The Tyranny of Romans 13

As a follow up to last week's conversation with a religious statist, I am going to look at the reason such a person would give up his own reason and common sense and be so worshipful and obedient to tyrannical authorities. Although it will seem as if I am only picking on Christianity, that is not the case. All monotheistic religions tend toward authoritarianism. Islam, Judaism and Christianity all share the same God, whether Christians want to believe that or not. In a future essay, I will deal with the tyranny of Islam and it's injunction of obedience to government. These essays will not be politically correct.

Here is Romans 13 in it's entirety:

Let everyone obey the authorities that are over him, for there is no authority except from God and all authority that exists is established by God.

As a consequence, the man who opposes authority rebels against the ordinance of God; those who resist thus draw condemnation down upon themselves. Rulers cause no fear when a man does what is right but only when his conduct is evil. Do you wish to be free from the fear of authority? Do what is right and you will gain it's approval, for the ruler is God's servant to work for good. Only if you do wrong ought you to be afraid. It is not without purpose that the ruler carries the sword; he is God's servant, to inflict his avenging wrath upon the wrongdoer. You must obey then, not only to escape punishment but also for conscience sake. You pay taxes for the same reason, magistrates being God's ministers who devote themselves to his service with unremitting care. Pay each one his due: taxes to who taxes are due; toll to whom toll is due; respect and honor to everyone who deserves them.

This is the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, which kept millions enslaved until the American and French Revolutions broke the door for rebellion wide open. According to the Bible, the Founders and all who rebelled against the English king were not only traitors, but condemned to Hell! This is a doctrine of slavery. It places government, which has nothing to do with God, on a pedestal. If you really wanted to be strict about it, this must mean that the Russian Czars, Hitler, Napoleon, Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc, were appointed by God! What a contrived ideal. This ideal only serves the state and ruling elites! Reject this doctrine.

I am a Taoist. I follow the ideal that there is a cosmic mystery, but that God, is within you. God and evil are within you, real truth does not come from the outside, but from within. I do not say this to convert you to my belief system, I only say this to show you that not all religious beliefs are tyrannical and irrational. You must find your own truth. One truth, I think all human beings share deep down is a desire to be free and a love of liberty. Embrace this desire and make the world a better place.

Conversation with a Religious Statist

Recently, I had a conversation with a religious statist. We were talking about the current economic mess we were in. He, of course is a religious conservative, Republican, and believer in a "strong" government. He informed me that the reason we are in such bad shape is because Americans have "rejected" God. He further related that in retribution, God was placing evil men in power to govern us. Since I am a rationalist and a Deist, I of course, have a differing opinion. I related to him that I thought America needed a peaceful revolution and organized resistance to government taxes, and banking policies, that were destroying the livelihood of Americans and their children.

I pointed out that we were under no obligation to be slaves to our government, that they don't own us, and that each person has a natural, unalienable, right to his or her own life. He was in disagreement to say the least. He became somewhat angry, calling me an "anarchist". He told me that government "rulers" and "authorities" are appointed by God,biblical verse Romans 13, to rule over mankind. Alas, this is the slave mentality of the Divine Right of Kings. He also said that although he "doesn't like taxes", As Jesus instructed we must render unto Caesar what is his. He also related that "rebellion" against government is a rebellion against God himself!

This, my friends, is the slave mind of the religious believer. Taxation is a form of slavery. Governments are not appointed by God, but run by men and used to acquire more and more power unto themselves. When I told him this, he abruptly left me and ended the conversation. What offended him the most was when I asked him about the American Revolutionaries revolting against the British king. He said that the American Revolution was a "Christian" upheaval. Well,it wasn't,and you can't have it both ways. Rebellion is rebellion, and according to his Bible, the Founders and all who participated in the Revolution were rebelling against God and were condemned to Hell for all eternity. This is pure nonsense, but it is what we are up against today in America.

Irrationality, fear, and passive obedience are what are inculcated by traditional religious belief. This unholy trinity has caused many Americans to be soft, fearful and unwilling to defend their liberty. As a tolerant individualist, I believe one can believe whatever one wishes to, no matter how irrational I think it may be. That being said, recognize that if America is turned into a dictatorship during the current crisis, these religious zealots will be the governments' biggest supporters...in the name of God.

Statist Oppression Lottery

Now that President Obama and his Democratic socialists have put forward their plan to add almost 900 billion dollars to the National Debt,we can see who will benefit from what has been called the Statist-Oppression Lottery. This phrase is from the great radical website, Nation of Liberty. What the phrase defines is the special interest lottery of lobbyists, corporations, and other assorted political whores who are feeding off the public. Since October 2008, the banking industry has stolen over 1 trillion dollars in taxpayer money. President Bush and his lackey, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, pushed the case that without the 700 billion dollar bailout, America was doomed. This was a lie. America is doomed anyway. The money stolen by Wall Street was only to bail out fat cats and big banks that made bad loans and poor business decisions. It is the biggest redistribution of wealth in the history of the world, this time from the poor to the rich. Robbery at it's finest.

This is what is meant by the Statist-Oppresion Lottery. Wealthy interests use the power of government in the form of taxation, to steal money from citizens. It is a sickening fraud that is only going to get worse. President Obama is going to also pursue this line of fraud. He is in the back pocket of the elite and fully intends to back their play.

This Statist-Oppression Lottery is going to be very painful. Be prepared for an astronomical rise in taxes, high inflation, high unemployment and a Depression. You can thank the elitists of America for the Statist-Oppression Lottery.

Agorist Society

In light of the recent plundering of the American people by Wall Street, I have come to embrace full Agorist left libertarian theory. Although I have always sympathized with agorism, I never fully embraced it. I have now. I just recently re-read the New Libertarian Manifesto by Samuel E. Konkin. Konkin outlines a society of total liberty and market anarchism with no official state. He develops the revolutionary theory of undermining the current corrupt statist world we live in by what he calls grey and black markets. These markets bypass the traditional state by by refusing to participate in the system of taxes, regulations, and laws. Instead arbitration, mediation and restitution is encouraged to develop a new paradigm.

Before you become shocked by my embracing a form of revolutionary anarchism, let me clarify. I am not advocating the mindless,nihilistic,left wing anarchist block that beats people, and destroys private property. What I am embracing is the power of markets and the end of the coercive power of the centralized state. Anarchism, especially in small societies is quite possible. In this agorist anarchist society, you can associate however you like. Voluntary socialist communes, individual "off the grid" living, and normal city style living is all acceptable. What is paramount is freedom and liberty.

Agorism is much better than what we currently have. The old libertarian republic of Jefferson is dead. We live in an Empire. The Empire will fall some day, probably sooner than we think, and something must fill the void. Statist communists, fascists, and bureaucratic elites will be scrambling to reconstitute the Empire, each in their own way. We must be prepared to fill that void with either agorist anarchism, several new libertarian republics,or even though a long shot, the old Jeffersonian Republic. I would like advice and cooperation from you, my readers. We need to start now. We need to organize cells of peaceful proponents of liberty, and develop a revolutionary strategy for agorism. I welcome any and all constructive comments. In future essays, I will explore agorism in it's entirety. We will compare it with Marxism, Fascism, and Conservatism.

In the mean time, pay attention to the news. 2009 is going to be a very rough year. Look for more devastation in the economic realm. Look for inflation, deflation, and larger and larger unemployment. Prepare yourself. Pay off any or if you can, all debt. Also pay specific attention to the increasing power of the Federal government. The Federal government is the biggest threat to our liberty. The new Emperor, President Obama, has proposed spending 1.2 trillion dollars to "save" the economy. He wants to create a new "New Deal" as FDR did during the Great Depression. This is exactly what should not be done. We must prepare ourselves. Tough times are ahead. As for now, in the slogan of the agorist movement AGORISM, ANARCHY, ACTION, NOW!

