Drone strike on wedding party in Yemen kills at least 13 civilians

What if, on the way to my wedding, THIRTEEN (at least!) of my loved ones had been blown up by some stupid government? I can't even fathom it.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/12/5204684/drone-strike-on-wedding-party-in-yemen-kills-at-least-13-civilians

Fifty Ways to Leave Leviathan

http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/fifty-ways-to-leave-leviathan#axzz2hGZ9fal6

The struggle to be free is beautiful and inspiring. Here are 50 ways people are working around the State and toward a better future.

The racket, illustrated

The National Park shutdown is a perfect illustration of the extortion racket we live under. They claim much of the most beautiful land in North America, force us all to pay for its upkeep, and then periodically close the land to punish us and manipulate us into giving them more money and power.

Washington Monument Syndrome

"The Washington Monument syndrome, also known as the Mount Rushmore Syndrome, or the firemen first principle, is a political tactic used in the United States by government agencies when faced with budget cuts or a government shutdown. The tactic entails cutting the most visible or appreciated service provided by the government, from popular services such as national parks and libraries to valued public employees such as teachers and firefighters. This is done to gain support for tax increases that the public would otherwise be against."

...'cause if they actually cut the empire, we'd all benefit immensely and the people would demand even more government shutdowns. So, they can't do that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Monument_Syndrome

If only

Government shutdown? If only we were so lucky. The U.S government will still spy on all Americans and the world, kill innocents with drones and other weapons of war, maintain the global military empire that is bleeding this country dry, destroy lives for the non-crime of smoking a plant, etc. #politicaltheater

A Round-Up of the Police State Programs NOT Affected by a Government Shutdown

More medical fascism

"Obamacare's essentially corporatist nature becomes clearer by the day. Fighting it will prove very difficult, as big business lines up to keep it in place." - Anthony Gregory

Obamacare architect leaves White House for pharmaceutical industry job

Obama addresses the nation

Obama said that if he launches bombs at Syria, it will not be an act of war, it will be a "limited strike" to "send a message". What would we call it if another country conducted a "limited strike" against a few specific targets on U.S. soil?

Also, imposing sanctions -- which Obama proudly claims he has done -- is an act of war. And it is particularly egregious, since it undeniably and almost exclusively hurts and kills innocent civilians.

Kerry Proves Obama Administration Wants War, No Matter What

"Kerry sarcastically suggests a diplomatic alternative to bombing Syria, Russia and Syria agree to it, and then Kerry takes it back." - Antiwar.com

http://antiwar.com/blog/2013/09/09/kerry-proves-obama-administration-wants-war-no-matter-what/

"O peace! how many wars were waged in thy name." - Alexander Pope

Government glossary

Helpful definitions when translating government speak: 

1) Those who support normal trade and diplomatic relations with all countries, and oppose bombing them and fueling their civil wars are "isolationists".

2) Those who believe it is necessary to blow up innocents with U.S. missiles are "humanitarians".

3) The main U.S. ally against the Syrian government is "the rebels", a.k.a. al Qaeda (previously U.S. enemy in the War on Terror, and prior to that U.S. ally against the Soviets)

Serious silliness

If #Obama bombs #Syria, it will be an act of war. If Syria or its allies retaliate, the U.S. government will further escalate the war it began, claiming national defense. If innocent Americans are targeted in a terror attack, the government will claim it is because they hate our freedom. All this against the backdrop of the U.S. funding the al Qaeda affiliated Syrian rebels as it plans a "humanitarian intervention" that will kill numerous innocents. This would all be absolutely silly if it wasn't so deadly serious.

#Syria

The U.S. government lies about its wars, and it hurts innocent people, and it makes it all seem necessary and glorious. But it's not. It really isn't. #Syria

The Real Reason for US Syria Attack

US to Launch Chemical Attack on Syria in Retaliation for Alleged Chemical Attack?

The State hates... (ep. 2)

The State hates voluntary exchange. If you want to peacefully trade with a willing customer without groveling for permission and paying a kickback, you'd better watch out!

The State hates... (ep. 1)

The State hates voluntary charity. If you want to help someone in need without government officials extorting money from you first, you'd better watch out!

