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"Ninety-eight percent of the
adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest
Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the
publicity. But then--we elected them." ~ Lily Tomlin
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Carpe Libertatem Sunday, July 20 |
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William Muller is the guest editor today |
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Photograph courtesy of Jonathan Jessup
Obama's 'Big Brother' Vanishes from Speech “Democrat
Sen. Barack Obama's stunning assertion in a recent speech that the U.S. needs
a 'civilian national security force' that would be as powerful, strong and
well-funded as the half-trillion dollar Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force is
not included in published transcripts of his prepared remarks.”
McCain Backer Riles Muslims With 'Kneel or Kill' Comments “'The Muslims have said either we kneel or they're going to kill us,' former prisoner of war in Vietnam Bud Day said on a conference call with reporters organised by the Floridan Republican party. 'I don't intend to kneel and I don't advocate to anybody that we kneel, and John doesn't advocate to anybody that we kneel.'”
Cities Gone Wireless: Safety or Surveillance? “Oklahoma City completed its 555-square-mile municipal Wi-Fi network in June. The $5 million system...created a network of hundreds of cameras that enable police officers and firefighters to view real-time images of locations throughout the city, even if they are far from those locations.”
State Troopers Spied on Activist Groups “Undercover Maryland state troopers infiltrated three groups advocating peace and protesting the death penalty — attending meetings and sending reports on their activities to U.S. intelligence and military agencies...”
Man Arrested For Unlawful Photography “The cell phone photographer says the arrest was intimidation, but the deputy says he feared for his life. 'Here’s a guy who takes me out of the car and arrests me in front of my kids. For what? To take a picture of a police officer?' said Scott Conover.”
Reporters Shot at Gun-Control Press Conference “Three journalists were hurt when a gun went off at a press conference called by Chinese police to highlight the success of a gun-control campaign...One of the police officials mishandled a homemade weapon, releasing the trigger and dropping it.”
Barr
Defines Libertarianism and Then Defies It “In a recent appearance on Fox News, Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr explained why he embodies libertarian principles - we’re just not sure he understands what those principles are.” “The
Guns Ruling Spawns Legal Challenges by Felons “Twice convicted of felonies, James Francis Barton Jr. faces charges of violating a federal law barring felons from owning guns after police found seven pistols, three shotguns and five rifles at his home...As a defense, Barton and several other defendants in federal gun cases argue that last month's Supreme Court ruling allows them to keep loaded handguns at home for self-defense.”
Some U.S. Soldiers Yearn to Be in Afghan War “Soldiers
who have experienced combat stress note that it is usually young soldiers on
their first tour who most want to get on the battlefield.
They say it is hard to communicate the horrors of war to those who
haven't actually experienced it.”
As Wars Lengthen, Toll on Military Families Mounts “Divorce lawyers see it in the breakup of youthful marriages as long, multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan fuel alienation and mistrust...Teresa Moss, a counselor at Fort Campbell's Lincoln Elementary School, hears it in the voices of deployed soldiers' children as they meet in groups to share accounts of nightmares, bedwetting and heartache.”
McCain Gets $1,930 a Month from Social Security System “Republican presidential candidate John McCain cashes his monthly Social Security checks despite calling the federal program 'a disgrace,'...In 2006, McCain's wife Cindy earned $6 million, and has a net worth of approximately $100 million.”
Poor English Can Cost Truck Drivers “Manuel Castillo was driving a truck through Alabama hauling onions and left with a $500 ticket for something he didn't think he was doing: speaking English poorly.”
City of Oakland Deficit Could Reach $50 Million
Officer Accused of Threatening Starbucks Managers for Free Coffee “A police lieutenant in Daytona Beach was fired over accusations that he threatened slower emergency response times if he was not given complimentary specialty Starbucks coffee drinks.”
City Ordinance to Bar Illegal Immigrants from Renting “A proposed ordinance...would force prospective renters to prove they're not illegal immigrants before becoming tenants in the city. A city councilman also has asked to make the measure prohibit hiring illegal immigrants.”
Politician's
Comic Book Targets Foes “The 'liberal good ol' boys,' gays and Satan are doing everything they can to get Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Rinehart out of office, a comic book prepared by his re-election campaign claims.”
Dallas County Officials Spar Over 'Black Hole' Comment
Seattle Sells 5 of Its Troubled Toilets on eBay “City officials decided to pull the plug on the multimillion-dollar self-cleaning toilet stalls and instead put them on the auction site eBay. Starting bids are $89,000 apiece...The German-made automatic, high-tech toilets were installed in 2004 and have cost the city about $5 million.” [Everything the government touches turns to crap. - Ed.]