The Coronation of the Emperor

Sorry, I haven't posted in a while. Family business to attend to. Now that things have slowed down, I'm back. This essay will be short and to the point, but my future ones will get into some more heavy issues and historical topics.

Well, tomorrow is the coronation of the new Emperor. The pomp, parades, glitter, celbrities (royalty), etc all for one man. A disgusting display in a supposed democratic republic. Perfect for an empire. 2009 is going to be a bad year folks. I hate being the bringer of bad news, but it is. If you think the economy is bad now, just wait until Emperor Obama and the Imperial Congress get done with more bailouts and inflated fiat money. I fully expect the US National Debt to balloon to well over 20 trillion before Obama leaves office in eight years. Yes, eight years, because I fully see him being re-elected by the serfs.

Prepare yourself for more government tyranny also. I expect to see price controls, bank holidays and possibly a seizure of 401K accounts by the Emperor's Congress. I also expect Emperor Obama will not end the war in Iraq, nor will be get us out of any country we are currently in. I also think a military draft is coming along with Obama's tyrannical civilian "volunteer" corps.

Prepare yourself. Protect your assets, if you can. Invest in precious metals and send your money overseas. Prepare yourself for the Emperor's New Amerika.

Republican Socialism and the End of the Republic

It's been a while since my last post and quite a bit has happened since then. What has happened is the economic meltdown that has been stalking the US for decades.

What we have witnessed in the last few months is one of the final nails in the coffin of the American Republic. The Democratic Congress and the Republican Executive Branch have committed the US Government to a massive bailout of banks and other supposed capitalist institutions. These wealthy companies and corporations scream and rail against socialism and government intervention,but when the chips are down want to socialize their massive losses due. Of course, the Republicans,the phony state's rights and limited government party, have fully exposed their love of Big Government and their endorsement of state capitalism. Their free market ideology was mainly a fraudulent and crass attempt to make the American sheeple believe they are the Jeffersonian party.

The Republicans have now fully endorsed socialism and the fleecing of the American middle class. Their form of class warfare is exposed. 700 billion dollars are stolen legally from the American people and redistributed to the elite super rich and their financial institutions. This is a redistribution of wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich. Of course there is no constitutional authority for such crimes against the American people, but hey, who cares about the Constitution, right?

This only the beginning, my friends. The American Republic is almost dead. The Empire is now beginning to publicly blossom. The volatility we see in the NYSE is only a prelude to a massive financial disaster that will engulf the not only the US, but the world. Republican socialists, or what they truly are, Hamiltonians, are presiding over the end of the Republic. The Democrats abandoned the Republic long ago. The Republicans have claimed for decades to be the party of limited government, but now they are exposed for what they truly are. Economic statism and fascism is here to stay. What's next, a trillion, 5 trillion, 10 trillion of fiat money to save the elite?

The American Republic, for all it's flaws, was the greatest experiment in libertarian government for and by the people. America has prospered in spite of strong central government, not because of it. Jeffersonian principles in government are dead, except in people like Congressman Ron Paul, or even Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders. Now we must find how to survive the coming calamity. Get out of debt, live frugally, and vote out all the criminals in Congress who voted for the bailout. Maybe, just maybe, we can restore the Republic in the coming years, although I am not optimistic. Beware of the Empire because it is showing it's fangs.

The Radical Revolutionary Tradition, Part 1

The United States of America is a constitutional republic born out of a radical revolution in the late 18th century. The US was the first democratic republic since the ancients, Greece and Rome. Our republic was a product of the European and American Enlightenment, it's philosophies, and it's patriots and freethinkers. Unfortunately this great land has abandoned it's revolutionary tradition and embraced the Old World philosophy of war ,realpolitk, and empire. In this essay I will attempt to elucidate and enlighten the reader on our revolutionary past and the benefits of freedom, liberty and republican government over slavery, despotism and empire. Let us begin.

The Intellectual Background

The American Revolution, as opposed to the War of the American Revolution, begun arguably in 1763 with the end of the French and Indian War and the complete domination of North America by the British Empire. The American colonists were a very literate and rural population. In 1765 the Stamp Act caused the opening salvo in the battle for liberty against the British Parliament. In every colony, except Georgia, protests against the act were conducted. Committees were formed to send petitions to Parliament, newly appointed Stamp collectors were threatened, and forced to renounce their offices, and ships carrying English stamps were prevented from landing. Terms like "slavery", "despotism", and "tyranny" were read in colonial newspapers and heard by many colonists from such firebrands as Samuel Adams,
Patrick Henry, and James Otis. Where did these and other revolutionaries find their philosophy?

The American Revolutionary tradition has it's roots in the revolutionary opposition ideology of the 17th century English Revolutions of the 1640's and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Men like Algernon Sidney, Leveller John Liliburne, Richard Rumbold, and John Locke. Sidney, and Locke were the most influential of all, but the English Levellers , who have been greatly overlooked, also provide a radical tradition against power, monarchy, and feudalism.

Sidney and Locke

Algernon Sidney was an English revolutionary who participated in the English Civil wars of the 1640's. Sidney, in addition to being a libertarian, was a believer in republican government. He was a vocal opponent of the Divine Right of Kings, and in his treatise Thoughts on Government opposed the Divine Right of Kings doctrine as articulated by monarchist,Sir Robert Filmer. Locke's First and Second Treatise on government also refuted the doctrines of Filmer and Hobbes. Both Sidney and Locke knew that men with absolute power usually ended up destroying the liberty of their subjects. Power , as Lord Acton would later say, corrupts ,and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This was the doctrine of Sidney and Locke. Both men were revolutionaries of their era. Sidney's Thoughts on Government cost him his life in 1683 for it's radical doctrine of the right of revolution and opposition to unlimited power. Locke was forced to flee to France to protect himself. Both Sidney and Locke espoused the radical ideal of the right to revolution. People, they argued, have the right and the duty to overthrow tyrannical government.
When government established a tyranny it no longer fulfilled it's proper ends: the protection of the natural rights of the people, and the right of people to pursue happiness. If these ends of government were violated, the social contract was broken and the people were under no obligation to obey such a government. They were in a "state of nature" and assumed the right to create a government that suited their ends and protected their liberty.

The English Levellers

The English Levellers were a group of radicals who participated in the radical English revolutions and civil war of 1645-1649. The Levellers were far ahead of their time in their views of the proper role of government. The Levellers believed that men had an absolute right to the freedom of conscience, and that the civil state should play no role in saving the souls of men. They also believed firmly in the right of men to have personal liberty. They rejected the right of the crown to arrest people without due process, or imprison people indefinitely. They were firm supporters of the abolition of the infamous Star Chamber, a council of the crown which imprisoned opponents of the monarch without legal process, the right to counsel, or jury trial. The Levellers stood fast against such unlawful and tyrannical procedures.

The Levellers also rejected the Divine Right of Kings. They did not believe that the king had a right to rule over his subjects by the grace of God. This rejection was extremely radical. The English aristocracy and clergy opposed such radical views and supported the king's "right" to dissolve Parliaments, and rule without any check on his power. Such views are unfortunately coming back into vogue today with the modern Republican Party demanding obedience to the President, our "leader". Many Levellers were devout Christians, some were rationalists and freethinkers, but all agreed in the freedom of men to worship God according to their own consciences, even Roman Catholics. They believed the state had no role in saving the souls of men. They were opposed by Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, the Presbyterian clergy, and the royalists and Tories who supported strong government.Unfortunately history has forgotten them and the Tory views of the royalists and aristocrats have portrayed them as a kind of communist style movement. The Levellers were supporters of assisting the poor, the downtrodden and providing a free society, but they were anything but communists.