Church Group Members Threatened With Arrest for Handing Out Biscuits, Coffee to the Homeless

Chemical weapons for me, but not for thee

In the 1980s, the U.S. government provided the necessary ingredients and strategic support to Saddam Hussein and Iraq as it used chemical weapons against Iran. U.S. officials are only concerned about the use of chemical weapons when it is not conducive to their foreign policy (a foreign policy which is in the interest of neither suffering innocents nor the American people).

US Supported Iraq’s Use of Chemical Weapons, Even As It Inches to War With Syria on Lesser Allegations

Humanitarian War

Humanitarian War is a cruel and deadly oxymoron.

"They lied us into Libya and they are lying us into Syria -- how the NGOs and their interventionist paymasters bring death and destruction under cover of "humanitarian intervention."

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2013/august/23/humanitarian-wars-and-their-ngo-foot-soldiers.aspx

35 years

What should we teach children in light of Bradley Manning's 35 year prison sentence? "Murder, torture and lying are wrong, and you shouldn't do them and you have a moral duty to tell the truth if you know about them...unless your government does them, in which case those things are not wrong, and you deserve to be severely punished if you say something." ???

Eric Holder seeks to cut mandatory minimum drug sentences

"Holder said the nation "must confront the reality" that once "people of color" are in the criminal justice system, they "often face harsher punishments than their peers." He called it "unacceptable," "shameful" and "unworthy" of the U.S. legal tradition."

I wish he'd also confront the reality that the drug war needs to end entirely and immediately, with all non-violent drug war inmates pardoned and their records expunged. I suspect though that he and Obama are just good at reading the tea leaves as opposed to any kind of meaningful leadership. But we'll take what we can get. Bravo.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/12/politics/holder-mandatory-minimums/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Blowing up kids over there so we don't have to blow them up over here

U.S. Drones Kill More Than 30 in Yemen; School Targeted in One Attack

With each kid ‪#‎Obama‬ blows up, I wonder how many new enemies he creates...?

Hearts and Minds

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." - Leo Tolstoy

What if the first step toward a better future has nothing to do with voting or who gets elected to power, but instead involves changing our hearts and minds? Check out this article I wrote, just published at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. 

http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2013/august/10/how-ron-paul-changed-my-heart-and-mind-on-war.aspx

How Ron Paul Changed My Heart and Mind on War

by Mike Marion

(This article was recently published at the Future of Freedom Foundation, LewRockwell.com, and the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity)

My wife and I were in the middle of a three-month cross-country road trip in the Fall of 2011. We had just driven for over three hours to a small community center in northwestern Iowa where I found myself shaking hands with a man who had transformed my thinking. I was nervous, and the only words I could get out for my big moment of meeting Ron Paul were “thank you”. But maybe that was enough.

I grew up in a very conservative Christian home where timeless principles such as The Golden Rule were instilled in me at a young age. I didn’t get into fights, got along with pretty much everyone, and was known as a kind and honest person. That I would be drawn to Dr. Paul seems natural. Unfortunately, I spent the first few years of my adult life as an opinionated and vocal neoconservative (I had no idea what this meant), being mentored via talk radio by the likes of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

One of the core principles taught to me by these supposed freedom lovers was the proud cheering of war and militarism. My lowest point was, as an undergraduate student, watching and rooting for “the good guys” in the war on Iraq as it unfolded live on FOX News like some televised gladiator game. Looking back on this, I am sickened and saddened by the fact that I sat in reverent shock and awe as bombs destroyed an actual city, blowing up buildings with real human beings inside. It was no more real to me than a video game.

Ron Paul blew my mind the first time I saw him on one of the talking head shows. Some of it made perfect sense, but some of it sounded downright heretical. How could this man say such sensible things about taxes and the economy, and then the next moment become a naïve lefty spouting nonsense like “peace brings prosperity” and “war is always destructive”? Didn’t this guy know that WWII ended the Great Depression? That Reagan beat the Soviets with an arms build-up? Jeez, didn’t he know that the U.S. waged war to beat slavery, and Nazism, and Communism? Peace through strength, man!

It was around this time that I slaughtered my first sacred cow: the War on Drugs. It became clear to me that this war was economically foolish. The argument that “prohibition on alcohol didn’t work, prohibition on drugs doesn’t work” made logical sense. I realized that I could not possibly justify locking anyone in a cage for a victimless crime, particularly as I enjoyed a couple cold beers at home while watching politics on TV. I started to identify as a libertarian, and I began to suspect that if I could be wrong on such an obvious issue as this war on the American people, maybe I would need to rethink everything.

