Apple Pie Blog

The Leader of the Libertarian Movement

2008-02-12T19:10:00.000-08:00

With his current White House run, Ron Paul, has become the most significant Libertarian figure in modern American history. See Lew's latest article. He even mentions the Liberty Dollar!

Ron Paul's bid for the U.S. presidency ranks among the most heroic anyone has ever undertaken. We live in emergency times, with a choice between forms of socialism or fascism. The parties' leadership have embraced this decrepit old model, despite all evidence of the bankruptcy of statism. Ron alone dared pose a challenge. His bid has also been the most unusual in modern history. Its main energy has come not from a political machine, but from millions of volunteers, most of them young and most of them exposed to new political and economic truths for the first time.

In that sense, and in addition to garnering more primary votes than any libertarian candidate in American history, Ron has accomplished precisely what he set out to do. He has re-founded the libertarian movement on a principled basis, liberated the ideas of peace and free enterprise from monopolistic control, exposed the political apparatus for the fraud that it is, and laid the groundwork for a future flowering of liberty.

The Best Kept Secret

2008-01-26T09:34:00.000-08:00

Six and a half minutes of Ron Paul goodness.

What is a Dollar?

2008-01-26T07:20:00.000-08:00

According to the Mint Act of 1792, 371.25 grains of fine silver or 24.75 grains of fine gold. Just like a yard is 3 feet and a pint is 16 ounces. Get it?

From 1790–1913, the United States dollar was constant. It was tied to gold and/or silver. A dollar bought pretty much the same thing for Thomas Jefferson as it did for Teddy Roosevelt. A careful look at inflation rates from 1790–1913 shows some minor fluctuation, but for the most part, a 1913 dollar was the same as an 1850 dollar, and was the same as a 1790 dollar.

Of course, the pound, the mile, the yard, the foot, the pint, and the degree Fahrenheit, are carefully regulated and kept standard. It would be preposterous to say that back in 1908, the yard was comprised of sixty feet, or that a gallon was made up of eighty quarts. And yet, we accept the degradation and the devaluation of our currency as normal. We can't even compare economic data in our own day and age without saying something like "as measured in 1995 dollars" – since the dollar as a monetary unit is not standard, but is systematically devalued every year.

So, why was there no inflation (devaluation) of the currency until 1913? That's the year the United States created a central bank. The Constitution makes no provision for the Federal government to do any such thing, and the Constitution even specifies that money must be backed by gold and silver. But, of course, the folks that tell us the Constitution is a "living document" will tell us that the dollar simply must be "flexible" (while the same people would never in a thousand years propose a "flexible" foot, pound, or gallon to shrink over the course of time).

John Stossel Interviews Ron Paul

2008-01-22T18:02:00.000-08:00

Q: Is war ever justifiable?

A: Sure. If you’re attacked, you have a right and an obligation to defend (your) country. I do not believe there is ever a moral justification to start the war.

Q: What if there’s genocide and terrible suffering in a country?

A: It’s a tragedy, and we can have a moral statement, but you can’t use force of arms to invade other countries to make them better people. Our job is to make us a better people.

Read the entire interview here.

Paulonomics

2008-01-22T17:32:00.000-08:00

For many conservatives, what makes Paul seem like a nut is his absolute opposition to the war in Iraq and his insistence on immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East and most of the rest of the world. On the other hand, his views on abortion are perfectly in line with mainstream conservative values (although this side of Paul never seems to get any attention).

On the economics front, Paul is a delightful paradox. If you crack the nut shell and look objectively at what Paul is really advocating, conservatives will find that Paulonomics looks an awful lot like Reaganomics. Paulonomics emerges as a refreshing return to conservative roots: small government, low taxes, deregulation, and sound money. If Paulonomics seems nutty, that may say more about the sad state of events today, with “big government conservatism” having become the new touchstone.

The core concept of Paulonomics is the reduction in the size and cost of the federal government. Irking many of today’s conservatives, Paul emphasizes how this should include scaling back what he calls American “militarism,” beginning with a pullout of Iraq.

As a first step he advocates the elimination of all taxes on capital — estates, capital gains, interest income, and dividends. He told me, “It’s capital that you need to make capitalism work.”

Pimp My Ride

2008-01-04T06:22:00.000-08:00

This is a great article by Tucker Carlson on Ron Paul.

If you know Ron Paul primarily from watching the Republican debates, you probably assume he spends most of his time ranting about September 11 and the Iraq invasion. In fact, his real passion is Austrian economics. More even than the war, Paul despises paper currency, which he considers a hoax, "fiat money." He can become emotional talking about it. Caught in traffic in downtown Vegas on the way to an event, Paul looked out the window at the casinos and mused aloud: "Can you imagine when all those slot machines used real silver dollars? All that silver ... " His words trailed off, as in a pleasant daydream.

Ron Paul Raises $6.14 Million in 1 Day!

2007-12-17T06:14:00.000-08:00

Thank you to everybody who made a contribution. There were 59,170 people who donated an average of $102! The MSM has already picked up on it. Way to go guys!

The Most Libertarian City in the U.S.

2007-12-17T05:52:00.000-08:00

Austin, Texas. Hats off to my friend, Arlo, for making the Sunday edition of the Statesman with his Ron Paul car.

Famously, flagrantly liberal Austin has almost overnight become a crucial redoubt in a campaign to elect as president a libertarian Republican congressman from Lake Jackson.

"Austin is a place for open-minded people."

The Austin meetup group, with 1,142 members, is the largest in the country. There's a much smaller University of Texas group, but the Austin organization is bigger than New York's, bigger than Chicago's, bigger than the meetup group for the entire state of Michigan.

Table Manners

2007-12-01T09:14:00.000-08:00

There are many guides to table manners out there. But we live in a blogging culture in which all information must be instant and short. So here are the five essential things you MUST do no matter what:

Hold your fork and spoon properly. There is only one way: balance them between the first knuckle of the middle finger and the tip of the index finger; the thumb steadies the handle. There are no variations on this, no issues of personal style, and no regional permissions. For some things, such as cutting with the other hand, there are other variations that require turning the fork over. If you are unsure, default to the orthodox way.
Put your napkin in your lap after you sit down to dinner. Do not forget.
Don't smack. This is easy, right? Apparently not. Smacking is incredibly and disgustingly common. People must suppose that others don't hear it. But they do, and it's awful. There is only one way in the known universe to prevent smacking: keep your lips closed when there is food in your mouth, no matter what.
Eat at the margin, not the aggregate. Don't cut all your steak up before you begin eating. Don't butter your whole roll. Prepare each bit separately.
If in doubt, wait for others. Don't start eating anything until everyone has been served.

Ron Paul's Views

2007-11-30T18:17:00.000-08:00

It's nice to have a candidate who I concur with on everything. RP for Prez folks.

Views: Nicknamed "Dr. No" for his willingness to vote against any legislation he believes increases the size of government. Strongly anti-abortion and opposed to federal funding for abortions. Gun rights backer. Has called for an immediate end to the Iraq War. Opposes the death penalty and free trade agreements. Vowed to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and phase out the Federal Reserve if elected president.

Ron Paul on the Environment

2007-11-30T17:13:00.000-08:00

The Pentagon burns more fuel than the whole country of Sweden.

What's your take on global warming? Is it a serious problem and one that's human-caused?

I think some of it is related to human activities, but I don't think there's a conclusion yet. There's a lot of evidence on both sides of that argument. If you study the history, we've had a lot of climate changes. We've had hot spells and cold spells. They come and go. If there are weather changes, we're not going to be very good at regulating the weather.

To assume we have to close down everything in this country and in the world because there's a fear that we're going to have this global warming and that we're going to be swallowed up by the oceans, I think that's extreme. I don't buy into that. Yet, I think it's a worthy discussion.

So you don't consider climate change a major problem threatening civilization?

No. [Laughs.] I think war and financial crises and big governments marching into our homes and elimination of habeas corpus -- those are immediate threats. We're about to lose our whole country and whole republic! If we can be declared an enemy combatant and put away without a trial, then that's going to affect a lot of us a lot sooner than the temperature going up.

The Best Store in Town

2007-11-25T19:58:00.000-08:00

Walmart. What a beacon of capitalism. Today I went there and bought 16 items and 10 of them were less than $3! I love it!

USA Today Ron Paul Ad

2007-11-22T21:50:00.000-08:00

Why Sound Money Matters

2007-11-20T17:49:00.000-08:00

Of all the issues that people attack Ron Paul for, the one they make the most fun of is his desire to return to sound money. That is very sad. It shows just how ill informed the American populace is about the danger of fiat money and why it was banned by the Constitution. Our founders knew better, we have forgotten.

To fully explore the issue takes entire books such as What has Government Done to our Money? by Rothbard and The Creature From Jekyll Island by Griffin and others.

Liberty Dollar on CNN

2007-11-20T17:06:00.000-08:00

I Was on the Radio!