Here are just some of the parts of their program for a new England:

1) abolition of the House of Lords
2) abolition of tithes
3) complete freedom of religion and separation of church and state
4) abolition of monarchy
5) establishment of a republic
6)abolition for imprisonment of debt

These are just a few of their ideals. These ideals heavily influenced the American and French revolutionaries. Thomas Jefferson possessed several Leveller tracts in his library, and was distantly related to the great Leveller John Lilburne. One Leveller, Henry Marten was also a radical republican and hater of monarchy. Marten served on the court that condemned James I to death. Marten was an unapologetic, libertarian radical who believed that England should be a republic, have no state religion, and have a wide democratic franchise. His views are a precursor to the views of men like Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine. Marten was tried for his partcipitation in the regicide of 1649 when the monarchy was restored in 1660. Most regicides were executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered. Marten valiantly defended himself at his trial and was spared death. He never apologized or renounced his republican views. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London where he died in 1680.
Here is where royalists and modern conservative Tories lie to reconstruct history. It was not the French, but the English who first beheaded their monarch. It was English radicalism that influenced both the American and French revolutionaries.This radical heritage espoused the rights of mankind against arbitrary government, liberty of the individual, the excellence of republican government, the dangers of aristocracy and monarchy, and the tyranny of a union of church and state. THIS IS OUR HERITAGE! Do not believe the lies of neoconservatives, leftists, Christian Right fanatics or any other groups that promote the fraud of the "conservative" American Revolution, or it's historical background. We must become conservatives in a true sense. A conservative that "conserves" the libertarian radicalism of our forefathers, and their forefathers.

As you can see there is distinct linear heritage of radicalism from the English revolutionaries and their ideals to the American Revolutionaries in the struggle against the Tory English government. It is clear that this heritage is in complete contradistinction from the false neoconservative and Christian Right view. It also totally refutes Marxist and leftist propaganda that the American Revolution was conservative. Both camps view of the American Revolution as conservative or just a simple rebellion are totally false.

The Scottish Enlightenment

Adam Smith, Francis Hutcheson, , Thomas Reid and Henry Home , Lord Kames, are the primary leaders of the radical Scottish Enlightenment. This part of the Enlightenment contributed greatly to the radicalism of both the American and French Revolutions.

Adam Smith

Normally known to all as a philosopher of free trade and capitalism, he was also a profound political and moral philosopher. Smith was a powerful advocate for free trade and the free exchange of goods with minimal government interference. He advocated peaceful trade between individuals and nations, and was opposed to monopolies in commerce, such as the East India Company. Smith opposed all forms of mercantilism and state managed economy. What will surprise many libertarians is that Smith was also a proponent of public education. He felt that a government had an obligation to educate and enlighten the minds of it's citizens. He recognized that an ignorant, poverty stricken populace , like in Britain could never really be free. Smith felt by educating citizens they would be come more public spirited, productive and happy as their knowledge increased. This was shared by men like Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin.

Francis Hutcheson

Hutcheson was the Scottish Enlightenment's moral philosopher. He believed man had a natural moral sense and that human beings were not depraved and decadent as propagated by religionists. Hutcheson also was a firm believer in the right of a people to revolt against tyrannical government, and to overthrow their oppressors. Jefferson had several of Hutcheson's writings in his library and adopted Huutcheson's view of the moral sense as innate in human beings.

This Anglo-American tradition is a gift to not only the United States, but the world. Classical liberalism had it's flaws, but no matter, that is what progress and the progression of history are for. The classical liberals built this great tradition and it is ours to improve upon, as we have over the last two, almost three centuries. Let us move on to Part II.

Economic Meltdown

Well, the economic future of the United States is looking dire. This week's bailout proposals of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the failure of IndyMac Bank have shown the perils of fiat money and central banking. Since the days of Alexander Hamilton, the wealthy have wanted a central bamk in the US. In 1836 Andrew Jackson destroyed the second Bank of the United States. From then until 1913 the United States had no central bank.It is also no coincidence that this period was a period of unsurapassed economic growth. Unfortunately the US never learned it's lesson. Now we are reaping the harvest from the evils of central banking, easy credit, and inflation and deflation.

Folks, we are headed for some very rough and ominious times. I believe we will see a depression that will dwarf the Great Depression of the 1930's. As the banks meltdown, so will the rest of the US economy. It will have a domino effect that will wipe out the savings and money of the middle class. Already the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is asking for permission to change it's rules and pay bank customers only 10 cents on the dollar or 10% of the money they have in the bank under 100,000. Currently, the FDIC is required to pay up 100,000 per account. Now they are asking to basically eviscerate the life saving of millions of depositors.

This is pure fraud and we have only seen the beginning of it. Experts are predicting $200.00 oil by this time next year, and the possibility of a depression in the coming future. The economic house of cards that the US economy is built on is starting to collapse. When it fully collapses and hits rock bottom, the US will be thrown into a world of chaos and political darkness. I have no doubt that martial law, and the virtual, if not actual, abolition of many of our constitutional liberties. The Fourth and Fifth Amendments are already under attack daily. The new FISA wiretapping law, rendition, and the push for war in the Middle East are just a few examples.

Americans need to wake up. If they do not the liberties Americans hold dear will be gone! Protect yourself and prepare for the worst.

Self Defense and the Breakdown of Society

If things keep going the way they have been: destruction of the Constitution, perpetual war, growing domestic tyranny, and economic collapse, the end of the American Republic will be complete. As the republic dies two things will happen. First, massive crime, and gangsterism will rule the day, Second, the political void will be filled by some despotic regime. It is the criminal gangsterism and how to defend yourself from it that this article is about.

Suppose America breaks down into chaos as described in Thomas Chittum's chilling book " Civil War II: The Breakdown of America". Gangs, racial violence and strife, brutal poverty, and starvation become the norm. How does one protect yourself, family and community from such horror. As a libertarian, I believe every individual should be prepared, and that every neighborhood and community should band together voluntarily and create defense associations and committees to fight roaming gangs and criminals. Let us begin.

We will number and list some of the things that need to be done.

1) All neighborhoods need to form themselves into defense associations for the collective purpose of defending themselves. Elect a committee, the size varies due the size of the neighborhood, of at least 10 people.

This committee should attempt to contact and form defense agreements with other towns and cities. The job of the committee is to prepare for attacks from roaming gangs.

2) The committee should require all able bodied men over 16 to be armed. Regular patrols should be set up around the town at all ingress and egress points. Armed patrols should also be posted to guard food and water supplies since these will be in hot demand if a Katrina like situation occurs.

3) Citizens should be committed (voluntarily)to pooling their resources such as food, water, fuel, transportation, and communications devices to help in protecting the whole.

4) Radio, TV and Internet ( if functioning) broadcasts should be monitored daily around the clock to keep the people alert for any new developments.

5) All citizens should be prepared to use firearms and other defensive measures. Places like Rwanda, Croatia, and Haiti are prefect examples of defenseless and sheep like actions and reactions to violence. The will to survive should be Paramount.

6) The Defense Committee should meet weekly and if necessary, daily, to prepare everyday operations.

7) Free trade with other towns, if possible, should be established to obtain the supplies needed. The American Revolution is a good example of this.

Now here are a list of the items you should have in preparation for such an event.

1) Firearms. You must have weapons to defend yourself. Preferably rifles, shotguns and always, handguns. Train with them. Be familiar with them.

No how to clean and take the weapon apart.

