I find it interesting that any information offered by oil and gas companies (gathered by legitimate research performed by real scientists) is considered “suspect.” Yet, any statement by any greenie weenie, carbon-hating, Luddite, environmental group (just well enough funded to have a web address and fax machine) is considered reliable and reputable.
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I find it disturbing that any shred of remaining freedom in this country is considered a “loophole.”
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I tire of the socialist notion that people are owed a living (and even a comfortable one) due only to the fact they exist. I also am weary of this unspoken obligation that is thrust upon me to wipe people’s bottoms when they poop in their pants, because some yearned for, benevolent, mystical entity (usually created by “government”) does not yet exist to do it for them.
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A “debtors revolt” is nothing more than a “Degenerate Display of Deadbeats.” They only seem to become aware of the fraudulent, fiat nature of the money they’ve borrowed when they find it difficult to pay it back.
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Working “within the system” to create a government that “serves the people” makes as much sense as feeding a cancerous tumor to help cure its host.
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A religion that believes in the supernatural and that its philosophy should be forced on everyone is no different than any collective, political philosophy that claims obedience to its authority will create heaven on earth. They both deny the superiority and moral necessity of self-government.
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The state’s edicts and rule is ultimately maintained through violence, not consent. The obedience of the state’s subjects is not encouraged by self-interest but through fear.
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There are people who have good minds and souls, but have not yet broken out of the matrix of state loyalty and obedience. No healthy mind or soul can reject the concept and ideals of liberty when they are properly presented.
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Why must I be burdened with taking all these political actions as required, or “allowed,” or “recommended” by this governing institution to control, alter, or abolish this same institution that I had nothing to do with creating? Why is the onus on me? Why isn’t the burden of seeking consent and legitimacy on this institution? In other words, why must I petition a self-proclaimed king? Why mustn’t he petition me?
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Yes, a private institution also has laws or rules governing how it is to be altered or even abolished. But unlike political government, that is an organization with a voluntary membership and only claims to govern (or rule) that specific membership. That organization must petition me to join it and it doesn’t claim to rule me if I do not choose to become a member.
When I’m born into this world this institution called “government” automatically considers me as a subject, obligated to accept their rule, pay tribute to them, and obey them. And if I wish to initiate even some small change to that rule, tribute, or obedience, I am also the party obligated take all the steps and jump through all these procedural hoops (that I had no say in developing) necessary to initiate change. I am obligated to make changes to a ruling institution that I did not create nor give consent to.
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Jefferson and Madison wrote the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions with the idea that the states would either ignore, or punish the federal government encroachments. I’m sure such “accountability mechanisms” could be very useful to people who actually created the beast. Particularly, since the beast was still young, immature, and still relatively harmless. But after a couple hundred years this beast has grown to a huge ugly, overbearing monster that cares little about these age old mechanisms. It takes pleasure in stomping on them with it huge hoofs.
The solution is people taking personal responsibility for their lives and liberties (including forming militias and working for secession) as a show of force and resolve to keep the beast at bay and eventually starving it.
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Jesus Christ was probably one of the few people of historical significance who was born an anarchist (as we all are) and remained an anarchist for the rest of his earthly life.
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I’m a voracious reader. I can recall being so from the age of five or six. I grew up in a small town that had a public library housed in a small, very old, wood frame church. As soon as you entered it, you smelled the odor of old books. I’ve always loved that smell. Every time I smell it I experience the same Pavlovian response that a hungry man gets when detecting the smell of a grilling steak. But instead of being encouraged to feed my stomach I’m inspired to feed my head.
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No man can be truly free until he knows the truth. No man can remain free unless he continually seeks the truth.
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If you take the time to study just what went on during the crafting of the US Constitution, you may come to this conclusion: Many of America’s “Founding Fathers” were “fathers” the same way a rapist is a “father.”
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When a private individual presents an opinion that I vehemently oppose, I see it as merely a point of view I disagree with, not necessarily a threat. However, when people become part of government, their benign, personal opinions and ideology tend to turn into “national policy.” This policy is enforced by violence and therefore becomes a threat.
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The state loves to redefine the language. It labels individuals- citizen, legal, illegal, non-combatant, combatant, militant- as if it was classifying different breeds of cattle. Some breeds are productive for the farmer, some are not. Some breeds are worthy to continue life, some are not.
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Few events are more inspiring to me than when a member of the military resigns after becoming a principled libertarian. It’s always heartwarming to witness a bootlicker morph into a shitkicker.
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“Administrative leave” means sitting around all day looking at kiddie porn.
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“Is Rand Paul better than Lindsey Graham?”
Hell, a cockroach feeding on your still warm dinner is better than Lindsey Graham.
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I’ve watched Lonesome Dove 21 times. I never tire of watching it. I asked myself how I could watch a movie that many times and still enjoy it? I concluded the reason was is because this particular western is more than just a great movie, it is great poetry- the story, the characters, the dialog, the scenery- all are pure poetry.
And, of course, great poetry never gets old, tiresome, or dated.
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Being judgmental and discriminatory are two necessary and natural human actions. They both are the result of individuals processing information to make important life decisions. Yet, many categorically condemn both actions, no matter the target, no matter the reasoning involved.
Why? I think it’s because both actions threaten conformity of thought and obedience to authority. Being judgmental and discriminatory are antithetical to following the herd. Being judgmental and discriminatory means you are actually thinking, not just following.
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There are laws of economics just as there are laws of physics. Violate them and you pay the consequences.
And no amount of god-State rhetoric or mysticism will change that fact.
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"Minority" is a code word for anti-white bigots to designate those who are non-white.
But they can't say "non-white" because they know they'll be called out for the hateful, racist bigots that they are!
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Re: the legalization of gay marriage:
After decades of rightfully demanding that government get out of their bedrooms (by the existence of sodomy laws), they've now created a ringside seat for their previous oppressor.
The power to license brings with it the power to regulate.
