Quote of the Week:

“A century ago, anarchism was a major force within the European revolutionary movement, and the name of Michael Bakunin, its foremost champion and prophet, was as well-known among the workers and radical intellectuals of Europe as that of Karl Marx.”

                                                                           -Paul Avrich, Anarchist Portraits

Down With the Therapeutic Left and Managerial Right by Mark Wegierski

Obama’s Denial of Reality by Lew Rockwell

Not So Huddled Masses: Multiculturalism and Foreign Policy by Scott McDonnell

The Origins of Fascism by Charles A. Burris

Stay Out of Iran! by Jack Hunter

Gun Control: What’s the Real Agenda? by Paul Craig Roberts

Obama and the Torturers by James Bovard

Mainstreaming Censorship by Harrison Bergeron 2

Ignorance is Strength by Paul Craig Roberts

Free Leonard Peltier by Michael Gaddy

The Four Stages of Revolution, Part One by Bay Area National Anarchists

Neither the U.S. Nor Israel is a Genuine “Party to Peace” by Noam Chomsky

Was 50 Million Deaths Really Necessary? by Anthony Gregory

Is Realism Better Than Idealism? byIvan Eland

Do Iranians Deserve Progressive and Liberal Sympathy? by Mupetblast

Iran: It’s All About US, Or Is It? by Justin Raimondo

Popular Support for Israel Eroding Ira Chernus interviewed by Scott Horton

Ten Days That Shook Iran by Pat Buchanan

Loose Ends by Justin Raimondo

Iran’s Green Revolution: Made in America? by Justin Raimondo

Seeing Through All the Propaganda About Iran by Eric Margolis

Iran Falling to U.S. PSYOPS? by Paul Craig Roberts

Better Load Your .44, This is Civil War by TGGP

The War at Home, Up Close by Kevin Annett

Belief in Government Means Ignoring the Evidence from No Third Solution

Noam Chomsky vs Michel Foucault (thanks, Francois!)

Conceptualizing Political Economy on the Humane Scale by Cato the Younger

What Actually Happened in the Iranian Elections? by Esam Al-Amin

 Stay Out of Iran’s Evolutionary Process by Philip Giraldi

Generation Gap by Steve Sailer

Obama’s Undeclared War Against Pakistan by Jeremy Scahill

The “Neda” Video and the Truth-Revealing Power of Images by Glenn Greenwald

What Iran Means by Stephen Walt

Dumbest Idea on the Planet by Jeff Huber

Intifada in Iran by Robert Fisk

PIG Kills Man at Stoplight by William Norman Grigg

California Is America’s Future by Pat Buchanan

San Diego Jury: PIGS Are Above the Law (of course!) by William Norman Grigg

Michelle Braun and Her Plea Bargain by Tim Worstall

When the Jackbooted Ones Strike… by William Norman Grigg

The Myth of Our Regeneration by Michael O’Meara

The U.S. Government is Evil by Francois Tremblay

Turkish Sex Workers Look to Form Union 

What the Big Banks Have Won by Mike Whitney

Arrest of Gang Intervention Leader Raises Concerns 

Building Fascism by Lew Rockwell

The Government Owns Your Body from theConverted

Parents of Unruly Students to be Jailed 

Debtors’ Prisons Are Making a Comeback by Francois Tremblay

Sicko by Ilana Mercer

Interview with Anarchist People of Color founder Ashanti Alston by Jose Antonio Gutierrez

The Hate Crimes Bill: How Not to Remember Matthew Shepard by Alexander Cockburn

Secession: Deep in the Heart of Texas

No matter how pissed off I get at liberals and leftists (a very frequent occurrence, I assure you), I have never been able to bring myself to start calling myself a “conservative.” Some of this is no doubt a reflexive reaction to being raised among right-wing Know-Nothings. But just when I am sometimes starting to think that philosophical conservatives are the ones who really have their act together, I come across something like this post from conservative Catholic philosopher Edward Feser.

Feser was once associated with libertarianism, at least on the periphery, and is now some kind of ultra-reactionary Catholic traditionalist. Predictably, he takes a position on abortion that equates abortion doctors with serial killers like Jeffrey Dahmer. I’ve known a number of other people who took such positions (mostly Christian fundamentalists of one type or another), and I really don’t find such views to be interesting enough to bother discussing them. Suffice to say that in an anarchic social order different kinds of communities would likely have different rules and standards concerning enormously controversial issues like abortion. As for my own preference, I’m for legal abortion, at least in the early stages of pregnancy. I’m probably for the legality of late-term abortion also, though I am less sure of this position and would be more accepting of compromise on the question. I don’t know that I really approve of peripheral regulations on abortion either, like parental consent and waiting periods. So, obviously, I’m in the “liberal” camp on this question. But what I find interesting about Feser’s post are comments like this:

So what’s Feser’s problem? If he really thinks abortion is the mass murder of innocent children that a corrupt state allows to legally take place, then why does he not praise the heroism of someone who places himself in grave danger in order to eliminate the killer and prevent him from killing more children in the future? Would Feser object to the killing of a wild animal that repeatedly attacked and killed human beings but could not be killed legally because of “animal rights” laws? Maybe, but I’d be surprised if he did.

Frequently, I have heard hard-core pro-lifers refer to abortionists as serial killers but then object to those who assassinate an abortion doctor. I suspect there are two reasons for this. One, whatever they think they believe outwardly, they really do not believe inwardly that abortion is the equivalent of mass murder. This is reflected in the fact that many pro-lifers do not believe there should be criminal penalties for women who obtain illegal abortions, only for the doctor. But whoever heard of the idea that being an accomplice to the murder of a child is not a crime? This perspective makes no sense at all. Many cult members and adherents of fanatical religions will betray their supposed beliefs in private moments and unguarded moments, often without the realization that they are doing so. In their heart of hearts, they really don’t believe in all the bullshit they claim to believe in.

But there’s another issue involved here as well, and that’s the state worship found among many conservatives. While many other conservatives are anti-statists with varying degrees of consistency or sincerity, “moralist” conservatives often express views not unlike Feser’s. Let’s look at Feser’s words once again. This is the key passage:

But the state alone had the moral authority to execute him, and no private individual can usurp that authority. Vigilantism is itself a grave offense against the moral and social order, and Dahmer’s murderer merited severe punishment.

And this:

Still, as in the Dahmer case, no private citizen has the right to take justice into his own hands, and Tiller’s murderer ought to be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

What the hell is this crap about “the moral authority” of the state? What’s so special about the state? Would this be the same institution that killed two hundred million subjects during the 20th century alone? And how exactly is “vigilantism” such a “grave offense against the moral and social order”? The arguments against vigilantism are these:

1) Protection of the innocent. The accused should not be subject to the arbitrary accusations and retaliation of others. Instead, there needs to be a process of determining innocence or guilt according to objectives rules of evidence judged by neutral third parties.

2) Proportionality. One should not be able to arbitrarily execute someone they feel has wronged them. Instead, the punishment should “fit the crime” and be imposed by a neutral third party.

3) Civil order. If everyone “took the law into his own hands,” would this not lead to a breakdown of civil society and the emergence of a free-for-all?

These arguments might make sense in a functional society with a functional legal system, even one that performs erratically much of the time. But that would not seem to apply in a society that has formally legalized mass murder, which is what Feser thinks America has done with legalized abortion. Would a sensible person condemn Cambodian persons who armed themselves circa 1976 and starting taking out Khmer Rouge operatives? A Russian circa 1935 who did the same to Stalinist agents? A German who engaged in such actions against Gestapo agents in 1943? Of course not.

Aside from the fact that Feser does not really believe in his Catholic fundamentalist anti-abortion ideology beyond the surface, conscious level, he also exhibits the emotional and intellectual cowardice that comes with an inability to reject the state. If Feser had been born in North Korea, he would have been one of the North Korean soldiers I saw in television footage after Kim Il-Sung’s death hugging a statue of the Great Leader and weeping: “He took care of me since I was a baby!”

I’ve undergone de-conversion from three cults in my own lifetime: Christianity, statism, and egalitarianism. So maybe there’s still hope for Edward Feser. This brings me to another issue. The owner of the “Debunking Christianity” blog, John W. Loftus, has called for Feser to be fired from his teaching post at a community college because of his statements comparing the assassinated abortion doctor to Jeffrey Dahmer. Says Loftus:

We’ve heard about the murder of George Tiller, an abortionist doctor. But did you know that in this blog post Edward Feser compares Tiller to Jeffrey Dahmer who killed, dismembered and ate 17 men and boys. Feser claims that “Tiller was almost certainly a more evil man than Dahmer was.” No wonder I won’t bother reading his book length diatribe against the new atheists, “The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism.”

Umm, excuse me, but didn’t Feser condemn the shooting of the abortion doctor and say the perpetrator should be “punished to the full extent of the law”? So it’s not like Feser is advocating the actual killing of abortion doctors. In fact, he’s criticizing such actions. What does Loftus expect? That no professor should ever express moral revulsion concerning abortion or those who practice it, even if they don’t engage in or advocate violence in retaliation against abortionists? That no one should ever insult abortion doctors? Sounds a little wacky to me.

This is the deal. Loftus is a former fundamentalist Christian apologist and pastor who converted to atheism. His writings on atheism and debunking Christianity are some of the best on these topics around. But Loftus seems to have fallen into the trap of many former religious people who replace one form of moralistic zealotry with another. Loftus say he used to lead boycotts against video stores that sold adult videos during his time as a Christian. Now he wants to lead crusades against un-PC college professors. I for one would like to see more un-PC college professors, given left-liberal dominance in much of academia.

I’ve been there. Over twenty years ago, I used to do presentations for high school and college students on the dangers of “racism and fascism” using materials from groups like the $PLC and the Berletoids (I know, I know, but forgive me for I knew not what I was doing). I used to belong to all of the official anti-Christian sects like People for the American Way until I realized that liberals are just as authoritarian and moralistic as any of their religious counterparts. I learned better as I went along. Eventually, I realized that values are simply the subjective emotions and opinions of individuals, and that life is simply a brute struggle of each against all for survival of the fittest. The only thing that matters is how one chooses to wage the war of life. What a liberating realization! May others come to such enlightenment as well.

Recently at the No Treason site, Josh Rhodes made the following point concerning the recent rhetorical warfare between myself and some in the “left-libertarian” community:

As someone who has read quite a bit of Keith’s work and corresponded with him extensively, I can assure you that he is not by any stretch of the imagination some kind of queer-bashing neo-nazi. That many people consider him to be so is more indicative of the sorry intellectual state of much of contemporary anarchism and libertarianism than anything Keith’s actually written.

Reflecting a bit on Josh’s observations about “the sorry intellectual state of much of contemporary anarchism and libertarianism” and watching the video records of the latest conference of the Property and Freedom Society, I came up the with this fictional program for what an American Revolutionary Vanguard-Attack the System conference of scholars and activists might look like. Just for the purpose of amusement , here ’tis:

Day One: The Incorrigible Nature of the State

9 am-‘The Advancement of the Anarchist Struggle in the Twenty-First Century“-Welcome by Keith Preston

9:45 am-”The Political Theory of Anarchism” -Dr. April Carter lectures on traditional anarchism

10:30 am-”The State as Augustine’s Robber Band Writ Large” -an Augustinian monk and scholar presents Saint Augustine’s views on the State

11:15 am-”The Rothbardian View of the State“-the thought of Rothbard described by Justin Raimondo

12 noon-Lunch

1 pm-”Historical Overview of the Classical Anarchist Movement“-Phd student presents his scholarly research

1:45 pm-”The Anarchists in the Spanish Civil War“-94 yr old Spanish Civil War veteran relates his experiences

2:30 pm-”Comparison and Contrast of Classical Liberalism, Classical Anarchism and Modern Libertarianism“-political scientist and professor of political philosophy expounds on these systems of thought and their relationship

3:15 pm-”The Virtue of Human Scale Institutions“-by Dr. Kirkpatrick Sale

4:00 pm-”The Case for National-Anarchism“-by Troy Southgate

Break

7 pm-viewing of rare newsreel footage of classical anarchist figures

7:30 pm-”The Rise and Decline of the State“-evening dinner lecture by Professor Martin Van Creveld

Day Two: The Economics of Anarchism and Anti-Statism

9 am-”The Contending Schools of Libertarian Economic Thought“-by Keith Preston

9:45-”Libertarian and Marxist Theories of the Ruling Class Compared“-by Dr. Sean Gabb

10:30 am-”Reconciling Property Rights with Collective Bargaining Rights“-a joint presentation by an anarcho-syndicalist and anarcho-capitalist

11:15 am-”The Case for Geoanarchism” by Dr. Fred Foldvary

12 noon-Lunch

1 pm-”Statement to the Convention by Kevin Carson“-read by Keith Preston

1:30 pm-”The Legitimate Foundations of Ownership Rights“-panel discussion featuring a Lockean, mutualist, syndicalist, distributist, Georgist and anarcho-communist, with questions from the audience

2 pm-”Cooperative Economics in Action“-lecture by a member of the Mondragon Cooperative Federation

2:30 pm-”Anarchic Socialism or Cutting Edge Capitalism?”-lecture from heterodox businessman Ricardo Semler

3 pm-”Land Rights Struggles for Indigenous Peoples“-indigenous person from Latin American country gives an overview

3:30 pm-”I Was a Teen-Aged Anarcho-Communist“-person raised on an Israeli kibbutz gives a first-hand report

4 pm-”The Case for Competing Currencies“-an economist makes an argument

4:30 pm-”The Prussian Militarist Origins of the Welfare State“-by Richard Ebeling

Break

7 pm-Film presentation on Anarchism in the Spanish Civil War

8 pm-”The Future of the World Economy“-noted trends researcher Gerald Celente outlines his predictions in evening dinner lecture

Day Three: The American Empire

9 am-”The Costs of the Empire to America“-by Dr. Robert Higgs

9:45 am-”The Costs of the Empire to the World“-by William Blum

10:30 am-”How I Went to Iraq and Saw the Light“-U.S. military veteran speaks

11 am-”What Happened to My Country Because of the U.S. Invasion“-an Iraqi refugee speaks

11:30 am-”How the U.S. Imperialists Crushed the Indigenous South Vietnamese Resistance and Allowed My Country to Fall to Communism“-a former South Vietnamese Buddhist militiaman speaks

12 noon-Lunch

1 pm-”George W. Bush and Cronies Belong on Death Row“-by Vincent Bugliosi

2 pm-”Life in the Occupied Territories“-a Palestinian refugee speaks

2:30 pm-”The Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty“-a survivor speaks

3 pm-”The Human Costs of the U.S. War Against Central America in the 1980s“-presentation by a former refugee from the civil war in El Salvador

3:30 pm-”Zionist Influence On American Foreign Policy“-by Dr. James Petras

4 pm-”Combating Zionist Influence in Domestic American Politics“-panel discussion with questions from the audience

Break

7 pm-film presentation of John Pilger’s early documentary on the role of the U.S. in the coming to power of the Pol Pot regime of Cambodia, and U.S. support for the Khmer Rouge after the Vietnamese invasion in 1979

8 pm-”On Resisting Imperialism“-evening dinner lecture by Alexander Cockburn

Day Four: Political Correctness

9 am-”Classical Anarchist and Classical Liberal Critiques of Marxism and the Historic Rivalry between Anarchists and Communists: Proudon, Bakunin, Goldman, Berkman, Mill, Russell, Kronstadt and Barcelona“-by Keith Preston

9:45 am-”The Communist Origins of Political Correctness“-by William S. Lind

10:30 am-”What I Experienced in China During the Cultural Revolution“-a survivor compares Western political correctness with Maoism

11:00 am-”My Imprisonment in Sweden“-a Christian pastor tells of his persecution under European PC laws

11:30 am-”Political Prisoners in Europe“-a European lawyer gives an overview

12 noon-Lunch

1 pm-”American Progressives’ Contributions to Political Correctness“-by Paul Gottfried

1:45 pm-”Judeo-Christian Roots of Political Correctness“-by Tomislav Sunic

2:30 pm-”The Emerging Totalitarian Humanism”-by Keith Preston

3:15 pm-”Political Correctness on American University Campuses“- a student activist speaks

4 pm-”How to Combat Political Correctness“-panel discussion with audience questions

Break

7 pm-”The Trial”-film adaption of the classic Kafka novel featuring Orson Welles

8:30 pm-”The Therapeutic State“-evening dinner lecture by Dr. Thomas Szasz

Day Five: Culture and Philosophy

9 am-”Peace Through Separatism: An Alternative to the Culture Wars“-by Keith Preston

9:30 am-”America’s Cultural Legacy of Anti-Statism“-by Thomas Woods

10:15 am-”The American Radical Tradition“-by Bill Kauffman 

11 am-”Has Brave New World Won Out Over 1984?”-discussion of the dystopian literary classics

12 noon-Lunch

1 pm-”Where the Gay Rights Movement Goes Wrong“-by Justin Raimondo

1:30 pm-”Women and the State”-presentation and panel discussion from anarcha-feminists, libertarian-feminists, individualist feminists, sex-positive feminists and anti-feminist female anarchists and libertarians

2:30–”Race-Realists Are Not the Devil“-lecture by Jared Taylor

3 pm-”The Nationalities Question“-presentations by members of the Nation of Islam, Lakota Republic, Atzlan, Puerto Rico independence and Hawaiian and Alaskan people’s movements

4:30 pm-”The Americans for Self-Determination Plan“-by Jeff Anderson

Break

 7 pm-”-”Rescuing the Conservative Revolution from the Legacy of Nazism“-presentation from a historian of Weimar intellectual history

8 pm-”The Big Sort“-evening dinner lecture from Bill Bishop

Day Six: Taking It to the Streets

9 am-”Building an Active Anarchist Local Community“-presentation from members of Bay Area National Anarchists

9:30 am-”Making Use of Alternative Media“-panel discussion with alternative radio operators, bloggers, ‘zine publishers, public access TV broadcasters, and podcasters

10:15 am-”Neither Cops Nor Criminals“-joint presentation by members of neighborhood watch and copwatch programs

10:45 am-”Social Services without the State“-scholarly presentation on  historic and contemporary non-state social service systems

11:15 am-”Putting It Into Action“-representatives of non-state assistance programs for the homeless, mentally ill, orphans, battered women, hospices, drug treatment programs, the elderly and the disabled

12 noon-Lunch

1 pm-”What Elite Theory Tells Us About Anarchist Political Organization“-by Keith Preston

1:30-”The Role of Zoning Laws in Class Oppression“-presentation from a critic

2 pm-”Organizing for the Class Struggle“-panel discussion featuring representatives of labor, consumers, tenants, claimants, and students rights organizations

2:45 pm-”Forming Alternative Schools“-presentation from a critic

3:15 pm-”The Oppression of Youth“-panel discussion on drinking ages, compulsory school attendance, treatment of students by schools, the rights of runaways, curfews, alternatives to both abusive parents and statist institutions, squatting and discrimination against alternative youth cultures

4 pm-”Alternatives to Both Prisons and Capital Punishment“-discussion of possibilities such as restitution, penal colonies and exile

7 pm-”Are HIV Skeptics On to Something?”-debate between an orthodox scientist and a heretic

8 pm-”Global Warming: Dangerous Reality or Political Scam?”-a believer and unbeliever debate during dinner

Day Seven: Defending the Undefendable

9 am-”Overview of the U.S. Prison-Industrial Complex“-presentation from American Civil Liberties Union representative

9:45 am-”The National Socialist German and Contemporary American Police States Compared“-by Richard Lawrence Miller

10:30 am-”The Militarization of U.S. Law Enforcement’-by William Norman Grigg

11:15 am-”Resisting the War on Drugs“-presentation from November Coalition

12 noon-Lunch

1 pm-”Prisoner Medical Neglect“-presentation from Wrongful Death Institute

1:30 pm-”The War Against Patients’ Rights and Medical Freedom“-a victim tells their story

2 pm-”The Persecution of the Homeless“-presentation from homeless advocacy group

2:30 pm-”What It’s Really Like on the Inside“-former prison inmates tell their stories

3 pm-”Fathers Are People, Too“-overview of the fathers’ rights movement

3:30 pm-”The Nature of Psychiatric Coercion“-lecture from a dissident psychiatrist

4 pm-”The Last Minority: Prostitutes and Other Sex Workers“-presentation on sex worker rights

4:30 pm-”I Was a Crip: What the Street Life is Really Like“-current and former gang members tell their stories

Break

7 pm-”The State’s War on Self-Defense“-presentation from Gun Owners of America

8 pm-”Stateless Legal Systems“-evening dinner lecture from Edward Stringham

Day Eight: Getting There From Here

9 am-”Historic Anarchic Communities: An Overview” by Keith Preston

9:45 am-”The Ups and Downs of Electoral Action“-presentation by a veteran of the Ron Paul campaign

10:30 am-”My Dad’s Maverick Campaign for Mayor of New York City“-by John Buffalo Mailer

11:15 am-”Lessons of the 1990s Militia Movement“-a former militiaman speaks

12 noon-Lunch

1 pm-”Political Alignments and Re-Alignments in American Political History“-by Keith Preston

1:45 pm-‘The Legitimacy of Secession“-by Thomas DiLorenzo

2:30 pm–”The Case for a Secessionist Strategy” by Dr. Kirpatrick Sale

3:15 pm-”Lessons of the Indian Independence Movement and the Partitioning of India and Pakistan“-joint presentation from a Ghandi scholar and a historian of South Asia

4 pm-”Global Guerrillas: The Rise of Fourth Generation Warfare” by John Robb

Break

7 pm-viewing of documentary about Hezbollah militia in Lebanon

8:30 pm-”Blow It Out Your Ass, Uncle Sam!”-keynote address by Commander Marcos of the EZLN

Quotes of the Week:

“No doubt in the days since we last gathered together as APOC (Autonomous / Anarchist / Anti-Authoritarian People of Color), much has changed for each of us. We’ve each experienced new joys and grieves, up and downs. Across the vastness of this metropolitan wasteland, new bonds have been built, old bonds strengthened. In surviving, even thriving against the transgressions perpetrated by those who would see us torn apart, we’ve developed both as individuals and as a movement. Still problems persist. Despite our best efforts, our most spirited resistance, we remain oppressed. Native land remains occupied, its people marginalized, their culture appropriated and left to die. Zionists, backed by other Western powers, continue their genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people. Gentrification continues to invade our neighborhoods. Police, ever vigilant in their protection of the ruling class, remain a brutal force separating us from our freedom. The rich still control the means of production, while the rest are exploited, forced into wage-slavery, prisons, and graves. The all-pervasive system of patriarchy still looms over and surrounds womyn, while their bodies remain battle grounds. Queers and transfolk still face violence, bashings and murders in a world hostile to all but the established norms. Billions of animals remain enslaved in chains, tanks, cages, and barns, subject to all manner of exploitation. This year, as before, the struggle continues.

Revolution, if it is to succeed, requires a coordinated, comprehensive network of dedicated revolutionaries. Of course, APOC has existed for some time now. However, we have not thus far been able to create and maintain a form suitable to our needs. Many times have we converged, many times have we expressed a desire for something more consistent. It is clear to many that what we need is an autonomous organization of sorts, perhaps many. Our intention is to make this happen.”

                               -Philadelphia Anarchist People of Color Mission Statement

“I see nothing here that is contrary to the positions and values of National-Anarchists. However, because some National-Anarchists are Anglo-Saxons, we are still labelled “racists.” We are all exploited and oppressed by the ruling elite. I am just as much a victim of capitalism as any black or Hispanic worker. There are black people, Jewish people, homosexual people and every other so-called “minority” that make up the ruling class all anarchists oppose; yet you scapegoat “whites” as the stereotypical enemy.”

                                                                                                   -AnarchoNation

Divided We Stand by Paul Starobin

On Rejecting Keith Preston by Dixie Flatline

Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Empire! by Laurence Vance

Book Review-Kevin Carson’s Organization Theory by Sean Gabb

A Conversation About Race-film by Craig Bodeker (hat tip to AnarchoNation)

Why America is a Bank-Owned State by Samah El-Shahat

How Obama Will Outspend Reagan on Defense by Winslow T. Wheeler

Iran’s Election: None of America’s Business by Justin Raimondo

Today’s Right-Wing Youth Are More Radical Than Their Elders (thank God!) by Charles Coulombe

The World As We Presently Know It by Ean Frick

Why “the Fascists” Are Winning in Europe by Mark Steyn

Are You Ready for War with Demonized Iran? by Paul Craig Roberts

Lenin’s The State and Revolution: An Anarchist Viewpoint by Larry Gambone

Iranian Elections: The “Stolen Elections” Hoax by James Petras

Is Israel Really a Beacon of the West? Phillip Weiss interviewed by Scott Horton

Iran’s Green Revolution by Justin Raimondo

Consumerism is Too Important to be Left to the Consumers by Ray Mangum

Don’t Trust Police  from AnarchoNation

Neocon Serial Killers by Glenn Greenwald

Obama Targets Antiwar Democrats by Norman Solomon

How to Deal with the Pork in Blue from Assata Shakur

Why U.S. Neocons Want Ahmadinejab to Win by Stephen Zunes

The Truth is No Defense-In Canada by Grant Havers

 Iran Faces Greater Risks Than It Knows by Paul Craig Roberts

Confessions of a Public Servant by Mr. X

How the Recession is Wrecking Friendships Across the Land by Emily Bazelon

U.S. Anarchism, Movement Building and the Racial Order by Joel Olson

The Waning Power of Truth by Paul Craig Roberts

Neocons for Ahmadinejad by Jack Hunter

On Iran, Democracy and Nuclear Weapons by Stephen Walt

Sadism is Sexual by Fred Reed

Churchill, Hitler and the Unnecessary War review by Robert Higgs

Iran’s Tiananmen Moment by Pat Buchanan

Who Will Control Iraq’s Oil? by Patrick Cockburn

Anarchist Voices 

The Obama Siren Song to the Skeptical Muslim World by Eric Margolis

Workers Rights: No Balls, No Chains by Joe Bageant

The Case for Home Education by Sean Gabb

Farmland: The Best Investment of Our Time Jim Rogers and George Soros

Beat the Rising Cost of Health Care by Amanda Gengler

Life is Destroying the Planet! by Butler Shaffer

From Smash the Church to Going to Chapel by Tommi Avicolli Mecca

Outlasting the Ayatollahs by Pat Buchanan

Strip Club Depression by Doug French

I Become an American by Alexander Cockburn

The Extreme Right by Jack Hunter

These Are Obama’s Wars Now by Joshua Frank

PIG Assaults EMT by William Norman Grigg

Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria’s Oil Dictatorship by Francois Tremblay

Torture: An American Legacy by Carl Boggs

Lessons Learned from the Battlefield by Michael Gaddy

The American Empire is Bankrupt by Chris Hedges

String Up the Barbed Wire and Break Out the Guillotine by William Norman Grigg

The Faileocons by Paul Gottfried

Answering Some Well-Asked Questions About Self-Defense by Massad Ayoob

A  Tale of  Two Killings by S. M. Oliva

Fighting Tyranny Should Start at Home by Ilana Mercer

Another U.S.-Orchestrated “Color Revolution”? by Paul Craig Roberts

Anarchism’s Promise for Anti-Capitalist Resistance 

The Narcissism Revolution by Richard Spencer

Road Blockade in Solidarity with Mohawk Nation 

Some Things Are Acceptable in Different Cultures by TGGP

How Big of an Asshole is Keith Preston?

Charles Manson and Me by David Macaray

Sasha Grey Likes Gang Bangs-Live With It by Lily Quateman

Arlinton, Virginia: Hell on Earth

Viva Che!

Recent dialogue between Kevin R.C. Gutzman, Christian Kopff and Tom Piatak concerning the tension between classical liberal-libertarians and traditionalist conservatives reminded me of an observation from my Portuguese “national-anarchist” colleague Flavio Goncalves concerning  the clarion call issued by Chuck Norris a while back: “Seems like the US Right is as revolutionary as the South American Left? Your country confuses me.”

It does indeed seem that most of the serious dissidents in America are on the Right nowadays, and I think this can be understood in terms of America’s unique political heritage. American rightists typically regard themselves as upholders and defenders of American traditions, while American liberals tend to admire the socialism and cultural leftism of the European elites. However, the republican political philosophy derived from the thought of Locke, Montesquieu and Jefferson that found its expression in such definitive American documents as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and of which modern neo-classical liberalism and libertarianism are outgrowths, is historically located to the left of European socialism.

