The Real Debate
Alex R. Knight III
2009-12-20 17:00
Exclusive to STR
Most of STR's readers by now are likely no longer deluded by the falsehood of the Left Wing vs. Right Wing argument. Most of you correctly perceive both "wings" as really being one force unified against individual liberty in both economic and personal affairs. However, it occurred to me recently that--even in libertarian circles--there is still a strong perception of...
Things to Do While Boycotting July 4
Alex R. Knight III
2009-07-03 16:00
Exclusive to STR
July 2, 2009
It's been a tradition of mine, lo these past few years, and I certainly feel no shame about it. After all, July 4, 1776 , was a unique and very limited event. A group of 56 men, incensed by the tyranny of King George III in Great Britain , declared the land and inhabitants therein of 13 colonies, free from this regent's control.
I Don't and Won't Vote: Here's Why
Alex R. Knight III
2009-06-08 03:00
Exclusive to STR
It was really Larken Rose’s idea, not mine. In case you don’t know who Larken is, he is a fellow anarchist, but is more infamous still for his assertion that there is in fact no government law that makes anyone liable for the U.S. income tax. While I agree with his overall assessment, I...
Statism Is a Poisoned Mind
Alex R. Knight III
2009-05-17 16:00
Exclusive to STR
May 18, 2009
To fully appreciate and understand the hurdles we voluntaryists face in imparting the rational truth about government to the general public, observe this particular spectacle: an excerpt from an article written by Leon Wieseltier, titled 'Washington Diarist: Love Me I'm a Liberal,' published in the March 4, 2009 edition of The New Republic:
Don't Answer the Census
Alex R. Knight III
2009-05-07 16:00
Exclusive to STR
If you're already familiar with Lysander Spooner's "No Treason IV: The Constitution of No Authority," then you know that the U.S. Constitution isn't even worth the paper it's printed on. This becomes all the more visible when you bear witness to how selectively government either enforces or doesn't enforce it, based on whatever happens to be to the advantage of those...
Should Voluntaryists Own Guns?
Alex R. Knight III
2009-02-17 17:00
Exclusive to STR
Before answering that question, it seems profitable to delineate all of the various reasons or motivations anyone--not just voluntaryists--might find to own firearms. I'll start with the more trivial, and work my way down to the serious:
1.) Target and Sport Shooting: Like many recreational activities, this can also improve manual and mental dexterity. Sport shooting is a...
Vermont's Red Badge of Courage
Alex R. Knight III
2009-02-09 17:00
Exclusive to STR
February 10, 2009
Of late, the dogmatically left-wing media apparatus here in Vermont has been broadcasting with great zeal the fact that the Brady Campaign, and the New England Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, have just unilaterally denounced the lack of gun laws in Green Mountain country as 'the worst in the nation.' Here's a brief laundry list of the facts these wonderful...
I Believe in Common-Sense Too, Obama: I'm Buying More Guns
Alex R. Knight III
2008-12-15 04:00
Exclusive to STR
In an article published on December 8th by the Chicago Sun-Times, Barack Obama was quoted as saying the following: "I believe in common-sense gun safety laws, and I believe in the Second Amendment," Obama said at a news conference. "Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I said that throughout the campaign. I haven't indicated anything different during the...
Ready for Revolution?
Alex R. Knight III
2008-12-07 17:00
Exclusive to STR
December 8, 2008
According to Gerald Celente, you'd better be. Celente is the CEO of Trends Research Institute, who in mid-November made public his prediction that by 2012, America will witness mass food riots, squatters rebellions by the homeless, tax rebellions by the economically strapped, and even pockets of armed resistance as economic conditions worsen.
Libertarians, the Party's Over
Alex R. Knight III
2008-11-04 17:00
Exclusive to STR
November 5, 2008
This is an open letter to any and all 'Libertarian' Party folks; those of you who are still clinging desperately to the notions that libertarians will someday be electable candidates for office, and that by engaging and subsequently entering the political system, you can then dismantle, reduce ' or even eliminate it altogether ' from within.