The only foreseeable “good” is that the potential market for divorce lawyers has increased.
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“Rap” is the guttural emanations of soulless, untalented, lower primate, ghetto monkeys and soulless, untalented, tone deaf, white trash. The true abomination of this phenomenon is not its existence, but that it is claimed to be “music” and an “art form,” worthy of consideration and listened to by civilized folk.
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If anti-gun kooks can claim that guns (inanimate objects) can create crime, how can they claim it’s ridiculous to claim that Gun Free Zones (inanimate constructs) create murder?
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My view on transsexuals, binaries, etc. and other reality optional constructs, in a nutshell:
I can put on a collar and leash and shit in the yard, but that don’t make me a cocker spaniel.
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I believe in the primacy of the individual. The predations of the state, without doubt, is the greatest threat to that primacy.
Some people see this viewpoint as inspiring, some as foolish, and others as downright scary.
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I think you'll find that most statists read little or not at all. They don't have the attention span. Most probably have not read a book since high school, if even then. They prefer sound bites from TV and word bites from social media. They’re easy to digest and no thinking or contemplation is required.
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The cops aren't there to help you.
They're there to control you (for the benefit of the ruling class), put you in a cage (for the profit and benefit of the ruling class), to extract revenue from you (to benefit both the ruling class and the enforcement class), and to KILL you, if necessary (if it benefits the ruling class when they feel they can get away with it).
Lesson: Never, ever, call the cops
Lesson: Never, ever, talk to the cops.
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Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Friday, September 23, 2016
Quotes of the Week
Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:
"There can’t be ‘too much liberty’ because liberty, being the freedom to do anything that doesn’t violate others, is self-regulating. If an act violates someone, it’s not liberty.”
Kent McManigal
“What is the Bill of Rights at heart but a way to impose very high transactions costs on any attempt to erode particular protections against government abuse? What is federalism, but providing a voting-with-your-feet alternative which makes government abuse harder to successfully impose? What is the core issue of ‘activist’ courts but their ability to lower the transaction cost of changing the Constitution through redefinition rather than the high-transaction-cost way Constitutionally specified for such changes? What is the most important goal of separation of powers but to make the transaction costs of government actions higher, in order to restrict government acts to where there is a much higher degree of societal agreement?”
Gary Galles
“The U.S. government has a life of its own. And it only really cares about the U.S. the way a flea cares about a dog. A flea needs the dog; it wants the dog to survive. But not because it cares about the dog itself. The prime directive of every living being, whether it’s an amoeba or a corporation or a government, is SURVIVE. That’s the prime directive; it comes before anything else. The U.S. government is an entity that has a life of its own. Its prime directive is looking out for number one.”
Doug Casey
“In politics, your sensitivities are despised and debated at every turn.
In the free market, your sensitivities are treated as an opportunity for someone somewhere to create wealth for themselves by figuring out a creative way to give you what you want.
Don't trust in the power of politicians and other agents of the state. Trust in the power of markets, self-interests, and incentives.”
T.K. Coleman
“The bottom line is that attempts to ‘change the world’ whole – to change it in a way that is noticeable and traceable to one action or small set of actions – is the height of arrogance. No such change, no matter how well-intentioned the change-agent, will be for the better. Beneficial efforts to change the world are almost always small, incremental, and performed in the voluntary sector of society – in the market, in families, in civil society. Not in or through the state.”
Donald Boudreaux
“He who frees his own mind first cannot be imprisoned by any government. They can slander him, criticize him, call him a 'bad American', or even un-American and he simply does not care. Why? Because he is no longer attached to any of those concepts. He has no ego-self invested in the State which defines itself as ‘American’ and needs no approval from the State to feel whole or complete. The State has nothing to offer him and, therefore, nothing by which he can be ultimately controlled. If this were not so, the government would not invest vast sums in propaganda and state-sponsored peer pressure efforts to keep the illusion up and running. The State does not fear a revolution. They have enough tanks and men to put one down and enough propaganda to cause the majority to cheer the revolutionaries stood against a wall and shot. What the State fears is being ignored. That is one thing tanks cannot defeat.”
Jack Perry
“The US allied itself with Stalin, then fought Communism. It propped up Saddam Hussein, then murdered him. After bombing Hanoi, it now sells weapons to the same regime. In front of a huge Ho Chi Minh bust, Bush, Clinton, and Obama beamed. Freedom fighters will be redefined as terrorists or vice versa. When it comes to geopolitics, there is no ideological consistency. Only war is constant, and the flow of refugees.”
Linh Dinh
“Americans, and Europeans too, are witnessing the end of the myth of democratic consensus. Democratic voting, so called, doesn’t yield some noble compromise between Left and Right, but only an entrenched political class and its system of patronage.”
Jeff Deist
“Agreement about a common purpose between a group of known people is clearly an idea that cannot be applied to a large society which includes people who do not know one another. The modern society and the modern economy have grown up through the recognition that this idea — which was fundamental to life in a small group — a face-to-face society, is simply inapplicable to large groups.”
Friedrich A. Hayek
“The established order will require bright, creative, and thoughtful minds to design and control the technology upon which the system depends for its life-destructive schemes. But these same brilliant minds may be most motivated to expose the state’s evil practices from within.”
Butler Shaffer
“I don’t affiliate with Republicans, but I am happy to support a Republican that proves he or she has no interest in dictating my principles or my future. Same with a Democrat. Same with any black or white or brown person. Same with any gay or straight person. I really don’t care; stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours. Get in my way, however, and I will step on you. If you’re bigger than me, I’ll dislocate your kneecaps and then step on you. There is no despot so big that they are immune to the heel of a strategically placed boot.