A
photo blog.
In the DVD player: In the Name of the Father (strongly recommended), The Life of David Gale (recommended), I'm Not There (very confusing, not recommended), Thank You For Smoking (recommended), Robot Chicken, Disc 1 (bizarre, frantic, not for everyone), Days of Glory (pretty good but slow), Invincible (recommended), The Thomas Crown Affair (recommended), Aftermath: The Remnants of War (must see), Broken Rainbow (recommended), Iraq For Sale: The War Profiteers (pretty interesting, but could have been better done), The Men Who Killed Kennedy (incredible, must see, especially the last segment), Baghdad ER (must see), We Are Marshall (strongly recommended), Children of Men (highly recommended), In the Shadow of the Moon (recommended), Shooter (must see), Seoul Train (recommended), Why We Fight (strongly recommended), The Lives of Others (strongly recommended), Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience (highly recommended), Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (recommended), Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (must see), After Innocence (recommended), Deliver Us From Evil (must see), Street Fight (illuminating, recommended), No End in Sight (must see), The Business of Being Born (must see if you may have a child in the future)
Playing on Pandora or Rhapsody or emusic or in iTunes: "Neverending Math Equation" by Sun Kil Moon
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Supporters Bob Murphy Matthew Bredeson Glen Allport Polo Leyendecker Donovan Conrad Gretchen Vanek Rex Bell Scott LeGear Jon Davis Matthew Bryan Jeremy Horpedahl Shelley Garcia Bill Ross Old Will Thirteen Anne Berg Jacques Martell Gilberto Heredia Derek Henson Doug Herman Ray Birks Michael White Peter Warren Joe Stamper Donna Mancini
Guest Editors Anthony Gregory Derek Henson Jeremy Horpedahl Robert Kaercher Chris Lempa William Muller Mike Powers
Helpers Log from Blammo Roger Young Scarmig
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The Root Cellar Recent columns by Root Strikers "Government is doomed. The whole miserable apparatus of local, State and Federal politicos, liars, thieves, pimps, bullies and bureau-rats will disappear a couple of decades hence and a few years later, the peoples of every other country in the world will follow our example." Column by Jim Davies.
The Revolution's Paper Money Legacy "Government today is limited only by what it can get away with." Column by George F. Smith.
"It is not the anarchist who is guilty of wishful thinking. Those who believer that a single institution can be given a monopoly on force, the right to be the judge in cases against itself, and the sole right to interpret the laws binding itself, and then be expected to behave because of a piece of paper--they are the ones indulging in utopian fantasies." Column by John Markley. (Editor's pick)
San Diego Plays 'Sophie's Choice' for Fascists Column by Lawrence Ludlow. (Editor's pick)
Contra Anarcho-Capitalism: A Term of Contradiction and Historic Ignorance "...that so many conflate free-market with capitalism remains one of the greatest disappointments of political terminology; completely divergent from the principle of free and voluntary association, as Kropotkin and Rothbard both aspire to create...." Column by new Root Striker Ante Simtapalic.
The Forgotten Meaning of Independence Day "Every Fourth of July, as we the people fly our flags made in Chinese sweatshops, sing patriotic songs adapted from British pub shanties, and blather about Great Men in American History about whom we know nothing save their names, we fail to recognize the visceral historical and political truth behind the hallowed occasion. No, we’re far too busy equating 'America' with the soulless, amoral agency called the Federal Government, beating our chests about freedom when we are clearly not free, expressing pride in an identity and political ethic of liberty that we no longer hold claim to." Column by Marcel Votlucka. (Editor's pick)
"This year, there aren't any gas lines (though stay tuned), but the price seems outrageous; and in particular, its rate of increase recently has been amazing. Once again, establishment media offer no credible explanation....But this time, there's a difference: I've not yet seen a fully credible explanation of what's going on even in libertarian literature." Column by Jim Davies. (Editor's pick)
"To say it plainly, the human race can no longer survive the inefficiency, destruction, and carnage caused by governments. If we are to surmount the problems now facing us, the irrational belief in coercive government as necessary, as positive, as even long-term survivable must, absolutely must, be widely examined, seen for the delusion that it is, and discarded." Column by Glen Allport.