A variety of thinkers from all over the spectrum have recognized this. For instance, Russell Kirk somewhat famously remarked that conservatives and socialists had more in common with one another that either had with libertarians. Murray Rothbard observed that “conservatism was the polar opposite of liberty; and socialism, while to the “left” of conservatism, was essentially a confused, middle-of-the-road movement. It was, and still is, middle-of-the-road because it tries to achieve liberal ends by the use of conservative means.” Seymour Martin Lipset affirmed Rothbard’s thesis:

Given that the national conservative tradition in many other countries was statist, the socialists arose within this value system and were much more legitimate than they could be in America…Until the depression of the 1930s and the introduction of welfare objectives by President Roosevelt and the New Deal, the AFL was against minimum wage legislation and old age pensions. The position taken by (Samuel) Gompers and others was, what the state gives, the state can take away; the workers can depend only on themselves and their own institutions…Hence, the socialists in America were operating against the fact that there was no legitimate tradition of state intervention, of welfarism. In Europe, there was a legitimate conservative tradition of statism and welfarism. I would suggest that the appropriate American radicalism, therefore, is much more anarchist than socialist.

Back in 1912, when the German Social Democrats won 112 seats in the Reichstag and one-third of the vote, Kaiser Wilhelm II wrote a letter to a friend in which he said that he really welcomed the rise of the socialists because their statist positions were much to be preferred to the liberal bourgeoisie, whose antistatism he did not like. The Kaiser went on to say that, if the socialists would only drop antipatriotism and antimilitarism, he could be one of them. The socialists wanted a strong Prussian-German state which was welfare oriented, and the Kaiser also wanted a strong state. It was the pacifism and the internationalism of the socialists that bothered him, not their socialism. In the American context, the “conservative” in recent decades has come to connote an extreme form of liberalism; that is, antistatism. In its purest forms, I think of Robert Nozick philosophically, of Milton Friedman economically, and of Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater politically.

Thomas Sowell has provided some interesting insights into what separates the Left and Right in contemporary American discourse. Both Left and Right are derivatives of eighteenth century radicalism, with the Left being a descendent of the French Revolution and the Right being a descendent of the American Revolution. What separates the legacies of these two revolutions is not their radicalism or departure from throne-and-altar traditionalism, but their differing views on human nature, the nature of human society, and the nature of politics. Both revolutions did much to undermine traditional systems of privileged hierarchy. After all, how “traditional” were the American revolutionaries who abolished the monarchy, disestablished the Church, constitutionally prohibited the issuance of titles of nobility, constitutionally required a republican form of government for the individual states and added a bill of rights as a postscript to the nation’s charter document? One can point to the Protestant influences on the American founding that coincide with the Enlightenment influences, but how “traditional” is Protestantism itself? Is not Protestantism the product of a rebellion against established religious authorities that serves as a kind of prelude to a latter rebellion to established political authorities?

I would maintain that what separates the modern Right and Left is not traditionalism versus radicalism, but meritocracy versus egalitarianism. For the modern Left, equality is considered to be a value in its own right, irrespective of merit, whether individual or collective in nature.  The radical provisions of the U.S. Constitution, for instance, aimed at eliminating systems of artificial privilege. No longer would heads of state, clerics, or aristocrats receive their position simply by virtue of inheritance, patronage or nepotism, but by virtue of individual ability and achievement. No longer would an institution such as the Church sustain itself through political privilege, but through the soundness of its own internal dynamics. To be sure, these ideals have been applied inconsistently throughout American history, and all societies are a synthesis of varying cultural and ideological currents. For instance, it is clear that nepotism remains to some degree. How else could the likes of George W. Bush ever become head of state?

Yet, for the Left, equality overrides merit. With regards to race, gender or social relations, for example, it is not sufficient to simply remove barriers designed to keep ethnic minorities, women or homosexuals down regardless of their individual abilities or potential contributions to society. Instead, equality must be granted regardless of any previous individual or collective achievement to the point of lowering academic or professional standards for the sake of achieving such equality. This kind of egalitarian absolutism is also apparent with regards to issues like the use of women in military combat or the adoption of children by same-sex couples. The Left often frames these issues not in terms of whether the use of female soldiers is best in terms of military standards (perhaps it is) or what is best for the children involved or whether the parenting skills of same-sex couples is on par with those of heterosexual couples (perhaps they are), but in terms of whether women should simply have the “right” to a military career or whether same-sex couples should simply have “equal rights” to adopt children, apparently with such concerns as military efficiency, child welfare and parental competence being dismissed as irrelevant.

To frame the debate in terms of tradition versus radicalism would seem to be setting up a false dichotomy. Edmund Burke, the fierce critic of the French Revolution considered by many to be the godfather of modern conservatism, was actually on the left-wing of the British politics of his time. For instance, he favored the independence of Ireland and the American colonies and even defended India against imperial interests. A deep dig into Burke’s writings reveals him to have been something of a philosophical anarchist. His opposition to the French Revolution was not simply because it was a revolution or because it was radical, but because of the specific content of the ideology of the revolutionaries who aimed to level and reconstruct French society along prescriptive lines. The American Revolution was carried out by those with an appreciation for the limits of politics and the limitations imposed by human nature, while the French Revolution was the prototype for the modern totalitarian revolutions carried out by the Bolsheviks, Nazis (whom Alain De Benoist has characterized as “Brown Jacobins”), Maoists , Kim Il-Sung and the Khmer Rouge.

One can certainly reject the hyper-egalitarianism championed by the Left and still favor far-reaching political or social change. It would be hard to mistake Ernst Junger for an egalitarian, yet he was contemptuous of the Wilhelmine German military’s practice of selecting officers on the basis of their class position, family status or political patronage rather than on their combat experience. He preferred a military hierarchy ordered on the basis of merit rather than ascribed status. Junger’s Weimar-era writings are filled with a loathing for the social democratic regime, yet he called for an elitist worker-soldier “conservative revolution” rather than a return to the monarchy.

Nor does political radicalism imply the abandonment of historic traditions. I, for one, advocate many things that are quite radical by conventional standards. Yet I am extremely uncomfortable with left-wing pet projects such as the elimination of “offensive” symbols like the Confederate flag; the alteration of the calendar along PC lines (C.E. and B.C.E instead of A.D. and B.C); the attacks on traditional holidays like Christmas or Columbus Day; a rigidly secular interpretation of the First Amendment (and I’m an atheist!); and the attempted reconstruction of language along egalitarian lines (making words like “crippled” or “retarded” into swear words or the mandatory gender neutralization of pronouns). All of these things seem like a rookie league version of Rosseauan/Jacobin/Pol Potian “year zero” cultural destructionism. Nor do I wish to do away with baseball, Fourth of July fireworks displays, Civil War re-enactors or the works of Edgar Allan Poe. I am also somewhat appalled that one can receive a high school diploma or even a university degree without ever having taken a single course on the history of Western philosophy. It is not uncommon to find undergraduates who have never heard of Aristotle. If they have, they are most likely to simply dismiss him as a sexist and defender of slavery. I’ve met graduate level sociology students who can tell you all about “the social construction of gender” but have no idea who Pareto was.

The principal evil of the Cultural Marxism of present day liberalism is its fanatical egalitarianism. Unlike historic Marxists, who simply sought equality of wealth, cultural Marxists seek equality of everything, including not only class, race, or gender, but sexuality, age, looks, weight, ability, intelligence, handicap, competence, health, behavior or even species. I’ve heard leftists engage in serious discussion about the evils of “accentism.” Such equality does not exist in nature. It can only be imposed artificially, which in turn requires tyranny of the most extreme sort. The end result can only be universal enslavement in the name of universal equality. For this reason, the egalitarian Left is a profoundly reactionary outlook, as it seeks a de facto return to the societies organized on the basis of static caste systems and ascribed status that existed prior to the meritocratic revolution initiated by the Anglo-American Enlightenment.

Perhaps just as dreadful is the anti-intellectualism of Political Correctness. In many liberal and no-so-liberal circles, the mere pointing out of facts like, for instance, the extraordinarily high numbers of homicides perpetrated by African-Americans is considered a moral and ideological offense. If one of the most eminent scientists of our time, Dr. James Watson, is not immune from the sanctions imposed by the arbiters of political correctness, then who would be? Are such things not a grotesque betrayal of the intellectual, scientific and political revolution manifested in Jeffersonian ideals? Is not Political Correctness simply an effort to bring back heresy trials and inquisitors under the guise of a secularized, egalitarian, fake humanitarian ideology? The American radical tradition represents a vital “left-conservative” heritage that elevates meritocracy over both an emphasis on ascribed status from the traditional Right and egalitarianism from the Left. It is a tradition worth defending.

Quote of the Week:

“I participated in a forum on state sovereignty at Drexel University a short while ago where the subject of secession came up (naturally). A Pennsylvania state legislator was the other speaker, and while he did not dismiss the possibility of secession he said that it was important to first exhaust all other possibilities, such as writing and calling your congressional representative.

A student in the audience asked him this question in response (paraphrasing): ‘If a burglar broke in to your home and stole your valuables over and over again, do you think it would be effective to write the burglar a letter asking him to stop it?’

How refreshing to meet a college student who understands the ancient truth that government is just another criminal gang.”

                                                                                                           -Tom DiLorenzo

Getting to the Truth About World War Two by Eric Margolis

Fear is Eroding American Rights by Paul Craig Roberts

Liberal Imperialism in Afghanistan Bill Kelsey interviewed by Scott Horton

The Case Against the Federal Reserve by Murray Rothbard

Review of Kevin Carson’s Organization Theory: A Libertarian Perspective by Larry Gambone

Is Secession Treason? by Tim Case

Let’s Make the Youth of America More Stupid! by Childs Walker

The Case for Secession by Gary Barnett

The Rosetta Stone of Revolution: Countering Counter-Insurgency by John Robb

The Latest Torture Cover-Up Scam by James Bovard

Decentralized Craft Industry by Kevin Carson

Civil Liberties and the “Winds of Change” by Justin Raimondo

The Normalization of Violence, Torture and Annihlation by Arthur Silber

Whoever Wishes Peace Must Fight Statism Anthony Gregory interviewed by Scott Horton

“Global Warming Tax” to be Levied on International Air Travel? by John Vidal

Is Hyper-Inflation Around the Corner? by Mike Whitney

Don’t Trust Police from Anarcho-Nation

Anti-Americanism in Israel by Justin Raimondo

The USS Liberty: America’s Most Shameful Secret by Eric Margolis

Taking On the Corrections Corporation of America by Paul Wright

The Coming U.S. Default Interview with Peter Schiff

The Dairy Oligarchy by Jim Goodman

Ron Paul on Foreign Policy by Kathleen Wells

Obama: Committing the U.S. to “World Order” by Chuck Baldwin

The Few, the Proud, the Pimps 

7 in 10 Potential Military Recruits Are Unfit

Sweden’s Pirate Party Captures Euro Seat by Vernonica Ek

Remembering the Persecution of Hans-Hermann Hoppe by Vin Suprynowicz

What Global Warming? by Ron Paul

Police Insurance by Clement M. Hammond

Righteous Zeal and the Killing of George Tiller by Paul Gottfried

America’s Soft Despotism by David Gordon

Tasered While Black

Stop Collateral Damage in the War on Drugs by Marie Myung-Ok Lee

Europe Swings Right as Depression Deepens by Ambrose Evans Pritchard

Exposing the Wall Street Journal by Matt Taibbi

And We, Like Sheep… by William Norman Grigg

Leave China Alone by Justin Raimondo

Lebanon’s Odd Couple by Nicolas Dot-Pouillard

Bush is Gone, But Halliburton Rolls On by Pratap Chatterjee

Israeli Spy Fined, Scolded, Released

Richard Nixon: Liberal/Moderate Republican by TGGP

Community Kitchens by Julia Levitt

Resist the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh

Jack Ross is Back! by TGGP

Opposing the Liberal State Without Becoming Statist by David Bromwich

Anarchism and Crime from Direct Action

Becoming Barbarians by Rod Dreher

Some Dare Call It Torture by Wendy McElroy

The American Dream and the Anarchist Dream by Jake Carman

To Die for a Mystique by Andrew Bacevich

They Thought They Were Free from Murphy’s Bye-Laws

Not Good as Gold by David Gordon

The Streets Belong to the People by Jesse Walker

The Internet Lynching of Marcus Epstein by Bay Buchanan

Beyond the Paleos by W. James Antle

England: The Peasants Are Revolting by Sean Gabb

Saving Israel from Itself by John J. Mearsheimer

Ennabling the Surveillance State from No Third Solution

Peer Money by Kevin Carson

AIPAC Walls Beginning to Crack by Ira Chernus

How Civilized, Law-Abiding Countries Imprison Terrorists by Glenn Greenwald

Is the Israel Lobby Getting Weaker? by Stephen Walt

Ludicrous Albion by Austin Bramwell

The Benefits of Smoking  by N

Big Tobacco Vindicates Gabriel Kolko from Austro-Athenian Empire

“I Don’t Get the Whole Peak Oil Thing” from Back to the Drawing Board

PIGS Will Be PIGS from Rad Geek

Anarchist Summer Camp in Virginia from Infoshop.Org

The Italian Mafia: A Distorted Masonic Lodge from Mindhacks.Com

Dutch Journalist Raped but Respected by the Taliban by Thomas Landen

Somali Fisherman Says Foreigners Are the Real Pirates from Infoshop.Org

Black People Love US

The Inside Story of the Red Army Faction by Stefan Aust

2009 Northeast Anarchist People of Color Mission Statement 

Homosexuals Are By Nature of the Right by James O’Meara

Who Needs Yesterday’s Papers? by Alexander Cockburn

Fordlandia by Stuart Ferguson

Elmer Fudd Nation by Mark Ames

Bureaucrack-up by Ray Mangum

Carter in Lebanon  by Franklin Lamb

20,000 Nations Above the Sea by Brian Doherty

“People Who Lived Under King Saint Louis IX of France Were Freer Than We Are Now in America” by Brother Andre Marie

Italy’s Black Northern League Mayor by Michael Day

Gods Come Cheap These Days by Chuck Baldwin

The Right Way to Brussels by Derek Turner

Miss Affirmative Action, 2009 by Pat Buchanan

Hypocritical, Censoring Leftists by Stephan Kinsella

We Get It: Museum Shooter Was a Hateful Honkie by Ilana Mercer

Time to Start Filling the Gulag by William Norman Grigg

Got Property? by Peter Schiff

Bankers Are Scared, Are You? by Gary North

The War on Your Racism by Jack Hunter

Look Who’s Shopping Goodwill by Ruth La Ferla

Von Brunn and National Socialism by Dylan Hales

James W. Von Brunn by Anthony Gregory

Are We All Liberals Now? by Tom Piatak

For some time now, I have argued for an alliance of left-wing anarchism and right-wing populism against the common enemies of imperialism and Big Brother statism. I have argued that the strategic application of such an alliance would be a pan-secessionist movement rooted in the traditions of the American Revolution and the later Southern War of Independence. Secessionism is often associated with political conservatism, given the greater regard of conservatives for American traditions like states’ rights and the conservative nature of the Southern secession of 1861. Indeed, pro-secessionist rumblings have emerged in the mainstream Right recently. Such developments are a welcome thing, of course, and no doubt a future pan-secessionist movement would have a strong right-wing and radical center constituency behind it. As the middle class continues to sink into the ranks of the underclass, and as the vast array of cultural groups associated with right-wing populism continue to come under attack by the forces of political correctness, no doubt an increasing number of people, including many former jingoists, members of the religious right and one-time neocon sympathizers, will realize that the centralized liberal-managerial regime is their enemy, and decide that a political exodus is their best bet. Certainly, a mass army of secessionists in the rural areas, small towns and red states will be a welcome addition to our cause.

However, I do not think that it is on the Right that the crucial political battles will be fought. The Right represents an agglomeration of political, cultural and demographic factions that are losing power and shrinking in size. Instead, the crucial battles will be fought on the Left. The dominant center-left that is now consolidating its position is a liberal Left that espouses liberal internationalism, universalism, humanism and human rights imperialism, and expresses itself in the form of the therapeutic-managerial-welfare state. However, there is an emerging radical Left that is oriented towards pluralism, postmodernism, cultural relativism, pro-Third Worldism and anti-Zionism. Eventually, there will be a sharp split between these two lefts, as the former is capable of cooptation by state-capitalism, but the latter is not. Take a look at these photos:

http://zombietime.com/gaza_war_protest/

Can a radical Left that is fervently anti-Israel and pro-Third World nationalism ever be reconciled with the American ruling class? It is highly unlikely. Furthermore, the spectacle of conservative Muslims, feminists, gays, transgendereds, Marxists, anarchists, leftists, nationalists, national-anarchists, Jews, anti-Semites, racialists, anti-racists, peaceniks and Hamas sympathizers marching against Zionism and U.S. imperialism is not only a potential ruling class nightmare,  but a manifestation of the kind of pluralistic, culturally relativist, cross-ideological alliances against the System that I have been arguing for in the past.

The legitimizing ideological superstructure of the present regime and ruling class, i.e., liberalism, is antithetical to both paleoconservatism from the Right and cultural relativism from the Left, but there is sufficient enough overlap between these latter two as to make strategic alliances possible. We see the beginnings of this in the current alliance between bioregionalist and Green decentralist left-wing secessionists and conservative Christian right-wing secessionists. As left-liberalism continues to become an increasingly status quo and upper middle class ideology, the radical Left will find itself increasingly alienated from liberalism. The more deeply entrenched political correctness becomes, the more it will alienate even many of its former sympathizers.

The real political war of the future will be between not only the liberal-left and the postmodern left, but between the totalitarian and anarchistic left, and the New Class and the underclass. Just as the U.S. Civil War sometimes found members of the same family on different sides of the fence, so will the future political war find members of constituent groups from the contemporary Right and contemporary Left on both sides. If the battle is between liberal universalism and relativist pluralism at the intellectual level, then the natural political expression of the latter would be some kind of decentralized anarcho-pluralism, with its popular form resembling something like left-conservatism or pan-secessionism.

Although most of the actual secessionist movements at present are rooted in the red states or the more maverick blue states like Vermont and New Hampshire, a serious pan-secessionist movement will need to be first and foremost oriented towards the large metropolitan areas. This is where the majority of the U.S. population resides. It is where the plutocratic elites, state bureaucracies and New Class managerialists are located, and it is also where the lumpenproletarian masses are located. The large cities are where the paramilitary police forces are located and they are where most of the residents of the prison-industrial complex originate from.

The goal of a serious pan-secessionist movement whose aim is to overthrow the empire for real should be to obtain political preeminence in large cities as a first order of business. Cities tend to be dominated by the aforementioned plutocratic elites, and by landlords, developers, and well-heeled civic and business interests. These elements are for the most part bought into the System, and can therefore never be converted to our side. So strategically speaking, an urban secessionist strategy will generally have the flavor of plutocratic/bureaucratic elites vs Everyone Else. Recognition of this fact implies the necessity of a class-based radical movement rooted in the lumpenproletariat, petite bourgeoisie, lower respectable poor, lower middle class, bohemians and de classe elements. The goal is to obtain a political majority capable of seizing power at the municipal level in large metro areas. Once political preeminence was obtained in a fair number of cities, a formal alliance of municipal secessionist movements could be formed, and these could form a wider alliance with secessionists among the Red Staters, Greens, indigenous people and so forth. In “Liberty and Populism” I wrote:

We need to abandon the bourgeoise identity politics that have grown out of the new left. The legacy of this has been to create a constituency for the left-wing of capital among elite members of traditional minority groups including educated professionals among blacks, feminists and homosexuals, middle-class ecology enthusiasts and animal-lovers and so on. The best approach here would be to attempt to pull the rank-and-file elements of the traditional minorities out from under their bourgeoise leadership. This means that anarchist revolutionaries such as ourselves would need to seek out common ground with nationalist and separatist elements among the non-white ethnic groups against the black bourgeoise of the NAACP, poor and working class women against the upper-middle class feminist groups like NOW and the gay counter-culture (complete with its transsexual, hermaphrodite and “transgendered” elements) against the more establishment-friendly gay middle-class.

Indeed, we have not even begun to touch on the possibilities for building a radical movement rooted in part in marginalized social groups ignored, despised or persecuted by the establishment. These elements include the handicapped, the mentally ill, students, youth, prostitutes and other sex workers, prisoners, prisoner’s rights activists, advocates for the rights of the criminally accused, the homeless and homeless activists, anti-police activists, advocates of alternative medicine, drug users, the families of drug war prisoners, immigrants, lumpen economic elements (jitney cab drivers, peddlers, street vendors), gang members and many others too numerous to name. On these and other similar issues, our positions should be to the left of the ACLU. Adopting this approach will bring with it the opportunity to politically penetrate the rather large lumpenproletarian class that exists in the US with little or no political representation. At the same time, the last thing we should wish to do is emulate the mistakes of the new left by adopting an ideology of victimology and positioning ourselves as antagonists of the broader working masses. Nothing could be more self-defeating. The defense of marginal populations way beyond any efforts in this area offered by the left establishment should be part of our program, but only part. Our main focus should be on the working class itself, the kinds of folks who work in the vast array of service industries that comprise the bulk of the US economy.

There are several reasons for these positions. The first is rooted in recognition that as the Left has abandoned class-based politics in favor of the cultural politics of the left-wing of the upper middle class, it is only natural that we should step in to fill the void. The second is rooted in recognition of a wide assortment of outgroups that have never made it into the Left’s pantheon of the oppressed/victimological coalition, and the possibility of recruiting from these groups in order to increase our own numbers. The third is to undermine liberalism’s claimed monopoly on do-gooderism. A pan-secessionist movement that is seen as the simultaneous champion of the ordinary working poor and the marginalized and persecuted such as the homeless, punk rock squatter kids, mental patients, drug addicts, prisoners, et.al. will have a much easier time of deflecting the “fascism and racism” labels that will ultimately be thrown in our direction. The fourth is to undermine liberalism by splintering its constituent groups.

Note that I am not implying anything politically correct here. For instance, while we might uphold the legitimate rights of gay organizations, businesses or individuals that come under attack by the state, and practice non-discrimination within the context  of our own alternative infrastructure radical organizations, this does not mean that we will allow “gay rights” organizations allied with the liberal enemy to dictate who can or cannot be a part of our own movement. Being a primarily lower class movement, it is only natural that many people with conservative views on sex, morality, religion and the like will also be included within our ranks. Likewise, we may support organizational efforts set up to provide genuine assistance to transgendered people (even the Iranians do this), drug addicts, the handicapped, people with AIDS or other special populations, but we do not insist on the universalization of liberalism. For instance, we might also be just as supportive of skinhead squatters as leftist punk rock squatters, national-anarchists as leftist-anarchists, separatist tendencies among redneck white communities along with black separatists. More broadly, the radical movement would vehemently defend all victims of political correctness wherever they can be found just as strongly as we might defend victims of police brutality. We would defend students harassed by school authorities for carrying Bibles or other religious artifacts just as quickly as we would defend students harassed in a similar fashion for wearing “Goth” clothing. While in urban areas at least, we would take an liberal-left-libertarian, ACLU-like approach to cultural and social matters, with some exceptions like our own defense of the right to bear arms, unlike left-liberals we would recognize that controversial social questions like abortion and gay marriage are best handled at the local level according to community standards. While our own worker, tenants, squatter, and prisoner defense organizations would out of necessity be inclusive of both natives and immigrants, even illegal immigrants in some instances, this does not mean we would necessarily accept carte blanche immigration as a matter of principle.

The question of race is a particularly interesting and challenging one. African-American anarchist Mark Gillespie offered this assessment:

Whether you are a homo-leftist-anarcho-syndicalist-voluntary-eco-feminist or a racist-ultra right-wing-neo-conservative-constitutionalist-patriot, both agree that the State, in its current form, is detrimental to their views and lifestyles. In this “society”, these groups are kept from uniting by the activity of the state and its media. However, we know that in anarchy, diversity of views is a strength, not a weakness. We have allowed the State to divide us based upon the most trivial things.

The fact is that, under anarchy, all of these different groups may “have it their way”. If the an-caps want a completely free market economy for themselves and the an-socs want to combine in communes, they can do this better under anarchy than they can now. If the Homo-an-syn-fem (hell of a moniker, yes?) wants to separate from the Neo-con-con-pat or vice versa, they can and do it more peaceably than they can under statism. This is the best weapon of an anarchist vanguard. We can and should embrace the different elements that make up this country. Think about this. If we can embrace just two major groups under the anarchist banner, we could send the statists home, without a shot. The major ethnic groups in this country are the New Worlders (Aboriginal Americans, Blacks and Spanish/Aboriginals) and the Old Worlders (people of mostly European descent). These groups are kept at each other’s throats and socially separated by negative media reports and by institutionalized racism. Reports of rampant crime, lack of morals and mob violence send shivers down the spines of the average, patriotic, “law-abiding”, traditionalist citizens, amongst the Old Worlders. Historic wrongs, appeals to end needed restorative services in the community and a envy for those who seem to do better than them, keeps New Worlders in the grip of a fear that the statists work hard to instill. Neither one of these groups are necessarily wrong, but, their fears and hatred, spread and protected by the weapons of the state, virtually ensures that these two major groups will meet together, only when they are pointing guns at each other.

The New Worlders make up a combined 25.7 percent of the nation’s population (approximately 72 million people). Let’s assume that the mostly Old Worlder patriot movement makes up about 3 percent of the white population (approximately 6.5 million). With these numbers, and a properly educated and motivated anarchist vanguard, there are at least 32 different states that are immediately vulnerable to a takeover and disbanding of the state government (based upon a population of less than 5 million/state) and any state in the union is vulnerable to a gradual takeover.

Something like 32 states and maybe 50 major cities sounds about right. I’m also inclined towards the view that an anti-state, pan-secessionist revolutionary movement would actually have a disproportionately high number of racial and ethnic minorities. Of course, even this would not stop our enemies from throwing the “racist and fascist” label in our direction. Of course, the proper response to such accusations would not be persistent denial and attempts at clarification but a simple middle finger. But while we should not treat the politically correct classes with anything but contempt, it does seem natural that a pan-secessionist alliance would indeed include many ethnic sub-tendencies, for instance, blacks in inner-cities, indigenous people in Hawaii, Alaska, the western plains or on reservations, Puerto Ricans independencias, Muslim or Arab enclaves in Michigan, Hasidic, Asian neighborhoods in large cities, or Indian Quebecois separatists, majority Aztlan local communities in the Southwest,  and perhaps even revolutionary organizations within Mexico itself.  Indeed, the pan-secessionist revolutionary organizations might even form tactical alliances with insurgent forces in Central and South American countries or in the Middle East such as Hezbollah or the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front. After all, it is the empire that is our common enemy. None of this is inconsistent with our insistence on the sovereignty of nations against imperialism, communities against statism, and individuals within the context of freedom of association.

An urban, lumpenproletarian revolutionary movement would be unlike anything that has come before. It would be socially conscious out of the recognition of the economic circumstances of the lower classes and the social conditions of a wide array of marginal population groups. Yet it would shun the political correctness of the liberal upper-middle class and cultural and intellectual elites, and no doubt have a conservative and libertarian as well as progressive dimension to its character.

A recent exchange at Taki’s Magazine between two of my favorite writers, Justin Raimondo and Paul Gottfried, prompted me to consider ways in which the thought of anarcho-libertarians and traditional conservatives might be reconciled or at least overlap. For many years, I was involved in the left-wing anarchist milieu, and I still consider Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Chomsky, Goodman, Bookchin, et.al. to be among my primary influences. Yet over time, I developed a strong appreciation for writers and thinkers of the traditional and not-so-traditional Right as well, including Rothbard, Mencken, Nisbet, Kirk, Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Pareto, Junger, De Benoist and others. I’ve also come to strongly admire the American populist tradition beginning with Jefferson and extending through contemporary paleocons and alternative Rightists. Consequently, my ideological leanings have come to be an eccentric “left-anarcho-libertarian, populist-nationalist, decentralist-pluralism.” Odd? Perhaps, though I suspect the fact that Kropotkin’s daughter Alexandra was a Goldwater Republican indicates more continuity than radical departure within the context of her family’s ideological heritage.