Brandon Smith
“Don’t you think it farfetched that ignorant, corrupt, and cowardly American journalists who lie for money know more than physicists, chemists, 2,700 high-rise architects and structural engineers who have called on the US Congress to launch a real investigation of 9/11, firefighters and first responders who were on the WTC scene, military and civilian pilots and former high government officials, all of whom are on record challenging the unbelievable and physically impossible official story of 9/11? What kind of a dumbshit moron does a person have to be to believe that the United States government and its media whores know better than the laws of physics?”
Paul Craig Roberts
“To those statists who tell libertarians ‘If you hate government so much why don't you move to Somalia’ libertarians can now respond, ‘If you love government so much why don't you move to Venezuela?’”
Garry Reed
"There can’t be ‘too much liberty’ because liberty, being the freedom to do anything that doesn’t violate others, is self-regulating. If an act violates someone, it’s not liberty.”
Kent McManigal
“What is the Bill of Rights at heart but a way to impose very high transactions costs on any attempt to erode particular protections against government abuse? What is federalism, but providing a voting-with-your-feet alternative which makes government abuse harder to successfully impose? What is the core issue of ‘activist’ courts but their ability to lower the transaction cost of changing the Constitution through redefinition rather than the high-transaction-cost way Constitutionally specified for such changes? What is the most important goal of separation of powers but to make the transaction costs of government actions higher, in order to restrict government acts to where there is a much higher degree of societal agreement?”
Gary Galles
“The U.S. government has a life of its own. And it only really cares about the U.S. the way a flea cares about a dog. A flea needs the dog; it wants the dog to survive. But not because it cares about the dog itself. The prime directive of every living being, whether it’s an amoeba or a corporation or a government, is SURVIVE. That’s the prime directive; it comes before anything else. The U.S. government is an entity that has a life of its own. Its prime directive is looking out for number one.”
Doug Casey
“In politics, your sensitivities are despised and debated at every turn.
In the free market, your sensitivities are treated as an opportunity for someone somewhere to create wealth for themselves by figuring out a creative way to give you what you want.
Don't trust in the power of politicians and other agents of the state. Trust in the power of markets, self-interests, and incentives.”
T.K. Coleman
“The bottom line is that attempts to ‘change the world’ whole – to change it in a way that is noticeable and traceable to one action or small set of actions – is the height of arrogance. No such change, no matter how well-intentioned the change-agent, will be for the better. Beneficial efforts to change the world are almost always small, incremental, and performed in the voluntary sector of society – in the market, in families, in civil society. Not in or through the state.”
Donald Boudreaux
“He who frees his own mind first cannot be imprisoned by any government. They can slander him, criticize him, call him a 'bad American', or even un-American and he simply does not care. Why? Because he is no longer attached to any of those concepts. He has no ego-self invested in the State which defines itself as ‘American’ and needs no approval from the State to feel whole or complete. The State has nothing to offer him and, therefore, nothing by which he can be ultimately controlled. If this were not so, the government would not invest vast sums in propaganda and state-sponsored peer pressure efforts to keep the illusion up and running. The State does not fear a revolution. They have enough tanks and men to put one down and enough propaganda to cause the majority to cheer the revolutionaries stood against a wall and shot. What the State fears is being ignored. That is one thing tanks cannot defeat.”
Jack Perry
“The US allied itself with Stalin, then fought Communism. It propped up Saddam Hussein, then murdered him. After bombing Hanoi, it now sells weapons to the same regime. In front of a huge Ho Chi Minh bust, Bush, Clinton, and Obama beamed. Freedom fighters will be redefined as terrorists or vice versa. When it comes to geopolitics, there is no ideological consistency. Only war is constant, and the flow of refugees.”
Linh Dinh
“Americans, and Europeans too, are witnessing the end of the myth of democratic consensus. Democratic voting, so called, doesn’t yield some noble compromise between Left and Right, but only an entrenched political class and its system of patronage.”
Jeff Deist
“Agreement about a common purpose between a group of known people is clearly an idea that cannot be applied to a large society which includes people who do not know one another. The modern society and the modern economy have grown up through the recognition that this idea — which was fundamental to life in a small group — a face-to-face society, is simply inapplicable to large groups.”
Friedrich A. Hayek
“The established order will require bright, creative, and thoughtful minds to design and control the technology upon which the system depends for its life-destructive schemes. But these same brilliant minds may be most motivated to expose the state’s evil practices from within.”
Butler Shaffer
“I don’t affiliate with Republicans, but I am happy to support a Republican that proves he or she has no interest in dictating my principles or my future. Same with a Democrat. Same with any black or white or brown person. Same with any gay or straight person. I really don’t care; stay out of my way and I’ll stay out of yours. Get in my way, however, and I will step on you. If you’re bigger than me, I’ll dislocate your kneecaps and then step on you. There is no despot so big that they are immune to the heel of a strategically placed boot.
Brandon Smith
“Don’t you think it farfetched that ignorant, corrupt, and cowardly American journalists who lie for money know more than physicists, chemists, 2,700 high-rise architects and structural engineers who have called on the US Congress to launch a real investigation of 9/11, firefighters and first responders who were on the WTC scene, military and civilian pilots and former high government officials, all of whom are on record challenging the unbelievable and physically impossible official story of 9/11? What kind of a dumbshit moron does a person have to be to believe that the United States government and its media whores know better than the laws of physics?”
Paul Craig Roberts
“To those statists who tell libertarians ‘If you hate government so much why don't you move to Somalia’ libertarians can now respond, ‘If you love government so much why don't you move to Venezuela?’”
Garry Reed
Friday, September 16, 2016
Quotes of the Week
Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:
“Americans have redefined ‘steal.’ It now means, ‘Acquiring property from another person yourself rather than waiting for government to acquire it on your behalf.’ So long as the recipient doesn’t wind up in jail, he will eagerly accept anything politicians ‘redistribute’ to him from his family and friends.”
Becky Akers
“Realize you are very much okay with murdering nonviolent neighbors every time you vote for politicians that use armed agents with the option of deadly force to prevent nonviolent behaviors.”