The Trouble With Ragnar Danneskjöld "Those who fight the State on its terms and risk jail time are not following in the example of the heroic Ragnar Danneskjöld, but rather of impotent martyrs ignorant to reality. Sacrificing oneself to the maw of the State does not result in positive change; it merely results in one less voice for Liberty." Column by new Root Striker Rory Hand.
"Yes folks, the Faux of July is upon us, and it’s calling out to idiot Amerika. It won’t be long now before the sheep fire up the grills, throw on some burgers, drink a few beers, hoist their flags and pretend they are free; I guess ignorance really is bliss." Column by Mike Wasdin.
No Valid Constitutional Oaths But One "This is the real reason for a Constitution: rules for the rule-breakers, in a store forced upon its unwilling customers. It is the equivalent of an edict that comes from a parent, 'Because I said so.'" Column by B.R. Merrick.
"The
underlying fundamentals nearly all point in the same direction: down. Hard
times lie ahead, and it will take more than a short business-cycle correction
to bring back the easy prosperity Americans once took for granted."
Column by Glen Allport.
"That’s why we ultimately outlawed real money in favor of political paper, so government could be unrestrained financially in dealing with any problem anywhere. Funding government through taxation is never enough because the victims might retaliate. What’s needed is what we have: the arcane subterfuge of a cloistered cartel. What’s needed is a central bank quietly mulcting the masses while it feeds the world’s power-holders. That way nobody revolts." Column by George F. Smith.
Postmortem on the Marketing of Ron Paul (Part 2) "Ron Paul’s campaign was borne aloft in a powerful back-draft of statist debacles—the twin wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and a totalitarian crackdown at home. The 72-year-old congressman from Texas was like the little boy in 'The Emperor’s New Clothes'..., pointing out the obvious." Column by Lawrence Ludlow.
MUST READ "The statist looks at a problem and always sees a gun as the only solution – the force of the state, the brutality of law, violence and punishment. The anarchist – the endless entrepreneur of social organization – always looks at a problem and sees an opportunity for peaceful, innovative, charitable or profitable problem-solving." Column by Stefan Molyneux. Spread this one far and wide.
Scapegoating and the Anti-Immigrant Hysteria MUST READ "...Americans, like most people, would rather not look too closely at their unattractive traits. We like to pretend that we are self-sufficient, honest people. But our desire to rely upon and preserve the welfare state reveals the truth about who we really are. Instead of facing up to the theft and self-deception that surround our support of the welfare state in its various manifestations, we simply project our traits onto people who seem different because they are poor and desperate and have nowhere else to go to make a better life. Furthermore, when we accuse these immigrants of 'breaking our laws' to come here, perhaps we should remember that the kind of laws they are breaking are the kind that were firmly in place in the Soviet Union before it fell – laws against making a profit, earning a good living, and creating one’s own destiny. In other words: laws against freedom." Column by new Root Striker Lawrence Ludlow.
Recommended "So what are the black-clad youngsters so filled with hatred and so prone to destroy? They call themselves anarchists, but they are the embodiment of the statist principle: 'do as I say – or else.' The masked hordes rioting the streets calling for anarchy want power; they want the power to do as they please, and they want the power to separate action from responsibility. They want the freedom to act – without consequence. They demand respect from others in the sense of fear, obedience and subjection rather than appreciation and admiration; they want to be the state and control its powers." Column by Per Bylund.
I'm an Anarchist, and I Don't Hate the Troops Recommended "But sometimes our prized objectivity blinds us to what everyone else has been taught to see. We don't understand that while we have overcome our indoctrination, others see it as a source of meaning and structure, and still others live to defend that – the cops and the soldiers that some hate for defending this system." Column by Marcel Votlucka.
An Open Letter to Voters: Please Don't Recommended "Like the man who bayonets a baby to save a city, when a man votes, he necessarily approves of the means used to obtain his end. The means of attaining any political end in a tax-based government is the coercion of tax dollars from innocents: an act of aggression. Quite simply, if you vote, you de facto support the infliction of violence upon your neighbors...." Column by new Root Striker Geoff Turecek.
MUST READ "I like this analogy because it reveals how voting is an act of submission: When you no longer resist tyranny, but agree to submit to the threat or use of force and do as you are told, when you no longer question the higher authority because you are allowed to choose your supervisor. In the process you condemn your offspring and future generations to be subjects of this authority establishing an institution of tyranny that eventually is accepted unquestioningly, perhaps even celebrated." Column by Mark Davis.
