LIBERTY: A slender thread!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

http://www.rutherford.org/articles_db/commentary.asp?record_id=612

Celebrate the Constitution by Becoming an Activist
By John W. Whitehead
9/14/2009

*** begin quote ***

   “I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state; up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better to have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake.”–Thomas Paine, 1776

Federal law mandates that all high schools, colleges and universities across the country that receive federal funds host educational events about the Constitution on Constitution Day, September 17. There will also be various festivities in Washington, DC, and in some communities across America celebrating the Constitution.

*** end quote ***

A scrap of paper is all that stands between us and the camps!

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LIBERTY: What crowd?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

200909162341.jpg

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FUN: Michael Moore can’t sing, but he can bring back memories

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/09/leno-tuesday-ratings-.html

September 16, 2009

Jay Leno’s ratings drop notably for second episode

*** begin quote ***

The Leno episode featured an interview with Michael Moore in the studio

*** end quote ***

I think Michael Moore is a muddled thinker. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed “The Times They Are A Changing”. While he’s no Dylan or PP&M, I can remember singing that in Greenwich Village along with all the other audience of the many folk singers.

For the times they are a changing?

How’s that “hope and change” working out for you?

For the loser now, Will be later to win, For the times they are a-changin’.

“We, The People” have been losing for a long time at the hands of the Political and Elite. Time for us to start winning.

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LIBERTY: How do we get there?

Thursday, September 10, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/35350.html

September 8, 2009
On Larken Rose, Libertarian Organizations, and the Means to Achieving Liberty
Posted by Karen De Coster on September 8, 2009 09:17 AM

*** begin quote ***

I think, at this point, that nothing can be fixed via the political process. No ballots, no politicians, and no libertarian-lite legislation is going to restore liberty, because the political process has become so corrupt and its agents are immensely wealthy and empowered. We don’t have the political power to defeat them outright, but we do have the individual power – working in concert with one another – to resist them, impede them, protest them, deny them, and ally with others who wish to do the same.

*** end quote ***

She thinks it’s too late for a peaceful solution. Hope he’s wrong.

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LIBERTY: The end of the American Empire?

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

http://justsamachar.com/international/how-lehman-brothers-ripples-spread/?r=http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/sep/04/lehman-brothers-aftershocks-28-days

guardian.co.uk
28 days that shook the world
How the collapse of Lehman Brothers pushed capitalism to the brink
The Wall Street titan’s bankruptcy triggered a system-wide crisis of confidence in banks across the globe
Andrew Clark in New York
Friday 4 September 2009 12.14 BST

*** begin quote ***

Barclays picked up parts of Lehman from the bankruptcy courts, salvaging about 10,000 of the bank’s 25,000 jobs. But many still question the wisdom of the US government’s decision to stand by and allow a vast investment bank to go bust, given the intertwined nature of Lehman’s trading relationships around the globe. Larry McDonald, a former Lehman vice-president, says the Bush administration could easily have offered the guarantee needed to help Barclays buy Lehman outright: “They put Lehman Brothers to sleep. They executed her. They put a pillow over her face.”

Researching a recently published book on Lehman’s failure, “a colossal failure of common sense”, McDonald interviewed more than 45 Lehman executives. They insisted that they warned both Bush’s treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, and the then chairman of the New York Fed, Timothy Geithner, of the consequences of inaction: “They were begging Geithner and begging Paulson. They were saying to Geithner ‘you’re going to unleash the forces of evil on the global markets – you don’t understand what you’re doing!'”

That is not to say that Lehman can shirk blame for its predicament. With $18bn of core equity on its balance sheet, the bank had taken positions of an astonishing $780bn in mortgages, stocks, bonds, oil, gold, derivatives and other investments. It had leveraged its books by an astonishing factor of 44 and it had opted to take a particularly huge punt on America’s teetering home loans market.

*** end quote ***

This writer hits the 64k$ question, but doesn’t or can’t answer it.

Why does Lehman go under but everyone else gets rescued?

