29 October 2012

More Apple Censorship



The Liberty Radio Network (lrn.fm) hosts a variety of radio shows, many of which are critical of the state. I recently noticed that the LRN app is no longer available via iTunes. Funny, but that's not the first time that this, this, or this has happened under the oppressive thumb of the Apple regime...



During a period when an extreme left-wing (as opposed to a nearly identical right-wing one) regime runs the executive branch, should it be any surprise that many of those outlets critical of the state meet censorship by private companies that support the fascistic regime? I don't suppose we should hold a corporation such as Apple to the same standards as we do others in regards to the natural right of free speech and expression...

26 October 2012

Internet Downloads, False Accusations, and the Burden of Proof

http://888webtoday.com/articles/images/InternetPolice.jpg

I received a notice from my ISP (Suddenlink) this morning stating that I had downloaded a copyrighted file from the Internet, a false accusation to be sure. This claim came from a third-party and not directly from my ISP. ISPs and "Internet Police" are getting lots of criticism for taking this position, and even for fabricating a significant number of claims for no apparent reason. This is what you get when you let the entertainment industry use the government to control the Internet:

4fda424f3c38d007585063dc-18593680
The Lovely Bones
BitTorrent
2012-09-29 06:28:12
2012-09-29 20:53:34
The.Lovely.Bones.2009.BDRip.XviD-Larceny
74.192.169.220
http://bt.rghost.net/announce
Suddenlink Communications
DMCA@Suddenlink.net
USA

A few years ago I stopped downloading copyrighted material from the Internet, mostly due to a change in my habits on computers and the Internet. With services like YouTube, Hulu and Netflix, I get most of the movies and shows I want to watch without having to visit the Piratebay or similar sites. I can't remember the last video I actually downloaded, but it's probably been a year or two ago at best. After connecting a WD TV Live box to my television, I don't even have a way to play downloaded movies or shows on the TV anymore. I found the simplicity of the setup is more user-friendly than pirating everything. What I can't stream, I can get a DVD through Netflix and watch it that way.

Arguments Against Intellectual Property aside, the course that we are allowing government and industry to travel down will end in such heavy regulation of the Internet that many will simply abandon it as a productive tool. As with everything that government gets into the business of managing, it turns out to be the worst case scenario. Despite push back by Internet users against SOPA and PIPA, these regulations went into effect anyway.

We can not trust the government to do anything, and regulating the Internet is just one of many tasks that they can not do without harming the market more than helping it. ACTA, SOPA and PIPA would destroy the Internet, but government keeps pushing the same policy packaged with a new name until we stop paying attention and they can get it passed without much public outcry. The reality is that government will pursue a policy against common sense, and ACTA is no more than the latest convoluted way that the state manipulates language to protect industries that benefit from government intervention over the rights of individuals.


These "Internet police" are little more than hired goons from the entertainment industry, and should never be allowed to harass innocent people without cause. ISPs that participate in this scheme tend to let these regulators simply sling accusations without the burden of proof. Legally, it is not the role of the accused to defend their innocence, but for the accuser to prove guilt. Any reversal of this is a perversion of justice, not that government is not inclined to do just that at every moment of it's existence.

If you are falsely accused, make some noise. I'm sharing my experience publicly, because I don't think that anything these groups do should be done behind closed doors away from public scrutiny. I don't expect that many ISPs will not participate in this scheme, so changing providers is rather futile in my opinion.

25 October 2012

Both Romney and Obama Are Dangerous

Romney and Obama are dangerous

Mitt Romney is dangerous. Barack Obama is dangerous. Neither of them want to leave you alone. Neither of them want to end needless and atrocious wars overseas. Neither of them will dare espouse an original thought. Both are pawns. Both want to use government force to their advantage.
But go on, get emotionally attached and vote for one of these stooges who couldn’t care less about you. Oh and, of course, blame those of us who resist the nonexistent urge to cast a vote for Tyrant A or Tyrant B.

Both Romney and Obama Are Dangerous | David Kretzmann

24 October 2012

Warren Buffett Says Ignore Reality

Buffett said that while the U.S. economy is outperforming those in Europe and Asia (which isn't saying much), American businesses would be performing better if leaders would address the nation's fiscal problems.

Yeah, one of the wealthiest people in the world knows more than a person living paycheck to paycheck how the economy is doing. When each trip to the grocery store brings home fewer items at increasing costs, I don't see that as a sign of positive movement, especially with a trend of wage stagnation. Businesses would perform better without government intervention or protectionist policies. 

Government to study cancer risk of living near nuclear sites

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency is launching a study to assess the cancer risk for people living near six nuclear power facilities. Seems like a good idea, sure.

Gee, ya think?

From the Los Angeles Times:

The commission is acting out of growing concern that using uranium to produce electricity may be dangerous even without accidents at nuclear plants. In addition, recent epidemiological studies in Germany and France suggest that the children living near nuclear reactors are twice as likely to develop leukemia.

