Month: April 2012

Human Rights: The Useless Fiction

Article by Paul Gottfried. I watched a Pennsylvania GOP gubernatorial candidate bring an evangelical crowd to their feet three years ago by announcing that “Owning a gun is a human right.” I mumbled to myself: “So is protection from body odor.” It’s not that I’m against people owning […]

The Derb is the Word…or is He?

From MRDA’s Inferno. Who would’ve thought such a mild-mannered, bourgeois Englishman could ignite such a fibre-optic firestorm? A few weekends back, all right-thinking Left-leaners united for a hyperextended Two Minutes Hate session against one John Derbyshire, a Brit expat and paleocon pundit who occupies a comfy niche amongst […]

Free the Market, Abolish the Wage System

Article by Kevin Carson. Several weeks ago, Julian Sanchez announced his intent to leave the Cato Institute if the Koch brothers’ attempted takeover was successful. Corey Robin seized the opportunity to chide libertarians for our alleged inconsistency on the job culture (“When Libertarians Go to Work,” March 7). Sanchez […]

We’re All Branch Davidians Now

Article by Anthony Gregory. Nineteen years ago, just outside Waco, Texas, the FBI demonstrated once again that the state at its core is a killing machine. Monarchy, democracy, or republic – any government as conventionally defined is a legal monopoly on violence. The state is always inclined toward […]

R.I.P. Jonathan Bowden

Troy Southgate just announced that Jonathan Bowden has passed away at the age of 49. His keen intellect and penetrating criticisms of established paradigms will certainly be missed. Listen to his lecture on Marxism and the Frankfurt School here.

Happy Birthday, Tom Szasz!

From Free Association. Today is Tom Szasz’s 92 birthday. I hope he’s having a great day with his family. Remarkably, Tom continues to publish a book a year. His awesome work is recommended to anyone who loves liberty. It’s a mistake to think his work is fundamentally about […]

The Rhetoric and Reality of “Reform”

Article by David D’Amato. Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer, once in headlines over a prostitution scandal, is in the news again. President Obama, Spitzer says, talks tough on Wall Street, yet shrinks from attempts at real reform. Spitzer adds that, with this president, “you have to distinguish between […]

Beware of System Libertarians

Article by John Glaser. I knew what Johnson was about years ago when as governor of New Mexico he said he opposed the drug war but refused to grant pardons to drug war prisoners because “they broke the law” or some such nonsense. ————————————————————————————————————————————————– In an interview with the […]

Mixing and Matching

Article by Thomas Sowell. ————————————————————————————————————————————————- Apparently the soaring national debt and the threat of a nuclear Iran are not enough to occupy the government’s time, because the Obama administration is pushing to force Westchester County, N.Y., to create more low-income housing, in order to mix and match classes […]

That Old Romanov Feeling

Article by William S. Lind. Required reading. ————————————————————————————————————————————————— n 1914 the Houses of Hapsburg and Romanov sat transfixed, mesmerized by the central question: which would win this latest round in their old quarrel? But the paradigm had changed and both would lose, while the winners would be a […]

The Nature of Empire

Article by Kevin Carson. ———————————————————————————————————————————————— Multitude, by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, adds enormous clarity to the libertarian worldview. The Westphalian nation-state’s sovereignty rested on its sole right to define the legitimacy of both use of violence within its boundaries and the exercise of violence against other nation-states. […]

Lone Star State Of Mind: Could Texas Go It Alone?

From NPR. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————- Steve Dunwell/Getty ImagesLone Star Nation: Today, the Texas capitol flies both the American and Texas flags, but after independence the Lone Star flag would fly on its own. March 30, 2012 It’s a popular idea in Texas that the Lone Star State — once an independent […]

A fog of drugs and war

From the Los Angeles Times. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————- Patrick Burke with his wife, Elise, and their son, Jackson. In a drunk driving and auto theft case last year, the Air Force pilot was found not guilty “by reason of lack of mental responsibility” — a result of the prescription drugs […]

Media Dishonesty and Race Hustlers

Article by Walter Williams. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————— When NBC’s “Today” show played the audio of George Zimmerman’s call to a Sanford, Fla., police dispatcher about Trayvon Martin, the editors made him appear to be a racist who says: “This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.” […]

The Social Justice of a Police State

From Liberale et libertaire. —————————————————————————————————————————————————— Fareed Zakaria recently published a piece, Incarceration Nation, that points out there are now more people under ‘correctional supervision’ in America – more than 6 million – than were in the Soviet Gulag Archipelago at its height. The imprisonment rate in the US is […]

United States of Mass Murder: Only Mao Killed More

Why the struggle against the empire must be foremost on the agenda of any anarchist movement worthy of the name. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————– After the catastrophic attacks of September 11 2001 monumental sorrow and a feeling of desperate and understandable anger began to permeate the American psyche. A few people […]

The Ascendence of Sociopaths in US Governance

By Doug Casey. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————– An International Man lives and does business wherever he finds conditions most advantageous, regardless of arbitrary borders. He’s diversified globally, with passports from multiple countries, assets in several jurisdictions and his residence in yet another. He doesn’t depend absolutely on any country and regards […]

19 Signs Of Very Serious Economic Trouble On The Horizon

From the Economic Collapse. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————– Most Americans have no idea how much economic trouble is heading our way.  Most of them just assume that everything will eventually “return to normal” just like it always has before and that those running our economy “know what they are doing” and […]