Perhaps the reason is Geithner and Paulson close relationship with Goldman?

Goldman makes out like a bandit in the chaos.

Not hard to leap to a conclusion there.

Bottom line: the taxpayer got screwed.

And, it began a series of actions to compromise “capitalism” and our liberty.

Misquoting Churchill: “the the American Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their worst hour.'”

Will this single event, the 2008 financial crisis, and the Bush administration’s response to it, be the single event that marks the beginning of the end of the American Republic?

Like the The Reichstag Fire, that allowed Hitler to accelerate the banning of the Communist Party, is Bush’s TARP1 the “October surprise” event that allows Obama to come to power and dismantle the American experiment.

Sad to think. Sadder still to think an old injineer see something that the political elite choose to ignore.

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POLITICS: Van Jones is the tip of a very big iceberg

Sunday, September 6, 2009

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9AHL8O80&show_article=1

Obama ‘green jobs’ adviser quits amid controversy
Sep 6 02:19 AM US/Eastern
By WILL LESTER
Associated Press Writer

*** begin quote ***

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama’s adviser Van Jones has resigned amid controversy over past inflammatory statements, the White House said early Sunday.

*** and ***

Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck repeatedly denounced Jones after a group the adviser co-founded, ColorofChange.org, led an advertising boycott against Beck’s show to protest his claim that Obama is a racist.

James Rucker, the organization’s executive director, has said Jones had nothing to do with ColorofChange.org now and didn’t even know about the campaign before it started.

Jones, well-known in the environmental movement, was a civil-rights activist in California before shifting his attention to environmental and energy issues. He is known for laying out a broad vision of a green economy.

*** end quote ***

THe AP is playing politics with this report. Beck called him out as a “communist” BEFORE the boycott.

Having followed Glen Beck’s indictment of the “Czars”, this fellow was imho a racist communist.

One down and a slew of Czars to go.

Obama was known to 100% “liberal” before he was elected, why is anyone surprised at the people in his administration?

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: What is our gooferment doing?

Sunday, September 6, 2009

http://www.reason.com/news/show/135830.html

George Will is Right
It’s time for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan
David Harsanyi | September 2, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Or is victory achieved when we finally usher this primitive tribal culture, with its violent warlords and religious extremism, from the eighth century all the way to modernity? If so, we’re on course for a centuries-long enterprise of nation building and baby-sitting, not a war. The war was won in 2002.

If the goal is to establish a stable government to fill the vacuum created by our ousting of the Taliban and al-Qaida, we’ve done quite a job. Most Americans can accept a Marine’s risking life and limb to safeguard our freedoms. But when that Marine is protector of a corrupt and depraved foreign parliament—one that recently legalized marital rape and demands women ask permission from male relatives to leave their homes—it is not a victory worth celebrating.

*** end quote ***

Put the girls and boys on the next thing coming home.

Why do we have troops in 170 countries?

We can’t afford that any more than we can afford Obamacare.

Let’s finally end the welfare warfare state.

Switzerland is an excellent model!

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LIBERTY: Let’s try peace and liberty

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/08/whole-foods-hit-by-protests.html

MY RESPONSE TO: “Whole Foods hit by protests”

>People like Mackey, soulless wealthy sociopaths

Now I’m not going to assert that capitalists are the Mother Teresa’s of the world. BUT, (there is always a big butt), they are not the Devil Incarnate either.

Mackey feeds the hungry. OK, you’re not going to see it that way. And, he’s well compensated for his modest efforts.

I read his WSJ op ed and I thought the fellow has courage. He could have just as easily said nothing. Like the “Silent Majority”, who don’t have the stones to speak up and give us the benefit of their wisdom or whizdumb!

I think you misread his text and his intention. Creating more gooferment isn’t the solution to ANY problem. Fixing the gooferment’s perverse incentives is almost always the best answer.

>just don’t give a damn that there are tens of millions of Americans without health care in this

For the moment, let’s ASSUME that there are 45 million uninsured. They do GET health care via emergency rooms and hospitals, but there is some modest agreement that: (1) it’s not cost effective to do that; (2) it delays small problems into big ones; and (3) it’s not efficient.