2) Food. Start stocking up now. Canned food, dried goods,fuel,water,and clothing. You should also buy a generator.

3) Transportation. Have a working vehicle. Although fuel will be very difficult to come by, a vehicle could save your life if overun by tyrannical government forces or gangsters.

4) Radio. Have a working radio. This could prove invaluable to you for intelligence gathering.

5) Valuables for barter. Cash, ie, paper money, will be more than likely worthless, so have items of value to barter with other families and defense associations. What to barter could include food, water, tools, weapons,books, radios, etc. Just about anything can be bartered if it has a useful purpose.

I am not trying to be an alamist, but the talk of war with Iran,200.00 a barrel oil, the liquidation of the real estate market, and the erosion of our liberties makes preparation not just necessary, but imperative. The breakdown of this wonderful nation has been planned by elites for decades. This once free democratic republic was a bastion of liberty and a middle finger to elitists and royalists. The hatred that the elites from the time of the American Revolution has not abated, only become more stealth like.

Please organize. People with skills like self defense, law enforcement or military training, organizational/managerial, and public relations will be needed if small communities are to survive the coming depression.

In my next post we will explore the rapid decline of the USA in the last 18 months.

Big Government Conservatism

The Republican Party is the party of Big Government. Simple as that. Under George W. Bush we have seen the largest increase in federal spending, surpassing Lyndon Johnson's Great Society of the 1960's. "Compassionate Conservatism", whatever that is, has seen the national debt increase to almost 10 TRILLION dollars. Now, there is enough blame to go around, but under this President, the spending has been insane.

Republicans have lost their way. Barry Goldwater conservatism is dead. Goldwater believed in frugal government, states rights, individual liberty, and decentralized government. The crackpots and fascists who run the Republican Party have long thrown Goldwater under the bus, running over his ideals in the process. Let's look at some of the "achievements" of the Bush administration:

An insane war costing billions by the day and slaughtering Americans and Iraqis. War always centralizes government to it's highest levels. Usually it is a pretext to do so.

The No Child Left Behind Act- an unconstitutional law that usurps state powers and foists an unfunded federal mandate on the states.

a four TRILLION dollar increase in the national debt, further bankrupting our nation.

Opposition to states rights in such cases as medical marijuana, euthanasia,gun control, and the blatantly unconstitutional intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

Support for the destruction of habeus corpus in the USA

Support for secret wiretapping by federal agents on American citizens without a warrant

Mandated marriage counseling during divorce proceedings

The blatantly unconstitutional "Office of Faith Based Initiatives"

Massive increases in federal education spending

Massive increases in federal medicare spending

Opposition to state environmental laws (California's fuel standards)

Support for CAFTA and other international "free trade" treaties that usurp the sovereignty of individual state government's as well as the federal government.

The list goes on and on. As I obtain more info, I will post more of the treason against the Constitution and our liberties from this wing of the corrupt political establishment.

Remember neoconservative fascist William Bennett referred to himself as a "Hamiltonian", and related " I'm no libertarian". So much for limited government.

He is proud to be a believer in the ideals of Mr. Hamilton I am sure: state religion, massive subsidies for business, aristocracy, and monarchy in the form of near worship of George Bush.

Reject these "conservative" phonies. Vote Libertarian.

Democratic Libertarianism, Part 1

The Democratic Party is the oldest active political party in the world. It traces it's inception from the first party battles of the 1790's between the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans. Up to the American Civil War the Democratic Party, with the exception of slavery, was known as the "liberal" party of America. It was the party of the common people. It stood for opposition to corporatism, artificial privilege, and aristorcracy and for free trade, liberty and self government.
After the Civil War the Democratic Party became co-opted by big government socialists and statists giving us the current state it is in today. Opposing the Democrats were the Federalists, who later became the Whigs. who stood for aristocracy, big money and big business, corporate dominance and big government. The Whigs later morphed into the Republican Party of today, a bastion of conservatism and corporatism. The Democrats and Republicans, for the most part are the same forces that have existed throughout history. As Jefferson pointed out " Serviles and Liberals", "Aristocrats and Jacobins", "Democrats and Monocrats" have existed as opposites throughout history. One the supporters of the people and the other of privilege and power.

The Democratic Party is no longer the party of Jefferson or Andrew Jackson, but is there hope for Libertarians to return it to it's roots? I am not sure, but there is no hope for the Republican Party. The Republican Party has proven to be a fascistic party not responsible to the people nor concerned with the cause of liberty. The Bush Administration has assaulted the liberties of the American people for seven years and evicerated the Bill of Rights. Forget the Republican Party my libertrarian friends.

Although I am a devoted Libertarian, I must ask again,can we return the Democratic Party to it's libertarian roots? I think so. Here's what we need to see as a start:

Unwavering support for the Bill of Rights
Ending the War on Drugs
Ending the War in Iraq
Ending all corporate welfare and subsidies
Repeal of the income tax
Abolition of the IRS
Ending all taxes on Social Security income
Ending all taxes on unemployment benefits
Repeal of the 2005 Bankruptcy Protection Act
Abolition of the Federal Reserve System
Ending all federal deficit spending
Passing a Balanced Budget Amerndment

These items would be the beginning of returning the Democratic Party to it's libertarian and Jeffersonian roots.

I am not a Randian libertarian worshiping property and the market. I believe the ability to own property to be a basic human liberty, but not the most important. I agree with James Madison that a man has "property in his rights" meaning speech, religion, movement, and his pursuit of happiness. It is these ideals that the Democratic Party once stood for. The Randian worship of the market economy has become a cult like religious belief. Nothing is perfect, not the market, society or government.

Supporting the Common Man

The middle class of America make up the bulk of our society. They determine it's morals, economics, and culture. They pay the majority of the bills, taxes and sacrifice their sons in wars for their country. Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican party were the true friends of the middle classes or "yeomanry" as Jefferson called them. Opposing the Jeffersonians were the Federalists who represented big business, the aristocracy of the cities, and as arch Federalist Fisher Ames called them the "rich, wise and well born". The Federalist policies did not benefit the masses. High taxes, a new standing army, subsidies for big business, were part of the class warfare program of the Hamiltonian program. The Federalists exist today as the Republican Party.

For too long Libertarians have allowed the corporate Randian mindset to dominate it's views on economics and liberty. Although I agree with Rand on some issues, I believe the Jeffersonian ideal of liberty to be the best articulation of freedom for a society. Modern libertarian ideals are in many ways at variance with Jeffersonian Democracy. Many libertarians espouse hatred of democracy. They prattle on that we are a "republic not a democracy" and that Benjamin Franklin once said "Democracy is two wolves sitting down to discuss how to eat the sheep" something that is not listed in any of his writings. Let's address the "republic not a democracy". Partly correct. The United States is a republic. In Latin republic means " the public thing" or res publica. It is also true that the Founders did not create a gigantic national democracy in the Greek city state ideal which would be impossible. They DID create a federal democratic republic consisting of state republics. They rejected a monarchy, aristocratic republic, or oligarchy. America is what Jefferson called a "representative democracy" where representatives are democratically elected to represent their interests. Many libertarians and conservatives rail against democracy and claim it is the source of all our problems. Not true. What would they prefer? Anarcho-Capitalists would prefer a monarchy or feudal government. Talk about the Dark Ages. Conservatives love the current corporate despotism, and many libertarians love the market and nothing else.

America is run not by a democracy but by a corrupt aristocracy consisting of corporations, wealthy politicians, and special interests DESPITE our democratic ideals. The two party oligarchy in Washington, DC is the true culprit.

