Recent comments

"Authority is yours to delegate or to keep, and no one can [rightfully] take it from you. Revoke your delegation of authority..." ~ tzo [Emphasis added] Declaration of Independence Formal Notice of Individual Secession Secession. The act of withdrawing from membership in a group. ~ Black’s Law Dictionary, Abridged Sixth Edition, copyright 1991, page 940 When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for a man to dissolve the bands which have connected him with a body politic, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Law of Nature and Nature’s God entitle him, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that he should declare the cause(s) which impel him to the separation. ″We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that [is to say] they are endowed by their Creator with certain Inalienable Rights″[1], "rights which can never be abridged because they are so fundamental"[2], that among these Natural Rights are Life, Liberty, and justly acquired Property, "together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can"[3]. To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men[4], deriving their just powers from the Consent of the governed, – and whenever any Government becomes destructive of these Inalienable Rights, every man has the Lawful Authority to Withdraw his Consent, and to return to the separate and equal station to which the Law of Nature[5] and Nature’s God entitles him. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be Seceded from for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that men are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by Withdrawing from the governments to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to Secede from such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of this Man; and such is now the necessity that constrains this Man to Secede from this Government. The history of the United States Government, rather than securing, has a record of repeated injuries to, and usurpation of, Man’s Inalienable Rights, all having as their direct objective the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over men. I, Robert Wilfred, therefore, being a Lawful Man, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of my intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the Creator of the heavens, the earth and the seas, and all that in them is, solemnly publish and declare, this Man is, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent, that he is Absolved from all Allegiance to the United States, and any and all States under the authority of the United States, and that all political connection between him and the aforementioned States, is and ought to be Totally Dissolved; and that as a Free and Independent Man, I have full Power to Arm and Protect Myself, my Loved Ones, and my justly acquired Possessions, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Trade, Possess Land, Travel Freely and to do all other Acts and Things which Free and Independent Men may of Natural Right do. ******************************************************************************** [1] Excerpted from: The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America [2] Black’s Law Dictionary, Abridged Sixth Edition, copyright 1991, page 1057 [3] "Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: first, a right to life; secondly, to liberty; thirdly to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can." ~ Samuel Adams, signer of the American Declaration of Independence [4] “Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights . . . and to take none of them from us. No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him . . . and the idea is quite unfounded, that on entering into society we give up any natural right.” ~ Thomas Jefferson (c.1816), author of the American Declaration of Independence [5] The law of nature is superior in obligation to any other. It is binding in all countries and at all times. No human laws are valid if opposed to this, and all which are binding derive their authority either directly or indirectly from it. ~ Institutes of American Law by John Bouvier, 1851, Part I, Title II, No. 9 Notice to the Agent is Notice to the Principal; Notice to the Principal is Notice to the Agent Amen and amen. Authors Signature ________________________________ First Witness ____________________________________ Second Witness __________________________________

I'm not making excuses for the professional perverts, but honestly, why are so many Americans still flying? And why, oh why would ANYONE bring a child to an airport?

"We need only walk away from the leviathan in sufficient numbers, and it will fall, never to return." ~ Alex R. Knight III Good luck on the "no violence", "sufficient numbers", and "never to return". At the risk of sounding very negative and with all due respect, Alex R. Knight III, I believe history shows us that the Powers-That-Be will seldom, if ever, truly give up their seat of power, with "no violence", just look at our own so-called Civil War; also, I fear that if we wait for "sufficient numbers", "the end of all such constructs" may never happen, which is why Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world", and lastly, "never to return" is, in my opinion, only a "fantasy".