Wouldn’t it be better to give everyone a tax credit to buy insurance? (Certainly better than ‘cash for klunkers!) I’m sure the “greedy” insurance companies would happily “suborn” the premium (i.e., like the tax prep firms, your social security number gets you a ‘refund anticipation loan’. So to your social gets you an ‘insurance anticipation loan for health insurance’.)

So why isn’t this idea debated?

Because the special interests don’t get control! Politicians don’t get to tell people what’s good for them.

And, obtw, those rich youngsters who don’t want to buy insurance don’t have anyone else to blame.

And, the supposedly “illegal” aliens wouldn’t be a problem if we didn’t have welfare programs. (That is, if there was no “free” education, welfare, and healthcare, then the only folks who came wanting to work would be coming here. Like the old days. Get on the boat and come, we always have room for more workers. Most of us have ancestors who hit the dock with just a smile! Heck, I’d be issuing green cards with tins at the dock and thanking them for coming. That’s the America personified by the Status of Liberty. Come one and come all. We have enough freedom for everyone. That’s Libertarian.)

And, criminals — “illegal” or not — lock them up!

And, obtw, in a Libertarian America, the drug dealers would have to find other work. We’d eliminate all the drug laws. (What would the Columbian Drug Lords do? Go back to farming or cheating widows?) So, we turn Big Pharma loose making the best cleanest drugs possible. (It’s estimated that currently “illegal” street drugs would cost little more than aspirin. And, do you think that WalMart or Walgreens would sell heroin to children? WalMart won’t sell X rated videos because their customers would punish them.) We could empty the prisons of non-violent drug offenders.

America would be supercharged!!!

>He’s filthy rich, he’s covered, his loved ones are covered and beyond that he does not care.

And, how about all those ‘caring’ politicians who say ‘good for thee, but not for me’.

>FDR called them economic royalists.

FDR was the biggest souless empoverisher, next to old “Honest Abe”, in American history. His economic ignorance created Social Security to empower the Democratic Party and set us on the Road to Hell. By eliminating gold currency, he permitted the welfare warfare state to explode.

>

I really hope that some day we can try peace!

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LIBERTY: When the President speaks … …

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

FROM DRUDGE

*** begin quote ***

Obama to make unprecedented address to all public school students; September 8…

*** end quote ***

What the …

This is unprecedented all right!

When will folks learn the true purpose of “public education”?

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POLITICAL: The Worst President in History?

Friday, August 28, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/casey/casey16.1.html

Baby Bush: The Worst President in History?
by Doug Casey

*** begin quote ***

Catalog of disasters the Bush regime created.

   * No Child Left Behind.

   * Project Safe Neighborhoods

   * Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit

   * Sarbanes-Oxley Act

   * Katrina.

   * Ownership Society

   * Nationalizations and Bailouts

   * Free-Speech Zones

   * The Patriot Act

   * The War on Terror

   * The scope of the War on Drugs

   * Invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq

   * Dept. of Homeland Security

   * Guantanamo

   * Abu Ghraib and Torture

   * The No-Fly List

   * The TSA

   * Farm Subsidies

   * Legislative Free Ride

*** end quote ***

An impressive list. But Lincoln still holds the title for “worst” with the “Civil” War. No comparison! Hard to top that!

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MONEY: In Gold We Trust

Thursday, August 27, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/fink1.1.1.html

IN gOD WE TRUST
  by Gabriel Fink

*** begin quote ***

The merits of placing references to deity on currency is another debate. What should not be debatable to any of the three Abrahamic religions, is placing the name of God on something that is worthless, has no value, represents debt, usury, and facilitates war. The only type of currency that the phrase “In God We Trust” could be placed upon without taking the Holy name of the Lord in vain, is gold or silver coinage. After all, God indeed himself created these materials of intrinsic value, a feat the anointed Fed chairman can only feign doing in spite of his lofty seat in the marble temple in DC.