It is my belief that we must ressurect the Democratic ideals of Jeffersonianism: free trade ( not NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO, which are statist globalist schemes), decentralized government, support for the common man through lower taxes, ending corporate welfare, opposition to special interests in government, curtailment of the military industrial complex, support for the Bill of Rights, and encouragement of democracy at the local level.

In Part 2, we will lay out more fully a Democratic-Jeffersonian program.

The Sons of Liberty and Nullification of State Power

In 1765 the British Parliament passed the Stamp Act. This act was applicable to Britian's North American colonies. The act called for a one cent tax on all newspapers, wills, codcils, manifests,contracts,paper, glass, lead, and paint. The act was part of a larger plan of the British government to tighten it's hold on it's American colonies after the Seven Years War with France, which ended in 1763. The object of this essay is to give a history lesson. This lesson has been lost, but provides an excellent example of what an oppressed and determined people can do to resist tyrannical government power and actions.

What did the colonists do? They did two very important things. They formed into secret organizations like the Sons of Liberty, and they forcibly resisted and nullified the Stamp Act. Yes, I said "nullify". This word makes statists the world over gasp with trepidation. Through the actions of the Sons of Liberty, protests, mass meetings, inflammatory news articles, and sometimes violence was employed to thoroughly disable and nullify the act. Many conspiracy theorists will also gasp and fret that the birth of the American Revolution was started by a secret society. Yes, the Sons eventually came out publicly, but even today we do not know their full membership. Let's examine some of their tactics.

Secret Meetings

In Boston, Newport, New York, New Haven, Ct, Savannah, Ga, Philadelphia and Charleston men calling themselves "Sons of Liberty",after the name given to the colonists by Colonel Issac Barre in the British Parliament, organized themselves to resist the hated Stamp Act. Many of these men came from the upper classes, but a large section of them came from the colonial middle and lower classes. In these meetings they vowed to oppose the Stamp Act and prevent it from being enforced in America, effectively nullifiying it. Stamp collectors were threatened, beated, tarred and feathered, harrassed, and in some cases had their property destroyed. Many were made to sign pledges to refuse to collect the tax, and were threatened to be labled "enemies to their country" if they didn't reject their new positions. Many Marxist historians, while praising the resistance of the Sons of Liberty, condemn them as rich white men who only cared about their own liberty. Of course in any mass movement there will be people who are myopic and concerned only with their own interests. To broadly paint the leaders of these secret societies as selfish only furthers the Marxist myth of class warfare. The fact is, no revolution can survive without leadership. This leadership generally comes from the upper and middle classes, and all revolutions up to our day have proven this. What revolutionary leaders cannot do is continue any revolution without the mass support of the populace. Let's examine this further.

Support of the Masses

When one truly examines the American Revolution it is apparent that it was a mass movement of the colonial population. Murray Rothbard, in his four volume history of the American colonies, Conceived in Liberty, details this in full. Men in the Sons of Liberty, Masonic Lodges,and colonial churches lead the charge, but it was the people who made the Revolution possible. From 1765 through 1776 the American people were subjected to increasing tyranny from the British establishement in America. Higher taxes, impressment of sailors, nepotism in the colonial governments, dual officeholding, enforcement of mercantilist laws, like the Navagation Acts, suspension of several legislatures, particularly New York and Massachusetts, and the keeping of a standing military in the midst of the civilian population all contributed to the restivness of the colonial population. The Boston Tea Party, the burning of the British warship Gaspee in Rhode Island, tarring and feathering of royal officials,
threats and protests against Stamp agents, are just a few examples of the
actions of the people. The people were lead by men like Samuel Adams, Charles Thomson, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson,Joseph Warren, John Adams,most of whom were members of secret societies like the Masons and Sons of Liberty. These men lead the populace in nullifying the power of the British government in America.

The Nullification of British Power

Throughout the period of the American Revolution, royal governors and officials routinely complained about the violence of the populace and how their authority was threatened by the revolutionaries. They recongnized that their power was slowly evaporating. They saw laws like the Stamp Act repealed due to pressure and threats, the Townshend duties resisted by nonimporation agreements, mass meetings in defiance of law, and confrontations with soliders, like the Boston Massacre, and colonial assemblies asserting their power. This nullification movement was lead by secret societies like the Sons of Liberty, behind closed doors. Masonic lodges met and developed plans and agreements for their members to utilize for resistance. Leaders met in taverns and coffeehouses to discuss resistance measures and plot, yes plot, future actions. These combinations effectively nullified and eviscerated British power. We could learn from their examples. Americans should use non violent means to resist the following:





1) Any attempt to submerge the USA into a North American Union with Canada and Mexico


2) A war with Iran


3) Increased power for the UN or WTO


4) Continued abuse of eminent domain


5) Fascistic measures destroying American liberties


6) Any gun control legislation


7) Any attempt to increase the power of the federal government


8)Any attempt to institute a draft or civilian conscription


9) Any law or act that further restricts liberty


10)Any attempt by the federal government to suppress a secession movement within the USA

11) Further evisceration of our constitutional rights and liberties (particularly the 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments). The Bush Administration's attack on attorney-client privilege is particularly appalling.



I am in no way advocating any violence. I do not believe that we are at that stage. Non violence protest and action should always be a first step.



The New Stasi

The Stasi was the feared and ruthless secret police of the German Democratic Republic or more appropriately, Communist East Germany. In America today the neocon rightwing and leftist groups are building a new despotism in our nation of liberty. In the growing power of the Federal government are the building blocks of a new Stasi, so to speak. The FBI, DIA, ATF, and DOJ are amassing great power through laws like the PATRIOT Act, The Real ID Act, and the definition of some American prisoners as "enemy combatants". People may laugh, joke or wave my comments asideas paranoia, but the building of this massive power structure is real. A new "Sons of Liberty" type movement is needed.

Liberty and freedom are not free. Both are typically destroyed by the overpowering hand of the state. It doesn't matter if you are rightwing, leftwing or libertarian. Our freedoms are ours to have, not government's to grant.

Be Thankful for America

Yes, Be Thankful for America. Even with all of our problems, growing tyranny, and societal decay, America is still one of the best, if not the best place to live on our planet. I know, I know, the American government is curbing our liberties, and are building a police state. As I have stated in my previous posts, we must fight the ruling political class, and reclaim the concept of America and what it means to be an American. We must reclaim the ideals of the American Revolution. I still believe all of that, but I am going to be a little more positive in this post. I am going to list some of the things that we should be thankful for being Americans. Here goes:

A lack of starvation among the populace
freedom to travel without restriction within the US
freedom to disappear and start a new life
The Internet and the ability to use it unrestricted
freedom to buy and read whatever books one wishes to
freedom to worship or not worship a god or gods
freedom to operate a motor vehicle
no standing army occupying our cities
mild poverty compared to the rest of the world ( since even our poorest have cars,TVs and
cell phones)
in some states, the freedom to own firearms
access to the best technology in the world
the freedom to speak out against the government
the right to own private property
the right to have an attorney when arrested
the right to a jury trial ( in most cases)
the right against self incrimination

Now this list is not all encompassing, and does not take away
from the fact that these rights are under attack daily. Even so,
we are much freer than any country in Africa, South America, Europe
Asia, or Australia. Many of those places are literal hell holes full of
disease, poverty, war, and tyrannical government. This list is just a little
reminder to us all that we need to fight for this great republic and
the classical liberal and radical ideals that brought it into being.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.

The Rule of the Political Class

In my last post, I told people to WAKE UP!!! In this post we are going to expose the ruling class of American society. Karl Marx was right about ruling classes. He just missed the mark a bit. It is not an economic class alone that rules a nation, but a combination of an economic elite and a political elite. Many times they are one in the same. Let us examine the current ruling class of the USA.