Dr. Paul’s heroic stand in front of a hostile crowd in the Republican presidential debates in 2007 reverberated in my head. What was “blowback”? Had our government really been doing countless things in other countries behind the scenes that were making us less safe and creating enemies? Was it possible that there were people who hated the U.S., not because we supposedly have so much freedom, but instead because our government meddles in the affairs of their countries? It came off as incredibly gutsy how this man stood up to Rudy “America’s Mayor” Giuliani on live television in a bid for the Republican nomination for president and knowingly said things that most ears had never, ever heard.

I began to change. I finally applied my longstanding distrust of the government and disdain for its central planning not only to its domestic policies, but to its foreign policies as well. I wondered how it was that so many of us had been fooled into supporting a war on Iraq that was clearly fraudulent. I felt embarrassment and remorse for the cheering I had done as an undergraduate student watching that war on TV. I grieved for the thousands of soldiers who were sacrificed or mutilated or psychologically traumatized for a lie and for their families who desperately clung to that lie so they could deal with their anguish. I felt a deep sadness for the countless multitudes of innocent civilians who were slaughtered, their families violently ripped apart and their homes destroyed.

Then I began to read. I started to understand the anatomy of the State, and how war is so essential to its health and growth. I saw the Military Industrial Complex for what it is, and recognized that war is an extremely profitable racket. I questioned all of the ostensibly noble wars that came before (always initiated by wise leaders with benevolent intentions and humanitarian motives, of course). I examined the costs of war—in lost human life, in vanished liberty, in destroyed property, in squandered wealth—and I concluded that I hated it.

When my wife and I set out on that cross-country road trip where our schedule was to serendipitously align with two of Ron Paul’s town hall appearances, we considered bypassing Washington D.C. altogether, but we wanted to visit dear family in the surrounding area. Plus, I was morbidly curious to see how I’d feel returning with a completely different mindset than when I had come as a child with my seventh grade class. It was beyond what I could have imagined. Witnessing the shrines—the temples!—built for dishonest, power-mad rulers who had caused so much pain and destruction and suffering in our society and the world, gaudily strewn about this otherwise physically beautiful area was disturbing. The tragic list of over 58,000 names of people mostly younger than me who died in a senseless and unjust war on Vietnam was heartbreaking. The air was thick with propaganda and manipulation and the pursuit of power, and I could see clearly why Dr. Paul always spoke with such contempt for this place.

Ron Paul began a revolution in my mind that caused me to think critically about what I had been taught. He inspired me to read, to re-evaluate, and to bring my political philosophy into line with my personal values. I realized that non-intervention was the only moral way to interact with the world, that Thomas Jefferson’s prescription of “peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations—entangling alliances with none” was the only practical and reasonable approach, and that true liberty and prosperity would both require peace to ever be achieved.

Through his boldness, his integrity and his perseverance, Ron Paul changed my heart and mind on war. For this I am truly grateful.

Whistleblower warrior

On Tuesday night, Obama was on Jay Leno's program and spoke of fighting for "whistleblower protection". What?? This guy is waging an all out war against whistleblowers. This guy has overseen 7 of the 10 espionage charges for leaking in all of U.S. history....so, more than all other presidents combined! This guy imprisoned Bradley Manning for 3 years without trial for whistleblowing (much of it under tortuous conditions), and will likely have him imprisoned for the rest of his life.

I know I'm stating the obvious, but this guy is a liar.

August 6

Today and Friday mark the anniversaries of the only two nuclear attacks in history. The U.S. government has told the American people that it had to kill over 200,000 Japanese civilians to end WWII. Even if this were true (it isn't), can there ever be any justification for targeting innocent people? Don't we call that terrorism when it's done to Americans?

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the U.S. Terror State

Terrorism by Any Reasonable Definition

The Hiroshima Myth

Back in the USSR

ironic [ahy-ron-ik]

— adjective

1. When an American has no choice but to accept asylum in Russia to avoid persecution in The Land of the Free™ for exposing crimes of the U.S. government against the American people.

Our online stream of consciousness

Our browsing history is our online stream of consciousness. We search as we are thinking and formulating ideas, even things we may ultimately reject. The NSA possesses not only our completed thoughts and communication, but the entire map of how we got there. The ability to obtain our online history is essentially the ability to read our minds. And our minds could easily be *misread* by faceless bureaucrats and computer programs. "I have nothing to fear if I've done nothing wrong" is a fool's paradise.

XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything a user does on the internet'

Free Bradley Manning

Bradley Manning had a moral and legal duty to tell the truth about war crimes. He did the right thing in the face of personal danger. This embarrassed the U.S. government, so they tortured him, jailed him for nearly 3 years without trial, and will imprison him for up to 136 years. All for doing exactly what most of us will teach/have taught our children to do.‪ #‎FreeBradleyManning‬

Guilty of aiding the American people

Anthony Gregory: "The acquittal on “aiding the enemy” is appropriate. The private’s real crime has been aiding the American people. The public must decide: Does it stand with an unhampered national security state and a lawless administration seeking to conceal all its crimes, or with those who try to warn us and save what’s left of our liberties?"

http://dailycaller.com/2013/07/30/guilty-of-aiding-the-american-people/

Basic stuff

I think pretty much all of us are libertarians at heart. We know it's wrong to take from others, and we don't use violence to force our neighbors to do as we say. We've just been taught from a very young age that it's ok for government to do these things. But it's not.

What an Honest Conversation About Race Would Look Like

"So, yes, let’s have that honest conversation about race. And let’s begin with the biggest enabler of racism of all: the state." - Sheldon Richman, The Future of Freedom Foundation

http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/tgif-conversation-about-race/

Obama: "The government is us and we're doing things right"

The government is not "us". The government is "them". I am not arming known terrorist groups in Syria. I do not give billions of dollars to the Egyptian army which is currently killing people in the streets. I am not murdering and maiming thousands of innocents all across the Middle East with drones. I am not putting all Americans at risk with an insane, reckless, imperial foreign policy. That is them.

And although my money is being used to fund all of this, I am not the one robbing me to pay for it. They are.

Awesome!!

Ten Years After Decriminalization, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal

"Rather than locking up 100,000 criminals, the Portuguese are working to cure 40,000 patients and fine-tuning a whole new canon of drug treatment knowledge at the same time."

Obama defines "blessed" differently than most people

The 5th of July

Reflecting on yesterday for a second, we live under the biggest government in the history of time. Our rulers claim the authority to regulate any behavior, tax any event, and invade any privacy. Under the banner of "national security", they use any amount of violence they deem necessary against anyone, anywhere, anytime. Is this freedom?

The empire strikes daily

As kids, we could not possibly have understood how applicable Star Wars was and would increasingly become to real life.

Edward Snowden: "In the end the Obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me, Bradley Manning or Thomas Drake. We are stateless, imprisoned, or powerless. No, the Obama administration is afraid of you. It is afraid of an informed, angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised — and it should be."

http://wikileaks.org/Statement-from-Edward-Snowden-in.html

Whoa. The vice president confronts the president on national TV about the NSA spying program. Biden is brave!

What an amazing time we live in. The heroic Edward Snowden has over 1.2 BILLION results on Google. He was hired in the first place for his advanced computer skills. The same awesome technology the U.S. surveillance state is using to spy on all of us has enabled a courageous young man to strike the biggest blow ever against it.

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell

Edward Snowden did what was right in the face of certain danger, and at great personal expense. But he won't get a medal, he won't have a parade in his honor, and he will be persecuted by the very powerful law-breakers he exposed. He is a hero in the truest sense of the word.

Truly heroic

"'My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.' He has had 'a very comfortable life' that included a salary of roughly $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable career, and a family he loves. I'm willing to sacrifice all of that because I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building.'"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/09/edward-snowden-nsa-whistleblower-surveillance

Why shouldn't I work for the NSA?

Will Hunting would probably add "I don't want to spy on every American" to his list of reasons why he shouldn't work for the NSA.

Prescience

James Madison's words seem more prescient than ever: "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data

The way out

"Now, I work for patients. I don't work for the government, and I don't work for insurance companies." “If more doctors were able to do this, that would be real health care reform. That’s when we’d see the cost of medicine truly go down.”

Obama is Picasso

Politics is the art of seeming to say you will do less killing of civilians and executing of accused suspects (including Americans) without due process, while actually laying the groundwork to step up your lawless killing. And Obama is the freaking Picasso of politics.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/05/23/192081/obama-promises-anew-to-transfer.html#.UaUc_2RARou

Two important truths about war

Truth #1: "War is the health of the state" as Randolph Bourne wrote. 