*** end quote ***

Without a question, the American motto should be:

In GOLD, we trust!

Clearly anything less is fraud.

And, let’s just go with ounces. No need for the word “dollars” anywhere.

It’s even OK with me if we want to be international friendly!

KILOGRAMS of gold!

See ounces have flavors; even grams do to.

We need a crystal clear measure.

A stone. (The old New England measure for potatoes!)

Heck we can call it a nano-STONE.

Let’s just be honest in our vocabulary. And our money!

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POLITICS: LBJ as a paragon?

Thursday, August 27, 2009

http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2009/08/lbj-lead-way.html

Saturday, August 22, 2009

LBJ lead the way

*** begin quote ***

Lyndon Johnson had his faults — arrogance, for instance — and he misread Vietnam. But he committed himself to the war on poverty and civil rights and got a slew of legislation passed that seemed unlikely before he began his push.

*** end quote ***

LBJ?

Seriously?

You’re not kidding?

The man who expanded the welfare warfare state. The man who was so bad that even his own party walked away from him about reelection. The man who could mke Chicago politics look honest.

Sorry, but if Obama is looking for inspiration, I wouldn’t urge him to look there. At least Carter was honest. Incompetent, but honest.

We need a true “peace” president. Let’s start closing bases and bringing the boys and girls home. Use the savings to pay down the debt.

We need an entrepreneurial president. Eliminate the capital gains tax; free up capital. Eliminate the corporate income tax; corporations will rush to HQ here in the USA. Besides, corporations don’t pay taxes; people do. Eliminate price supports and payments NOT to grow stuff. Let’s feed the world!

We need a “simple” president. Simplify everything. We need people to focus on “producing”; not “loophole finding”. Tort reform. End the psuedo drug war. Shut down the FDA. Shut down the TSA. Shut down the Department of Education.

We have a lot of work to do.

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TECHNOLOGY: Cloud computing held hostage to politics

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/21/flickr-v-free-speech-where-is-the-courage/

Flickr v. Free Speech. Where Is The Courage?
by Michael Arrington on August 21, 2009

*** begin quote ***

Flickr really stepped in it this time. And they’ve sparked a free speech and copyright fascism debate that is unlikely to cool down any time soon.

*** and ***

People are angry over the takedown. There are lots of pictures mocking President Bush on a Time Magazine cover on Flickr that haven’t been removed. And of the Heath Ledger Joker character.

*** end quote ***

The “big government socialists” — regardless of party — hide their prejudices in law. We can’t trust “big business”; any more than we can trust “big gooferment”. They are in a symbiotic relationship. Both are big parasites on the poor serf just trying to make a life. Business serves us; companies I’m not so sure of. When they get big or when their liability is limited, that’s when the trouble begins.

Expecting free speech isn’t in their vocabulary.

Cloud computing gives “them” power over content.

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INTERESTING: WWJD with health care

Monday, August 17, 2009

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2009/08/13/health-care-reform-wwjd/

Health Care Reform: WWJD?
Posted by Michael F. Cannon

*** begin quote ***

Sympathy and sentiment are wonderful but do not always work well as criteria for good policy.

*** end quote ***

A very funny quick read. I think EVERYONE should read it.

ROFL, about J being a policy wonk.

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RANT: ROADS; no longer the third rail

Saturday, August 15, 2009

FROM FACEBOOK

*** begin quote ***

I drove in upstate with a friend of mine whose a libertarian. We saw all the road constructions (quite annoying to be honest) and he stated it’s unfair he needs to pay for any construction to the roads in an area he never drives in. I had no good answer. Thoughts?

*** end quote ***

MY RESPONSE

OK, he’s absolutely correct. THe gooferment one size fits all requires us to pay for stuff we will never ever use. It’s the only entity, with its monopoly on initiation of force, which can require us to pay for what we don’t need, don’t want, can’t use, and a absurdly high price. Roads are the third rail of Libertarian philosophy. Because the sheeple can’t conceive of roads being “done” by anything other than the government. Walt Disney, private home owner associations, and private roads all exist in the “real world”. There needs to be a revolution in our memes. How about selling the interstate to WalMart and UPS? Think they would have construction delaying their paying customers? ROFL! SO why ask me? You know I am a raving little Llibertarian!  