2007-11-17T23:17:00.000-08:00

I called into Michael Badnarik's radio show in Austin and spoke with Bernard von NotHaus about the recent FBI and Secret Service raid of the Liberty Dollar headquarters. Click here if you want to hear me on the show. I'm on for about 3 minutes starting at the 26:50 mark.

If the link above doesn't work, click here and look at the November 16th show. Click where it says M3U and I'm on in the second hour.

MSM Picks Up Story on FBI Raid of Liberty Dollar

2007-11-17T06:43:00.000-08:00

Much to my surprise, the Washington Post published an article today about the Liberty Dollar.

FBI Raids Liberty Dollar Headquarters

2007-11-16T17:23:00.000-08:00

Greatest Scam in History

2007-11-07T19:30:00.000-08:00

Global warming of course, although I would argue Dennis Franchione is a close second.

Antiwar.com

2007-10-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

I'm not a huge fan of this website b/c I prefer LewRockwell.com, but this interview with Justin Raimondo, the gay founder of the website is pretty good. See what he has to say about Alex Jones.

Antiwar.com — along with Counterpunch, LewRockwell.com and Infowars — are among the best Libertarian sources of news and opinion on the Internet. Have you ever been in the same room with Cockburn, Rockwell and Jones?
I wouldn’t call Counterpunch a Libertarian website: Cockburn is a leftist, albeit an unconventional one. As for Alex Jones, he is crazy; there’s no two ways about it, and I would never appear on his radio program. He holds that Al Qaeda is a CIA front, that Osama bin Laden doesn’t exist, and that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11 were directed by Mysterious Forces In Our Own Government — yeah, right! Whatever he’s smoking, I don’t even want to take a single hit of it! I love LewRockwell.com, of course: It’s the leading “movement” Libertarian web site. And, yes, I’ve been in the same room with both Lew and Alex Cockburn: at the first Antiwar.com national conference, held some years ago, which both attended and spoke at. I’ve known Lew for many years, and I’ve known Cockburn for about five years. Both are great guys: I’ve never met Alex Jones, and if I can avoid meeting him I certainly will continue our non-acquaintance.

U.S. World Police Force

2007-10-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

Excluding Iraq, Afghanistan and the other facilities in the Gulf states that have been built since the Republican war, the Pentagon lists 702 overseas bases in 130 foreign countries on which are stationed more than 250,000 uniformed troops. There are also dependents and civilian employees on many of those bases.

One of the oldest military clichés is that the generals always want to fight the last war over again. Well, there's some truth to that. In fact, though, we will never again fight World War II, so why in the heck do we have bases still in Germany, Italy, Japan, Guam and South Korea?

Just whom do we expect to fight from these bases? How do they contribute to the defense of the U.S.? They don't...

I don't wish to disillusion anyone, but Asia and Europe are not our responsibilities. If there is any need for defense, it is the responsibility of the countries on those continents. We know from personal experience that Japan and Germany can field large and competent armies if they should decide they need them. They do not need our protection...

Americans need to realize that we are not the police force of the world. It is not our responsibility to overthrow dictators or effect regime change in other people's countries. It is not our responsibility to stop slaughters such as seem to be a permanent feature of Africa.

Global Warming Disbeliever

2007-10-23T18:11:00.000-07:00

Check out this article by Pat Buchanan. It's pretty much exactly how I feel, but with Pat's literary wizardry.

Is then global warming – a steady rise in the temperature of the Earth to where the polar ice caps melt, oceans rise 23 feet, cities sink into the sea and horrendous hurricanes devastate the land – an imminent and mortal danger?

Put me down as a disbeliever.

Like the panics of bygone eras, this one has the aspect of yet another re-enactment of the Big Con. The huckster arrives in town, tells all the rubes that disaster impends for them and their families, but says there may be one last chance they can be saved – but it will take a lot of money. And the folks should go about collecting it, right now.

This, it seems to me, is what the global-warming scare and scam are all about – frightening Americans into transferring sovereignty, power and wealth to a global political elite that claims it alone understands the crisis and it alone can save us from impending disaster.

Christian Just War Theory

2007-10-21T06:22:00.000-07:00

Ron Paul Tzu

2007-10-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

Dr. Ron Paul of Texas is our American sage. He merits the honorific tzu, meaning "master," given to the great thinkers of Chinese antiquity: K'ung Fu Tzu (Confucius), Meng Tzu (Mencius), Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Sun Tzu and others. Ron Paul Tzu is both a Confucian gentleman and a Taoist sage.

"When words lose their meaning, people lose their liberty (ibid. XIII, 3)."

"What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others (ibid. VX, 24)"

"An oppressive government is fiercer and more feared than a tiger (The Record of Rites II, 2)."

"by [governmental] inactivity the people will of themselves become prosperous."

"There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare (ibid. II, 4)."

Ron Paul: A New Hope

2007-10-13T04:48:00.000-07:00

Whiten Your Teeth

2007-10-01T22:49:00.000-07:00

with strawberries.

I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds interesting.

The problem with most current tooth-whitening products, both over-the-counter versions and those performed in your dentist’s office, is that they use hydrogen peroxide to whiten your teeth.

This is not your best choice because peroxide can cause your teeth to become sensitive. Additionally, hydrogen peroxide forms radical intermediates that can damage and destroy your gums and nerves.

What causes your teeth to become discolored in the first place? Tooth discoloration is caused by colored molecules such as tannins and polyphenols -- found in red wine, coffee, and tea -- which become absorbed by your tooth enamel’s surface.

Cigarettes, blueberries, and other foods that contain dark pigments can also discolor your tooth enamel.

If you’re looking for a safer alternative to brighten your teeth, you can try this simple trick:

Crush one ripe strawberry and mix it with 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda.
Spread the mixture onto your teeth and leave on for five minutes.
Brush your teeth with a little toothpaste (non-fluoride, of course) and rinse.

This natural mixture works because of the malic acid it contains, which acts as an astringent to remove some of the surface discoloration on your teeth. Though this method is perfectly safe to use on occasion, don’t use it too often (no more than once a week) because the acid could potentially damage your tooth enamel.

Genocide - U.S. Style

2007-09-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

Or is it only genocide when other countries do it? The following is from Lew's latest column.

...more than one million people have been murdered in Iraq since the US invasion, according to the ORB.

Americans think they are bringing freedom to Iraq, but the data indicate that we are only bringing suffering and death...

It was the US that turned this country into a killing field. Why won’t we face this? Why won't we take responsibility? The reason has to do with this mysterious thing called nationalism, which makes an ideological religion of the nation's wars. We are god-like liberators. They are devil-like terrorists. No amount of data or contrary information seems to make a dent in this irreligious faith. So it is in every country and in all times. Here is the intellectual blindness that war generates.

Let Us Mind Our Own Business

2007-09-05T17:11:00.000-07:00

by Charlie Reese

I have a rifle, a shotgun and a few rounds of ammunition locked away in my gun safe. Should I learn that enemy soldiers are landing on the beach, I will hobble down to the dunes and kill as many of them as I can before they kill me.

That being said, as long as foreign folk stay on their side of the border, I don't give a birdie's tweet what they do or say or think. We should drop the motto "In God We Trust" and adopt a new one, "Let Us Mind Our Own Business."

Individualism vs. Collectivism

2007-08-27T18:52:00.000-07:00

The following information about secret organizations and the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is from G. Edward Griffin.

Tragedy & Hope by Carroll Quigley
This is the book that blows the lid off the secret organization created by Cecil Rhodes to quietly gain control over the nations of the world and establish a global government based on the model of collectivism. Professor Quigley (President Clinton’s history professor at Georgetown University) was a trusted supporter of this organization and was given access to its private papers. When his book was released by a major New York publishing house, it was expected that it would be read only by academics who are interested in the organization’s history and sympathetic to its goals. However, when it began to be quoted by critics, the publisher withdrew the book from print. This led to the appearance of an underground version that circulated throughout the 1970s and 80s. Eventually, the publisher was pressured into authorizing this official reprint edition, which is an exact replica of the original. It is a mammoth history interspersed with startling information about the secret organization’s impact on almost every major event of modern history. 1348 pages, hardbound.

QUIGLEY SUMMARIZED - you can read the entire 18 page PDF here.
If reading one-thousand seven-hundred pages or dry history is not high on your list of
things to do, then here is a summary of Quigley’s message regarding the hidden hand behind
world events:

At the end of the 19th Century, a secret society was formed by Cecil Rhodes.
Most of his great wealth was given to extend this organization throughout the world.
It exists today and has been a major historical force since World War I.

Its original goal was to extend the British Empire and Anglo-Saxon culture
throughout the world. It soon evolved into something even bigger in scope. The goal
became world government of an international character based on the model of
collectivism ruled from behind the scenes by an oligarchy composed of those who
are loyal to the secret society.

The primary method of conquest is to infiltrate and capture control of the
power centers of society. (Power centers are those organizations and institutions that
wield influence over political action and public opinion.) Once the power centers are
controlled, the nation will follow. People believe that organizations respond to the
will of their membership, not realizing that they respond, instead, to the will of their
leadership.