David Gornoski
“Ruling elites have three basic ways to keep the subject population under their thumb: threaten, bribe, and bamboozle. Everything they do is a variant of one of these basic actions. So, if the lush, misleading overgrowth were cut away, all government activities could be undertaken by only three departments: the Department of Cops and Soldiers; the Department of Santa Claus; and the Department of Delusion.”
Robert Higgs
“Throughout the western world, ‘tolerance’ has become remarkably ‘intolerant,’ and ‘diversity’ demands ruthless conformity.”
Mark Steyn
“Why would an intelligent person in any country want to stand for and sing a ‘national anthem?’ How would such an act contribute to the well-being of someone who engaged in it? Let me state, at the outset, that in all matters relating to my conduct, I am a firm agnostic when it comes to evaluating the conduct others expect me to follow. Consensus-based definitions of reality or propriety do not impress me. My mind will always insist upon asking my favorite word in the English language – the word that children ask of the adults in their lives until they are forced to abandon its use – ‘why?’ If you would like me to follow a prescribed course of behavior, please inform me how my doing so would benefit me.”
Butler Shaffer
“The truth is we have more in common with people of different ethnicities and religions than we can possibly know in a totalitarian system drenched in the divisive propaganda of identity politics.”
Charles Hugh Smith
"Whenever you have a rebellion focused on the inherent ideals of freedom, totalitarian institutions struggle to intervene. The issue is, freedom is not only moral, but practical. Wherever true freedom exists, people are not only happier, but more productive and prosperous. It’s hard for a tyrant to fight a rebellion based on freedom because the idea is more powerful than any weapon or any form of treachery. No matter how advanced the tyranny is, and no matter how many rebels they imprison or kill, the idea of freedom endures.”
Brandon Smith
“The United States government cannot give what does not belong to it in the first place. Freedom is not the property of the United States government to give. And the only way they can take it away is through force and violence. I ask you, can a country call itself free if its government uses violence to deny freedom? Therefore, if anyone thinks that freedom comes from the United States government, he is mistaken.”
Jack Perry
“The whole military response to 9/11 has been an utter disaster. The costs have been astronomical. They are orders of magnitude in excess of all the lives lost on 9/11. For whom a disaster? For Iraqis. For those of us who treasure peace, justice, human life and rational behavior, George W. Bush chose an utterly senseless course of action. For those who like war, slaughter, creating misery, making war profits and getting military promotions and pensions, Bush did the right thing. And for people who like to lash out in revenge against anyone, even those who had nothing to do with a crime, Bush did the right thing. The lives lost on 9/11 could never be restored by attacking Iraq. Future terrorism acts could not be averted or prevented by attacking Iraq. In fact, in one way or another the consequence has been their augmentation.”
Michael Rozeff
“Privacy is the right to the self. Privacy is what gives you the ability to share with the world who you are, on your own terms. For them to understand what you’re trying to be. And to protect for yourself the parts of you you’re not sure about, that you’re still experimenting with. If we don’t have privacy, what we’re losing is the ability to make mistakes. We’re losing the ability to be ourselves.”
Edward Snowden
“It is in the free market that self-interest finds its finest expression; that is a cardinal point in individualism. If the market is regularly raided, by robbers or the government, and the safety of property is impaired, the individual loses interest in production, and the abundance of things men live by shrinks. Hence, it is for the good of society that self-interest in the economic sphere be allowed to operate without hindrance.”
Frank Chodorov
“The Constitution and Bill of Rights have no role in ‘creating’ rights. The Constitution itself is useful only insofar as it lays out the guidelines, structure, and organization of the government. It has no place dealing with anything else.
Rights are extremely simple and bills of rights, constitutions, civics classes, etc. only serve to muddy the waters. They lead people into the confused belief that individuals or representatives or majorities can create rights by writing them down on a magical piece of paper.”
Ryan Miller
“My guess is she’s through. She ought to be through. Let her go into a sanitarium and stop killing people.”
Lew Rockwell, on the sickly Queen Killary
“Americans have redefined ‘steal.’ It now means, ‘Acquiring property from another person yourself rather than waiting for government to acquire it on your behalf.’ So long as the recipient doesn’t wind up in jail, he will eagerly accept anything politicians ‘redistribute’ to him from his family and friends.”
Becky Akers
“Realize you are very much okay with murdering nonviolent neighbors every time you vote for politicians that use armed agents with the option of deadly force to prevent nonviolent behaviors.”
David Gornoski
“Ruling elites have three basic ways to keep the subject population under their thumb: threaten, bribe, and bamboozle. Everything they do is a variant of one of these basic actions. So, if the lush, misleading overgrowth were cut away, all government activities could be undertaken by only three departments: the Department of Cops and Soldiers; the Department of Santa Claus; and the Department of Delusion.”
Robert Higgs
“Throughout the western world, ‘tolerance’ has become remarkably ‘intolerant,’ and ‘diversity’ demands ruthless conformity.”
Mark Steyn
“Why would an intelligent person in any country want to stand for and sing a ‘national anthem?’ How would such an act contribute to the well-being of someone who engaged in it? Let me state, at the outset, that in all matters relating to my conduct, I am a firm agnostic when it comes to evaluating the conduct others expect me to follow. Consensus-based definitions of reality or propriety do not impress me. My mind will always insist upon asking my favorite word in the English language – the word that children ask of the adults in their lives until they are forced to abandon its use – ‘why?’ If you would like me to follow a prescribed course of behavior, please inform me how my doing so would benefit me.”
Butler Shaffer
“The truth is we have more in common with people of different ethnicities and religions than we can possibly know in a totalitarian system drenched in the divisive propaganda of identity politics.”
Charles Hugh Smith
"Whenever you have a rebellion focused on the inherent ideals of freedom, totalitarian institutions struggle to intervene. The issue is, freedom is not only moral, but practical. Wherever true freedom exists, people are not only happier, but more productive and prosperous. It’s hard for a tyrant to fight a rebellion based on freedom because the idea is more powerful than any weapon or any form of treachery. No matter how advanced the tyranny is, and no matter how many rebels they imprison or kill, the idea of freedom endures.”