The U.S. study will be conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, which will also help the commission determine whether to extend the study to all 65 U.S. nuclear power plants and certain nuclear fuel sites.

The pilot study will investigate cancer rates in each census tract within a 30-mile radius of the nuclear facilities, and assess cancers in children younger than 15 whose mothers lived near a nuclear facility during pregnancy. About 1 million people live within five miles of operating nuclear plants in the United States, and more than 45 million live within 30 miles, nuclear regulatory officials said.

[...]

More: http://grist.org/article/probably-a-good-idea-government-to-study-cancer-risk-of-living-near-nuclear-sites

Withdraw Your Consent

"There is something startlingly obvious about the non-aggression principle . . . we are taught as children not to hit other children and not to take what belongs to them . . . we do not perhaps normally think of ourselves as something that can be owned but the libertarian self-ownership claim is, at the very least, a rejection of the idea that anyone else owns us."

Gerard Casey

I think it presents more of an argument against the concept of the state that power-seekers consistently gravitate toward government positions and encourage the abandonment of the non-aggression principle, embracing violence as a method to rule over people rather than to represent their interests or promote any social benefits. I believe it is long overdue for the populations to strike down any method of government which is not completely voluntary and withdraw consent to be governed. 

Don’t Vote



It only encourages them...


Original Page: http://anarchei.me/post/34236580463

23 October 2012

Romney, Obama Duel On Foreign Policy

It's not much of a duel if they take the same position...

Mitt Romney said Monday in his third debate with Barack Obama America is seen as weaker worldwide, a contention the president flatly rejected.

In their final debate before the Nov. 6 presidential election, Romney blamed Obama for what he said has been "a pretty drastic reversal of our hopes" for the Middle East since the outbreak of the Arab Spring uprisings.

The Republican nominee said while "we can't kill our way out of this mess," if elected he would "go after the bad guys to make sure we do our very best to take them out of the picture."

He said the policy the United States must pursue "is to get the Muslim world to reject extremism on their own" to reverse "the rising tide of chaos."

[...] 

More: http://personalliberty.com/2012/10/23/romney-obama-duel-on-foreign-policy

Obama and Romney Are the Same: Americans Should be Concerned About Foreign Policy

No matter who wins in November, Americans will in fact have to face four more years of conflict, and a Middle East without an American military presence is but a distant memory.


Original Page: http://www.policymic.com/articles/17409/obama-and-romney-are-the-same-americans-should-be-concerned-about-foreign-policy

Wage Rates and Employer Health Benefits in the Future

http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/22750224.jpg

 

Looking at the coming increases in health care costs, I am starting to wonder how these costs will affect private companies like Pearson. Employers tend to pass off some of the increases in costs like health care by decreasing wages, which disproportionately affects the lowest wage earners. What is the likely outcome in the compensation and benefits arrangement between employers and employees as a result of the increased healthcare costs, increased regulation, and decreased competition?

With the mandate portion of the  Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, aka Obamacare), the lack of competition in the market will do little to encourage consumers in this market to shop for lower cost alternatives, since most people react to rising premiums by looking to alternative providers or reducing the scope of coverage (dropping add-on options and sticking to core needs). By requiring everyone to have coverage which discards deductibles and co-payments, there will be no incentive to cost-compare and look to alternative providers. There is no economic incentive to economize and reduce costs (at the consumer/employee level). (Read: Priceless: Curing the Healthcare Crisis by John C. Goodman)

Another likely effect is that wage increases could decline (and they are currently barely keeping up with the rate of inflation) as healthcare costs rise due to regulatory increases. As production costs increase, driving down profits, and possibly encouraging producers to cut costs in part by decreasing labor costs to maintain prices at competitive and profitable levels. Think of it from the employer's perspective; if the value of a employee decreases, what motivation is there to continue to compensate at unsustainable levels? Wage stagnation is likely to become the norm, but significantly more evident at low wage rates than any other level.

Minimum wage jobs, which are already an issue, could likely see more competition, especially as unemployment rates rise. Employees earning $10/hr (or less)  can not afford $6/hr healthcare costs. Low wage earners need affordable healthcare more than any other class, yet the PPACA can not reduce costs to bring costs down to an affordable level. As is typical of government intervention into markets through regulation and taxation, overall costs tend to rise, which has a variety of other negative effects, primarily increased unemployment rates. The actions that government takes "to help the poor" tend to do them more harm than no action at all. But it sounds good when we hear it on the television. Fining people who do not purchase healthcare is not effective either, as it has the same effect as the income tax in contributing to driving down market efficiencies and causing unemployment (which should be easy to understand, except for policymakers). Subsidies can only exist when driven by penalties.

The rate of inflation is likely to be a hedge against massive cuts in companies which are already profitable. Compensation rates will likely simply begin to decline in effort to prevent labor cuts, which we are seeing in other markets and industries already. Special interests will lobby government like there is no tomorrow when the mandate goes into full effect, which will only further drive up overall costs to employers and employees alike. Imagine what happens at the state level being applied at the federal in this regard.