The structure of the secret society is based on the classical conspiracy model
taken from Adam Weishaupt’s Illuminati. There is no reason to think that Rhodes
was a member of the Illuminati, which according to Bavarian records, was disbanded
there in 1784. However, there is no doubt that he had studied it carefully, because the
structure he chose was modeled after it. It is characterized by organizational rings
within rings. At the center is the leader and a few trusted associates called the Elect.
These people create a slightly larger organization around themselves, which attracts
members who have no knowledge that there is an inner core of direction. This outer
ring then creates another, larger organization around itself with the same relationship
to its inner ring of control. The larger organization then creates yet another larger
organization, and so forth. These rings extend outward until, finally, they reach into
the mainstream community where they enlist the services of innocent people who
perform various tasks of the secret society without realizing who is creating the
agenda or why.

Members of the outer rings are not allowed to see the existence of the inner
rings. Only those few who prove themselves worthy are shown the deeper connection
and invited to advance. It is through this structure that a small group of men can
direct the activities of mass organizations and determine the policies of nations.

One of the benefits of this structure is that the Rhodes Secret Society, although
it has attained extensive power, remains invisible to the casual observer. Also of
benefit in this regard is the fact that it avoids a formal name. Quigley vacillates
between calling it The Group and The Network. Others call it The Rhodes Secret
Society. But it has no name! Without a name, it is difficult to even discuss it, much
less expose it. The result is a high degree of invisibility.

The inner circle of this conspiracy is called the Society of the Elect.
Originally, it consisted of Rhodes and a small brain trust from British banking and
politics. After Rhodes’ death, and with the arrival of such powerful participants as
Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan, and John D, Rockefeller, the center of gravity began
to shift from London to New York and eventually came to rest in the Rockefeller
group with additional centers of influence in such organizations as the Bilderberg
Group and the Trilateral Commission. It was at this point that the goal also shifted
from the expansion of the British Empire to the creation of global collectivism.

The secondary ring around the Society of the Elect is called The Round Table.
It was established with branches in Britain, each of the British dependencies, and the
United States. These, in turn, created outer rings in each country as front groups for
the inner Round Tables. In Britain and it dependencies, the outer rings are called The
Royal Institute for International Affairs. In Britain, it is informally known as
Chatham House, named after the 18th century mansion in which it is located once
occupied by William Pitt, First Earl of Chatham. The word Royal is not attractive to
Americans; so, in the United States, the outer ring was called The Council on Foreign
Relations.

After a hundred years of penetration into the power centers of the Western
World, this Network now is close to the final achievement of its goal: the creation of
a true world government based on the model of collectivism.

It is important to recall that the Rhodes Secret Society has primary influence in the
Western World or, more specifically, those countries that have spun off from British rule. It
also is influential in those parts of the world where American military and economic
presence is strong. In most of the rest of the world, the dominant force is Leninism which –
and it cannot be repeated too often – has the same goal of establishing a global government
based on the model of collectivism but is a fierce competitor with the Rhodesians over
which faction will rule.

Part one of G. Edward Griffin discussing the difference between Individualism vs. Collectivism

Ron Paul on the News in Dallas

2007-08-20T18:27:00.001-07:00

Franklin's List of Virtues

2007-08-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

by Charlie Reese

Franklin's list of virtues, which he was determined to acquire by habit, were temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility and chastity. The world would certainly be a better place, at least our corner of it, if more of us endeavored to acquire these virtues. Franklin admits he wasn't completely successful, but at least he tried.

I would recommend Franklin's autobiography to any young person. There's a great advantage to reading the words of wise people rather than squandering time with the words of idiots and hacks.

Pre-Emptive War

2007-08-15T06:19:00.000-07:00

The concept of a pre-emptive war should be an abomination to every American. Pre-emptive war is a war of aggression. It was the policy of Hitler's Germany and of the Japanese imperial government. To our national shame, apparently many Americans support the concept. They should never again criticize the Japanese for Pearl Harbor, the Third Reich for the invasion of Poland, or the Soviet Union for the invasion of Afghanistan. Click your heels and salute. You are no different from the people who cheered for Hitler.

The concept of a so-called humanitarian war, trotted out by Bill Clinton to justify intervention in the Balkans, is a contradiction in terms. War itself is a crime against humanity. No sane person can justify inflicting death and destruction in the name of humanitarianism.

Ron Paul on the Income Tax

2007-08-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

Then and Now

2007-08-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

When President Teddy Roosevelt attended the funeral of a member of British royalty, he declined the offer of a gilded carriage for the funeral procession. Roosevelt told his British hosts that it would be inappropriate for the head of a republic. He would therefore walk.

The last time President George W. Bush visited the British Isles, the Air Force had to fly over a fleet of 16 armored limousines for use of the president and his entourage.

Nukes

2007-08-01T17:29:00.000-07:00

We should all pause from time to time to give thanks for nuclear weapons. The military-industrial complex made a big mistake when it came up with those. They are so destructive that nobody knows how to survive a nuclear war, much less profit from one. Hence, we've never had one and probably never will.

Limited wars with conventional weapons, however, hit the spot. They keep the money flowing while the profiteers and their assets remain safe and sound, far from the sound of the guns. Only the paid peons and innocent civilians die. There are always the flap jaws who will stand up, wave the flag and scream, "These boys are dying for freedom," when they are really dying for Halliburton or some other corporation.

An old Marine, Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, called it right decades ago when he said war is a racket. The racketeers get rich on war while the poor boys die in them.

Planet E

2007-07-23T18:48:00.000-07:00

Check out this sweet PDF.

Urgent Message From G. Edward Griffin & Aaron Russo!

2007-07-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

Call-to-Action

From: G. Edward Griffin and Aaron Russo

On July 17, President Bush signed an Executive order that authorized blocking the use of any property held by anyone he says is a threat to the “stabilization” of Iraq. That means anyone who opposes his Middle East foreign policy now is subject to loss of home, automobiles, savings, investments, and anything else considered as property. Read the document here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070717-3.html.

This is about as serious as it gets. There have been many assaults on our freedom in the last few years, but none with such totality and finality as this. We must draw the line in the sand on this issue. The American people must re-discover their indignation, get off their couches, and send a tsunami of protest to Washington. Here are three things you can do:

1. If you don’t already know the name and contact information of you Congressman and Senator, look it up in Google. Send them a short but explicit message to the effect that you expect them to (1) introduce or support fast-track legislation to rescind the Executive Order issued July 17 relating to blocking property of those who disagree with President Bush’s policy in Iraq and (2) call for impeachment of the President NOW.

2. Make a list of every organization, publication, journalist, web site, talk-show host, and community leader who understands the significance of this Executive Order and send it to us at ge.griffin@verizon.net so we can build a coalition of activists on this issue. Also send them a note or call them in person to urge them to align with the coalition and take action.

3. Send this message to everyone you know.

That’s it. There is no need to explain why this is important, and there is nothing that can be said that would be more motivating than the stark possibility of a police state in which citizens loose their property if they disagree with der Fuhrer (the Leader).

Drop everything else and do this NOW.

G. Edward Griffin and Aaron Russo

Ron Paul Can Beat Hillary Clinton

2007-07-23T18:15:00.000-07:00

good advice from Bob Murphy:

Ron Paul is the one Republican candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton in the general election.

Put aside your own feelings about the liberal media and its coverage of the war. Rightly or wrongly, a lot of Americans are furious with the Republicans over Iraq. The one Republican who can beat Hillary on this issue is Ron Paul. And even though you might have gone through the roof over his comments about us being "over there," at least he’s been consistent – as opposed to some "antiwar" politicians who supported the invasion back when it was popular.

If you truly believe in the stated Republican ideals of lower taxes, lower spending, and Constitutional governance, then vote for Ron Paul in your state’s primary. Chances are, Giuliani will get the nomination anyway, and then you can vote for him and pray that he beats Hillary.

On the other hand, Ron Paul just might secure the nomination, if you and enough other Republicans actually do what the primaries intend you to do. And in that wonderful scenario, the country could see what a true fiscal conservative can do to turn this country around.

Ron Paul NY Times Article Highlights

2007-07-22T17:45:00.000-07:00

The United States ought to link its currency to gold or silver again, Paul says. He puts his money where his mouth is. According to Federal Election Commission documents, most of his investments are in gold and silver and are worth between $1.5 and $3.5 million. It’s a modest sum by the standards of major presidential candidates but impressive for someone who put five children through college on a doctor’s (and later a congressman’s) earnings...

The Victoria Advocate, an influential newspaper in the district, has generally opposed Paul for re-election, on the grounds that a “lone wolf” cannot get the highway and homeland-security financing the district needs. So how does he get re-elected? Tim Delaney, the paper’s editorial-page editor, says: “Ron Paul is a very charismatic person. He has charm. He does not alter his position ever. His ideals are high. If a little old man calls up from the farm and says, ‘I need a wheelchair,’ he’ll get the damn wheelchair for him.”