Recommended "Libertarians engaging in a political campaign to have someone elected have from my point of view given up their claim on liberty; they are no longer striving for liberty as number one, but are working to give someone power to liberate them. Is this really a way forward? Is it to love liberty to give it up?" Column by Per Bylund.
Danger Is My Middle Name--And So Is Yours MUST READ "Nothing is completely safe, including eating and breathing. And if nothing is safe, then throwing people in prison for doing something that endangers them is insane, even without considering the dangers of arrest and imprisonment, which are substantial. Using coercion to "save people" from their own choices is a huge, horrifying mistake that can only lead to ever-larger disaster, because the list of dangerous activities includes everything that people might ever do." Column by Glen Allport.
Recommended "Being offered a choice between two violent alternatives is not the same as being free to choose....People can only freely choose governments, if they have the choice not to choose governments." Column by Stefan Molyneux.
A Stato-Libertarian Analysis of Immigration Recommended "Thus the argument for immigration controls calls libertarian theory itself into question! On this one issue, libertarianism does not work. On this one issue, apparently, a libertarian (laissez faire) immigration policy is ultimately bad for liberty!" Column by Wilt Alston and Stefan Molyneux.
Recommended "Without the United States federal government, the Fed would not exist and the money used by Americans would be gold and silver – things which could not be counterfeited constantly to supply 'money' for war, for special interests, and for other groups and purposes opposed to the interests of the average American. Nor would Americans be forced to literally borrow money – money created from thin air – from a privately-owned central bank (as our government does now) and then pay interest on it as part of the national debt. What a scam!" Column by Glen Allport.
Recommended "Have you heard [Rudy Giuliani] talk? I can't endure it for a minute. I thought I hated hearing Shrub mutter. But at least there's a strain of comedy value in the Babbling Bush. He sounds kind of funny, like an evil but goofy clown. There's a chuckle to be had on occasion. Even if it's black comedy. Rudy is just terrifying, not funny at all. His speech is just as incoherent, just as sleazy, just as totalitarian as Bush's. But he comes off as even more disjointed in his thinking with even a more maniacal drive toward fascist rule." Column by Anthony Gregory.
Recommended "What have we bought with all that money? Thousands of dead American soldiers, many thousands more injured, 655,000 (and counting) dead Iraqis, cancer-causing depleted uranium poisoning in Iraq (and DU particles are being spread around the planet on the winds), a ruined Iraqi infrastructure (which had already been wrecked in the first Gulf war and which a decade of sanctions kept in poor repair), millions of Iraqi refugees fleeing the mess we have made of their country, an increased threat of terrorism in America, widespread use of torture by our own government, a sharply lower opinion of America by people in other nations, and (on a separate invoice, for additional money) a police state here at home." Column by Glen Allport.
MUST READ "But what you’re doing, what you’ve been doing for 20 years, is telling people that the Klan can be good if only the right person is in charge. You’re giving people false hope, because the Klan can never be good." Column by Stefan Molyneux.
Recommended "Thus it must be that many children are delivered into the public school system with their independence already undermined, and filled with unease in the face of arbitrary authority. This lesson can only have come from their parents." Column by Stefan Molyneux.
Recommended "There is no part of life too miniscule for a politician to get his nose into if it smells faintly of funding or power, and nothing the whoring masses won’t sell for a shiny new promise." Column by Retta Fontana.
The Earthly Lesson of Jesus' Crucifixion Recommended "No: despite the famous 'washing of hands' by Pontius Pilate, this horrifying, gruesome murder was at least semi-official policy, like so many millions of other murders by empires and democracies and tin-pot dictatorships throughout history. Jesus was murdered by Roman soldiers, and in such a way as to drive the point home to all who saw it, or who even heard rumors about it: We can do this to anyone we want, anytime we choose, and talking about love is as good a reason to kill you as any – especially if others start taking you seriously. We are in charge of your life, and the penalty for forgetting that is death. Fear us and obey, or die." Column by Glen Allport.
Recommended "The apparatus of the state is a machine designed to place an artificial barrier between human beings, thereby enhancing the need for more government. When we refuse to participate in the pretense, the machine stalls. It has no fuel to run on if humans refuse to be grist for its mill. It’s like Toto pulling back the Wizard’s curtain to reveal the frail, ignorant, old guy who doesn’t know how to get home, either." Column by Retta Fontana.
Shut Up About the 'Bill of Rights' and Play the Ace Recommended "Anarchists view rights as ethical truths that transcend states, statesmen, and time, and that exist independent of historical circumstance; and anarchists must present this view unabashedly, clearly, and without equivocation, to critics and would-be converts alike. If we appeal to “Bills of Rights,” it will look like we don’t truly believe in the natural, transcendent status of rights and liberty." Column by Thomas Van Wyk.