19 October 2012

Mises on Secession

I believe I have found a scholarly focus for myself at long last, though I will still and always be a student to my last. 



Mises was almost an anarchist.  If he stopped short of affirming the full right of individual secession, it was only because of what he regarded as technical grounds.  In modern democracy, we exalt the method of majority rule as the means of electing the rulers of a compulsory monopoly of taxation.

Free men read Mises

Al Gore and EROI

http://www.troll.me/images/al-gore-meme/iceage-100k-years-ago-human-made-climate-change.jpg

A recent Al Gore reference in a forum caught my attention because of the recent news of the arrest of Jill Stein at the recent presidential debate (Green Party candidate arrested outside debate site), so I am still not convinced that government is the best champion of environmental issues. Al Gore probably gained most of his attention during his crusade for green efforts simply due to his position in the Clinton presidency, and he rode that wave to champion a cause he was dedicated to, though likely more than a bit of corporate favoritism and government special interest have been the driving force behind Gore's successes.

I agree with some "green" initiatives, but I am also a supporter of free market economics which do not require the use of force through the state to promote (so I guess I'm a bit of a Green Libertarian in that regard), and rely on people's tendency to do what is in their best interest (which in voluntary exchanges is in the interest of both parties). I look critically at most issues, and on those in the realm of energy or environment I often consider how efficient solutions are to environmental issues.

I often find myself thinking of the idea of efficiency through EROI (Energy Returned on Energy Invested), or basically that if more energy is put into a process than is generated at the end of the process, it produces a net energy loss and is inefficient. In regards to many traditional fossil fuel energy sources, there has been a shift in the EROI of those resources toward a much less efficient return on energy inputs (the concept is pretty well described in There's No Tomorrow). Despite a ratio of barely over 5:1, sources like oil shale are significantly less efficient than crude oil from maybe a hundred years ago. Yet the trend continues toward decreased returns on investment, and I wonder if alternative energies will be efficient enough to displace declining energy sources.

A Paradigm Shift

Here's something interesting that came across my radar recently regarding the idea of social security through the state's monopoly on force.

A generation or two ago, the labor class supported retires through taxation at a ratio of maybe a dozen or so workers for each retiree. The economy was stable and, despite the moral bankruptcy of the idea of forced redistribution, it was a rather sustainable proposition.

Today, the ratio is nearly 3:1 laborers to retires. Yet both halves of the single-party system that runs the state offers no more solutions beyond quantitative easing. They just keep diluting an unsustainable system.

But we suffer as a society and become weaker collectively, and we inch closer to a complete collapse. Yet that collapse might be just the wake-up and reset we need to fix the failure we have been force-fed for hundreds of years.

Slavery By Consent


"Every War in past 50 Years a Result of Media Lies" - Julian Assange
http://rt.com/news/wikileaks-revelations-assange-interview/


Slavery By Consent ( Full Version) - YouTube

Agenda 21 Explained


Here is a detailed presentation on what is really in Agenda 21 and the sustainable development movement as defined by the UN. How it will ultimately compromise your property rights..

Regarding Ms. Bruntdland: Some have suggested she is merely a Democrat and I am way off base. First off, Norway does not have a Democratic Party, but rather Socialist democrats. Hopefully there is a difference. Internet research can be a challenge, so I respect those who engage in it! However, check out the XX Congress of the Socialist International in NY. Gro was the first VP of the Socialist International whose goal is to interact with labour, social democrats and socialists worldwide to spread the socialist concept of democracy. It is quite possible to be member of the Democratic Party and a Socialist at the same time. It is members like Gro whose desire it is to move the Democratic party more toward the Social Democratic Party.

I also want to thank "6or8pack" for pointing out my error in mentioning that Betty Perry's nose was injured by handcuffs. In fact, she slipped during her interaction with officers and hit her nose on the steps. Betty was aware of local ordinances, but chose to ignore them. This landed her in the holding pen. This error is mine.

Some have suggested they have "read Agenda 21 " and there is nothing dangerous in the book and besides, the document has no power to override their Constitutional right to own and control private property.

To read the book alone, without reading the preceeding and following documentation and activites would be somewhat like looking at a map of Brazil and feeling you now know how Brazilians think and feel.

The name A21 refers not only to the actual book, but to the entire sustainable development movement as defined by the United Nations dating back to the 1970's through today. That is why it is important to not only listen to the entire video, but research on your own to gain more information. Since this presentation was completed vast new volumes of information have been compiled. Check the sources in the back of the presentation and the United Nation's own websites to draw your own conclusions.