The Owl-God Moloch

“The people who own the Federal Reserve own the oil companies, they own the mass media, they own the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, they’re part of the Bilderbergers, and unfortunately their spiritual practices are very wicked and diabolical as well,” Carey said. “They go to a place out in California known as the Bohemian Grove, and there’s been footage obtained by infiltration of what their practices are. And they do mock human sacrifices to an owl-god called Moloch. This is true. Go research it yourself.”

interesting note: Alex Jones, a popular Austin conspiracy theorist, is the one who "infiltrated Bohemian Grove."

Quote of the Day

2007-07-22T07:09:00.000-07:00

"The State cannot get a cent for any man without taking it from some

other man, and this latter must be a man who has produced and saved

it. This latter is the Forgotten Man." -William Graham Summner 1883

$75,000

2007-07-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

Jock Doubleday, director of the California non-profit corporation Natural Woman, Natural Man, Inc., has offered $75,000 to the first medical doctor or pharmaceutical company CEO who publicly drinks a mixture of standard vaccine additives.

The additives would be the same as those contained in the vaccines recommended for a 6-year-old according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, and the dose would be body-weight calibrated. It would include, but not be limited to:

Thimerosal (a mercury derivative)
Ethylene glycol (antifreeze)
Phenol (a disinfectant dye)
Aluminum
Benzethonium chloride (a disinfectant)
Formaldehyde (a preservative and disinfectant)

Martial Law

2007-07-20T17:41:00.000-07:00

Even if Bush decides not to invoke it, he's making it a lot easier for future Presidents to do so.

How many pipe bombs might it take to end U.S. democracy? Far fewer than it would have taken a year ago. The Defense Authorization Act of 2006, passed on September 30, empowers President George W. Bush to impose martial law in the event of a terrorist “incident” or if he or other federal officials perceive a shortfall of “public order” or even in response to antiwar protests that get unruly as a result of government provocations...

Perhaps some conservatives believe that the only change when martial law is declared is that people are no longer read their Miranda rights when they are locked away. “Martial law” means obey soldiers’ commands or be shot.

I Have That Right

2007-07-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

Every individual having a natural right to life, liberty, and property, in turn, has a natural right to defend them.

Any law meant to deprive an individual from obtaining the means necessary to defend these rights is an infringement on his liberty and is unjust.

If I wish to own a hand gun, I have that right.

If I wish to own a hunting rifle, I have that right.

If I wish to own an assault rifle — as outrageous as that may sound to you — I have that right and it can not legitimately be taken from me.

Those who wish to deny individuals their natural rights, even when done for apparent humanitarian reasons, are acting as tyrants. The gun control advocates' goal of disarming every individual destroys his/her right to self-defense and, in turn, puts every other one of his/her natural rights in greater danger. Gun control laws are morally wrong, constitutionally illegal, and detrimental to the safety of many peaceful citizens.

The Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights does not grant but acknowledges the individual's natural right to defend him or herself with whatever means he deems necessary. Our founders understood that this right must be protected in order to allow the protection of their other natural rights.

Our founders understood that government is and always has been the greatest enemy of the people and that any government which disarms their citizenry should never be trusted since it makes it only that much easier to take the rest of their rights. As George Washington once said, "A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government."

If you care about your natural rights as a human being, if you wish not to be controlled as if a slave to the government, than there is only one candidate to vote for: Congressman Ron Paul. Dr. Paul is the last man in Washington that understands the principles of liberty that this country was founded upon and the only politician left who is fighting for your rights as an individual.

Republicans No Longer Stand for Limited Government

2007-07-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

by Justin Raimondo

Ron Paul is the rightful heir of Barry Goldwater, of Taft, of a party that once stood for individual rights, and a peaceful, prudent foreign policy based on the pursuit of American interests. A party that has since lost its way.

It’s sad, really, to see the decline of a once great party: a party that has presided over the biggest expansion of government since the Great Society of Lyndon Johnson, the biggest explosion of federal spending in modern times, and the most serious assault on our constitutional liberties since the imposition of the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798.

Our interventionist foreign policy is the motor that drives the engine of Big Government, and its fuel is the sort of war hysteria that has permeated political life since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and led to our present predicament in Iraq. Ron Paul stands alone among the Republican candidates for president in opposing our immoral and horribly counterproductive invasion of Iraq. The idea that we can or should go into a foreign country, and “transform” it according to some grand design, to fit some preconceived made-in-Washington formula – to impose “democracy,” or what passes for it these days, at gunpoint on the people of the Middle East – is an idea that one might expect from a liberal Democrat, who, after all, has an abiding faith in the power of government to do … well, practically anything! One would think that Republicans, and especially those who fancy themselves conservative Republicans, would know better.

Unfortunately, these days, one would be very wrong to assume any such thing.

The Republican party has been hijacked, and transformed into its Bizarro World equivalent: the party of Barry Goldwater has become the party of Big Brother.

15-1

2007-07-14T23:23:00.000-07:00

Are the current odds on Ron Paul (R-TX) becoming our next President according to Gambling911.com.

They try to fool us with a false dichotomy of conservative vs. liberal, but really both sides are for big government. The real division in this country is between statists and non-statists. The statist believes the Federal Government should take all your money and then tell you how to live. The non-statist wants to keep their own money, be left alone, and make their own decisions on how to live. That is what confused Stephen Colbert so much and why Ron Paul does not seem to fit into any one category. Ron Paul is a non-statist, pro-constitutionalist.

Guns & Ideas

2007-07-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

...since the state monopoly on violence rests on popular belief, even violence employed in self-defense against freelance criminals will always be viewed in the most negative light possible. This makes employment of even “justified” violence quite risky from a legal standpoint. Violence employed in self-defense is thus a very last resort and nothing to be joked about or taken lightly.

Guns do matter. They matter philosophically because free men and women do not depend on the state’s minions for their own personal safety. They are thus an indicator of citizen power versus government power at the moral level. I carry a spare tire and a jack in my car, but I still try to avoid conditions that might cause a flat, and even if I get a flat there’s a decent chance I’ll call AAA to get a professional to change the tire. The jack and the spare simply give me the option to change the tire should circumstances warrant and avoid my being wholly dependent upon tow-truck businesses...

In sum, gun ownership is very important but the real war is one of ideas.

Libby

2007-07-12T15:10:00.000-07:00

by Charley Reese

I was not surprised that President George Bush commuted Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence. It's what you'd expect from a corrupt politician who appears to care not a rat's toenail for justice, truth or principles.

Libby lied under oath before a grand jury, and he lied to the FBI. That's perjury and obstruction of justice. He was tried, convicted by a jury of his peers and sentenced in accordance with Justice Department guidelines. Bush's claim that the sentence was "too severe" is just another Bush lie. He knows it was not too severe because he's been the stingiest president ever when it comes to pardons and commutations.

Why the commutation and not a pardon? Because as long as Libby stands as a convicted felon with his conviction on appeal, he can claim the Fifth Amendment if Congress decides to question him. There are a lot of people who don't want Libby to tell the truth, starting with Vice President Dick Cheney, President Bush and even former President Bill Clinton. Furthermore, by not ruling out a full pardon, Bush retains leverage over Libby until the last day of his term.

McCain Campaign Sucks _ _ _ _

2007-07-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

Just one more reason to vote for Ron Paul:

In more bad news for McCain, a co-chair of his Florida campaign — state Rep. Bob Allen — was arrested Wednesday after offering to perform oral sex for $20 on an undercover male police officer, authorities said. Allen, 48, was seen coming in and out of a restroom three times at a park in Titusville, Fla., said police Lt. Todd Hutchinson. He then approached an undercover officer and was arrested.

Allen has been charged with solicitation for prostitution, which has a maximum penalty of one year in jail. Brevard County jail officials said Allen posted a $500 bond.

Gun Control via OSHA

2007-07-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

Published to cricket-chirping silence in the Federal Register on April 13, 2007 was a rule proposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to govern the manufacture, transport, and distribution of explosives.

The Alice-in-Wonderland aspect is that the rule includes small arms ammunition and reloading components like smokeless propellant and small arms primers in its definition of “explosives.” If the rule were implemented as written, it would effectively eliminate the manufacture, transport, wholesaling and retailing of ammunition in the United States.

You read that correctly.

The 4th of July

2007-07-04T15:27:00.000-07:00

Today, many fail to understand not only the purpose of government, they fail to realize that those "certain unalienable Rights" are not simple things that have been granted by the government or the Constitution. According to Michael Badnarik, "Nothing could be further from the truth! Rights are only enumerated in the Constitution for the purpose of warning government not to infringe upon them. Rights cannot be "granted" by the Constitution or anything else. If someone or something "grants" you something, then it is only a privilege."

right: A power, privilege, faculty, or demand, inherent in one person and incident upon another. Generally defined as "powers of free action". Something that you have the sovereign authority to do because there is no higher authority to seek permission from.

privilege: A particular and peculiar benefit or advantage enjoyed by a person, company, or class, beyond the common advantages of other citizens. A peculiar right, advantage, exemption, power, franchise, or immunity held by a person or class, not generally possessed by others. A temporary authority granted to you by someone of higher power.