Brandon Smith
“The United States government cannot give what does not belong to it in the first place. Freedom is not the property of the United States government to give. And the only way they can take it away is through force and violence. I ask you, can a country call itself free if its government uses violence to deny freedom? Therefore, if anyone thinks that freedom comes from the United States government, he is mistaken.”
Jack Perry
“The whole military response to 9/11 has been an utter disaster. The costs have been astronomical. They are orders of magnitude in excess of all the lives lost on 9/11. For whom a disaster? For Iraqis. For those of us who treasure peace, justice, human life and rational behavior, George W. Bush chose an utterly senseless course of action. For those who like war, slaughter, creating misery, making war profits and getting military promotions and pensions, Bush did the right thing. And for people who like to lash out in revenge against anyone, even those who had nothing to do with a crime, Bush did the right thing. The lives lost on 9/11 could never be restored by attacking Iraq. Future terrorism acts could not be averted or prevented by attacking Iraq. In fact, in one way or another the consequence has been their augmentation.”
Michael Rozeff
“Privacy is the right to the self. Privacy is what gives you the ability to share with the world who you are, on your own terms. For them to understand what you’re trying to be. And to protect for yourself the parts of you you’re not sure about, that you’re still experimenting with. If we don’t have privacy, what we’re losing is the ability to make mistakes. We’re losing the ability to be ourselves.”
Edward Snowden
“It is in the free market that self-interest finds its finest expression; that is a cardinal point in individualism. If the market is regularly raided, by robbers or the government, and the safety of property is impaired, the individual loses interest in production, and the abundance of things men live by shrinks. Hence, it is for the good of society that self-interest in the economic sphere be allowed to operate without hindrance.”
Frank Chodorov
“The Constitution and Bill of Rights have no role in ‘creating’ rights. The Constitution itself is useful only insofar as it lays out the guidelines, structure, and organization of the government. It has no place dealing with anything else.
Rights are extremely simple and bills of rights, constitutions, civics classes, etc. only serve to muddy the waters. They lead people into the confused belief that individuals or representatives or majorities can create rights by writing them down on a magical piece of paper.”
Ryan Miller
“When you hear the words ‘failed state,’ you may have noticed that the phrase is never applied to a capitalist society. There are good reasons for this.”
Gary North
“I grew up assuming the Soviet Union was simply part of the status quo. All of us grew up assuming the United Kingdom was part of the furniture. Why do we think the United States of America is etched in stone?”
Sanford Levinson
Lew Rockwell, on the sickly Queen Killary
Friday, September 9, 2016
Quotes of the Week
Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:
“If you own your own body, then it follows that you have a right of self defense. If you do no town your own body, and are a slave to the state, then your self defense is at the mercy of the political ruling class and its ‘police’ force. From the perspective of our rulers, it’s not a good idea to allow the slaves to arm themselves.”
Tom Dilorenzo
“I realize people think the military is ‘us.’ But if you know anything about group dynamics, you realize that they’re loyal first to each other. Then to their employer. And last to the citizens."
Doug Casey
“The army is the only order of men sufficiently united to concur in the same sentiments, and powerful enough to impose them on the rest of their fellow-citizens; but the temper of soldiers, habituated at once to violence and to slavery, renders them very unfit guardians of a legal, or even a civil constitution.”
Edward Gibbon
“History has repeatedly shown us that freedom is the most effective military strategy. Concerns regarding military invasions by foreign state powers in a stateless society are of course valid, but are unsubstantiated when considering the facts. With over 300 million guns owned by 1/3 of households in The United States, the American continent is already a fortress. If we were to have a free market whereby the average person would have at least 3 times more wealth as well as more freedom to own and innovate new military-grade armaments, the prospect of conquest by a foreign state becomes completely unfeasible.”
Matt Ryan
“To be sure, central bankers don’t think of themselves as socialists. But socialism doesn’t just mean nationalization of capital. It can be the nationalization of money and the attempt to plan monetary policy the way the Soviets tried to plan wheat production. This is the pedigree. All government controls stem from the same intellectual root. They all threaten freedom, the market order, and civilization itself.”
Jeffrey Tucker
“Our mother has become a witch. Yes, same symbols, same flag, same pledge of allegiance, but a decadent spirit controlling the perceptions of the American people, keeping them on the animal farm (controlling their perceptions) long enough to impoverish and enslave them.”
Bob Livingston
“And exactly what has the 'settled science' of cataclysmic anthropogenic global warming convinced us to do? Deliver unprecedented power to politicians and bureaucrats. Power to commandeer entire industries. Power to pump billions of taxpayer dollars into half-baked schemes cooked up by crony corporatists. Power to redistribute income on a global scale. And to maintain this power, when cracks begin to show in the narrative, criminalize dissent, much as the Inquisition did to Galileo.”
Bill Frezza
“The definition of terrorism is ‘the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.’ When you consider that all the state does is use violence for political aims, it shouldn’t be surprising that government operations have a lot in common with terrorist organizations.”
T.J. Brown
“The core of blackness seems to consist of, first, a belief that all of their travails spring from the malignity of whites and, second, that whites owe it to them to solve their problems.”
Fred Reed
“Freedom is a universal inborn psychological construct. Almost all people have a sense of it and its usefulness. In fact, most fundamental moral principles including freedom are shared by people regardless of their cultural backgrounds. The only places in which freedom is not respected are places in which centralizing elites have propagandized and threatened the citizenry. When those elites and their influence are removed for a time, there is usually a natural wellspring resurgence of respect for liberty within that society.”