Agenda 21 EXPLAINED, full version - YouTube

Killing Joke - The Great Cull


Another track from the new Killing Joke album "Absolute Dissent"

Killing Joke - The Great Cull (2010) - YouTube

Agenda 21


WE'RE HIT!!! TELEVISION
http://werehit.blogspot.com

SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!!! News
http://werhit-mathenyahu.blogspot.com

Mark Matheny exposes the plan of the Elite to create a New World Order through carefully coordinated agendas of the U.N. disquised as humanitarian and ecological efforts. These plans however, are geared to reduce the total earth population by 80% and bring all nations under an international post-industrial Feudal Military Global Regime. (Originally completed in May of 2009).

Agenda 21- Codex- Fema Camps-80% Depopulation = New World Order (Terror Camps: The Global Agenda) - YouTube

How your Community is Implementing Agenda 21



How your community is implementing AGENDA 21 - YouTube

Agenda 21 For Dummies


Agenda 21 explained very well. Including implications it will have on humanity. Opinions within the video come in some cases from those that were in on the negotiations. Truly an interesting watch.

Agenda 21 For Dummies - YouTube

Conspiracy Theories

It's easy to get caught up in conspiracy theories when so many of them are based on factual events. Take the Killing of Osama bin Laden. The US regime campaigned against the Taliban for over a decade, while almost no one had heard of them before 9/11. President Barack Obama ordered a strike team to invade Pakistan and kill bin Laden. Stay with me now, it gets fuzzy from here. After the murder, his body was discarded in an undisclosed location at sea. Then the team responsible for the strike was killed in a helicopter accident.

See what I mean? Hollywood conspiracy movie writers can't create better scripts. It sounds like the next Jack Ryan film, only we are watching it on CNN and ABC news. Truth is truly stranger than fiction.

Bomb the Fed, the Latest False Flag Against/By the State

http://www.secretsofthefed.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/patsy1.jpg

With the lack of legitimate attacks against the state, federal agencies have stepped up to the plate by promoting attacks against the state. Every news state media propaganda outlet has reported on the attempt to blow up the New York branch of the Federal Reserve Bank:

A Bangladeshi national was taken into custody after allegedly assembling and attempting to detonate what he believed to be a 1,000-pound bomb. FBI agents supplied him with phony components.

In the real world, any prevention of the destruction of property or loss of life is to be commended. Except when those charged with keeping the peace are enabling individuals and groups to do exactly what they are supposed to be preventing. At least the state agencies are finally using blanks instead of live ammo. I guess that's a small step in the right direction...

I can no more convince another person to do anything using just words than most people, which is why the feds have to resort to creating the entire situation themselves, mostly to justify the existence of the agency. Creating these situations has been the only way they can maintain job security.

Quazi Nafis had made no real effective steps toward the realization of his goal of the destruction of the Wall Street Stock Exchange, but with a little encouragement and guidance from the peacekeepers in government, and a truckload of fake explosives and technology, his dreams of martyrdom were realized with the help of taxpayer dollars and a false flag event against the Fed. Just think; without the assistance of the state, he would have just stayed at home and complained about the government like the rest of us. The FBI ran the entire operation like theater, with Nafis being the unwitting actor in the play. Alex Thomas over at the Intel Hub reports:

Sticking to a now utterly predictable narrative, the man never actually posed a threat to any building or person due to the fact that the FBI themselves had given him the bomb.
That’s right, the corporate media and the government are now having a hay day, once again promoting the terrorist narrative and drumming up sympathy for the privately run Federal Reserve, even as they openly continue their destruction of America.
Authorities emphasized that the plot never posed an actual risk.
However, they claimed the case demonstrated the value of using sting operations to neutralize young extremists eager to harm Americans.

If the government prevented a potential incident, they are also party to the crime, as most of the planning and execution came from federal agents rather than Nafis himself. How can the government honestly promote itself as the protector when it's agents themselves create the situations whereby these situations find the traction needed to escalate?

Glen Greenwald hits the nail on the head in his dissection of these efforts against to promote fear through misinformation by creating and then defusing it's own terror plots time after time:

