Author: R.J. Jacob

All Posts by R.J. Jacob

The Legacy of the New Left: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 1

Attack the System radio show

Keith Preston offers a critical evaluation of the movement that shaped the cultural life of contemporary Western societies. Topics include:

The intellectual and political origins of the New Left as a “fourth way” movement beyond capitalism, fascism, and communism.

The convergence of social forces during the 1960s that made the growth of the New Left possible.

The success of the New Left at carrying out a comprehensive cultural revolution in Western civilization.

The failure of the New Left at opposing American imperialism, challenging the hegemony of plutocratic capitalism, and preventing the subsequent growth of police state repression.

More…

All Nations Party: Interview with Ryan Faulk 4

Attack the System radio show

Keith Preston interviews returning guest Ryan Faulk.

Topics include:

Ryan’s latest project, the All Nations Party, a proposed political meta-party devoted to pan-secessionism.

How such a party might be composed of sub-parties devoted to specific regional, ideological, or identitarian interests and how these might break down into constituent sub-interests of their own.

How cultural conflict prevents the growth of effective opposition to the political class.
More…

fightthestate

Walls Must Be Felled Reply

by Mark Dyal

Counter-Currents is set to publish part three of my continuing examination of Deleuze and Guattari’s potential to influence what I am now calling the revolutionary Right, including More…

More People Have Access To Cellphones Than Toilets Reply

Economics/Class Relations, Science and Technology, WTF!?

news.yahoo.com
Eric Pfeiffer, Yahoo! News

A new United Nations study has found that more people around the world have access to a cellphone than to a working toilet.

The study’s numbers claim that of the world’s estimated 7 billion people, 6 billion have access to mobile phones. However, only 4.5 billion have access to a toilet.

At a press conference announcing the report, U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson announced the organization is launching an effort to halve the number of those without access by the end of 2015. More…

Kevin Carson on Authority: A Reply Reply

Anarchism/Anti-State

libertarianalliance
DAVID McDONAGH

Authority is a sort of personal trust that we have for someone, say, our doctor. If we say he is a good doctor then we express that he has authority with us. Hobbes realised that the state was based on such authority. Locke later called it tacit consent and David Hume said that it was based on opinion. But the Beatles had authority with many teenagers in the 1960s.  Authority is like that. It is what we think is good about people or institutions, it mainly consists in what we value highly.

An anarchist is an individual who rejects the state’s authority within his own value system, but that hardly alters the fact that others are not with him there, so the anarchist can still see that the state is upheld by the authority it has with many others; maybe most others. So the state has power over him owing to the support for the state from other people, even though the lone anarchist has contempt for the state. More…

Is Anarchism Socialist or Capitalist? Reply

Anarchism/Anti-State

reason.com

A new defense of libertarian anarchism makes the case that the philosophy belongs on the left.

from the April 2013 issue

Anarchy and Legal Order: Law and Politics for a Stateless Society, by Gary Chartier, Cambridge University Press, 416 pages, $115

If a just society is one rooted in peaceful, voluntary cooperation, and the state aggressively precludes and preempts this kind of cooperation, then the just society must be a stateless society. Philosopher and legal scholar Gary Chartier presents this argument on the first page of Anarchy and Legal Order, and the remainder is largely a defense of that bold claim. More…

See No Evil: The Case of Alfred Anaya Reply

Law/Justice, WTF!?

wired.com
Brendan I. Koerner

Alfred Anaya was a genius at installing secret compartments in cars. If they were used to smuggle drugs without his knowledge, he figured that wasn’t his problem. He was wrong.
Illustration: Paul Pope

Alfred Anaya took pride in his generous service guarantee. Though his stereo installation business, Valley Custom Audio Fanatics, was just a one-man operation based out of his San Fernando, California, home, he offered all of his clients a lifetime warranty: If there was ever any problem with his handiwork, he would fix it for the cost of parts alone—no questions asked. More…

The real history of psychiatry 1

Therapeutic State

naturalnews.com
Dr. Peter Breggin

psychiatry

There have been recent calls for a national Mental Health Registry, and then additional calls to link such a registry to gun licensing. In the dreadful wake of Newtown, both the left and the right and the current US federal administration are demanding that we tighten mental health statutes to make it easier and even mandatory for health care providers including psychiatrists and psychotherapists to incarcerate people on suspicion of perpetrating violence. More…

75% of a human skull replaced with 3D-printed material Reply

Transhumanism

extremetech.com
Grant Brunner

Skulls

3D printing has really come into its own in the last year or so. From guns to cars, many researchers are now focused on using 3D printing to improve and tweak existing technology. We’ve been able to aid the body’s own repair of damaged bones for a relatively long time, but now we’re ready to use 3D printing to completely replace damaged bone. Now, 75% of a patient’s skull has been successfully replaced with 3D-printed material, and this is just the beginning. More…

New North Korea video shows White House under attack Reply

WTF!?

Agence France-Presse via rawstory.com

North Korea has produced another video showing the United States under attack, this time with the White House and the US Capitol literally in the crosshairs.