Murray Rothbard explained further: 

"It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society. Society becomes a herd, seeking to kill its alleged enemies, rooting out and suppressing all dissent from the official war effort, happily betraying truth for the supposed public interest." 

He goes on to say that the idea that war is the State defending its subjects is a myth. War is the State using its subjects to fight for it against other States.


Truth #2: War is a racket. It always has been.

USMC Major General Smedley D. Butler (the most decorated Marine ever at the time of his death) explains:

"[War] is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." 

"A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small “inside” group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes."

He goes on to make the case here.

***

Anyway, Edwin Starr was 100% correct in answering the question "War, what is it good for?": Absolutely nothing! (Unless you are the State or part of the Military Industrial Complex.)

Monopoly

I had to return to the DMV after paying $50 for a smog check (which is a total racket--my car is only 4.5 years old, it doesn't need a smog check). I was informed that my registration fee is now $239, up from the $156 it was Monday. I showed her my print-out and politely said she must be mistaken. She assured me she wasn't. I asked what could possibly be the reason for an $83 increase. She smugly told me it was my fault for not paying on Monday, even though on Monday they told me I would have to come back with my smog check before I could register my car. 

No compassion, no empathy, no humanity. Just a self-satisfied grin knowing that she has 100% power in this exchange. There is no recourse for me, I have no alternative, I am not a customer, I am not even a valuable individual. I am disposable citizen # A050, and if I don't pay up eventually, they'll happily throw me in a cage and get their $239 from citizen # A051.

Two birds with one stone

Obama's IRS targeted Tea Party groups. Bush's IRS targeted antiwar groups. The solution to this mess is to abolish the IRS altogether. Then presidents could no longer use it to target their political enemies. And more importantly, the government confiscating the fruit of one's labor via force is immoral. So, two birds with one stone!

Rhetorical questions

Why do the DMV employees act as though I am disrupting their day by simply approaching their desk when my number has been called? Why do they roll their eyes and sigh when I ask a perfectly reasonable question? Why do they treat me with sheer contempt, lacking even the most basic shred of human decency?

How the Iraq War Became a War on Christians

An article from The American Conservative about one of the many consequences of the Iraq War: the ongoing eradication of the ancient Christian community there, which has existed since the time of the Apostles. (This will likely be repeated with a War on Syria.)

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-the-iraq-war-became-a-war-on-christians/

Subservience

Subservience to power may be what those who lord it over us would like, but there is nothing more fundamentally unAmerican.

Why All of Us Should Mistrust the Government by Judge Andrew Napolitano

This is a moving testimony from Farea Al-Muslimi before the US Senate. He talks about his deep love and appreciation for America, how being educated and mentored here changed his life, and about the terror and devastation that the drone war against Yemen has brought to his home village and his loved ones there.

Submit. Obey. Or else.

43 years ago today, the nature of the government was on full display against unarmed college students.

If It Moves, Tax It

Jeffrey Tucker: "Everyone these days is sitting around regretting the way the recession just goes on and on, seemingly without end. If you are looking for the answer, look to Capitol Hill. Every time free enterprise tries to come up for air, the Congress and the regulators are there to put it underwater again."

http://lfb.org/today/if-it-moves-tax-it/

Libertarian drinking game

The Reagan myth

This topic was a huge realization for me, as someone who used to be a big fan of Reagan. I finally came to the conclusion that the "Reagan Revolution" is a myth. It never happened. It was all talk and no walk, and just a way to sell big government to conservatives. The size and scope of government massively increased under Reagan, but they figured out a way to do it cleverly and discreetly, with lots of free market and small government rhetoric, and some tax cuts (while also raising taxes).

Basically, the foundation of Reaganomics is that deficits and debts don't matter. Government can grow and spend whatever it wants, and as long as the upper tax brackets are cut, the effects will "trickle down" and the economy will grow and more taxes will come in and feed the growing beast of government. This is partly why Ron Paul stopped supporting Reagan, and why Reagan's budget adviser, David Stockman, resigned and has now written a brand new 700 page book talking about the US's long slide into statism, and doesn't hesitate to point the finger at his former boss where it's due. (Cutting taxes while also massively expanding government spending was Bush's trick as well. This is part of the great evil of the Federal Reserve and how it enables these slick politicians to fleece us while pretending to let us keep more of our money.)

