Strike The Root Blog

Chesley B. (”Sully”) Sullenberger is a god.

Seriously. If I were to run into the guy on the street tomorrow, I would simply be in awe of his presence. That’s because Sullenberger actually crash landed a malfunctioning U.S. Airways jet on the Hudson friggin’ River and nobody was seriously injured. That is just positively amazing. It’s one of those achievements that should stand as a glaring reminder to the rest of us as to what human beings can really accomplish. That act was nothing less than the culmination of many years of intense focus, careful study and much mastering of some very tricky technical skills. Just amazing.

It’s interesting, though, that I hear so many people around me mention his experience as an F-4 fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force. The upshot of these conversations is thank the gods for “our” military, so that people can learn such highly valued, life-saving skills. The irony never seems to dawn on these people that the mission of the armed forces is to destroy human life, whereas Sullenberger preserved human life.

But they also seem to forget that Sullenberger has been flying commercial airliners since about 1980, whereas he spent only six years in the Air Force. Why jump to the conclusion that what Sullenberger was able to do yesterday must have come from his military experience, rather than from his more numerous years as a commercial airline pilot?

And why this assumption that only the military could provide the kind of training needed to fly airplanes so skillfully? It’s true that many military pilots take their flying experience into the commercial airline industry. But surely if there was no military at all, that does not mean that we would all be doomed to flying in planes piloted by incompetents. There’s no reason to doubt that some of the billions and billions of dollars that would be spared from “national defense” each year would instead be spent by the airline industry itself, or currently existing flight schools, on continuously improving pilot training and education.

Interestingly, Sullenberger is the founder of a business that provides “technical expertise and strategic vision and direction to improve safety and reliability in a variety of high risk industries.” Sullenberger’s actions yesterday demonstrate that highly skilled individuals offering their technical expertise in the marketplace in pursuit of their own personal gain—rather than myriad bureaucrats and their rules and regulations—are the most effective at keeping people safe in potentially dangerous situations.

(Cross-posted at The Postmodern Tribune.)

He’s drinkin’ again:

A political office for sale? Why the shock?

Gimme your best shot:

The Old/New Deal- Swapping lives for pretty rags:

Spread the terror- Collateral damage at home:

New corporate acronyms on the horizon- Gimme Money!….

….and Finance Our Rotten Designs!

Don’t let Johnny Law steal your Christmas:

Rule of Politics #23: Always put the receptive and easily convinced in the front row:

Save your breath- reason won’t work:

Dude, where’s my job?

Slammin’ concrete- another important defensive function:

How you’ll soon be flying the friendly skies:

It won’t happen sittin’ down. For state-initiated change, stand up and grab your ankles:

Snow in New Orleans- Reality just won’t conform to the climate kooks:

Start a hot new career in law enforcement!:

Socialist monkey wrenchers continue to give true anarchists a bad name:

Taking the lives of children isn’t enough for US Crusaders- Now, they’re taking their toys:

Entertainment on Capitol Hill- Watching the taxpayer get roped and tied:

Fly the rag proudly- Land of the Cowards and Home of the Slaves:

In case you haven’t already, be sure to check out Root Striker Roger Young’s new article for LewRockwell.com, “Proud To Be a Vietnam Vet?”

Roger asks some pretty difficult questions that may cause the heads of many in our statist culture to explode from the sheer internal pressure built up by cognitive dissonance.

Scott Horton has posted an interview with freelance investigative journalist Christopher Ketcham at Antiwar.com Radio that I highly recommend.

Ketcham discusses his latest article for RadarOnline, “The Last Roundup”, in which he tells of a government data base (or perhaps network of government data bases) allegedly code named “Main Core”, which may contain names and personal information on as many as 8 million Americans considered to be potentially obstructive of Uncle Sam’s “Continuity of Government” operations in the event of some kind of national crisis or emergency. These individuals “could be subject to everything from heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even detention,” according to Ketcham.

(more…)

The US government has spent billions on attempting to curb the growth of terrorism abroad, and as usual has failed miserably. Meanwhile, eco-terrorists continue to strike at home.

I found an amusing entry for the Earth Liberation Front (ELF) at Wikipedia: “Any direct action to halt the destruction of the environment and adhering to the strict nonviolent guidelines, listed below, can be considered an ELF action. Economic sabotage and property destruction fall within the guidelines.”

Since when is any form of destruction nonviolent? The obscenity of willful property destruction is bad enough. The worse crime is to suggest that it’s justifiable.