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You expected me to say something different?

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POLITICAL: Terminate the TSA

Saturday, August 15, 2009

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125012447548327753.html

Airlines to Require More Passenger Data
By CAM SIMPSON

*** begin quote ***

WASHINGTON — Airlines this week will begin requiring some people making reservations for domestic flights to submit their dates of birth and genders as part of a screening process aimed at keeping boarding passes out of the hands of suspected terrorists, the Transportation Security Administration said.

*** end quote ***

I’ve got a novel idea. Let’s nuke the TSA. Make airlines responsible for security. Could they possibly do a worse job than the gooferment?

And, we won’t have to pay salaries and gooferment pensions to all these folks.

Why is the taxpayer in the business of running airport security? Why is the taxpayer in the airport business? Why is the taxpayer in the airline business?

You get the idea!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Gooferment expanding in other directions

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

http://www.impactlab.com/2009/08/10/are-local-and-state-governments-in-the-u-s-getting-too-big/

August 10th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Are Local And State Governments In The U.S. Getting Too Big?

*** begin quote ***

A new local government now emerges, on average, once a day in the United States. “I think it gives you a fair sense of the scale of growth that warrants attention,” says Nick Dranias, director of the Center for Constitutional Government at the Goldwater Institute, a public policy think tank in Phoenix, Arizona. For example, according to the California state government Web site, “within California, there are 58 counties, 468 cities, and over 3,400 special districts, exclusive of school districts.” Dranias believes that “few [special districts] are models of limited government restrained by a system of checks and balances,” arguing that these bodies are often driven by special interests.

*** end quote ***

Of course, my immediate answer is yes.

“Special Districts” represent a new threat to liberty. Overlapping gooferments. With lots more paid staff. With pensions.

Argh!

How dumb are we?

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RANT: Throw the gooferment out of “health”

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=106149

Obama: Unwitting catalyst for free-market health care?
Posted: August 07, 2009
David Limbaugh

*** begin quote ***

a sampling of excessive state-mandated treatments that are covered, including: acupuncture, alcoholism treatment, athletic trainers, breast reduction, contraceptives, dieticians, drug abuse treatment, hair prosthesis, home health care, hormone replacement therapy, in vitro fertilization, marriage therapy, massage therapy, nature treatments, pastoral counseling, Port-stain elimination, professional counseling, smoking cessation, speech therapy and varicose vein removal.

*** end quote ***

Time to push the gooferment out of all the things that it is into.

At the root, the only proper function of government is to protect us from force or fraud.

So, the federal gooferment has no role in “health care” other than to resolve conflicts between the states. The FDA is an agency that has failed. “Health and Human Services” needs to be nuked.

Slash the Federal budget. Repeal the income tax. And, make the bureaucrats literally barefoot beggars.

Congress critters and their minons have better pensions than almost any taxpayer. That’s just not right.

Argh!

Wake up sheeple!

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RANT: We need to “liberate” drugs

Monday, August 10, 2009

Don’t give in to the state
Dallas Libertarian Examiner
by Garry Reed

*** begin quote ***

“Libertarians who fight for marijuana rights should never compromise on rights. They should never meekly beg to be legalized and taxed and regulated. They should never give in to the state. It’s the state, after all, who’s in the wrong, so make the state give in to you. That means demanding your rights as free and sovereign individuals, long and loud and persistently. And when the state finally comes around, offering to compromise its position by legalizing and taxing and regulating medical marijuana, take it. But never take it as an end, only as a step. Then keep demanding your freedom, long and loud and persistently.” (08/02/09)

http://tinyurl.com/nvfp78

*** end quote ***

The gooferment has no role in drugs. Other than to screw things up. Non-violent drug “offenders” should be pardoned.

