Speaking of Liberty

From the back of the book:

"The longtime emphasis of the old liberal tradition with regard to war is this: even the victor loses. We lose resources. We lose tax dollars. We lose trading relationships and goodwill around the world. Most of all, we lose freedom. And herein lies the biggest cost of war to us, for there is no way that the US can maintain a free market that is the foundation of prosperity while at the same time attempting to create a global military central plan. Big government abroad is incompatible with small government at home. To the extent we cheer war, we are cheering domestic socialism and our eventual destruction as a civilization." Lew Rockwell

BIG GOVERNMENT ABROAD IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH SMALL GOVERNMENT AT HOME. Sorry I just had to repeat that b/c it's so important. War is almost always just another big government project. Once people who believe in smaller government realize this, hopefully they will stop supporting the people who make government bigger and bigger.

Communist Manifesto

It's important to know what we are up against. Here are the 10 planks of the Communist Manifesto in case you've never seen it before.

1. Abolition of private property
2. Heavy progressive income tax
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance
4. Confiscation of property of all emigrants and rebels
5. Central bank
6. Government control of communication and transportation
7. Government ownership of factories and agriculture
8. Government control of labor
9. Corporate farms, regional planning
10. Government control of education

Hopefully you don't agree with any of this. If so you may be a free-market capitalist and not even know it.

Quotes

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson

"Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice and moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue." Thomas Jefferson

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Ben Franklin

"Once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroachments." Ludwig von Mises.

"It (education) is favourable to liberty. Freedom can only exist in the society of knowledge. Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can neither be equal nor universal." Dr. Benjamin Rush

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, followed always by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years." Alexander Fraser Tytler

"Americans used to roar like lions for liberty. Now we bleat like sheep for security." Norman Vincent Peale

Collateral Damage = Murder

Just because you didn't intentionally kill someone doesn't make that person any less dead.

Collateral Damage by Michael Tennant is the best article I've read on LewRockwell.com in a long time. Check it out when you get chance, you won't be disappointed.

From the article:
"As history -– and very recent history at that - demonstrates, however, once you grant government the power to inflict harm on one group of people, it soon uses that power against other groups, often including those who supported the power grab in the first place. Grant Uncle Sam the power to imprison foreigners indefinitely without access to lawyers and courts (as long as those being held are designated as "terrorists," of course), and he'’ll soon be locking up Americans and throwing away the key as well. Ask Jose Padilla."

Paul vs. Greenspan

Some interesting questions posed by Dr. Ron Paul and some interesting answers from Alan Greenspan.

Summer Trip to Texas

This is an interesting article from Karen Kwiatkowski about her summer vacation.

Departing Iraq

"Bush administration neocons such as Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Libby, along with their cheerleaders at Fox "News," the Weekly Standard, Wall Street Journal editorial page, National Review, and the New York Times’ Judith Miller will go down in history as the architects and enablers of the greatest strategic blunder in American history. The neocon dream of conquering the Middle East and destroying Islam as a force is now in history’s trash heap of failed adventures along with such miscalculations as Hitler’s march into Russia and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor."

"A true patriot does not confuse government with country. A patriot’s loyalty is to his country, and loyalty to country requires holding government accountable."

From a powerful new article by Paul Craig Roberts.

Big Government

The Republicans are spending our tax dollars overseas as if they were Democrats. Surprised? You shouldn't be, it's been going on for years.

USA! USA! USA!

The US Men's National Soccer team narrowly escaped Honduras yesterday to reach the Gold Cup Final versus Panama. After trailing almost the entire match, the US punched in two goals in the last six minutes to win 2-1. It was the best soccer game I've seen in years, and I've seen a lot.

From a FIFA article:
"And when extra time seemed a certainty, the hosts snatched victory from the jaws of ignominious defeat when Onyewu stole in at the back post to nod home Landon Donovan's well-weighted free kick."

Freedom is Free

"Our framers decided that the natural right of each individual to own weapons, and to form a militia with his neighbors, was the best guarantor of freedom. Further, there is no provision in the Constitution for a permanent, standing army -– to the contrary, the framers considered a standing army a constant threat to liberty." Brad Edmonds

There's an old Japanese proverb that says; as you prepare, so shall you proceed. Since we maintain a standing army, it doesn't surprise me that we go to war every few years.