Reagan also, and I think most devastatingly, enabled the complete takeover of foreign policy by the Military Industrial Complex, and the massive expansion of the global US military empire -- which was not financed by the evil-but-honest way of raising taxes, and instead financed by evil and dishonest money printing, Fed borrowing, and deficit & debt growing. 

From David Stockman's book:

"Within days of Reagan’s taking office, the White House made a historically devastating mistake by signing over to the Pentagon a blank check known as the ’7 percent real growth top line.’ This massive injection of fiscal firepower nearly tripled the defense budget from $140 billion to $370 billion within just six years. More importantly, it fueled powerful expansionist impulses throughout the military-industrial complex at exactly the wrong time in history."

And the earth-shaking consequences were felt two decades later:

"The Reagan defense buildup gave birth to a historical monstrosity: the Bush wars of occupation and imperial pretension that were possible only because of the immense conventional war machine the Gipper left behind."

His conclusion on Reagan is brutally straightforward and quite damning:

"In fact, Reagan was an out-an-out statist in the realm of the military and national security. All the well-warranted skepticism he had about Big Government – the empire-building tendency of the bureaucracy, the inherent inefficiency and waste of public sector monopolies, the self-serving propensity of bureaucrats to hide the facts and twist the truth – did not apply on the Pentagon side of the Potomac."

I didn't actually read the book. 700 pages is a bit much. But I did read a great review of it from a favorite writer of mine, Justin Raimondo. Part 1 and Part 2. I highly recommend reading these to get the viewpoint of Reagan's role in building the warfare state, and how this is dependent upon massive debt and deficits and other economic horrors...and also how the warfare state and welfare state are really just two sides of the same statist coin.

Sadly, Reagan's true legacy is that he convinced millions of people who instinctively distrusted big government and opposed its intervention in their lives that their views are totally compatible with and even require support for a global military empire and that no price is too big to pay for militarism -- deficits and debt be damned. In fact, what he (and Bush) did was more insidious than people like Clinton and Obama have done, because he sold his statism (and all of it's negative effects) as "limited government", "capitalism", and "free market".

- Mike 

PS another thought I had. I remember saying things when I was younger like "Reagan won the cold war!" and "Reagan's military spending bankkrupted the USSR!" This is utter nonsense. Communism defeated and bankrupted the Soviets, and saying that massive government spending is what made us victorious is pure Keynesianism, and state propaganda. Either we think socialism is a fatally flawed and unworkable system, and that government spending cannot lead to prosperity, or we don't. I was mindlessly repeating things I heard Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and FOX News say, and it was complete BS.

I'm a day late in posting this awesome new music video from the Auto-tune the News guys. Anyway, the War on Drugs is definitely a failure--practically, economically, morally and every other way imaginable. I've never used any of the drugs that the government wages war against. Luckily for me, they approve of my drug of choice. So, I'll raise my glass to all of the victims of the War on Drugs. Watch this video!

Boston

I despise terrorists as much as anyone else. But yesterday's manhunt in Boston was hysterical and disturbing. Militarized police patrolled the streets of an American city with armored vehicles and battle gear, treating every living person as a suspected criminal, going door to door in a neighborhood with the weapons of war. Do we accept that people in government uniforms have the right to "lockdown" an entire city and repeal the Bill of Rights while looking for suspected murderers? After over a decade of war and violations of personal liberty, have we become completely desensitized to this madness? This is not what a free society looks like.

Gitmo Is Killing Me

This is a young man's account of his ongoing 11 year imprisonment at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Many of these people have been imprisoned for over a decade with no trial and no charges. Some have decided to hunger strike, and so they are force fed in order to prolong their imprisonment. And all of this even when over half of them had long since been cleared to return home but are not allowed to leave.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/opinion/hunger-striking-at-guantanamo-bay.html?_r=1&

Three Lessons from the Boston Bombing Coverage

This article is a good, quick read. Three important things to remember while watching these types of events unfold:
1. People will find clues everywhere. Most of these will not actually be clues.
2. The initial speculations will be useless.
3. Don't panic.

http://reason.com/archives/2013/04/16/three-lessons-from-the-boston-bombing-co

Revolutions that never actually happened

The so-called Thatcher Revolution was much like the so-called Reagan Revolution: it never actually happened.