Because the source of the disagreement between Gottfried and Raimondo was an earlier piece by Jared Taylor, and because the majority of the persons within the left-anarchist milieu from whence I came are known for their hysterical “anti-racism,” I should probably note that while I agreed in part with Raimondo’s criticisms of Taylor, I also recognize Taylor as someone who dares to ask provocative questions that ought to be given a fair hearing, but are forbidden by the self-appointed censors of political correctness. Surely, libertarians can do better than that. Furthermore, Taylor has publicly advocated only two policies: complete freedom of association in racial, ethnic, religious and cultural matters; and a moratorium on Third World immigration. Contrary to what many of my anarchist compatriots, themselves in the grip of political correctness, would have us believe, neither of Taylor’s proposals are in violation of traditional anarchist articles of faith. In fact, the Webster’s dictionary defines anarchism in part as “advocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups.” Historically, anarchists have opposed the monopolization of power, wealth, land and resources by states or by state-connected plutocratic elites, and have argued for self-managed communities and a wider dispersion of ownership. But ownership implies the right of exclusion. Whether one is a leftist-syndicalist-communitarian anarchist or a rightist-proprietarian anarchist, it certainly does not follow that either collectively owned communes or associations of private property owners are obligated to admit all comers, regardless of beliefs, behavior, or individual contributions. Consequently, immigrants do not have any “right” to immigrate into the communities or proprietary associations of others, and while public areas (streets, lands, amenities) might consitute a kind of commons where individual citizens (such as street vendors or skateboarders) should not be arbitrarily excluded for the gratification of others, it does not follow that those from elsewhere have a “right” to enter or squat on such properties.

But what is even more interesting is Gottfried’s dissection of Raimondo’s Rothbardian “anarcho-capitalist” ideology. Says Gottfried:

The real source of Justin’s outrage lies in the contradiction between his ideology and Jared’s emphasis on cultural and biological specificity. The world as conceived by Justin is a collection of self-determining individuals, who should be free to work out their social and economic affairs, providing they do no physical harm to anyone else. In this ideal society, all humans, at least adults, however one defines them chronologically, will be free to develop themselves on the basis of their feelings and self-interests. Personally I couldn’t imagine how such a chimerical society could come into existence, let alone sustain itself, except in the minds of libertarian intellectuals or on a very provisional basis among likeminded ideologues. Such ideas are the modern counterparts of nineteenth-century utopian communities, all of which were attempts to restore a natural human condition that as far as I can tell never existed.

Historically, there have been more anarchist communities than many recognize, and while it is true some of these have lasted only for a few decades, or even a few years, others, such as the Icelandic Commonwealth and Gaelic Ireland, have lasted longer than the United States has been in existence.

Without authority structures, whether created by traditional hierarchies or by the modern managerial state, human beings have never lived together for any length of time. This generalization would apply to, among other societies, early America, which was a stratified and family-focused place.

I would dissent from the claim that political libertarianism necessarily implies either a radically egalitarian society or some kind of alteration of human nature from what it is at present. Certainly that is not the case for someone like myself, whose views on political science and social science are heavily influenced by the likes of Lawrence Dennis and James Burnham. Indeed, some of the most essential insights of elite theory like Michels‘ “iron law of oligarchy” and Pareto’s “80/20″ principle tell us that human organizations of any size will be dominated by the few rather than the many, and with a natural ranking of persons in even the most liberal circumstances. These principles are no less true for, say, an anarcho-syndicalist labor federation or an anarcho-capitalist private defense agency than for a conventional business firm or university. Nor does libertarianism, even in its more anarchistic forms, imply doing away with non-state social institutions such as family, religion, community, education, commerce, charity, or professional, cultural, and fraternal associations. Indeed, the elimination or massive reduction of dependency on the state should actually serve to strengthen such institutions.

Our sharp difference of views is reflected in the divergent ways in which Justin and I define the American Old Right. From his perspective, that American Right, about which he wrote an entire book, featured radical individualists resisting societal pressures and state authority. On my reading the interwar Right stood for a small-town and predominantly Protestant America faced by bureaucratic centralization and the rise of the modern culture industry.

Is it really a case of either/or? Surely, it would not be wholly counterfactual to suggest that Rose Wilder Lane, Isabel Paterson, H.L. Mencken, Zora Neale Hurston, Albert Jay Nock, or Lawrence Dennis were indeed “radical individualists resisting societal pressures and state authority,” particularly Dennis, who was placed on trial for sedition by the sinister Roosevelt regime. However, there is certainly no denying that the  American Right, whether in its “old” or “new” forms, has traditionally “stood for a small-town and predominantly Protestant America faced by bureaucratic centralization and the rise of the modern culture industry,” at least at the rank and file level.

Are libertarian-individualist anti-statism and rural, small-town, Protestant conservatism really all that incompatible? Not that I can tell. As one who wants to see government stripped down to the level of city-states, counties, communities, and neighborhoods, it would seem to me that some kind of libertarian-anarchism would potentially be the political salvation of the entire spectrum of the authentic political and cultural Right, whether cultural conservatives, moral traditionalists, religious fundamentalists, ethnic preservationists, immigration restrictionists, family advocates, racial separatists, property owners, firearms owners, homeschoolers, tax resisters or hard money advocates. It is these forces that are the most under attack by the centralized, managerial-therapeutic-multicultural-welfare state. Surely, the death of the state is at least the partial victory of social and cultural forces such as these. Surely, those most under attack by the heavy hand of totalitarian liberalism will have more to gain through the obtainment of sovereignty for their own communities and institutions than through the perpetual expansion of the state.

Now, to be honest, I would make the same argument to the Left as well. I have long believed that the ultimate settlement to the culture wars will have to be some kind of Peace of Augsburg rooted in pan-separatism. Surely, the blue counties could have all the single-payer health care, affirmative action, gun control, same-sex marriages, smoking bans, publicly subsidized transgender surgeries, institutionalized animal rights and wacky environmental laws they wished if only they did not have to share a political roof with those nasty, fascist conservatives, nazi Republicans and Christian Talibanists! Traditionally, conservatives have argued for such principles as states’ rights, local sovereignty and community standards with regard to social and cultural matters. I agree with them. So it would seem that the demise of the state would essentially solve many of these conflicts, as the various sides would simply go their own way. To some degree, everyone would win, especially those who are most likely to suffer escalating attacks as political correctness becomes ever more deeply entrenched in state and state-connected institutions.

Recently a reader of Attack the System wrote:

Keith Preston, in his Liberty and Populism: Building an Effective Resistance Movement in North America, writes of “anarchist” “city-states”, “anarcho-papis[m]“, and “anarcho-monarchis[m]“! In the same essay he writes that most anarchists favor the “town meeting” approach of “direct democracy”. To decide what? Whose fate???! It makes me nervous to think it might ever be mine.

Is the system or systems, method or methods, advocated by anarchists truly any better, any more supportive of individual freedom, than libertarian minarchy, or are there patterns of, and tendencies toward, oppression, injustice, AND AGGRESSION, that are camouflaged by abstruse, academic, anarchist theories, and bold and heroic slogans? Is the anarchist “intellectual class” or “vanguard” Keith Preston calls for in the aforementioned work, our wise and learned advisor, or latter-day Napoleans, leading us trusting lumpen-proletariat, anarcho-foot-soldiers to our brave new Animal Farm?

To many anarchists, the word “vanguard” is a cuss word because of its association with the traditional Leninist concept of a “vanguard party” that seizes power for the purpose of setting up a totalitarian state, military dictatorship, command economy and rule by a bureaucratic elite.  I recall when in 1998 I told some anarchist associates the name of my latest project, American Revolutionary Vanguard, one of them replied in horror, “That sounds Communist!!” Today, the memory of an anarchist calling me a “communist” is somewhat amusing, given that the mainstream of the “anarchist” movement persistently labels me a “fascist.”

The title “American Revolutionary Vanguard” was suggested to me by an associate who was an NRA/survivalist/militia type. Having been both a traditional anarcho-syndicalist and a participant in the right-wing patriot movement of the 1990s, I was plotting the formation of a new movement that would synthesize left-wing anarchism and right-wing populism into a new “left-anarcho-libertarian populist nationalism” that would counter both the political correctness of the left and the jingoism of the right. I wanted a name for the project that would identify itself with both the populist tradition of the American Revolution and represent a casting off the conventional left/right labels. I recalled having once heard of a neo-nazi group in the Portland area called “National Socialist Vanguard” and being amused by the name, given the association of the term “vanguard” with Communism, and the bitter rivalry between Communism and Nazism. My associate suggested the title “American Revolutionary Vanguard.” It was perfect.

As for the reader’s questions:

Keith Preston…writes of “anarchist” “city-states”, “anarcho-papis[m]“, and “anarcho-monarchis[m]“

These are tendencies that already exist, not anything that I personally invented. See here, for a piece by anarcho-city-statist Murray Bookchin, here for an anarcho-papist, and here for a discussion of anarcho-monarchism. What I have argued for in the past is a decentralized political system that allows for many different kinds of anarchist tendencies, and as well related ideologies and even non-anarchists, to form their own intentional communities or intentional states organized according to their preferred set of principles or ways of life.

In the same essay he writes that most anarchists favor the “town meeting” approach of “direct democracy”.

Indeed they do.  

To decide what? Whose fate???! It makes me nervous to think it might ever be mine.

Frankly, this is a concern that I share, which is why I’ve long been critical of those who deify democracy as some noble end unto itself.  In fact, most serious anarchist thinkers since Proudhon have been highly critical of the unchallenged acceptance of democracy. The pioneer feminist-anarchist Emma Goldman even expressed skepticism of woman suffrage, believing that middle-class liberal and socialist women would use the vote to expand the state, particularly in the area of “victimless crimes” that libertarians are so opposed to. The role of the newly instituted female vote in bringing about alcohol Prohibition would seem to vindicate her. Speaking only for myself, I place a much higher value on limited government that on popular government, on civil liberty than on voting rights, and on local sovereignty over mass democracy.

Is the system or systems, method or methods, advocated by anarchists truly any better, any more supportive of individual freedom, than libertarian minarchy, or are there patterns of, and tendencies toward, oppression, injustice, AND AGGRESSION, that are camouflaged by abstruse, academic, anarchist theories, and bold and heroic slogans?

I don’t know that the debate between anarchists and minarchists is as important as some make it out to be, given that most proposals for an anarchist system look remarkably like some alternative form of state. As Bob Black says:

The trouble with anarchists is that they think they have agreed on what they all oppose — the state — whereas all they have agreed on is what to call it. You could make a good case that the greatest anarchists were nothing of the sort. Godwin wanted the state to wither away, but gradually, and not before the progress of enlightenment prepared people to do without it. Which seems to legitimate really existing statism and culminate in the banality that if things were different they would not be the same. Proudhon, who served in the French national legislature, in the end arrived at a theory of “federalism” which is nothing but the devolution of most state power on local governments. Kropotkin’s free communes may not be nation-states but they sure sound like city-states. Certainly no historian would regard as anything but ludicrous Kropotkin’s claim that medieval cities were anarchist.

If some of the greatest anarchists, upon inspection, appear to fall somewhat short of consistency on even the defining principle of anarchism itself — the abolition of the state — it is not too surprising if some of the lesser lights are likewise dim bulbs. The One Big Union of the syndicalists, who also uphold the duty to work, is one big state to everybody else, and totalitarian to boot. Some “anarcha”-feminists are book-burners. Dean Murray Bookchin espouses third-party politics and municipal statism, eerily parallel to the borderline fascist militia/Posse Comitatus movement which would abolish all government above the county level. And Bakunin’s “invisible government” of anarchist militants is, at best, a poor choice of words, especially on the lips of a Freemason.

My own concept of a “vanguard” is rooted in Bakunin’s idea of “principled militants”, that is, hard-core revolutionaries who assume the natural leadership roles in larger radical organizations, because of their greater level of experience, knowledge, commitment, talent, etc., and nothing more. This idea has nothing to do with particular ideological objectives as much as it is rooted in a recognition of how human organizations actually work and an application of the principles of social science and social psychology.

Is the anarchist “intellectual class” or “vanguard” Keith Preston calls for in the aforementioned work, our wise and learned advisor, or latter-day Napoleans, leading us trusting lumpen-proletariat, anarcho-foot-soldiers to our brave new Animal Farm?

Well, here’s an example of what such a “vanguard” might actually do. Some might engage in secessionist or decentralist political campaigns of the Norman Mailer variety. Others might work to unite separatist groups, as Kirkpatrick Sale is now doing. Still others might be journalists or writers who serve as the radical movement’s theoretical or propagandistic arm. Some might have leadership positions in large anti-government organizations or coalitions. One of the best descriptions I ever encountered of this concept of a “vanguard” was from an African-American anarchist by the name of Mark Gillespie:

As mediators and vision-holders, we can help each group to see that uniting for the common goal of freedom, trumps their own agendas. After all, once the government is gone, no one will care if you set up an all-black, all-white, all-Jew, all-Muslim, all-socialist, all-capitalist community. We should pick up the torch of unity and educate people into respecting the diverse views of others. I may not like what you’re doing, saying, being, etc, but I will defend to the death, your right to do, say or be it.

Because we anarchists reject statism does not mean that we should reject leadership and organization altogether. In fact, doing so is dangerous because it will lead to power vacuums that can easily be filled by our enemies.

Quote of the Week:

“We can tolerate intolerance and we can tolerate intolerance of intolerance.”  -TGGP

“Avrich does not shy away from controversy in his books, treating the anarchist acts of violence honestly and in the context of the time. He does not condone the violence of Berkman, but says he still admires his decision, considering how brutal Frick acted toward striking workers. But Avrich does not have the same patience for some contemporary anarchists, who choose to destroy property and who, he says, come mainly from educated and middle-class backgrounds. “I’m not so crazy about anarchists these days,” he says. Anarchism means that you leave other people alone and you don’t force people to do anything.” He says he is sad that the old-timers are not around to guide the resurgent movement. “They were nicer people –much nicer people.”    

                                  -Susan Phillips on the late anarchist historian, Paul Avrich

“We have lost the battle for our country. This does not necessarily mean we have lost the war. There is a chance—however remote—that we can overturn the existing order of things. All we must do is genuinely want to be a free people again, living in an independent country. On this definition, our allies can be everywhere. They can have nipple rings or green hair. They can be homosexuals or transsexuals or drug users. They can want to live in racially exclusive enclaves. They can be Catholics or Moslems or atheists. Whoever wants to be left alone in his own life, and whoever wants this country to be governed from within this country, is a conservative for the present century. Whoever will raise a finger towards this object I will count among my friends.”

                                                                                                         -Dr. Sean Gabb

On Revolutionary Discipline by Nestor Makhno

As the Dollar Falls Off the Cliff… by Paul Craig Roberts

The Empire’s Aggressions by Karen Kwiatkowski

U.S. Inflation to Approach Zimbabwe Level  by Chen Shiyin and Bernard Lo

World War Two Was an Unnecessary War by Laurence Vance

Frail, Cowardly Winston Saved Us by Robert Harris

Don’t Commit Acts of War Against North Korea by Eric Margolis

Stop Letting Cheney Frame the Torture Debate by William S. Lind

Obama’s Speech by Paul Craig Roberts

War With Iran: Has It Already Begun? by Justin Raimondo

Obama: Low Words, High Truths by Alexander Cockburn

Essay on Kropotkin and Qadhafi by Said Gafourov

The War Party Returns by Justin Raimondo

Is the GOP Dead? discussion with Jack Hunter, Richard Spencer and James Antle

Obama in Cairo: Words, Words, Words by Justin Raimondo

Is Peak Oil the Solution to Global Warming? by Kevin Carson

The New Totalitarianism by Larry Gambone

The Iranian “Threat” by William Blum

The Silencing of Political Prisoners Will Potter interviewed by Scott Horton

Homeless Under Attack in L.A. by Christopher Goffard and Corina Knoll

Neocons for Ahmadinejad by Daniel Luban

Armed and Free by Charley Reese

Pot Home Invasions: Bud and Blow Torches by Tim Stelloh

The Health Plan’s Devilish Principles by Murray Rothbard

The Future of Israel and the Decline of the American Empire by Arno J. Mayer

The Netherlands is Closing Prisons

War Is Sin by Chris Hedges

Roger Waters vs Zionism

Fail, Fail, Fail, Fail  by Lew Rockwell

Life in Gaza by Jordan Flaherty

Why I Chose Streets Over Shelter by Shannon Moriarty

Is Interracial Marriage Legal? by Gavin McInnes

Yea, I’m Declared a Commie Again by Francois Tremblay

Is America Unconservative? by E. Christian Kopff

PIG Goes on Trial for Murder

But You Didn’t Even Give Obama’s Perestroika a Chance! from Social Memory Complex

America’s Descent Into Marxism by Stanislav Mishin

The Myth of the Rule of Law by John Hasnas

What Do White Nationalists Want? by Jared Taylor

Public Education’s Role in Sprawl and Exclusion by Murray Rothbard

The Quota Queen by Pat Buchanan

The Fiscal Crisis of the State from Stumbling and Mumbling

Race, Christianity and Anarcho-Capitalism by Paul Gottfried

PC Thugs Go to Court  by Harrison Bergeron 2

Liberals and Illiberals by Grant Havers

Putting Manners on the Police from Infoshop.Org

Did George Tiller Deserve to Die? by Richard Spencer

Obama and Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal by Gideon Spiro

White Nationalism and White People by Richard Spencer

U.S.-Cuba Policy: Still Stuck in the Past by Roger Burbach

The Trouble With Sonia by Jack Hunter

The Sotomayor Scandal: What Does It Mean for America? by Steve Sailer

Nixon’s Revenge by TGGP

The Economic Impact of Immigration by Peter Brimelow

Defending the Undefendable: Michael Vick by Todd Steinberg

The Gun Industry is Booming-Thank God! by Louis Navellier

Agriculture is the Future by Gary Whit

Yet Another Reason to Secede by Stewart Doan

Whence the Terror Hysteria? Follow the Money by Philip Giraldi

At War with the U.S. Drug War by Jeremy Hainworth

Empire of Dread by Alan Bock

Reagan Did What? by William Anderson

Obama Must Wholly Reject Bush’s Dictator Policies by Matt Taibbi

Governments Are the Villians by Robert Higgs

Loving Freedom While Destroying It by Jacob Hornberger

Zoning: This Ain’t No Roadside Picnic by Ray Mangum

The U.S. Fascist Revolution by Fred Reed

Most Arabs Know Obama’s Speech Will Make Little Difference by Robert Fisk

The Rape of Gaza by Roane Carey

Israel Lobby Challenged Isaac Luria interviewed by Scott Horton

Exploding Debt Threatens America by John Taylor

Muslim Attitudes Towards Polygyny by Country by TGGP

The Sociology of Conspiracy Theories by Ray Mangum

Who is an Anti-Semite? by Tom Sunic

Jewish and Black Attitudes Towards Intermarriage by TGGP

Breaking Bibi by Pat Buchanan

Papers of the Libertarian Left, #1 by Chris Lempa

Why the Chinese Laughed at Geithner by Paul Craig Roberts

Triumph of Killdozer by Francois Tremblay

The American Conservative Movement’s Missing Second Act by Peter Brimelow

Lincoln as Hitler by Jack Hunter

Report from Squatting Festival in Sweden

The 10th Amendment Movement Spreads by Kevin R.C. Gutzman

Tangled Threads of Revolution by James Pendlebury

Leftist Tit for Tat by Grant Havers

The Evolving Non-Major Parties: Schiff Challenges Libertarians to Change by Patroon

Leftwing America by Kevin R.C. Gutzman

America First, Of Course! by Tom Piatak

Who Will Tell the People? by Karen De Coster

Obama Vs Osama by Ivan Eland

U.S. Admits But Still Defends Afghan Civilian Slaughter by Jeremy Scahill

Laurence Vance on Christianity and War

Another Club Gitmo Guest Kills Himself by Glenn Greenwald

Obama, Like Bush, Just Doesn’t Get It by Jacob Hornberger

Obama Lies Revealed by Thomas Eddlem

Pull Out of the War on Terror by Jonathan Clarke and Amy Zalman

It’s the End of the Economic World as we Know It! Gerald Celente interviewed by Terry Easton

The Truth About Tiananmen Square by Justin Raimondo

Wrongfully Convicted Man Freed by Wendy McElroy

A Former President’s Genocidal Son by William Norman Grigg

Use a Cell Phone in School, Get Electro-Shocked by the PIGS by William Norman Grigg

PIG Attacks Elderly Woman by Kerri Bellacosa

Random Subversive Thoughts by Ray Mangum

Obama as a Modern Pharaoh by Kevin MacDonald

Indigenous Protestors Murdered by Peruvian PIGS 

Christianity and War by Laurence Vance interviewed by Scott Horton

“Keith Preston, You’re on Notice!” (scroll down)-thanks, Francois!

Quotes of the Week:

“Something is happening to this country. It still has a lot going for it’s friendly people, great diners, good blues, country bands, widespread availability of illegal drugs. But the government is out of control. Everything is illegal and watched. It’s getting so you can’t shoot cats from a car window with a twelve-gauge any more. Who wants to live in that kind of world? We’ll all probably be overrun by cats, drown in them.”

                                                                                                                         -Fred Reed

“Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain.”

                                                                                           -Marquis de Sade

“”He looked into anarchy, he looked past the voluntarily organized anarchy of Proudhon and Tolstoy, he looked into chaos itself, and he said, yes, even that, I will accept even that, before I will bend the knee to any Authority that claims to own me.” 

                                                -Robert Anton Wilson on the Marquis de Sade

“Nationalism is often mistaken for militarism and utilized in the name of centralizing political authority, but the real nations, as opposed to the territories marked out on official maps, are the ethnic, religious, and geographical allegiances that form natural bonds between people. The emerging world state is naturally hostile to these. It prefers to deal with a homogenized mass culture and does everything to discourage – and, if necessary, suppress – all regionalism.

The frontiers of freedom, in this globalist future, will be pioneered by the new regionalists, the secessionists, the campaigners for Cascadia, the republic of Vermont, and the right of Trans-Dniester to go its own way. Gigantism is a conceit, and a fatal one, as the rulers of the old Soviet empire learned and we are just beginning to fathom.”

                                                                                         -Justin Raimondo

The Myth of Socialism as Statism by Larry Gambone

Questions About Cooperative Socialism by Larry Gambone

Conflation Conflict, Continued (unfortuately) by Kevin Carson

IWW-Affiliated Truckers to Strike 

The Amish Say Religion Trumps Building Codes

The Latest Excuse for Fascism  by Lew Rockwell

Leftist Thought Controllers  by Bill Anderson

Sovietizing the Economy: The Final Phase  by William Norman Grigg

The Real Reason Why Illinois Governor Blagojevich Was Arrested  

SWAT PIGS Raid Food Coop in Cleveland  

State Silences 8-Year-Old Blues Guitarist 

Class Struggle in Chicago Factory 

The One Good Thing About an Obama Presidency  (He’s a Smoker!!)

Thought Policing 101  by Tom DiLorenzo

Withered Conservatism  by Michael Brendan Dougherty

Obama Chooses to Stay the Course on Foreign Policy  by Christopher Preble

Sentence First, Verdict Afterwards  by Bruce Fein

Despair Among the Neocons  by Robert Dreyfuss

Lost in Guantanamo: The Faisalabad 16  by Andy Worthington

The Nullification of the Bill of Rights   by Jacob Hornberger

Photos of the Greek Uprising  

Anarchism and Neighborhood Associations  by Larry Gambone

National March for Sex Workers Rights in Washington, D.C. on December 17  

Obama and Economic Catastrophe  by Mike Davis

The Demographics of Global Depression 

The Death of AIDS  by Richard Spencer

Mumbai 2008/Sarajevo 1914  by John R. Schindler

Time to Rethink the Big Three Bailout?  by Richard Spencer

The Obama/Neocon Axis  by Paul Gottfried

In Earmarks Lies Salvation?  by Pat Buchanan

John Yoo-The Best Case Against Immigration by Paul Craig Roberts

Riots in Greece by Brad Spangler

An Interview with Anarcho-Primitivist John Zerzan  

The Republic Windows and Doors Factory Occupation by Brad Spangler

Be a Vandarchist and Be Proud  by Niccolo Adami

Blaming the Victim, Part 2  by Rad Geek

Blaming the Victim, Part 1  by Rad Geek

The Conflation Conflict  by Kevin Carson

Armed Struggle in Greece  from Thus Spoke Belinsky

Clearing the Path for a Workers’ Surge  by Mike Whitney

A Car Dealer Explains Why the Bailout is a Rip-Off  by Dave Lindorff

The Southern National Congress Meets  

Solidarity Demo in San Francisco for Greek Revolutionaries 

Protest at Greek Consulate in New York City  

Commentary on the Chicago Sit-Down Strike by Daniel Gross

Carolyn Chute, Mother of Maine, Is Back by Thomas Naylor

Size Matters by Richard Spencer

Chuck Baldwin’s Party by Paul Gottfried

Our Wars on Common Sense by Jack Hunter

Selective Constitutionalism by Chuck Baldwin

Gene Not Joe by Dylan Hales

Happy 150th 

Governmental Logic by Sheldon Richman

Brad Spangler and Stephan Kinsella Debate Corporate Limited Liability 

Total Defeat for U.S. in Iraq by Patrick Cockburn

Will Obama Buy Torture-Lite? by Ray McGovern

We All Need a Union by Dave Lindorff

The Six-Day War in Greece 

Greek Uprising Spreads to Elsewhere in Europe 

The Beam in the State’s Eye by Johnny Kramer

The Worst and the Dumbest by Chris Hedges

Saying No to War by Laurence Vance

No Justice, No Peace by Walter Block

Rogue State Paul Craig Roberts interviewed by Lew Rockwell

The Quotable Blagojevic (and the great Marion Barry!)

Blackwater: Lawless Justice by Jacob Sullum

We All Failed Gary Webb  by Robert Parry

The Costs of War  by Shaun Waterman

Beware the New Globalism: All Hail the Regionalist Revolt by Justin Raimondo

Manchester Disunited by Bill Kaufmann

John Birch Society: Soft on PIGS 

The Crash of ‘08 Jim Rogers interviewed by Lew Rockwell

Obama’s Groundhog Day by John Pilger

Obama, Iraq and the Cyprus Solution by Justin Raimondo

Force: The Real “F” Word by Doug Bandow

Intervention: A Matter of Means? by Bill Lind

What Does Letting Our Own War Criminals Go Free Tell Us About Ourselves? by Nat Hentoff

The Truth of U.S. Foreign Policy by Greg Gillette

Wallowing Again in Illinois by Pat Buchanan

Letter from the Icelanders: “We are truly sorry” by Francois Tremblay

Illinois Politics in the Good Old Days by Wally Conger

So Much for Democracy by Sheldon Richman

Robert Higgs Told Us So by Sheldon Richman

Sounds Like Nonsense by Shawn Wilbur

In Which I Court Public Opinion by Rad Geek

All Eyes on Greece from Thus Spoke Bellinsky

The Conflation Conflict, Continued by Kevin Carson

30,000 Small Manufacturers Square Off Against Mom, Apple Pie and Ralph Nader 

Accounting for the Value of Decentralization by Jeff Vail

Southern National Congress Update II by Red Phillips

Chuck Baldwin Calls Out James Dobson 

Greece: We Are At War 

Greece “Runs Out of Tear Gas” 

Day Seven of the Greek War 

“We Are in a Civil War with the Fascists, the State, the Bankers, the Media” 

Hail to Chicago, Beacon of American Values by Alexander Cockburn

An Israeli in Gaza by Frank Barat

Humanitarian Imperialism: Obama and the Genocide Task Force by Binoy Kampmark

Why I Went to Jail  by Howard Lisnoff

Bolivia’s Anarchist City by Raul Zibechi

“Free Marketers for the Bailout” by Lew Rockwell

Mainstream Medicine’s War Against the Public by Bill Sardi

Leviathan Devours a Family by William Norman Grigg

The Monster in the Mirror by Arundhati Roy and Tom Engelhardt

The Independent Republic of Lakota Russell Means interviewed Scott Horton

The New World Order? Justin Raimondo interviewed by Scott Horton

Free Speech Protestors Bullied by Leftoids from AnarchoNation

War Against Christmas 2008 by Tom Piatak

Save American Industry, Dump the Big Three by Richard Spencer

Better Main Street Than Wall Street by John Zmirak

Former American Citizen Becomes Stateless 

Republican Betrayal on the Auto Bailout by Sheldon Richman

Undercover Skinheads? 

Anarchists Attack Headquarters of Greek Riot Police

Quote of the Week:

“All government, in its essence, is a conspiracy against the superior man: its one permanent object is to oppress him and cripple him. If it be aristocratic in organization, then it seeks to protect the man who is superior only in law against the man who is superior in fact; if it be democratic, then it seeks to protect the man who is inferior in every way against both.”

“Every step in human progress, from the first feeble stirrings in the abyss of time, has been opposed by the great majority of men. Every valuable thing that has been added to the store of man’s possessions has been derided y them when it was new, and destroyed by them when that had the power. They have fought every new truth ever heard of, and they have killed every truth-seeker who got in to their hands.”