Let's draw up a list.

1) Corporations. Regardless of what some misguided libertarians believe
corporations are linked indissolubly with government. They bribe officials through "campaign donations", lobbying,large government contracts such as military technology, or the health care industry . Some will say that corporations are forced to do this out of self defense.Maybe so, but most executives of corporations could care less about liberty, freedom or a free market. Sadly, current interpretations of the 14th Amendment( by an 1896 court) consider the corporation a "person" with rights. This ruling has caused enormous damage to the cause of liberty. Frankly, corporations are legal fictions of government that were not trusted by America's Founding Fathers. nor should they be by us.

2) The Military Industrial Complex. I like to call this wedding of government and private industry the "national security state". This national security state is a paranoid, authoritarian, anti-liberty, greedy
group of whores for fat cats and politicians to conquer other nations in the name of money and power. I like to refer to them as the heavy metal band Black Sabbath did as "War Pigs". These people profit off of death, murder, genocide and conquest. Sickening.

3) The Political Class. Members of Congress, state legislatures, county governments and cities. Politicians are a separate, corrupt class all to themselves. They deny citizens government funded health care, but literally have the best in the world ( as in the case of Congress). Total hypocrisy. Politicians are also the masters at meddling in the lives of their citizens. Their main motto is "There outta be a law.." They also give themselves fat salaries and large paid staffs. Most politicians are drunk with power.

Of course they consider themselves above the law. Several Presidents, Clinton and Nixon are recent ones, have used the IRS to target political opponents. This portion of the ruling class is the most dangerous. Why?
First they hold the purse strings of government, second they have the ultimate authority of armed agents to carry out their orders. Government has no rival. A battle against an unjust, unconstitutional law, or immoral one will result in heavy fines, prison, and sometimes death.

The ruling classes also send young men to die in useless wars across the globe. All of these wars further solidify the power of the economic and political elite. Most brain dead and thoughtless citizens rally to support the most corrupt and incompetent government when threatened. The press is used to lie, manipulate, and control the masses through mass propaganda.Just listen to the cries of "support the troops!", "support your government", "support the President" or more frightening "your President". Why does this happen? Ignorance? Stupidity? Well, probably a combination of both. Dumbed down education in public schools, harsh laws, TV, conservative radio, all of these things contribute, but are not the cause. The main cause of the lack of resistance to criminal government is apathy. Most people could care less about politics and politicians. Because of this morons elect the Clintons, Bushes, Guilianis, etc. Truly tragic.

The ruling classes are destroying what is left of the republic. Like Chancellor Palpatine in Star Wars( although not as intelligent) George Bush has presided over the end of democracy in the USA. By the end I mean the last 25 years or so of republican government. Oh, the forms may remain: Congress, Senate, etc, but Like Palpatine's empire in Star Wars, only to rubber stamp the directives of the executive.

Let us hope liberty can survive. It always manages to in one form or another. As I related in my last post, we need to WAKE UP!!!. If we don't we have no one to blame but ourselves.

WAKE UP!

This is not going to be a positive post. I am angry. I am sad. Why? I am angry and sad because the American Republic is dead. I am angry and sad because the US Constitution has been discarded in favor of a military industrial-corporate state. This corporate state has been created over the last 50 years by the left and right alike. A perfect example is the US government's support of the use of mercenaries like Blackwater USA in, not only Iraq, but in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. All the while the drooling morons that infest the neocon and right wing Christian zealot wings of the Republican Party support the eradication of over 800 years of Anglo-American principles of liberty. The Democratic Party is no better with it's nanny state leftists who love government when it plays the role of mommy or daddy, or who demand that everyone be supported by a huge bureaucracy. All the while the US Constitution fades away. It sickens me.

Both political parties are frauds. Both love government power and domination over others. A man like Ron Paul is a true hero. His consistent support for the principles of liberty is wonderful in such dark times as these. Let us hope he can wake some people up. Unfortunately, the US press is a tool of the ruling political class and has absolutely no interest in being fair or evenhanded in it's coverage of Dr. Paul.

What is frightening is that we are witnessing the end stage of republican government. Here are a few of the signs:

Church and state wedding together to support war and death(Iraq)
Cruelty and oppression ( torture of suspects)
Intolerance towards others different from you
abolition of the rule of law
the massive increase of power and centralized government
massive consumer and government debt
recession or depression
fiat money
militarism

Now I know these are very generalized, but I encourage you to look around. Look around and WAKE UP!!! WAKE UP before it's too late!

Preparation for the Coming Dictatorship

Be wary of the future. The Bush Administration and it's globalist allies have something planned for America and the world: Dictatorship. Martial Law is coming. Ominous signs are in the news everyday. In this essay we will review these signs and their implications.

The continuation of the Iraq war, the abolition of habeus corpus, the arrest of protesters at the President's speaking engagements, etc, all point to a growing police state mindset that is rapid devouring any remaining respect for the US Constitution or the precepts of Anglo-American libertarian principles. Should another terrorist attack occur in the United States, especially one with mass casualties, the USA will become a dictatorship similar the one in Burma. Military law and occupation will be the result, all in the name of "protecting" Americans from "terrorists". The real terrorists are the politicians who support these fascistic policies, the neoconservatives fanatics, religious zealots in the Republican Party, and the cowardly leftist Democrats who are either unable or unwilling to fight for liberty in America.

Look at our country: we have the highest prison population of any nation on Earth, we have daily reports of police brutality and a creeping mindset that the military can do no wrong. This mindset is ruining our republic.

My advice to you, dear reader, is prepare yourself. The dictatorship is coming, maybe not tomorrow, but soon.

Freedom of Speech...Absolutely

Recently I purchased a wee little book called "The FBI vs The First Amendment" by ACLU attorney Robert Criley. Criley was also one of the leading left wing opponents of HUAC- The House Un-American Activities Committee. This committee is a black mark on the American Congress and shameful assault on America's Revolutionary ideals and principles. I am not concerned with the fact that HUAC was fighting socialism or communism. What I am concerned about is the national security state that rose out of the Cold War and the lunacy and hysteria that accompanied it. Joseph Mc Carthy, J. Edgar Hoover, LBJ and other enemies of liberty were men of paranoid and dark minds. What I fear, and what this essay is about, is the recreation of this near demonic, fear driven society due to the "War on Terror". The men with dark and paranoid minds are the neoconservatives and fascistic conservatives who are attempting to further saddle the American people with a police state.

Roots on the Right

As I have touched on above the roots of this police/national security state lie in the 1950's and 60's and the increasing power of the federal government. J. Edgar Hoover, a vile and evil man, was at the forefront of not only increasing his personal power, but the power of the FBI and the US government. Hoover, a hero to the lunatics in the John Birch Society, took the FBI, once an inept and tiny investigatory bureau and turned it into a first class domestic spy agency. Hoover held a lifetime of power from 1924 to 1972 and it showed. Due to this near life tenure he amassed an enormous amount of detailed information on individuals, usually referred to as a dossiers, which were used to destroy the lives of those he believed were "communists", "socialists" and as he called them "dissenters". Hoover hated any dissent against the federal government. All dissent was treasonous in his mind, and all dissent must be crushed. Hoover was no fan of the principles of American Liberty and the American Revolution. As I have pointed out in earlier essays the American Revolution was a radical, violent, and powerful libertarian upheaval. I would venture to say if Hoover had been alive during the American Revolution he would most assuredly have been a Tory.