Brandon Smith
“Each of us faces a great choice. Shall I quietly accept the system of state control or shall I stand up for self-control? Self-control offers a life of freedom and responsibility. It enables us to realize our dignity in peace and harmony with others. It is a life worthy of a human being. It’s the foundation for prosperity and progress. State control offers a life of obedience, subservience, and fear. It promotes the war of all against all in the struggle for the power to control the lives of others. Self-control is a clear and simple principle applicable to all: every person gets one and only one life to live. State control has no clear and simple principle and invites conflict as individuals and groups struggle to control the state, and thus each other, or to evade control by others.”
Tom G. Palmer
“Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone.”
Chuang-Tzu
“If you own your own body, then it follows that you have a right of self defense. If you do no town your own body, and are a slave to the state, then your self defense is at the mercy of the political ruling class and its ‘police’ force. From the perspective of our rulers, it’s not a good idea to allow the slaves to arm themselves.”
Tom Dilorenzo
“I realize people think the military is ‘us.’ But if you know anything about group dynamics, you realize that they’re loyal first to each other. Then to their employer. And last to the citizens."
Doug Casey
“The army is the only order of men sufficiently united to concur in the same sentiments, and powerful enough to impose them on the rest of their fellow-citizens; but the temper of soldiers, habituated at once to violence and to slavery, renders them very unfit guardians of a legal, or even a civil constitution.”
Edward Gibbon
“History has repeatedly shown us that freedom is the most effective military strategy. Concerns regarding military invasions by foreign state powers in a stateless society are of course valid, but are unsubstantiated when considering the facts. With over 300 million guns owned by 1/3 of households in The United States, the American continent is already a fortress. If we were to have a free market whereby the average person would have at least 3 times more wealth as well as more freedom to own and innovate new military-grade armaments, the prospect of conquest by a foreign state becomes completely unfeasible.”
Matt Ryan
“To be sure, central bankers don’t think of themselves as socialists. But socialism doesn’t just mean nationalization of capital. It can be the nationalization of money and the attempt to plan monetary policy the way the Soviets tried to plan wheat production. This is the pedigree. All government controls stem from the same intellectual root. They all threaten freedom, the market order, and civilization itself.”
Jeffrey Tucker
“Our mother has become a witch. Yes, same symbols, same flag, same pledge of allegiance, but a decadent spirit controlling the perceptions of the American people, keeping them on the animal farm (controlling their perceptions) long enough to impoverish and enslave them.”
Bob Livingston
“And exactly what has the 'settled science' of cataclysmic anthropogenic global warming convinced us to do? Deliver unprecedented power to politicians and bureaucrats. Power to commandeer entire industries. Power to pump billions of taxpayer dollars into half-baked schemes cooked up by crony corporatists. Power to redistribute income on a global scale. And to maintain this power, when cracks begin to show in the narrative, criminalize dissent, much as the Inquisition did to Galileo.”
Bill Frezza
“The definition of terrorism is ‘the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.’ When you consider that all the state does is use violence for political aims, it shouldn’t be surprising that government operations have a lot in common with terrorist organizations.”
T.J. Brown
“The core of blackness seems to consist of, first, a belief that all of their travails spring from the malignity of whites and, second, that whites owe it to them to solve their problems.”
Fred Reed
“Freedom is a universal inborn psychological construct. Almost all people have a sense of it and its usefulness. In fact, most fundamental moral principles including freedom are shared by people regardless of their cultural backgrounds. The only places in which freedom is not respected are places in which centralizing elites have propagandized and threatened the citizenry. When those elites and their influence are removed for a time, there is usually a natural wellspring resurgence of respect for liberty within that society.”
Brandon Smith
“Each of us faces a great choice. Shall I quietly accept the system of state control or shall I stand up for self-control? Self-control offers a life of freedom and responsibility. It enables us to realize our dignity in peace and harmony with others. It is a life worthy of a human being. It’s the foundation for prosperity and progress. State control offers a life of obedience, subservience, and fear. It promotes the war of all against all in the struggle for the power to control the lives of others. Self-control is a clear and simple principle applicable to all: every person gets one and only one life to live. State control has no clear and simple principle and invites conflict as individuals and groups struggle to control the state, and thus each other, or to evade control by others.”
Tom G. Palmer
“Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone.”
Chuang-Tzu
Friday, September 2, 2016
Quotes of the Week
Enlightened insights taken from the past week’s reading:
“We see that as soon as we surrender the principle that the state should not interfere in any questions touching on the individual’s mode of life, we end by regulating and restricting the latter down to the smallest detail. The personal freedom of the individual is abrogated. He becomes a slave of the community, bound to obey the dictates of the majority. It is hardly necessary to expatiate on the ways in which such powers could be abused by malevolent persons in authority. The wielding, of powers of this kind even by men imbued with the best of intentions must needs reduce the world to a graveyard of the spirit.”
Ludwig von Mises
"The unending contributions of entrepreneurs — forgoing consumption, exploring the marketplace, investing capital, creating products, building businesses, inventing jobs, accumulating inventories — all long before any return is received, all without any assurance of success, all in response to an imaginative sense of the needs of others, constitute a pattern of giving that dwarfs in extent and essential generosity any socialist scheme of redistribution."
George Gilder
“Whereas markets bring us ever closer together and incentivize us to treat all people with a basic level of respect and decency, political systems and states do the exact opposite. For all the progress that markets have allowed us to gain in terms of equality of natural rights, acceptance of others who are different, etc., the state continuously comes in and highlights people’s differences, stirs up largely imagined divisions—all to exploit for political gains. Things like affirmative action, social security, and welfare all serve to hurt some only by hurting others worse.”
Ryan Miller
“The teapartiers have an interesting genesis. Several years ago some libertarians culled a few disruptive beta members from the conservative and liberal herds and attempted to interbreed them in the hopes of producing a socially liberal / economic conservative brood. Unfortunately the rightwing DNA became dominate and once released into the wild they mated almost exclusively with republicans which produced today’s mongrelized hybrids.”