Dr. Ron Paul: As we celebrate the 231st anniversary of our nation’s birth, I hope every person who reads or hears this will take the time to go back and read the Declaration of Independence. Only by recapturing the spirit of independence can we ensure our government never resembles the one from which the American States declared their separation.

Ron Paul Dollar

2007-07-03T14:30:00.000-07:00

Wow! This is pretty sweet. Just in time for Independence Day.
You can see more pictures and purchase them here.

Kwik-E-Marts

2007-07-01T15:59:00.000-07:00

This is good stuff:

DALLAS - Over the weekend, 7-Eleven Inc. turned a dozen stores into Kwik-E-Marts, the fictional convenience stores of "The Simpsons" fame, in the latest example of marketers making life imitate art.

Those stores and most of the 6,000-plus other 7-Elevens in North America will sell items that until now existed only on television: Buzz Cola, KrustyO's cereal and Squishees, the slushy drink knockoff of Slurpees.

It's all part of a campaign to hype the July 27 opening of "The Simpsons Movie," the big-screen debut for the long-running television cartoon, which loves to lampoon 7-Eleven as a store that sells all kinds of unhealthy snacks and is run by a man with a thick Indian accent.

The Federal Reserve System - A Campaign Issue!

2007-06-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

by Bill Haynes

Albeit in a small way, probably for the first time since the creation of the Federal Reserve System (in 1913), it has been injected into a presidential campaign.

In the first Republican presidential candidates' debate, Ron Paul, a Republican member of the House from Texas, spoke out in favor of the gold standard. Although Ron Paul's formal education is in medicine, he is qualified to discuss money and economics as he has long studied the works of the great free market economist Ludwig von Mises. Mises is famous for his writings on money and for having exposed the fallacy of a central authority controlling the money supply...

However, discussing the case for gold in a monetary system cannot be done without at least some understanding of the concept of central banking and the Federal Reserve System, which is our central bank, a fact not generally known by most Americans.

When the Fed came into existence, Americans were told that it would put an end to "economic panics," the scare term of late 19th century and early 20th century. In the 1930s, however, the Fed-caused Great Depression made "economic panics" look like rainy days, and today the great scare term is "depression."

The Federal Reserve System and its ability to create money out of thin air facilitate big government. If the Fed did not exist, the government would have to raise funds either by increasing taxes (a politically unpopular thing to do) or by borrowing in the marketplace, competing with businesses and individuals also wanting to borrow. Additional borrowing by the government, of course, increases interest rates and is detrimental to the economy.

So, to finance our welfare state, our wars, and a few good things such as highways, the federal government hands the Fed little pieces of paper called treasury bills and treasury bonds. The Fed, in turn, credits the federal government's checking account in amounts equal to the face value of the bonds, and new money is created out of thin air...

If the gold standard becomes a major issue in this presidential campaign, the American people can only benefit. Americans have little grasp of the concept of money and the deleterious effects of central banks. Americans would need to be much more knowledgeable about the Fed before it could be eliminated.

Meanwhile, with every Republican presidential candidates' debate, Congressman Ron Paul gets the opportunity to wake up a few more Americans to the dangers of fiat money and the Federal Reserve System. If the Democrats had a candidate knowledgeable about money and economics, then we could have a great increase in awareness of the unsound financial structure that underlies our economy.

Goodbye and Good Luck

2007-06-26T06:41:00.000-07:00

Iraq had no effect on the American people before President Bush's illegal invasion of it. It has no effect on us now, unless you have loved ones being fed into the meat grinder that is making futility sausage. What possible difference does it make to us who rules Iraq?

As a matter of fact, we should not only pull all of our troops out of Iraq, but also withdraw them from Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and anywhere else they happen to be in the Middle East. If our leaders had the brains to do this, they would discover that the people in that part of the world are quite capable of running their own affairs.

I would also pull out of Afghanistan and say to the government, the Taliban and al-Qaida, you fellows work this out among yourselves, because frankly we don't give a damn. Your hardscrabble country isn't worth 10 bucks, much less the billions we've spent on it. If you need water, dig a well; if you need food, grow it. Goodbye and good luck.

The American people have been conned into accepting the idea of an empire, when there is no need for one. Wherever there is oil, it will be available for sale because it is otherwise worthless, and why should we care from whom we buy it?

What the knuckleheads in Washington have created is an empire of delusions and illusions. It's time for the nation to wake up and adopt a realistic foreign policy, which is trade and friendly relations with anybody who wants it. As for those who don't, we simply ignore them. We don't need to be anybody's enemy.

Proud to be Texan

2007-06-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

It sure is nice to have a man like Ron Paul representing Texas. It reminds me of Michael Badnarik in '04, only better.

Democracy

2007-06-20T21:08:00.000-07:00

It is one thing to believe democracy is a superior form of government. It is another to worship it, or ascribe to it powers or attributes that can ensure permanent peace among nations. As Douglas MacArthur said, citing Plato, "Only the dead know the end of war."

Democracy means rule by the people, and peoples can be as corrupt and bloodthirsty as tyrants and kings. Today in Moscow, Beijing and Hanoi, Lenin, Mao and Ho – mass murderers all three – lie in honor.

Ron Paul on Fox News

2007-06-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

Hitler & Bush

2007-06-18T20:24:00.000-07:00

More in common than you might think.

Over 70 years ago, the citizens of another democratic world power elected a leader who promised to protect them from all dangers. In return for this protection, and under the auspice of fighting terrorism, he was given absolute power.

This leader went to great lengths to make his rise to power appear both legal and necessary, masterfully manipulating much of the citizenry and their government leaders. Unnerved by threats of domestic terrorism and foreign invaders, the people had little idea that the domestic turmoil of the times – such as street rioting and the fear of Communism taking over the country – was staged by the leader in an effort to create fear and later capitalize on it. In the ensuing months, this charismatic leader ushered in a series of legislative measures that suspended civil liberties and habeas corpus rights and empowered him as a dictator.

On March 23, 1933, the nation's legislative body passed the Enabling Act, formally referred to as the "Law to Remedy the Distress of the People and the Nation," which appeared benign and allowed the leader to pass laws by decree in times of emergency. What it succeeded in doing, however, was ensuring that the leader became a law unto himself. The leader's name was Adolf Hitler. And the rest, as they say, is history.

President Bush has assured us that he will do whatever it takes to keep America safe, and Americans have blindly trusted him. How did he reward that trust? First, he claimed the authority to permanently imprison American citizens alleged to be so-called "enemy combatants." Then he asserted his right to order government intelligence agencies to not only spy on America's enemies but also on Americans. Now he has quietly and unobtrusively granted himself the power to take control of the government in the event of a vaguely defined national emergency.

Quote of the Day

2007-06-11T19:31:00.001-07:00

Most atheists now prefer to call themselves agnostics, meaning that even if there is a bare possibility that some sort of God exists, he can’t speak to his own creatures, so we should ignore any messages from him.

And religion is all right, they say, as long as it makes you feel good. Just don’t try to impose it on others by acting as if it’s really true.

Joseph Sobran

Global Warming

2007-06-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

Here are the facts on global warming: In the past 100 years, the average temperature of Earth has risen six-tenths of one degree. In the past 100 years, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased about 80 parts per million so that it stands at about 370 parts per million. Sea levels are estimated to have risen 10 to 20 centimeters in the same time frame.

That's it. Everything else is speculation based on computer models, which several scientists say are unreliable. Think. If they can't reliably forecast the weather 48 hours in advance, it's extremely unlikely that a forecast 100 years in the future is worth even noticing.

Computer models are essentially spreadsheets, and there are far too many variables to construct one of the entire Earth and its atmosphere.

Now, here's what you can do about climate change: nothing.

Firefox 2

2007-06-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

Is out. Get it here. Now is the time to make the switch from the dreadful IE if you haven't already.

Good (inexpensive) Wines

2007-05-31T19:11:00.000-07:00

I'm came across a gem recently: Avalon - Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Vintage 2004. I found it at Central Market for $12.99. It's better than most cheap wines I've had.

This Dona Paula Cabernet Sauvignon is pretty solid too. See this link as well if you like inexpensive wine.

If you know of any others, I'd love to hear about them.

Violence Begets Violence

2007-05-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

I thought now would be a good time to repost Harry Browne's classic article from 9/12/01, since Ron Paul finally got Harry's talking points in the public spotlight...6 years after he wrote it. I'm glad somebody finally did. A lot of people were appalled by Harry's article and vehemently disagreed back then, but I knew he was right.

The terrorist attacks against America comprise a horrible tragedy. But they shouldn't be a surprise.

It is well known that in war, the first casualty is truth – that during any war truth is forsaken for propaganda. But sanity was a prior casualty: it was the loss of sanity that led to war in the first place.

