Did you know that the federal government is regulating the volume of TV commercials? →

Occupy Mordor or Destroy the Ring? →

booksofthought:

letterstomylunacy:

Group 1) OWS/”Left”: Wants to confront the power of Sauron directly in battle using the one ring and “Occupy Mordor”. They want to use the power of the state (the ring) to reign in and defeat the corporations (Sauron). Boramir counts himself among this camp.

Group 2) Libertarians: Understand the nature of Sauron’s power and see that the key to his power is the One Ring. Rather than fight Sauron directly, or try to wield The Ring’s corrupting influence, they seek to remove the source of Sauron’s power. They seek to destroy the privilege granted by governments to corporations, they seek to destroy the One Ring.”

(via antigovernmentextremist)

"It is not unfair to make an American citizen account for the fact that they (sic) decided to help al-Qaida to kill us all and hold them as long as it takes to find intelligence about what may be coming next. And when they (sic) say ‘I want my lawyer,’ you tell them ‘Shut up. You don’t get a lawyer."

snake Senator Lindsay Graham on his support of the National Defense Authorization Act. (via laliberty)

(via statehate)

Libertarian Book List

evilteabagger:

I’ve been in a list mood lately. Here are links to buy them and online versions if I can find them.

In no particular order:

• The Law by Frederic Bastiat (HTML Version)
• The Ethics of Liberty by Murray Rothbard (pdf)
• Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt (HTML version)
• For a New Liberty by Murray Rothbard
• End the Fed by Ron Paul
• Liberty Defined by Ron Paul
• I, Pencil by Leonard Read
• The God of the Machine by Isabella Patterson (pdf)
• Defending the Undefendable by Walter Block (pdf)
• America’s Great Depression by Murray Rothbard (pdf)
• Meltdown by Tom Woods
• How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes by Peter Schiff
• In Defense of Freedom by Frank Meyer
• Anarchy, State and Utopia by Robert Nozick (pdf download)
• The State Against Blacks by Walter Williams (pdf download)
• Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand
• Declaration of Independents by Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch
• The Creature from Jekyll Island by Edward Griffin
• On Liberty by John Stuart Mill (HTML version)
• Human Action by Ludwig von Mises (pdf) + Study Guide by Robert Murphy
• Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek (pdf)
• Bastiat’s Candlemaker’s Petition

Also make sure to check out the Austro-libertarian book list Brian put together earlier this year as well as LALiberty’s concise book list on introductory and intermediate libertarian philosophy and economics.

(Source: antigovernmentextremist, via statehate)

George Will sums up my thoughts on Gingrich perfectly

evilteabagger:

“Mr. Gingrich said it’s not enough that he is the smartest guy in the room, he also has to be wise,” Will said. “Now you can associate many things with Mr. Gingrich, but wisdom isn’t one of them. Surely the Republican nominating electorate should understand the fact that people have patterns. Don’t expect the patterns to go away. Expect the patterns to manifest themselves again. If Newt Gingrich has any pattern at all, and he does – it is a pattern of getting himself into trouble because he thinks he is the smartest guy in the room.”

Will said that he thought Gingrich actually believed it when he said he was going to be the Republican nominee, particularly because the stage in Gingrich’s mind “is lit by the fires of crisis and grandeur.

“Ask yourself this: Suppose Gingrich or Romney become president and gets re-elected – suppose you had eight years of this,” Will said. “What would the conservative movement be? How would it understand itself after eight years? I think what would have gone away, perhaps forever, is the sense of limited government, the 10th Amendment, Madisonian government of limited, delegated and enumerated powers – the sense conservatism is indeed tied to limitations on federal authority and the police power wielded by Congress – that would all be gone. It’s hard to know what would be left.”

(Source: dailycaller.com, via antigovernmentextremist)

Americans are not better than other people

jeffmiller:

theweekmagazine:

The average American spends $700 a year on holiday gifts. If each American spent $64 of that on products made in America this year, it could create 200,000 domestic jobs.

Let’s assume this dubious assertion is factual.  The corresponding fact is that it would destroy an equal (or probably greater) number of foreign jobs.  Those foreign jobs are held by human beings.  Human being with families.  Human beings with needs.  Human beings worth every bit as much as a human being lucky enough to be born in the United States.  Just because you can’t see these human beings doesn’t mean they don’t exist.  Just because you don’t know these human beings doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care about them.  