Ahh, the hypocritical. I’m willing to bet that there’s not one Christian member of ELF, and they’re all shrilly opposed to any law that smacks of religious morals. Good for them. Yet at the same time, they force their morals on the rest of us, acting as judge, jury, and executioner for those who offend their environmental sensibilities.

My recommendation for those threatened by ELF: arm yourself, and defend your property to the death if necessary. Make it bloody if you have to. The government’s too busy fighting terrorists elsewhere, even though the ELF has been identified as the #1 terrorist group in the US.

On March 19th, a group of anti-war protesters will surround the IRS building to mark the 5th anniversary of the massive injustice that is the invasion and ongoing occupation of Iraq. The objective is some good old-fashioned, non-violent civil disruption.

(Though if they really want to annoy the military-industrial complex at its financial source, they should consider a blockade of this building, too.)

Thanks to Francois Tremblay for the tip.

Today is the “Super Tuesday” of presidential primaries, during which people in half the states (or something like that) go to the polls and cast their votes for a new Commandant-in-Chief. My fellow Illinoisians are among those scheduled to exercise the precious privilege of choosing who will fleece them and everyone else, bully and imprison people for all sorts of harmless “crimes,” and kill who knows how many others over the next few years.

As fate would have it, I’ve been laid up at home with quite a humdinger of a cold. But I would not be participating, regardless of my state of health, in keeping with a solemn vow I made once upon a time. My well-being and self-interest is not contingent upon pressing a button on a computer screen, or punching a piece of paper and dropping it into a box (or however it is they do it around here these days). Certainly, neither is my freedom. If it were, then I would be a slave, and I’ve vowed never to be one. This isn’t to deny that, unfortunately, there are others who do wish to enslave me and millions of others and who make every attempt to do so, but I’ll be damned if I’ll concede moral ground to these criminal usurpers. Neither should anyone else.

In between drinking jags of hot tea and supping on the odd bowl of hot soup (I’m quite partial to Wolfgang Puck’s chicken tortilla soup right now), I’ve been perusing Strike-the-Root’s non-voting archive, as well as Lew Rockwell’s non-voting archive.

I’d say it’s been a pretty productive day, ill health notwithstanding. Don’t know if I could say as much for my voting neighbors.

See also: RadGeek.com: “WWLSD?”

Brad Spangler directs our attention to two great online pieces that I highly recommend.

In the wake of all the latest debate taking place throughout the libertarian blogosphere over the issue of whether or not any libertarian should support the Ron Paul presidential campaign, Spangler has posted “The Damnation of Bill Bradford,” an excellent condemnation of voting written by the late Samuel E. Konkin III. Konkin’s piece was a response to the late Liberty editor Bill Bradford’s article “Voting Is No Sin”, which itself was a response to Wendy McElroy’s “Why I Would Not Vote [Against Hitler].”

The other piece to which Spangler provides us a link was written by Charles Johnson (he of RadGeek.com): “Scratching By: How Government Creates Poverty As We Know It.”

Contrary to many decades of liberal welfare-state apologist propaganda and conservative preaching about “individual responsibility” (a line eventually co-opted by Clintonian liberals), the state is indeed the enemy—not the friend, not the ally, not the protector nor the benefactor—of the poor. As Charles Johnson eloquently illustrates, the state should just GTF out of their way and let them do what they need to do to live.

The always sharp and perceptive Root Striker Stefan Molyneux recently taped a great discussion with Brad Spangler and Wendy McElroy on the topic of the “Ron Paul Revolution” for Molyneux’s Freedomain Radio series. There are some really excellent points raised by everyone involved. This should be of particular interest to longtime veterans of the libertarian movement who are supporting and planning to vote for Paul.

(And there’s some other great stuff discussed besides the Paul movement.)

Thanks to Brad Spangler for the link.

Happy Pearl Harbor Day, everybody!

After all, if it wasn’t for that Jap-attack snapping this “isolationist” country from its slumber, “We” would never have transformed into the Mighty American Empire, and who then would have protected “Us” from not only the Japs, but the Russkies, the Chinks, the Koreans and all other assorted Commie-Gooks, the Mexican landscapers, and most importantly, the Islamo-Nazis????

Yes, it’s quite sad that a few thousand individuals had to die on that fateful day, but isn’t that a small price to pay in exchange for a permanent cocoon of complete security??? It is due to their glorious sacrifice that today we are all free to play video games, sing along with Don’t Forget the Lyrics! and just generally have a good time partying with our “capitalist” system.

God Bliss America!!!