                                                                                                    -H. L.  Mencken

The Old Right and the Anti-Christ by Richard Spencer

Our Ponzi Economy by Peter Schiff

Cui Bono with the Bailouts? by Paul Gottfried

It’s Hoover Time! by Pat Buchanan

Wars on Common Sense by Jack Hunter

New Constitutional Convention=New Declaration of Independence? by Chuck Baldwin

The U.S. Criminal Justice System is Collapsing by Paul Craig Roberts

A  Brief Note on the Evil of the Neocons  by Dylan Hale

The Revolution Continues in Greece 

Proudon’s Second Letter by Shawn Wilbur

Greece: Pictures from the 2nd Week of Protest 

Insurrection is the Present and the Future! 

Greece: Something is Happening 

Pushing Pakistan Over the Edge by Peter Lee

Each Shoe Was Worth a Thousand Words by Patrick Cockburn

Why Hezbollah Stiffed Carter by Franklin Lamb

Obama and the Israel-Palestine Conflict by Jeff Halper

A Forgotten Genocide: The Case of Spain by Vicente Navarro

It Thundered and Lightinged and the Rain Began to Fall by Thomas Naylor

$2000 Gold and Secession Gerald Celente interviewed by Lew Rockwell

John Edison, Jr.: The Poster Child for Tyranny by Trevor Bothwell

Police Have Killed 400 with Tasers Since 2001 

What Happened to the Libertarian Party? David interviewed by Lew Rockwell

The Crisis-Mongers by Justin Raimondo

Israel’s Get Out of Jail Free Card by Philip Giraldi

Who Guards the Guardians? by Nat Hentoff

Dick Cheney’s Fantasy World by Scott Ritter

Ready for Revolution? by Alex R. Knight III

Incoherent Empire: The Case for Getting Out of NATO by Doug Bandow

Obama’s War by Pat Buchanan

What Good is Wall Street? by Tom Piatak

Hip Natives Out-Economize Foreign Squares 

Proudhon’s Projects by Shawn Wilbur

Barack Obama and Rick Warren by Stonewall

Deindustrialization Killing GOP in North by Patroon

Is Social Conservatism Dead? by Stonewall

Solidarity with the Greek Insurrection 

Support for Greek Uprising in Syracuse 

Greek Union Offices Occupied 

Solidarity with Greek Revolutionaries in NYC 

An Ethnic Cleansing in America by Alexander Cockburn

Days of Rage in Greece by Panos Petrou

Prosecuting Bush and Cheney for Torture by Dave Lindorff

President Meathead by Missy Beattie

PIGS Assault 12-Year-Old Girl 

Family Victimized by PIGS Fights Back 

Unemployment at 16.5% 

Military Dictatorship Updates 

Tax Resistance and the Depression David Beito interviewed by Lew Rockwell

Flying Shoes, Bursting Bubbles by William Norman Grigg

The Great Global Warming Swindle? 

The Medical-Industrial Complex by John McDougall interviewed by Lew Rockwell

The Bubble of Empire by Justin Raimondo

Committing War Crimes for the “Right” Reasons by Glenn Greenwald

What Obama Doesn’t Know by Nat Hentoff

Will War Crimes Be Outed? by Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith

Land of the Free to Torture and Imprison without Trial by Brian Cloughley

The U.S. and Iran Gareth Porter interviewed by Scott Horton

An Agorist Take on the Greek Rebellion

Therapeutic State Undermines Freedom of Conscience (and some libertarians think that’s fine) by Ronald Bailey

Colorado Bank Attacked in Solidarity with Greece 

San Francisco Action in Support of Greek Uprising 

The Fed-Bankster Rip-Off by Murray Rothbard

Democracy, American-Style by Jacob Hornberger

Excluded Democracy by Ralph Nader

The Fascist PIG Arpaio 

Actual Consumer Protection 

Of Mistresses and Misplaced Outrage by Robert Stacy McCain

Greece and the Insurrections to Come 

Greece Solidarity Rally in Toledo 

“Greek Syndrome’ is Catching as Youth Take to Streets 

What’s Wrong with Being “Bourgeois”?

Quote of the Week:

” I want to make a summing up, brief and to the point, but thorough. I have never suppressed a word in my books out of regard for other people and their prejudices.”

                                                                             -John Henry MacKay

Tribal Anarchism, Part One by Death Sipheroth

Tribal Anarchism, Part Two 

Tribal Anarchism, Part Three 

Tribal Anarchism, Part Four 

Tribal Anarchism, Part Five 

Taxpayers in Revolt by Doug French

The Meaning of the National Debt  by Bill Sardi

Madoff Explained by Lew Rockwell

Training Occupation Troops for America by William Norman Grigg

Cooling Is Warming by Vin Suprynowicz

How Somali Pirates Will Save US from a Depression by Tim Swanson

Put Virtue on Your VISA by John Zmirak

Pink Xmas by Paul Belien

George W. Bush, Protectionist by Pat Buchanan

Defending the Truly Undefendable by Marcus Epstein

Who’s the Christmas Grinch? by Paul Gottfried

Dropping the “C” Word by E. Christian Kopff

Banking Demystified by Doug French

A Badge of Dishonor by Paul Hein

Prohibition Increases Potency 

Reason Sells Out to Inflationists 

Herod’s Henchmen by Laurence Vance

America Needs to Go to Rehab by Eric Margolis

On the Death of Deep Throat by Pat Buchanan

A Tale of Two Giants by Dylan Hales

Reason Magazine, Populism and Ron Paul by Dylan Hales

Soldiers Against War  by John Denson

Torture USA by Glenn Greenwald

Here Come the Progressives! by Justin Raimondo

The “Coup” That Wasn’t by Justin Raimondo

The Ten Lies of Dick Cheney by Andy Worthington

Feinstein: Bad Choice for Intel by Stephen Zunes

Where Have All the Neocons Gone? by Jacob Heilbrunn

Prosecuting an Outlaw Administration by Scott Horton

Dismantling the Imperial Presidency by Aziz Huq

Habeus Corpus Barely Saved by Sheldon Richman

Out of Sight, Out of Mind by Steven Chapman

Turning a Blind Eye to War Crimes by Brad Friedman

Cold War Shivers by Eric Walberg

Cheney’s Legacy of Deception by Dick Cheney

Israeli Spies’ ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card Philip Giraldi interviewed by Scott Horton

Iraq Wins the Iraq War Patrick Cockburn interviewed by Scott Horton

World War Two Was Bad for the Economy Thomas Woods interviewed by Scott Horton

Manufacturing Dissent Glen Greenwald interviewed by Scott Horton

Government Without Laws  by Ralph Nader

Obama and the Graveyard of Empires by Gary Leupp

Nixon’s Cambodian Shock Treatment by Howard Lisnoff

The Bill of Rights: Killed in Action by the War on Drugs by Michael Dee

Welcome to Soup Kitchen America by Richard Rhames

Are Magazines a Thing of the Past? 

A Road to Revolution? by Uri Gordon

Open Letter of Support for the Uprising in Greece 

San Francisco Greek Solidarity March 

An Interview with a Greek Anarchist 

Republic Magazine: Issue # 11

Anarchy in Philadelphia

Rich Countries Carry Out 21st Century Land Grab by Debora Mackenzie

The History of Processed World 

Open Capital: The Sharing of Risk and Reward 

En Route to Military Rule by William Norman Grigg

Two Dangerous Bush-Cheney Myths by Robert Parry

Back to “Globalism” by Gordon Prather

100 Tons of US/Israeli Bombs Dropped on Gaza by Bay Area National Anarchists

The Medusa’s Head by Alexander Cockburn

Riots Push Greece to the Edge by Malcolm Brabant

Obama is Not a Latent Lefty by Paul Street

Left-Wing Authoritarianism lecture by Tammy Bruce

Quote of the Week:

“All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do. I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back. Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.”

                                                                                                   -Leo Tolsoy

“The first step in dealing with violent psychopaths is to stop electing them.”

                                                                                                     -Les Antman

NEW KEVIN CARSON BOOK NOW AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON!!

Industrial Policy: New Wine in Old Bottles by Kevin Carson

U.S. Polycracy: The Frightening Growth of the State by Ron Shirtz

Sue the P.C. Inquisitors for Libel?  by Walter Block

Obama on the Attack on Gaza: “No Comment” by Joshua Frank

Genocide in the French Revolution by Henry Samuel

The State: Omnicompetent or Incompetent? by Theodore Dalrymple

Marty Peretz and the American Political Consensus on Israel by Glenn Greenwald

“Gaza Strike is Not Against Hamas, it’s Against all Palestinians” by Amira Hass

High Noon for the Israel Lobby by Phillip Weiss

Little Baghdad in Gaza by Amira Hass

Rumsfeld’s Legacy Andrew Cockburn interviewed by Scott Horton, Part One

Rumsfeld: War Criminal Andrew Cockburn interviewed by Scott Horton, Part Two

The Politics of the Gaza Massacre by Justin Raimondo

Top Ten Myths About Iraq, 2008 by Juan Cole

Bush Continues to Inflame Islamic Terrorism by Ivan Eland

Bush Winks at Israel’s Slaughter in Gaza; Obama/Clinton Silent by Matthew Rothschild

Eartha Kitt: Antiwar Patriot by John Nichols

Does Israel Represent the Jewish People? by Dan Lieberman

Gorbachev’s Model for Obama by James Carroll

Attack on Gaza: Self-Defense or Mass Murder? by Greg Mitchell

The Neoconservatism of Obama’s Foreign Policy Cabinet by Josh Xiong

Bush and His Cronies Must Face a Reckoning by Jonathan Freedland

India: Let Kashmir Go by Bennett Ramberg

Pipeline Politics in Ukraine Boston Globe

Guantanamo Whistleblower Stephen Abraham interviewed by Andy Worthington

Delusions of Victory in Gaza by Zvi Barel

Obama Fiddles While Gaza Burns by Robert Dreyfuss

Bush: Still Delusional and Unrepentant by Austin Bramwell

All That Glitters: A Financial History of the World by David Gordon

May We No Longer Be Silent by Paul Craig Roberts

Israel and Ron Paul by Dylan Hales

Spot the Santa Imposter from Thus Spoke Belinsky

Forget Bretton Woods II-We Need a Gold Standard by Walker Todd

Israel’s Attempted Endgame in Gaza by Jennifer Loewenstein

Exception from Humanity: The War Against Palestine by George Salzman and Manuel Garcia, Jr.

The Ten Worst Corporations of 2008 by Robert Weissman

A Hunded Eyes for an Eye by Norman Solomon

What Exactly is Israel’s Mission? by Neve Gordon

The Banks Laugh All the Way to the Bank by Rob Larson

End of NeoLiberalism? Sorry, Not Yet by Patrick Bond

Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. by Andrew Osborn

Like the Romans, So Go the Americans by Tim Case

Doctors Agree: Police Are Bad for Your Health 

The Left, The Right and The State by Lew Rockwell

Pacifying Gaza by Ran HaCohen

Neocons, New York Times Want More War, Torture by Philip Giraldi

Bill White to Remain in Jail Until Trial 

Virginia Senator Wants to Reform Prison System 

Canadia Neocons by Larry Gambone

War: What’s It Good For? Proudhon on War and Peace by Shawn Wilbur

The Struggle Continues in Greece 

Israeli Navy Attacks Gaza Relief Ship in International Waters 

Rooting for the Overdog by Harrison Bergeron2

The Gaza Ghetto and Western Cant by Tariq Ali

Will Cheney Seek a Pardon? by Dave Lindorff

The End of the Green Party  by John Walsh

A Blow Against the PC Inquisitors by Chris Clancy

Ron Paul in 2012? 

KopBusters! Heroic Ex-PIG Atones for Past Sins 

Israel’s Constant Crisis by Justin Raimondo

Why Lightning Hasn’t Struck Twice by Charles Pena

Somalia: The Forgotten Front of the War on Terror by Stephen Smith

Who’s Afraid of U.S.-Iran Detente by Muhammed Sahimi

Children and the Existence of Rights by Jan-Patrick Bollstrom

An Interview with Wendell Berry 

Forward: A Magazine from Syria 

Anarchist Philosopher Crispin Sartwell 

The First Casualty of Israel’s War by Todd Honderich

What is Hamas, Really? by Ron Jacobs

Greece: Burn, Baby, Burn! 

McGovern Beats Nixon by Daniel McCarthy

The Problem of Oligopoly from No Third Solution

George McGovern Conservatives by Paul Gottfried

The Subsidized Roads/Zoning Feedback Loop from Rationalitate

Proudhon on Justice as the Definition of Philosophy from Shawn Wilbur

More on Proudhon and Justice 

The True Story Behind This War is One Israel is Not Telling by Johann Hari

The Loathsome Smearing of Israel’s Critics by Johann Hari

2009 is Going to be a Humdinger by Richard Spencer

2009: The More Things “Change”… by Jack Hunter

The Gaza Massacre by Taki Theodoracopulos

The Ten Best Survival Vehicles 

The U.S. and Israel: George Washington Was Right by Glenn Greenwald

The Arrogant Self-Righteousness of Vichy Liberalism by L.K. Samuels

Compassionate Statism by Bill Butler

Stop Foreign Aid to Israel (and everywhere else!) by Jacob Hornberger

Torture, Slaughter and Lies by Brian Cloughley

War Will Not Bring Peace to Afghanistan by Deborah Storie

What Next on Israel/Gaza? Why Should Americans Care? by Daniel Levy

Gaza: Where Civilians Become Targets by Andrea Becker

Closing Guantanamo by Joanne Mariner

To a Nation Under Siege: Happy 2009 by Kelley Vlahos

Understanding Gaza by Tony Garon

Unfair and Unbalanced: The U.S. Response to Gaza by Wajahat Ali

Media Banned from Gaza as Humanitarian Crisis Esclatates by Mel Frykberg

Party to Murder by Chris Hedges

Cynthia McKinney: Anti-Imperialist Hero by Jeremy Sapienza

Obama Golfs While Gaza Burns 

From Kansas City to Palestine: End All Occupations 

Underreported Struggles from Around the World 

If Hamas Did Not Exist by Jennifer Loewenstein

Blacks in Favor of the War on Blacks (the Drug War) by TGGP

Rebranding Anarchism from Bay Area National Anarchists

Two Police Shootings from AnarchoNation

Another Brutal Year for Liberty by Glenn Greenwald

Roads Without the State by Bart Frazier

Voluntary Government by Mike Rozeff

On Being An Israeli Arab by Charles Featherstone

Coming Soon: The Disunited States? by Doug Bandow

Huffington Post: Israeli-Occupied Territory by Justin Raimondo

The Real Goal of the Slaughter in Gaza by Jonathan Cook

Gaza Attacks: Murder with Impunity by Mustafa Qadri

So What Have the Palestinians Got to Complain About? by Mark Steel

Black Oak: A Journal of Mid-American Culture 

Libertarians for Animal Rights 

Save Your Candles-The Dark Ages Are Coming! by Justin Raimondo

What Became of Western Morality? by Paul Craig Roberts

Blago Raises the Stakes by Pat Buchanan

An Agorist Primer by Brad Spangler

Justice: On the Quality of the Philosophical Mind by Pierre Joseph Proudhon

Greek Uprising: Echoes of ‘68 by Chris Spannos

Update on Lori Berenson 

Greece: Reports from the New Year 

Diary of 2008 by Alexander Cockburn

The Economy is Worse Than it Appears by P. Sainath

Retrieving an Asian American Anarchist Tradition by Jane Mee Wong

Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright by Dee C. Lubell

Against Head Shop Raids by Norm Kent

We Live to Tell the Story by Cynthia  McKinney

Obama, Afghanistan and Israel by Robert Fantina

Does Law Require Legislation? by Murray Rothbard

Born at Wounded Knee by William Norman Grigg

The Climate Scammer Vs. Asthmatics by Vin Suprynowicz

Obama’s Black Widow by Barack Obama

Politics and the English Language by George Orwell

Is Israeli Policy Crazy? by Ivan Eland

Gaza Clouds Obama’s Prospects by Robert Scheer

The Political Consequences of Uncovering Genocide in Canada by Larry Gambone

Mad Max Rides Again from Wally Conger

Forty years ago, in the summer of 1968, leftist radicals fought the police outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Four years later, these same New Left forces went into the Democratic Party, seized control of its nomination process, and put George McGovern on the presidential ticket. The result was the biggest defeat of a major party candidate in modern American history, surpassing even the Goldwater and Mondale debacles of 1964 and 1984. For decades afterward, as the cultural Left consolidated its position in the Democratic Party (and other places, like the mass media and academia), the Democrats fuctioned as an often seemingly irrelevant opposition party, achieving victory only when they put up a couple of previously obscure frying pan governors as candidates.

As Republicans continued to win elections, the cry from the Right was a persistent, “The Sixities are over!” as if the radical Left had finally been vanquished for good. The Right was saying this as recently as 2004, when a former celebrity of the anti-Vietnam War movement, John Kerry, headed up the Democratic Party ticket, obtaining forty-eight percent of the vote. The radical Left was a fringe movement in the late 1960s, comprised of politically marginalized and socially outcast racial minorites, feminists, homosexuals, environmentalists, student radicals, leftist intellectuals, counterculturalists and the antiwar movement. Now, forty years later, what was marginal in 1968 is normal, mainstream and a cultural majority at the end of 2008.

The electoral victory of Barack Obama symbolizes the culmination of the long march from the streets of Chicago to full institutionalization of the radical Left of a previous era. That Obama, the individual, is more of a centrist than a leftist and was only a child in 1968 is less significant than what he represents. The 68ers have now seized the establishment and those who insisted the establishment could never be trusted have become the establishment.

On virtually every issue, the radical Left of the 1960s has either won or is in the process of winning. Racism? Despite the claims of “anti-racist” professionals who insist that Nazis are hiding under every bed, racism is at an all-time low. Blacks are only 12.5 percent of the U.S. population, and have a lengthy history as an outgroup, yet a black man wins the presidency. If hatred of blacks was particularly common, the Obama presidency would be impossible. Sexism? The woman who is to become the next Secretary of State is a woman who personally epitomizes 70s era feminism. The class of urban professional women has grown exponentially in recent decades. Even the vice-presidential candidate of the ostensibly “conservative” party was a woman, something that would have been virtually unthinkable forty years ago. A friend of mine’s mother was told as a child that her ambition to become a doctor was inappropriate because of her gender. Today, such sentiments would be laughable. As an illustration, the daughter of the Reverend Jerry Falwell, the man who for many symbolized anti-60s social conservatism, is now a physician. Gay rights? Homosexuals are more out of the closet, more socially integrated and have more “rights” than ever before. Anti-gay marriage referendums continue to pass, but do so by a smaller margin each time they come up for vote, with the real source of the conflict being generational in nature. The gay rights movement will eventually win on that issue as well. In the 1950s, homosexual relationships were considered a serious felony, like drug use in the present era. Today, not only does gay culture thrive in American cities, but even mainsteam bookstores like Barnes & Noble feature entire sections of literature devoted to gay issues. Such materials would likely have been banned under obscentity laws prior to the late 60s or early 70s.

Environmentalism? One of the world’s leading advocates of environmental causes, who obtained a Nobel Prize for his efforts, was very nearly elected President of the United States in 2000. Student radicalism? Many of the student rebels of the 1960s are now tenured academics, and there is no place in American society where the far Left is more secure than in academia. The sexual revolution? This has proven to be every bit as enduring as the civil rights revolution. Very few Americans even remember that some states had laws prohibiting contraceptive devices in the 1960s. Pornography and adult entertainment are now almost as mainstream as rock and rap music.

What about the antiwar movement? Surely, some might think, the present war in Iraq illustrates a failure of the radical Left is this area. Well, not really. In the early days of the Vietnam War, it was physically dangerous to oppose the war. Early antiwar protests typically required police protection, and the protestors were happy to have the cops present to ward off vigilante attacks from gung ho patriots. When the Gulf of Tonkin resolution was passed, it did so unanimously in the House of Representatives, and with only two dissenters in the Senate.

The number of casualties on the American side has yet to be one-tenth of what they were in Vietnam, yet public opinion turned against the war at the first site of blood, and this was in spite of the fact that September 11 had occurred only a few years earlier. It is politically impossible to impose war taxes, which is why the System is financing the war with inflation, deficit spending and foreign loans. The draft is likewise politically impossible and, indeed, the fact that there has been no draft since the Vietnam era marks yet another profound victory for the radical Left of the time. The present Iraq war, the public disgust generated by the neoconservatives and the Bush crowd, the national bankruptcy produced by Bush policies and the ineptness of the U.S. at fighting modern, “fourth generation” guerrilla armies have likely rendered further major imperial expeditions like Vietnam or Iraq impossible for the forseeable future. Yes, some piss ant Clintonesque imperialisms like those in Haiti or Kosovo may continue (with the added irony of former Vietnam War protestors defending these in the name of “humanitarian” war), and these will likely end only when the present regime finally dissolves, but the empire is on its last legs and its days are likely numbered. 

Indeed, even the “conservatism” of the present time is “liberal” compared to the pre-1960s period. Ronald Reagan did not govern appreciably to the right of John F. Kennedy. Reagan’s wars in Central America were simply a repeat of Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs and early involvement in Vietnam. George W. Bush has not governed to the right of Lyndon Johnson, presiding over the same kind of failed combination of joint extension of the warfare and welfare states as LBJ. The present day leadership of the Republican Party are the neoconservatives, who were on the far left end of the Democratic Party in the 1960s, the so-called “state department socialists.” What about the Religious Right? There is no group around more consistently demonized by the Left, and the literature of the Left is full of wild claims concerning an imminent theocratic coup by the Religious Right. The reality is that the Religious Right are simply convenient scapegoats for the Left and useful idiots for the Right. In the thirty years that the Religious Right has been an organized political movement, it has achieved nothing concerning any of its major issues. Putting prayer back into public schools? There are arguably more restrictions on religious practice and expression in state institutions than ever before. Banning abortion? A comprehensive anti-abortion referendum could not pass popular vote even in conservative South Dakota, and with Obama likely appointing the next members of the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade is probably secure. Tuition tax credits or vouchers for private religious schools? It ain’t happening.

Jews are another traditional American outgroup, who were at times excluded from some social organizations and institutions until the civil rights era. Today, ethnic Jews own the majority of the major media companies, and the Israel Lobby is by far among the most powerful in the U.S government, essentially controlling U.S. policy in the Middle East. Yet, merely pointing out these facts invite sshrill accusations of the new “Scarlet A” of anti-Semitism. Prior to 1965, the U.S. maintained a racially restrictive immigration policy, which has since been liberalized remarkably. America was ninety percent white in 1960. Today, the U.S. is only sixty-eight percent white, and proposed policies to so much as deny welfare state benefits to illegal immigrants are denounced as racist and xenophobic.

Indeed, the only area where the radical Left is losing is in the area of so-called “criminal justice.” The U.S. police state has expanded dramatically in recent decades, and the “War on Drugs” and enforcement of other “consensual crime” laws have largely been the foundation of this, and has produced a corresponding prison-industrial complex. The execution rate in the U.S.  is also unusually high for a modern, democratic, industrialized nation. 

Though the Left has achieved complete or nearly complete victory on just about every issue, the Left will never admit as much. Sixties radicalism has become what any other movement becomes once it is institutionalized. The purpose of the Left today is to simply perpetuate its own existence and its own vested interests. For this reason, invisible armies of racists, sexists, homophobes and theocrats must constantly be said to be hiding behind every rock or tree. Heretics who dissent from left-wing orthodoxy on any number of matters must be constantly sought out for denunciation, repression or persecution.

This brings us to the question of what it really means to be a radical in 21st century North America. How “radical” is it to simply espouse anti-racism, feminism, gay rights, environmentalism and other run of the mill “progressive” causes? Are such things “radical” or are they mainstream, status quo and now establishmentarian in nature?

Is attacking the supposed “racism”  of a Don Imus or a James Watson really the act of a dissident? Or would it be the “radical” thing to do  to champion the rights of freedom of speech, religion or association for those with beliefs and opinions that dissent from liberal orthodoxy? Is it “radical” to persistently denounce groups like the Klan or Neo-Nazis that everyone hates anyway, or would it be more “radical” to expose supposed humanitarian do-gooders like the SPLC or the ADL for the frauds they are? What would be more cutting edge or “going against the flow,” to denounce “sexism” in the manner of an establishment liberal like Gloria Steinem or to defend academic and intellectual liberty for the likes of Walter Block? As far as defending outgroups goes, are groups like homosexuals, immigrants, minorities or women really “outgroups” in contemporary society? Would it not be far more radical and far more shocking to the establishment to defend gun-toting rural rednecks, drug-dealing inner-city ghetto dwellers, home schoolers and truants, practicioners of alternative medicine, strange religious sects, drug users, prostitutes and convicts, or avowedly separatist indigenous people like the Lakota Republic? What would be a greater outrage, a protest demonstration led by commie cults like the Workers World Party, or the formation of citizen militias, common law courts and secessionist movements? What would be more rebellious in nature, a recycling program or civil disobedience demanding the right to smoke in private bars and clubs, thereby giving the finger to the therapeutic state? What is more truly radical, agitating for gay marriage or a riot against the police state and prison-industrial complex similar to that which recently transpired in Greece?

The anwers to these questions are clear enough.

I’ve written rather critically of the cultural Left in the past. I do this for two primary reasons: 1) my view that left-wing concerns about matters like oppression of racial minorities, women, homosexuals, et.al., while rooted in legitimate concerns and historical realities, have metamorphed into a new kind of authoritarianism, intolerance, and dogmatic fanaticism that is only now starting to become prevalent and will likely become more predatory in the future and 2) my view that the contemporary emphasis on cultural politics from the Left has proven to be extremely destructive to the broader struggles against the forces of State, Capital and Empire.

I have had many brickbats thrown at me because I hold these positions. Some of the criticism on these matters I have received is rooted in simple disagreement or honest misunderstanding. Yet, much of the more vociferous hostility I have encountered seems to be rooted in dishonesty, mendacity, and hysteria, thereby proving my point.  I’m going to outline what I consider to be  the “proper” positions on cultural politics for libertarian radicals in the contemporary era. I say “proper,” in the sense of conformity to actual, tangible facts, relevance to the types of societies we find ourselves in, and the relationship of such questions to broader issues.

In looking around for examples of how the cultural Left typically thinks, an excellent example is a pamphlet in my possession published by a left-wing anarchist “collective” in my local community in 2002. I’m going to quote extensively from this pamphlet, and offer my own thoughts in response. The folks associated with this collective are very good people, some of whom I’ve known for over ten years, who have supported various projects of my own, whom I’ve appeared on television with, and who do very good work on many issues. In no way is any criticism I offer meant to convey hostility or personal attacks.  The first point of this left-wing anarchist manifesto calls “For An End to White Supremacy”:

We live in a culture that was founded upon the slavery of Africans, the genocide of indigenous people, and the brutal exploitation of people of color.

No disagreement so far, though there was plenty of “brutual exploitation” of white labor during early American history as well.

Since our culture has not come to terms with its white supremacist past we continue to live in a white supremacist present based upon the unrelenting economic exploitation of people of color, the mass imprisonment of black and Latino youth, and the privileging of white people and their value systems. Behind the creation and perpetuation of this white Euro-centric status quo is the drive to create profitable capitalist empire.

I thoroughly disagree that we are in a “white supremacist present” in the contemporary United States, at least as far as historic American “white supremacy” is concerned. If that were the case, a black man could not be elected President, people would not lose their jobs or public figures would not be subject to relentless opprobrium for perceived racist utterances. Nor would features such as affirmative action or sensitivity training be the institutional norms that they have become. Are people of color really subject to “unrelenting economic exploitation”? The urban underclass, which is mostly black and Hispanic, falls into this category, but so does the rural white lumenproletariat. What about the black middle class? What about the black professional class or wealthy, upper class blacks?

White people need to know that allowing people of color marginal participation in the dominant white culture is not true freedom.

The problem with a statement like this is that it ignores demographic realities. Blacks are only 12.5% of the U.S. population, so it is unlikely that blacks are ever going to be dominant or a numerical majority in institutions or social organizations. The exception would be those geographical areas where blacks are a demographic majority, and in large American cities where that is the case, black dominated local governments are quite frequently found.

People of color in North America have historically resisted their oppression and colonization by any and all means necessary. From slave revolts to riots against the police to union organizing to movements for control of their own destinies they have resisted their oppressors. The white status quo has historically conceded only what was necessary  to preserve their power and prevent the emergence of a revolutionary mass movement against white domination.