Glen, thanks for putting together another presentation of the libertarian-love connection. It might be interesting for you to follow in the coming months a new school project that we libertarian/anarchists (not LP) in San Diego are pursuing. It is a form of learner-directed school that emphasizes internal motivation instead of rewards and punishments. On FaceBook until we build the web site, we have a group called Summum Bonum Learning Center (https://www.facebook.com/groups/191576390889811). It is a new kind of alternative school we are planning here, and I believe it is unique in the learning and libertarian communities. It is an alternative school that uses much of the good aspects of the Summerhill and Sudbury schools, but without the coercive democratic voting aspects of both. The principals are all libertarians and trainers and former educators. Like you, we are deeply interested in healthy psychological perceptions and communication -- including the observations of the non-violent communication method of Marshall Rosenberg (http://www.cnvc.org/). I'm putting together the business plan, which will be revealed at Libertopia in San Diego here in October 2011 (http://libertopia.org/). Like you, we have found the toxic psychological crippling of our society affects libertarians just as much as the coercivists of the left and right, and our group at Cafe Libertalia, which hosts a weekly Mises Mondays discussion, has many members that are hip to nonviolent communication. It's good to see so many people getting hip to this perception.

Yes, Suverans, I suppose I was. I should have said "the prohibition of drugs, including that 'noble' experiment, alcohol prohibition."

Ron is banging his head against the wall, but I did find myself laughing and applauding.

The only people prohibition was ever meant to protect were paranoid whites from the minorities they oppressed and certain politicians from well-deserved obscurity. That nonsense about protecting me from my own choices can easily be disproved with a little research into the nature of illegal drugs -- most of them are neither dangerous nor addictive -- and drug arrests, most of which involve a drug that has never, ever killed anyone and a level of violence that would be unacceptable from American soldiers in any other part of the world. That said, please explain exactly how one "leaves the circus."

Thank you, Greg.

The destruction of human life and liberty isn't an "unintended consequence" of the drug war -- it's the WHOLE POINT. Of course our so-called "leaders" don't want it to end. It's giving them exactly what they want.

"The progressive campaign against obesity relies on the assumption that the individual no longer owns his or her own body" HELLO! Can you spell "prohibition"? Can you spell "drug war"? How about "mandatory substance abuse treatment"? For decades, the vast majority of Americans have sat in fat, dumb, happy silence while literally millions of us were harrassed, arrested, imprisoned and gunned down in cold blood on the assumption that "society," aka "our government," owns our bodies. Oh, but threaten to take away their Quarter-pounders, and listen to them wail. And you think even one of these bozos sees a connection? Not freakin' likely. This would be funny if it weren't so tragic.

Suverans2, I'm no expert either, but FWIW here is the way I understand it: 1) You can continue to store the bitcoins you have on local storage media 2) But network connectivity is necessary so that the bitcoin transactions can be confirmed as valid 3) If the global internet were shut down temporarily then bitcoin transactions could resume as soon as the internet or parts of it were restored 4) If the global internet were shutdown permanently, then confirmation of bitcoin transactions could occur over some other kind of network (e.g. Freenet) as long as some part of the communications infrastructure remained intact - Greg

"I'm aware that they still have to interface with state school officials in submitting to testing (all grandkids test far above mean "normal" scores), allowing "inspections", etc." Actually, they don't. There are an awful lot of "noncompliant" homeschoolers out there. On the homeschooling email list I frequent, newbies often come on asking how they can get right with the state. I always ask them why they would want to do that. I point out to them that many homeschoolers on the list who registered wish they hadn't, but none who refrained wish they had. I told them I considered the raising of children none of the governments' business, and they might try looking at it that way. I also of course point out penalties for noncompliance are very mild and almost never applied (to my knowledge). Sometimes it makes sense to wait until they put a gun to your head before complying. It keeps in mind our fundamental relationship with the state, a coercive one; we should never forget it. And a lot of the time they never get around to it. Let's not willingly enslave ourselves for their benefit.

Half way to universal distrust of Congress.

Half way where?

Delete double-post.

Non-Aggression Principle. I fully embrace the NAP, even if citizenship in the NAP territorial monopoly of non-force eludes me (even as coerced citizenship in the American territorial monopoly of force saddles me yet).

Paul, what is NAP? Having been in sales in my former life I am familiar with Dale Carnegie's training, but I can't recall the acronym NAP.

A bunch of hogwash. The 2011 version of the "missile gap". The ruling class will try anything to get our attention focused on anything but them.