The Creation of COINTELPRO

In 1956 Hoover created COINTELPRO a domestic spy and surveilence unit within the FBI. Hoover, and the FBI, had never been friends to freedom, or constitutional liberties. COINTELPRO was used to infiltrate, spy, and use agent provocateurs to destroy organizations that Hoover deemed "subversive". COINTELPRO was used to spy on various left wing groups from it's creation in the 50's right up until it's disbandment in the 1980's. The FBI frequently engaged in criminal acts, like illegal wiretapping, burglary, and other police state crimes worthy of a communist dictatorship. FBI agents also allowed their own undercover agents to commit crimes and allow them to take place. COINTELPRO was used against any and all perceived "enemies" of the US government: Black Panthers, SDS, Weathermen, Hippie and antiwar groups, etc. Supported by fanatical anticommunist organizations the John Birch Society, Young Americans for Freedom, and other conservative-fascist organizations, the FBI was able to amass a huge groups of secret informers, spies, and snitches, ready and willing to destroy constitutional liberties to "fight communism". This mentality exists today, except the enemy is not communism, but "terrorism". Terrorism is the new enemy. Despots and enemies of liberty always need an enemy. This enemy is not only terrorism, but antiwar groups, leftists, libertarians, and average everyday people like Cindy Sheehan. This, as Lew Rockwell so eloquently calls it, is really "Red State Fascism". Red State Fascism is a military-industrial-statist mindset masquerading as freedom loving enemies of "Islamic Fascism". This group of Red State Fascists is made up of the following elements: fanatical zionist neoconservatives, christian fundamentalists with an "Armageddon" complex, economic fascists ( men like Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al) who are CEO's of large politically connected industries, officers in the military aristocracy, propagandists in the government-media complex ( O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh)
and unfortunately a large number of average, run of the mill, middle class Americans. This Red State Fascism will destroy the American Republic if not exposed and stopped.

Assaults of Freedom of Speech

The Propagandists at FOX, CNN, and other politically connected media organizations are currently in cahoots with government agencies and Bush Administration fascists to destroy freedom of speech in America. Many in the federal government, with the support of fascists like Bill O'Reilly want bloggers, like myself, regulated by the FCC! The First Amendment means nothing to the fascist. All "enemies" of the state must be crushed. Calls by conservatives to "regulate" the Internet and imprison opponents of the Iraq War who dare to print their opinions are now heard every day. Fanatical Zionist and neoconservative Micheal Savage calls for the federal government to arrest newspaper columnists, editors and all opponents of American foreign policy towards Israel as "anti-Semitic". These calls for the suppression of free speech is noting new for conservatives. Remember one thing: conservatives love the state. They believe men to be stupid, factious, corrupt and incapable of self government. This always applies to their opponents, but never themselves.


Sean Hannity calls all who oppose the Iraq War and the President "traitors", and enemies to America. Men like Mr. Hannity remind me of Joseph Goebbels, constantly using demagoguery and imagery to destroy people's faith in free government and to fool them into believing that by destroying free speech we are somehow , more free. Recently "conservative" Ann Coulter gave a very un-American speech in which she denounced freedom of speech in the most brazen of terms. This fascist woman has no more respect for American "values" or ideals than did Mao tse Tung. In her speech Coulter called for censorship of "liberals" and the banning of free speech. These ideas are not new, and they are also at total variance with Anglo-American libertarian theory.

Establishment Enemies of Free Speech and Thought

The United States government has always been an enemy to free speech, and the First Amendment. Now they have new enemies: Anarchists, leftists, libertarians, antiwar groups amd other "anti-government" folks are now the focus of the new Surveillance State. J. Edgar Hoover, LBJ, Richard Nixon and other Cold Warriors are the architects of this surveillance society. Hoover believed all Americans should be monitored and files kept on them to measure whether they were "subversives". Both LBJ, and Nixon, used Hoover and his FBI to monitor, spy and repress their political enemies. Presumably Hoover had serious dirt on both men and used it to his full advantage. Now the current President, George W. Bush has used the new Cold War, the "War on Terror" to his advantage. Free speech zones, roving wiretaps, sneak and peak searches, computer spying with programs like the FBI's Carnivore and the NSA's Echelon have begun to create a nation of spies and the spied. At the pinnacle of all this is the FBI. Although Hoover is dead and gone his evil spirit lives on in the bureaucratic mindset of of the FBI's agents and managers. Every year the FBI comes to Capitol Hill to request more and more power. Their failures, mistakes and outright lawbreaking mean nothing to Congress, who generously gives the agency more and more. Such CHUZPAH by the Bureau is rewarded and the American people are not only less safe, but less free.

The Destruction of the Anglo American Libertarian Tradition

The Administration of George W. Bush and his propagandists in the government-media complex have done more to destroy the Anglo-American libertarian tradition. Free speech zones, arrests of peaceful protesters, banning of anti-Bush signs at rallies, etc are all an attempt to undermine and eventually annihilate the freedom of speech in the United States. This proud tradition beginning with the English Levellers, Cato's Letters, by Trenchard and Gordon, Locke, Sidney and the American Revolutionaries is now being shunted aside for the tyrannical ideals of modern day Marxists with "hate speech", and conservatives with their near worship of the state and the President. Soon Americans will find that the vaunted and glorious tradition of liberty and free speech our ancestors left us will be gone and a surveillance state set up in it's place.

The destruction of liberty in American will only herald the destruction of liberty throughout the Western World. Although America is not perfect, and has not always been perfect ( who has?) it is still the last best hope for freedom and liberty on Earth. With all of it's warts, the American Republic brought into the world by America's Founders is still the beacon for people who love liberty to rally around. Reject the police state! Support free speech, free thought and free institutions! Reject the tyranny of right wing and left wing despots before it's too late.

Reject "Conservative Libertarians" !

Over the last several years I have noticed a disturbing trend within the libertarian movement: conservatism. Several otherwise excellent libertarian websites, newsletters and periodicals seem to have libertarians holding many "conservative" views. Many of these views are downright anti-libertarian and a rejection of the radicalism of the classical liberal and modern libertarian concept. Although I am a fan of Lew Rockwell and his site LewRockwell.com, I am greatly disturbed by many of his "paleo-conservative" writers and associates. Gary North, a Christian reconstructionist zealot, Patrick Buchanan, a right wing Catholic, are just a couple of the conservative types on Rockwell's site that come to mind.

I have also read several articles that show many libertarians praising conservative feudalists like Edmund Burke while rejecting the natural rights radicalism of men like Thomas Paine, Joseph Priestley, Richard Price and Thomas Jefferson. These men, not Burke, are our intellectual forefathers. Burke stood for monarchy, state sponsored religion, feudalism, primogeniture, aristocracy, and permanent tradition. That is not radical, nor part of our "tradition". If one wants to know what Burke and other intellectual prescriptive rights "libertarians" stood for read Reflections on the Revolution in France. If you are believer in true liberty you will see Burke for what he is: monarchist, statist, and worshipper of authority. Don't fall into the trap that he was against the French Revolution so that should make him a lover of liberty. On the contrary, his opposition to the French Revolution was during it's early classical liberal period and not during the "Terror". This shows Burke true hatred of natural rights and republican government. With all of it's flaws, the French Revolution, along with the American and English Revolutions helped pave the way for modern society and ushered in the Industrial Age. The world before these revolutions was one only a statist could love: absolute monarchy, theocracy, serfdom, feudalism, sanguinary punishments, and constant war. This is the world of the Dark Ages, before the Age of Enlightenment. This is where the roots of conservatism lie.