Garry Reed
“It is not the genius who moves us forward, but the gains from specialization and exchange via the division of labor. Progress is not about great leaps forward, but the consistent small advances that come from more people engaging in ever finer degrees of specialization and making more things available for trade; it’s about having the market institutions necessary to facilitate such trade and the private property it depends on.”
Steve Horwitz
“Laws that turn peaceful activities into victimless crimes don’t magically stop people from doing those activities. And legalizing them won’t magically make everyone start doing it. I’m gonna do what I wanna do regardless. Why? Because I’m an unapologetic freedom loving degenerate. And that’s okay."
T. J. Brown
"The problem at hand is not that too many Millennials are socialists; the problem is that too many Millennials don’t understand that in almost every aspect of their lives, they are capitalists. If Millennials truly want to dedicate themselves to the ideals of socialism, they will have to surrender their iPhones, their Amazon accounts, their Uber accounts, their craft beer, the hipster beard accessories, and pretty much every other aspect of their daily lives."
Brittany Hunter
"The state is not the same as society, but is its worst enemy, with opposing goals and methods. Instead of using the economic means, in which both parties win, the state employs the political means, in which one party wins at the expense of another.
Roadside peddlers use the economic means; muggers use the political means."
Kent McManigal
“The executive state is the state as we know it, all flowing from the White House down. The role of the courts is to enforce the will of the executive. The role of the legislature is to ratify the policy of the executive. This executive is not really about the person who seems to be in charge. The president is only the veneer, and the elections are only the tribal rituals we undergo to confer some legitimacy on the institution. In reality, the nation-state lives and thrives outside any ‘democratic mandate.’ Here we find the power to regulate all aspects of life and the wicked power to create the money necessary to fund this executive rule.”
Lew Rockwell
“My own basic perspective on the history of man...is to place central importance on the great conflict which is eternally waged between Liberty and Power... I see the liberty of the individual not only as a great moral good in itself (or, with Lord Acton, as the highest political good), but also as the necessary condition for the flowering of all the other goods that mankind cherishes: moral virtue, civilization, the arts and sciences, economic prosperity. Out of liberty, then, stem the glories of civilized life.”
Murray Rothbard
“I used to joke that there was nothing wrong with Washington that 10 megatons on the capital couldn’t cure. But I don’t say that anymore. Partially because it’s too dangerous, but mainly because it’s now untrue. What’s now needed is 10 megatons on the capital, and four more bursts in a quadrant 10 miles out.”
Doug Casey
“We see that as soon as we surrender the principle that the state should not interfere in any questions touching on the individual’s mode of life, we end by regulating and restricting the latter down to the smallest detail. The personal freedom of the individual is abrogated. He becomes a slave of the community, bound to obey the dictates of the majority. It is hardly necessary to expatiate on the ways in which such powers could be abused by malevolent persons in authority. The wielding, of powers of this kind even by men imbued with the best of intentions must needs reduce the world to a graveyard of the spirit.”
Ludwig von Mises
"The unending contributions of entrepreneurs — forgoing consumption, exploring the marketplace, investing capital, creating products, building businesses, inventing jobs, accumulating inventories — all long before any return is received, all without any assurance of success, all in response to an imaginative sense of the needs of others, constitute a pattern of giving that dwarfs in extent and essential generosity any socialist scheme of redistribution."
George Gilder
“Whereas markets bring us ever closer together and incentivize us to treat all people with a basic level of respect and decency, political systems and states do the exact opposite. For all the progress that markets have allowed us to gain in terms of equality of natural rights, acceptance of others who are different, etc., the state continuously comes in and highlights people’s differences, stirs up largely imagined divisions—all to exploit for political gains. Things like affirmative action, social security, and welfare all serve to hurt some only by hurting others worse.”
Ryan Miller
“The teapartiers have an interesting genesis. Several years ago some libertarians culled a few disruptive beta members from the conservative and liberal herds and attempted to interbreed them in the hopes of producing a socially liberal / economic conservative brood. Unfortunately the rightwing DNA became dominate and once released into the wild they mated almost exclusively with republicans which produced today’s mongrelized hybrids.”
Garry Reed
“It is not the genius who moves us forward, but the gains from specialization and exchange via the division of labor. Progress is not about great leaps forward, but the consistent small advances that come from more people engaging in ever finer degrees of specialization and making more things available for trade; it’s about having the market institutions necessary to facilitate such trade and the private property it depends on.”
Steve Horwitz
“Laws that turn peaceful activities into victimless crimes don’t magically stop people from doing those activities. And legalizing them won’t magically make everyone start doing it. I’m gonna do what I wanna do regardless. Why? Because I’m an unapologetic freedom loving degenerate. And that’s okay."
T. J. Brown
"The problem at hand is not that too many Millennials are socialists; the problem is that too many Millennials don’t understand that in almost every aspect of their lives, they are capitalists. If Millennials truly want to dedicate themselves to the ideals of socialism, they will have to surrender their iPhones, their Amazon accounts, their Uber accounts, their craft beer, the hipster beard accessories, and pretty much every other aspect of their daily lives."
Brittany Hunter
"The state is not the same as society, but is its worst enemy, with opposing goals and methods. Instead of using the economic means, in which both parties win, the state employs the political means, in which one party wins at the expense of another.
Roadside peddlers use the economic means; muggers use the political means."
Kent McManigal
“The executive state is the state as we know it, all flowing from the White House down. The role of the courts is to enforce the will of the executive. The role of the legislature is to ratify the policy of the executive. This executive is not really about the person who seems to be in charge. The president is only the veneer, and the elections are only the tribal rituals we undergo to confer some legitimacy on the institution. In reality, the nation-state lives and thrives outside any ‘democratic mandate.’ Here we find the power to regulate all aspects of life and the wicked power to create the money necessary to fund this executive rule.”