Dark Thoreau: Another Side to Henry David
Alex R. Knight III
2008-10-30 17:00
Exclusive to STR
October 31, 2008
Happy Halloween, everyone. I thought I might take this opportunity to share with you a book by Walter E. Bridgman, Dark Thoreau (University of Nebraska Press, 1982). Strike The Root seems the best venue for this, of course -- and on what better day?
With Government, You've Already Lost
Alex R. Knight III
2008-09-29 16:00
Exclusive to STR
September 30, 2008
It doesn't have to be anything as dramatic as being dragged into court on criminal charges, though that certainly qualifies. It might be a routine traffic stop, whether or not the cop issues you a fine. It might be a nastygram sent via the U.S. postal monopoly from the IRS . It may only be one of those absurd forms the U.S. Census Bureau mails to us every...
Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign
Alex R. Knight III
2008-09-23 16:00
Exclusive to STR
To my disgust, there's one down at the end of my driveway at the time of this writing. Well, okay, it's really only half my driveway, even though I own the land immediately adjacent to either side of it. It's shared with my seasonal neighbor, who shall remain anonymous, and who departs for Florida every year before the snow begins to fly here in Vermont. Not that I envy him '...
Thoreau: Anarchist, Minarchist, or Individualist?
Alex R. Knight III
2008-02-28 17:00
Exclusive to STR
Was Thoreau an anarchist, a minarchist, or merely an aloof individualist to whom the State was an at-hand example to be used in illustrating further philosophical points? I'd like to re-examine Thoreau thusly.
Perhaps the first place to turn one's attention in this regard is 'Resistance to Civil Government' ' or, 'Civil Disobedience' if we defer to Thoreau's later title. At the...
The NRA: Friend of Freedom, or Foe of Firearms?
Alex R. Knight III
2008-02-07 17:00
Exclusive to STR
February 8, 2008
From a recent solicitation letter I received from the National Rifle Association in order to increase membership, I excerpt the following quote: 'We actively work to fight anti-gun media bias by encouraging law-abiding gun owners like you to stand tall and defend our freedoms without apology or compromise.'
Socialism Does Not Exist
Alex R. Knight III
2007-09-23 16:00
Exclusive to STR
September 24, 2007
Let's take a brief trip back to high school civics class (yes, I know it was likely a government school, but I'm sure not to blame for that) and review the four major known systems of economics:
1. Communism: In this model, both ownership and operation of all means of production lies exclusively in the hands of the State.
Don't Burn Your Bra, Just Stop Wearing It
Alex R. Knight III
2007-08-22 16:00
Exclusive to STR
As filmmaker Aaron Russo (The Rose, Trading Places, most recently America: Freedom To Fascism) tells it, he was sitting around sipping drinks with Nick Rockefeller when the latter asked him what he thought the whole Women's Lib movement, culminating in the early 1970s, had been about. Russo responded that he thought it was mostly about equal pay for equal work and universal...
Put the Monster in the Cornfield
Alex R. Knight III
2007-08-12 16:00
Exclusive to STR
August 13, 2007
As resident horror/sci-fi/fantasy buff here at STR , I'd like to draw to your attention an old and rather famous Twilight Zone episode. It's the one about a small rural town in Ohio , a town every single bit as Norman Rockwell as the early 1960s in which it fictitiously existed. A serene, peaceful, sleepy place to live.
Until the monster came to town.
Time in a Bottle: American POWs Left Behind in Vietnam
Alex R. Knight III
2007-07-02 16:00
Exclusive to STR
July 3, 2007
It was, I suppose, otherwise a typical overnight for me; listening to Coast To Coast AM in the wee hours of this past May 30th. The subject matter, however, was such as I had not visited since at least the 1980s, when Rambo-type movies were in vogue -- Uncommon Valor (loosely based on true events) is one which comes to mind. It all made for great cinema, though...