As a radical libertarian I urge you to be wary of wolves in sheep's clothing. Many people, both secretly liberal or conservative, will portray themselves as libertarians. As the old adage goes, "Look before you leap". There are many out there. Thomas Woods, Jr, a contributor to Lew Rockwell, claims to be a paleoconservative, but when examined closely is more of a religious conservative masquerading as a libertarian. Another is neoconservatives like Neil Boortz, a man who claims to be a libertarian, but shills for the war machine in Washington, and who supports the unconstitutional actions of the Bush regime: wiretapping, Patriot Act, etc. One I mentioned above, Gary North, is a Christian Reconstructionist, and fanatic who parades himself around as a libertarian or paleoconservative. North actually believes in a theocratic state with stoning, theocracy, and dictatorship. He would send us back beyond the Dark Ages to the most primitive of times, the times of the Bible. This was a time when men thought the Earth was flat, that the Earth was the center of the universe, human sacrifices were common, and men lived in the most abject poverty and suffered the most horrific oppression. How can a man in the modern era, especially our era of technology embrace such a worldview? How can Lew Rockwell, an otherwise excellent paleoconservative, support such a man on his site? I do not know the answers to those questions, but it does make me question the judgment and motives of Rockwell.

Beware of people who claim to be libertarians, but continue to endorse the religious view that people are depraved, stupid, and in need of religion, monarchy, or some other freedom destroying organism to run their life. Another of these types of people is Professor Hans Hermann Hoppe, an anarcho-capitalist. Strangely, this "anarchist" supports monarchy and yearns for the times of chivalry and feudal lords. Huh? What kind of libertarian is that? Kings, the feudal structure and organized religion were used as a sledgehammer on the rights of men. Outside of royalty and nobility the lives of people in a monarchical society were one of abject poverty, religious superstition, violence, intolerance,and a caste system. Kings and nobility fleeced their populations through enormous taxation, tithing, forced labor, poor laws,
game laws, and hereditary government positions. This world that Hoppe pines for is at total variance with the ideals of the American Revolution. The American Revolution was an earth shattering event. The ideals of republicanism, freedom, individual liberty, equality under law, abolition of royalty and feudal impositions, freed the American people from tyranny and spread the ideals of the rights of men to the world. The American Revolution was the most radical in a series of revolutions that rocked the Western world. It began in England with the radical "Puritan" Revolution of the 1640's, the "Glorious" Revolution of the 1680's, continuing on to the American Revolution and ending with the French Revolution. Of all these, the American Revolution was by far the most radical. Monarchy, royalty, aristocracy, theocracy, the caste system of aristocrats and commoners, all fell in America. Today, we see the spectacle of supposed "libertarians" advocating ancient despotism's like feudalism, property qualifications for voting, and in Hoppe's case, monarchy. Amazing.

My advice to my fellow libertarians is: BE WARY of supposed "allies". It is my belief, and my belief only, that many of the people in the libertarian movement are either agent provocateurs at some levels of government, or men and women who truly desire to turn back the clock to the Dark Ages, pining for a dead past in which people were enslaved and dominated by government. Keep your reason sharp and your guard up, liberty needs you.

LIbertarianism-A Life Centered Philosophy

Libertarianism is the only political life centered philosophy. Pure and simple. Forget conservatism, liberalism, and all other "isms" which are nothing more than statist-collectivist delusions. The choice for any society is clear, it is between liberty and statism. Any philosophy that places individual liberty secondary or beneath the "common good", "society" or "culture" is one based on statism. Let's look at the aspects that make Libertarianism a life centered philosophy.

1) Primacy of Individual Rights. Libertarian philosophy holds the individual as sacred. Once born, a human being is entitled to freedom by his very nature of being human. Libertarians believe that all individuals have the right to their own life and the management of it. The paragraphs below will add to this.

2) Economic Liberty-This is paramount to a free life. The right to trade or not to trade, the right to own, possess, and dispose of private property, is an absolute necessity to freedom. As Ayn Rand so eloquently put it ,without property rights, a man has no rights. If one is forbidden to own private property, how can he have any other rights? If one can be deprived of a place to live by the state, without any due process he is a slave.

3) Personal Liberty- The right to associate, or not associate with others, for any reason, the right to speak one's mind freely, without coercion from government, the right to publish one thoughts, the right to worship or not worship a god, the right to remain silent and not incriminate oneself to government authorities, and the right of self defense against private individuals or tyrannical government. These rights are as Jefferson put it, unalienable, natural rights.

4) The Right to freely Emigrate- This is a Jeffersonian belief that one did not have to remain in a nation where "chance, not choice" had placed one. All human beings have the natural right of free movement to remove themselves from a place they do not wish to be to one more conducive to the life they wish to lead.

5) The Right to be free of Coercion- This sounds radical to the statist or average person unaccustomed to true liberty. The Libertarian principle of non-intitiation of force is a natural right. No one, not a nation, state, city, town, mob, gang, or individual has a right to initiate force against another human being. To do so is to commit a crime of violence. Crime, taxation, conscription, and the worst of all war, are all manifestations of coercion. Most initiated coercion is based on human emotions like greed, bigotry, hatred, rage, and ignorance.

These five points are the essence of Libertarian philosophy. I am sure there are more, but these five sum it up. Embrace libertarian philosophy, reject statism, and despotism. It should be the goal of all people who believe in liberty to spread the message far and wide. We must make the 21st century a century of liberty. I am willing to do it, are you?

Debt Slavery, Part II

In this essay, we will examine the methods we as individuals can get out of debt slavery. We will also examine how we can stem the tide of government debt and return not only our country, but our personal lives to prosperity. Let's start with government debt.

1) Stop the bleeding of deficit spending. How? Abolish the welfare/ warfare state budget. It's simple, the US government must stop spending more than it brings in in taxes, period.

2) Sell off all uneccessay federal property. Harry Browne in his excellent book " The Great Libertarian Offer" shows that selling off all unconstitutional and uneccessay federal property, the US government could gain 10 Trillion dollars. This is just enough to pay the federal national debt.

3) Reduce the US government's functions down to it's constitutional functions. A constitutional government will not need a 2.3 trillion dollar budget, which President Bush has proposed for FY 2008.

4) End all subsidies to industry, and open US markets to free trade. Not the phony NAFTA, CAFTA managed trade nonsense. True free exchange between citizens of the world's nations. This will unleash productivity and prosperity throughout the world.

5) Enact a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution. No exceptions, no loopholes for "emergencies", etc.

6) Abolish the income tax. Once abolished the productive energies of the American people will be unleashed.

The last, and most common sense of the proposals: stop spending more than you take in!

Now for private debt. I am no stranger to personal debt. I, like many Americans, have learned the hard way. Here is what I have found works:

1) Stop the bleeding immediately. Stop using credit cards. Cut them up, shred them, do whatever you must , but stop debting.

2) Pay off all debts. Have a useful, yet reasonable plan with a timeframe for financial freedom.

3) Build up a personal savings. Experts say to put at least 6 months of your take home salary in a savings account. Although it sounds difficult, it may save your bacon in a depression or other financial disaster: job loss, etc.

4) Have a Spending plan, not a budget. Have a plan that allows you to enjoy life while paying off debt. If you are miserable, you will be more likely to debt. Have money to spend and enjoy life. After all, that is what money is for, provide the means to live. Fun is part of living.

5) Lower your taxable income. Invest in a 401K or other tax deferred plan. Reduce the amount of money the state can extort from you. Donate to the charity of your choice. Don't let the government take more of your hard earned money for the welfare/ warfare state.

Is it really this simple? I believe so. Common sense and commitment are absolutely necessary to redeem our nation's finances and our own. I must warn you, though. The longer we keep electing corrupt Democrats and Republicans, and the longer we permit their lobbyist whores to bribe and manipulate our government, the harder it will be to liberate ourselves. If we do not liberate ourselves, economic disaster will be followed by ruin. The time is now, before it is too late.