College Football's Dream Backfield

I happen to agree with Pete Fiutak on this one.

The Supreme Court

"It’s high time we reopened the old controversy about judicial review." Joseph Sobran

State's Rights

At least we still have some. Some good quotes from the Yahoo article States Trying to Blunt Property Ruling

"In Texas and California, legislators have proposed constitutional amendments to bar government from taking private property for economic development."

"People I've never heard from before came out of the woodwork and were just so agitated," said Illinois state Sen. Susan Garrett, a Democrat. "People feel that it's a threat to their personal property, and that has hit a chord."

"The Supreme Court's decision told homeowners and business owners everywhere that there's now a big `Up for Grabs' sign on their front lawn," said Dana Berliner, an attorney with the Institute for Justice. "Before this, people just didn't realize that they could lose their home or their family's business because some other person would pay more taxes on the same land. People are unbelievably upset."

"One critic of the ruling has suggested local officials take over Supreme Court Justice David Souter's New Hampshire farmhouse and turn it into a hotel. Souter voted with the majority in the Connecticut case."

"One of the things, I think, that is elemental to American freedom is the right to have and hold private property and not to interfere with that right," Rauschenberger said. "For Americans, it's like the boot on the door. You can't kick in the door and come in my house unless I invite you."

Scientology

Slate recently posted an interesting article about L. Ron Hubbard.

Big XII Preseason Poll

2005 Big 12 Media Preseason Football Poll (Media Vote)

My picks coming soon.

Vaccinations

I can't believe so many mothers are still risking autism in their babies by shooting them up with mercury at birth.

"Thimerosal (mercury) remains in most flu vaccines." Don't ever get one.

Google World Takeover

They want to bring you Internet access through powerlines. Sounds good to me.

Iraq vs. Vietnam

Here is a great chart comparing the two.

Will Bush Fire Karl Rove?

Never in a million years.

We Have to Fight Them Over There....

so that we don't have to fight them here. I've heard a few of my friends repeat this mantra, without realizing that Presidents always say this before war. I've also heard people say that once we leave Iraq, all the terrorists will come here, but this isn't the lesson that history has taught us.

According to Pat Buchanan's recent article,
"Between 1982 and 1986, there were 41 suicide-bomb attacks on U.S., French, and Israeli targets in Lebanon. When U.S. and French troops withdrew and Israel pulled back to a six-mile buffer zone, suicide-bombings virtually ceased. When the Israelis left Lebanon, the Lebanese suicide-bombers did not follow them to Tel Aviv."

Furthermore, "Bush's cure for terrorism is a cause of the epidemic. The doctor is spreading the disease. The longer we stay in Iraq, the greater the number of suicide attacks we can expect. The sooner we get our troops out, the sooner terrorism over there and over here will end. So Pape says the data proves. This is the precise opposite of what George Bush argues and believes."

Draft = Slavery

You don't hear much talk about it anymore, but Anthony Gregory just wrote a great article against the draft.
From the article:
"The draft is a form of slavery. There is no way around it. Compelling a person to work for the state is involuntary servitude. Forcing a person to fight, kill, and possibly die in a war– - and threatening resisters with imprisonment and deserting conscripts with death - is a particularly immoral brand of enslavement, and it is murder for all conscripts who do not survive the war."

F Live 8

I say we don't give Africa a dime. No foreign government should receive money from the American taxpayer. If you want to send your hard-earned money to some African dictator, go for it.

Dr. Ron Paul is a genius and is my personal pick for the next Supreme Court Justice, not that he's in the running. I'm glad he agrees with me on this one. Check out his latest article, What Should America Do For Africa?

"The president is promising money we don’t have to solve a problem we didn’t cause. Americans have the freedom to do everything in their power to alleviate African suffering, whether by donating money or working directly in impoverished nations. But government-to-government foreign aid doesn’t work, and it never has. We should stop kidding ourselves and ignore the emotionalist pleas of rock stars. Suffering in Africa cannot be helped by delusional, feel-good government policies."

Summer Silver

Bernard says summer is the time to buy silver.

Gold & Silver

Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad (one of my favorite books), is now a gold bug. It's good to see that some people get it.