Our foreign policy has been insane for decades. It was only a matter of time until Americans would have to suffer personally for it. It is a terrible tragedy of life that the innocent so often have to suffer for the sins of the guilty.

When will we learn that we can't allow our politicians to bully the world without someone bullying back eventually?

President Bush has authorized continued bombing of innocent people in Iraq. President Clinton bombed innocent people in the Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Serbia. President Bush, senior, invaded Iraq and Panama. President Reagan bombed innocent people in Libya and invaded Grenada. And on and on it goes.

Did we think the people who lost their families and friends and property in all that destruction would love America for what happened?

When will we learn that violence always begets violence?

Pat Buchanan on Ron Paul

2007-05-18T17:47:00.000-07:00

After the debate, on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes," came one of those delicious moments on live television. As Michael Steele, GOP spokesman, was saying that Paul should probably be cut out of future debates, the running tally of votes by Fox News viewers was showing Ron Paul, with 30 percent, the winner of the debate.

When Ron Paul said the 9/11 killers were "over here because we are over there," he was not excusing the mass murderers of 3,000 Americans. He was explaining the roots of hatred out of which the suicide-killers came.

Lest we forget, Osama bin Laden was among the mujahideen whom we, in the Reagan decade, were aiding when they were fighting to expel the Red Army from Afghanistan. We sent them Stinger missiles, Spanish mortars, sniper rifles. And they helped drive the Russians out.

What Ron Paul was addressing was the question of what turned the allies we aided into haters of the United States. Was it the fact that they discovered we have freedom of speech or separation of church and state? Do they hate us because of who we are? Or do they hate us because of what we do?

Osama bin Laden in his declaration of war in the 1990s said it was U.S. troops on the sacred soil of Saudi Arabia, U.S. bombing and sanctions of a crushed Iraqi people, and U.S. support of Israel's persecution of the Palestinians that were the reasons he and his mujahideen were declaring war on us.

Of the 10 candidates on stage in South Carolina, Dr. Paul alone opposed the war. He alone voted against the war. Have not the last five years vindicated him, when two-thirds of the nation now agrees with him that the war was a mistake, and journalists and politicians left and right are babbling in confession, "If I had only known then what I know now ..."

Follow Ron Paul

2007-05-17T19:11:00.000-07:00

Keep up with his campaign here.

Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) is the leading advocate for freedom in our nation’s capital. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Dr. Paul tirelessly works for limited constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, and a return to sound monetary policies. He is known among his congressional colleagues and his constituents for his consistent voting record. Dr. Paul never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution. In the words of former Treasury Secretary William Simon, Dr. Paul is the "one exception to the Gang of 535" on Capitol Hill.

Brief Overview of Congressman Paul’s Record
He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.

He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program. He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.

U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Iraq

2007-05-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

This is a follow-up to the last post to help further prove Lew's point that, "the U.S. government is the enemy of the American people and their values." Check out the links at the end of the article.

Consider U.S. foreign policy toward Iraq:

The U.S. support of Saddam Hussein.
The U.S. furnishing of weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein and the correlative assistance provided by the U.S. in the use of such weaponry.
The Persian Gulf intervention.
The intentional destruction of Iraq’s water and sewage facilities, with full knowledge as to what effect such action would have on the long-term health of the Iraqi people.
The more than 10 years of brutal sanctions, which contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children from sickness and disease.
The deadly no-fly zones, which had not been authorized by either the UN or the U.S. Congress, and whose enforcement entailed the firing of missiles and the dropping of bombs that killed even more Iraqis.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright’s infamous statement to “Sixty Minutes” that reverberated throughout the Middle East that the deaths of half-a-million Iraqi children had been “worth it.”
The invasion and occupation of Iraq, which has killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of more Iraqis.
The torture and sex abuse of Iraqi men at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq, photographs and videos of which are still being kept hidden by U.S. officials because of their potential blowback.
The periodic rapes and murders that some U.S. troops have committed against the Iraqi people during the occupation.
The arbitrary and indiscriminate searches and seizures without warrants being conducted by U.S. troops.
The indefinite detentions without trial of some 20,000 Iraqi men and women in overcrowded prisons.

How can anyone honestly believe that such actions would not engender horrible anger and rage throughout the Middle East and, indeed, throughout the world?

As Ron Paul emphasized in last night’s debate, imagine if some foreign power – such as China – had done these types of things to the United States. Wouldn’t Americans experience anger and rage?

In last night’s debate Rudy Giuliani made a mistake that is commonly made by those who view the federal government as a deity. Conflating the U.S. government and the American people, he suggested in the post-debate interview that Ron Paul was “blaming America.” Actually, Paul did no such thing. He blamed the U.S. government’s interventionist foreign policies for the morass in which our nation now finds itself. Like our Founding Fathers and the Framers, Paul understands that the federal government and the country are two separate and distinct groups, which in fact is precisely why the Bill of Rights expressly protects the country from the federal government.

Lew's Latest

2007-05-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

on Ron Paul

Plenty of reasonable people can disagree about foreign policy. What's really strange is when one reasonable position is completely and forcibly excluded from the public debate.

Such was the case after 9-11. Every close observer of the events of those days knows full well that these crimes were acts of revenge for US policy in the Muslim world. The CIA and the 911 Commission said as much, the terrorists themselves proclaimed it, and Osama underscored the point by naming three issues in particular: US troops in Saudi Arabia, US sanctions against Iraq, and US funding of Israeli expansionism.

So far as I know, Ron Paul is the only prominent public figure in the six years since who has given an honest telling of this truth. The explosive exchange occurred during the Republican Presidential debate in South Carolina...

It is a normal part of human experience that if you occupy, meddle, bully, and coerce, people who are affected by it all are going to get angry. You don't have to be Muslim to get the point. The problem is that most of the American people simply have no idea what has been happening in the last ten years. Most Americans think that America the country is much like their own neighborhood: peaceful, happy, hard-working, law-abiding. So when you tell people that the US is actually something completely different, they are shocked.

Now, I know this is a lot for the tender ears of Americans to take, who like to think that their government reflects their own values of faith, freedom, and friendliness. But here is the point that libertarians have been trying to hammer home for many years: the US government is the enemy of the American people and their values. It is not peaceful, it is not friendly, it is not motivated by the Christian faith but rather power and imperial lust.

Ron vs. Rudy

2007-05-16T17:08:00.000-07:00

from CNN

Ron Paul Wins Another Republican Debate

2007-05-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

I agree with Lew that Dr. Paul's performance in the debate last night was, "one of the great moments in the history of modern American politics."

Excerpt from Paul:

Well, I think the party has lost its way, because the conservative wing of the Republican Party always advocated a noninterventionist foreign policy.

Senator Robert Taft didn't even want to be in NATO. George Bush won the election in the year 2000 campaigning on a humble foreign policy -- no nation-building, no policing of the world. Republicans were elected to end the Korean War. The Republicans were elected to end the Vietnam War. There's a strong tradition of being anti-war in the Republican party. It is the constitutional position. It is the advice of the Founders to follow a non-interventionist foreign policy, stay out of entangling alliances, be friends with countries, negotiate and talk with them and trade with them.

Ron Paul Compilation

RP on Hannity & Colmes afterwards

RP Update

2007-05-14T09:02:00.001-07:00

Since the debate on May 3, Ron Paul:

1. Handily won two post-debate polls posted by event sponsor MSNBC.

2. Placed a close third (18%) in a post-debate poll on the conservative Drudge Report.

3. Won an ABCNews.com online debate poll with 84%.

4. Won a C-SPAN online GOP candidate poll with 69%.

5. Became the third most-mentioned person in the blogosphere, beating out Paris Hilton, according to the reputable Technorati.com.

6. Produced a YouTube.com video that was ranked the 8th most popular overall video, and the most-viewed political video.

7. Was featured, by popular demand, on the front of Digg.com.

8. Generated so many bulletin posts on MySpace.com that the site owner News Corp. blocked all additional posts about Dr. Paul.

9. Became a "most searched" term on Google and Yahoo!.

10. Saw a quadrupling of daily visitors to RonPaul2008. com.

"These figures speak for themselves," said campaign chairman Kent Snyder. "Ron Paul has quickly become a strong contender for the GOP nomination because of his powerful message of freedom and limited government."

The Dictatress of the World

2007-05-10T14:29:00.000-07:00

John Quincy Adams delivered a speech to Congress on the 50th anniversary of the Fourth of July: that America does not “go abroad in search of monsters to destroy,” and that, if America were ever to embrace such a policy, the “fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force” and she would become “the dictatress of the world.”

On his own initiative and without the constitutionally required congressional declaration of war, President Bush sent the nation into war against Iraq in an attempt to destroy the monster known as Saddam Hussein. In the process, the United States has become a brutal occupying power that has brought not liberty but rather death, destruction, torture, mayhem, and civil war to the Iraqi people. Moreover, with its long-time foreign policy of embargoes, sanctions, regime-change operations, kidnappings, rendition, torture, detentions, invasions, occupations, and overseas prisons, in the eyes of many people around the world, the United States has indeed become “the dictatress of the world.”