Let’s shut down the FDA. All they do is slow stuff down on its way to market. Killing sick people in the process. And, making everything more expensive.

Argh!

And think of all the youngsters hurt or killed by impure “illegal” drugs. If they are going to take drugs, and I hope they don’t, let’s make sure they have pure “safe” ones. I think WalMart can put all the drug dealers out of business. Remember the gang wars of Prohibition? Coke and Pepsi. Bud and Miller. No shooting. Just competition.

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MONEY: Gold was debunked?

Friday, August 7, 2009

from FACEBOOK

The Gold standard debunked 80 years ago.. THere’s not enough Au or Ag in the ground to support an Earth-wide economy of 6+ Billion people….

*** my response ***

I believe, respectfully, that you missed the point. It’s not about Au or Ag. It’s about selecting something (anything) that limits the “sovereign” from adulterating the currency. With a fixed amount of Au in the universe, who cares if a dollar maps to micrograms as opposed to ounces. The respective gooferments can NOT just print more “wealth” that they use. From the Civil War to the Fed, prices gently declined. The greenback and the gold specie were circulated equally. “Good as gold”. Unfortunately, the Fed allowed the politicians to escape the chains of fiscal discipline. They can’t raise taxes so they inflate the currency. Look at the value of a dollar. It lost GT10% against the Euro last week alone. Argh!

# – # – #

I’ve blogged about my realization at the Smithsonian. The franc of Louis 1 was a hockey puck of gold; fast forward to Louis 14 and it’s a thin shirt button. That demonstrates inflation.

If we mined all the gold, currency units would be mapped to ounces of gold. Who cares if it mili ounces or nano ounces. It restricts how much currency the gooferment can print.

It doesn’t matter if it is gold, silver, or something else that’s limited in supply. The idea is to PREVENT gooferment from creating it. Out of thin air!

Argh!

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GOVEROTRAGEOUS: The unanswered questions of the Kennedy assasination

Friday, August 7, 2009

http://www.motherbird.com/deep_politics.html

Deep Politics and the Death of JFK by Peter Dale Scott
Book review by Jodey Bateman

*** begin quote ***

Scott says that at this point it is not possible to say what specific individuals plotted to kill Kennedy. However, there is publicly available information, easy to obtain, on why a much larger group of individuals was willing to stage an official cover-up to make it appear that the Kennedy assassination was simply a horrible accident without political significance.

*** end quote ***

And, that is why dear Sheeple, we will never get the truth about anything.

The gooferment is corrupt.

Slowly, but surely, with age, I am becoming an anarchist.

The gooferment is the meme that kills and enslaves us.

We need to find a better answer.

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POLITICAL: Get a camera!

Thursday, August 6, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/napolitano7.1.1.html

A Great Moment in Our History
by Andrew P. Napolitano

*** begin quote ***

The camera is the new gun. There’s nothing that government dislikes more than the light of day, and cameras recording what the government is doing, whether it’s on a street corner, or in there, or in Washington D.C., we have the right to know everything that they do and why they do it, and when they do it, and how they are taking our freedoms.

*** end quote ***

Obviouly, every patriot has to arm themselves with the new gun. And photo every tyrant. Politician, bureaucrat, and all of their ilk who would restrict our freedom.

Sheeple need to wake up. It may already be too late!

Let’s start rolling back — the TSA, the Patriot Act, the large oppressive gooferment!

Argh!

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POLITICAL: we agree on only one thing—the ZAP

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

http://ncc-1776.org/tle2009/tle530-20090802-03.html

What Can I Do?
by Andrew G. Eggleston Sr.

*** begin quote ***

But, as libertarians, we agree on only one thing—the ZAP—our Zero Aggression Principle, no one or group of ones has the right to tell us how to live, or die. No one or group of ones has the right to initiate force in any way against any other one or group of ones, to do so forfeits their rights as a one or group of ones.

*** end quote ***

Can do!

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LIBERTY: Free Speech and the British

Saturday, July 11, 2009


200907111509.jpg

(Supplied by one of my networking colleagues!)