The four-minute video titled “Firestorms will rain on the Headquarters of War” (http://y2u.be/DyapeCiOl9A) was posted Monday on the YouTube channel of the North’s official website, Uriminzokkiri, which distributes news and propaganda from the state media. More…

Autonomous Cars Patrol Israeli Border Reply

Military, Science and Technology

technewsdaily.com
Douglas Main


The Guardium MK I, one of the autonomous vehicles made by the Israeli company G-NIUS.
CREDIT: G-NIUS

Introduced in 2008, about eight to 10 autonomous cars have been patrolling Israeli borders, said Hugo Guterman, a researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Guterman helped develop the computer system that controls the cars, although the research was funded by Israel’s Ministry of Defense, and a company named G-NIUS produces the cars. More…

Thousands Line Up Outside Cal Expo Gun Show To Buy Ammunition Reply

Culture Wars/Current Controversies, Police State/Civil Liberties

CBS Sacramento

Thousands of people lined up for hours outside Cal Expo to buy ammunition. The line wrapped around the building for the first day of the two-day gun show.

You’ve heard the early bird gets the worm. At the Crossroads of the West gun show it couldn’t be truer.

“We got here at 5:45 a.m.,” said one person. “We were 64th and it took us 3.5 hours.

“”This is for my rifle,” said an attendee. More…

California Bill Would Ban Smoking in Apartments, Condos Reply

Political Correctness/Totalitarian Humanism

Laird Harrison
KQED

It’s move-in day. You’re sitting in the great new condo you just bought. And suddenly you catch a whiff of cigarettes coming from next door. If you’re a healthy-living type, your home-buyer happiness may be gone in a puff of smoke.

Now California Assemblyman Mark Levine, D-Marin, is trying to address that problem with a statewide ban on smoking in multiunit housing. More…

Pit Bull Insurance Law Would Require Owners To Purchase Policies For Dangerous Dogs 1

WTF!?

inquisitr.com

Pit Bull Insurance Law Would Require Owners To Purchase Policies For Dangerous Dogs

A pit bull insurance law proposed in Tennessee would require owners of the controversial dogs to purchase a $25,000 policy for liability against possible attacks.

The proposal has brought controversy among those who work with and own pit bulls. Wendy Jackson, founder of East Tennessee Pit Bull Rescue, said pit bulls are given an unfair reputation and don’t deserve to be targeted.

Much of the problem comes from the owners, Jackson said. Pit bulls tend to attract abusive owners drawn to the “thug mentality” and image, she said. More…

Virginia government prosecutes homeowner with criminal charges for backyard chickens Reply

Police State/Civil Liberties

naturalnews.com
Summer Tierney

(NaturalNews) An ongoing debate over the rights of homeowners to raise and keep their own chickens may soon gain an audience in the Virgina Supreme Court. Attorneys at the Rutherford Institute have filed a Petition for Appeal on behalf of Virginia Beach resident Tracy Gugal-Okroy, who faces criminal charges related to zoning ordinance violations for keeping chickens in her backyard. The organization, a nationally active group which is dedicated to upholding constitutional and property rights, is urging the court to protect local residents against what it referred to in a statement posted online as “onerous regulations that render otherwise law-abiding individuals as criminals simply for attempting to grow or raise their own food in a sustainable manner.” More…

Rand Paul wins The Washington Times-CPAC 2013 Straw Poll Reply

Electoralism/Democratism

washingtontimes.com
Stephen Dinan and David Sherfinski

Sen. Rand Paul won the 2013 Washington Times-CPAC presidential preference straw poll this past weekend with Sen. Marco Rubio coming in a close second, easily outdistancing the rest of the field and signaling the rise of a new generation of conservative leaders.

Mr. Paul won 25 percent of the vote and Mr. Rubio collected 23 percent at the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering that takes the temperature of conservative grass-roots leaders. More…

3D-printed ‘magic arms’ give little girl new reach Reply

Transhumanism

news.cnet.com
Leslie Katz

Emma drawing

While Emma can stand and walk on her own, she lacks the upper-body strength to do things like lift objects and draw.

(Credit: Video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET)

Thanks to 3D-printed plastic appendages, 4.5-year-old Emma Lavelle now plays with blocks.

Born with a rare neuromuscular condition called Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita that causes contracted joints and muscle weakness, Emma has almost nonexistent biceps that cannot move against gravity. Her “magic arms,” as she has dubbed them, change that. More…

Brain-computer interfaces let you move things with a thought 1

Transhumanism

slate.com
Will Oremus

A man wears a brain-machine interface, equipped with electroencephalography (EEG) devices and near-infrared spectroscope (NIRS) optical sensors in a special headgear to measure slight electrical current and blood flow change occuring in the brain.
A man wears a brain-machine interface, equipped with electroencephalographyPhoto by Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images

Behind a locked door in a white-walled basement in a research building in Tempe, Ariz., a monkey sits stone-still in a chair, eyes locked on a computer screen. From his head protrudes a bundle of wires; from his mouth, a copper tube.* As he stares, a picture of a green cursor on the black screen floats toward the corner of a cube. The monkey is moving it with his mind. More…