War = Organized, Systematic Violence

2007-05-10T14:15:00.000-07:00

WWJD?

Dr. Ron Paul

2007-05-04T17:40:00.000-07:00

This is the right guy for President.

Remembering Waco

2007-04-25T10:31:00.000-07:00

The message that Americans are sending the government today is “You know best. We trust you. Do whatever you deem necessary.” Remember the argument in the lead-up to the Iraq War? “We must trust the administration; it knows more facts than we do.” As it turns out, all these assumptions were wrong. Too many Americans treat the government as if it were populated with Homo superiorus, people endowed with superior wisdom and benevolence. Military Commissions Act? No problem. NSA domestic spying? They’re only listening to the bad guys. Destroy habeas corpus? That only applies to terrorists. Eliminate posse comitatus? They’d never use the military against us. Yet if everybody in government is so wonderful and trustworthy, how do we explain Waco?

The lesson that we should have learned from Waco is that we have a right, indeed a duty, to be suspicious and distrustful of our government. For generations, this suspicion was a uniquely American quality. However, during World War II and then the Cold War, Americans began to trust their government. As with totalitarian regimes, American politicians recognized the benefits of having foreign enemies, even imaginary ones. People band behind their government, seeking protection from the enemy. We now live with that legacy.

Just March Out

2007-04-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

The argument for staying – to prevent civil war and bring stability to the region – logically falls on deaf ears.

If the justifications for war were wrong;

If the war is going badly;

If we can’t afford the costs, both human and economic;

If civil war and chaos have resulted from our occupation;

If the reasons for staying are no more credible than the reasons for going;

THEN…..

Why the dilemma? The American people have spoken, and continue to speak out, against this war. So why not end it? How do we end it? Why not exactly the way we went in? We just marched in, and we can just march out.

Ron Paul for President

2007-04-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

If you intend to vote for our next president, please watch this video.

Honor

2007-04-17T17:38:00.000-07:00

by Fred Reed

Honor is important to militaries, which need to regard themselves as distinguishable from hit men for the Mafia. They aren’t, of course. Both kill people they don’t know on orders from people they don’t know in order to make a living. Is this not literally true?

Note that the notion of honor has nothing to do with right and wrong or human decency, and seems to be incompatible with them.

Usually people concerned with honor wear clothes with feathers on them, or with shiny things stuck to them. In the past, aristocrats wore gaudy attire, often with gold buckles or medals from some king or other, and clanked around with swords. Sometimes they wore codpieces so as to look as if they had large genitals, a doubt about which is an essential element of honor.

1-2 Punch

2007-04-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

The greatest threat facing America today is not terrorism, or foreign economic competition, or illegal immigration. The greatest threat facing America today is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation. It is this one-two punch – Congress spending more than it can tax or borrow, and the Fed printing money to make up the difference – that threatens to impoverish us by further destroying the value of our dollars. - Dr. Ron Paul

Eater's Guide to the Brazos Valley

2007-03-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

For all you Aggies out there...chow.

The Great Global Warming Swindle

2007-03-20T18:18:00.000-07:00

I implore everybody to watch this video, well at least everybody that has seen An Inconvenient Truth. I've only watched the first 5 minutes and read this analysis, and I can already tell it's a quality video by Great Britain's public television station.

One of the main points that I feel most people are missing on the whole "global warming" issue is that all the "scientists" that talk about humans causing global warming are connected to government(s). When you ask real scientists and physicists, not connected to government, they seem to tell a different story.

Lew's Latest

2007-03-16T06:14:00.000-07:00

Ron Paul has always believed that foreign and domestic policy should be conducted according to the same principles. Government should be restrained from intervening at home or abroad because its actions fail to achieve their stated aims, create more harm than good, shrink the liberty of the people, and violate rights.

Does that proposition seem radical? Outlandish or farflung? Once you hear it stated, it makes perfect sense that there is no sharp distinction between the principles of domestic and foreign policy. They are part of the same analytical fabric. What would be inconsistent would be to favor activist government at home but restraint abroad, or the reverse: restraint at home and activism abroad. Government unleashed behaves in its own interests, and will not restrict itself in any area of life. It must be curbed in all areas of life lest freedom suffer...

The left has a massive agenda for the state at home, and yet complains bitterly, with shock and dismay, that the same tools are used to start wars and build imperial structures abroad. The right claims to want to restrain government at home (at least in some ways) while whooping it up for war and global reconstruction abroad...

The Sun

2007-03-02T17:19:00.000-08:00

more likely causes "global warming" than humans in my opinion. I'm glad at least a few people agree.

Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet's recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human- induced—cause, according to one scientist's controversial theory.

Abdussamatov believes that changes in the sun's heat output can account for almost all the climate changes we see on both planets.

Mars and Earth, for instance, have experienced periodic ice ages throughout their histories.

Aliens

2007-03-01T18:38:00.000-08:00

Immigration, illegal or otherwise, is not the problem per se. We are, after all, a nation of immigrants, and mostly of the poverty-stricken sort. Dobbs is the son of a failed Texas propane salesman, and was himself a former welfare worker and ambulance-chasing news reporter so it is a little surprising that he would not have more sympathy for these immigrants and look for the real cause of our problems elsewhere.

The only national problem with immigration is government. Because immigrants are relatively poor they tend to pay less in taxes than their use of so-called government services like health care and education, and thus they increase the burden of taxation. We can therefore solve the immigration problem by simply eliminating government programs that provide free services. Note: we would simultaneously solve the problems of education and health care by placing these industries back into the private sector...

Imagined Environmental Crises

2007-02-22T17:53:00.000-08:00

Global Warming, as we think we know it, doesn't exist.

Believe it or not, Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). This in fact is the greatest deception in the history of science. We are wasting time, energy and trillions of dollars while creating unnecessary fear and consternation over an issue with no scientific justification.

Maybe for the same reason we believed, 30 years ago, that global cooling was the biggest threat: a matter of faith. "It is a cold fact: the Global Cooling presents humankind with the most important social, political, and adaptive challenge we have had to deal with for ten thousand years. Your stake in the decisions we make concerning it is of ultimate importance; the survival of ourselves, our children, our species," wrote Lowell Ponte in 1976.

Lew's Latest

2007-02-21T06:48:00.000-08:00

Imagine that you are blindfolded and told that the food you are about to eat is ice cream. It turns out to be chicken liver. Or imagine that you think you are diving into warm water but instead it turns out to be near-freezing.

This is pretty much what it is like to be governed by Republicans, and there is no better case in point than George W. Bush. He, like all Republicans since the 1920s, campaigned as a shrink-the-government man. More incredibly to recall, he blasted the "nation building" of Bill Clinton and insisted that the US needed a "humble" foreign policy.

What we got instead is, well, what we got, which is the polar opposite. The man who wailed over Bill Clinton’s big government has made Clinton’s spending record look great by comparison. The guy who decried "nation building" has decided that bombs and tanks are a great means to inspire a wholesale upheaval in the Gulf region.

Ever Wonder Where Your Tax Dollars Go?

2007-02-13T06:16:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Federal Reserve sent record payouts of more than $4 billion in cash to Baghdad on giant pallets aboard military planes shortly before the United States gave control back to Iraqis, lawmakers said on Tuesday.

Bills weighing a total of 363 tons were loaded onto military aircraft in the largest cash shipments ever made by the Federal Reserve.

"Who in their right mind would send 363 tons of cash into a war zone? But that's exactly what our government did."

On December 12, 2003, $1.5 billion was shipped to Iraq, initially "the largest pay out of U.S. currency in Fed history," according to an e-mail cited by committee members.

It was followed by more than $2.4 billion on June 22, 2004, and $1.6 billion three days later. The CPA turned over sovereignty on June 28.

Building 7

2007-02-13T06:08:00.000-08:00

Photo and video evidence of the collapse of Building 7 shows classic indications of a controlled demolition. The standard 'crimp' in the center-left top of the building and the subsequent 'squibs' of smoke as it collapses clearly represent explosive demolition.

Even Dan Rather, commenting on the collapse for CBS News said that the collapse was, "reminiscent of those pictures we’ve all seen too much on television before, where a building was deliberately destroyed by well placed dynamite to knock it down.”

The EMT worker agrees, stating, "There were bright flashes up and down the sides of Building 7, you could see them through the windows...and it collapsed. We all knew it was intentionally pulled... they told us!"

In February of 2002 Silverstein Properties won $861 million from Industrial Risk Insurers to rebuild on the site of WTC 7. Silverstein Properties' estimated investment in WTC 7 was $386 million. This building's collapse alone resulted in a profit of about $500 million.