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POLITICS: You can change the system. Why bother?

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

*** begin quote ***

The Minnesota Supreme Court has ordered that Democrat Al Franken be certified as the winner of the state’s long-running Senate race. The high court rejected a legal challenge from Republican Norm Coleman, whose options for regaining the Senate seat are dwindling.

If Franken takes the seat, Democrats in the Senate will likely have a big enough majority to overcome Republican filibusters.

http://online.wsj.com#mod=djemalertNEWS

*** end quote ***

Doesn’t seem fair.

They counted more votes than they had people signing into the polls?

Make “banana republics” look honest.

I’ve come to the conclusion that voting is for suckers. You can’t change the “system”. You can fight the “system”. You have to “leave” the “system!

Secession?

Don’t give them anything you can avoid, evade, or hide from them!

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POLITICS: The “cost” of the absurd drug war

Thursday, September 11, 2008

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-barr/federal-drug-war-rethough_b_125458.html

Federal Drug War Rethought
Bob Barr
Posted September 10, 2008 | 04:12 PM (EST)

*** begin quote ***

It is obvious that, like Prohibition’s effort to eradicate alcohol usage, drug prohibition has not succeeded. Despite enormous law enforcement efforts — including the dedicated service of many thousands of professional men and women — the government has not halted drug use. Indeed, the problem is worse today than in 1972, when Richard Nixon first coined the phrase “War on Drugs.”

Whether we like it or not, tens of millions of Americans have used and will continue to use drugs. Yet in 2005 we spent more than $12 billion on federal drug enforcement efforts. Another $30 billion went to incarcerate non-violent drug offenders.

These people must live forever with the scarlet letter P for prison. Only luck saved even presidents and candidates for president from bearing the same mark, which would have disqualified them from not only high political office, but also many more commonplace jobs.

The federal drug laws affect even those who have never smoked (or inhaled!) a marijuana cigarette. One of the lessons I learned while serving in Congress is how power tends to concentrate in Washington, and how that concentration of power begets more power and threatens individual liberty. The ever-expanding drug war is a perfect illustration of this principle.

*** end quote ***

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It saddens me to think of the cost of the gooferment’s quote war on drugs end quote.

I know some Manhattan College students who’s lives were ruined by it. Even back in the Sixties, I knew it was wrong. A killer. My best friend in high school, who flunked out of Manhattan Engineering, dropped out due to the Vietnam Era Draft, and fell into the druggie crowd. Because I my security clearance and the new “war on drugs”, I could not afford to be anywhere around the stuff. So, he and I parted ways. I never saw him again. He was killed on the Beltway in a traffic accident. A casualty of the gooferment’s war. Either the VietNam war or the War on Drugs.

When America get it’s head screwed on straight, we’ll as a nation realize that Prohibition doesn’t work! Period. What peopel put in their own body is their own business. MYOB. And, there ain’t a single thing you or I can do about the decisions that others make. Anything we think will prevent it, like laws, jails, and fines, merely inflict a terrible cost on the unfortunate user who happens to get caught and us. Us, as a society, where we lose our Fourth Amendment rights, where we can’t buy antihistamine wothut a hassle, and where we suffer the collateral damage in gang violence. Just like Al Cappone in the Twenties.

Want to end gang violence? Just have the gooferment walk away from regulation. Ever see a Coke versus Pepsi shoot out? How about Bud and Miller duking it out on the street? Sending vast amounts of money to drug gangs in Mexico, drug kingpins in Columbia, or the terrorists in Afghanistan! We can end that in a heartbeat.

Legalize, deregulate, and wipe out the age restrictions. End all restrictions. And, for good measure allow WalMart to run it.

Will children get drugs? Yes! Do you think that the current system prevents it? Dreamer!

It’s the Libertarian assertion that a free market in drugs will have much less collateral damage than the current insane ‘system’.

42B$ will pay for a lot of things. Drug treatment, education, and giant tax reduction.

Now, what will all the unemployed drug dealers do?

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