So what should a considerate person do when they make their holiday purchases?  My humble suggestion:  Buy the products that best match your needs.  Because whoever is meeting your needs is actually pretty deserving of your money, even if they don’t speak your language, or look like you.  Even if they live far away. 

(via stfujaime-deactivated20111213)

newsweek:

A bloodied protester at Zuccotti Park. More here, which alleges this punishment was for knocking off an officer’s hat (including a shot of cops taking off his pants?!).

[Photo by Chang W. Lee/The New York Times]

Bankers are not responsible for this.

Hedge fund managers are not responsible for this.

Executives from Walmart or McDonald’s are not responsible for this.

This is the work of agents of the State.  The same State that these protesters would like to further empower, the same State that they want to solve our economic woes, the same State they believe can bring about justice.

I still don’t understand why the target of these protests is Wall Street… Wall Street can’t force a single penny out of you.  No banker or executive can force you to do anything without the backing of the State.

DEA Hit Sqauds Active in Latin America →

legalizeheroin:

The D.E.A. now has five commando-style squads it has been quietly deploying for the past several years to Western Hemisphere nations — including Haiti, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Belize — that are battling drug cartels, according to documents and interviews with law enforcement officials.

The program — called FAST, for Foreign-deployed Advisory Support Team — was created during the George W. Bush administration to investigate Taliban-linked drug traffickers in Afghanistan. Beginning in 2008 and continuing under President Obama, it has expanded far beyond the war zone.

more…

The same old drill: would it be acceptable if a foreign law enforcement agency was secretly deploying assassination squads in the United States?  Rick Perry was roundly criticized when he suggested deploying US troops in Mexico, but is this really any different?  At least Perry’s hypothetical invasion would presumably require authorization by Congress; as things stand, the DEA wages their secret war without anything resembling a democratic mandate.

Related:In Mexico, American Agents Wiretap With ImpunityCables Portray Expanded Reach of DEA

jeffmiller:

cognitivedissonance:

From @WilbotOsterman:

Cops empty out Occupy Chapel Hill with assault rifles like it’s Baghdad. They really love protecting banks’ property

This is beyond disturbing. Do they think this is Call of Duty or something? The militarization of the police force in the US is ridiculous. It’s almost as if some of these cops want to be military, but not deployed. 

It’s sick.

This is what libertarians are talking about when they talk about coercion.  

The Occupy folks aren’t obeying the law with their encampments.  Whether that’s a big deal or not is debatable.  But the picture above shows how law is enforced.  

Whenever you pass a law, the picture above is what enforces it.

The picture above is why libertarians don’t think we should pass laws unless they are really, really, really, really necessary.  Sure, you can always pay your fine and say you’re sorry.  Because those who don’t accept that what they’ve done is wrong will always get the treatment in the picture above.

The picture above is the Obamacare insurance mandate.

The picture above is eminent domain.

The picture above is taxation.

The picture above is the war on drugs.

The picture above is environmental regulation.

The picture above is antitrust law.

The picture above is immigration law.

The picture above is conscription.

The picture above is campaign finance reform.

The picture above is every law against unpasteurized milk.  It’s the seatbelt law.  It’s zoning.  It’s regulations about what wood can be used to make guitars.

The picture above is how we finance our wars.  It’s how we provide healthcare for our elderly.  It’s a prescription drug plan.  

The picture above is what you have to be comfortable with every time you support the passage of a law.  And if you’re not comfortable with the picture above, then you shouldn’t be comfortable with the law you just passed.

I’m not saying that we don’t need laws.  I’m just saying that laws are serious things, and too many people treat them like trifles.  Our politicians vote for 1000 pages bills they haven’t read that that don’t make any sense, and then they forget about it … and three years later someone is on the other end of an assault weapon, praying they aren’t shot by an officer who is “just doing his job.”

The police that the Occupy folks complain about are the same police so many of them want to send to arrest everyone on Wall Street, for crimes can’t actually identify.  This ought to make them think a little about what their demands ought to be.  It ought to, but it won’t.  And that’s the saddest thing about the picture above.