There’s no mention of what a “revolutionary mass movement against white domination” would actually involve.  So long as whites are a demographic majority, there’s only three possible ways to avoid “white domination.” One would simply be to import large numbers of non-white immigrants to such a degree that whites would no longer be a majority. Indeed, this seems to be one of the reason why the Left is rather enthusiastic about mass immigration. Yet, the consequences of such an action are likely to be quite severe. Historically, genuinely multicultural/multiethnic societies tend to be rather unstable and prone to outbursts of intercommunal violence. Oppression of minorities by majorities becomes less of an issue than persistent strife and even bloodshed between contending racial/ethnic power groups attempting to get the political upperhand. Another method might be to grant minorities political and economic privileges and power beyond that of their actual numbers. This has been done through such measures as antidiscrimination laws, affirmative action, electoral redistricting so as to guarantee a certain number of minority legislators, quotas and set asides, school “busing” policies, and many other such measures that are too numerous to mention. Yet, in spite of all of this, minority and/or left-wing claims of inequality still persist.

The third alternative may well prove to be the most satisfactory one. Towards the end of his life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was apparently moving towards the idea of an independent black nation in North America, for the sake of achieving economic parity with the wider white society. Indeed, the level of wealth in the black community is already such that if black Americans were an independent nation, they would be one of the world’s more prosperous nations, comparable to many European or the more advanced Asian nations. Perhaps black sovereignty, and reparations for that purpose, will be the next phase of the movement for civil rights. The relative prosperity of black Americans may well be an obstacle to white embracement of reparations, as no living Americans ever owned slaves, and many were not even born when Jim Crow when still in effect. Still, there’s no denying that such past policies have prevented black prosperity of today from being what it otherwise would have been. If reparations were combined with elimination of statist social engineering policies concerning race relations, perhaps whites would not be as resistant.

We wholeheartedly support the needs and desires of people of color to organize in their own communities and workplaces free from the intrusion of the guilt-ridden consciences of white radicals. We recognize the ability of people of color to self determine their course in the world. People within the — — Collective who have white skin privileges will stand as allies and work in coalitions with people of color, when and only if, the people of color involved so desire.

Absolutely. I think the key phrase here is “when and only if, the people of color involved so desire.” Most radical groups in North American are predominately white, often exclusively so. The more rhetorically “anti-racist” they are the more all-white they seem to be. Racial minorities in North America who are politically motivated typically tend to prefer their own, separate political organizations. Some of these are obviously more about getting a bigger piece of the System, rather than overthrowing the System. But others aren’t, and it would seem the proper course of action would be to simply recognize and, when feasible, collaborate with black nationalists and related tendencies when mutually beneficial, with everyone otherwise going their own way. The emergence of groups such as Anarchist People of Color, the Lakota Republic, or the Pan-African International Movement would seem to be a positive development along these lines.

Another plank in my anarchist friends’ manifesto reads “For An End to All the Tentacles of the Patriarchy”:

We aim to shape a society based on equality, mutual respect, celebration of difference, and freedom from dominant patriarchal values and behaviors. Our society places value on labor, politics, and culture that benefits men, heterosexuals, and people who don’t bend the gender they were assigned at birth. Women, transgendered people…transvestites…transexuals…butch women…and feminine males..intersexed people… and sexual minorities (gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, etc. are in different ways oppressed by a patriarchal system that privilges the masculine, the “normative” heterosexual, and the “appropriately” gendered.

I think some qualification is in order here. As Justin Raimondo points out, certain sectors of the homosexual population are quite successful and prosperous. It’s also true that some within the “gay rights” movement have an authoritarian and destructive agenda of their own. Still, if freedom or liberty or anarchy means anything, it ought to mean the right to be different or to be a non-conformist, and there are some people who would not give a “sexual minority” a fair shake no matter what. While there’s always going to be a certain price attached to being “different,” as that’s the way human nature and human societies actually work, it is true that oppressions of this type have long been overlooked. There are religious non-conformists that have been persecuted in American history to various degrees-Quakers, Antinomians, Mormons, “witches,” Jehovah’s Witnesses, Moonies, Branch Davidians. There exists such groups today on the cultural level (drug users, for instance).  No reason exists why the oppression of sexual /gender outgroups cannot be opposed with the same vigor with which one might oppose religious persecution.

The patriarchy manifests itself in many visible ways; from the disparity of earning power between women and men…

There are reasons for this besides rank misogyny but there’s no identifiable reason why there cannot be a meritocracy whereby individual recognition is based on personal achievement and ability rather than group characteristics like gender. One of my favorite examples of such are the resistance movements in Latin America. Twenty percent of the FMLN of El Salvador’s fighting forces in the 1980s were females, and there were even all-female military units. At times, one third of the FARC of Colombia’s forces have been teenaged girls, and when it comes to leadership roles, there’s no denying the place of leaders like Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman or Voltairine de Cleyre in the anarchist pantheon. Some of the most ferocious fighters in China’s Tai Ping rebellion in the 19th century were female warriors.

…to brutal hate crimes against queer and trans people…

Certainly, such crimes are despicable, yet they are only a very small portion of all the violent crime that occurs in America. The people who perpetrate such actions are not honored by society. Such actions often become national scandals and the perpetrators subject to arrest and lengthy terms of imprisonment. However, just as some people commit other acts of murder, robbery or rape inspite of laws, arrests and prosecutions ostensibly designed to prevent such behavior, “sexual minorities” continue to be victimized in such ways at times as well. Perhaps the Pink Pistols are the solution?

…to the inaccessibility of hormones and surgery for transexual people…

Very few people today realize that the polio vaccine was developed without state funding. Instead, it was developed through a private foundation founded by FDR, with funds provided by the March of Dimes. Perhaps there could also be a “March of Dollars” to generate funding for gender reassignment surgery for trans people?

…to the constant fear of violence that many women feel on the streets…

The obvious solution here is more women who are skilled and trained in the use of weapons, including firearms, for self-defense, and the repeal of laws restricting self-defense. This should be an issue where anti-rape and anti-sex crime feminists and conservative gun rights activists can find common ground.

Simultaneously, the patriarchy operates in many “invisible” ways; from the way that we speak and interact intimately…

Sorry, but “intimate” relationships are a matter of interpersonal relations, whatever the issues that arise, not political matters.

…to the self loathing that many queer, intersexed people, transgendered people and women feel… 

Psychological peace has to come from within. If you look to others or to society to provide it, you’ll be waiting a long time. It’s as simple as that.

…to eating disorders caused by sexist beauty standards…

Again, self-acceptance comes from within, not from without. All societies have “beauty standards” of some sort. An acquaintance of mine who is a specialist in Latin American history tells me the Mayans thought crossed-eyes were attractive. In some cultures, “plump” women are considered attractive. Such variations we will always have with us.

…to the feeling of entitlement that people socialized as male often feel…

And not just “people socialized as male.” The assholes ye shall always have with you.

As a first order of business, cultural radicals need to get past their tendency to act with reflexive hysteria whenever “conservative” social views or opinions not in line with left-wing orthodoxy are presented or expressed. The dichotomy between “change” and “tradition” or “reactionary” and “progressive” will always exist on some level. Any genuine libertarian philosophy must have freedom of thought, opinion, speech and honest and open debate as a foremost principle. Sean Gabb of the Libertarian Alliance describes the intellectual atmosphere of Hans Hoppe’s annual gathering of the Property and Freedom Society in Bodrum, Turkey:

These conferences provide a time and a place where nothing is off limits. There are no forbidden subjects, no polite suggestions that whatever is being loudly debated over dinner by the swimming pool might be “inappropriate”. The only rule is the obvious one—that you listen to the other side before making reply.

These are conferences where social conservatives sit down with anarcho-libertarians, where Czechs and Chinese discuss where history went wrong, where English is the preferred language, but a knowledge of half a dozen other languages will frequently come in handy.

They are also conferences useful for what everyone nowadays describes blandly as networking, but what the old Marxists, with a more sinister and accurate turn of phrase, called “cadre building”. It is in Bodrum, every May, that the connections and ideas that will be the future of the libertarian movement are first to be perceived.

And so it should be.

In a previous post, I outlined my view that the radicals from the 60s  have won on virtually every issue, and that the kinds of values associated with 60s radicals aren’ t all that radical anymore, but are actually rather mainstream and normal. Given the demise of Communism and the institutionalization of both social democracy and 60s-era cultural politics, it would seem that a new direction for radicals is necessary, and that such efforts would likely emerge from one or another of the libertarian camps. The surprisingly energetic nature of the Ron Paul campaign in late 2007 and early 2008 is symptomatic of this.

For some time, I held to the position that before there could be a serious anti-state movement there first needed to be a more solid intellectual foundation for anti-state radicals. At the time, libertarianism was limited largely to the bourgeoisie economics of the libertarian-right, and the warmed over Marxism, both economic and cultural, of the left-wing anarchists. More specifically, I realized that an effective radical anti-statist movement would have to have as its primary targets the forces of the State, particularly the police state that taken control of American society over the past few decades, the economic arm of the State, which is the corporate and banking system whose activities have also grown more pernicious in recent years, and lastly the American Empire, which is responsible for roughly 8 million deaths over the last 60 years of its existence. Unfortunately, most of the anti-state movements were fixated on other issues, whether the welfare state for right-libertarians or traditional forms of social prejudice (”racism, sexism, homophobia”) for much of the libertarian left.

To be sure, there have been happy exceptions. One of these in the paleolibertarian movement, which is far more radical in its critique of the State and its emanations that most of its classical liberal counterparts. Another is the militia movement of the 1990s, which was big on attitude but unfortunately short on intellectual substance. Still another is National-Anarchism, which offers potential correctives to various deficiencies in other forms of anti-authoritarian thought.  I have considered all of these to be embryos for a new kind of radicalism that might possibly emerge at some point in the future.

Just as important, however, has been the emergence of some major theoretical works, some of them from outside the various libertarian milieus, that can inform both our ideological and our strategic outlook in the future. One of these is Martin Van Creveld’s work on the origins and demise of the nation-state system. Still another is Bill Bishop’s “The Big Sort,” which indicates that Americans are creating the sociological infrastructure for a future anarcho-pluralist system, and they’re doing it all on their own, without any imput from anarchists. Additionally, we have functional models of what the politics of anarcho-pluralism might actually be in practice in the form of the many micronations currently in existence, for instance, Iceland, Liechtestein, Monaco, Luxemborg and Andorra, and the many functional intentional communities from around the world, ranging from Israel’s kibbutzim to South Africa’s Orania community.

On economic matters, the 21st century now has its own Proudhon in the person of Kevin Carson, whose work provides a magnificent continuation and synthesis of the classical anarchists, Marx, the Austrians, Rothbard, the decentralists, the distributists and others who have come before. Finally, anarchists can answer Keynes and Friedman, Marx and Mises. We also have functional alternative economic models in the form of Brazil’s Semco and Spain’s Mondragon cooperative federation.

On military matters, we have “fourth generation warfare” theory of the kind advanced by Van Creveld and Bill Lind, and a working model of a fourth generation army and social infrastructure in the form of Hezbollah. We also have others who are tired of the “culture war” psychology that dominates much of the Right and Left alike, and is seeking out something more appropriately called “culture peace,” including Kirkpatrick Sale’s pan-secessionist movement and the national-anarchists, both of which are tendenies that recognize the legitimacy of a plurality of cultural foundations and value systems, as opposed to the totalitarianism implicit in both imperialism and left-wing universalism. Likewise, the Americans for Self-Determination Plan offers a constructive “third way” beyond both old-fashioned racism and the totalitarianism of modern liberal “anti-racism.”

The various manifestations of the modern states have already been subject to penetrating critiques. Aldous Huxley and to some degree George Orwell predicted what modern states would become, and the core features of these states-therapeutism, managerialism, mass democracy, military humanism-have been dissected by thinkers as diverse as Hans Hermann Hoppe, Thomas Szasz, Noam Chomsky, Michele Foucault, James Burnham, James Bovard, Richard Lawrence Miller, Erick von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Murray Rothbard, James Kalb, C.S. Lewis, Hannah Arendt, Paul Gottfried and Alain De Benoist.

An effort to synthesize libertarian anti-statism and class analysis has emerged in the works of Kevin Carson, Walter Williams on race issues, Charles Johnson, Shawn Wilbur and others. No less respectable a figure as Vincent Bugliosi has brought forth a compilation of compelling evidence that George W. Bush and his associates deliberately went to war in Iraq under fraudulent pretenses and deliberately mishandled the war against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. James Petras from the Left and John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt from the Center have produced comprehensive works documenting Israeli domination of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and they have done so without relying on the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of past times.

Another work that needs to be revisited is Walter Block’s classic “Defending the Undefendable.” In my own writings, I have mentioned a large number of political, cultural and economic scapegoats and outgroups that lack political representation, and might well be cultivated as constituent groups for a future anti-state movement. Similarly, now that conservatism, which claims to be the voice of opposition to “big government,”  is in shambles, at least some of the more radical or sincere constituents for conservatism might well be steered towards some sort of crypto-anarchism.

Ultimately, the only way that anarchists can eventually gain enough influence to finally topple the State, Capital and Empire, or at least severely curtail these, is to achieve leadership positions in much larger popular organizations, economic enterprises and political coalitions. Recent events in Greece have shown the potential social power of relatively small organized cadre of anarchists.  So how do we get this revolution going?

Quote of the Week:

“As a matter of priority the new generation of “Alternative” righties are decentralists and anti-imperialists first, and culture warriors second, if at all. To them the warfare state and erosion of civil liberties are vastly more important and relevant than the overturning of Roe v. Wade or the supposed “threat” of gay marriage. Furthermore, the primary cultural issue of interest to them is probably the decriminalization of marijuana, an issue where the paleo-friendly New Right of the 80’s would have been unsympathetic at best. ”

                                                                             -Dylan Hales

McGovern and the Right by Dylan Hales

Dumb is the New Smart by Robert Weissberg

Time to End the Second Prohibition by Charles Glass

The American Puppet State by Paul Craig Roberts

Will There Be a Recovery? by Paul Craig Roberts

Anarchy 101 by Wally Conger

Ecuador Repudiates Foreign Debt: It’s About Time by Kevin Carson

The Non-Aggression Principle and the Pauline Principle from LiberaLaw

Enforcing Rights in a Stateless Society from LiberaLaw

The Holocaust of Gaza 

The Creation of the Second Great Depression by Ron Paul

On Hamas Vs. Israel by Rad Geek

A Historical Perspective on the Events in Greece by Francois Tremblay

Bargaining Power from LiberaLaw

Proudhon on Justice and the Origin of Ideas by Shawn Wilbur

It’s All One Big Lie by Pam Martens

The Gaza Bloodbath  by Mike Whitney

Israel is Immune From Criticism by Brian Cloughley

Lawrence Auster Attacking Taki by Red Phillips

Fort Collins Banner Drop in Solidarity with Greek Uprising 

What’s Happening in Gaza? by Eric Margolis

Obama is Bush III by Kevin Gutzman

Fred Reed is a Breath of Fresh Air by Doug French

American Soviet TV and the Secret Police by Becky Akers

Bombing the Other by Glenn Greenwald

The Eco-Chicken Littles by Vin Suprynowicz

Rationalizing Gaza  by Justin Raimondo

Have Bush and the Neocons Ruined It for the Israelis? by Juan Cole

Pity the Poor Neocons by Robert Parry

Military Keynesianism to the Rescue? by Robert Higgs

Top Five Lies About Israel’s Assault on Gaza by Jeremy R. Hammond

Obama’s Bay of Pigs by Michael Carmichael

The Afghan Quagmire by Bob Herbert

Why Aren’t More Americans Dancing to Israel’s Tune? by Max Blumenthal

Bush’s Last War Crime by Robert Dreyfuss

Attack on Gaza: As Usual U.S., Media, Liberals Silent by Greg Mitchell

Forces of Totalitarian Humanist Therapeutic Statism Move in Virginia

The Case Against Adolescence by Doug French

Good News for 4GW Fighters, Bad News for States by William Lind

Baltimore Police Shield Identity of PIGS Who Kill and Maim Citizens 

Dying to Win Robert A. Pape Interviewed by Scott Horton

The Empire Shrugs by Alan Bock

Israel Attacks Schools, Ambulances by Mel Frykberg

The Real Value of the Standing Army by Jacob Hornberger

Neoconservatism in the Obama Age by Patrick Krey

Why Do So Few Speak Up for Gaza? by Robert Scheer

Why Do They Hate the West So Much, They Will Ask by Robert Fisk

Many Americans Do Love Their Police State by J. D. Tuccille

Cut the Pentagon ‘Til It’s a Triangle by John Zmirak

Advertising is Rape by Robert Stacy McCain

The Vermont Gold Train Token: Alternative to Financial Disaster by Robert Gray

The End of White America? by Hua Hsu

“America Should Be On Neither Side” by Ron Paul

What Kind of Security Will This Barbarism Bring Israel? by Saree Makdisi

Bend Over, Professor Dershowiz, It’s Time for Your Checkup by Franklin Lamb

America’s Other Glorious War by William Blum

Subcomandante’s Marcos’ Speech on Gaza

PIGS Kill Unarmed Man in His Driveway 

PIGS Attack Mentally Handicapped Woman 

PIGS Kill Man Already in Custody

Therapeutic Statist General Says No on Marijuana Legalization 

Sheriff Jailed for Starvation of Inmates

Resistance to the PIGS in Oakland

Ending Tyranny Without Violence by Murray Rothbard

America, Land of Opportunity by Don Cooper

Do You Have the Guts to Be a Gun Owner? by Mike Gaddy

The Bubble of Middle East Dominance by William Norman Grigg

The Department of Injustice by Glenn Greenwald

Making Wall Street More Crooked by Bob Murphy

How to Read a Society by Theodore Dalrymple

Holocaust Denied by John Pilger

The Lessons of Gaza by Andrew Bacevich

Neoconservatism Dies in Gaza by Juan Cole

Israel’s Looming Catastrophe by Robert Parry

Obama: Listen to Iraqi Opinion by Eric Stoner

This Brutality Will Never Break Our Will to be Free by Khalid Mish’al

Obama May Follow Bush’s Foreign Policy by Stephen Kinzer

Right and Left, Diaspora Jews More Critical of Israel Than Ever by Anshel Pfeffer

Obama Is Losing A Battle He Doesn’t Know He’s In by Simon Tisball

The Difficulty of Being an Informed American by Paul Craig Roberts

A Damn Foolish Thing: Why Israel Loses Asymmetric Wars by Richard Spencer

Israel: The Bernid Madoff of Countries by Taki Theodoracopulos

Weyrich and Huntington: Rebels of the Establishment by Marcus Epstein

A War of Democracies by Grant Havers

Porn: A Cherished American Industry by Richard Spencer

Response to Lawrence Auster by Paul Gottfried

Two Cheers for George McGovern? by Daniel McCarthy

McGovern and the Neocons by Dylan Hales

Can Anyone Ever Consent to the State? by Rad Geek

Rebellion 

Montreal Activists Evict Israeli Consulate 

New National-Anarchist Website for Australia/New Zealand

An Interview with French New Right Intellectual Christian Bouchet

Anarchist Beach Cleaning from Bay Area National Anarchists

We Need Constitutional, Not Just Economic, Recovery by Paul Craig Roberts

Andrew Sullivan: Israeli Stooge by Justin Raimondo

Oakland Anti-PIG Insurrection Continues 

The Real Global Warming Threat by David Gordon

The Inevitable U.S. Defeat in Afghanistan by Ron Shirtz

The Same Old Change by Justin Raimondo

An Unnecessary War by Jimmy Carter

The Ten Biggest Problems Facing African-Americans Today from AfroChat

R.I.P. Ron Asheton

Living Through New Deal II by Lew Rockwell

Israel is Committing War Crimes by George E. Bisharat

We Can No Longer Afford the Empire by Ivan Eland

Winners and Losers in the Gaza Strip by Jesse Walker

Democrats/Republicans Cheer for Israel’s War by Glenn Greenwald

Set Up Your Own Cooperative Community 

Our World Needs a Klaatu Nikto by Flavio Goncalves

Counterattacking the Smearbund by Paul Gottfried

Inflation as Income Distribution by Sheldon Richman

It’s Time to Bring Back the Gold Standard by Thomas N. Naylor

Why Greek Youths Took to the Street by Valia Kaimaki

Oakland’s Not for Burning by George Ciccariello-Maher

Israel’s Onslaught on Gaza: Criminal and Stupid by Alexander Cockburn

New Orleans PIGS Shoot Man 12 Times in the Back 

Starbucks Vs the IWW 

Deliberative vs Participatory Democracy and the Role of the News Media by Dain Fitzgerald

Quote of the Week:

“In the republic of mediocrity, genius is dangerous. We need men with courage to speak and write their real thoughts, and to stand by their convictions, even to the very death. When the will defies fear, when duty throws the gauntlet down to fate, when honor scorns to compromise with death-that is heroism.”

                                                                                 - Robert Ingersoll

Fat Assed Neocon Slob Wants to Enslave American Youth to Kill Pakistanis

PIGS Caught on Video Murdering Innocent Civilian by Rad Geek

Punk Rock Bands Go on “Civil Disobedience” Tour 

Brad Spangler to Discuss Center 4 a Stateless Society on Live Radio 

If You’re in Richmond, March at the General Assembly on Wednesday

We Are All War Criminals by Francois Tremblay

Spain’s Last Anarchist 

Alliance Journal-new magazine from Chris Lempa 

The Coming Military Dictatorship in America by Gene Healy and Benjamin Friedman

The Revival of Local Alternative Currencies 

A Fresh Look at the Whiskey Rebellion by Carl Watner

Urban Warfare Training in Richmond 

The Paleos and the Peculiar Institution by Dylan Hales

Bush is a Bonehead by Pat Buchanan

America’s Shame by Paul Craig Roberts

Will the Government Turn to the Printing Press? by Paul Craig Roberts

The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class 

Oakland on Fire by Kara N. Tina

Russell Means Breaks the Silence on Obama by Brenda Norrell

From Vietnam to Gaza by Dave Lindorff

Economic Rescue from the Bottom Up 

The “Violence” of the Oscar Grant Riots 

Insurrection in San Francisco 

Economic Solutions from Mexico 

An Interview with Troy Southgate from Extreme Politics

Pure Propaganda by Philip Giraldi

Gaza Attack Was Long Planned by Jonathan Cook

Gaza is the Future  by Justin Raimondo

We Need an America First PAC to Counter the Israel Lobby by Juan Cole

Why Be Libertarian? by Murray Rothbard

Obama Acts Like a Neocon by Glenn Greenwald

Gaza and State Intellectuals by Karen Kwiatkowski

Repudiate the National Debt! by Murray Rothbard

Where Do Americans Stand on the Issues? from Media Matters

The Humiliation of America by Paul Craig Roberts

Pro-Life Death Merchants by Jack Hunter

America First by Jack Hunter

Prince Harry’s Hate Crime by Richard Spencer

Obama the Intellectual by Matthew Roberts

The GOP: More Marx Than Marx by Dylan Hales

No Defense by Dylan Hales

Murderous Oakland PIG Arrested 

Smash Things at Night 

Fattening the Rats by Dave Lindorff

Hezbollah Militants Chafe as Gaza Burns by Franklin Lamb

Washington or Mercer? by Patroon

Is Gaza the Revenge of Bush-Cheney? Eric Margolis interviewed by Lew Rockwell

Permanent Alliances with All, Friendship with None by Joshua Snyder

Obama Dines with Evil Neocons by Sam Stein

Half of Gazans are 13 or Younger by Dennis Kucinich

Richard Perle: Still Crazy After All These Years by Justin Raimondo

Why War? by Charles Pena

Israel Doesn’t Get Fourth Generation Warfare by Bill Lind

Bush’s Tortured Morality by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

Not All Jews Agree with Israel’s Gaza  Actions by Antony Loewenstein

Israel’s Free Ride Ends by Michelle Goldberg

Pro-Israel Rally Descends into Calls for Wiping Out Palestinians by Max Blumenthal

How the U.S. Magnified Palestinian Suffering by Norman and Matthew Olsen

Bailouts, Double Standards, Hypocrisy by Kevin Carson

Easing the Transition to an Alternative Economy by Kevin Carson

Is Social Conservatism Necessary? by James Kalb

I’ll Decline “the West” by Richard Spencer

Neocons Embrace Change by Richard Spencer

Virginia Takes Constitutional Convention Stage by Chuck Baldwin

Obama’s Marijuana Prohibition Acid Test by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

Just Violence in Gaza? by Timothy Seidel

The State of Black America by Ron Jacobs

Obama and the Military-Industrial Complex by Karl Grossman

Zion Uber Alles 

Eradicating Hamas by Eric Margolis

Thomas Friedman: Terrorist Sympathizer by Glenn Greenwald

War on Terror Was Wrong by David Miliband

Communities Make Their Own Currencies 

What Does An Obama Administration Mean for Gun Rights? from the Independent Institute

Don’t the Secret Police Make You Feel Wonderful? by William Norman Grigg

Israel vs America by Justin Raimondo

Assessing the Bush Administration by Doug Bandow

It’s Hard to Be an Anti-Zionist Jew by Jeremy Sapienza

The End of an Error by Jack Hunter

The Israel Lobby Takes Off the Gloves by Taki Theodoracopulos

What Is Religion? by James Kalb

Israel, Ilana and the Paleos by Paul Gottfried

Israel, Ilana and I by Richard Spencer

Happy 200th, Pierre Joseph Proudhon 

On Distributism from No Third Solution

Alexander Cockburn Brings a Voice of Reason by Niccolo Adami

Hail to the Chief by Alexander Cockburn

Forecasting Obama by Joshua Frank

Prosecuting Bush and Cheney by Dave Lindorff

Who Runs America? by Brian Cloughley

The Facts About  Hamas and the War on Gaza by Norman Finkelstein

Republicans Staying the Course on Iraq by W. James Antle, III

Obama Should Seek Advice from Jimmy Carter by Ivan Eland

Is Ehud’s Poodle Acting Up? by Pat Buchanan

Letters from Gaza by Kenneth Ring

Israel and the United States by Frida Berrigan

Say No to Cops: The Case for Elimination and Reduction by William Buppert

A Real Discussion on TV of US Policy Towards Israel by Glenn Greenwald

Starbucks: A Zionist Entity  by Barbara Ferguson

by Peter Bjorn Perls

As an old libertarian and anarchist, news like this is not a surprise to
me anymore, and neither should it be for others of like persuasion, but
for those not accustomed to cynicism against the Establishment, a lot of
reminders of the corruption in the circles of power continually needs to
be shown, as the latest, quote:

“Bernanke, speaking in London, said in his prepared remarks that the
nearly $800 billion plan being discussed by the incoming Obama
administration and the newly elected Congress “could provide a
significant boost to economic activity.” He did not comment on or
endorse any specifics of the nearly $800 billion.

But Bernanke cautioned that the plan is “unlikely to promote a lasting
recovery unless they are accompanied by strong measures to further
stabilize and strengthen the financial system.”

link:http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/13/news/economy/bernanke_speech/index.htm?postversion=2009011308

Same ‘ol Bernanke (same as the rest of the crowd of Keynesians) - weak
on the specifics on how to spend the gargantuan handouts that they take
for granted is needed to right the economy (likewise a vaguely defined
concept). But I digress; the point of the matter here is that the US
federal handouts to the financial institutions are now so blatantly
obvious that only the blind (usually from political persuasion; I’d add)
fail to see it. The politicians already pumped sums that are
astronomical to any working man and local community, and now we are told
it’s not enough? (Will we hear that again when the next round of
bailouts come, too?)

A few bullet points to illustrate how the state works for the friends of
those in power and not those it allegedly serves - the public;

* Citigroup’s stock was busy running into the group two months back, but
recieved a big bag of cash from the feds, not only making the bankers
happy because they could stay in business for a while, but also a
Alwaleed bin Talal of Saudi royalty happened to buy up a large wad of
stock shortly before the cash infusion announcement, thus making himself
an even billion dollars in the process.

link:http://current.com/items/89559833/saudi_prince_profits_from_us_taxpayer_bailout_of_citigroup.htm

* The Feds propped up the banks to keep people borrowing and spending,
but Henry Paulson had to realize that the money that went to the banks
did not go to lending; it was spent on the banks buying each other out,
quote:

“Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said the money was aimed at
rebuilding banks’ reserves so that they would resume more normal lending
practices. But reports then surfaced that bankers might instead use the
money to buy other banks. Indeed, the government approved PNC Financial
Services Group Inc. to receive $7.7 billion in return for company stock
and, at the same time, PNC said it was acquiring National City Corp. for
$5.58 billion.”

(source: Yahoo News, article since deleted)

Then there is the case of the dying US automobile industry that went to
Capitol Hill with tears on their cheeks to beg for handouts for
themselves; after 3 decades of ever worsening business management and
ever worsening general quality of its produce; they had to go back home
two times, but as they say, three’s a charm, and they finally got their
double-digit-billion-bailout in the form of a loan. (Any bets on if it
will ever be paid back?)