The FBI has received substantial criticism over the past decade — much of it valid — but nobody can deny its record of excellence in thwarting its own Terrorist plots.  Time and again, the FBI concocts a Terrorist attack, infiltrates Muslim communities in order to find recruits, persuades them to perpetrate the attack, supplies them with the money, weapons and know-how they need to carry it out — only to heroically jump in at the last moment, arrest the would-be perpetrators whom the FBI converted, and save a grateful nation from the plot manufactured by the FBI.
I believe this falls under entrapment in the language of law, but language is often changed to suit those in power. Each war the US has been a party to has had a false flag event, from the sinking of the Lusitania to the bombing of Pearl Harbor to 9/11 and many others, there is a clear pattern of circumventing the truth in order to engage in the atrocities of war. Without a clear focus on an enemy beyond simply "terrorists," this new war seems to need a constant flow of these events to prevent it from collapsing under it's own ineptitude.
Last year, the FBI subjected 19-year-old Somali-American Mohamed Osman Mohamud to months of encouragement, support and money and convinced him to detonate a bomb at a crowded Christmas event in Portland, Oregon, only to arrest him at the last moment and then issue a Press Release boasting of its success.  In late 2009, the FBI persuaded and enabled Hosam Maher Husein Smadi, a 19-year old Jordanian citizen, to place a fake bomb at a Dallas skyscraper and separately convinced Farooque Ahmed, a 34-year-old naturalized American citizen born in Pakistan, to bomb the Washington Metro.  And now, the FBI has yet again saved us all from its own Terrorist plot by arresting 26-year-old American citizen Rezwan Ferdaus after having spent months providing him with the plans and materials to attack the Pentagon, American troops in Iraq, and possibly the Capitol Building using “remote-controlled” model airplanes carrying explosives.
None of these cases entail the FBI’s learning of an actual plot and then infiltrating it to stop it.  They all involve the FBI’s purposely seeking out Muslims (typically young and impressionable ones) whom they think harbor animosity toward the U.S. and who therefore can be induced to launch an attack despite having never taken even a single step toward doing so before the FBI targeted them.  Each time the FBI announces it has disrupted its own plot, press coverage is predictably hysterical (new Homegrown Terrorist caught!), fear levels predictably rise, and new security measures are often implemented in response (the FBI’s Terror plot aimed at the D.C. Metro, for instance, led to the Metro Police announcing a new policy of random searches of passengers’ bags).

It wouldn't be the first false flag, nor will it likely be the last...

http://saive.com/911/PHOTOS/911-False-flag-v.jpg#911%20DEES%20ILLUSTRATIONS%20863x650

17 October 2012

Texas Schools Using Electronic Chips To Track Students

http://www.none-o-your.biz/issues/tags/rfid-swsas-01.gif
"Two Schools in San Antonio are using electronic chips to help administrators count and track students' whereabouts. Students at Anson Jones Middle School and John Jay High School are now required to wear ID cards using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology embedded with electronic chips in an effort to daily attendance records. The article said the Northside Independent School District receives about $30 per day in state funding for each student reporting."

Texas Schools Using Electronic Chips To Track Students; Parents In Uproar - Slashdot

 http://photos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/425968_295966040508638_36594648_b.jpg

2 US Sailors Arrested in Alleged Rape in Japan

Why are American soldiers occupying a foreign country that has not aggressed against us? And we wonder why most of the world hates American foreign policy...

This would not be an issue under a Ron Paul presidency because those bases shouldn't even be there.

16 October 2012

The worst genocides of the 20th and 21st Century

http://www.scaruffi.com/politics/dictat.html

An interesting account and statistical comparison of the genocide by modern despots and dictators. And its good to see emotion and perceptions mostly discarded, excluding many military efforts by modern US presidents (not that the bombings of foreign civilian populations should ever be excused).

College Attainment In The U.S. And Around The World

A common talking point in circles in that college attainment in the U.S. used to be among the highest in the world, but is now ranked middling-to-low (the ranking cited is typically around 15th) among OECD nations. As is the case when people cite rankings on the PISA assessment, this is often meant to imply that the U.S. education system is failing and getting worse.*

The latter arguments are of course oversimplifications, given that college attendance and completion are complex phenomena that entail many factors, school and non-school. A full discussion of these issues is beyond the scope of this post – obviously, the causes and "value" of a postsecondary education vary within and between nations, and are subject to all the usual limitations inherent in international comparisons.

That said, let's just take a very quick. surface-level look at the latest OECD figures for college attainment ("tertiary education," meaning associate-level, bachelor's or advanced degree), which have recently been released for 2010.

The graph below presents the nation-by-nation rates for the measure that is most commonly cited – the proportion of 25-34 year olds who have attained tertiary education. This younger age group is usually used for obvious reasons – because most people attend postsecondary schools when they're younger, the 25-34 estimate best approximates the "current situation."


Among the 34 OECD nations included in the data, you can see that the U.S. is indeed ranked toward the middle [...]

Original Page: http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2012/10/shanker-blog-college-attainment-in-us.html

Maybe it is finally time to consider free market education again, as government schools have consistently seen declining performance and accessibility as intervention increases. 

15 October 2012

The planet stopped warming 16 years ago

Something that comes as no surprise to anyone who has been following temperature trends over the last decade or so has now been acknowledged in a release from the Britain's Met Office Hadley Center and the Climate Research Unite at East Anglia–these are the keepers of the data primarily used by the United Nation's IPCC. According to the Daily Mail:

The figures…reveal that from the beginning of 1997 until August 2012, there was no discernible rise in aggregate global temperatures. This means that the 'plateau' or 'pause' in global warming has now lasted for about the same time as the previous period when temperatures rose, 1980 to 1996.