The Day After
Alex R. Knight III
2007-03-25 16:00
Exclusive to STR
March 26, 2007
It was nothing like the ABC -TV special from November of 1983 (save one element) -- but it was November. 2008. The day before the presidential elections, to be specific.
That one element was the use of Soviet-era "suitcase nukes." Within bare minutes of each other, four of them detonated in various parts of the country. Though three of them occurred in...
Welcome to Anderson, Alaska!
Alex R. Knight III
2007-03-21 17:00
Exclusive to STR
March 22, 2007
Here's what you won't find here: there is NO: sales tax; "income" tax (Alaskans won't buy into the Feds' fraud--bravo to them!); property tax (that's right--absent any mortgage, you own your home and land free and clear!); gun control (though Alaska does ban certain types of "exotic" shotgun ammunition; Vermont is one up on the Last Frontier there).
What you...
Chuck Schumer, You Are the Essence of Evil
Alex R. Knight III
2007-02-26 17:00
Exclusive to STR
February 27, 2007
Senator Schumer:
I'll cut right to the chase. First off, I'll not refer to you as the "Honorable Charles Schumer," since there is not a single manner -- not one -- in which that adjective can possibly apply to you.
UFOs: What Does Government Know?
Alex R. Knight III
2007-02-25 17:00
Exclusive to STR
February 26, 2007
Well, here's what I know: I've never seen an unidentified flying object in my life. Yet I still believe they exist . . . whatever they may be. Certainly the number of sightings and reports -- going back centuries, and at the time of this writing we are witness to a global rash of them -- indicate some substance to the overall phenomenon. In truth, however,...
I Talk to the Wind
Alex R. Knight III
2007-01-31 17:00
Exclusive to STR
February 1, 2007
"I talk to the wind/My words are all carried away /I talk to the wind /The wind does not hear/The wind cannot hear."
So sang King Crimson way back in 1969, and these lyrics are especially poignant (if considerably more vile) when we substitute "bureaucrat" for "wind." Go ahead and do that right now and see what I mean.
Leave Government Alone!
Alex R. Knight III
2006-12-31 17:00
Exclusive to STR
January 1, 2007
Perhaps no one institution receives more derision on a more consistent basis, and yet somehow manages to carry on virtually unabated. This stands as either a testament to its noble heroicism, or evidence of a kind of Luciferian immortality. It all depends, I suppose, on where you think mankind stands.
Either way, we ought to leave government alone.
A Machiavellian Matrimony
Alex R. Knight III
2006-12-13 17:00
Exclusive to STR
December 14, 2006
Not for me. Of course, as I close in on 38, I'm still a bachelor which means no matrimony yet of any kind. I doubt it's in the cards. Here's why:
Authority Is the Problem
Alex R. Knight III
2006-12-04 17:00
Exclusive to STR
December 5, 2006
It occurred to me just recently that I've done some pretty amazing things in my life. That may well be said of many human lives, but as a bellwether by which you might gauge for yourself, here's a sampling: I have . . .
* scripted two radio ads which were recorded by a once-famous Hollywood actor.
* nearly backed into and stepped on the foot of another...
Chasing Rabbits: My First Experiments With Hallucinogens
Alex R. Knight III
2006-11-12 17:00
Exclusive to STR
November 13, 2006
'And if you go chasing rabbits, and you're sure you're going to fall, tell 'em a hookah smoking character has given you the fall . . . call Alice . . . when she was just small . . . .' ~ From 'White Rabbit' by Jefferson Airplane (Surrealistic Pillow, 1967)
This Is the Me Generation
Alex R. Knight III
2006-10-17 16:00
Exclusive to STR
October 18, 2006
We had better terminology back then, I think, to describe what we thought was wrong with the world. Anomie. Urban malaise. Existential grief of the 20th Century. Increasing lack of empathy. Ethical or racial ramifications of social dysfunction. Tedious words for tedious times. Encounter-group catchphrases. Yoga session buzzwords.
Reprint Rights
Recent comments by Alex R. Knight III
This user hasn't posted any comments yet.