National Review fires columnist accused of racism

Derb and the neocons part ways. ———————————————————————————————————————————————————- The National Review has fired columnist John Derbyshire over a web posting in which he wrote that black people are hostile to whites and that white people should stay out of black neighborhoods and away from black crowds. The magazine on Saturday night disavowed Derbyshire’s “nasty and […]

Owe The IRS? Bill Would Suspend Passport Rights For Delinquent Taxpayers

From CBS Los Angeles. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————— A bill authored by a Southland lawmaker that could potentially allow the federal government to prevent any Americans who owe back taxes from traveling outside the U.S. is one step closer to becoming law. Senate Bill 1813 was introduced back in November by Senator […]

DHS Purchases Bullet Resistant Checkpoint Booths Amid Large Scale Ammo Buildup

From Blacklisted News. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————- Source: The Intel Hub The Department of Homeland Security has made news in the past few weeks with the revelations that they have purchased up to 650 million rounds of .40 caliber hollow point ammunition. Now, despite ignoring requests as to why they need that […]

The Earth is full

From CNN. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————– Editor’s note: Paul Gilding, author of “The Great Disruption,” is an advocate and adviser to nongovernmental organizations and businesses and the former chief executive of Greenpeace. He spoke at the TED2012 conference in February. TED is a nonprofit dedicated to “Ideas worth spreading” which it makes […]

Attack the System: Modern European Intellectual History and the Origins of the Left and Right

Listen to the podcast. ———————————————————————————————— March 29, 2012 Keith Preston discusses how the development of modern European intellectual life shaped the political concepts of Left and Right. Topics include: The Enlightenment as the third major phase in European intellectual history following the classical Greco-Roman period and the medieval […]

The Socialist v. The Social Darwinist

Article by Pat Buchanan. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————– The night of his victories in Maryland, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, Mitt Romney laid out the ground upon which he will stand to fight his fall battle with Barack Obama. Obama, said Mitt, seeks “a government-centered society.” But Mitt would restore […]

An Open Letter to Ron Paul

By Justin Raimondo. ————— Dear Ron, A lot of my readers are big fans of yours: on those rare but pungent occasions when I have criticized you, I’ve gotten lots of “blowback” in the comments section and in emails sent directly to my inbox. Whenever I praised you, […]

Weekend News Digest

ACLU: Most police track phones’ locations without warrants. Minnesota Waitress Sues After Police Seize $12,000 ‘Tip’ Shock Docs: Total Federalization of Police Under New Homeland Security Mission Balochistan in The Economist Ex-New Orleans cops get prison time in Danziger Bridge shootings. “Get Read to Strip for Unpaid Traffic […]

Rick Santorum, I Hate Your Face

Article by Jim Goad. “For me, politics isn’t so much about what sort of society I want to live in as much as what sort of people I want to avoid. I consider myself a misanthropic individualist.” —————————————————————————————————————————————————- Rick Santorum has been the Republican primary season’s Surprise Moral […]

Drug Lord Thanks Obama, Both Bushes, And Reagan For War On Drugs: “I Owe My Whole Empire To You”

Watch the video. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————- Top billionaire Mexican drug lord (ranks #701 on Forbes list of the world’s richest people) “bitch slaps five American presidents” by saying “I couldn’t have gotten so stinking rich without George Bush, George Bush, Jr., Ronald Regan and even El Presidente Obama, none of […]

Ron Paul as a prototype for anarchists

I think the Ron Paul movement is evidence of what actually works. He’s obviously the best thing the mainstream libertarians have yet to achieve and that’s because he focuses on issues that affect everyone and that lots of different kinds of people are interested in. He has a […]

Chomsky: We Shouldn't Ridicule Tea Party Protesters

Listen to the audio. —————————————————————————————————————————————————- Noam Chomsky interviewed 2 Dec 2009 by Allison Kilkenny & Jamie Kilstein of Citizen Radio, http://wearecitizenradio.com Listen to the full interview: http://www.breakthruradio.com/index.php?show=8652 Here is the BusinessWeek article that Chomsky mentions: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_48/b4157034230199.htm For some reason, the online version of the article has a different title (“Wall […]

Proudhon and Hayek on Spontaneous Order

Watch the video. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————- Books Referenced: Solution of the Social Problem. General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century. Principle of Federation. The Fatal Conceit.

"Who Were the Anarchists?" Part 1 (Pierre-Joseph Proudhon)

Watch the video. —————————————————————————————————————————————————– Intro and Outro themes: http://www.youtube.com/user/Grindermetalhead Relevant books: “Marx, Proudhon and European Socialism” – by J.Hampden Jackson “Demanding the Impossible, A History of Anarchism” – by Peter Marshall “What is Property? An Inquiry into the Principle of Right and of Government” – by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Blog […]

Feeding The Homeless BANNED In Major Cities All Over America

From The Economic Collapse. —————————————————————————————————————————————————— What would you do if you came across someone on the street who had not had anything to eat for several days? Would you give that person some food? Well, the next time you get that impulse you might want to check if […]

Empires Then and Now

By Paul Craig Roberts. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————– Great empires, such as the Roman and British, were extractive. The empires succeeded, because the value of the resources and wealth extracted from conquered lands exceeded the value of conquest and governance. The reason Rome did not extend its empire east into Germany […]