My advice, which is probably of little interest to most of you, is to not neglect these precious metals in your portfolio. I recommend keeping at least 10% of your portfolio in gold & silver. Furthermore, don't just buy gold and silver stocks or EFTs, but actually keep the gold and silver in a safe place, preferably not in a safety deposit box at a bank. Don't say I didn't warn you.

You can order The Future of Gold & Silver audio CD for free. I don't know if it's any good because I just ordered it today.

If you are interested in obtaining silver and/or gold, you can get some through me. If you're really serious, you can sign up as a Liberty Associate for $250 by clicking on the advertisement to the right, and buy silver and gold at a discount. Be sure to mention you were referred by me.

Booms and Busts

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed." And so too, does the bust pre-exist in the boom. In case you are unaware, "business cycles" are created by central banks and fiat (paper) money.

Central banking (the Federal Reserve) is central planning of the economy. If you're a fan of it, chances are you resemble more closely a communist than a free-marketeer, like myself.

You can read more about the Austrian Business Cycle theory (ABC) here.

Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honor

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Ever wondered what happened to the signers of the Declaration of Independence? Find out here.

Book

I probably shouldn't be posting about a book I haven't even purchased yet, but this one looks interesting. It's called Living Well on Practically Nothing by Edward H. Romney.

Why Didn't the Terrorists Strike Switzerland?

Jacob G. Hornberger is quickly becoming one of my favorite columnists. His columns are consistently good. The following is from his latest: Terrorism Comes With Empire

Q: Why didn't the terrorists strike Switzerland instead of England? After all, the two countries share the same "freedom and values," don't they?

A: The Swiss government didn't attack Iraq. It doesn't meddle in the Middle East. It didn't participate in the brutal sanctions against the Iraqi people. It doesn't maintain an empire of overseas bases. It doesn't go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. The Swiss government minds its own business.

Big XII

College Football News came out with their Big XII Preview recently.

Drug War

Libertarians are the only ones who continually rail against the drug war, and with good reason.

On November 16, 25-year-old Weldon Angelos was sentenced to 55 years in prison for selling marijuana to 16 undercover police officers in Utah. This is more time than he would have received if he had hijacked an airplane, beaten someone to death in a fight, and raped a 10-year-old child - combined reports MPP.

I don't have much faith that King Bush will appoint a pro-liberty Supreme Court Justice, but it would be nice if he could find someone that understands the difference between actual crimes and victimless "crimes".

In case you are wondering what constitutes a victimless crime, Webster's defines it as such: a legal offense, as prostitution or gambling, to which all participating parties have consented.

London Bombing

More proof that the United States war of aggression against Iraq is breeding terrorism, not curbing it.

I jacked this from Lew's Blog (which I highly recommend).

Some people do profit from war, but it's not you or me and it's at the expense of everybody else.

Nice Work if You Can Get It

Posted by Charles Featherstone at 02:57 PM

It's good to see that some troughs are constantly kept brimming with slops:

U.S. Army gives $5 billion more work to Halliburton
By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. military has signed on Halliburton to do nearly $5 billion in new work in Iraq under a giant logistics contract that has so far earned the Texas-based firm $9.1 billion, the Army said on Wednesday.

Quote of the Day

"If goods don't cross borders, soldiers will."
-Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

Is it any surprise that we are at war with Iraq?

Happy Independence Day!

This is from Harry Browne's article two years ago, Uncelebrating the Fourth.

"Because the education of our children was turned over to government in the 19th century, generations of Americans have been taught that freedom means taxes, regulations, civic duty, and responsibility for the whole world. They have no conception of the better life that could exist in a society in which government doesn't manage health care, education, welfare, and business — and in which individuals are free to plot their own destinies."

Lew Rockwell's New Column

Excellent as usual. Bush the Melting
"So there we have it: three more years of a lame duck president who is stuck in two losing, bloody, terrorist-recruiting wars, and has presided over one of the great domestic flops in American history. All he needs is a good recession to complement soaring gas prices, and his fall will be complete."

A&M Update

Pflugerville High senior Bryan Beasley, the No. 1 point guard in the state of Texas according to Rivals.com, orally committed to Texas A&M on Thursday.