Story of note why the “Big Three” bailout is foolish anyhow:

link:http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2008/11/18/93514/227

And now the latest from Bernanke, as quoted above, saying in effect that
the already-huge bailouts for banks and industry are not enough. Now, a
few comments.

First, I’m not saying that banking is a non-productive endavour, as some
other establishment critics and typically reds would have it. But it is
obvious that the federal-corporate banking symbiosis today serves the
interests of politicians and businessmen more than that of the public
and the regular customers of the banks.

Second, the banks and financial institutions are being bailed out
because they are already a privileged class; the ability to create
credit from thin air (which is what the banks do; that is part of their
business) is not something anybody can do. Only politically
rubber-stamped institutions can do that, and thus it is a very valuable
enterprise, which again means that there is a struggle to get such a
privilege. Those who pay, however, is the public, specifically the
working public, and in more than one way. (Can you survive as a “normal
citizen” in society today without a bank account? Can you be on a
company payroll without having an account at a bank?)

Third, it is a quite human, and I might add, social thing, to help your
friends and relatives, but when this cooperation takes place in the
halls of power (which is the entire point of what I’m writing here; of
course it does!), it’s happening at your expense. The pillars of a
corrupt establishment is being kept in place with your money.

(On the other hand, if you can somehow remain free of taxes, and thus
not contribute to this exploitative machinery, my hat is off to you!)

After the happenings of 2008, who can honestly say that they do not see
the nepotism of the back-and-forth exchanges between state and big
business, and how this does nothing good for themselves, their friends
and families?

Those that don’t see it, are blind. Those who see, but make excuses for
it, are naive. But those who do see it, and do excuse for it, have a
duty to start working to end this state of affairs. Yes, it may not be
possible to do much, but at least stop participating in the lie; that is
the first step.

Quote of the Week:

“It seems unlikely that many Americans will do other than breathe a long sigh of relief when George W. Bush finally leaves the White House. His farewell appearances last week were suitably bizarre, suggesting a man of limited capacity for sustained ratiocination, who, like many essentially weak people seeking to camouflage their weakness, views any admission of a mistake, or even a willingness to compromise or consider the views of another, as an unacceptable sign of the vulnerability he knows is there and doesn’t wish to acknowledge.

I’d love to see change I could believe in under a new president, and it’s worthwhile to suspend judgment for at least a bit. But the likelihood of an Obama administration actually reducing the U.S. footprint in the world seems rather low.”

                                                                                              -Alan Bock

The Trouble With Those “Shovel-Ready” Projects by Kevin Carson

Venezuelan and Argentine Influences on the Chicago Factory Occupation by Larry Gambone

James Bond on the Drug War by Roderick Long

Obama: Already Dropping the Ball on Palestine by Niccolo Adami

Stimulating Consumption Won’t Help the Economy by Sheldon Richman

Israel and the European Right by Paul Gottfried

Is Gaza the Beginning of World War Three? from the Trends Research Institute

Obama’s Economics by Stonewall

Four Surprises in Global Demography by Nicholas Eberstadt

Tales of Hard Times Reveals How Soft We’ve Become by Michael Deacon

The Findhorn Community  Watch and Find Out More 

War Criminal in Chief by Laurence Vance

No Debate, No Dissent by Glenn Greenwald

Getting Our Priorities Straight Joshua Frank interviewed by Scott Horton

Inauguration Day, A Day of Mourning by Justin Raimondo

The More Things Change by Alan Bock

How Bin Laden Bankrupted America by Jon Basil Utley

U.S. Jewish Peace Lobby Isolated on Gaza by Daniel Luban

Another War, Another Defeat by John J. Mearsheimer

Punishing the Palestinians by Ralph Nader

Gaza Agonistes by Eric Alterman

Who’s in Charge-Obama, the Pentagon or Israel? by William Pfaff

Not Just Guantanamo by Joanne Mariner

How Will History Judge America’s 43rd President? by Gene Healy

Overseas, Expectations Build for Torture Prosecutions by Scott Horton

A Suicide Foretold: The Case of Israel by Immanuel Wallerstein

Reality in Gaza is Bad Enough by Robert Fisk

How Al-Jazeera  Helped Me Think Differently About the World by Eric Calderwood

The Stories of Torture Sounded Made Up. They Weren’t by Carol Leonnig

Close Guantanamo, End the Cuban Blockade by Eric Margolis

Ehud’s Poodle by Pat Buchanan

A Deadly Stimulus by Don Armentano

Obamanomics Will Fail by Mike Rozeff

The National Anthem of the U.S.S.A. by Joshua Snyder

Predictions About the Obama Administration by Mike Rozeff

False Dawn by Justin Raimondo

The Myth of Israel’s Strategic Genius by Stephen Walt

Obama Offers Internationalist Vision by Jim Lobe

Obama’s Strategic Wasteland by Jeff Huber

Introducing the CIA to the Constitution by Nat Hentoff

Israel Wanted a Humanitarian Crisis by Ben White

Prosecute the Torturers by Glenn Greenwald

An Interview with Alex Jones from Russia Today

An Interview with Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party 

Tribal Anarchy vs The State by Stefan Blankertz

Is GOP Still a National Party? by Pat Buchanan

Young Americans for Liberty by Jack Hunter

Israel and US by Tom Piatak

Israel’s Inalienable Rights by Charles Glass

Russian Anarchist Murdered by Porkupine Blog

Looking at the Wrong Depression and Finding the Wrong Solution 

Nothing Personal, Just Business by Patroon

Understanding Gaza by Gabriel Kolko

State Terrorism Against Gaza by Ralph Nader

 Archduke Wilhelm of Austria and Missed Opportunities by Ean Frick

The Pet Rock Presidency by Sean Jobst

Class Bias Against Poor Whites by Alan Travis

Seven of Nine: The Woman Who Created Obama by Sarah Gallick

Empire Undermines Tradition by Matthew Roberts

Another Real Estate Crisis is About to Hit by Paul Craig Roberts

Mandela’s Example for Obama by Martin Kelly

Health Insurance Before the Welfare State from the Independent Institute

In Defense of Internet Journalism by Kevin Carson

Chomsky, Inc. 

Steal This Journal 

The Death of Conservatism by Stonewall

The Democrats on Israel by Adriana Kojeve

The Gathering Storm Against the 2nd Amendment by Mike Gaddy

Fixing the International Monetary Disaster by Jesus Huerta de Soto

An American Mao?

Swiss Firefighters: A Living Rebuke to Right and Left by Geoffrey Wheatcroft

The Borders of Freedom of Opinion 

Death Threats Against Dutch Film Maker Should Be Condemned 

Israel’s Lies by Henry Siegman

Alex Jones Analyzes Barack Obama’s Inaugural Speech 

Norman Finkelstein on Gaza 

Mohawk Autonomous Zone by Martin Patriquin

Children Found with Bullets Lodged in Their Head by Topaz Amoore

U.S. Intel Nominee Lied About ‘99 Massacre by Allan Nairn

A Neo-Reaganite Inaugural? by Pat Buchanan

Obama and Black Pride by Jack Hunter

The Minarchist Fallacy: It’s For Leftists, Too! 

Nazi Privatization by Kevin Carson

The Ghosts at Obama’s Side by Alexander Cockburn

The Freefalling Economy by P. Sainath

In Israel, Detachment from Reality is the Norm by Patrick Cockburn

Reasons for War? by Saul Landau

It’s Time to Free Leonard Peltier by Bob Fitraki and Harvey Wasserman

The Way Forward by Dave Lindorff

U.S. Foreign Policy Writ Small by Fred Reed

Obama is Wrong About Afghanistan by George Phillips

Mengele City? by Nick Evans

The Liberals Grand Bargain by Justin Raimondo

Investigate and Prosecute the Bush Administration by Doug Bandow

Obama Was Right to Halt Guantanamo Trials by Andy Worthington

The Return of Liberal Interventionism by Doug Bandow

So Far, Obama’s Missed the Point on Gaza by Robert Fisk

Plans in Place to Close Guantanamo-Eventually  by J.D. Tuccille

Guantanamo State of Mind by Jacob Sullum

Balkanizing Barack by Gordon N. Bardos

Pentagon 1, Obama 0 by Benjamin H. Friedman

Ideology and Polarization by Dain Fitzgerald

Hey World, Pick Up Our Tab by Peter Schiff

At Least They Didn’t Call Him Sue by William Norman Grigg

Monopoly Kills Creativity-Down with Intellectual Property by Jeffrey Tucker

Nationalizing Private Life: The Legacy of the Great War by Hunt Tooley

Huckleberry Finn and PC Insanity by John Lietchy

Darkness, Tyranny and Oppression by Jacob Hornberger

Richard Holbrooke: Obama’s Neocon by Joshua Frank

The Neocons: Always Wrong, But Never in Doubt by Murray Polner

Prohibition 3: The Candy Wars

Obama Dips His Hands in Blood by Tim Reid

Prosecute Bush! by Ivan Eland

Gaza: Worse Than An Earthquake by Kathy Kelly

Obama: Off to Good Start with Detainees? by Andy Worthington

New Era of American Leadership? by Gordon Prather

War Crimes Prosecutions Scott Horton interviewed by Scott Horton

US/Israeli Terrorism in Gaza Gareth Porter interviewed by Scott Horton

Lawyers Who Can Say No by Jacob Sullum

The Degeneration of the Imperial Legions from Christian Science Monitor

Asset Forfeiture Helps FBI’s Gambling, Jewel-Studded, Jerk-Offs by Jacob Sullum

In the Age of Obama by Justin Raimondo

Just a Question by Sheldon Richman

Quotes of the Week:

“A centralised democracy may be as tyrannical as an absolute monarch; and if the vigour of the nation is to continue unimpaired, each individual, each family, each district, must preserve as far as possible its independence, its self-completeness, its powers and its privilege to manage its own affairs and think its own thoughts.

                         –James Anthony Froude (1818-1894), author and historian.
                            Source: Short Studies on Great Subjects

Save the Economy by Cutting the Defense Budget by Winslow T. Wheeler

Torture at a Louisiana Prison by Jordan Flaherty

Access to Economic Justice by Ralph Nader

How Iceland Fell by Rev. Jose’ M. Tirado

What If Israel Were in Your Neighborhood? by Russell Mokhiber

Speaking the Truth is a Career Ending Event by Paul Craig Roberts

The India Lobby: Drunk with the Sight of Power by Vijay Prashad

Bolivia Looking Forward by Benjamin Dangl

The Torture Ban That Doesn’t Ban Torture by Allan Nairn

Afghanistan Is No Threat to America by Dave Lindorff

The Ghost of LBJ by Norman Solomon

The Economy Will Collapse-Drastic Action Will Be Taken from Trends Research Institute

Noam Chomsky on Obama and Pakistan from SlackBastard

Molinari Symposium 2009: Call for Papers on Intellectual Property 

Rad Geek Speaks on Anarchism in Vegas 

The Atrocity of Hope  by Roderick Long

A Bibi-Barack Collision? by Pat Buchanan

Anti-Military Conservatives by Jack Hunter

Money for Nothing by David Gordon

Put Torture on Trial by Philip Giraldi

Meet the New Boss, He’s the Same as the Old Boss by David Henderson

Muslim World Hails the End of Gitmo by William Fisher

War Crimes in Gaza Kathy Kelly interviewed by Scott Horton

The Politics of Palestine Dean Ahmad interviewed by Scott Horton

Obama Good on Detainee Policy So Far Andy Worthington interviewed by Scott Horton

Obama’s Vietnam  by Justin Raimondo

Five Questions for George Mitchell by Sandy Nolan and Tom Engelhardt

Not Thrilled About Obama by Tony Campos

Continuing Bush Policies in Israel and Afghanistan by Glenn Greenwald

Thus Sprach Obama: Pouring Acid on Gaza’s Wounds by Chris Floyd

Gaza War Pushes Arabs to the Brink by Robert Dreyfuss

Two Prisons Pose Similar Problems for President Obama by Eric Schmitt

Did Bush’s Usurpations Keep Us Safe? by Bruce Fein

Ministry of Truth and Peace by Jeff Huber

Refuting Cheney’s Lies on Guantanamo by Andy Worthington

Is Political Islam a Threat to the West? by Wajahat Ali

Obama’s Guantanamo Opportunity by Anthony Gregory

Barack Obama, Meet Lyndon Johnson by Juan Cole

Are We Civilized Enough to Hold Our Leaders Accountable for War Crimes? by John Dean

End the Iraq Occupation by Medea Benjamin

Close Gitmo and Get Out of Cuba by Eric Margolis

Bush, Obama and the American State by Anthony Gregory

Nobody Ever Said You Needed a High IQ to Be a Celebrity 

The Answer is Freedom by Lew Rockwell

Dumb Cop of the Week 

The Greatest Depression in History is Coming Gerald Celente interviewed by Lew Rockwell

Protection Through “Law Enforcement” by Mike Gaddy

Hyperinflation and the U.S. Banana Republic by Mike Rozeff

The Torture State Endures and Prospers by William Norman Grigg

Eminent Domain in Palestine by Glenn Greenwald

George W. Bush: More Freedom Hokum by Jim Bovard

Gay is Okay to Adopt in the U.K., But Old is Not 

The Proliferation of Anti-Smoking Thugs 

The Case for Disunion by Joe Schembrie

Che Was An Asshole by Humberto Fontova

Lies of War by Chris Hedges

The Mailed Fist and the Velvet Glove by Justin Raimondo

Obama the Imperialist by Richard Seymour

Can Israel Last? by Fred Reed

What Stimulus Advocates Learned from the “Push” for War with Iraq by Jesse Walker

It is Time to End the War on Terror by Philip Giraldi

Iranians You Don’t Know by Rick Steves

Bill Kristol: A Case Study in Affirmative Action by Paul Campos

Interface: A Journal For and About Social Movements 

The New New Deal, Same as the Old New Deal by Daniel Flynn

The Institution of “Institutional Racism” by Derek Turner

The US is a Right-Wing USSR by Kevin DeAnna

Not Stimulating by Richard Spencer

RE: What Blacks Are Really Celebrating by Jack Hunter

RE:RE: What Blacks Are Really Celebrating by Paul Gottfried

Is It Time to Bail Out of the U.S.? by Paul Craig Roberts

Anarchist Canada?  from theConverted

The Center: America’s Greatest Political Threat by Sam Smith

A Pilgrim’s Progress by LiberaLaw

Tom Paine’s Birthday by Peter Linebaugh

The Future of Gaza: An Interview with Jimmy Carter by Riz Khan

Pakistan: The New Cambodia? by M. Reza Pirbhai

Whither the Two-State Solution? by Dina Jadallah Taschler

Economy Without Escape Routes by Alan Farago

Rise of the Red Tories by Phillip Blond (thanks, Ean!)

The Evil of Patents by Jeffrey Tucker

Kleptocrats of the World, Unite! by William Norman Grigg

America Is Not a Free Country by Mike Rozeff

The Anarchist Catholic Worker Movement by Ellen Finnigan

Here’s To Crime 

Belmont, California Imposes Complete Tobacco Prohibtion by David Kramer

The Presidency: The Founders’ Great Mistake by Garrett Epps

The Big Stimulus: Get Rid of the Empire by Justin Raimondo

Diplomatic Means to Militaristic Ends by Doug Bandow

The Iranian Revolution, Thirty Years On by Sadegh Kabeer

Obama’s Flock of Hawks by Stephen Zunes

Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans by Gerald Nicosia

Obama’s First Steps on Guantanamo by Joanne Mariner

Globalism vs Ethno-nationalism by Pat Buchanan

RE:RE:RE: What Blacks Are Really Celebrating by Richard Spencer

Military to Pledge Oath to Obama, Not the Constitution by Michelle Chang

LeftLiberty #1 -Call for Submissions 

Welcome, Antiwarriors by Charles Johnson

Obama and the Oddsmakers by Alexander Cockburn

The American Economy is Not Coming Back by Dave Lindorff

Gaza Will Survive by Subcomandante Marcos

Last Gasp of the Culture Wars? by David Rosen

If Deflation is Coming, Sell Your Gold by Lew Rockwell

The Misesian Case Against Keynes by Han Hermann Hoppe

The Power Elite is All Wet by Jeffrey Tucker

Elect the Cops by Dylan Hales

Increasing Even-Handedness in the Middle East by Glenn Greenwald

The Expanding War in Afghanistan by Warren Mass

Organizing National-Anarchist Networks by Bay Area National Anarchists

“Raise the Starry Plough On High” 

Rapist PIGS by Rad Geek

ALLiance is Seeking Submissions by Chris Lempa

Republican Albatross by Sheldon Richman

Give Bill Kristol’s New York Times Op-Ed Spot to Wendy McElroy by Brad Spangler

The Mafia is More Legitimate Than World Governments by Niccolo Adami

Quote of the Week:

“A war for Kuwait? A war for an oil-can! The rest is vanity; the rest is crime
… an unimaginative, ‘democratic capitalist’ Republican regime, early in 1991, committed the United States, very possibly, to a new imperialism.

                                            –Russell Kirk, The Politics of Prudence

Cystic Fibrosis Fundraiser by Bay Area National Anarchists-Donate! 

Cultural Marxism in Canada: Prosecuting Polygamy, Protecting Gay Marriage 

How to Save Money Like a Mormon by Jennifer Dobner

Israel Hopes to Colonize Parts of Iraq as “Greater Israel” by Wayne Madsen

When Did We Stop Caring About Civilian Deaths During Wartime? by Robert Fisk

Elect the Cops-The Response by Dylan Hales

Trial of Neo-Nazi Leader to Have Important 1st Amendment Implications 

America: A Bankrupt and Discredited Country by Paul Craig Roberts

War Tax Resistance lecture by David Schenk

Pro-Life Tax Resistance by Dr. Gerald DePyper

The Therapeutic State in North Carolina 

The Persecution of Michael Phelps 

Czech President Attacks Al Gore’s Climate Campaign 

Monetary Lessons from America’s Past lecture by Tom Woods

Putin to the West: Take Your Medicine by Justin Raimondo

The Return of Real Interventionism by Leon Hadar

Renditions May Expand Under Obama from AntiwarNews

Obama: Agent of Change? Well, Agent of Something… by Jeremy Sapienza

The Bogus War on Terror by Eric Margolis

End Legal Immunity for Government Officials by Bill Anderson

Going Bankrupt for “National Defense” by Tom Engelhardt and Chalmers Johnson

Our Rulers Are Destroying Our World by Bob Higgs

Coming: The Third American Hyperinflation by Mike Rozeff

Condemn the System, Not Michael Phelps by Paul Armentano

Served, Protected and Sodomized in Baltimore 

Ideology and the Internet  by Justin Raimondo

Repudiate the Monroe Doctrine by Phillip Brenner and Saul Landau

Politically, Hamas May Have Won by Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani

Obama’s Defense of Rumsfeld and Yoo by Jacob Hornberger

Neocons Spin Pentagon Budget Increase as Cut by Glenn Greenwald

What Cheney’s Daughter’s Senior Thesis Tells Us About the Bush Presidency by Zac Frank

Protect and Defend…The Military-Industrial Complex by Jeff Huber

Obama’s Wars by Bill Moyers

First, Jail All Bush’s Lawyers by Robert Parry

How the U.S. Created an Enemy in Iran by Brett Popplewell

Obama’s War Cabinet Stephen Zunes interviewed by Scott Horton

Putin’s Warning to America Justin Raimondo interviewed by Scott Horton

Military to Pledge Oath to Obama, Not Constitution by Michelle Chang

Nancy Pelosi’s New Deal by Pat Buchanan

The War on Terror is a Hoax by Paul Craig Roberts

I Saw Iceland Melt by Kevin DeAnna

Why Iceland Melted by Richard Spencer

How to Prevent Vermont from Going Down with the Titanic by Thomas N. Naylor

How Much Does It Cost Vermont to Remain in the Union? by Thomas N. Naylor

We, the Anarchists-An Interview with Stuart Christie by Chuck Morse

Resisting Anti-Panhandling Law by David Beyer

A Generals’ Revolt? by Dave Lindorff

Obama’s Lincoln Thing by Kirkpatrick Sale

What to Do About Wall Street by Ralph Nader

Reactionary Late Modernism: Back in Style! from Ean Frick

The 68ers In A Nutshell from Ean Frick

Former Trots Make Good from Ean Frick

The One-State Solution by Muammar Qaddafi

America First by Merle Haggard

The Therapeutic State Strikes in Australia and New Zealand

American Fascism by Karen Kwiatkowski

The Blessed Return of Right-Wing Paranoia by Anthony Gregory

French Cartoonist on Trial for “Anti-Semitism” 

The Iranian Revolution 30 Years On: Was it Worth it? by Angus McDowell

Stasi Britain: The Culture of Snitches by Melanie Phillips

Never Talk to the Cops 

Fractional Reserves Have Wrecked the Fascist State by Gary North

Stimulating Tyranny by William Norman Grigg

Endgame? What Endgame? by Justin Raimondo

The Nightmare of Netanyahu Returns by Johann Hari

Hold Israel Accountable for Gaza by George Bisharat

Geert Wilders and the Dutch Republic byDerek Turner

This is Just the Beginning by Peter Schiff

Reefer Madness by Jack Hunter

Those Darn Purists! by Grant Havers

Do Americans Cherish Freedom Anymore? by Chuck Baldwin

Whistleblowers and Management by Larry Gambone

More Than a Paycheck National War Tax Coordinating Committee

Simple Solutions to Stupid Problems by Rad Geek

Counter-Economic Optimism 

Authoritarians in Libertarian Clothing by Kevin Carson

Obama’s First Bad Week by Alexander Cockburn

Obama and the Empire by William Blum

Ten Reasons to Get High About Pot in 2009 by Norm Kent

Obama, Mitchell and the Palestinians by James Abourezk

Occupied Territory by Russell Mokhiber

Obama, Race and the Future of U.S. Politics by Bob Wing

Economy on a Thread by Dave Lindorff

The End of the Monroe Doctrine Saul Landau interviewed by Scott Horton

Why Not Apologize to Iran for the Coup? by Robert Naiman

Sorrows of Empire Chalmers Johnson interviewed by Scott Horton

Bush Jr.’s Foreign Policy Legacy Doug Bandow interviewed by Scott Horton

Thus far, the Obama presidency has moved along lines similar to what one might expect. The significance some would assign to his mulatto ancestry notwithstanding, Mr. Obama is very much an Establishment Man. The actions of the Obama administration in its earliest days indicate that the policies of this administration will largely be a continuation of those of the Bush administration. On economic policy, Obama has surrounded himself with neoliberals and called for deficit spending on additional bank and corporate welfare in the form of the “stimulus package.” The so-called “stimulus” is really just Phase Two of the extravagant “bailout” program enacted under President Bush. This should not be surprising, given that Obama’s primary financial backers during his campaign were Goldman-Sachs and other principal beneficiaries of the bailout, which Obama supported as a Senator. Of course, the “stimulus” program includes some additional social spending for the sake of appeasing various Democratic Party constituencies. This is the reason, along with sheer partisanship, that the Republicans are opposing the stimulus, which they are correct to do, even if they are doing so for all the wrong reasons.

On foreign policy, it appears that the Obama administration, whose foreign policy team is comprised mostly of recycled Clintonites, will continue to pursue the same set of foreign policy goals as the Bush administration. Obama has called for increased military spending, expanding the war in Afghanistan, perhaps to Pakistan, and it appears renditions will also continue. Obama does seem to be scaling back operations at Guantanamo, yet only as a public relations  maneuver so far as world opinion is concerned. It’s not like the prisoners at Guantanamo are going to be released. Indeed, it would appear that the only real difference between Bush and Obama on foreign policy is that the Obama government will be less bellicose in its formal rhetoric. As a protege’ of Zbigniew Brzezinski, Obama represents the liberal internationalist wing of the foreign policy elite, who are just as committed to the preservation of the Empire as the neoconservatives, but who are more cautious about openly giving the finger to allies, client states, and world opinion. Liberal internationalists realize that this is not conducive to the efficient administration of the Empire or its maintenance over the long haul, particularly given the current dependence of the U.S. economy on Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Arab lenders.

Obama also kowtows to the Israel Lobby, as illustrated by his appearance before AIPAC prior to his election to the presidency and his appointment of Rahm Emmanuel. James Petras has observed that the Obama administration contains as many arch-Zionists as any previous administration. There is also some indication that Israel will go to war with Iran under Obama’s watch, which could likely lead to actual U.S. participation in such a war. In fact, the overall amount of U.S. military intervention may escalate under Obama, as it did under Bill Clinton.

On “culture war” issues, Obama predictably leans somewhat to the left of the Bush government. So far, he has lifted the abortion-related “gag rule” and eased restrictions on stem cell research, and Obama has also signed an “equal pay for equal work” law as a reward for his middle-class feminist constituency. Yet Obama is far from being an ACLU civil libertarian. For instance, he voted as a Senator to authorize warrantless wiretaps and provide legal immunity to telecommunications companies engaged in such actions.

I’ve written before that the election of Obama signifies a demographic, cultural and generational shift among the American electorate. The left side of the “culture war” now has the upper hand, if it did not already. The Democrats will likely be the dominant political party for the forseeable future due to the fact that those groups who vote Democratic are growing in number and those who vote Republican are shrinking. The Obama coalition includes the left-wing of the “old elite” (demonstrated by the Kennedys support for Obama), the New Class center-left welfare state professionals, the “bourgeois bohemians” that David Brooks has written about, upwardly mobile members of the traditional outgroups now in ascension (blacks, immigrants, Jews, feminists, gays), newer ideological movements like environmentalism, younger people and a wide variety of public sector dependents. This coalition will probably prove to be stable enough to sustain itself over the next few decades even if matters like economic downturn occasionally produce a victory for the Republicans.  

Because the liberal side of the culture wars is gaining does not mean that the culture wars are over. While there is not enough of a constituency for the kind of cultural conservatism represented by the religious right  or the right-wing Republicans for these to achieve a majority in a national election, proponents of such an outlook are a large and vocal enough group to continue to be a force for political and cultural polarization for some time, even if their prospects for long-term victory are dim.

Indeed, the evidence indicates that the U.S. Congress of 2008 was the most polarized of any Congress in 120 years! The degree to which Americans are polarized has increased even in the last five years. Further, as Bill Bishop has shown, Americans are becoming more and more geographically segregated along cultural, ideological, religious, economic, ethnic, racial and generational lines.

As an old-fashioned anarchist who wishes to see an end to the U.S. empire internationally and the end of the Big Brother state domestically, I see this polarization as a welcome phenomenon. It is difficult for a state to survive when there is no consensus on primary values. If the cultural Left is going to be in the ascendency, then let’s hope that the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, et.al. turn up the volume even louder and keep the polarization coming.  Those guys really aren’t my cup of tea, but I’m all for increased divisiveness.

Divisiveness will likely escalate for a variety of reasons. One of these will be the widening gap between socio-economic classes, which Obama shows no signs of doing anything about. Another will be the social conflict associated with  increased statism as politics becomes a spoils system for different groups looking to plunder one another. Increased diversity will likely result in increased disharmony in many ways, and the massive American police state will likely be used to squelch economic unrest and sharpening demographic conflict.

If secession by regions and communities is the most viable method of dissolving the Empire, as I believe it is, then it would seem that we revolutionaries should devote ourselves to the following tasks:

1) Continue to popularize the idea of secession. A Zogby poll taken last year showed that twenty-two percent of Americans support the right of secession, with eighteen percent saying they would support a secession movement in their area. Additionally, forty-four percent say the U.S. political system is broken and cannot be fixed. We need to get these numbers up.

2) Continue to develop actual secession movements and build constituencies for these movements. For instance, the dominance of the cultural Left is likely to increase support for separatist ideas on the Right. There is a prototype for this in the rise of the militia movement during the Clinton era. Likewise, Obama is likely to prove to be a disappointment to many on the Left, both blacks and whites, and this combined with increased economic misfortune may generated secession movements from the Left. The nationwide, continent-wide proliferation of secessionist tendencies from the Right and Left against the ruling class Center would be a highly welcome event.

3) Encourage greater polarization. In some ways, we should think of Limbaugh, Hannity, Newt Gingrich, Ann Coulter, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Barney Frank and Arianna Huffington as the public relations arm for a future pan-secessionist movement as it is figures such as these who serve to create the polarization likely to result in eventual political splintering.

4) Build cross-cultural, cross-ideological alliances against the ruling class common enemy whenever feasible. If Afro-centrics, Black Muslims, militiamen and Ku Klux Klansmen can engage in common action, then what the hell is wrong with the rest of us?

Quotes of the Week:

“Nowadays the Capitalist cry is: “Nationalize what you like; municipalize all you can; turn the courts of justice into courts martial and your parliaments and corporations into boards of directors with your most popular mob orators in the chair, provided the rent, the interest, and the profits come to us as before, and the proletariat still gets nothing but its keep.”