E-Passport: Doorway to the Panopticon MUST READ "The logistics of trying to interconnect 189 governments’ databases quickly escalates well beyond the realm of 'nightmare' into some kind of Lovecraftian singularity of technological horror." Column by Scarmig.
MUST READ "Immigrants weren’t in charge when we lost our freedoms. White guys were. Millions of 'illegal immigrants' threaten you somehow? Compared to your neighbor who votes Democrat or Republican and demands his Social Security? Puh-lease!" Column by Stefan Molyneux and (new Root Striker) Wilton Alston.
A Short Guide to Market Anarchy Deconversions Recommended "[Market anarchy] means everyone is allowed to live the way they want, according to their value system. Everyone has different value systems, and all that statism does is impose the ruling class value system over everyone, creating social warfare. In an M.A., there would be no more need for social warfare because everyone would be free to live the way they want." Pamphlet by Andrew Greve, Aaron Kinney, David Pearson and Francois Tremblay.
The Two Great Evils and the Hammer of Infinite Power Recommended
"There is no doubt that the
Hammer of Infinite Power is coming; the leading edge is already here. It smote
Murdering the Group, Saving Individuals MUST READ "It’s the same with immigration, the national debt, welfare, the war on terror and all the other state-driven and media-obscured questions of the day. Obsessed by details, blind to the obvious, we are like swimmers in shark-infested waters worrying about cramps." Column by new Root Striker Stefan Molyneux.
How We Can Get There From Here MUST READ "So the main task to be completed in my opinion is to so educate every member of society one by one as to convince him that a zero government society is the only kind consistent with his human nature and the only one that will maximize his pleasure in life; and that must be done by reason. So the two obstacles to surmount are the vast numbers involved, and the ugly fact that most people have been so well indoctrinated that they are barely open to reason; they live rather by myth, prejudice and superstition." Column by Jim Davies.
MUST READ "How has it come that we no longer see each other as people? How can we reverse this trend? The next time you are asked for identification, consider the ramifications of participating in this system. Who owns you?" Column by NonEntity.
MUST READ "And so it was 'ordained and established'--the wind was sown. Today, we reap the whirlwind." Column by Jim Davies.
MUST READ "The question of who gets to make decisions about the disposition of certain property is central to understanding freedom. Who gets to decide what activities are too dangerous for you? Should I get to decide what activities are too dangerous for you? What about your neighbor? Or the majority? Or the president? Or Congress? Or some judge? In a free society, the owner of the property gets to decide how the property is used. Because you own your body, I assert that you should decide how your body is used or abused." Column by Marc Victor.
MUST READ "There is a certain suspension of disbelief attendant to those social and political theories endorsing endless and boundless murder, theft and fraud (i.e. "statecraft"); one must believe, with the naive faith of a child who believes that world hunger can be eradicated by making a law that everyone can have ice cream for dinner if they want it, that one may kill the goose bearing golden eggs and still have eggs every day for the taking. The iron laws of time, human desire, and economics are in the process of refuting that belief; its defense rings hollow, there are no believable Utopian adherents of this philosophy anymore, only those that make no pretense about wanting to kill millions of people and suck the marrow from their bones for the sake of their own glorification and what they conceive of as a better world, organized by boot heel and rifle butt." Column by Szechuan Death, who sounds like a libertarian Mark Morford.
SpyChips: How Major Corporations and Govt. Plan to Track Your Every Move With RFID MUST READ Chapter 1 of a new book by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre. You can buy the book by clicking on the link at the end.
MUST
READ "To
define anarchy as statist-government failure is such an obvious distortion of
the concept of a free society that it is hard to decide where to begin to
dismantle such thoughtlessness. I
like to begin by simply pointing out that at least four layers of
statist-government agencies still claim jurisdiction over the area known as
Serene Outlaw: Henry David Thoreau in His Second Century MUST READ "At times, Thoreau thundered at his readers like a Calvinist preacher, rhapsodized like an Indian prophet, stung like a gadfly or chided their sensibilities as a droll friend. The odd collection of essayists who write for Strike The Root, and the thousands of readers who peruse the columns there may hardly reflect on the moralist under whose portrait their work appears, but by striving to write essays on a variety of topics, many of them dedicated to the rights of individuals, they keep his standards alive." Column by Doug Herman.
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