Inflation and War Finance

2007-01-31T06:43:00.000-08:00

by Dr. Ron Paul

The Pentagon recently reported that it now spends roughly $8.4 billion per month waging the war in Iraq, while the additional cost of our engagement in Afghanistan brings the monthly total to a staggering $10 billion. Since 2001, Congress has spent more than $500 billion on specific appropriations for Iraq. This sum is not reflected in official budget and deficit figures. Congress has funded the war by passing a series of so-called “supplemental” spending bills, which are passed outside of the normal appropriations process and thus deemed off-budget.

The problem is that government finances war by borrowing and printing money, rather than presenting a bill directly in the form of higher taxes.

Congress and the Federal Reserve Bank have a cozy, unspoken arrangement that makes war easier to finance. Congress has an insatiable appetite for new spending, but raising taxes is politically unpopular. The Federal Reserve, however, is happy to accommodate deficit spending by creating new money through the Treasury Department. In exchange, Congress leaves the Fed alone to operate free of pesky oversight and free of political scrutiny. Monetary policy is utterly ignored in Washington, even though the Federal Reserve System is a creation of Congress.

The result of this arrangement is inflation. And inflation finances war.

State of the Union

2007-01-25T18:13:00.000-08:00

Churchillian it was not. Yet the State of the Union seemed a success if Bush's purpose was to buy time from Congress to wait and see if his surge of U.S. forces into Iraq might yet succeed.

But when Bush started to describe the ideological war we are in, one began to understand why we are in the mess we are in.

"This war," said Bush, "is an ideological struggle. ... To prevail, we must remove the conditions that inspire blind hatred and drove 19 men to get onto airplanes and to come to kill us."

But the "conditions" that drove those 19 men "to come to kill us" is our dominance of their world, our authoritarian allies and Israel.

They were over here because we are over there.

"Free people are not drawn to violent and malignant ideologies," declared Bush. Oh? Explain, then, why 70 million Germans, under the most democratic government in their history, gave more than half their votes to Nazis and Communists in 1933? In every plebiscite he held, Hitler won a landslide. In the year of Anschluss and Munich, 1938, Hitler was Time's Man of the Year and far more popular than FDR, who lost 71 seats in the House.

In the free elections Bush demanded in Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq, the winners were the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, Hamas and Shia militants with ties to Iran.

If a referendum were held in the Middle East on the proposition of the U.S. military out and Israel gone, how does Bush think it would come out?

This is the heart of the war we are in. Americans believe in freedom first. Millions of Muslims believe in Islam first – submission to Allah. We decide for us. Do we also decide for them?

Government Incompetence

2007-01-06T07:05:00.000-08:00

The Army said Friday it would apologize to the families of about 275 officers killed or wounded in action who were mistakenly sent letters urging them to return to active duty.

Libertarian Hope

2007-01-02T14:17:00.000-08:00

by Lew Rockwell

Despair is a vice that defeats the human spirit. Hope, on the other hand, is a virtue that creates and builds. This is true in business, sports, and intellectual life – indeed, in every area. We must see success in the future in order to achieve it.

The War is Over

2006-12-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

It's all but official: The war in Iraq is lost. Report after leaked report says so. Everybody in Washington knows it except that draft-dodging ferret in the White House. Politicians scurry to avoid the blame. One day soon people will ask aloud: How did we let 3000 GIs die for the weak ego of a pampered liar and his desperate need to prove he's half the man his father was?

The troops from now on will die for a war that they already know is over. They are dying for politicians. They are dying for nothing. By now they must know it. It happened to us, too, long ago.

Out of the Dollar and into the Euro

2006-12-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

Iran is to shift its foreign currency reserves from dollars to euros and use the euro for oil deals in response to US-led pressure on its economy.

Noninterventionism

2006-12-19T19:09:00.000-08:00

Noninterventionism is not isolationism. Nonintervention simply means America does not interfere militarily, financially, or covertly in the internal affairs of other nations. It does not mean that we isolate ourselves; on the contrary, our founders advocated open trade, travel, communication, and diplomacy with other nations.

It is our true policy to steer clear of entangling alliances with any portion of the foreign world. - George Washington

Jeffersonian Democrats

2006-12-13T18:08:00.000-08:00

And what, you might well ask, is a Jeffersonian Democrat? He's a person who hasn't forgotten that the sovereign states created the federal government, not the reverse, as some today seem to assume. He believes that what the Constitution created was a republic of sovereign states, and that the carefully limited powers assigned to the federal government were all the powers it had, in peace or in war. He believes the Constitution is a binding contract, not a rubbery document that can mean anything a judge or a politician says it means. He believes in a system of checks and balances. In short, he believes in the Declaration of Independence.

That document, you might recall, says that the only purpose of government is to protect rights already granted by God, and that when a government fails to protect those rights and begins to abuse them, the people have the right to alter or overthrow it.

No Posts

2006-12-13T18:04:00.000-08:00

Sorry I haven't posted anything lately. I haven't been too busy, I just haven't found anything good to blog about.

Alarmist Science

2006-11-13T19:03:00.000-08:00

Pope Benedict XVI has warned scientists to beware of making alarming predictions without having the proper science to back them up.

"Science cannot replace philosophy and revelation by giving an exhaustive answer to man's most radical questions: questions about the meaning of living and dying, about ultimate values, and about the nature of progress itself."

REMEMBER, REMEMBER

2006-10-31T17:54:00.000-08:00

The 7th of November.

Give 'em L in the ballot box.

The NAFTA Superhighway

2006-10-31T06:52:00.000-08:00

a.k.a. The trans-Texas corridor

The proposed highway is part of a broader plan advanced by a quasi-government organization called the “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America,” or SPP.

The SPP was first launched in 2005 by the heads of state of Canada, Mexico, and the United States at a summit in Waco.

The SPP was not created by a treaty between the nations involved, nor was Congress involved in any way. Instead, the SPP is an unholy alliance of foreign consortiums and officials from several governments. One principal player is a Spanish construction company, which plans to build the highway and operate it as a toll road. But don’t be fooled: the superhighway proposal is not the result of free market demand, but rather an extension of government-managed trade schemes like NAFTA that benefit politically-connected interests.

The ultimate goal is not simply a superhighway, but an integrated North American Union – complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy, and virtually borderless travel within the Union. Like the European Union, a North American Union would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty altogether.

Give 'em L in Austin

2006-10-30T00:35:00.000-08:00

Vote NO on all bond issues

The Travis County Libertarian Party (TCLP) has adopted a resolution opposing all seven City of Austin bond propositions to appear on the November 7 ballot.

"This authorization for wasteful spending would seriously increase the burden on local taxpayers," said Wes Benedict,

TCLP chair. "Most homeowners' tax bills already went up this year. We don't need a tax increase from the city on top of the fake tax cut the state just gave us."

Don't forget to "give 'em L" when you step into that voting booth -- haven't those nasty old "Ds" and "Rs" had enough of an opportunity to show how much better they are at spending your money than you are? Libertarians are the only ones who work to have government do less, be less dominant, and cause less strife and conflict among societal groups.

The following Libertarians will be on the ballot in Travis County. (Candidates in boldface live in Travis County.) You can just print this list out and take it with you to vote. If you live outside Travis County, please check http://www.lptexas. org/candidates. shtml for Libertarian candidates across the state.

Scott Lanier Jameson - U.S. Senator
James Werner - Governor
Judy Baker - Lieutenant Governor
Jon Roland - Attorney General
Mike Burris - Comptroller of Public Accounts
Michael A. French - Land Commissioner
Clay Woolam - Agriculture Commissioner
Tabitha Serrano - Railroad Commissioner
Tom Oxford - Chief Justice, Supreme Court
Wade Wilson - Justice, Supreme Court, Place 2
Jerry Adkins - Justice, Supreme Court, Place 4
Todd Phillippi - Justice, Supreme Court, Place 6
Jay H. Cookingham - Justice, Supreme Court, Place 8
Quanah Parker - Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 7
Dave Howard - Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 8
Michael Badnarik - U.S. Representative, District 10
James Arthur Strohm - U.S. Representative, District 21
Barbara Cunningham - U.S. Representative, District 25
Bill Oliver - State Board of Education, District 5
Martin Thomen - State Board of Education, District 10
Robert "Rock" Howard - State Senator, District 14
James R. (Bob) Thompson - State Senator, District 25
Richard Wedeikes - State Representative, District 46
Yvonne Schick - State Representative, District 47
Ben Easton - State Representative, District 48
Lisa McKay - State Representative, District 49
Jerry Chandler - State Representative, District 50
Arthur DiBianca - State Representative, District 51
Matt Turner - County Judge
Allan Juranek - County Clerk
Robert Brushaber - County Treasurer
Glen Bonnet, Jr. - County Commissioner, Precinct 2
Tim Davis - County Commissioner, Precinct 4
Matt Finkel - Justice of the Peace, Precinct 2
Robert B. McDonald - Justice of the Peace, Precinct 3
Chris Crenshaw - Justice of the Peace, Precinct 5

The Daily Texan of the University of Texas at Austin endorsed three Libertarian candidates: Michael Badnarik (Congress, District 10), Martin Thomen (State Board of Education, District 10) and Bill Oliver (State Board of Education, District 5).