This is the great corruption of Socialism which threatens us at present. It
calls itself Fascism in Italy, National Socialism (Nazi for short) in Germany,
New Deal in the United States, and is clever enough to remain nameless in
England; but everywhere it means the same thing: Socialist production and
Unsocialist distribution. So far, out of the frying pan into the fire.”

                - George Bernard Shaw, Everybody’s Political What’s What (1944)

“The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it.”

                                                                                                -H.L. Mencken

American Triumphalism: A Postmortem by Andrew Bacevich

The Two Faces of Libertarianism by Austin Bramwell

The New Neocons by Barron YoungSmith

The Ron Paul Youth: Young Americans for Liberty 

The Gist of Paul Gottfried by Thomas F. Bertonneau

Why Are American Literacy Rates So Low? by Christina Oxenberg

New New Nationalism by Pat Buchanan

Will the Surge Work? by Jack Hunter

Tony Blankley: Imperialist Scumbag Supremo by Dylan Hales

Obama’s Savior-Based Economy by Michelle Malkin

President and Congress Grovel Before the Fed by Chuck Baldwin

Ship of Fools-May You Live in Interesting Times by Paul Craig Roberts

Are We All Socialists Now? by Robert Higgs

Herbert Spencer: Social Darwinist or Libertarian Prophet?  by Peter Richards

Thank You for Not Breeding by Francois Tremblay

Death to the PIGS 

The Cases for Pessimism and Optimism by Wendy McElroy

History is Written by the Idiots by Francois Tremblay

Disrobing the System: Obama vs “Real Change” from Slingshot

Thoughts on the Crisis: What is Planned for Us and the Alternatives by Andrew N. Flood

Is the Global Economy Fixable? by Thomas N. Naylor

How Do People in Gaza Keep Going? by Kathy Kelly

A Commodity Called Misery by Joe Bageant

Seek Truth, But Prosecute Liars by Dave Lindorff

Taking the Bong by Binoy Kampmark

Conservatism is Dead by Sam Tanenhaus

R.I.P. Henry Ashby Turner by William Grimes

Australian Bush Fire Tragedy by National Anarchists of Australia/New Zealand

Police Watching “White Enclave” from AnarchoNation

Tribes on the High Seas from AnarchoNation

Andy Griffith and Civil Society by Darrin Knode

The Left, the Right and the State Lew Rockwell interviewed by Scott Horton

The Patent-Copyright Regime by Jeffrey Tucker

The Evil of Immunity for PIGS by Bill Anderson

Obama is Making You Poorer by Lew Rockwell

The Growing Army of Angry Men by Mark Crovelli

Obama’s Cure is Worse Than the Ailment by Eric Margolis

No Free Speech in Britain by Sean Gabb

Instead of a Stimulus-Do Nothing! Seriously! by Robert Higgs

The Porn Bailout by Doug French

The Enslavers by William Norman Grigg

The Audacity of Mendacity by Justin Raimondo

Kyrgyzstan’s Revenge by Justin Raimondo

Obama Wants a Surge of His Own by Charles Pena

Obama Lies for Israel by Grant F. Smith

Is An Empire Necessary? by Bruce Fein

The 180-Degree Reversal of Obama’s State Secrets Position by Glenn Greenwald

The Holocaust is Over by David Gordon

What if Avigdor Lieberman Were in Austria? by Glenn Greenwald

The Biden Speech: The Downside by Robert Dreyfuss

The Plight of the Skanks by Richard Spencer

Obamania in Canuckistan by Nina Kouprianova

The Old California by Justin Raimondo

The Economic Apocalypse Isn’t So Bad by Richard Spencer

Dylan Hales interviewed by Jack Hunter 

Abraham Lincoln: Taking the Gloss Off the Great Emancipator by Jeffrey Rogers Hummel

What Is Anarchism? by Rad Geek

Americans Favor a Probe of War on Terror Excesses 

Secession Workshops and Seminars Now Available 

The Largest Wave of Suicides in History 

Change We Can Smoke? by Fred Gardner

A Call to End All Renditions by Marjorie Cohn

Who’s Running Guantanamo? by Andy Worthington

Judges Nabbed for Jailing Kids for Kickbacks by Dave Lindorff

Against Military Slavery by Karen Kwiatkowski

Abe the Mass Murderer: A Lincoln Scholar Comes Clean by Tom DiLorenzo

Economic Meltdown Tom Woods interviewed by Lew Rockwell

Tim Geithner and the Ruling Class by Morgan Reynolds

Killer Greens Down Under by Andrea Petrie

Fred Reed Retires-We’ll Miss You, Fred! 

Gerald Celente on FOX 

More Gerald Celente: “The Worst Economic Collapse Ever” 

Obama Backs Bush “State Secrets” Position by J.D. Tuccille

The History of Schools from InfoAll

The Worker As Tool 

A Pierre Joseph Proudhon Reader 

Anarchism and Its Many Sects by Shawn Wilbur

How Will Obama’s Deficits Be Financed? by Paul Craig Roberts

Obama’s Great Game by Pat Buchanan

Geithner Lays an Egg by Peter Schiff

Being Honest About Abe by Jack Hunter

Libertarians, Freaks and Kooks by Dylan Hales

Comic Libertarianism by Tom Piatak and Kevin Michael Grace

Darwinian Traditionalism by Matthew Roberts

France: It Couldn’t Happen Here, Could It? by Ted Rall

On the Rocks by Alexander Cockburn

Pakistan On the Brink by Brian M. Downing

Israel’s Ball Boys by Christopher Ketcham

Why Can Judd Gregg See What Obama Can’t? by Dave Lindorff

A Short History of Business Handouts by Stephen Lendman

How the American Empire Will Fall by Tom Schmidt

Joint Venture by David Usborne

Should You Join the Military? by Laurence Vance

Stimulus to Depression Lew Rockwell on the Mark and Jim Show

Out of Iraq? by Justin Raimondo

Barack Obama’s Empire Chris Floyd interviewed by Scott Horton

The International Silence on Gaza by Ann Wright

Can Procedural Utility Lend a Hand to Paleo-Libertarianism? by Dain Fitzgerald

Quote of the Week:

“Conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism. Although Americans have been attached strongly to privacy and private rights, they also have been a people conspicuous for a successful spirit of community. In a genuine community, the decisions most directly affecting the lives of citizens are made locally and voluntarily. Some of these functions are carried out by local political bodies, others by private associations: so long as they are kept local, and are marked by the general agreement of those affected, they constitute healthy community. But when these functions pass by default or usurpation to centralized authority, then community is in serious danger.

Whatever is beneficent and prudent in modern democracy is made possible through cooperative volition. If, then, in the name of an abstract Democracy, the functions of community are transferred to distant political direction why, real government by the consent of the governed gives way to a standardizing process hostile to freedom and human dignity. For a nation is no stronger than the numerous little communities of which it is composed. A central administration, or a corps of select managers and civil servants, however well intentioned and well trained, cannot confer justice and prosperity and  tranquility upon a mass of men and women deprived of their old responsibilities. That experiment has been made before; and it has been disastrous. It is the performance of our duties in community that teaches us prudence and efficiency and charity.”

                                                                                     -Russell Kirk

The Feminazi War Against Liberty, Family, and All Good Things by Stephen Baskerville

Boomers-Your Financial Crisis Has Arrived by James Quinn

Help, Help, I’m Being Repressed! classic scene from a classic film

New Boss, Worse Than the Old Boss? by Lew Rockwell

The Looting Bush Family Russ Baker interviewed by Lew Rockwell

Western Aggression Against Iran by Eric Margolis

State Money vs. Private Money by Gary North

Talk Show Leninism by William Norman Grigg

Pro-Smuggling: Because I Have a Brain by Cristina C. Espina

The Nanny State by Laurence Vance

Hold Them Accountable by Justin Raimondo

Renounce Extraordinary Rendition by Philip Giraldi

“Anti-Semitic Pandemic” by Ran HaCohen

Reckoning for Bush? by William Fisher

The Draft: Just Say No by Ron Paul

Hamas Pushed to the Wall Over Cease-Fire by Mel Frykberg

Obama Defends Torturers and Wiretappers by Thomas Eddlem

Obama Embraces Bush’s Abuses by Bruce Fein

Avoiding Another Cold War by Scott Ritter

We Are All Extremists Now! by Seuman Milne

Where Will Obama Take U.S. in Afghanistan? by Alan Bock

Crisis Over Kosovo by Ian Bancroft

Israel is Trapped, and the Chance for Peace is Ever More Remote by Bruce Anderson

Crises vs. Liberty by Jacob Hornberger

Obama’s War in Iraq May Be Longer Than Bush’s War in Iraq by Thomas Ricks

Obama: The President of Special Interests by Paul Craig Roberts

The Metrics of National Decline by Pat Buchanan

Who Remembers “Guns and Butter”? by Paul Craig Roberts

Has the Schiff  Hit the Fan? by Karen De Coster

Bipartisan Generational Theft by Jack Hunter

BBC Priggery by Derek Turner

Meltdown Tom Woods and Richard Spencer interviewed by Jack Hunter

Why Pay Less? by Cristina Oxenberg

Idiocracy by Paul Gottfried

Center For a Stateless Society -Fundraiser by Brad Spangler

Entrepreneurs in Everything by Niccolo Adami

Obama’s “Civilian National Security Force” Has Been Established 

Ten Conservative Principles by Russell Kirk

British Man Fined Over Racist Abuse…of Germans 

North Idaho Polygamist Sect Draws Scrutiny 

To Alter or Abolish by David Bardallis

The Obama Deception 

The Politics of Economic Disaster 

Beating Back Modern Lincolnism by Patroon

Evolutionary Conservatism by MRob

The Oligarchs Escape Plan by Michael Hudson

The One-Dimensional Congress by Ralph Nader

Commodifying the Revolution by John Ross

Who Is a Terrorist? by Matt Svensson

Iraq Reconstruction: The Greatest Fraud in U.S. History by Patrick Cockburn

The Meltdown: Whose Fault is It? by P. Sainath

Did George Washington Smoke Pot? by Harvey Wasserman

White Recession, Black Depression by Dedrick Muhammad

Sean Hannity-Secessionist?

Hideous He-She Hag of the Week (but not all trannies are PC turdballs-don’t be prejudiced!)

The Politics of Johann Wolfgang Goethe by Hans Hermann Hoppe

“This is the Modern Underground Railroad” 

Get Out of the Euro by Gary North

Mexicans Are Dying in the U.S. Drug War by Steven Greenhut

Time Magazine is Finished! by Dave Gonigam

The Comic Opera of Democracy by William S. Lind

Where the Wild Things Are (The Soviet-Afghani War 1979-1989) by C. J. Maloney

Smuggling: Personal Free Trade by Cristina Espina

America’s Confused Cause in Central Asia by William Pfaff

Hollywood’s New Censors by John Pilger

Counter Intelligence by Philip Giraldi

It Isn’t All About Me by Justin Raimondo

Will Obama Close the School of the Americas? by Chris Steele

Peace or the Draft William Astore interviewed by Scott Horton

The Israeli Elections Jason Ditz interviewed by Scott Horton

The Super Judge Who Wants to Rule the World by Srdja Trifkovic

“We Will Behead the Infidels of Those Who Construct Negative Images of Muslims!” 

Public Schooling and Criminal Texting by Rad Geek

A Nation of Cowards? by Stonewall

Arizona Anarchist Assembly 

Sticks and Stones-New Anarchist Periodical 

The Cleanser by Norman Finkelstein

Aftermath of a Beheading by Wajahat Ali

Afghan Pitfalls by M. Shahid Alam

The Mormon Worker 

America’s Privileged Apparatchik Class by Stephanie Fitch

Self-Management in Cuba? by Larry Gambone

Spectral Analysis  by Roderick Long

Death to the New Class  from Rad Geek

Self-Management in Cuba, Part 2? by Larry Gambone

“He Was a Man of His Times” by Francois Tremblay

The Long Retreat by Pat Buchanan

From One Assault on the Constitution to Another by Paul Craig Roberts

The Status of Women vs Diversity? by Brenda Walker

A Conversation About Race by Richard Spencer

Young Americans for Liberty Jeff Frazee interviewed by Richard Spencer and Jack  Hunter

Do We Need More Race Talk? by Lila Rajiva

Castro Did Not Improve the Lives of Cubans by Humberto Fontova

Swiss Peoples Party Stands Up to U.S. Imperialism 

Soros and Volcker: Worse Than the Great Depression 

More Americans Support Marijuana Legalization Than the Stimulus Package 

Preparing for a Domestic Surge? by William Norman Grigg

“We Are Not Responsible” by Pat Buchanan

Liking Ike by Lew Rockwell

Beyond Open and Closed Borders by Laurence Vance

Obama’s Policy on Civil Liberties: Bush Lite? by Ivan Eland

Twilight in Afghanistan? by Philip Giraldi

Our Enemy, the President by Daniel McCarthy

Smearing The American Conservative by Glenn Greenwald

Don’t Bet on Obama Reining in Defense Spending by Benjamin H. Friedman

The Emerging State Sovereignty Movement by Patroon

Liberals Jump On Obama’s War Bandwagon by Justin Raimondo

The Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence by Dana Milbank

The Lawyer’s Tale  by Alexander Cockburn

Using the Recession to Hammer Workers by David Lindorff

War Criminals Must Be Prosecuted by Marjorie Cohn

Quote of the Week:

“Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen.”

                                                                              -Friedrich Nietzsche

“Journalists and opinion makers who now deride what was revolutionary and progressive about modern capitalism (an easier life and a higher standard of living) do so as to stay ahead of the curve so they can welcome with open arms the new class war between the People (the majority of the population, those who work for a living) and the Elite (the plutocrats and oligarchs, their enablers and co-conspirators in the government, and their defenders in the MSM and upper academia) and ensure they are on the winning side. These court ‘intellectuals’ (if we can even dignify them with such a word) will speak of the very real and often underexplained and underestimated economic crisis with the same level of urgency as the entirely fictional environmental crisis, itself a secularized catastrophe fantasy designed to give these postmodern Puritans something to feel morally superior about with their lifestyle politics of Whole Foods activism and urbanite entitlement.”

                                                                                  -Ean Frick

On the Essentials of the High Modernist Era and the Current Crisis by Ean Frick

Maybe the Meltdown Wasn’t What You Think by Peter Brimelow

Why the U.S. Stimulus Package is Bound to Fail by David Harvey

Slumdog Success Story from Distributist Review

ACORN Initiates Civil Disobedience to Stop Foreclosures by Fernanda Santos

The PIGS Are At It Again from Rad Geek

Self-Management in Cuba, Part 3? by Larry Gambone

Choose Responsibility: Abolish the Drinking Age by from Thus Spoke Belinsky

How the Economy Was Lost by Paul Craig Roberts

American Homelessness Indicts Elite Heartlessness by Donald A. Collins

Why Merge Turkey with Europe? Why Merge Mexico with the U.S.? by Taki Theodoracopulos

How the Jews Got Their Smarts by Razib Khan

The Baptism of the State by Richard Spencer

Do You Really Want a “Conservation on Race”? by Pat Buchanan

Our Enemy, the GOP by Paul Gottfried

Get Those Shovels Ready to Dig Our Economic Graves by Bill Bonner

Weary Cogs in the Imperial Machine by Mark Crovelli

The Tax Attack on Persecuted Smokers by Philip Hensley

The Friendly Iranians by Will Hide

The Israel-Firsters Gasping, Dying Smear Tactics by Glenn Greenwald

Obama Should Follow Gorbachev’s Example by Eric Margolis

Republican National Socialism by Mike Tennant

Getting On With It in China  by Chris Clancy

Federal Repression of Secessionists? by Carol Moore

Twenty States Are Talking About Secession 

Puritannically Correct Cruelty by William Norman Grigg

The Rise of Avigdor Lieberman by Justin Raimondo

Empire at the End of Its Rope by Alan Bock

Cambodia’s Missing Accused by John Pilger

Peace or Peril by Chris Hedges

Obama’s Bananastan by Jeff Huber

Who Is Binyam Mohamed? by Andy Worthington

Don’t Let the Iran Headlines Scare You by Robert Dreyfuss

We Need a Truth Commission to Uncover Bush-Era Wrongdoing by James Cavallaro

Israel is Blind to Its Own Arab Citizens by Fareed Zakaria

Obama’s “Humane” Guantanamo is a Joke by Andy Worthington

Obama’s Embrace of Bush/Cheney “Terrorism” Policies by Glenn Greenwald

GI Resistance in Chicago 

Tax Time  from Second Vermont Republic

Is Nationalization Inevitable? by Peter Morici

The New War in Iraq by Patrick Cockburn

Going Up Against Big Coal in West Virginia by Mike Roselle

Obama Steps on the Pentagon Escalator by Franklin Spinney

How Credit Unions Survived the Crash by Ralph Nader

Kennedy and the Corporate Lobbies Craft a Health Plan by Helen Redmond

Murderous Atlanta PIGS Sentenced to Fed Time (don’t drop the soap, piggies!)

A Particular Universalism by TGGP

Affirmative Action Around the World by Thomas Sowell

Who Pulls the Strings: Zionism or Capitalism? Norman Finkelstein and James Petras debate

The New York Times is Going Under-Hooray!! by Eric Englund

Race Cowards in Academia by Walter Williams

Billions for Bankers, Nothing for Homeowners by Dave Gonigam

Understanding Environmentalism by Vin Suprynowicz

The Obamanians Are Dangerously Wrong by Lew Rockwell

Race Agitator by William Norman Grigg

The Sickening Media by Glenn Greenwald

Ron Paul vs Paul Volcker 

Will There Be Civil Unrest in the U.S.? 

The Forerunner to Obamanomics by Lew Rockwell

Gun Owners in the Age of Obama by Mike Gaddy

The Silence of the Liberals by Justin Raimondo

To Russia, With Hate by Justin Raimondo

Balancing Beijing by Doug Bandow

Start Closing Overseas Bases Now by David Vine

Beware Treating Afghanistan Like Iraq by Patrick Cockburn

What Obama’s Risking in Afghanistan by John Bruhns

Return of the War Party  by Pat Buchanan

Obamaland by Charles Glass

Affirmative Action GOP by Jack Hunter

Poverty Does Not Cause Terrorism by Austin Bramwell

The Transition to a Relocalized Manufacturing Economy by Kevin Carson

So Much for the Freedom to Protest by Francois Tremblay

South Carolina House Adopts State Sovereignty Resolution 

Alternatives to Panic: Rising from the Ashes of the Old Economy by P. B. Floyd

Teacher and Student: The New Class Struggle by Niranjan Ramakrishna

Obama’s Non-Withdrawal Withdrawal Plan by Chris Floyd

Afghanistan: Chaos Central by Chris Sands

All About Greed by Sheldon Richman

Wall Street Journal Says Limited Liability Plays a Role in Current Crisis 

The Pentagon is a Money Toilet by John Zmirak

We Should Laugh at Race-Based Jokes, Says Clint Eastwood 

PIG Assaults 15-Year-Old Girl 

It Would Be Cheaper to Fight WW2 Again by Robert Higgs

Glenn Beck is a Worthless Piece of Shit

The Economics of Empire David Henderson interviewed by Scott Horton

Drawdown Plan May Leave Combat  Brigades in Iraq by Gareth Porter

Obama’s Afghan Problem by Thomas Eddlem

Doomed to Repeat History in Afghanistan by Joseph Galloway

Starting the Second Korean War by Doug Bandow

Obama’s War on Terror by Joanne Mariner

Obama’s Iraq Plan Ain’t It by Robert Dreyfuss

Obama’s Debt Orgy by Peter Schiff

Anarchism and Radical Governments by Larry Gambone

PIGS Occupy California High School 

Is Nancy Pelosi Really Against War Crimes? by Alexander Cockburn

From Bush to Obama: Seven Years of Wartime Propaganda by Anthony DiMaggio

The Banks War on Workers by Mischa Gaus

Ruining Young Lives for Profit by Nicole Colson

National-Anarchist Beach Cleanse by Bay Area National Anarchists

Quotes of the Week:

“Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.”

                                                                               -H. L. Mencken

“The anarch understands that the particular identity of the authorities over him has come about randomly, with no inner connection with his true inner nature - he merely happens to be born or live in their domain, for the time being. Whether a Greek or an American, within a communist, capitalist or fascist structure - how could such a random association with his own nature expect special deference or respect from him? But he knows that he needs the authority for his own purposes and as a practical man, he therefore learns about its particularities and adjusts his behaviour accordingly.

Consciously recognizing the absence of any credible superior virtues or mandates in the authorities requires him to be more reliant on his own judgements and critical faculties. His understanding of history gives him a basis on which to critically judge the offers and boasts of authorities - he does not naively buy whatever is sold to him.”

                                                                                                         -Karl Fraser

National-Anarchism and Tribalism, Part One by Andrew Yeoman

National-Anarchism and Tribalism, Part Two by Andrew Yeoman

Left-Libertarianism Explained from The Radical Whole

A Kinder, Gentler Totalitarianism by Robert Weissberg

Pitchfork Time by Pat Buchanan

What’s Wrong with the Right? by Jack Hunter and Richard Spencer

A Banana Republic by 2012? by Paul Craig Roberts

Outlaw Thoughts by Doug French

The Denationalization of Money by Mike Gaddy

Ruling Class Libertarianism by Lew Rockwell

Banksters and Leftists: The Unholy Historic Alliance by Lew Rockwell

Bob Schieffer interviews Ron Paul 

Bob Schieffer interviews Ron Paul, Part Two

Obama, Pull Out of Iraq, or Dig In by Eric Margolis

Working in “Communist” China by Chris Clancy

The Communist Origins of Political Correctness by Agustin Blazquez

Is Obama a Potential Dictator? by Glenn Greenwald

Obama is Grabbing Your Medical Records by James Bovard

The Government Cannot Spend Its Way Out of a Depression Bob Higgs interviewed by Dennis Praeger

Radical Rethink Needed in Washington, D.C. by Philip Giraldi

It’s Obama’s War, Now by Chris Hedges

Mission Accomplished Indefinitely by Jeff Huber

Iran, the Jews and Germany by Roger Cohen

Obama’s State Secrets Echo Bush by Nat Hentoff

Obama’s Retreat on Iraq by Steve Chapman

Conservatives Need a Humbler Foreign Policy by Gene Healy

Lessons from LBJ’s Failed Presidency by Bob Herbert

Shouldn’t MoveOn Oppose Obama on Afghanistan? by John Nichols

New York Was Supposed to Have Been Immortal, But in the End It Couldn’t Deliver by Thomas Naylor

The Economics of Autonomous Zones 

Ethnic Cleansing and Israel by Conn Hallinan

The Changing Game in Afghanistan by Brian M. Downing

Banana Republic, USA by Tom Woods

Is the Political Class Deliberately Blocking an Economic Recovery? by Bill Anderson

Two Checks on Tyranny by Jacob Hornberger

Increase Revenues for California-Legalize Marijuana by Dale Gieringer

Voting Sucks! 

Hegemony or Survival? Noam Chomsky interviewed by Scott Horton

Endless War by Margaret Kimberley

Intel Head Draws Ire of Israel Lobby by Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe

War Comes Home to Britain by John Pilger

Read the Fine Print by Ivan Eland

Playing Defense by Winslow Wheeler and Pierre Sprey

Is It Now Okay to Talk About Hitler’s Assumption of Dictatorial Power? by Jacob Hornberger

Obama’s Coalition of the Unwilling by Amy Goodman

Setbacks for Pro-Israel Hawks in the U.S. by Bernd Debusmann

War Crimes and Double Standards by Robert Parry

Iran in the Crosshairs by Gareth Porter and Ray McGovern

The Ultimate Earmark: U.S. Military Aid to Israel by Bill and Kathleen Christison

Afghanistan: For Your Reading Pleasure by Robert Dreyfuss

Can Anti-Prohibition Cops Be Trusted? 

Shoplifting in a Free Store from Silent Radical’s Blog

Ask An Anarchist from Rad Geek

Responses to “Anarchism and Radical Governments” by Larry Gambone

Interview with Tucker Carlson by Red Phillips

Being Serious About Torture…Or Not by William Blum

Blueprint for a Police State by Marjorie Cohn

Will the Winds of Change Reach El Salvador? by Mark Engler

What’s Hezbollah Done for Us Lately? by Franklin Lamb

Porn Star Blows PIG,  Avoids Drug Arrest 

Manufacturing Fictive Kinship by John Robb

Kropotkin on Ants (from Mutual Aid) 

A Rambling Discussion of National-Anarchism 

Support the Center for a Stateless Society 

Sean Gabb Review’s Kevin Carson’s Organization Theory 

Legalize Drugs-Or See Mexico Become Afghanistan South! by Pat Buchanan

Montana Has It Right on 2nd Amendment by Chuck Baldwin

What We’re Fighting  by Evan McLaren

The Last Word on CPAC by Richard Spencer

Tax Revolt by Dylan Hales

Losing Majority by Dylan Hales

A Confession to Austrian Libertarians by Jeremy Weiland

Stylistic Reaganism and Right-Wing Existentialism by Ean Frick

Beating Back Obamanomics by Lew Rockwell

Recession and Recovery  by Bob Higgs

The Greatest Crash in History by Tom Woods

Harlots High and Low by Alexander Cockburn

Georgia Injustice by Rebekah Ward

My Day at the Terror Charity by Patrick Cockburn

We Want Obama to Fail by Peter Schiff

The Deck Chairs Are Fine Where They Are by Tom Woods

If Only Paul Krugman Were a Moron by Lila Rajiva

No More Reefer Madness by Steve Huntley

The Coming Second American Civil War? 

Drug Wars in Mexico Alan Bock interviewed by Scott Horton

U.S. Out of Afghanistan Jeff Huber interviewed by Scott Horton

Obama’s Appointments  Jim Lobe interviewed by Scott Horton

Bush Tyranny: Why Did So Few Americans Give a Damn? by William Pfaff

Afghanistan’s Graveyard of Invaders by Jurgen Todenhofer

Things Fall Apart (including the EU) by Richard Spencer

Front Porch Socialism by Dylan Hales

Freedom to Consume, or Not by Sheldon Richman

Quote of the Week:

“All universal moral principles are idle fancies.  All, all is theft, all is unceasing and rigorous competition in nature;…Are not laws dangerous which inhibit the passions? Compare the centuries of anarchy with those of the strongest legalism in any country you like and you will see that it is only when the laws are silent that the greatest actions appear.”