Now one would think that this would be pretty big news and data that the scientists and data collectors would want to make the public, many of whom are quite afraid that their lives will be ruined by global warming, aware of the calming data. But not really. According to the Mail, "The new data, compiled from more than 3,000 measuring points on land and sea, was issued  quietly on the internet, without any media fanfare, and, until today, it has not been reported."

And as far as I know, it still hasn't been reported in the US.


Original Page: http://lockerroom.johnlocke.org/2012/10/15/the-planet-stopped-warming-16-years-ago/

Small 2013 Social Security benefit increase likely

Social Security recipients won't be getting big benefit increases next year, but the small raises they will get are playing an important role in helping seniors grow their incomes. This comes as younger workers lose ground.

And it will be paid for how, I wonder? If younger workers are seeing unemployment increase, how can payouts increase?

Original Page: http://www.kvue.com/news/Small-2013-Social-Security-benefit-increase-likely-174179921.html

13 October 2012

V for Voluntary, Motherfucker

I recently noticed that Lysander Spooner lived until just one year shy of the abolition of slavery in Brazil, not that he was as focused on issues outside of the United States as he was in his critical words and actions at home, doing his damnedest to promote liberty through education where it was considered utmost for a healthy, voluntary society. I'd like to think that his works (and those of his peers; Mises, Bastiat, Rothbard, Hazlitt, Hayek, Woods, Block, and many others) continue to be influential on the necessity for economic and civil liberty To maintain a free society. 

It's a conspiracy! Let's leave each other alone and promote respect in a voluntary society. We could do it in a few days, if we'd just let go of the false Left-Right dichotomy of separation and control (Divide et Impera, as the Romans called what we still see today), and just give in to morality and reason. Continuing to do the same thing while expecting differing results is how Einstein defined insanity. Rather acute, no?

People are born with natural rights, and many of America's own founding fathers recognized this (yet sadly abandoned those principles shortly thereafter) in their framing of a document which  intended to restrict state infringement upon those natural rights, yet none of signed nor are bound to who do not hold public office or civil position. If it were a contract, all those who signed it are long dead. Yet our collective pockets are plundered against our will to fund various immoral activities in our name. Yet we consent to this? I can not with a clear conscience. 

And to those who do? How is statism working out for us? Maybe it's finally time to try something different. I promise you'll like it, if you understand morality. 

Voting is nothing more than a tug of war, pushing on others to relieve our own burden, swinging back and forth on a pendulum, never really getting anywhere. Yet, over time, our collective burden increases gradually, and our liberties suffer. We harm ourselves in our attempt to harm others. Beware the double edged sword. Legal plunder is nothing to tolerate at any level. It is masturbation without pleasure. 

As Mises said, "economics is far too important to be left to the economists." In his worldview, government only decreases economic efficiency as its intervention and scope of government increase. And without economic liberty, civil liberties suffer greatly beside their counterpart. 

Imagine that...

08 October 2012

Could You Vote for a Lesser Evil?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JUtHX8nSVPw/UGXKd8DbPsI/AAAAAAAAAao/VVXr5Atf81Q/s1600/cthulhu-for-president-l1%5B11%5D.gif

Every four years, libertarians and other freedom lovers are caught in a conundrum. They must decide whether to vote ideologically for the “perfect” libertarian candidate of their choice or vote practically for the “lesser evil” candidate. The more ardent and ideological libertarians deride a vote for practicality as a sell-out and denounce practical libertarians as traitors to lofty libertarian principles.
Unfortunately, the fiery libertarians fall into the trap of “voting their conscience” for the “perfect” libertarian candidate who cannot win in the general election rather than the merely “good” or even “mediocre” candidate who can. Although we here at The Cassandra Times understand their vote on the grounds of principle, we also believe that their decision is misguided and counterproductive. These well-meaning, but nonetheless shortsighted, libertarians end up splitting the vote and allowing the “bad” candidate to win. The “bad” candidate then uses the machinery of government to accumulate more power and to cause an even greater overall loss of individual liberty by the people.
Allowing the “perfect” to become the enemy of the “good” can only enable the “bad”. Holding out for the so-called “perfect” solution and eschewing the “mediocre” solution can only lead to unmitigated disaster. A person who is rapidly sinking into the quicksand of collectivism cannot afford to hold out for a first class helicopter rescue, complete with a rope ladder, and to eschew a relatively sturdy vine. By the time and in the event a helicopter arrives, the sinking person will be completely submerged and likely dead. In contrast, holding on to the vine will slow the rate of descent and may buy sufficient time for the rescue party (and, maybe even the helicopter) to arrive.
That "lesser evil" position is so flawed that it only promotes the same division between two parties with differences that are becoming more and more insignificant. I believe the eventuality will be that the Democratic and Republican parties will merge into a Democratic Republican party again, all in the name of involuntary governance. Maintaining a position against two candidates with which there is such precious little beneficial reason to support is a moral high ground. Abandoning the divisive system of politics that promotes two candidates cut from the same statist cloth is the only choice that remains. Why support a flawed system where there must be something better?
The counter-argument of uncompromising libertarians is that victory by the “bad” candidate’s victory is only a temporary setback because, ultimately, the “bad” candidate’s tyranny will precipitate an uprising by the people that will wipe the slate clean. However, this revolutionary counter-argument ignores the stark reality that, allowing the “bad” candidate to have more power and to become more entrenched will only make the struggle against his repression all the more difficult and the costs infinitely greater. Climbing out of an abyss is far more difficult and will take much longer than from a ditch.
All this does is encourage more bad candidates to enter the political process, as they can at least present themselves as less evil than incumbents to guarantee an opportunity to use government for their own agendas, at least for a term before another lesser evil comes along. See how that mentality only encourages more failure and corruption? It propagates the status quo rather than kicking it to the curb.
As fans of the famous author Robert Heinlein, we here at The Cassandra Times can only extol the virtues of his wise recommendation to vote AGAINST the worst political candidate rather than FOR the best political candidate. Practicality dictates that, in a close election, freedom-loving libertarians must vote in a manner that is most likely to minimize the erosion of individual liberty. If this means voting for a candidate who may only improve the status quo in incremental ways or will pursue a relatively effective rearguard action long enough to buy valuable time for a better candidate to emerge, so be it.
We believe that a vote for Barack Obama will result in more centralized government power and less individual liberty for Americans than a vote for Mitt Romney. Therefore, it is imperative that libertarians must vote against Obama by giving their vote to the less than ideal candidate who is most likely to defeat him, namely, Mitt Romney.