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2013/04/09/the-thatcher-paradox/

A peace prize for Manning, but not the ironic kind like Obama's

Ron Paul: "While President Obama was starting and expanding unconstitutional wars overseas, Bradley Manning, whose actions have caused exactly zero deaths, was shining light on the truth behind these wars. It's clear which individual has done more to promote peace."

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/04/12/ron-paul-bradley-manning-deserves-nobel-peace-prize-more-than-barack-obama

Game-changing.

Announcing the Ron Paul Homeschool Curriculum

Bitcoin

Jeffrey Tucker on how the concept of Bitcoin could be the greatest blow against the State and in favor of human freedom ever.

http://lfb.org/blog/what-if-this-is-happening/

Nixon has won Watergate

Jonathan Turley: "From unilateral military actions to warrantless surveillance that were key parts of the basis for Nixon's impending impeachment, the painful fact is that Barack Obama is the president that Nixon always wanted to be.

Four decades ago, Nixon was halted in his determined effort to create an "imperial presidency" with unilateral powers and privileges. In 2013, Obama wields those very same powers openly and without serious opposition."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/03/25/nixon-has-won-watergate/2019443/

A sophisticated visualization of all documented drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004.

http://drones.pitchinteractive.com/

Security theater

While at the airport, have you ever said to yourself anything like: "Hmmm, this TSA crap seems like security theater. Is this really just creating the illusion of safety? Is it worth sacrificing my privacy for this charade? Is this government bureaucracy totally incompetent (and is this a silly question)?"

Well, this should put all of your doubts to rest.

What is it good for?

This unjust and unnecessary war could cost $6 trillion when accounting for interest over the next 4 decades; killed hundreds of thousands and perhaps over 1 million Iraqis, with millions more displaced; left a country in complete ruin and a region totally destabilized; and killed thousands of U.S. soldiers and left tens of thousands injured. And all for what?

http://news.antiwar.com/2013/03/14/iraq-war-could-cost-6-trillion/

Exciting, inspiring, optimistic analysis of the current state of the State and our long march towards freedom by Jeffrey Tucker.

http://lfb.org/today/the-four-signs-of-a-collapsing-state/

The War Against Bradley Manning

John Whitehead: "Manning reacted as one would hope any honorable American would react when they witness their government acting in a manner that is corrupt, incompetent, inhumane, immoral and, it must be said, downright evil."

http://original.antiwar.com/jwhitehead/2013/03/12/the-war-against-bradley-manning/

The Imperial Presidency

Ron Paul: "Last week the US Senate took a break from debating the phony cuts known as “sequestration,” for Senator Rand Paul to hold a 13-hour filibuster to force the Obama administration to state whether it believes the President has the right to kill American citizens with drones on US soil. I find it tragic that there has to be a discussion on an issue that should be so self-evident.

However, feeling the pressure, the administration finally said “no,” but in language so twisted that no one should feel in the slightest bit reassured. According to Attorney General Eric Holder, the president does not believe he has the right to use the military to kill an American who is “not engaged in combat on American soil.” Left undefined is how the administration defines “combat.” As constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley wrote last week, “one can easily foresee this or a future president insisting that an alleged terrorism conspiracy is a form of ‘combat’.”

The administration’s outrageous response to the most serious Constitutional question of all -- when a government can kill its own citizens -- is clear evidence of an executive branch out of control."

http://the-free-foundation.org/tst3-11-2013.html

Glenn Greenwald: "Once you embrace the US government's War on Terror framework, then there is no cogent legal argument for limiting the assassination power to foreign soil. If the Globe is a Battlefield, then that, by definition, obviously includes the US."

http://m.guardiannews.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/10/paul-filibuster-drones-progressives

Dinosaurs

It's almost embarrassing watching this dinosaur cling to his beloved interventionism. Not to mention his intentional misstatements (read: lies) about sequestration gutting the military and other nonsense. Also, there's the predictable "I'm carrying on the tradition of Ronald Reagan" justification for U.S. hegemony and empire. And listen to the utter disdain when he refers to "impressionable libertarians in their college dorms". The only thing missing is "get off my lawn, you damn libertarian kids!"

But on the bright side--and speaking of dinosaurs--McCain's ideas are on the path to extinction.