                                                                                      -Marquis De Sade

We Are All Collapsitarians Now by Kevin Kelly

The Pestilence of Fanaticism by U.S. Senator James A. Reed, 1925

Social Characteristics of Tribalism by Bay Area National Anarchists

9th Annual Berkeley Anarchist Students of Theory and Research and Development from Bay Area National Anarchists

All You Need to Know About the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair 

Communism vs Agorism from No Third Solution

Randian Collective Action from theConverted

Considering Redistribution of Property from No Third Solution

Axis of the Expendable: Frum vs Limbaugh by Jack Hunter

Lyndon Baines Obama by Pat Buchanan

Conservatism: Ideology of the Old? by Razib Khan

Little Miss Zionist Gossip Queen by Adam Kharij

It’s the End of the World As We Know It by Nina Kouprianova

Did Somebody Say “Democracy”? by Kevin R. C. Gutzman

The Paleo-Punks by Dylan Hales

“The Greatest Depression” Underway from Second Vermont Republic

Too Big…Period by Ralph Nader

Stop Demonizing Iranians by Eric Margolis

Doomsday by Doug French

The Neocons Are Losing Their Grip by Glenn Greenwald

Enough with the “Diversity” by Walter Block

Sentence First, Trial Never by William Norman Grigg

Gunowners Are In Trouble by Mike Gaddy

A Victim of the State Speaks Out by Becky Akers

Signs of Progress and Danger by Justin Raimondo

Imagine An Occupied America by Ron Paul

A Convenient Scapegoat by Philip Giraldi

Enduring Blunder by Jeff Huber

Why the U.S. Under Obama Is Still a Dictatorship by Andy Worthington

Seeds Sprouting in the Rubble by Kevin Carson

Corporate Extortion from theConverted

That’s Politics for You by Sheldon Richman

Tax Revolt in Argentina from The Picket Line

The American Criminal Injustice System by Paul Craig Roberts

Decentralism or Bust Dylan Hales and Richard Spencer interviewed by Jack Hunter

Lessons From Kirkpatrick Sale by Dylan Hales

Can’t Get Enough Frum vs Limbaugh by Red Phillips

The Coming Evangelical Collapse by Dostoevsky

Bottom Feeders at the Trough  by Sharon Smith

Israeli Spying in the United States by Christopher Ketcham

Obama Caves in to the Lobby by Ray McGovern

The Doublespeak of a Discredited IMF by Eric Toussaint and Damien Millet

Prisons, Profits and the Banality of Evil by Chris Floyd

Making a Difference by Bay Area National Anarchists

The Fed Has Destroyed Your Retirement by Gary North

Home Defense in the Coming Depression Greg Perry interviewed by Lew Rockwell

Caesar Is Not God by Ryan McMaken

Do We Want the Republicans Back? by Laurence Vance

The Economics of Depression Lew Rockwell interviewed by Brian Wilson

The Drug War vs Civilization by Anthony Gregory

China: The Next Big Enemy? by Justin Raimondo

The Groundwork Has Already Been Laid for Martial Law by John Whitehead

Don’t Fear China Doug Bandow interviewed by Scott Horton

Why Is Obama Defending John Yoo? by Daphne Eviatar

Empire of Bases by Hugh Gusterson

Barack Obama, Meet Team B by Scott Ritter

The Necons Strike Back by Robert Parry

Dick Cheney’s Death Squad by Seymour Hersh

The Totalitarian Therapeutic State by Sheldon Richman

Go to Cancun With Your Virginity, Leave With 20 Kilos of Heroin 

In Defense of McCarthyism by Dylan Hales

The Parable of the Shopping Mall by Alexander Cockburn

Is This Really the End of Neoliberalism? by David Harvey

How Israel Gives Jews a Bad Name by Saul Landau

Drug War Doublespeak by Laura Carlsen

Imprisoning Immigrants for Profit by Tom Barry

Criminalizing Poverty by Chris Mobley and Leela Yellesetty

Anarchist-Communist Appeal Against NATO Summit 

San Diego IWW Demonstration for Fired Organizer 

Texas Police Exploit Black Motorists 

It’s “Racist” to Oppose Afghan War by Harrison Bergeron 2

Wrong Classical Liberal Predictions by TGGP

Individualism and Self-Defense by Mike Gaddy

A Vintage Fight Over Wine by Michael A. Lerner

The Destruction of Mexico by Guy Lawson

Crisis in Pakistan Eric Margolis interviewed by Scott Horton

Charles Freeman’s Victory by Justin Raimondo

In Memory of Rachel Corrie by Gila Svirsky

Quotes of the Week:

“Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.” -Edmund Burke

“Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of the government.”

                                                                        -Pierre Joseph Proudhon

“The State calls its own violence law, but that of the individual crime.”

                                                                                      -Max Stirner

My Anarchism Problem by Bob Black

A Washington, D.C. Heretic is Punished by Eric Margolis

America’s Ivy League College: The Dumbass Factory by C. J. Maloney

Traveling in the New China by Chris Clancy

The Ides of March Got a Bad Rap by Cheryl Vanbuskirk

Et Tu, Switzerland? by Balz Bruppacher

Drunk Driving Laws Are Absurd by Mark R. Crovelli

The Drug War vs Civilization Anthony Gregory interviewed by Scott Horton

Continuity and Change by Justin Raimondo

These Secretaries Can’t Even Type by Jeff Huber

Taliban Plan Drags Obama Deeper by Gareth Porter

Obama Follows Bush on Detainees by William Fisher

Who Are the “Worst of the Worst”? by Andy Worthington

Of Patriots and Assassins by Pat Buchanan

John Stossel Takes Down Sean Hannity 

Zionism is the Problem by Ben Ehrenreich

What We Don’t Know About Iraq by Philip Bennett

How Abu Ghraib Was Politically Defused, Part One by James Bovard

Ending Our Imperial Foreign Policy by Fareed Zakaria

The More Things Change… by Srdja Trifkovic

Racist Jim Clyburn by Jack Hunter

The Domestic Costs of Empire from Richmond Left-Libertarian Alliance

San Francisco PIGS Attack Demonstrators 

Wobblies March in San Diego 

Racist Abuse of Pennsylvania Prisoners 

Shut Down IMF/World Bank Meeting 

Santa Cruz Anarchist Convergence, May 7-11 

Obama and the Empire by Bill and Kathleen Christison

Victory for the Left in El Salvador by Richard Gott

Americans Want Justice for Wall Street Crooks by Ralph Nader

Coxey’s Army Will March Again! by Stephen Fleischman

Dismantling the Killer Elite by William Norman Grigg

EU Bans “Miss” and “Mrs” As Sexist (the journey into the Cultural Marxist Twilight Zone continues)

California to Legalize Marijuana? 

What Should We Do in the Face of Private Firearms Confiscation? by Mike Gaddy

The Emerging Marxist Church by Bill Anderson

The Confiscation of Privately Owned Weapons by Tim Case

What Happened to the War? by Laurence Vance

Some Truths About Guantanamo Bay by Lawrence Wilkerson

Compulsory National Service On Its Way? 

A Great Debate on Afghanistan by Jacob Hornberger

My Life in the New Left by Kevin MacDonald

Systemic Failure by Pat Buchanan

Israel’s American Chattel by Paul Craig Roberts

Was the Bailout Itself a Scam? by Paul Craig Roberts

Launching Lifeboats Before the Ship Sinks by Paul Craig Roberts

Empire, Secession and the Left Kirkpatrick Sale interviewed by Jack Hunter and Dylan Hales

States’ Rights and the Left by Jack Hunter

A Lexicon of Conservative Bullshit by Dylan Hales

Is Capitalism Making Life Better? by Noam Chomsky (hat tip to Francois Tremblay)

Massive French Protests and Ontario Factory Occupation by Larry Gambone

Economics: The Abysmal Science by Thomas N. Naylor

Open Letter to the Antiwar Movement 

London PIGS Fear Insurrection at G-20 Meeting 

Conservatives In Name Only by Filmer

The Economy in Two Eras of Democrats by Sam Smith

Bedouin Villages Left in the Dark Ages by Jonathan Cook

Where Are We Leaving Iraqi Women? by Yifat Susskind

U.S. Human Rights Abuses in the War on Terror by Joanne Mariner

A Grand Bargain for the Culture Wars by TGGP

We’re Dropping Down an Economic Hole by Gerald Celente

The U.S. Dollar, R.I.P. by Peter Schiff

An Open Letter to Chuck Norris by Chuck Norris

The Big Takeover by Matt Taibbi

Warning from Bosnia for Iraq by Ivan Eland

Iran: A Way Forward by Philip Giraldi

Obama’s New Message to Iran  by Glenn Greenwald

Obama and the Neocon Middle East Agenda by Stephen Sniegoski

Negotiate with the Taliban, Free John Walker Lindh by Kelley Vlahos

Why It Matters That the Army Was on the Streets of Samson, Alabama by J.D. Tuccille

Chuck Norris: Revolutionary? 

Cops Cause Crime by Francois Tremblay

Canning for the Revolution by Chris Lempa

Enemies of What State? by Kevin Carson

Institutionalized Sadism by Rad Geek

Annual Anti-Police March in Montreal 

On the Edge of the Volcano by Alexander Cockburn

When Things Fall Apart by Paul Craig Roberts

Slumdogs vs Billionaires by P. Sainath

Local Currencies by John Robb

Targeting Banksters? by John Robb

Quote of the Week:

“As an anarch, I am determined to go along with nothing, ultimately take nothing seriously-at least not nihilistically, but rather as a border guard in no man’s land, who sharpens his eyes and ears between the tides.”

                                                                                            -Ernst Junger

“My notion of the law as written is that it was conceived to catch every whore and make every mean man rich.”

                                                                                               -Norman Mailer

The Dangerous Movement for States’ Rights by Dylan Hales

Sarah the Populist? by Paul Gottfried

State of Revolution by Jack Hunter

What Happened to the War on Terror? by Jack Hunter

Going Weimar by Pat Buchanan

States, Not Washington, D.C., Need Our Attention by Chuck Baldwin

Attending Anarchist Events from Bay Area National Anarchists

New Australian National-Anarchist Video 

Are You a Domestic Terrorist? 

On Revolution and Counter-Revolution by Larry Gambone

Hollywood Always Loves the State from Out of Step

Off the PIGS!! 

Our Next Debacle by Harrison Bergeron 2

Obama’s Gang of Four by Thomas N. Naylor

Obama’s Team of Losers by Michael Donnelly

Denial and Evasion on Afghanistan by Norman Solomon

Cat-and-Mouse Off Hainan Island by William S. Lind

IDF Fired on Medics in Gaza 

Capitalism From the Standpoint of Its Victims by M. Shahid Alam

Israel’s Most Revolting Law by Uri Avnery

Bush the Teacher by Ralph Nader

The Rules of Engagement in Gaza: Fire on the Rescuers by Amira Hass

The Stark Facts About Violence Against Women by Elizabeth Schulte

The Intellectual Origins of “Militant Democracy” by Dain Fitzgerald

Terror Begins at Home by Philip Jenkins

The Attempt to Silence Walter Block by Tom DiLorenzo

A Fifteen-Year-Depression by Phil Davis

FDA Totalitarianism by Bill Sardi

The Case for Norman Mailer Conservatism a classic from Murray Rothbard, 1969

The Virtues of Patriarchy by Bob Higgs (as Aster begins to snivel and drivel in-between slurps, “Boo-hoo-hoo-hoo, I’m so oppressed, sniffle, sniffle, sob, sob, poor, poor me, boo-hoo-hoo”)

The American Empire: A Finale by Justin Raimondo

Tangled Webs by Philip Giraldi

The Long War Generals by Jeff Huber

Non-Interventionists Need Not  Apply by Michael Scheuer

NATO: Still Mission-Creeping at 60  by Alexander Cockburn

Obama Doesn’t Talk Like Bush, He Just Acts Like Him by Ted Rall

Russia: Big Threat or Paper Bear? by Eric Margolis

It’s Time to Let Go of NATO by Pat Buchanan

Politics, Jews and Israel by Razib Khan

Barney’s Bitches by Ilana Mercer

Thomas Woods interviewed by Richard Spencer 

Reefer Madness by Jack Hunter

War and the Neoconservative Mind by Jack Hunter

Containing Jihad by Mark Hackard

Old Right, New Beck? by Dylan Hales

Is the Bailout Plan Breeding a Greater Crisis? by Paul Craig Roberts

What the Drug Warriors Have Given Us by Sheldon Richman

Cost Plus Mark-Up and Mandatory Overhead by Kevin Carson

The Fallacy of Prevention From theConverted

What Games Are Conditions? by Francois Tremblay

London Protesters Threaten Bankers, Evoke Executions 

Obama’s Fall Guy  by Alexander Cockburn

How the Scam Works by Michael Hudson

The Insolence Abroad: A Defense of Iceland by Gregory A. Burris

The Broken Stone of Corporatism by Stephen Martin

The Mafia Without Moralizing by Kim Nicolini

Why Do We Need a Health Insurance Industry? by Dave Lindorff

The Big Con on Iraq by Gareth Porter

Billions More for Failed Banks by Dean Baker

Sexting: A First Amendment Challenge by David Rosen

Another System Atrocity 

The Portuguese National-Syndicalist Movement by Flavio Goncalves

The War on Drugs is Now the War on Guns by Mike Gaddy

Drug War Idiocy by Jacob Hornberger

The Threat of Hyper-Depression by Bob Murphy

How I Got In Trouble Walter Block interviewed by Lew Rockwell

How Do a Free People Lose Their Liberty? by Bob Higgs

Get a Van! You’ll Need a Back-Up Home by Joe Schembrie

Breaking with Israel by Justin Raimondo

The Nation Formerly Known As Yugoslavia by Justin Raimondo

Judge Terrified of Citizen (poor baby) by Paul Hein

I’m Tired of What My Country Has Become by Don Cooper

Traveling in China by Chris Clancy

The Truth About Guantanamo Lawrence Wilkerson interviewed by Scott Horton

Diplomacy in the Obama Administration Philip Giraldi interviewed by Scott Horton

The Facts About Iran’s Uranium Enrichment Program Muhammad Sahimi interviewed by Scott Horton

The “Rule of Law” Nuisance by Glenn Greenwald

Obama’s Afghan Quagmire Deepens by Simon Tisdall

A Terrorist-Producing Machine by Jacob Hornberger

China: Don’t Buy Government Bonds by Sheldon Richman

Afghanistan: Waiting for the “Exit Strategy” by Robert Dreyfuss

Lost History Hurts Obama’s Iran Bid by Robert Parry

The Global Impact of U.S. War on Terror, Part Two by Joanne Mariner

Debate Over Israel Lobby Clout Returns by Nathan Guttman

U.S. Spills Afghan War Into Pakistan by M K Bhadrakumar

Will Israel Be Brought to Book? by Seumas Milne

National-Anarchists in the Military

Hero of War Song from Rise Against

The Only Place Where Freedom Has Any Meaning by Jeremy Weiland

Dead Culture Walking by Brenda Walker

Bash Back: Solidarity with Cop Killers 

Pink and Black Attack: New Gay Anarchist Publication 

A Ban on Global Currency? by Red Phillips

Bush Administration Torturers to be Put on Trial by Harrison Bergeron 2

Too Big to Fail? by Arno J. Mayer

Quotes of the Week:

“I read the Social Democratic newspapers. I saw their disgusting attitude towards anything that bore even the slightest revolutionary character, and I realized that there could be no reconciliation between a revolutionary party and a party trying to earn a reputation for ‘moderation’ in the eyes of the government and the bourgeoisie.”

                                                                                 -Peter Kropotkin

States Rebellion Pending by Walter Williams

David Allan Coe: American Rebel by Will Forbis

“The FARC Think These Americans Are Pussies” by Christina Oxenberg

Tory Hacks Give Lip Service to Localism and Communitarianism by Sasha Issenberg (thanks Ean!)

911 Truths by Jack Hunter

On Loving to Hate the South by Paul Gottfried

Globomoney by Richard Spencer

Conspiracy Theories by Dylan Hales

Obama’s Attack on the Middle Class by Paul Craig Roberts

Is Notre Dame Still Catholic? by Pat Buchanan

Terror Begins At Home by Philip Jenkins

Neocon Obama Fans by Harrison Bergeron 2

Saint Wal-Mart? by Roderick Long

Patri Friedman on Seasteading (hat tip to Kevin Carson)

Open Source Health Care

Hollywood’s Democratic-Capitalist Self Censorship by Francois Tremblay

Which Politician Came Up With the Idea That Dying for Your Country is a Good Thing? by Sheldon Richman

They Really Give Nobel Prizes Away Like Candy These Days by Paul Krugman

R.I.P. Burt Blumert (1929-2009) by Wally Conger

Sheldon Richman on Arkansas Public TV 

Libertarian Essays by Roy Halliday 

All Hail Tax Resistance! from The Picket Line

Lessons from the Gulag Archepelago from The Picket Line

Virginia: Human Rights Abuses at Red Onion Supermax Prison 

UK: Protests Against Capitalism and the G20 

More Reasons To Be Against Happiness by TGGP

Early Mormon Cooperative Economics (thanks Chris!)

Barack of Kabul by Eric Margolis

Explaining the Boom and the Bust by Bob Murphy

Newsweek Actually Tells the Truth for Once? by Glenn Greenwald

End the War on Drugs by Ron Paul

We’re On the Edge of the Abyss by Peter Schiff

Burt Blumert: Liberty’s Benefactors by Lew Rockwell

Here Come the Food Police by Vin Suprynowicz

Fiat Money and Inflation by Chris Clancy

Civil War by Bill Bonner

The Obamamites Go to War by Justin Raimondo

To Reduce Violence, End the Drug War by Justin Raimondo

Stop Arming Israel by Philip Giraldi

Yes, We Have No Bananastan by Jeff Huber

Another Lost War? by William S. Lind

U.S. Cries Wolf Over China? by David Isenberg

National Anarchist-Syndicalist Union 

Leftism 101 by Lawrence Jarach

Prospects for Global Depression and Unrest by John Robb

Oppose Internet Censorship from National-Anarchists Australia/New Zealand

A New Global Debt Crisis by Nicholas Dearden

The Obama Betrayal by Dave Lindorff

“We’ll Make You See Death” by Joanne Mariner

Obama’s Pakistan Gambit by Ron Jacobs

Economic Inequality: The Foundation of the Racial Divide? by Dedrick Muhammad

What Next in Afghanistan? by Patrick Cockburn

Where’s All the Money Coming From? by Ralph Nader

Obama Bombs by Ray McGovern

Syria Calling by Seymour Hersh

The New Far Right Philo-Semitism 

Is Angelina Jolie Bad for Africa? 

“I’m Having a Very Good Crisis,” says George Soros 

The New American Interviews Antiwar.Com’s Eric Garris Part I Part II

What Is the State? by Lew Rockwell

Civil Unrest, Ghost Malls and Another American Revolution Interview with Gerald Celente

The Role of Government in a Free Society Lecture by Walter Williams

Asshole PIG Resigns 

Minneapolis PIGS Plant Gun on Teen After Murdering Him 

Mexico Has a U.S. Problem, Not a Drug Problem by Fred Reed

Blessed Are the Warmakers? Laurence Vance interviewed by Lew Rockwell

Neocon Victimology by Glenn Greenwald

Why Do PIGS Kills Dogs? by J.D. Tuccille

Guns, Gold, Secession by Karen De Coster

New World Disorder by Gary North

Dead Banks Walking by Lila Rajiva

The Scam of Political Representation by Gerard Casey

The Outlook for the Dollar Peter Schiff interviewed by Eli Neusner

Collapse: The Dollar’s Destination by Mike Rozeff

It’s All A Conspiracy! by Richard Spencer, Dylan Hales and Jack Hunter

Catholics and the Left John Zmirak interviewed by Richard Spencer

The Green Revolution Saved Lives? by Kevin Carson

The New Proudhon Library from Shawn Wilbur

John Taylor Gatto: State-Controlled Consciousness from Francois Tremblay

Tax Day Protests Planned from The Picket Line

Sheldon Richman on the Financial Crisis from Social Memory Complex

Affluenza and the Economic Meltdown of America by Thomas N. Naylor

Will There Be Anarchy After the 1930s? 

Modesto Citizens Retaliate Against PIGS 

Carter Conservatism by Sean Scallon

Obama and the Ruling Class  by David Macaray

Assassination Attempt Against St. Louis Green Party Leader by Don Fitz

Surging Further Into the Afghan Abyss by Chris Floyd

Dershowitz Encounters a Worrying Future by Michael Scheuer

Mandatory National Service on the Way? James Bovard interviewed by Scott Horton

The Truth About Guantanamo Lawrence Wilkerson interviewed by Scott Horton

Repeating Vietnam War Errors in Afghanistan by Matt Steinglass

How Do We Save NATO? We Quit by Andrew Bacevich

Fake Faith and Epic Crimes by John Pilger

The Greatest Blunder in British History by Laurence Vance

New Issue of Black Oak Presents by Michael Kleen (thanks Flavio!)

Is India Headed for Hyperinflation? by Subroto Roy (thanks Peter!)

Fucking Retards (thanks Ean!)

The Forest for the Trees by Ean Frick

An Introduction to Carl Schmitt by Gary Ulmen

National Lampoon by Austin Bramwell

How I Became a Domestic Terrorist by Ilana Mercer

Let’s Play Pretend by Peter Schiff

The Real Federal Deficit  by Tim Worstall

On the Justice of Clearing Ward Churchill by Dylan Hales

Being Honest About Abe by Jack Hunter

Should We Kill the Fed? by Pat Buchanan

Homesteading Detroit: On Urban Farming by No Third Solution

An Exercise to Clear Your Mind by Francois Tremblay

Bring on the Summer of Rage! by Charlie Brooker

Defining Terms by Thomas Fleming (thanks Chris!)

Republic Magazine: Issue # 14 (thanks Flavio!)

But in Anarchy, Who Would Make the Roads? (thanks Peter!)

Coming to a Town Near You, the BANA Newstand! 

An Interview with Noam Chomsky 

Solidarity with the Students: An Open Letter from Greek Soldiers 

Veganarchists on the London Insurrection 

PIGS/Protestors Clash in Paris 

From Twin Towers to Twin Camelots by Alexander Cockburn

Homeless in Tent City, USA by Kathy Sanborn

Girding for a Depression by Morici

The War on Drugs is a War on You by Michael Boldin

Biden, Nixon and Latin America by Saul Landau

Nuclear Power Plants: Fooling with Disaster? by Sue Sturgis

Was Gaza Israel’s Waterloo? by John Goekler

The Federal Railroading of Victoria Sprouse by William Anderson and Candice Jackson

Death to D.A.R.E. by William Norman Grigg

The Humanitarian with the Printing Press by Anthony Gregory

The PIGS Are Out to Get You by Brian Cohoon

Marijuana Reduces Tumors 

Christianity is Not a Neocon Death Cult by Tom Woods

Small Town Anarchy by J.L. Bryan (thanks Folk n’ Faith!)

There Will Be Hyper Inflation  by Thorstein Polleit

The Fair Tax is a Scam by Laurence Vance

The Goldberg Syndrome by Justin Raimondo

How to Combat Mexican Drug Cartels by Ivan Eland

Obama’s Neoliberals: Selling His Afghan War by Jeremy Scahill

An Ominous Parallel by Jacob Hornberger

Obstruction of Justice by Chris Hedges

Quote of the Week:

“The categories of ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ are paradigmatically modernist. It is not an accident that they date back to the French Revolution, and that they fade with the decline of modernity. In the early 19th century, the distinction referred primarily to the relation to the French Revolution, with the Right defending the status quo ante, and the Left the new bourgeois regime. Later, after it became clear that there was no way to restore the ancien régime, the categories came to characterize the split between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. But, even that became obsolete with the development of social democracy and the integration of the labor movement into the system at the turn of the century. Subsequently the Bolshevik Revolution introduced a seven-decades-long distortion, which only now is beginning to disappear, whereby Left and Right were identified with political regimes based respectively on capitalism and socialism. The capitalist turn in Communist China and the predominance of social democracy in the capitalist West indicate the extent to which the reduction of politics to economics presupposed by the distinction was a Cold War fraud. Consequently, after 1989, the distinction has become increasingly blurred; it lingers on by default, pending the development of better alternatives and of a political climate that will make it possible to recast the political in terms other than those deployed by the ruling elites.

In other words, how to reconfigure the political is itself a political issue, whose outcome is a function of political struggle. Today, the Left/Right split remains an ideological smokescreen concealing the real distinction: between neo-liberals (as well as neo-conservatives) and communitarians.

The former are committed to ever-growing state intervention, bureaucratic rationality, and the bourgeois values of abstract individuality, formal equality, social justice, representative liberal democracy, and unrestricted inclusiveness. This is the ideology of the therapeutic New Class, camouflaging its axiological particularity as universal truth, proceduralizing politics, and privatizing morality. The hypostatizing of bourgeois values to universal truths warranting their imposition on dissidents, now degraded from political opponents to pathological or criminal cases, is part of that general process of depoliticization entailed by the liberal project from its very beginning: the reduction of politics to administration.

The latter (communitarians) insist on insist on local autonomy, direct democracy, cultural particularity, and traditional values of solidarity, belonging, and the identity of politics and morality. Opponents are neither pathologized or criminalized, but classified as ‘enemy’ or ‘friend’ and treated accordingly (within various kinds of confederal, federal, or international agreements) or ostracized, confronted, and, in extreme cases, forcibly coerced.”

                                                                                          -Gary Ulmen

The Forest for the Trees by Ean Frick

The Neocon Credo by Dan McCarthy

The Marcuse Factor  by Paul Gottfried

In Search of Anti-Semitism by Paul Gottfried

The Mondragon Cooperatives: All in This Together from the Economist (thanks Brady!)

Taking Communism Away from the Communists: The Origins of Modern Liberalism by Fred Siegel

Liberals and Conservatives: Relics of the Past by Thomas Naylor

Global Currency: One Step Closer by Evans Ambrose-Pritchard

Progressive Warmongers by Justin Raimondo

The Two Faces of Barack Obama by Justin Raimondo

National Security: The Last Refuge of Scoundrels by Kevin Carson

Let a Thousand Nations Bloom by Patri Friedman

America’s Imperial Wars: Why We Need to See the Horrors by David Lindorff

America’s Friends: The Kkmer Rouge 

The Suicide of the West by Justin Raimondo

Left and Right Against the Military-Industrial Complex by Jon Basil Utley

Iraq Disaster Still a Mystery to Some by Alan Bock

Beware the Cult of Obama by Gene Healy

Cowardice in the Time of Torture by Ray McGovern

Ten Ways the U.S. Is Turning Afghanistan Into Iraq by Juan Cole

Obama Threatens North Korea Over Launch 

New and Worse Secrecy and Immunity Claims by Glenn Greenwald

No Excuses for Ongoing Concealment of Torture Memos by Glenn Greenwald

What About the Other Missing War Photos? by Greg Mitchell

Obama’s Flawed Nuclear Free Vision by John Nichols

A Missile Launch for Dummies by Donald Kirk

Let’s Hope Obama Keeps His Cool Toward N. Korea by John Gittings

North Korean Rocket Stirs Hawks by Katrina Vanden Heuval

March Madness, 1939 by Pat Buchanan

How Freedom Was Lost by Paul Craig Roberts

The Function of Political Ideologies by Larry Gambone

A Different Approach to Socialism by Jeremy Weiland

The Postmodern Alliance by Mark Hackard

Korean Straits  by Richard Spencer

2.7 Million People Demonstrate in Italy 

The IMF Rules the World by Michael Hudson

Prison Talk 

The Democrats and the Afghan War by Normon Solomon

Newt’s Foreign Policy Fantasies by Jack Hunter

Gangsta Gifts by Ilana Mercer

Screwing the Country by Jack Hunter

Americans Don’t Need New Cars by Richard Spencer

Riots and Intrigue in Eurasian by Mark Hackard

Kooks and Blue State Republicans by Robert Stacy McCain

White Europeans: An Endangered Species? from Yale Daily News

More Cultural Enrichment? by Thomas Fleming

Democrats for Plutocrats by Roderick Long

Against Privateering by Rad Geek

Fun With Totalitarianism by Roderick Long

Priority Number One for the PIGS by Rad Geek

Obama Expands Bush’s Wiretapping Program by Harrison Bergeron 2

The Decade of Darkness by Mike Whitney

What Would It Take to Mend Fences with Islam? by Patrick Cockburn

Israel’s Master Plan for Transfer by Ellen Cantarow

Obama and Israel’s Threat to Strike Iran by Gareth Porter and Jim Lobe

Obama’s Bloated Military Budget by Jeremy Scahill

Escaping the Drug War Quagmire by Kevin Zeese

Prosecuting the Bush Torture Team: Spain Leads the Way by Marjorie Cohn

Secession-One Year Later by Bill Buppert

Be in Charge of Your Own Health Care by David McKalip M.D.

After Torture, Resurrection by Ray McGovern

America’s Drug War Is Destroying Mexico Guy Lawson interviewed by Scott Horton

Goodbye, Bill of Rights by Philip Giraldi

The Ballad of John Singer by William Norman Grigg

Why Europe Won’t Fight by Pat Buchanan

The Wise Man of Liberty by Justin Raimondo

Common Sense Bye-Bye by Peter Schiff

The Radical Right by Jack Hunter

Good News: $PLC Loses $50 Million by Patrick Cleburne

Wilhelm Ropke’s Swiss Front Porch by Allan Carlson

Cash Strapped Communities Are Printing Their Own Money by Marisol Bello

G.K. Gets Real by Patrick Deneen

Chavez in China Touts “New World Order” 

Squatters Resist Foreclosures 

Student Revolt in NYC 

Resurrection and Revenge by Alexander Cockburn

How the Media Bought the Surge by Saul Landau

Obama’s Afghanistan Plan and India-Pakistan Relations by M. Reza Pirbhai

The Ideology of Barack Obama by William Blum

Obama’s Crossover Dribble on Marijuana by Fred Gardner

Don’t Believe Barack by Lew Rockwell

My Censored Reply to the Sheriff by William Anderson

Nullification: Its Time Has Come Again by Clyde Wilson

Barack Obama: Torture Enabler by Ted Rall

Fujimori’s Lesson for Bush by Jacob Hornberger

Liberals Line Up with Militarism by Chris Floyd

Essential Skills for the Post-Apocalyptic World 

China’s Threat to the U.S. is Exaggerated by Ivan Eland

Obama Worse Than Bush on State Secrets Glenn Greenwald interviewed by Ivan Eland

Why Big Government Always Wins by Harrison Bergeron 2

A People Apart? Paul Gottfried interviewed by Richard Spencer

The Union Makes Us Weak by William Gillis

The German Anarchist Movement in NYC: 1880-1914

by Peter Bjorn Perls