical Anarchy
posted 08/07/2010, 8:22 PM (Darian Worden)
[Category: Commentary]
[C4SS News Analyst Darian Worden gave the following presentation at Drexel University this past weekend. - ed.]
I’m Darian Worden, an individualist anarchist writer with experience in libertarian activism. I write fiction and non-fiction, which you can find at my website DarianWorden.com. I affiliate with the Alliance of the Libertarian Left. I’m a News Analyst at the Center for a Stateless Society, a regular contributor to ALLiance Journal, a co-host of the internet radio show Th... (more) |
The Media and the Regime: Joined at the Hip
posted 08/07/2010, 8:22 PM (S.M. Oliva)
[Category: Commentary]
Jon Leibowitz and Ruth Marcus married in 1994. They were the perfect Washington power couple: He was chief counsel to Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.) and she was a White House correspondent for the Washington Post. Sure, they were just cogs in the establishment, but they were still part of America's ruling class. And over the next decade-and-a-half, they solidified that standing. Marcus – who has worked at the Post for twenty-six years – rose through the ranks to become a member o... (more) |
The US isn't leaving Iraq, it's rebranding the occupation
posted 08/07/2010, 8:18 PM (The Guardian)
[Category: Commentary]
For most people in Britain and the US, Iraq is already history. Afghanistan has long since taken the lion's share of media attention, as the death toll of Nato troops rises inexorably. Controversy about Iraq is now almost entirely focused on the original decision to invade: what's happening there in 2010 barely registers. |
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Thursday August 5th, 2010
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Presidential Dictatorship: Not Thinking Things Through
posted 08/05/2010, 7:16 PM (William Norman Grigg)
[Category: Commentary]
Let me get this straight: You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands – and your plan is to blackmail this person?... Good luck.
~ Bruce Wayne's confidante and tech adviser Lucius Fox, confronting accountant Coleman Rose when the number-cruncher tries to expose Batman's secret identity
Some of Barack Obama's most im... (more) |
Probable Cause is Improbable
posted 08/05/2010, 7:16 PM (Center for a Stateless Society)
[Category: Commentary]
“He looked suspicious so we found it necessary to take action,” stated a Drexel Police Chief after handcuffing, threatening and detaining Michael Gurrieri, an attendee at the Student Liberty Front Retreat Conference on the campus this past weekend. The criminal activity that required four police officers to show up on scene was Gurrieri smoking a hand-rolled cigarette, a new trend amongst the youth who are looking for cheaper and a more natural alternative to the highly taxed and contaminate... (more) |
Military Suicides and Guilty Consciences
posted 08/05/2010, 7:15 PM (Jacob G. Hornberger)
[Category: Commentary]
American statists and imperialists are coming up with all sorts of explanations to explain the epidemic of suicides among U.S. military personnel. The most popular explanations are war stress and stress at home.
I’ve got another possible cause: guilt, arising from the wrongful killing of other human beings.
Consider Iraq. Neither the Iraqi people nor their government ever attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. They had nothing to do with the 9/11... (more) |
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The Century of the Self: The Untold History of Controlling the Masses Through the Manipulation of Unconscious Desires
Operation Gladio: "One of the most secret programs that ever existed"
As violence raged through Gaza, Esther Najjar feared that her family -- which included two young girls -- would be the next target of the mob that had just firebombed the local Catholic church. 
As Obama Administration officials and a willing mainstream media report that yesterday was the end of the Iraq War it 
The United States by every measure is hanging on by a thread to its First World status. Saddled by debt, engaged in wars on multiple fronts with a rising police state at home, declining economic productivity, and wild currency fluctuations all threaten America's future.
On Friday, a jury found "National Security Intelligence" asset 
[This article is transcribed from the 
When U.S. Secretary of War William Howard Taft arrived in Nagasaki Harbor on July 31, 1905, he and the huge imperial retinue about the SS Manchuria were given a rapturous welcome. 
ACTA: The War on Progress, Freedom, and Human Civilization
Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech
Feds Ignore Due Process, First Amendment, Shut Down 73,000 Blogs
Obama Administration Announces Massive Piracy Crackdown
New Bill Gives Obama 'Kill Switch' To Shut Down The Internet
The "Tax Mahal": A Shrine to Corporate Socialism
Bilderberg 2010: Between the sword and the wall
Obama: Life Imprisonment Without Trial
Police Raid Wrong Apartment, Brutalize Terrified Refugees
Marxist Wealth Distribution for the Bankers