I know Molyneux has made an attempt to build a proof of natural law, but I am not entirely satisfied with what he has done and his critics are pretty convincing that he's not succeeded. It's well worth the study, but the fact is, the world IS based on "might makes right". Always has been, right back to the dawn of life. We humans (some anyway) would like to get away from that, and it might even happen that some day virtually all will live by something better. But for now and a long time to come, it's merely a theoretical exercise. I don't take it as a given that there "exists a set of objective, ethical rules that can be discovered". I think there might be, and life would be better if there were and if people adhered to them consistently, but I don't think life would end if it were not possible to prove them. Some obvious rules of thumb already exist (NAP, stuff Dale Carnegie has written for getting along with other human beings, etc.) and that may be as good as it gets. And that is pretty good, maybe good enough. Even if there is a proof out there, 99.99% of the human race will never understand it. They can grasp a few rules of thumb though.

"One cannot remain an anarchist and take part in...government." ~ Carl Watner "Take part in...government" seems to mean, to Carl, at least, that One can maintain membership in, and be entitled to, the privileges doled out by the government...so long as One "does not vote" or "compete for a position of power". I put forth, that if One hasn't withdrawn from membership in the body politic, then One IS "a player", and IS already in a "position of power", regardless of whether One utilizes that "power" or not, i.e. whether One votes or not. If, however, One's vote does not have the "power" to "alter or abolish" the government, as some here contend, (with which I agree), then One withholding his or her vote is a virtually meaningless act. And, I can only begin to imagine some of the interpretations "...or support the players of the game in any other way" might engender, so I will stay away from that can of worms, for the time being.

The brutal fact is, unless you're prepared to tie yourself in logical knots, the primary works of all the major religions are palpably hogwash. We are all atheists when it comes to the other guys' gods - which means that the average religious person is only one god away from an actual sensible view of things. By all means, wonder at the beauty of nature: I'm all for that, be it a bunch of mountains or the unmistakeable evidence of intelligence in the eyes of an orang-utan. But if you then want to appropriate the role of sole interlocutor with some putative higher power: fuck you and the ass you rode in on. The other thing I find abhorrent about religious types is that - at root - it is about worship of power. If HWHY didn't have the ability to kick serious ass, nobody would be cutting the end off their cock to appease him. (Srsly - is that even a thing? It's retarded). Douglas Adams may not have coined the term 'the fundamental interconnectedness of everything', but the first time I read that phrase was in a book of his ("Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency") - I am absolutely open to the possibility that we are all wi-fi enabled, but some of us are out of range of the router or have the wrong password.... or that there are multiple routers. What I am NOT open to, is the idea that from the hundreds of quintillions of stars in the tens of billions of galaxies that we are aware of, the 'Creator' chose our ludicrously tiny ball of rock. And I am even LESS open to the idea that he chose an incestuous Mesopotamian goatherd to father the Master Race, in exchange for cock-snippings-in-perpetuity (plus burnt offal, blood sprinkling on the altar, a campaign of genocide... and the sine qua non: mindless obeisance). And given the (sensible) idea that the fruit of a poisoned tree is not to be trusted, anything that derives from that story is ipso facto to be rejected. And if that makes baby Jeebus cry, then no doubt he can call in a predator Drone strike to generate some more blood for his lunatic Dad. One last word on the 'fundamental interconnectedness of everything'... whoever maintains the router for the likes of Blair, Cheney and Sarkozy needs to have their admin password hacked.

All are a menace except for the likes of thee, and me... ...and I'm not so sure we should trust thee. Sam

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely", because power attracts corrupted/corruptible individuals. "I had a step-grandson who used to set fires....played with GI Joes until he was 16...and molested my two natural Grandchildren. He admitted the molestation to the thugs(pigs) and was NOT held accountable...perhaps because his father was a firefighter and part of the thug brotherhood. He is now in his twenties and....drum roll please.....has become a pig...in louisiana, no less!!!! ~ Comment by Beloved Infidel

Double post please delete! wt???