Vote Against the Bad Candidate, Not for the “Perfect” Candidate | The Cassandra Times

Growing number of Afghan families turn to growing cannabis

High crop prices fuel increase in number of growers, adding to drug-control problems in world leader for opium production

The number of Afghan families growing cannabis as a cash crop leapt by more than a third last year, the UN has said.

The increase adds to the drug-control problem in a country that is already the world's top producer of opium.

Prices for the best quality resin have nearly tripled since 2009, to $95 (£60) a kilogramme, adding to the lure of a crop that can earn farmers more than opium poppies. It is also is generally looked on more leniently by authorities targeting drug crops.

Prohibition of goods or services only drives them into black markets, which results in higher costs and violent efforts to protect investments due to a lack of judiciary redress. Prohibition supporters create the problems they attempt to deter. Imagine that. 

As a result, Afghanistan's importance as a source of cannabis resin for world markets may be growing, the report warns, as other producers, such as Morocco, are producing a smaller share.

Afghan farmers were expected to produce around 1,300 tonnes of cannabis in 2011, the Afghanistan cannabis survey estimated. That is a similar amount to the previous two years, but with many more farmers turning to the crop.

Around 65,000 households grew cannabis in 2011, compared with 47,000 the year before, its said. The survey omits "kitchen garden" growers, who cultivate a handful of plants for themselves or to sell locally: these are believed to produce a tiny fraction of the national crop.

"The cannabis price rise has developed in parallel with the opium price hike caused by the opium crop failure in 2010, making its per-hectare income similar to that of opium and thus financially very attractive to farmers," the UN report said.

"But because cannabis cultivation is less labour intensive – less weeding is involved and the extraction of 'garda' (powdered cannabis resin) can be done at home in a matter of weeks with the help of family members instead of hired labour – it is actually more cost-effective than opium."

And also doesn't lead to the addiction known for opiate use, or other health-related issues. 

Unlike opium, which matures rapidly and needs little irrigation, cannabis is a water-intensive crop that needs a long time to grow, prohibiting the planting of another crop. Partly for this reason, farmers tend to grow the plant on a sporadic basis rather than every year.


Original Page: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/08/growing-number-of-afghan-families-turn-to-growing-cannabis/

05 October 2012

US unemployment rate drops to 7.8 pct in September

The US unemployment rate dropped by 0.3 percentage point to 7.8 percent in September, marking the lowest level since January 2009, the Labor Department said Friday.

It's amazing! Unemployment rates drop if we just exclude unemployed potential workers whose benefits run out or have stopped looking for work. Funny how that works, or doesn't. 


Original Page: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=856583&publicationSubCategoryId=200

03 October 2012

Words of Wisdom from Peter Schiff

The biggest beneficiary of inflation is the biggest debtor. Whoever owes the most gains the most when inflation erodes away the value of what they have to repay. 

I'd like to think this is the average person in debt, but its actually the federal government. It drives inflation up and devalues assets which it purchases with new money before inflation takes effect. But what happens when the government wants or needs to sell? No buyers step up that are willing to take a loss before taking possession. 

Chicago News Media Reporting ‘Core’ Home Prices

I was afraid this would happen.

In the midst of a Chicago residential real estate market that's doing poorly, I've noticed the local news media is now reporting home prices, and "core" home prices- meaning the removal of foreclosure and short sale transactions from the formula used to arrive at such prices.