Lew Rockwell
“My own basic perspective on the history of man...is to place central importance on the great conflict which is eternally waged between Liberty and Power... I see the liberty of the individual not only as a great moral good in itself (or, with Lord Acton, as the highest political good), but also as the necessary condition for the flowering of all the other goods that mankind cherishes: moral virtue, civilization, the arts and sciences, economic prosperity. Out of liberty, then, stem the glories of civilized life.”
Murray Rothbard
“I used to joke that there was nothing wrong with Washington that 10 megatons on the capital couldn’t cure. But I don’t say that anymore. Partially because it’s too dangerous, but mainly because it’s now untrue. What’s now needed is 10 megatons on the capital, and four more bursts in a quadrant 10 miles out.”
Doug Casey
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Get Drunk to Honor Dead Hired Killers
Militarists and loyalists, armed with their illogical and slavish view of the state, can be relied upon to create ever more comical ways to glorify their most revered sacrament- human sacrifice. To be specific- human sacrifice as performed in the name of the King. This sacrament is manifested in an action militarists describe as “dying to serve your country.”
A brewer in Washington state has created a new brand of beer called “Legacy Lager” to honor the native, uniformed instigators of US, worldwide aggression.
“Each of the 16-ounce cans include a dog tag graphic with the name, hometown, date of birth, and date of death of the service members.”
To hell with having your name inscribed on some unseen tombstone or dark, creepy looking, wall- now you and your brief, violent life can be memorialized on an aluminum can!
Appreciative militarists can now “give back” not through some somber, boring, memorial ceremony but rather by offering a beer swilling salute to those who died for the for the preservation of murderous military aggression, the police state, widespread spying, and collectivist, economic oppression. Toast the name of the unfortunate soul appearing on the side of the can and drink yourself into mind numbing oblivion!
Throughout history, elaborate ceremonies have been conducted around the act and celebration of human sacrifice. Just add this beer consuming ceremony to the list of rituals used to appease whatever deity was popular at the time. In the present, that would be our DC overlords.
But now that you have emptied scores of cans in your patriotic, hops guzzling, gluttony, a pertinent question comes to mind: Will it be considered sacrilege or disrespectful if these cans are disposed in the trash after they have been emptied? Does militarist etiquette prescribe a mandated, honorable manner of disposition- such as the reverent actions and religious incantations required of US flag disposal? Will improper scrapping of these aluminum memorials be considered an unforgivable sin? Is recycling viewed as an acceptable alternative?
Is anyone else asking these important questions?
But there’s more!
"A Justice Department Inspector General report released [August 17] said inmates at a Beaumont, Tex., prison passed off hack helmets between 2006 and 2009, as part of a $30 million deal between the Department of Defense and Ohio-based manufacturer ArmorSource. Federal Prison Industries also served as a subcontractor.”
It seems that Federal inmates manufactured substandard combat helmets during that span of time. The Regime ultimately recalled 126,000 of them, costing the tax slaves (which includes US militarists) $19 million. No one has proven (at least anyone still alive) that any of these helmets contributed to any battle fatalities. But no one knows for sure.
So now, not only can grateful, US partisans raise their inscribed beer cans to toast the preservation of murderous military aggression, the police state, widespread spying, collectivist, economic oppression, and of course human sacrifice, but can now add corporatist, prison slave labor to the list of blessings!
And don’t forget to mention the faulty equipment that may have assisted the deceased’s sacrifice to appease the DC War Gods.
Honor the fallen by….. falling on your face, drunk.
“(Burp!)….‘Murrica!….(Belch!)”
A brewer in Washington state has created a new brand of beer called “Legacy Lager” to honor the native, uniformed instigators of US, worldwide aggression.
“Each of the 16-ounce cans include a dog tag graphic with the name, hometown, date of birth, and date of death of the service members.”
To hell with having your name inscribed on some unseen tombstone or dark, creepy looking, wall- now you and your brief, violent life can be memorialized on an aluminum can!
Appreciative militarists can now “give back” not through some somber, boring, memorial ceremony but rather by offering a beer swilling salute to those who died for the for the preservation of murderous military aggression, the police state, widespread spying, and collectivist, economic oppression. Toast the name of the unfortunate soul appearing on the side of the can and drink yourself into mind numbing oblivion!
Throughout history, elaborate ceremonies have been conducted around the act and celebration of human sacrifice. Just add this beer consuming ceremony to the list of rituals used to appease whatever deity was popular at the time. In the present, that would be our DC overlords.
But now that you have emptied scores of cans in your patriotic, hops guzzling, gluttony, a pertinent question comes to mind: Will it be considered sacrilege or disrespectful if these cans are disposed in the trash after they have been emptied? Does militarist etiquette prescribe a mandated, honorable manner of disposition- such as the reverent actions and religious incantations required of US flag disposal? Will improper scrapping of these aluminum memorials be considered an unforgivable sin? Is recycling viewed as an acceptable alternative?
Is anyone else asking these important questions?
But there’s more!
"A Justice Department Inspector General report released [August 17] said inmates at a Beaumont, Tex., prison passed off hack helmets between 2006 and 2009, as part of a $30 million deal between the Department of Defense and Ohio-based manufacturer ArmorSource. Federal Prison Industries also served as a subcontractor.”
It seems that Federal inmates manufactured substandard combat helmets during that span of time. The Regime ultimately recalled 126,000 of them, costing the tax slaves (which includes US militarists) $19 million. No one has proven (at least anyone still alive) that any of these helmets contributed to any battle fatalities. But no one knows for sure.
So now, not only can grateful, US partisans raise their inscribed beer cans to toast the preservation of murderous military aggression, the police state, widespread spying, collectivist, economic oppression, and of course human sacrifice, but can now add corporatist, prison slave labor to the list of blessings!
And don’t forget to mention the faulty equipment that may have assisted the deceased’s sacrifice to appease the DC War Gods.
Honor the fallen by….. falling on your face, drunk.
“(Burp!)….‘Murrica!….(Belch!)”
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