Mary Ellen Podmolik wrote on the Chicago Tribune website yesterday:

Sales of distressed homes continued to weigh heavily on the Chicago area's housing market in August and caused local homes prices to decline 2.5 percent from a year ago, according to a report issued Tuesday.

Compared to July, home prices slipped 1.7 percent, housing data provider CoreLogic said…

However, the pricing picture looks better when foreclosure and short-sale transactions are removed from the equation. CoreLogic said Chicago-area home prices of non-distressed properties rose 1.5 percent from a year ago and 1 percent from July.

[...]


More: http://survivalandprosperity.com/2012/10/03/chicago-news-media-reporting-core-home-prices/

Have you vaccinated your children yet?

Wouldn't it be great if science were finally able to eradicate superstition and ignorance throughout the world?

I don't even think I would miss the Republicans.

The Immoral Minority: Have you vaccinated your children yet?

02 October 2012

What ever Happened to Keynesianism?

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz5Z23Sf7nsuKDbm-HQZ5s67IrrKAyNuK2OfNTMcLn_2ppMNgaviREWQ4W139AKXOtLuPq35-U-WKLe8rreYjmgS-m7cawcygpnujeqEt5waSUFR11E4Fz-_2MW4Jbaf8twK7Teh2uulI/s1600/keynesian-economics-wrong.jpg

I saw this and couldn't help but think, what the fuck? Seriously.

A Keynesian revival?

There has been much talk about a revival of Keynesianism.
A revival? Would something first have to fade away before it can come back? Keynesianism has been a constant, a mainstay in the economic interventionist policies of most governments around the world for generations.
The main evidence in favour is that the term is occasionally quoted in the business press, and that economic policy has, if somewhat inconsistently, adopted a ‘do something’ approach, in particular in the early phase of the crisis.
The resurgence is due to Keynesianism being on the lips of talking heads and empty suits? The logic escapes me here...
But identifying Keynesianism with ‘do something’ (in contrast to the old liberal creed of ‘do nothing and let the markets do their work’) is a misunderstanding of Keynesianism as well as of neoliberalism. Politically, Keynes argued in favour of fiscal policy with the aim of achieving full employment. He supported strict banking regulation and was in favour of capital controls (‘finance has to be national’). Quantitative easing is only Keynesian in so far as it involves the financing of expansionary government expenditures. Keynes argued that in a financial crisis monetary policy would be ineffective and fiscal policy must be used. On the theoretical level, the Keynesian approach, with its emphasis on fundament uncertainty, involuntary unemployment, the inability of wage flexibility to cure unemployment, and so on, marks a clear break with the neoclassical economics that dominates academia. Post- Keynesians have developed this approach further (and combined it with a Kaleckian macroeconomic class approach). Prominent proponents of ‘Keynesianism’ like Paul Krugman and Joseph Stiglitz are building on Keynes’s policy suggestions, but in their academic work they follow neoclassical lines.
It is also important to realize that neoliberalism is a quite different project from the old liberalism, which believed that a hands-off approach to the market would naturally spring into existence and find its way to a smooth and efficient equilibrium. Neoliberals, on the other hand, are market builders. Competition is regarded as the general normative organizational principle for society (and the state). Markets thus have to be created and maintained.19 Neoliberalism does not have a clear correspondence in academic economics. The neoclassical tradition highlights the self-adjusting and efficient properties of markets, but it fits uneasily with the neoliberal emphasis on market building. The (‘neo-Austrian’) tradition of Hayek is critical of the neoclassical notion of equilibrium (for Hayek markets don’t simply reveal a pre-existing equilibrium price, but are price discovery mechanisms; there is a much more evolutionary understanding of markets). Other leading participants of the Mont Pelerin Society (such as Milton Friedman and Garry Becker) have been more squarely part of mainstream economics and, indeed, transformed mainstream economics.

Fore more mind-boggling ignorance, you can attempt to read the rest, but you've been warned: Euro-Keynesianism? The financial crisis in Europe | Radical Philosophy

Anima Mundi (1991)


The world soul (Greek: ψυχή κόσμου, Latin: Anima mundi) is, according to several systems of thought, an intrinsic connection between all living things on the planet, which relates to our world in much the same way as the soul is connected to the human body. The idea originated with Plato and was an important component of most Neoplatonic systems:
Therefore, we may consequently state that: this world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence ... a single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related.[1]
The Stoics believed it to be the only vital force in the universe. Similar concepts also hold in systems of eastern philosophy in the Brahman-Atman of Hinduism, and in the School of Yin-Yang, Taoism, and Neo-Confucianism as qi.
Other resemblances can be found in the thoughts of hermetic philosophers like Paracelsus, and by Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz and by Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854). There are also similarities with ideas developed since the 1960s by Gaia theorists such as James Lovelock.

Anima Mundi (Full Movie) - YouTube:  
Anima Mundi
(1991)
Directed by Godfrey Reggio
Music by Philip Glass